Val's Round the World list (2012)

[Val]

I am trying to find authors from each country who set their books there, starting with the most populous countries.
Ignore the 'date read' field: I am just using it to keep the books in order, as per the list below. I may read them in a slightly different order.
China: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
India: Animal's People
USA: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Stories
Indonesia: The Girl From the Coast
Brazil: Contos de Machado de Assis
Pakistan: In the City by the Sea
Nigeria: The Interpreters
Bangladesh: A Golden Age
Russia: Omon Ra
Japan: House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories
Mexico: The Death of Artemio Cruz
Philippines: In Flight: Two Novels of the Philippines
Ethiopia: Cutting for Stone
Vietnam: Dumb Luck
Germany: The Reader
Egypt: The Yacoubian Building
Iran: The House of the Mosque
Turkey: Memed, My Hawk
Democratic Republic of Congo: Life and a Half
Thailand: Sightseeing
France: To the Slaughterhouse
United Kingdom: England, England
Italy: That Awful Mess On The Via Merulana
Myanmar / Burma: The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma
South Africa: Cry, the Beloved Country
South Korea: I Have the Right to Destroy Myself
Tanzania: Paradise
Colombia: Living to Tell the Tale
Spain: Lazarillo de Tormes and The Swindler: Two Spanish Picaresque Novels
Ukraine: The Little Golden Calf
Kenya: A Grain of Wheat
Argentina: Thursday Night Widows
Algeria: Children of the New World
Poland: The Captive Mind
Sudan: Lyrics Alley
Uganda: Abyssinian Chronicles
Canada: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Iraq: The Long Way Back
Morocco: Secret Son
Afghanistan: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Venezuela: Doña Barbara: A Novel
Peru: The Green House
Malaysia: Haunting the Tiger
Uzbekistan: The Railway
Saudi Arabia: Wolves of the Crescent Moon
Nepal: Arresting God in Kathmandu
Ghana: The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born
Mozambique: Sleepwalking Land
North Korea: Kuunmong: The Cloud Dream of the Nine
Yemen: The Hostage: A Novel
Australia: The Slap
Taiwan: The Butcher's Wife
Madagascar: The Aye-Aye and I: A Rescue Mission in Madagascar
Cameroon: Houseboy
Syria: Fragments of Memory: A Story of a Syrian Family
Romania: The Land of Green Plums
Angola: The Book of Chameleons: A Novel
Sri Lanka: Anil's Ghost
Cote d'Ivoire: Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote
Niger: In Sorcery's Shadow: A Memoir of Apprenticeship among the Songhay of Niger
Chile: The House Of The Spirits
Burkina Faso: Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman
Netherlands: The Discovery of Heaven
Kazakhstan: The Silent Steppe: The Story of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin
Malawi: The Jive Talker
Ecuador: Cumanda: The Novel of the Ecuadorian Jungle
Guatemala: The President
Mali: The Fortunes of Wangrin
Cambodia: The Road of Lost Innocence
Zambia: Patchwork
Zimbabwe: Nervous Conditions
Senegal: So Long a Letter
That completes the 2012 list.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

[Janice]

You've got a good start on your list, Val. You've given yourself some ambitious parameters.

[Snoozie Suzie]

You'll be visiting some exciting countries on your travels. Enjoy!

[Val]

I'm enjoying my tour so far. If only I could visit all these countries in the real world!

[Val]

It is getting more difficult to find books in English to go with each country now. I haven't missed any out yet, but the reading order is not going to plan.
Any ideas for Madagascar, anyone?

[Val]

Both, if possible.

[Val]

I haven't found anything available in English on Amazon.co.uk so far Judy, so any suggestions would be appreciated. What did you have for Madagascar?

[Val]

Thank you for those Judy, at least I can read a book set in the country now, even if I can't find an author from there.

[Rusalka]

I found this website useful for the harder to find countries. http://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/the...

She does read a lot of memoirs and short stories (of which I can only take so much) or books you can only get if someone's mum sends it to your shopkeeper who sends it to your brother's goat or whatnot. But the list of her suggestions and ideas has turned up some great reads for my obscure countries.

[Val]

Thanks Rusalka.
I will ask my brother to grab the parcel before the goat eats half the book.

Edit: She can't find anything for Madagascar either!
It looks like it will have to be setting not author.

[Val]

My local library has this one:
The Aye-Aye and I: A Rescue Mission in Madagascar

I liked his family and animals anecdotes when I was a child; I might still enjoy them now.

[Barbarac]

Val wrote: "My local library has this one:
The Aye-Aye and I: A Rescue Mission in Madagascar

I liked his family and animals anecdotes when I was a child; I might still enjoy them now."

I remember reading this book when I was a teenager and I fell in love with Gerald Durrell.

[Val]

The last of this year's books arrived today. Hooray! Yippee!
Why are so many not available for the kindle? Sigh!

I will start planning the 2013 tour next month:
Cuba, Belgium, Portugal, Czech Republic, Tunisia....

[Barbarac]

Val wrote: "The last of this year's books arrived today. Hooray! Yippee!
Why are so many not available for the kindle? Sigh!

I hear you. The kindle is very convenient, I would get more reading done in this challenge if I didn't have to look for obscure books in libraries and lost bookstores :)

[Val]

Our library service will get books from elsewhere in the county, so that I can pick them up from my local library, but they do not have very many obscure or foreign books listed. I did eventually find books for all the countries I wanted, but they took a lot of searching through library catalogues, bookshops, Amazon marketplace etc.
It sounds as though it isn't any easier to find them in the USA.

[Barbarac]

No, not easier, at least in my local library. But some university libraries do have more books, or can get them for you from other libraries. But I would have to drive to the university :)

[Val]

The next tranche of countries to visit are Cuba, Belgium, Portugal, Czech Republic, Tunisia, Guinea, Rwanda, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Bolivia, Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro, Belarus, Sweden, Somalia, Benin, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Austria, South Sudan, Switzerland, Honduras, Israel, Bulgaria, Tajikistan and Papua New Guinea.
I have already read some pretty good books from some of those countries, so I have to decide whether I review those books or find new ones to use instead. It would save me money, time hunting through libraries, reading time and would mean I could put a higher target for my book count if I used books I have already read, but it would also feel like a bit of a cheat.