Around the World discussion

... or at least tries to. I tend to get stuck in one country or another, but I don't mind :).

The following post has a list of potential reads, sorted by country; after that I'll post what I've read :).

Potential Reads
sorted by country

Afghanistan- Andrea Busfield: Born Under a Million Shadows
Albania- Ismail Kadare: The Concert
Armenia
- Nancy Kricorian: Dreams of Bread and Fire
- Frank Westermann: Ararat
Australia- Michelle de Kretser: Questions of Travel
Bahrain- Lucy Caldwell: The Meeting Point
Bangladesh- Tahmima Aman: A Golden Age
Bosnia & Herzegovina- Steven Galloway: The Cellist of Sarajevo
Bulgaria- Rana Dasgupta: Solo
Burma- Amitav Ghosh: The Glass Palace
Canada- Margaret Craven: I heard the Owl call my name
China- Qiu Xiaolong: Years of Red Dust
Denmark- Rose Tremain: Music and Silence
Egypt- Rosie Thomas: Iris and Ruby
Ethiopia- Abraham Verghese: Cutting for Stone
France
- Susan Vreeland: Luncheon of the Boating Party
- Peter Prange: Himmelsdiebe
- Deborah Lawrenson: The Lantern
- Rose Tremain: Trespass
- Marcel Pagnol: Jean de Florette
- Julie Powell: Julie & Julia
Germany- Michael Köhlmeier: Abendland
Greece- Victoria Hislop: The Island
Greenland- Carsten Jensen: Rasmussens letzte Reise
Iran
- Siba Shakib: Eskandar
- Jason Elliot: Mirrors of the Unseen
Ireland
- Hansjörg Schertenleib: Das Regenorchester
- Edward Rutherfurd: Ireland: Awakening
Italy
- Domenica Starnone: Via Gemito
- Geoff Dyer: Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
- Gaetano Cappelli: Ferne Verwandte
- Luca di Fulvio: Das Mädchen, das den Himmel berührte
Jamaica- Andrea Levy: The Long Song
Japan- Haruki Murakami: 1Q84
Lebanon- Hanan al-Shaykh: Women of Sand and Myrrh: A Novel
Libya- Hisham Matar: In the Country of Men
Macedonia- Annabel Lyon: The Golden Mean
Malaysia
- Preeta Samarasan: Evening Is the Whole Day
- Tan Twan Eng: The Gift of Rain
Mexico
- Laura Esquivel: Like Water for Chocolate
- Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna
Morocco- Tahir Shah: This Blinding Absence of Light
Netherlands- David Liss: The Coffee Trader
Nigeria- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun
Pakistan
- Kamila Shamsie: In The City by the Sea
- Mohsin Hamid: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
- Ali Sethi: The Wishmaker
- Jasvinder Sanghera: Daughters of Shame
Palestine- Susan Abulhawa: Mornings in Jenin
Portugal- José Saramago: All the names
Republic of the Congo- Ed O'Loughlin: Not Untrue and Not Unkind
Romania
- Domnica Radulescu: Train to Trieste
- Catalin Dorian Florescu: Zaira
Russia
- Elena Chizhova: Die stille Macht der Frauen
- John Boyne: The House of Special Purpose
Saudi Arabia
- Sulaiman Addonia: The Consequences of Love
- Zoë Ferraris: Finding Nouf, City of Veils
Serbia- Asne Seierstad: With Their Backs to the World
Slovenia- Maja Novak: The Feline Plague
South Africa- Patricia Schonstein: A Quilt of Dreams
Spain
- Teresa Viejo: Die Geschichte des Wassers
- Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Der Gefangene des Himmels
- Thomas Trofimuk: Waiting for Columbus
Sri Lanka- Corina Bomann: Die Schmetterlingsinsel
Syria- Rafik Schami: Das Geheimnis des Kalligraphen, Die dunkle Seite der Liebe
Turkey- Alan Drew: Gardens of Water
Ukraine- Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated
UAE- Maha Gargash: The Sand Fish: A Novel from Dubai
UK
- The Green Bridge: Stories from Wales
- Edward Rutherfurd: London
USA- Amanda Coplin: The Orchardist
US-CA- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: Die Hüterin der Gewürze
US-NE- Pam Conrad: Prairie Songs
US-SC- Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees
US-WI- David Wroblewski: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Judy wrote: "Yay! I'm glad you are going to join us again, SR! I see France and Italy are your weaknesses. hehe Just look at them as layovers in-between countries. :-)"
They are! India too, I just haven't listed them.
I thought I would have more German books, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
South America is awful though, I can't seem to find anything.

Judy wrote: "Is not finding more German books a good thing or bad thing? Are you trying to read more books outside of your natural language?

I know what you mean about South America. I haven't read a lot from ..."

I'm not reading many German authors, but every time I try to change that I happen across something really pretentious and immediately give up again. The sole highlight of my literary acquaintance has been Night Train to Lisbon. I need to stop borrowing from my mum or granddad and start trusting my own tastes.

Judy wrote: " I need to stop borrowing from my mum or granddad and start trusting my own tastes.

Maybe your New Year's resolution can be to read x-amount of books of your own choosing. When I first came to GR,..."

Thank you Judy! :)
(My new year's resolution is to become more organized, and I've been working on that already for the last few days.)