*2025 - Where in the World Are You? (Currently Reading)

[Lilisa]

Welcome to our 2025 travels!

Where are you currently traveling - a country/region you’ve never been to before, one that you keep returning to, or as I’m currently doing - crisscrossing a few countries in my journey. Let us know!

I’m traveling across a few countries - Russia, France, Poland in The Postcard by Anne Berest.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m starting the year off in Antarctica, with Thaw. Not my first time here, but I’m keen to learn more about the Scott expedition in this dual timeline story.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m in Iceland with Ivory Bones: The Lewis Chessman Murders and I’m conflicted. The story is great, but the writing is hard to swallow. It’s like the author (US, I think) has researched Iceland and Scandinavia and is desperate to share every little thing she has learned. It’s exhausting 😩

[Diana]

I'm in Iceland with Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

[Yrinsyde]

I'm restarting African read. Just a few stories left in my Seychelles read.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m in Scotland again, with The Wolf Tree. Set on a small island in the Outer Hebrides, two Glasgow detectives have arrived to investigate a suspicious ‘suicide’ 2-3 weeks earlier. Only a few chapters in, I’m completely hooked already! Reading the audiobook edition.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I am literally going around the world this week, sixteen times a day in fact, with Orbital 😄 I wouldn’t normally pick it for my kind of book, but only a short way in I’m already surprised by how many different directions my thoughts are taking. (Reading it for an in-person book club.)

[Lilisa]

I’m in Tunisia with A Calamity of Noble Houses by Amira Ghenim. There are eleven narrators - all recounting from their individual perspectives a terrible mysterious family incident that has shattered two families over the years against the backdrop of the country’s turmoil. I’m enjoying it and interested to find out what really happened.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m back in the Czech Republic with Death On Duty, which is #3 in a series I haven’t revisited for a while.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m in Ireland and Italy with a new release from Sarah Moss, called Ripeness. I’ve enjoyed several of her shorter novels as audiobooks in recent years, as well as her Icelandic memoir last year. This one seems to be a more average length at around 300 pages, which is welcomed because this dual timeline story is one that you can really sink your teeth into! In terms of the locations, there is a delicious contrast between the languorous northern Italian summer and a wild, windswept western Ireland many years later.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m in the Netherlands this week, with The Winter Dress. It’s a dual timeline story about the recovery of a silk gown, hundreds of years old and in remarkable condition, from a shipwreck. The modern day timeline is set on Texel Island, off the Dutch mainland. Really enjoying it so far.

[Yrinsyde]

Andrea wrote: "I’m in the Netherlands this week, with The Winter Dress. It’s a dual timeline story about the recovery of a silk gown, hundreds of years old ..."

That sounds great! I loved the Antiques Roadshow episode which featured a 18thc painted silk gown. It was magnificent.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Yrinsyde wrote: "That sounds great! I loved the Antiques Roadshow episode which featured a 18thc painted silk gown. It was magnificent ..."

I’m not sure I’ve seen that one. Even though I’m not in the least fashionable, I have always been a real sucker for textiles! This same author wrote another novel about the lace shawl makers of the Balkans. That was a good read, too.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m in Zimbabwe with Little Stones - a book I’ve been meaning to pick up for the past few years. I’m enjoying it so far! Written from the point of view of a relatively wealthy white girl, turning 11 years old, I suspect it is autobiographical to an extent. I’m not sure exactly what year I’m in, but Mugabe is in power and Harry Potter is a thing.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m back in Iceland again 😜 This time I’m doing a double read - audio and print - of Always Home, Always Homesick, the new memoir by Hannah Kent. I’ll read anything she writes, and even better if she reads it to me!

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m in Taiwan with a new release, The Fourth Daughter. It’s growing on me. Initially I found the writing a bit clunky, but now the MC has arrived in Taiwan and there’s lots of food content, so I can ignore the writing 😝 Gorgeous cover.

[Lilisa]

Andrea wrote: "I’m in Taiwan with a new release, The Fourth Daughter. It’s growing on me. Initially I found the writing a bit clunky, but now the MC has arrived in Taiwan and there’s lots of food..."

🤣 on the food reference! Hopefully you’re enjoying the book more.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

I’m in Nicaragua at last! I’ve been meaning to read The Ladies of Managua for a couple of years, and after a false start some time ago I’ve come back to it. Enjoying it so far.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Yesterday I started reading a new release called Fierceland by Malaysian Australian rapper/poet Omar Musa. It’s set largely in the Malaysian state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo. Already I’ve identified a huge gap in my knowledge, with potential for many rabbit holes to dive into! So far it’s definitely holding my interest.

[Yrinsyde]

I recently read A Bookshop in Algiers - I loved it. I'm about to start reading The Thing Around Your Neck by Adichie.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

This week I’m in Afghanistan for the first time in a while, with Farewell to The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul. It’s notable for being set at the time of the withdrawal of US and other western troops, and the tension is building. Overall though, I think I have grown out of this series. Luckily this is the final instalment.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

This week I’m in Bosnia & Herzegovina with Time Kneels Between Mountains; specifically in the town of Srebrenica in the early 1990s. It’s pretty heavy-going so far, and with the threat of horrors ahead (which you might have predicted from the town’s name). My feelings about this book are mixed. While the content is decidedly adult, the tone seems to be a bit off. The MC is a 16yo girl and I think this might be the root of the problem. I’ve decided to continue reading as if it’s a YA title, to try to ignore the incongruity.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

This week I’ve got 2 new books on the go. Green Mountains: Walking the Caucasus with Recipes has a focus on Armenia and Georgia, and so far seems to be what it says on the cover (walking and recipes!!). The other one is a new release memoir, A Little Piece of Cuba: A Journey to Become Cubana-Americana. Still early days but both show promise.

[Misty]

I have been a member of this group for quite a while, but it looks like I have never actually posted! I am currently reading The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela. The book is set in Scotland, Georgia, and Russia. Oddly enough, I had never read a book set in Georgia until a few weeks when I read The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili, and now I am on my second one.

[Andrea, Slow but steady]

Misty wrote: "I have been a member of this group for quite a while, but it looks like I have never actually posted! I am currently reading The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela..."

What a coincidence, Misty! I’m focused on that area at the moment because I’m researching a potential trip in 2026, and over the weekend I noted that I had a copy of the Abouelela novel on my Kindle. I’ve actually read a handful of books about Georgia over the past 3-4 years, fewer about Armenia, and none about Azerbaijan (yet).

[Lilisa]

Misty wrote: "I have been a member of this group for quite a while, but it looks like I have never actually posted! I am currently reading The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela..."

I put The Kindness of Enemies - thanks Misty. I see that Carol and Claire in this group have also read and enjoyed it. Fingers crossed I will like it too! Would love to hear what you think of it, and you too, Andrea, when you get to it. I enjoyed The Eighth Life.

[Lilisa]

I’m in Kolkata, India with The Magnificent Ruins by debut author Nayantara Roy. Great sense of place/culture and very involved family saga. The city of Kolkata is almost a character!

I’m also in Türkiye with Dance with Death by Barbara Nadel - #8 in the Cetin Ikmen series - good series for great sense of place/culture while trying to solve mysteries.

[Misty]

Andrea wrote: "What a coincidence, Misty! I’m focused on that area at the moment because I’m researching a potential trip in 2026, and over the weekend I noted that I had a copy of the Abouelela novel on my Kindle."

How fun! I was looking through photographs of their mountains, and WOW! They are stunningly beautiful.

Lilisa - I'm about 20% into the book right now, and I am enjoying it. I think it is going to be pretty heavy in places, but the writing is good.