Around the World in 80 Books discussion

To be updated as books are completed.

Biography

Children's/Fairytales

Classic Fiction (>50 years old)
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima (October 2017); Embers by Sándor Márai(October 2017); In Black and White by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (December 2017); A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert (finished January 2018); The Wedding of Zein and Other Stories by Tayeb Salih (finished June 2018); A Nervous Breakdown by Anton Chekhov (finished July 2018); The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai (finished August 2018)

Contemporary fiction
Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck (October 2017); Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (October 2017); Hotel Iris by Yōko Ogawa (November 2017); Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (December 2018)

Fantasy

Folklore/Mythology

Graphic Novels/Manga/Comics
The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf (January 2018) ; The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar (April 2018); The Color of Water by Kim Dong Hwa (April 2018); Deogratias, A Tale of Rwanda by Jean-Philippe Stassen (August 2018; Zenobia by Morten Dürr (October 2018)

History (Non-fiction)
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich (April 2018)

Horror
Audition by Ryū Murakami (November 2017)
Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edogawa Rampo (June 2018)

Humor

Literary Fiction/Historical Fiction
The Ship of Fools (September 2017); In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano(October 2017); Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (October 2017); Silk by Alessandro Baricco (June 2018)

Memoir/Autobiography
The Arab of the Future - 2 by Riad Sattouf (January 2018); The Arab of the Future 3: The Circumcision Years: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1985-1987 by Riad Sattouf (August 2018); Such a Lovely Little War: Saigon 1961-63 by Marcelino Truong (September 2018)

Mystery (Crime, Detective. Cozy, Noir, etc.)
A Grain of Truth by Zygmunt Miloszewski (Sept 2017); The Glass Devil by Helene Tursten (Nov 2017); The Chinaman by Friedrich Glauser (Nov 2017); The Front Seat Passenger by Pascal Garnier (Nov 2017); The Legacy: A Thriller by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (Dec 2017); Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri (Feb 2018); Holy Ceremony by Harri Nykänen (Feb 2018); The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen (March 2018); The King of Fools by Frédéric Dard (March 2018); Baby Blue by Πολυχρόνης Κουτσάκης (April 2018); The Ice Swimmer by Kjell Ola Dahl (June 2018); The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas (Jun 2018); The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa (July 2018); The Mad and the Bad by Jean-Patrick Manchette (July 2018); Big Sister by Gunnar Staalesen (Sept 2018); The Mystery Train Disappears by Kyōtarō Nishimura (October 2018); The 10:30 from Marseille by Sébastien Japrisot (November 2018); Newcomer: A Mystery by Keigo Higashino (December 2018)

Non-fiction (Essays, Cookbooks, Self-help, True crime, etc.)

Poetry/Epics

Romance
Naoko by Keigo Higashino (April 2018)

Science Fiction/Dystopia

Short Stories
Revenge by Yōko Ogawa (November 2017)
Baghdad Noir by Samuel Shimon (May 19, 2018)
The Cake Tree in the Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka (July 23, 2018)

Thrillers/Suspense/Espionage
Three Minutes by Anders Roslund (October 2017); The Chosen by Kristina Ohlsson; Shield of Straw by Kazuhiro Kiuchi (February 2017); Don't Send Flowers by Martín Solares (June 2018); Rageby Zygmunt Miloszewski (September 2018)

Travel Writing

An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman. Finished 7November.

Wildcard (Any genre or sub-genre not mentioned)

Young Adult/New Adult
Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara (November 2017)

You always read such a diverse and unusual selection of translated books, Carol, so I'll be following with interest what you read for this challenge!

Viv wrote: "You always read such a diverse and unusual selection of translated books, Carol, so I'll be following with interest what you read for this challenge!"

Thanks, Viv. You're my role model on variety and chunkster completion, btw. I aspire to more of each, but in the meantime, this challenge should be a fun way of getting out of my genre habits.

1. Mystery - A Grain of Truth by Zygmunt Miłoszewski. Translated from the Polish original.

Finished 13September 2017.

2. Literary Fiction/Historical Fiction -The Ship of Fools by Cristina Peri Rossi. Translated from the Spanish original. (Takes place in Uruguay)

Finished 18September 2017.

Mystery Dupe: Unlucky Lottery by Håkan Nesser. Translated from the Swedish. Finished 21September 2017.

3. Thrillers/Suspense/Espionage -- Three Minutes by Anders Roslund. Translated from the Swedish. (Takes place predominately in Colombia.)

Finished 2October 2017.

Literary Fiction dupe: In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano. Translated from French.

Finished 4October 2017.

4. Contemporary Fiction: Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck. Translated from German.

Finished 6October 2017.

5. Classics -- The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima. Translated from Japanese.

Finished 8October 2017.

Literary Fiction /Historical Fiction-- Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. Translated from Norwegian.

Finished October 11, 2017.

Another Classic --Embers by Sándor Márai. Translated from the Hungarian.

Finished 15October 2017.

Another Contemporary Fiction -- Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. Translated from Hebrew.

Finished 27October 2017.

Another Mystery novel-- The Glass Devil by Helene Tursten. Translated from Swedish.

Finished 7November 2017.

Another Mystery novel — The Chinaman by Friedrich Glauser. Translated from German.

Finished 11November 2017.

Another Contemporary novel -- Hotel Iris by Yōko Ogawa. Translated from Japanese.

Finished 11November 2017.

6. Horror -- Audition by Ryū Murakami. Translated from Japanese.

Finished 12November 2017.

7. Y/A -- Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara. Translated from Japanese.

Finished 12November 2017.

Carol - you are absolutely acing this challenge! (and adding more books to my TBR :-))

Viv wrote: "Carol - you are absolutely acing this challenge! (and adding more books to my TBR :-))"

I'm not very compliant with categories, though, Viv (as you know), but it's fun to see the distribution.

Thank YOU for Hotel Iris. That was a completely unexpected, odd delight.

Carol wrote: "Viv wrote: "Carol - you are absolutely acing this challenge! (and adding more books to my TBR :-))"

I'm not very compliant with categories, though, Viv (as you know), but it's fun to see the distr..."

I'm so glad you like Hotel Iris. It seemed an odd book to recommend, given the subject matter, but it was also quite beautiful. I've just finished Revenge by the same author and found it dark and unsettling in a similar way.

I was going to suggest https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Samu-Shamu, The Sonam Stories: Narratives of Childhood in Bhutan.

The stories were written by young adults, and then they translated them from Dzongkha (language of Bhutan) into English.

Suzie wrote: "I was going to suggest https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Samu-Shamu, The Sonam Stories: Narratives of Childhood in Bhutan.

The stories were written by young adul..."

Suzie, Please don't use my personal thread for self-promotion. We aren't even friends. This is quite rude.

Another mystery/crime novel -- The Front Seat Passenger by Pascal Garnier. Translated from French.

Finished 15November 2017.

8. Short Stories-- Revenge by Yōko Ogawa. Translated from Japanese.

Finished 17November 2017.

Another Mystery/crime/thriller dupe -- The Legacy: A Thriller by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. Translated from Icelandic.

Finished 13December 2017.

Another Classic -- In Black and White by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. Translated from Japanese.

Finished 28December 2017.

9. Graphic Novels /Manga /Comics

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf. Translated from the French.

Finished 23January.

10. Memoir

The Arab of the Future - 2 by Riad Sattouf. Translated from French.

Finished 25January.

Another Classic -- A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert. Translated from French.

Finished 29January.

Another suspense/thriller novel (which would as easily fit in the detective/mystery category) -- The Chosen by Kristina Ohlsson. Translated from Swedish.

Finished 31January.

Another detective/mystery novel -- Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri. Translated from
Italian.

Finished 11February.

Another suspense/thriller novel -- Shield of Straw by Kazuhiro Kiuchi. Translated from Japanese.

Finished 16February.

Another crime/mystery novel - Holy Ceremony by Harri Nykänen. Translated from Finnish.

Finished 20February.

Two more crime/mystery novels — The Man Who Died by Finland’s Antti Tuomainen, And The King of Fools by Frédéric Dard, translated from the French.

Finished the second on 27March.

You do like your mysteries! I am realising with this challenge that my breadth of genres read is not as wide as I thought!

Viv wrote: "You do like your mysteries! I am realising with this challenge that my breadth of genres read is not as wide as I thought!"

I do. Only looking at translated works tends to skew things, however.

The only other category I’m likely to read of this list is travel, but I feel pretty good about hitting 10. I’m not a very compliant challenge participant. Your time is too valuable to spend it reading anything other than what you want to read, and to my eye you read a grand mix of interesting works over the course of any year. I love seeing what you choose.

11. Romance
Naoko by Keigo Higashino. Translated from Japanese.

Finished April 3, 2018.

Another mystery/crime/thriller.

Baby Blue by Πολυχρόνης Κουτσάκης. Translated from Greek.

Finished April 21, 2018.

Another graphic novel.

The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar. Translated from French.

Finished April 22, 2018.

12. History (Non-Fiction)
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich. Translated from Russian.

Finished April 24, 2018.

Another graphic novel, this time from Korea.

The Color of Water by Kim Dong Hwa.

Finished April 30, 2018.

Another set of short stories — from Iraq.

Baghdad Noir, edited by Samuel Shimon. Some translated from Arabic. A few not.

Finished May 19, 2018.

Another for horror:

Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edogawa Rampo. Translated from Japanese.

Finished June 7, 2018.

Another detective/mystery novel.

The Ice Swimmer by Kjell Ola Dahl. Translated from the Swedish.

Finished June 10, 2018.

Another detective/ mystery novel.

The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas. Translated from French.

Finished June 18, 2018.

Another thriller/suspense novel (in truth, it's all about crime, too).

Don't Send Flowers by Martín Solares. Translated from Spanish by Heather Cleary.

Finished June 22, 2018.

Another literary fiction novel.

Silk by Alessandro Baricco. Translated from Italian.

Finished June 27, 2018.

Another Classic.

The Wedding of Zein and Other Stories by Tayeb Salih. Translated from Arabic.

Finished June 28, 2018.

Another mystery:

The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa. Translated from Japanese.

Finished July 12, 2018.