Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Three Pagodas




Team Members
• Mel Captain
• Fiona Co-Captain
• Sophie Co-Captain
• Vi
• Lori
• Claire Bolsens
• Lauri Saplad
• Ingeborg
• Louise Myers
• Kari
• maria helena
• Andy
• Denise R.
• Keli
• KayLynn Zollinger


Team Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Challenge Status: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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Link to Team Tracking Sheet
📊 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Books that are finished and have been transferred already to the official sheet will be hidden by using a filter on the S column. If you want to see them, please use the triangle shape at the top of the column to unfilter it.

ALL ABOUT TOWER TEAMS

📐 RULES

🏯 🌍 Mini 1 - Novels Around the World 📘

🏯🏯 🛩️ Mini 2 - Travelling Around the World 📕

🏯🏯🏯 🎡 Mini 3 - World Wheel 📔

🏯🏯🏯🏯 🍜 Mini 4 - Food Around the World 📗


🧀🧀SAY CHEESE! 🧀🧀 - RULES


◈ Books must be started after the start date of the challenge to count towards the challenge
◈ Books must be />100 pages.
◈ Books with MPGs Childrens / Kids / Poetry / Play / Graphic Novel / Illustrated / Photography / Art / Cookbook (or which have "Illustrated" in the title or an "Illustrator" contributor in the metadata) must have at least 30,000 words (must be a verified count. sites that provide estimated word counts are not valid sources for verifying word count). ArBookFind is a great site to double check (there are also .co.uk and .com.au versions). If in doubt, ask your captain. A good rule of thumb is that if the audio is over 3 hours, the book will be long enough.
◈ Any book in any language will count, as long as it meets the criteria.
◈ "Re-reads" will be allowed, if it has been six months since you have read the book.
◈ Spell-it-Out Rules: Use the first letter in the book’s title, series name, author’s first/last name, character’s first/last name, narrator’s first/last name (if listening to an audiobook), or translator’s first/last name (if reading a translation). You may ignore (or not) “A,” “An,” or “The” at the start of titles.


COUNTDOWN
🕰️ The challenge starts on 17 May 2025, 9am UTC.🕰️

Only books STARTED after the challenge begins can count.

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

🌍 Mini 1 - Novels Around the World 📗

‼️ Countries can only be duplicated once.
On the Mini 1-Novels tab, in column H, a country is highlighted with yellow if it has been claimed once and red if it has been claimed a 2nd time and cannot be used any more.

ITINERARY 6 ongoing


🚫⛔Countries read/claimed 2x already:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Ethiopia
- Fiji
- Hungary
- Laos
- Nepal
- Oman
- Panama
- Philippines
- Suriname



🛩️Mini 2 - Travelling Around the World 📕

Books can be banked for this Mini


🎡Mini 3 - World Wheel 📔

✅Country 1: Brazil
✅Country 2: Iceland
✅Country 3: France
✅Country 4: Turkey
✅Country 5: Russia
✅Country 6: USA
✅Country 7: Italy
✅Country 8: South Africa
✅ Country 9: India
✅ Country 10: Egypt
✅ Country 11: Spain
✅ Country 12: Canada
✅ Country 13: United Kingdom
✅ Country 14: Japan

Country 15: Australia
Country 16: Greece


🍜 Mini 4 - Food Around the World 📗

partial spell-outs are accepted, no order

Lots of I, O, U, X, Y. Z needed!




🧀🧀SAY CHEESE! 🧀🧀 - RULES

Books can be banked for this task.

✅ 1. Pecorino
✅ 2. Ubriaco al Prosecco
✅ 3. Pont l'Évêque
✅ 4. Lincolnshire Poacher
✅ 5. Vieux Boulogne
✅ 6. Yeghegnadzor
✅ 7. Bruny Island Cheese C2
✅ 8. Mozzarella
✅ 9. Palpusztai
✅10. Queijo Coalho
✅11. Bouhezza
✅12. Gorgonzola
✅13. Roquefort
✅14. Parmigiano Reggiano
✅15. Stinking Bishop
✅16. Panquehue
✅17. Halloumi
✅18. Monterey Jack

MAY

(view spoiler)[ by Isabel Ibañez

starts on 18 May
Link to BOM Discussion


JUNE

(view spoiler)[📘 by Emily Henry

starts on 2 June
Link to BOM Discussion (hide spoiler)]


📗 by Amanda Peters

starts on 16 June
Link to BOM Discussion (hide spoiler)]


JULY

📒 by Fredrik Backman

official page count: 448

starts on 2 July
Link to BOM Discussion


📕 by M.L. Wang

official page count: 651

starts on 16 July
Link to BOM Discussion


AUGUST

by Robert Jackson Bennett

official page count: 410 pages

starts on 2 August
Link to BOM Discussion

H*O*U*S*E*K*E*E*P*I*N*G

📝 message 4: RULES + link to the Tracking sheet and Countdown

📝 message 5: Unclaimed Tasks for All Current Minis

📝 message 6: BOM Info

📝 message 9: Helpful links for international book travel

📊 If you are a planner, feel free to add books to the tracking sheet and add the options your book works for. You can go ahead and claim tasks, but not more than 3-4 at a time, please. Once you finished a book, you can claim another task.

🦥If you are more of a mood reader it's enough to add the books as you start reading them, no hurry.

✅ Fiona, Sophie and I will try our best to make sure that your books get assigned to claimed tasks, but sometimes, to move forward and for the sake of points, we may need to play tetris, if its OK with you. We will let you know if some more targeted reading is needed, but otherwise will be happy to leave you to follow your own pace and mood. 😊

➕ If you are uncomfortable using spreadsheets, you are welcome to make completion posts in the thread and we will help you adding the books to the sheet. Just make sure you link the right edition of the book you read and list the options the book works for.

❓Feel free to ask any questions if you something is not clear.

❗And the MOST IMPORTANT: Have fun and read good books!! 😊

Baby one more time...

Website to help with international travel

https://www.travelbybooks.com/countries
https://www.tripfiction.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Less so

📚 Books left to read until hitting cap📚
Mel 15
Fiona 25
Sophie 13
Vi 13
Lori 15
Claire 25
Lauri 10
Ingeborg 10
Louise 17
Kari 14
MH 12
Andy 14
Denise 11
Keli 13
KayLynn 28

reserved vol. 2

🔊✈️ Dear Passengers, this is your one of your captains speaking.

Hello and welcome on board of Flight 🏯🏯🏯 Pagodas of Tower Teams Airlines to Read-vana.

Our in-flight crew today includes your head attendant, Fantasy (with a wild imagination and a sword under their uniform); accompanied by Historical Fiction (offering you tea, facts, and light scandal from the century of your choosing; Mystery (keeps disappearing mid-shift) and Romance to guarantee happy ending landing.

We'll be serving emotional turbulence, unexpected plot drops, and complimentary snacks in the form of book recommendations, memes, gifs and mutual encouragement in case of challenge pressure .

Until we reach our reading altitude, please keep your TBRs securely fastened and your bookmarks within reach at all times.

Thank you for choosing Team Three Pagodas. 🏯🏯🏯

Hello Team! 😊

I am very excited for another round of Tower Teams and travelling with you all. Sophie, Fiona and I will be your captains on this Wild Ride.

I have participated in TT challenges since 2017 (Star Wars was my first one).

I have sent friend requests to those of you I have not been on a Team before.

I am Melinda and live in Hungary, in a small lake town not far from Budapest with my husband and my 11-year-old son. I work in Budapest for one of the EU Agencies and commute on a train 3 days a week (precious reading time!!) and work from home 2 days. I am UTC+2 and will be around most days to check our thread, answer or ask questions, etc.

My shelf is tt-travel-2025

Apart from the "general" introduction, here are a few warm-up questions to get to know each other before take-off.


🏯What are your favourite places in the world?

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most?

🏯Preferred mode of travel?

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be?

‼️Please remember to link your TT shelf in your post.

Hello teammates!

I'm Denise. I live in the U.S. I'm a little rusty on Tower Teams, but I have played it a couple of times in the past. I'll be the one over here asking lots of questions. :)

I'll read just about anything, but definitely read more mysteries, thrillers/mild horror, or rom coms (the com is important!). I also love magical realism and quirky characters.

Here's a link to my tower teams shelf: Tower Teams 2025

🏯What are your favourite places in the world? Santorini, Greece (in the off-season. I'm not a fan of crowds). I also loved Hawaii and Roatan, Honduras.

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most? I'd love to visit the rest of the Hawaiian Islands, Ireland, Spain...it's a pretty long list, actually.

🏯Preferred mode of travel? Ohhh....I've never really given this much thought. Maybe airplane? Although I think a cruise would be fun. We haven't done that yet.

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be? This is also tricky. I'll say Stephen King (because he has tons of books and writes multiple genres), Jojo Moyes (I just like her writing), and J.D. Kirk (I couldn't decide on a third author and I just discovered him, so his books would keep me busy for a while).

Honorable mention: M.C. Beaton (she has tons of books, too!)

I'm looking forward to this challenge. We do have a busy summer planned, but I'll do my best to keep up!

Hi Denise!

Glad that Stargate spit us out here. 🤭

Hi everyone. Very curious and excited for this challenge!
My favourite places in the world: France a country that never disappoints cause of the variety and beauty of the different regions. Rome, much more than the city of popes, a city where you see in every street and every corner the history of 2500 years. And I really love my own city, Antwerp, that combines history with contemporary live, design and art.

I would love to visit so many more cities and countries but given my age and health, I’ll stick to Europe. Here I would love to visit Vienna, Madrid, Pompei and the Greek islands. And Sweden or Noway…

I love to travel by car, but in a slow way, not driving too far and enjoying lots of stops at beautiful places.

If I were allowed the books of 3 authors, I’d take the books of John Irving,the series of Robin Hobb and maybe the work of Iris Murdoch.

However, if you ask me the same question, I might answer totally different.

My tower shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hi teamies, checking in! I read mostly romance of all kinds and mysteries. I've participated in several TT before. Time zone is GMT+1. Great to meet everyone and looking forward to the challenge!
Here is my shelf: tower-xi

Welcome Claire and Kari,


Glad to have you on our Team! 😊

Claire,

I'm hoping to visit Antwerp in the not so far future. 😊

Hello team, this is your co-captain Fiona speaking!
I'm very excited to take you to Read-vana alongside Mel and Sophie.
About me: I'm from Germany and living alone, so no one here to bother me while I'm reading :) I currently reside in the outskirts of Nuremberg. I've been a co-captain in Book Games and the Boring Wheel of Life, and excited to work on the spreadsheets again :D
My shelf: tower-teams-xi

🏯What are your favourite places in the world?
My hometown in Northern Germany, India and anywhere in the Mediterranean.

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most?
Thailand, Indonesia, South America. But honestly, I'd love to visit every country at least once.

🏯Preferred mode of travel?
Plane for sure!! Just take me far away :D

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be?
Stephen King, Agatha Christie and probably Bianca Iosivoni.

Fiona,

Happy to have a fierce flyer with us. 😊

And another Stephen King fan besides Denise!

Confession time: I have a severe fear of flying, which tends to cramp my travelling style. 🤭

Also, I'm not tough enough for Horror King. The only books I read by him were the one for kids The Eyes of the Dragon, plus the one about the Kennedy murder, which was political thriller and not Horror. 😊

So sorry to hear about your fear of flying, Mel. That sucks 😢

Hi! I'm KayLynn. I have never done this challenge. I'm hopping over here after finishing the Uno Challenge with the Perks of Being a Book Addict group. (Hey Claire, imagine meeting you again so soon!) I'm actually entirely new to Nothing But Reading Challenges, so I'm probably going to have a ton of questions about how this works.

My challenge shelf is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

🏯What are your favourite places in the world? Anywhere with a sandy beach. I'm easy. Actually, my favorite favorite place in the world is Park City, UT. So gorgeous and yes, there is a lake nearby so I have my beach.

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most? Practically anywhere. I don't even have a passport, never left the USA. Top choices would be Netherlands, Greece, and Germany.

🏯Preferred mode of travel? RV life! My family has done a cross country trip in the USA in our RV. I love traveling that way. If I could drive my RV to Europe, Asia, Africa, etc, I absolutely would.

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be? I've thought about this question for a long time and I really don't know. Here's the thing about me, I don't have just one or two or even three favorite authors. And I very rarely reread books. I don't have comfort books that I read when I'm sad or need a recharge. I already know I would have to be immortal to read all the books I want to read, so rereading doesn't have a lot of appeal. Must.Read.All.The.Books. BUT...if I HAD to choose? Agatha Christie - because she just has a lot of books and I love her. John Scalzi - because only reading murder mysteries would get boring eventually and his books are *chefs kiss*. And I'll need some romance to lighten it up so maybe Penny Reid or Cara Bastone.

Hi fellow travelers!

I'm maria helena, or MH for short, and I'm so excited for this journey to start. I love team reading challenges and Tower Teams is probably my favourite. I have participated in a lot of group challenges and used to frequently be a captain (hi Mel and Sophie!) but now I've hung up my captain's hat and let the next generation och captains take over the rains.

I moved back home to Sweden a few years ago, but have previously lived in both Hawaii, England and Iceland. I read mostly mysteries and have a soft spot for Nordic crime.


🏯What are your favourite places in the world?
I love northern Sweden and I'd love to go back to Iceland someday.

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most?
I've been to Naples but I'd love to visit Rome and other places in Italy.

🏯Preferred mode of travel?
Train or car. It also depend on the travel company.

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be?
That's a tricky question. I'd pick Agatha Christie because she has so many good books that you can read over and over again. My second choice would be Enid Blyton, another author with a big catalogue and one of my favourites from when I was a kid and probably one of the authors responsible for my love of mysteries (allthough rereading childhood favourites can be a bit tricky). For the last one I'd probably take one of my current favourites: Lars Kepler or Stefan Ahnhem. Both have great series where I've been saving the last few books for the perfect time. Anyone else does that, save books you know you're going to love for the future, instead of just enjoying them right away?


My challenge shelf is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I'm moving in two weeks so I'm currently packing all my books, but I have a long list of audiobooks to keep me busy for the start of the challenge.

Hey KayLynn,

back in 2017 UNO was my gateway to reading challenges addiction and that's also how I found my way to Tower Teams.

We are here to answer any questions you have. 😊

And talking about my first UNO challenge, I ended up from the reserve list in Maria Helena's team! 😊

Hello MH,

good to be on a team with you again. 😊


Also, I am a fellow Agatha Christie fan.

Aloha!
I’m Lauri from Hawaii & am very excited to play! I think Towers is my very favorite challenge! I’ve done a bunch of them so far. BUT I still can’t do a link to save my own life. So…

My shelf is nbrc-tt-2025

I will read practicality anything, but I have a 100 page rule. I give something new a hundred pages & if I still hate it, I’ll give it up. I may put it aside & revisit it later. I am very much a mood reader. I always have a bunch of books going at any one time & skip around between them. Weird, I know, but what can I say?

My first love is historical fiction, followed by mysteries & cozy mysteries. I also enjoy paranormal & chick-lit.

🏯What are your favourite places in the world?

I haven’t been anywhere really! I don’t even have a passport! Hawaii is very beautiful. The Big Island is our favorite. We live on Oahu. We also enjoy California because Disneyland & all our relatives that live there.

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most?

I would most like to visit Europe in general - primarily Spain, Italy, France, Portugal. It’s my dream to go on an Alaskan cruise someday. I just want to go before I’m too old to enjoy it!

🏯Preferred mode of travel?

Gotta be by air to get off the island. But then cruising for sure.

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be?

Agatha Christie, Isabel Allende & Janet Evanovich (no judging!)

I am already making stacks of books (Towers, if you will) around the house and at work of the books I want to read! The planning is almost more fun than the reading. Almost.

Hey Lauri,

Glad to have you with us! Coming from a landlocked country, I have this endless fascination with the seas/oceans.

And absolutely no judging for book or author preferences. This is a safe space to read what you like and like what you read. 😊

Hi everyone! I'm Vi. I'm from India but currently living in Netherlands. I have 2 kids, 11 and 6. This is my 4th time participating in Tower Teams. I did the first two ever - 2012, 2013 - and captaining saved my sanity during pregnancy, and 2023. This, Turf Wars and TART are probably my favourite team challenges. I drive to work 3 days a week and I discovered audio books make the drive so much better.

🏯What are your favourite places in the world? India (many many unexplored places), Italy (each place that I went has interesting history), Taiwan (lots of hikes to go), Switzerland (the hills and the greenery)

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most?
A lot. Scotland is on my must-do, Ireland, Greece, Croatia (just the top of the list)

🏯Preferred mode of travel?
Train or car. Sometimes boat. And cycling for short-er distances.

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be?
Nora Roberts (romance and extensive backlist)
Brandon Sanderson (again, extensive backlist, fantasy genre)
Agatha Christie (extensive backlist, mystery)

My Bookshelf: tower-teams-x1

Hey Vi,

great to be on a team with you again.

Seems Agatha Christie is a top author for a lot of us.

I guess if I get stuck on a desert island, I'd better do it with you all and then we can swap books around. 🤭

Time I answered my questions as well.

🏯What are your favourite places in the world?
the city of Salzburg in Austria and the Isle of Skye in Scotland, but I visited lots of beautiful places around Europe and once I mastered my fear of flying to travel to the Maldives with my family.

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most?
I don't think I will ever get there, but visiting New Zealand would be a dream come true, if they finally discovered how to do the Star Trek version of "beaming up" - wouldn't it be great?

I can just bear the thought of staying in the air for a maximum of 3 hours at a time with the help of some medication, so there are lots of places in Europe I'd like to go. We will go for a short visit to Copenhagen in June and then planning a trip to Geneva and then going on by train to France. I'd love to visit especially Annecy and Avignon.

🏯Preferred mode of travel?
Trains definitely, and we do a lot of biking around the lake in my town.


🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be?

😅 Jane Austen, Terry Pratchett and Dorothy Dunnett for fiction and I'd try very hard to squeeze in the non-fiction history books of Dan Jones.

Melindam wrote: "Hey Vi,

great to be on a team with you again.

Seems Agatha Christie is a top author for a lot of us.

I guess if I got stuck on a desert island, I'd better do it with you all and then we can sw..."

Swapping the books around sounds actually great, let's go! :)

Fiona wrote: "Swapping the books around sounds actually great, let's go! :)"

🤭 yes, and we could have book club meetings.

Hello everyone! I'm glad our travels have thrown us all together for this adventure round the world.

I'm Sophie, one of the Mods Almighty as Mel named us not long ago and more importantly one of your wonderful co-captains.

I'm a mum of 2 (7yr and 4yr) from Kent, UK. I've been about since the 2nd TT when I joined as a reserve and ended up as a co-captain. I became a mod during 2020 which helped my sanity in some ways and has lead to chipmunk induced deteriorations in others. The amount of searching I will do to find a book to fit a task is slightly unhealthy!

🏯What are your favourite places in the world?
I love Vancouver Island when I was there for a month, stunning scenery and an overriding sense of calm. Safari in Kenya was incredible. I think my favourite though is my parents house where I grew up in the countryside. Big cities are not so much my vibe.

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most?
New Zealand is high on the list, I think Japan would be awesome and I'd like to visit Scotland and Ireland, which despite being on my doorstep practically I haven't made it to.

🏯Preferred mode of travel?
Local area, cycling (cycling though African savannah was incredible if v sweaty). Further distances I'm easy honestly.

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be?

Well the suggestion of a book swap with you lovely people would be fantastic because with every set of 3 you put in my choice gets progressive harder. Scalzi, Christie, Pratchett, Hobb, Roberts, Sanderson and Dunnett are all such fantastic choices and would be high on my list. ARGH I don't want to choose!

Right I'm going to go with Pratchett for the variety of subgenres and the comedy. Seanan Maguire with her various pen names for the range of world building. Adrian Tchaikovsky as a new to me author whose books have really made me think so far and there's a large number that would be new to me.

Sophie,

you get to join our Desert Island Book Club, for sure. 🥰

Welcome to the Book Club! :D

MelM - can you remember whether more than 50% of Caprice and Rondo is set in a particular country? Can see he starts in Poland, but they also mention the Crimea and Flanders.

I'm here! I'll get my shelf up in just a mo. I'm in the UK so UTC time, I think. I can't remember how daylight savings affects is but I'm pretty close to UTC. 🤣 I'm really excited this is my 6th Tower Teams. I'm estimating that, I might be including some Wheel in there.

🏯What are your favourite places in the world?

Wales and France

🏯 What are the places you would love to visit the most?
I've neve been to Asia and would love to do a tour.

🏯Preferred mode of travel?


Train

🏯Desert Island question: if you were allowed to take the (all) books of only three authors with you, who would they be?

Ilona Andrews, Lilith Saintcrow and John Irving.

Lauri wrote: "Aloha!
I’m Lauri from Hawaii & am very excited to play! I think Towers is my very favorite challenge! I’ve done a bunch of them so far. BUT I still can’t do a link to save my own life. So…

My shel..."

I almost said Janet Evanovich! I changed my answer because I've read almost everything she has written. Even some of the super old stuff. No judgement here!

Sophie wrote: "MelM - can you remember whether more than 50% of Caprice and Rondo is set in a particular country? Can see he starts in Poland, but they also mention the Crimea and Flanders."

Unfortunately it's much less than 50%, there's a lot of cavorting round Europe, so it won't fit the % for any. :(

I was just checking for the Malta setting in The Disorderly Knights, but no joy either. "too little Malta" apparently.

On a more positive note, I just bought a book set in the Democratic Republic of Congo (audible 2-for 1-credit sale) + 1 with a Holy See setting.

Keli wrote: "I'm here! I'll get my shelf up in just a mo. I'm in the UK so UTC time, I think. I can't remember how daylight savings affects is but I'm pretty close to UTC. 🤣 I'm really excited this is my 6th To..."

Ilona very nearly made my list but was edged out by Seanan.

Denise wrote: "Lauri wrote: "Aloha!
I’m Lauri from Hawaii & am very excited to play! I think Towers is my very favorite challenge! I’ve done a bunch of them so far. BUT I still can’t do a link to save my own life..."

I want to read some of her books, but only seem to be able to get the later ones. My brain can't deal with series in the wrong order.

Melindam wrote: "Sophie wrote: "MelM - can you remember whether more than 50% of Caprice and Rondo is set in a particular country? Can see he starts in Poland, but they also mention the Crimea and Fla..."

I had a suspicion she had too much fun moving round to be useful for the country setting. Timbuktu in Scales of Gold was the other that could have been helpful.

Sophie wrote: "Ilona very nearly made my list but was edged out by Seanan."

I love IA too, so it's a good thing Keli's coming with us to the Not-So-Deserted Island-Any-More. 🤭


Welcome, Keli!

I was excited to find a copy of Princess of Burundi on my shelf, but it isn't actually set in Burundi. It's set in Sweden. :(

Denise wrote: "I was excited to find a copy of Princess of Burundi on my shelf, but it isn't actually set in Burundi. It's set in Sweden. :("


Nothing wrong with Sweden as a setting. :)

Keli & Sophie,

I'll need the links to your shelves, please. :)

Melindam wrote: "Keli & Sophie,

I'll need the links to your shelves, please. :)"

Well that's not a great start to showing that I can be a responsible and helpful team member...

3pagodas here to make up for it.

I knew it was coming, you were just too busy doing spreadsheet magic. 🪄😊

More helpfully I've added a couple of links in my reserved post to websites that you can enter or choose a country and find some choices of books that have been written about them.