San Antonio Public Library discussion

Please share books about another culture (fiction or nonfiction) from your own. Did you learn something from reading this book?

Culture is defined as the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.

I'm reading historical fiction set in 1939 on the Greek island of Cephallonia: Corelli's Mandolin. I'm learning about pre-WWII Greek and Italian culture as Mussolini prods troops to goad the Greeks into war so he can conquer Greece and impress Hitler. It was a slow slog for about a hundred pages until the war got underway. Now the beautiful Greek girl, having lost interest in her pre-war Greek boyfriend, is falling in love with Italian Captain Corelli and things are getting better.

Highly recommend Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo! The book's story and writing is beautiful, and it definitely granted me cultural knowledge. I believe I read it in 2018, and it was one of my top books that year!

Akata Witch and Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor. They're set in Nigeria, with the main character being an American-born Nigerian girl, and her close friends being two other Nigerians and an African-American boy. On top of being set in Nigeria, by a Nigerian, there is the fictional layer of being about the "Leopard People"... humans who have magic, and their subculture.

I listened to the audiobook of Malice by Keigo Higashino, a police detective story set in modern Japan. I was surprised at some of the similarities between Japanese police procedures and US procedures. I was also surprised that the characters in this book were more likely to go to a hamburger restaurant than a Ramen restaurant.