Around the World in 80 books with starfish13

[Vicky]

1. England. [Book:Jump|9172475] by Jilly Cooper
2. Scotland. [Book:The Tin Kin|6377525] by Eleanor Thom
3. Iceland. [Book:Odinn's Child|604060] by Tim Severin
4. Faroe Islands. [Book:The Old Man and His Sons|7456138] by Heðin Brú
5. Svalbard. [Book: Dark Matter|8350864] by Michelle Paver.
6. Norway. [Book:The Shetland Bus|2152640] by David Howarth
7. Sweden. The Millenium Trilogy: [Book:The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo|2732977], [Book:The Girl Who Played With Fire|6087991] and [Book:The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest|6979651] by Steig Larsson
8. Finland. [Book:The Summer Book|79550] by Tove Jansson
9. Russia. [Book:The Day Watch|11084997] by Sergei Lukyanenko
10. Sakhalin. [Book:A Journey to the End of the Russian Empire|853570] by Anton Chekhov (Penguin Great Journeys)
11. Japan. [Book:The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet|7157722] by David Mitchell
12. Alaska. [Book:Into the Wild|1845] by Jon Krakauer
13. Canada. [Book:The Blind Assassin|78433] by Margaret Atwood.
14. USA. [Book:We Need to Talk About Kevin|870775] by Lionel Schriver
15. Cuba. [Book:The Opposite House|6277226] by Helen Oyeyemi
16. Jamaica. [Book:Small Island|587076] by Andrea Levy
17 Haiti. [Book:Tell My Horse|6203168] by Zora Neale Hurston
18. Guyana. [Book:Three Singles to Adventure|11408311] by Gerald Durrell
19. Peru. [Book:Touching the Void|3108546] by Joe Simpson
20. Bolivia. [Book:The Bolivian Diary|6124648] by Ernesto "Che" Guevara

[Ian, Former Moderator]

Just visiting Finland myself with Snow Angels in my backpack

[Vicky]

Thanks for the recommendation. I've visited Finnish Lapland in winter and would like to see how the author translated it to the page.

[Vicky]

I'm still reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I have to finish before I can get into my Finland book, but it seems a shame not to count it just as I've read it out of sequence. Perhaps I can fill in the gaps to take me out to Japan (I'd only need Finland and Russia), then back on the trail. Hmmm.

[Ian, Former Moderator]

Purge by Sofi Oksanen is excellent if you fancy a stopover in Estonia between Finland and Russia

[Vicky]

Ian, I might have to find my way back to Estonia for that one.

Updated list with Finland, Russia and Japan. Where next?

[Stephen]

or the book I am reading One Steppe Beyond: Across Russia in a VW Camper as it starts in estonia

[Vicky]

Updated to include the completed Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson. I just couldn't leave the last one unread after starting this challenge!

[Vicky]

Skipped ahead due to some books I'd read earlier in the year, The Blind Assassin and Into the Wild. Now I'm wondering what to choose next.

[Sue]

Starfish - I couldn't settle either until I had read the whole Trilogy! I 'had to' watch the video after each one too. Keep thinking I should read a Margaret Atwood but I have a huge tbr pile at the moment! But Canada remains unread for me.

[Vicky]

Sue, I've been watching the films with my boyfriend after reading each book, as he doesn't like to read much, and he'd been pestering me to get on with last one so we can see the film.

I'd recommend The Blind Assassin when you have the time. Margaret Atwood is one of my favourite authors.

[Robert]

Sue wrote: "Starfish - I couldn't settle either until I had read the whole Trilogy! I 'had to' watch the video after each one too. Keep thinking I should read a Margaret Atwood but I have a huge tbr pile at ..."

What are the video's like? someone on US site said making a hollywood version

[Sue]

Quite low key but they keep very much to the storyline - although inevitably they leave a lot out. Lisbet is excellent. Think they would be best watched as a trilogy - think I left too much time between them. I have heard there will be a hollywood version soon too. Got mine from the library so it was worth taking a chance on them.

[Robert]

Sue wrote: "Quite low key but they keep very much to the storyline - although inevitably they leave a lot out. Lisbet is excellent. Think they would be best watched as a trilogy - think I left too much time ..."
Think may wait for Hollywood although really disappointed with The De Vinci code

[Sue]

Think these would be worth a watch - hate to think what Hollywood will do to them!

[Robert]

Sue wrote: "Think these would be worth a watch - hate to think what Hollywood will do to them!"

Thanks will give them a go
I am not a great film buff so will try get from library as well

[Ian, Former Moderator]

Sue wrote: "Think these would be worth a watch - hate to think what Hollywood will do to them!"

Hollywood has cast Daniel Craig as Blomqvist so don't expect too much....trailer below

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568346/

[Vicky]

It might help to explain why Blomqvist is so successful with the ladies. The Swedish actor just looks like an average bloke in his 40s.

If you can handle subtitles, then watch the Swedish films rather than waiting for the American version. They are very true to the books, and pare the story down enough so that nothing is lost, but you don't have to know each time Salander smokes a cigarette. Larsson liked to write to the nth degree of detail, which would have been too much for a film.

[Sue]

The ones I had Starfish were dubbed (sometimes a bit off!). I liked Blomqvist in those - thought he was just an ordinary bloke which made it all quite plausible! Thanks for the trailer - all very lavish isn't it? Will probably give it a watch but Lisbet had the right degree of vulnerability so she will be difficult to better imho.

[Ian, Former Moderator]

Much prefer subtitles to dubbed films

[Vicky]

Picked up [Book:Three Singles to Adventure|11408311] by Gerald Durrell for Guyana (or British Guiana as it was then) and [Book:Touching the Void|3108546] by Joe Simpson for Peru on my last trip to the library.

[Vicky]

Really enjoyed [Book:Touching the Void|3108546], and there is enough of a story for it not to be just a mountaineering book.

Just finished [Book:Dark Matter|11239488] by Michelle Paver, which is set on Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard Archipelago in the 1930s. Really loved it, and it has that fantastic creeping sense of dread; a perfect winter ghost story.

Ian says that it doesn't count for the challenge, however Wikipedia tells me that Svalbard wasn't part of Norway until the 1920s, and that the sovereignty was disputed by the Russians, then it was occupied by Germany in WWII, so I think that it might just scrape into a destination for the challenge!

If not I'll just add another book to my list.

[Robert]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31...
Am I right in thinking one maybe both of these climbers have since been killed climbing?
Have you seen the film. I thought book so much better

[Vicky]

I thought that both were still alive. Simpson has written several more books, including a novel that was published quite recently.

I liked the film, and was quite glad it was made as a documentary and not a Hollywood action/thriller. The postscripts in the back of the edition that I had talked a little about the film, and how revisiting the locations triggered a bit of a breakdown for Simpson.

[Robert]

Looked and thankfully both still ok. Can't think who I got confused with. I work with a keen climber would have been him who told me about simeone will ask at work tomorrow

[Vicky]

Moved on to Jamaica with [Book:Small Island|902725] by Andrea Levy.

[Vicky]

Finished Small Island, and now in Nigeria with Ben Okri on The Famished Road.

[Vicky]

Taking a break from The Famished Road (Who knows if I'll ever go back?), and reading [Book:The Bolivian Diary|6124648] by Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

These diaries were found with his posessions following his execution by the Bolivian Army, so they are read with the knowledge that his endeavours will ultimately be futile.

[Vicky]

[Book:Tell My Horse|6203168] by Zora Neale Hurston is an account of her folkore collection in Haiti ans Jamaica. Real-life zombies!

my review

[Vicky]

Currently reading [Book:The Poisonwood Bible|7246] by Barbara Kingsolver, set in the last days of the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.