The Next Best Book Club discussion
Diane's AtWi 80 books Challenge
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Eugenia - Frequent Flyer
Making progress Jennie! Glad you decided to do this challenge. Don't forget to backtrack to September. =)
I checked back to September and everything is either USA or England! Sigh....
Well, that's what you get for abandoning books that are set in other countries. :-p What about Pashazade? Did you read it after September 15? You can use it for Egypt.
4. Europe - Finland - Snow Angels by James Thompson(Doina: I'm going to use Death on the Nile for Egypt, when I get there...).
What books did I abandon that were set in other countries?
The Enchantress of Florence and The Coffee Trader.
Enchantress of Florence was India and The Coffee Trader was painful!
Wasn't it India and Italy both? I got the impression from the description that it was both. Although, after your painful review, I decided against buying it. Same with the Coffee Trader. =)
Jennie wrote: "4. Europe - Finland - Snow Angels by James Thompson."I've requested this book from the library. Never heard of this author and I still need Finland AND I like mysteries. Thanks
7. Europe - Romania - The Appointment: A Novel by Herta Muller. Nobel prize-winning novel, stream-of-consciousness narrative, I had a hard time finishing it.
8. Europe - Spain: The Fencing Master by Arturo Perez-Reverte.A lot of this book went over my head with highly technical fencing descriptions and references to 19th century Spanish politics. Not boring, but I didn't understand very much.
10. Middle East - Turkey: My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk.I enjoyed the first 200 pages, but the second half was a bit of a slog. Too much philosophy, got to be hard to read after awhile.
11. Africa - Egypt: Khufu's Wisdom by Naguib Mahfouz.I really enjoyed this one - I was also very surprised and happy to find that it wasn't depressing!
you mean you found an arabic book by an arab writer that wasn't depressing? =p i'm definitely picking it up then. can't wait to come back home so i can get back to my normal reading schedule. i'm definitely going through withdrawls. i can't imagine how you managed india with only two books.
Haha I just plain didn't have time to read while I was there! It was literally nonstop run, run, run from morning 'til bedtime. Managed to finish only one of my books there, had the second one for the flight back (but I did read the first "Dexter" book on the flight from Seattle to London, so I guess technically I had three books). Looking forward to your return!
13. Europe - Germany: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.I really enjoyed this book - it was the kind of story that made me want to sneak off for a few minutes to steal another couple of pages. However, yes, you can have too much foreshadowing - that got a little old. Also still trying to figure out how in the heck this qualifies as "children's literature", and wondering how my naive, sixth-grade, soon-to-be-12-year-old niece is going to handle the story if her teacher follows through and assigns it to the class.
14. Europe - Russia: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.Loved this book. Had to sit in the parking lot at Fred Meyer for half an hour so I could read the last 50 pages; didn't want to wait until I got home. I was very surprised by the semi-optimistic ending - will definitely re-read this!
Sigh. From Nazi Germany to a Siberian hard-labor camp? I need a wee break. I think I'll lighten things up with a quick trip to Botswana to see what Mma Ramotswe is up to....
15. Africa - Botswana: Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith.I really enjoy this series, and had drifted away from it (I'm behind by several books now). Felt good to go back!
23. Europe - Italy: The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears.(Pant, pant... I'm never going to make another 60 books in 3 months, but it's fun trying!)
I'm sure you can read quite a few more. You've been making lots of progress in the last few weeks. =) It'll be interested to see how long it'll take you to finish.
I'm taking a little detour to my Happy Place (aka To Kill a Mockingbird) this week. Next up, though, I think I'll go back to Africa with Cry, the Beloved Country in honor of the World Cup. Unless To Kill a Mockingbird doesn't do its "cheer up" job. Then I might have to resort to Bridget Jones' Diary.
29. Caribbean - Martinique: Solibo Magnificent by Patrick Chamoiseau.30. Middle East - UAE: Layover in Dubai by Dan Fesperman.
The Next Best Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
My Name Is Red (other topics)Inés of My Soul (other topics)
Cry, the Beloved Country (other topics)
The Poisonwood Bible (other topics)
Khufu's Wisdom (other topics)
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2. Asia - Burma - The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh