Authors of the world: A Non-competitive Challenge

[[deleted user]]

I'm looking for suggestions for these countries: Bahrain, Cyprus, Jordan, Kuwait.

Thanks.

[Harry]

For Jordan, I was planning on reading 'Cities of Salt' by Abd al-Rahman Munif. I think the book, set in an unnamed Gulf State, is more about Saudi than Jordan, but he was born and raised in Jordan, so he does qualify.

And for Cyprus I've jotted down 'Echoes from the Dead Zone: Across the Cyprus Divide' by Yiannis Papadakis or 'The Cypriot' by Andreas Koumi, but I can't remember anything about them. Lawrence Durrell also wrote a book about Cyprus called 'Bitter lemons' which I'd quite like to read but probably doesn't really qualify.

I haven't read any of those, so I can't comment on their merits.

[[deleted user]]

Thanks, Harry. That's very helpful. I just shifted my Palestinian writer to Raja Shehadeh, Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine, which I picked up at Borders's educators sale this weekend.

[Anna]

For Barbados, for anyone who hasn't already done it, try George Lamming (In The Castle Of My Skin; The Emigrants; and others I haven't read).

[[deleted user]]

Thanks, Anna. I have a copy of Frank Collymore's The Man Who Loved Attending Funerals, but it may be too mildewy to read.

[[deleted user]]

Hey, cool! We made The Dope! (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/s...)

How about everyone who's playing give a little update and a link to where you're tracking (if it's not on goodreads) or your goodreads folder for this challenge?

I'm at about 38% and my list is at shoshana-world.livejournal.com, with all book reviews on goodreads (updated periodically) and at shoshanapnw.livejournal.com.

[Harry]

As of today, having just ticked off Kyrgyzstan, I'm on 24%.

I have a list and a map; I generally post the reviews both to my blog and to goodreads.

[[deleted user]]

Harry, it sounds from your review like you enjoyed Aitmatov. I'm glad to hear it, as I have him identified for Kyrgyzstan as well. I share your sentiment about the pleasure of discovery. I've felt that way about several of the books I've read thus far.

[Julie]

I'm about 75 pages into The Bastard of Istanbul. I picked it up while browsing at the branch library and, wow, I can't decide if I like this book or not. Some things in it are extremely appealing, and then I want to smack everyone.

[[deleted user]]

Julie, sounds interesting. I'm taking a little break from a run of Genocides of the World to read some young adult fiction, but expect to return to the world challenge soon. The holidays are coming and I expect at least a couple of books from distant lands.

Today at a craft market I saw pendants made from coins of the world. Not just your basic Italy/Japan stuff, either, but coins of Lesotho, Equitorial Guinea, the works. I had to be pried away from the display because it was so much fun to look at the coins and think about the associated books.

[Julie]

I'm not big on jewelry usually, but those pendants sound charming.

This book isn't (well, at least within the first 90 pages) a "big" story so far. Smaller and quirkier, though it's spanning more time than I expected and is set in Istanbul and a couple of cities in the US. It makes me laugh on one page then makes me roll my eyes on the next.

[[deleted user]]

I can't wait for the review.

Is it you, me, and Harry playing this game, or are other folks doing so as well?

[[deleted user]]

I just received the catalogue for Interlink Publishing. They're at www.interlinkbooks.com and publish international narratives, fiction, poetry, guidebooks, cookbooks, and books of folktales. Many of these are by people who live in these countries. Arabic countries are well represented (e.g., Morocco, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria) and harder-to-find countries/territories have folktale collections (e.g., Yemen, Iceland, Fuji, Burma, Siberia). Prices are quite reasonable.

[Harry]

Thanks for the tip!

[Richard]

Hi all,
Great African Reads recently began a Tour d'Afrique, reading books from every African country. They've been to Algeria, Angola and Benin. Botswana is next up.
Here's the link.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/9...

[[deleted user]]

Thanks for the link, Richard.

ETA: It looks like a good group--I've joined.

[[deleted user]]

Received for Hanukkah:
Mother's Beloved: Stories from Laos (Laos)
Some Short Stories from Mongolia (Mongolia)

On order:
Heart of Fire: One Girl's Extraordinary Journey from Child Soldier to Soul Singer (Eritrea)
The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood (Liberia)
Smouldering Charcoal (Malawi)
Bitterness (Zambia)