Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Anna and I are moving over from another group's Around the World Challenge. We want to read a book by an author from every country. Our rules are that we will start in South Africa and head north by contiguous countries (Trekker). We read books by the author from that country.

1) Trekker (more difficult)
• Assuming that you are using the modes of transportation available during Jules Verne’s’ time, you will travel in consecutive order to countries adjacent to each other or directly accessible over bodies of water. This would follow a logical trip itinerary of circumnavigation, with limited “zigzagging” between destinations.

Please state the region, the country, the book title, and the author during each new post

Countries so Far:
1. South Africa
2. Mozambique - WIP

First Up: South Africa

I think I will read The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela.

Perfect! I like your choice, Lexi.
I think I'll be reading Devil's Peak
and then we can compare our impressions of South Africa

Yours looks fun too and we are off...

Welcome to the challenge, Lexi and Anna! I look forward to seeing where your books take you!

How fitting that you start in South Africa, since “trekker” is a word from Afrikaans! Your dual journey around the world sounds fascinating; I look forward to seeing your book choices and thoughts as you travel around the world!

Have fun. I plan to read Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela for one of my South Africa reads. I've not read anything of his yet. But, it sounds like his books are must-reads. I'll need to circle back throughSouth Africa after Lesotho. But, I can't decide between:
Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit by Hennie Van Vuuren
Operation Lock and the War on Rhino Poaching by John Hanks
Diamond : The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair by Matthew Hart

Sadly, I'm sitting on go with my challenge. My first book has been sitting at an Atlanta post office for over a week, according to the tracking number. :) I hope it arrives tomorrow so I can get out of the USA. Gook luck with your challenge this year.

So I am bailing on The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela. It is just too long and kind of dry. I will look for a new South Africa book this week.

Anna, how is yours going?

I am going with by Kopano Matlwa. I love the cover.

It's so sad when the book is just not good enough to even finish. Mine wasn't all that good, but I managed to get through, finishing last night. Still need to update my status.
I hope your new one would be much better!

I should get to mine within the week. Then we can decide if we are heading up the east or west coast.

I have a grant due on the 15th and I will get to it after that.

What the grant is about?

It is for my PhD thesis, titled "Zoonotic helminth infections in a tribal region in Southern India in humans, domestic animals and the environment: prevalence and risk factors for exposure" (title and work in progress).

Cool! How far along are you in your PhD? This is my last semester :) hopefully :D

Congrats, I am in my first year. What is yours in?

"A quantitative diatom-based proxy for spring sea ice concentration in the Bering and Chukchi seas." I just hope I can meet all the deadlines :)

Good luck and I have a friend doing carbon-cycling with spring melt in the artic

Thank you. Maybe your friend and I even know each other :)

Just updated my status on Devil's Peak. We can discuss South Africa a bit after you finish your book.
As for the next stop, why do we need to go along a coast. We can just as well drive right through the middle :) So choice is between Namibia (know very little about), Botswana (saw it in BBC movies), Zimbabwe (have some special sentiments towards, but no actual knowledge), and Mozambique (also BBC). We can also hire a boat and visit Madagascar (is there a fiction book about tenrecs?).

I finsihed Coconut. It was short so I read it yesterday while waiting from comments on my grant from others.
I enjoyed it as it is the story of two young women from very different economic backgrounds and the rascism they face.

For direction, Mozambique gets us the furthest North and if we want to exit Africa via Egypt than central of east may be better. Madagascar is also always fun. I have been to Mozambique in college.

When you have time, any thoughts on where to go next?

Sorry, lost in books and time and books about time :) I'm reading Here and Now and Then, but I'm almost done. Looking into it, I'm really excited to travel to Mozambique! Even if only in books. What's it like there?

Only the book I want is not in my library :( I asked for it, but I'll have to wait

Anna wrote: "Sorry, lost in books and time and books about time :) I'm reading Here and Now and Then, but I'm almost done. Looking into it, I'm really excited to travel to Mozambique! Even if only in books. Wha..."

I enjoyed my visit which was ony for a few weeks with a school trip. The people were very welcoming, the coast was lovely and the roads very bumpy. Can you do interlibrary loan for your book?

I'm looking at reading either Neighbours: The Story of a Murder (if I can find it) or Confession of the Lioness, which my library has.

An interlibrary loan is what I'm doing, but it usually takes them a couple of weeks to get me a book.
How come the libraries have the Confession of the Lioness, but not the book I want by the same author? :D I want his Sleepwalking Land!

Anna wrote: "An interlibrary loan is what I'm doing, but it usually takes them a couple of weeks to get me a book.
How come the libraries have the Confession of the Lioness, but not the book I want by the same ..."

My library has both, but as I am in Boston, that will not help you much.

When do you start?
How is your grant?

Maybe my library will borrow from yours! ;)
If they drag for too long, I'll read the confession too. It sounds interesting. I don't know, maybe even more interesting.

Yikes. Just as I got home from the library today, I got the message that my interlibrary loan is ready for me. I guess I'm starting on Saturday.

That is so annoying. I am in DC for a conference but will aim to start mine when I get home on Saturday as well.

I finished my Mozambique book Confession of the Lioness. It was interesting and somewhat confusing. How is yours going?

Much slower than yours :/ It's very well written (and very well translated), but the topic is somewhat heavy

I agree on translation. I am reading a Japanese book right now that has been translated into English. It comes across like a children's book in structure and vocabulary, and I figure the original is not that simplistic. Lioness was very nicely written but was also heavy, as it was about sexual violence against women.

I'm back! I'm back! I'm sorry, I was a little lost in the jungles. The only thing I was reading lately was my own dissertation, which is now submitted.

Welcome back and congrats on the submitted dissertation. I'm in finals here and working on IRB stuff.

Checking in to see how your book is going?

Oohhh that was a very long year, wasn't it? Sorry. I'm ready to start traveling again, if you would still have me as a companion.

I'm good whenever. Life happens a lot, so no rush. I passed my qualifying exam in the last year. Did you ever finish the Mozambique book?

Also, unless we take a side trip to Malawi, it looks like we are headed to Tanzania next. I found these authors born in Tanzania but likely most will be hard to find.
Katherine Scholes
Gloria D. Gonsalves
Muhammed Said Abdulla - may not be in English
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Tololwa M. Mollel - may be picture books only
Gabriel Ruhumbika
Tepilit Ole Saitoti
Demere Kitunga
Sandra Aikaruwa Mushi - I will go with this one as it is free on KU
Elieshi Lema

Congrats! How was the exam? I remember mine being quite intense :) But now I earned that Dr in from of my name and am no longer a student. A very strange feeling. I've been a student pretty much all my life.
I'll be done with Mozambique by Monday. Tanzania sounds fun. And you did so much research on it already! I'm going to see if I can get any of them in my library. I changed libraries again, still getting used to this one :)

Fun, I've been in grad school for a very long time since I have my DVM before my PhD. The exam was three parts and I was beyond happy when it was done. Congrats on joining real life, do you have to do a post-doc in your field?

I don't necessarily have to... But I'm thinking about it. After I work for a while and decide that academia is still better than industry. However, I'm not sure which life is 'real'!

What I study doesn't really have an industry side so I will have to do a post-doc

It's like staying a student forever!

What a great idea, doing the trek with a partner! I am dipping my toe in the water by doing a quick ATW Tourist, but want to try a Trek when I've finished. I am thinking of working my way south through Africa, then crossing from Cape Town to Buenos Aires, which is shown in my atlas as a shipping route and probably was in Jules Verne's day.

It's not too late to join us, seeing how slow I am with some books, Barbara. I've been atuck in one country for ages now!! Why don't they write something less depressing.... It can't be that bad there so there is not a single happy book :(

Thank you, Anna. We may meet up somewhere in East Africa. I have charted a route through Western Europe which will probably take me to the end of May before crossing to North Africa.

Checking in, I read the Tanzania book in Feb and wanted to see where we were.

(Stains on My Khanga-2/19/20-***)