Global Book Selections discussion

Introduce yourself to the group, and make yourself known :). You have joined, afterall!

Hi, Elemillia. Thank you for the invitation to join!

I'm Jeff W. Horton,the author of three published novels, (The Great Collapse: Survivors of the Pulse, The Dark Age Survivors of the Pulse, and The Last Prophet). I have another unpublished novel entitled, Tales of Eden, and I'm working on my fifth, a sci-fi thriller called Cyberspace. I expect that Tales of Eden and Cyberspace will be released later this year.

I'm currently reading Patriot Games. The book is far better than the movie!

Welcome Jeff! Thanks for joining. Let us know if you have any suggestions for June books..

Hi Elemellia- Thanks for the invite. I have a great love of world fiction so looking forward to reading some brilliant books and discussing with you all.:0)

Hello Elemellia. Thank you for your invitation. I am Dina from Bosnia and Hertzegovina. I like travelling and reading. My friends say that I am book addict :) My favorite genre is fiction but I enjoy in every good book. I am currently reading Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee.

Hi, I'm James from Florida and I found this group randomly on the groups page. I think it will be a fun experience reading fiction from around the world and I can't wait for June's selection to be picked.

Dina wrote: "Hello Elemellia. Thank you for your invitation. I am Dina from Bosnia and Hertzegovina. I like travelling and reading. My friends say that I am book addict :) My favorite genre is fiction but I enj..."

I've always wanted to read something by Coetzee, I'll add this to our poll to. Coetzee is pretty well known author.

Welcome! Thanks for joinning!

Furny wrote: "Hi Elemellia- Thanks for the invite. I have a great love of world fiction so looking forward to reading some brilliant books and discussing with you all.:0)"

Welcome! Thanks for joining! :)

James wrote: "Hi, I'm James from Florida and I found this group randomly on the groups page. I think it will be a fun experience reading fiction from around the world and I can't wait for June's selection to be..."

Welcome, James, good to have you with us in the group! Thanks for Joining!

Hi!

Hello Aida :) Welcome!, Thanks for joining!

Hello everyone, I'm Val.
I don't know a lot about authors from outside Europe and North America, although I have been reading a few recently, since I joined the 'Round the World in 52 books' group.
That group is more about each members' individual challenge. We don't all read the same books, so don't really discuss what we are reading much.
I would prefer something like this group, as we can discuss the books and authors, as well as finding out about a lot of countries' fiction.
(I will still try to complete my challenge though, since I have started it.)

Val wrote: "Hello everyone, I'm Val.
I don't know a lot about authors from outside Europe and North America, although I have been reading a few recently, since I joined the 'Round the World in 52 books' group...."
It's really good to have you with us Val :). Thanks for joining! Don't forget to take a look at the June Poll and vote for the book you would like to read and discuss :).

Hi everyone, I'm Susan and I belong to a book club with Val and Furny, which is how I heard about this group. I love world fiction and am looking forward to discussing some great books with everyone.

I'm glad you decided to join Susan! :0)

How I will find the time I have no idea, but I will give it a try!

Susan wrote: "How I will find the time I have no idea, but I will give it a try!"

:) I'm glad you joined :).

Thanks Elemillia - what a pretty name by the way.

Susan wrote: "Thanks Elemillia - what a pretty name by the way."

Thnks Susan :)

Hi everyone, I'm Beth, in a book group with Furny, Val and Susan and looking forward to reading more and more and more!

Hi Beth
Glad you joined! :0)

Hi Beth!

Elizabeth wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm Beth, in a book group with Furny, Val and Susan and looking forward to reading more and more and more!"

Hello Beth! :) welcome. Make sure you put in your vote for the JUNE selections :). Glad you're enthusiastic about reading with us :).

Hello! I'm Chrissi, I'm in a book group with Beth, Furny, Val and Susan. Looking forward to reading with you all.

Christine wrote: "Hello! I'm Chrissi, I'm in a book group with Beth, Furny, Val and Susan. Looking forward to reading with you all."

Welcome Chrissi :). Nice to have you with us. Make sure you put your vote in for the June Poll, today is the last day :).

Hi Christine
Glad you have come over and joined us!:0)

I'm pleased so many of you decided to join this group. It looks as though we will be reading some interesting books.

Hi Christine!

Hi everyone, I'm Aysegul from Turkey. I found this group While I'm searching for this kind of community. I generally read european and asian literature. I hope I can find and learn new books and writers from different countries in here and I can share and suggest books which I know. This is really good to find people who can talk each other about books. :)

rosshalde wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm Aysegul from Turkey. I found this group While I'm searching for this kind of community. I generally read european and asian literature. I hope I can find and learn new books and wr..."

Hello! Welcome to the group. We're really happy to have you. You are very enthusiastic about the group, and that's fantastic. We have already started discussing the books that we could red for September 2012. We have already cycled through the globe once, and now in September all continents are up for grabs. Recommend anything you'd like to see on the voting polls for September, or let us know if you like any of the already recommended books.

Once the voting poll is up, we'll vote on our top selection. We have had a tie once or twice, and in that case we'll put both books up as options to read.

It's really great to have you in the group with us! Thanks for joining :).

Hello everyone!

Thanks to Elemillia for adding me as a moderator. I love fiction of many genres and from all over the world. I'm looking forward to contributing to the group and having some good discussions!

Sonja wrote: "Hello everyone!

Thanks to Elemillia for adding me as a moderator. I love fiction of many genres and from all over the world. I'm looking forward to contributing to the group and having some good d..."

It'll be awesome to have you as an additional moderator. I'd like to let everyone know Sonja has impeccable taste in books, as you will come to find out. I think it will also help discussion when I'm not so up to date on my reading and you all will have an additional person to talk topics with :).

Hello everyone! Annika from Finland here. I read a bit of everything, though I'm partial to Japanese, Chinese and Korean authors and have a particular interest in speculative fiction.

I'm currently working my way through Murakami's 1Q84 - hope I can finish it in time to join this months' discussion. Love the concept of the group! :)

Annika! Isn't 1Q84 amazing? I love the beginning of this book so much. I find it so impressive how he developed the book from just one simple scene in a cab. He took all the details of that experience and expanded them into some really important arms of the novel. I love MURAKAMI!

Annika wrote: "Hello everyone! Annika from Finland here. I read a bit of everything, though I'm partial to Japanese, Chinese and Korean authors and have a particular interest in speculative fiction.

I'm currentl..."

Welcome to the group! I'm so glad you joined :)

Thanks, Elemillia!

Murakami's awesome - I agree! I admit to being a bit hesitant to start 1Q84 - it basically looks like a block of concrete, right? ;) But I'm about half-way through book two and I've yet to come across a boring page. And I agree that the beginning is electrical.

Annika wrote: "Thanks, Elemillia!

Murakami's awesome - I agree! I admit to being a bit hesitant to start 1Q84 - it basically looks like a block of concrete, right? ;) But I'm about half-way through book two and..."

'like a block of concrete' ... that's about right. I have been kind of intimidated by the size of it from time to time... it's pretty incredible how much Murakami has to say about so many things... and in just one book too.

Elemillia wrote: "'like a block of concrete' ... that's about right. I have been kind of intimidated by the size of it from time to time... it's pretty incredible how much Murakami has to say about so many things... and in just one book too."

Definitely! Especially the amount he finds to say about (mostly terribly awkward) sex - and almost on every page, too. It's almost embarrassing to be seen reading the tome on the tram... But then, most people probably just think the book consists of terribly high-minded, über-complex literary fiction and have NO idea. ;)

Really love the characters so far, though. And I love how I haven't got a clue about where he's going with all of it. Predictable he's not (well, apart from the ear-fetish that crops up in every book)!

Hi :)
My name is Alkmini and I am from Greece!
I was searching for so long for a group like this one!
I read almost everything but I love crime and mystery the most.

Don wrote: "Hello everyone. I'm Don and I was thrilled to find a group devoted to books from around the world. I have been trying to work my way through the Norwegian Book Clubs' list of 100 best books ever ..."

Hello Don,
It's great to have you with us! Have you voted? PLease don't forget to vote in the polls for the next reading selections :)

Hi, my name is Naomi and I'm from Chicago (U.S.) I joined this group because I do some traveling, mostly in Europe, and am interested in reading more international literature and non-fiction. Right now, I'm particularly interested in the Netherlands and Germany, as I will be traveling there in the near future. If you have any books to recommend that are set in either place, please feel free to recommend them.

I've also traveled to England and France and will return to both countries in the next year or two. I adored both countries and found this book to be particularly helpful in traveling in Paris: The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City by David Lebovitz. He is an American who had lived in Paris about 5 years at the time the book was published. I found his insights into Paris culture to be very helpful.

It doesn't appear that this group is very active, but I hope I can have some conversations with members about their interests in travel and reading.

Reading about Simone de Beauvoir and John-Paul Sartre gives me a warm span of familiarity of Paris ("The Second Sex)" as does the music of Sanit-Saens and "Les Six—especially Darius Milhaud (Dave Brubeck's teacher) and Francis Poulenc (Babar composer); the legacy of Cocteau; and the tragic record of Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise" and of course Antoine de Saint-Exupery ("The Little Prince.") and Jean Rhhys. From these, take your self through the 20th and into the 21st centuries for more fresh discoveries!

Hi everyone! I just stumbled across a book by Anne Morgan called 'reading the globe' which I thought would be a cool challenge to set myself! I searched for a group to see if anyone was doing anything similar and here I am!
I live in the UK on the north east coast (I can see the sea from my house!), I love reading (obviously!), movies and animals, and I am a trainee English teacher!

I don't know Anne Morgan. I am re-reading the stories of Katherine Mansfield—sublime! If Flaubert was the father of the short story, Mansfield was its mother, in the early 20th century. Glad to hear of your vocation! Following a career in Wall Street banking, I trained at Oxford (specialty un-packing Shakespeare for kids) to begin a second career as an English teacher. In my blog you'll find comments from my Oxford advisor about whether my novel is one story or two. Cheers, David Taylor Johannesen—Boston.
https://davidtjohannesen.wordpress.com

The Odyssey: the "reluctant hero's" journey and foundation of western literature. Eleutheria! look in my blog for an essay on this.
https://davidtjohannesen.wordpress.com

My editor is revising a "Greek" novel called Passengers, which refers to various people sailing the Aegean on a yacht, "Eleutheria" owned by a half-god, half mortal shipping magnate, Kyrios, with dark Arab connections. Much setting is on and around Palekastro, an island near Crete where Kyrios is funding an archeological excavation that over time begins to resemble Dante's 9 levels of the underworld. Other settings include Israel, Cyprus, Virginia & Charleston, South Carolina. A romantic, geopolitical thriller. Shall I send draft pdf? D

Hello everyone. My name is Mirta. I was born in Argentina, raised in the USA- well, mostly raised in the USA; I was a Pan Am brat :-) My dad worked for Pan American Airlines and of course, the fringe benefits allowed us to fly back and forth across the continents to visit "The Argentina Family". I'm a second generation Argentine, my grandparents were Russian immigrants. All this traveling and multiculturalism, cultivated an interest in history and genealogy from an early age. I am an avid reader; Historical Fiction in international settings being my favorite. I am a mother of three grown children, happily married 32 years, employed in a government agency (ugh!) and the author of two self-published books- a Creative Non Fiction With Love, The Argentina Family: Memories of Tango and Kugel; Mate with Knishesand a Historical/Speculative Fiction Becoming Malka. I look forward to many inspiring conversations in this group and hope that I might prove to be worthy of inspiring you as well!

Hi, I am the new managing editor of the Fictional Cafe, , a virtual coffee shop and literary community. Every month we publish fresh fiction, poetry, photography, fine art, audiobooks, web video, and creative nonfiction.