Play Book Tag discussion

I'm sad the summer is almost over, but pleased to announce that we are kicking off autumn by going:

around the world

The vote was not even close.

Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.

Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as "around the world" on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.

One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.

Happy Reading!!!

Fortunately, I'm trying to read the Booker longlist and there are a number of books that will fit this tag on it. I just have to decide which one fits the best of the ones I have left. If nothing is quite right from the list, I'll read Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster.

I am delighted with this although it is no stretch for me. I had both a read and a want to read on every single page of the list.

I will try to read a variety of genres for September's tag.

It is also a gift to the Compass participants.

This is the one I was hoping for! I'm planning on some kind of travel book.

I have a couple I will likely get to; one has been on my tbr for a very very long time!

Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterline: Where the Crew Lives, Eats, Wars, and Parties: One Crazy Year Working on Cruise Ships / Brian David Bruns

Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am / Julie Cooke

I think I have a tag for a dream destination or two. Iceland, here I come! I think I will start with:
Burial Rites
Heaven and Hell

and then revisit Perigord with a series that keeps being mentioned around here
Bruno, Chief of Police

How are people interpreting this prompt, e.g., traveling to or other settings other an your home country or other than your own continent? Since I'm a resident of the US, would a book set in Canada be included under this prompt?

John wrote: "How are people interpreting this prompt, e.g., traveling to or other settings other an your home country or other than your own continent? Since I'm a resident of the US, would a book set in Canada..."

I think we are free to interpret the tag as away from home. My personal take, seeing as this site is mostly about English books and authors, I will choose books published originally in a different language, culture.
Regarding Canada, I would probably choose a book with an Indigenous theme or one in French. Charles de Lint is one of my top authors, but I also have waiting the latest Guy Gavriel Kay, a historical book set in Provence.

John wrote: "How are people interpreting this prompt, e.g., traveling to or other settings other an your home country or other than your own continent? Since I'm a resident of the US, would a book set in Canada..."

I agree with Algernon. It’s up to you. If you don’t normally read a lot of Canadian books, I would encourage it, especially if you pick a region or culture you know little about. I have a lot of books with multiple settings, so I might even read a book with one US setting if the others are compelling enough. I’m not going to be too rigid with myself on this since I’ve been traveling the world all year.

There are some books set in the US with characters from all over the world, dealing with global issues. These might be good for Ellen who is staying in the US with her Compass Challenge. There are a lot of cross cultural issues right at home, especially relating to immigration, the UN, borders, etc.

Excellent! This is the tag I was hoping for. Hopefully I can get my reading mojo back.

I have an "around-the-world" bookshelf with lots of 5 star reads.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

A few favs:
The End of Drum-Time
The Heart's Invisible Furies
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

I have quite a few that are 5 star also
The Far Pavilions
In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages
The Shipping News
Giovanni’s Room
The Thorn Birds
A Fine Balance
The Birthday Boys
Sea of Poppies
Memoirs of a Geisha
All Quiet on the Western Front
The King Must Die
Gods of Jade and Shadow
Migrations

Robin P wrote: "I have quite a few that are 5 star also
The Far Pavilions
In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages
The Shipping News
Giovanni’s Room..."

I remember reading The Shipping News several years ago. I was struck by the desolation of much of Newfoundland.

John wrote: "How are people interpreting this prompt, e.g., traveling to or other settings other an your home country or other than your own continent? Since I'm a resident of the US, would a book set in Canada..."

I seem to be a bit more specific in how I'm interpreting this. I'm trying to cover travel to multiple places all in one book.

LibraryCin wrote: I seem to be a bit more specific in how I'm interpreting this. I'm trying to cover travel to multiple places all in one book."

That's a great idea! There are definitely books like that.

P LibraryCin wrote:
I seem to be a bit more specific in how I'm interpreting this. I'm trying to cover travel to multiple places all in one book.”

@Cindy
Less by Andrew Sean Greer involves travel to multiple locations around the world. I like it. I would like another book with that format.

========

Shelly wrote: "I have an "around-the-world" bookshelf with lots of 5 star reads.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

A few favs:
[book:The End of Drum-Tim..."

Good idea Shelly! I started one too.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

LibraryCin wrote: "John wrote: "How are people interpreting this prompt, e.g., traveling to or other settings other an your home country or other than your own continent? Since I'm a resident of the US, would a book ..."

Like Jules Verne - Around the World in Eighty Days or Five Weeks in a Baloon. He was my childhood idol

I recommend the Michael Palin books that accompany his various travel documentaries, which are excellent, Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle: One Man's Journey by Air, Train, Boat and Occasionally Very Sore Feet Around the 20.000 Miles of the Pacific Rim, and more.

Books like Kon-Tiki or the Bernard Ollivier trilogy walking the Silk Road that several of us read that starts with Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road would be excellent.
Might be time to read The Innocents Abroad, Or, the New Pilgrims' Progress by Mark Twain.

This is an inviting broad tag that allows you to go in any number of directions. I like BnB's idea of reading different genres for it.

However, unless you care to read about 20-somethings whinging on about their lives, avoid The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World. - hundreds pf pages (really fat book) of whinging and about 100 excellent pages about the travel adventures and cultures - I gave it 2 stars and that is harsh from me.

LibraryCin wrote: "John wrote: "How are people interpreting this prompt, e.g., traveling to or other settings other an your home country or other than your own continent? Since I'm a resident of the US, would a book ..."

Not quite as extreme as you but I'm definitely looking for some travel to a new place.....

I think every single one of these new HF reads will fit the around the world tag for some one here. I want them all!

https://www.bookbub.com/readworthy/hi...

Theresa wrote: "I think every single one of these new HF reads will fit the around the world tag for some one here. I want them all!

https://www.bookbub.com/readworthy/hi..."

I am way behind on the Kat Holloway books (A Silence in Belgrave Square) but it's a great series with interesting characters. I added four more! Thanks, troublemaker.

John wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I have quite a few that are 5 star also
The Far Pavilions
In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages
The Shipping News
[book:Giovann..."

But Newfoundland has some of the friendliest, most helpful people on the planet (eg what they did on and shortly after 9/11)

I liked The Shipping New even though it was so very dark and heavy (view spoiler)[ because there was light at the end of the tunnel (hide spoiler)], but would never read it twice. It was recommended by a now retired librarian when I asked her for book recommendations (before I joined Shelfari.)

‘Troublemaker’ is right. Gee, thanks Theresa 🤪 I do not need any more on my TBR, woman!! Says she, tapping buttons …

Karin wrote: "John wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I have quite a few that are 5 star also
The Far Pavilions
In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages
The Shipping News
..."

Shipping News. I liked the movie more than the book. The scenery was stark but beautiful too. I don’t think they changed much in the story, but the acting was really good. I can still remember their facial expressions in key scenes after 10 years.

Hmm. I think my memory must be improving.

Here is another readworthy list for lit fic. The first one in Sweden looks great. It sounds sad, but Backman is sending it to friends.
https://www.bookbub.com/readworthy/li...

I usually like these more than the lists I see for hot books or most anticipated books.

Olivermagnus wrote: "Thanks, troublemaker...."

😁

No way was I letting my TBR be the only one to expand!.

I'm glad this one won although I will read less for the tag in September than normal due to catching up on some other challenges and other books I have moved to the top of my list (I have to stop visiting the new section at the library)

I do love that my compass challenge will work for this

I've been going through my tbr list and I could pretty much do a whole year with this tag. It will be difficult to pick and choose, so I will most likely go by what I feel like reading on a given day.


Going through my list of recent reads, I would recommend the following:
Fiction
A Dog in Georgia: A Novel
The Girl in Green
The Book of Goose
Murder in Chianti
Under a Pole Star
One Summer in Paris
Two Steps Forward
You, Me & the Sea
A Drop in the Ocean
Aunty Lee's Delights
A Death on Corfu
Big Bad Wool
Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft


Nonfiction
Strong Roots: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Ukraine
The Place of Tides
Bleaker House: Chasing My Novel to the End of the World
The Cave: A Secret Underground Hospital and One Woman's Story of Survival in Syria

Karin wrote: "John wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I have quite a few that are 5 star also
The Far Pavilions
In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages
The Shipping News
..."

I remember reading Frankenstein: The 1818 Text several years ago. The description of the environs when the monster escapes came to mind when I read The Shipping News. Like you, I enjoyed the book but wouldn't read it again.

I believe I am also interpreting around the world as a book that takes you to multiple countries, but I also think it’s fair to count anything that’s around the world from you. So I think I’m doing a little of both. I had actually already started before the tag was announced, the missing sister by Lucinda Riley. I’ve already read it. It’s a 600 page book that finally takes us from the seven sisters series around the world, as the sisters gather together and search for the last seventh sister, the missing one. The book takes us to New Zealand or at least it starts there and I’m already 15% in and we are already on a giant world tour. Plus, this book fulfills a play harder challenge for me as I have to read a book about a place I have never been to New Zealand certainly counts for that! But the reason I’m rereading it is because I really want to understand the situation that happened so much more closely because I’ve always meant to get to her last book. The one her son finished for her after she passed away. Atlas. I had always known I would read that in September. If the final conclusion to the series that really explains more about this man and why he found the seven dollars all over the world. So I’m excited to get to Atlas. And the fact that they both fit the tag so well? Well, I’m not complaining about that. They’re also hugely long books. And number one on my TBR.

I wanted this tag, but not sure how much reading I'll get done in Sept, given all that going on in my non-reading life. My own interpretation was more armchair travel, as in "read a book set in a country different from my own."

But if you want something where the book "travels" to multiple countries ... Here are some I've read and enjoyed
A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller by Frances Mayes
Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures: Funny Women Write from the Road edited by Jennifer L. Leo (Some of these stories are hysterically funny. Theresa can vouch that I guffawed several times when reading this while we were on our Yellowstone vacay last fall.)
Candide by Voltaire
Stowaway by Karen Hesse
Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival by Anderson Cooper
Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale
The Elephant's Journey by José Saramago
Fly Me to the Moon by Alyson No\Xebl (I only gave it 2 stars ... chick lit is not my thing ... but it was mildly entertaining)

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Regarding Canada, I would probably choose a book with an Indigenous theme or one in French. Charles de Lint is ..."

You might really enjoy Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell
It's about an immigrant Ukrainian family in Alberta in 1938. My review HERE

Book Concierge wrote: "Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Regarding Canada, I would probably choose a book with an Indigenous theme or one in French. Charles de Lint is ..."

You might really enjoy Under This Unbroken ..." </i>


Thank you, I will consider it. Right now, my best book about a family migrant history in Canada [and the US, with wonderful prose about the majestic nature, is The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner.

I am going to read something by Anthony Bourdain, his food books always take you somewhere far away. And I need a Chef's memoir for one of my tags in the Play Harder challenge.