Around the World in 80 Books discussion

My lists are sorted by the United Nations geoscheme. I've read all books that are linked and rated; a linked rating points to my review.

I tend to favour Europe, the Middle East and Southern Asia. I do realize that and try to broaden my horizons, but for the moment Africa and Latin America are white (or beige) spots on my literature map.

World Travel

Africa
Asia
Australia & Oceania
Europe
The Americas

In Depth:
Middle East
Travel around the USA

*Note: For countries where I own a lot of books (such as Germany, the UK, India, or the USA), I will limit my choices to books I think are interesting in terms of the culture/history/biogeography. For other countries (small ones in Oceania for example), I will take what I can get :).


Since May 07, 2013, you can also follow my journey to read and review a book every day for 238 days on my blog.

AFRICA

Eastern Africa

Burundi
Comoros
Djibouti
Eritrea
Ethiopia
- Abraham Verghese: Cutting for Stone
Kenya
- Beverly Naidoo: Burn My Heart, 3/5
Madagascar
Malawi
Mauritius
Mozambique
Rwanda
Seychelles
Somalia
South Sudan
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe



Central Africa

Angola
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Republic of the Congo
- Ed O'Loughlin: Not Untrue and Not Unkind
Sao Tomé and Príncipe


Northern Africa -> see: Middle East

Southern Africa

Botswana
Lesotho
Namibia
South Africa
- Patricia Schonstein: A Quilt of Dreams: A Novel
Swaziland


Western Africa

Benin
Burkina Faso
Cape Verde
Côte d'Ivoire
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Liberia
Mali
Mauretania
Niger
Nigeria
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun
- Chris Cleave: Little Bee
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Togo

ASIA


Central Asia -> see: Middle East

Eastern Asia

China
- Qiu Xiaolong: Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai
Japan
- Yoko Ogawa: The Housekeeper + The Professor, 4/5
- David Mitchell: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
- Haruki Murakami: 1Q84
Mongolia
North Korea
- Adam Johnson: The Orphan Master's Son, 4/5
South Korea



Southern Asia

Afghanistan
- Andrea Busfield: Born Under a Million Shadows
Bangladesh
- Tahmima Aman: A Golden Age
Bhutan
India
also see:
Iran
- Sadegh Hedayat: The Blind Owl, 4/5
- Siba Shakib: Eskandar
- Jason Elliot: Persien
- Freya Stark: The Valleys of the Assassins and other Persian Travels
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
- Nadeem Aslam: Season of the Rainbirds, 4/5
- Kamila Shamsie: In The City by the Sea
- Daniyal Mueenuddin: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
- Mohsin Hamid: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
- Uzma Aslam Khan: Trespassing
- Ali Sethi: The Wishmaker
- Jasvinder Sanghera: Daughters of Shame
Sri Lanka
- Corina Bomann: Die Schmetterlingsinsel



South-Eastern Asia

Brunei
Burma (Myanmar)
- Amitav Ghosh: The Glass Palace
Cambodia
- Kim Echlin: The Disappeared, 5/5
- Madeleine Thien: Dogs at the Perimeter, 5/5
Indonesia
Laos
Malaysia
- Preeta Samarasan: Evening Is the Whole Day
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
East-Timor
Vietnam



Western Asia -> see: Middle East
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, Yemen

AUSTRALIA & OCEANIA


Australia
- Marlo Morgan: Mutant Message Down Under, 1/5
New Zealand
- Rose Tremain: The Colour, 4/5

EUROPE



Eastern Europe

Belarus
Bulgaria
- Rana Dasgupta: Solo
Czech Republic
Hungary
Moldova
Poland
Romania
- Domnica Radulescu: Train to Trieste
- Catalin Dorian Florescu: Zaira
Russia
- Elena Chizhova: Die stille Macht der Frauen (The Time of Women)
- John Boyne: The House of Special Purpose
- Kristin Hannah: Winter Garden
Slovakia
Ukraine
- Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated


Northern Europe

Denmark
- Rose Tremain: Music and Silence
- Carsten Jensen: Rasmussens letzte Reise (Greenland)
- Lois Lowry: Number the Stars
Estonia
Finland
- Tove Jansson: The Summer Book, 4/5
- Roy Jacobsen: Das Dorf der Wunder
Iceland
- Halldór Laxness: Iceland's Bell, 2/5
- Bergsveinn Birgisson: Reply to a Letter from Helga, 2/5
Ireland
- William Trevor: Love And Summer, 5/5
- William Trevor: Two Lives, 5/5
- Hansjörg Schertenleib: Das Regenorchester
- Edward Rutherfurd: Ireland: Awakening
Latvia
Lithuania
- Rupa Sepetys: Between Shades of Gray
Norway
- Jostein Gaarder: The Castle in the Pyrenees, 2/5
- Kjersti A. Skomsvold: The Faster I Walk, The Shorter I Become
Sweden
- Linda Olsson: Astrid and Veronika
United Kingdom
- Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I, (England), 5/5
- George Mackay Brown: Travellers, (Scotland), 4/5
- Alan Garner: The Owl Service, (Wales), 3/5
- J.K. Rowling: The Casual Vacancy 4/5
- The Green Bridge: Stories from Wales
- Edward Rutherfurd: London: The Novel



Southern Europe

Albania
- Ismail Kadare: The Concert
Andorra
Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Steven Galloway: The Cellist of Sarajevo
Croatia
Cyprus
Greece
- Victoria Hislop: The Island
Italy
- Lindsey Davis: The Course of Honour, 5/5
- Ferenc Máté: Die Hügel der Toskana: Mein neues Leben in einem alten Land (The Hills of Tuscany), 4/5, & Ein Weinberg in der Toskana - Wie mein Traum wahr wurde (A Vineyard in Tuscany), 5/5
- Domenica Starnone: Via Gemito
- Luca di Fulvio: Das Mädchen, das den Himmel berührte
- Geoff Dyer: Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
Malta
Montenegro
Portugal
- Pascal Mercier: Nachtzug nach Lissabon, 4/5
Macedonia
- Annabel Lyon: The Golden Mean
San Marino
Serbia
- Téa Obreth - The Tiger's Wife, 5/5
- Asne Seierstad: With Their Backs to the World
Slovenia
- Maja Novak: The Feline Plague
Spain
- Hape Kerkeling: Ich bin dann mal weg. Meine Reise auf dem Jakobsweg (I'm off, then) , 3/5
- Victoria Hislop: The Return
- Robert Irwin: The Alhambra
Vatican City



Western Europe

Austria
- Eva Menasse: Vienna, 2/5
- C.S. Mahrendorff: Und sie rührten an den Schlaf der Welt
Belgium
France
- Nicolas Barreau: Die Frau meines Lebens, 5/5
- Nicolas Barreau: Das Lächeln der Frauen (The Ingredients of Love), 4/5
- Susan Vreeland: Luncheon of the Boating Party
- Peter Prange: Himmelsdiebe
- Deborah Lawrenson: The Lantern
- Rose Tremain: Trespass
- Marcel Pagnol: Jean de Florette
Germany
- Günter Grass: Mein Jahrhundert (My Century), 2/5
- Markus Zusak: Die Bücherdiebin (The Book Thief), 3/5
- Vera Roggenkamp: Familienleben
- Michael Köhlmeier: Abendland
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Monaco
Netherlands
- Tracy Chevalier: Girl with a Pearl Earring, 3/5
- Maarten 't Hart: Die Jakobsleiter
- David Liss: The Coffee Trader
Switzerland

MIDDLE EAST
* ... traditional Middle East

Northern Africa

Algeria
* Egypt
- Colette Rossant: Apricots On The Nile: A Memoir With Recipes, 3/5
Libya
- Hisham Matar: In the Country of Men
Morocco
- Tahir Shah: The Caliph's House, 4/5
- Ghazi Abdel-Qadir: Weizenhaar: Ein Sommer In Marokko, 5/5
- Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya: Storyteller of Marrakesh
- Tahar Ben Jelloun: This Blinding Absence of Light
Sudan
Tunisia



Western Asia

Armenia
- Nancy Kricorian: Dreams of Bread and Fire
- Frank Westerman: Ararat
Azerbaijan
* Bahrain
- Lucy Caldwell: The Meeting Point
* Cyprus
Georgia
* Iraq
- Yasmina Khadra: The Sirens of Baghdad, 4/5
- Kevin Powers: The Yellow Birds, 5/5
* Israel
- Amos Oz: A Tale of Love and Darkness, 3/5
* Jordan
* Kuwait
* Lebanon
- Alia Yunis: The Night Counter: A Novel, 4/5 (Note: Lebanese family making a life in the USA)
- Salma Abdelnour: Jasmine and Fire: A Bittersweet Year in Beirut, 4/5
- Hanan al-Shaykh: Women of Sand and Myrrh: A Novel
* Oman
* Palestine
- Susan Abulhawa: Mornings in Jenin
- Gilbert Sinoué: Le Souffle du Jasmin
* Qatar
* Saudi Arabia
- Sulaiman Addonia: The Consequences of Love
- Zoë Ferraris: Finding Nouf, City of Veils
* Syria
- Rafik Schami: Das Geheimnis des Kalligraphen, Die dunkle Seite der Liebe
* Turkey
- Vendela Vida: Liebende (The Lovers), 3/5
- Alan Drew: Gardens of Water
- Elif Shafak: The Bastard of Istanbul
* UAE
- Maha Gargash: The Sand Fish: A Novel from Dubai
* Yemen
- Paul Torday: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, 4/5



Southern Asia (Südasien)

Afghanistan
- Andrea Busfield: Born Under a Million Shadows
* Iran
- Sadegh Hedayat: The Blind Owl, 4/5
- Siba Shakib: Eskandar
- Jason Elliot: Persien
- Freya Stark: The Valleys of the Assassins and other Persian Travels
Pakistan
- Nadeem Aslam: Season of the Rainbirds, 4/5
- Kamila Shamsie: In The City by the Sea
- Daniyal Mueenuddin: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
- Mohsin Hamid: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
- Uzma Aslam Khan: Trespassing
- Ali Sethi: The Wishmaker
- Jasvinder Sanghera: Daughters of Shame



Central Asia (Zentralasien)

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

Other
Comoros
Djibouti
Mauretania
Somalia

The AMERICAs

Caribbean

Antigua and Barbuda
The Bahamas
Barbados
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Grenada
Haiti
Jamaica
- Andrea Levy: The Long Song
Puerto Rico
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago


Central America

Belize
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
- Laura Esquivel: Like Water for Chocolate
- Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna
Nicaragua
Panama


South America

Argentinia
- Gloria Whelan: The Disappeared, 5/5
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
- Laura Restrepo: Delirio
Ecuador
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela



Northern America

Canada
- Dan Brown: Deception Point
- Margaret Craven: I heard the Owl call my name
Greenland
- Carsten Jensen: Rasmussens letzte Reise
USA
also see: Travel around the USA
- Hannah Tinti: The Good Thief, 3/5

Great list!

Diane wrote: "Great list!"

Thank you :). Now I just need to read all of them and try to resist the temptation of buying too many new ones :).

SilverRaindrops wrote: "Diane wrote: "Great list!"

Thank you :). Now I just need to read all of them and try to resist the temptation of buying too many new ones :)."

I totally know what you mean :).

WORLD TRAVEL


Elizabeth Gilbert:
- Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Aug 2011, 4****
- Committed: A Love Story, Aug 2011, 5*****

Freya Stark:
- Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark
- The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels
- The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut

Frances Mayes:
- A Year In The World

Alice Steinbach:
- Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

Rita Golden Gelman:
- Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

Dervla Murphy:
- Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle

Tim Mackintosh-Smith:
- Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah

Amitav Ghosh:
- In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale

Travel around the USA



Sorted by order of appearance in Stephen Fry in America.

I) New World: 1/12
1. Maine (ME)
2. New Hampshire (NH)
3. Vermont (VT)
4. New York (NY)
5. Massachusetts (MA)
6. Connecticut (CT)
7. Rhode Island (RI)
8. New Jersey (NJ)
9. Delaware (DE)
10. Maryland (MD)
11. Pennsylvania (PA):
- Katherine Milhous: The Egg Tree, 4/5
12. Washington, D.C. (DC)


II) Deep South: 4/9
1. Virginia (VA):
- Katherine Paterson Bridge to Terabithia Movie Tie-in Edition, 5/5
2. West Virginia (WV)
3. Kentucky (KY):
- Cameron Crowe: Elizabethtown, 3/5
4. Tennessee (TN)
5. North Carolina (NC):
- Sarah Addison Allen: The Peach Keeper: A Novel, 4/5
- Anna Jean Mayhew: The Dry Grass of August
6. South Carolina (SC):
- David Baldacci: One Summer, 2/5
- Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees
7. Georgia (GA)
8. Florida (FL)
9. Alabama (AL)
- Harper Lee: Wer die Nachtigall stört


III) Mississippi: 5/11
1. Louisiana (LA):
- Kimberly Willis Holt: My Louisiana Sky, 4/5
- Christoph Marzi: Lyra, 5/5 (German Fantasy)
2. Mississippi (MS):
- Kathryn Stockett: The Help, 4/5
3. Arkansas (AR)
4. Missouri (MO)
5. Iowa (IA):
- Vicky Myron: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, 2/5
6. Indiana (IN)
7. Ohio (OH)
8. Michigan (MI)
9. Illinois (IL):
- Erik Larson: The Devil in the White City Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, 4/5
10. Wisconsin (WI):
- Sterling North: Rascal, 5/5
- David Wroblewski: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
11. Minnesota (MN)


IV) Mountains and Plains: 0/10
1. Montana (MT)
2. Idaho (ID)
3. Wyoming (WY)
- Mary O'Hara: Mein Freund Flicka
4. North Dakota (ND)
5. South Dakota (SD)
6. Nebraska (NE)
- Pam Condrad: Prairie Songs
7. Kansas (KS)
8. Colorado (CO)
9. Oklahoma (OK)
10. Texas (TX)

V) True West: 0/4
1. New Mexico (NM)
2. Utah (UT)
3. Arizona (AZ)
4. Nevada (NV)

VI) Pacific: 4/5
1. California (CA)
- Aimee Bender: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, 4/5
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: Die Hüterin der Gewürze
2. Oregon (OR)
- Linda Crew: Children of the River, 3/5
3. Washington (WA)
- Kristin Hannah: Magic Hour, 5/5
4. Alaska (AK)
- Eowyn Ivey: The Snow Child, 4/5
5. Hawaii (HI)

RESERVED

RESERVED

I have been to Cambodia.

First it was a distant memory in the mind of a young immigrant girl in America in the 1970s in Children of the River by Linda Crew. The premise was interesting, and I learned some things, but I wish the author would have been a better writer. See my 3-star-review here. As a sidenote, this is set in Oregon, so I will count it for my trip around the US.

Then I watched a young Canadian woman follow her lover into the aftermath of Pol Pot's regime in The Disappeared by Kim Echlin. It was a difficult read, informative, violent and heart-breaking, and one of the best books I've read so far. 5 stars.

Portugal & Spain

I have learned a lot about Portuguese history in Nachtzug nach Lissabon (Night Train to Lisbon) by Pascal Mercier, even though the philosophical parts were a bit wordy at times. 4/5 stars, and a recommendation for the movie. Review here.

Then I learned much much less about the Way of St James in Spain than I thought I would. German comedian Hape Kerkeling wrote a far less observant and insightful book than I thought he would. Ich bin dann mal weg. Meine Reise auf dem Jakobsweg ("I'm off, then*), 3/5.

France & the UK

I have fallen in love in and with Paris, in Das Lächeln der Frauen (engl.: The Ingredients of Love) by Nicolas Barreau. Complete with a recipe for a French Menu d'amour. 4*-review here.

Then I experienced the madness of local politics in the UK ... a week after there actually were local elections. Mind you, if they happened like in The Casual Vacancy (J.K. Rowling), no one could have been surprised by the outcome. 4/5 as well.

I've been to North Korea, Cambodia (yes, again) and Lebanon.

For North Korea, The Orphan Master's Son is a bit confusing and not very informative about the country itself, but it's still a great read and so I've given it 4 stars.

My visit to Cambodia with Dogs at the Perimeter was just as heartbreaking as the last one, and very thought-provoking. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a book set in that country. 5*-review.

Then I was just passing through Beirut, Lebanon, much like Salma Abdelnour in her memoir Jasmine and Fire: A Bittersweet Year in Beirut. She clearly enjoys Beirut, but she also clearly loves New York more. Still, it is an entertaining read and it comes with recipes!!! I've given it 4 stars.

You can also find all those reviews on my blog where I try to read and review a book every day for 238 days. Nine days down, just 229 to go ;).

I have read about two people who tell the story of a difficult life.
Aravind Adiga's Booker prize winner The White Tiger tells about an Indian "entrepreneur" who describes the dark things he's done, and it was not the right book for me. (I've given 2 stars.)
William Trevor's book Two Lives actually consists of two stories - one Irish love affair gone wrong, and one of a woman reflecting on her life in a house in Italy. Much, much better. 5 stars.
(You can also find these reviews on my blog.)

I've been to Iceland, and I think I will stay away from there for a while now. Like Iceland's Bell last year, Bergsveinn Birgisson's Reply to a Letter from Helga tells you a lot about Iceland, especially about farming, but it is just too demoralizing for me to want to read anything else. (2*-review on GR or on my blog)

After that, I have followed a U.S. soldier to Iraq and back, in The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. It is very haunting, and the soldier's conflicted thoughts make this so much more moving than constant descriptions of violence could have done. (5*-review on GR or my blog)