I'm at a writers' conference in Kampala, Uganda with My Driver by Maggie Gee.

Simultaneously fishing the Gulf Stream with Hemingway in The Old Man and the Sea and traveling with the circus in mid America in Sara Gruen's 1930's tale Water for Elephants, I'm looking forward to rejoining Jung Chang's Wild Swans in China.

I am still in Roman Britain and Gaul with Persona Non Grata by Ruth Downie.

I am still on The Coldest March with Scott in the Antarctic and things are getting grimmer. But I am also in Paris at the beginnings of a Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis; Freud is about to appear on the scene.

I'm still exploring The Invention of Everything Else in the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, but planning to check out soon and move on to LA with The Magician's Assistant.

I was Slouching Towards Kalamazoo with Peter de Vries, took a "short cut" through Canada and found myself dangling from The Double Hook of Sheila Watson. All in all a most serendipitous journey. Unfortunately, after serendipity, disorientation often follows. I have no idea whence to journey next.

I'm on the run in a futuristic hyper male dominated society, in a location that can only be a decimated NYC of the future. I just crossed over the river to Bayo (Bayonne NJ?) in search of my father in Walk to the end of the world by Suzy McKee Charnas .

How do I plug in the hyperlinks?

Message edited by its author, Jul 3, 2009, 7:22pm.

I am in Oslo, Norway in the late 90's (and on the Eastern Front in the mid 40's) in The Redbreast.

Barebear, if you put single square brackets around the title and double square brackets around the author, it should work (doesn't always though). See the sidebar on the right when you're composing a message: Touchstones.

Physically I am back in the States, but still reading about Cleopatra's Egypt in When We Were Gods by Colin Falconer. Cleo's in Rome now.

Just completed a Swedish sojourn with Henning Mankell in Firewall, and in northern Mexico with All the Pretty Horses and about to enjoy bush tea with Mma Romotswe again in Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

I am now in the future in a franchised city, Singapore Three, somewhere in Asia (its warm and near the sea), and in Hell (Chinese version) with Precious Dragon by Liz Williams.

Apologies for the typo in the thread title. That should teach me not to use an old thread title that pops up when I start to type:-)

>7 Loved those four books from Charnas!

I spent most of the week traveling from Africa to America to Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone and finally to London with Aminata Diallo in The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill.

I have decided to stick around England and have joined up with a group of female immigration detainees as they leave the detention centre and head to Surrey in Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I have a sneaking suspicion that we probably won't be staying in England for long......

I just left 1946 London and Tel Aviv with Linda Grant's When I Lived in Modern Times. I am now in present day London with The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

I've been in Denmark and Norway, though dreaming with Per Petterson's heroine of going To Siberia (which unfortunately isn't resolved correctly by infosense even if I had ":A Novel" as their official page has it. Late at night before falling asleep I have been hanging out in India, India: A History by John Keay, currently among the Mughals. The population at this time is about 150 million, greater than the whole of Europe, and pre-Mughal India was rarely united into one country so it is unlikely I will retain much of the fragmented history beyond a general sense, aside form a few names, Asoka, Babur, Akbar.

I'm in East Berlin reading The File compiled by the Stasi on Timothy Garton-Ash.

>13 oh, I thought this was one of your clever witticisms...

I'm on a bus in Warsaw with in Nine by Andrzej Stasiuk (no touchstones...)

I'm in Japan cooking spaghetti with a guy who is unemployed, having marital trouble and has lost his cat in Haruki Murakami's The Wind Up Bird Chronicles.

I've now left LA for Alliance, Nebraska to learn more about my husband's life before I became The Magician's Assistant.

I'm in a Middleton, a small town in Middle America where Buster "Rant" Casey has been bitten by a (radioactive) spider. I'm also in Russia with Yakov Petrovich in Dostoevsky's The Double.

I was in Africa (Kenya) with Stefanie Zweig Nowhere in Africa I followed her back in Europe Somewhere in Germany now I am travelling a lot following Mr Latimer and his efforts to find out who such Dimitrios was; we were in Turkey then Greece at the moment Sofia . Eric Ambler The Mask of Dimitrios or (A Coffin for Dimitrios)

I am now in 1970s Laos after the communist take over with 72 year old national coroner Dr. Siri Paibourn in Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill.

I'm on a road trip across the USA, listening to mix tapes that bring back memories, in Liner Notes.

Having survived The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition, I have now gone to the other end of the world, the Arctic, with A Dream of Polar Fog (both inspired by the Polar Regions theme read).

Message edited by its author, Jul 8, 2009, 9:27am.

I finally got Cutting for Stone from the library, and so I'm in Ethiopia. I'm also in ancient Mesopotamia with Art of the First Cities byJoan Aruz.

Still in 1970s Communist Laos with Dr. Siri Paibourn and the next book in the series Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill.

Now I'm in Jerusalem in the early 60's going back and forth between Israel and Jordan trough The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark

Message edited by its author, Jul 9, 2009, 5:56am.

I headed back to home country for a day in NYC listening to a Waiter Rant, now heading off to Czech Republic to spend less than a year in The Year of the Frog.

I'm on a homestead near Christchurch, New Zealand; it's 1864 and I'm panning for The Colour.

I am in Paris watching Alien Hearts make unsuccessful attempts to connect.

In Iran, via Censoring An Iranian Love Story. About living in present day Iran and the difficulties presented by writing anything (really) and trying to court a woman to whom you have no legitimate, recognized connection. Excellent read.

Message edited by its author, Jul 23, 2009, 5:30pm.

I'm stretched between musical recitals by The Virtuouso in London during the blitz, and entering - with much trepidation - the Arabesques souks of Casbah with Robert Dessaix and André Gide.

I'm in Edinburgh with Ellen Melville, the suffragette heroine of Rebecca West's The Judge. Apparently we'll be moving on to the Essex sea marshes at a later date.

Message edited by its author, Jul 10, 2009, 3:03am.

I am in Germany and Russia in Europe Cental and the WWII battlefronts between them. I have been hobnobbing with Kathe Kollwitz, but was rather bored by the section on Shostakovitch, the musician. Probably the most absorbing so far is Gerstein, a German SS member who worked to document and let the world know what was happening.

I left Laos and was in Iran after the revolution in Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer, and now am off to the Dune universe with Hunters of Dune by the people who aren't Frank Herbert. Its a RL book group read.

I'm in India in The Age of Shiva. At times I'm also interested in The Fingerprints of God...

Montana, 1917, in Hattie Big Sky (Youth fiction) for my 999 challenge...

I'm moving around from Biskupin, Poland to Zakynthos, then Athens, Greece, discovering Fugitive Pieces.

I'm in Kabul Afghanistan, seeing the country through the khan family's eyes; especially through the ones of The bookseller of Kabul

p.s. I read this is mainly a fiction thread; but the book I mentioned is written in a literary form; so I thought I wouldn't do any... (?) harm (maybe?)

I'm with Shiva Naipaul following his 1970s travels through Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia as he attempts discover what independence means for Africans in North of South.

>41 grelobe -- I don't think this is intended to be a fiction thread -- just happen to be a lot of fiction readers here! Feel free to contribute wherever you are, whatever you're reading!

eta: I just read the profile page for the group; OK it's intended to be a fiction group, but nonfiction readers are welcome too. I never noticed that before after contributing for two years! LOL!

Message edited by its author, Jul 13, 2009, 10:40am.

I plan to spend some time at Oxford University in the 19thcentury with Max Beerbohm's Zuleika Dobson in the next little while. I will also be travelling to WW2 Hungary with Imre Kertesz's
Fatelessness. And if I can find time I will spend a bit of a break with Wilkie Collins in his Haunted Hotel. Fortunately I just got off Shutter Island
in 1954 Boston, the place was full of rats and it gave me the creeps.

I finished Hunters of Dune and didn't hate it, so I am now going for part 2 Sandworms of Dune. So I am in the Dune universe still.

My Fugitive Pieces have now arrived in Toronto.

Back in the land of internet......I am in England with Adam Bede by George Eliot and in California with Bones by Jonathan Kellerman.

I am in Nigeria/Biafra in the 60's in Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Paris 1968, with flashbacks to the Comune of Paris in 1868, as a young Australian searches for his French roots in The Deception by Michael Meeram
(Touchstones threw up a lot of 'Deceptions' but not the one I needed!)

I’m on a big steamer sailing from New York to Buenos Arires, trying to understand why, sometimes a few people, are so concerned only with one passion, I take advantage by the fact that among the travellers there is Mr Czentovic, the world chess champion , and a peculiar guy such Dr.B. even more affected by the game than the chess champion, but why the later can easily beat Czentovic if no one has never heard of him? That’s quite a Chess Story in my opinion.

Message edited by its author, Jul 15, 2009, 6:18am.

I was in Tokyo with number9dream by David Mitchell.

I'm in 12th century Cambridge with Adelia Aguilar in Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death.

With a side trip this morning to modern day London and Cornwall with the graphic novelisation of the movie adaptation of the first Alex Rider novel, Stormbreaker. (Phew, what a mouthful!)

I've just traveled out of my small village for the first time to the huge city of Ifsahan. It's 17th Century Persia, and I think I will be making rugs with The Blood of Flowers.

I'm in Kenya with Jambo, Mama by Melinda Atwood. It certainly is bringing back my own memories of east Africa.

I'm in Sicily with Inspector Montalbano, Rounding the Mark.

I was in communist Laos in the 1970s again with Anarchy and Old Dogs. Now I am in Crete mining with Zorba the Greek .

Just left Namibia with Diescho in Born of the Sun and off to parts unknown.

I am in the Australian bush country in the quaint town of Kararakuk NSW in The Idea of Perfection byKate Grenville.

>58 That's a good one!

I have one foot in LA as I listen to Bones by Jonathan Kellerman, and the other foot is just stepping in a refugee camp for Algerians in Lyons, France to meet Shantytown Kid by Azouz Begag.

I am in Hamburg trying to understand what is that joins : a banker to a young lawer, and why one poor immigrant is wanted by three of the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies. So this poor immigrant, name’s Issa, become A Most Wanted Man by Le Carré

I'm following The Famished Road with Ben Okri but have a feeling that I will soon wander off the path to a destination that suits me better.

I've left Haiti and have landed in Alaska in 1915 (without any foul weather gear because I'm a git!) in The Seal Wife. I must say that this is the first time I've read Kathryn Harrison and I'm very impressed. Bodes well for The Binding Chair which I have on TBR.

I'm now in Alaska, in The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

I am at Poroth Farm of Gilead, NJ waiting for the end of the world in The Ceremonies.

#64 wookie, I really liked that book. I hope you do too!

hemlokgang, I must admit I was a bit thrown at first with all the Yiddish words and names and I didn't realise it was an alternate reality, so I was doubly confused. But I'm finding it quite intriguing now. I like a bit of hard-boiled detective fiction! And the dry humour is a huge plus.

I'm in Hong Kong with The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre. If it's as good as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy I'll be awake till very late reading it...

I'm in New York City ca. 1975 writing about What I Loved.

In Paris, sort of, waiting for and fearing the Century Rain. Actually, there are two of them: a Paris of the year 1959, though very different from what the regular history books tell us; and a Paris of 24th century or so, buried under ice, a dangerous an uninhabited place where only archaeologists visit trying to find out what happened down here.

I am in Sarajevo in 1996, about to begin People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

I am in the middle east in biblical times with Joseph and His Brothers and in early 20th century Vienna with Freud and his contemporaries with Revolution in Mind.

I'm in Japan, India and Pakistan with Burnt shadows and the Blue Notebook.

I am in London, as portrayed by Rose Tremain in The Road Home, rooting for the Eastern European immigrant Lev to start his life over by getting the seed money to open a restaurant in his native country. Touching story.

I am in Australia in the south by the sea traveling with a Mimi and looking for a Nargun to stop the Ninya from icing up the world in The Song of Wirrun by Patricia Wrightson.

I'm on the northern coast of Norway in Unformed Landscape with Peter Stamm.

I'm on a farm in England chewing over Animal Farm.

Message edited by its author, Jul 24, 2009, 11:50pm.

I am in an old place trying to survive and care for my family. I am a mason by trade and I want to build cathedrals, The Pillars of the Earth.

Message edited by its author, Jul 25, 2009, 1:53am.

I am in Moscow with some writers and the devil himself in The Master and Margarita.

re 79: Moscow in such a good company is a great place to be. Hope you injoy your stay!

I am in transit from Paris to Spain, in between the Century Rain and Man's Hope.

I am in post-Katrina New Orleans with a rather dysfunctional family in One D.O.A., One on the Way by Mary Robison.

I'm in Newfoundland with February by Lisa Moore.

I am stumbling all over Eastern and Western Europe, with occasional layovers in the US, but Nobody's Home.

I was with Alexander the Great in Persia, Greece, Macedon, Syracuse, Italy, and Carthage in the alternate history (with a touch of SFF) A Choice of Destinies by Melissa Scott.

Now I am in a small hardscrabble fishing village on the coast of Japan in medieval times with Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura

I'm stumbling around in French countryside in the 18th century with Jacques the Fatalist and His Master by Denis Diderot, trying to hear the story of Jacques' loves and always getting interrupted.

I am in Mexico with an Early Review book, Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea.

I recently left Zagreb where Ana Marija ne m'aimait pas. I am now in Sardinia with Marianna Sirca.

Just got back from a cave under the Sahara where Pierre Benoit placed L' Atlantide.
I'm immediately off to Sri Lanka with a forensic anthropologist, Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje.

Message edited by its author, Jul 28, 2009, 1:49am.

I'm on my way from London to Palestine When I Lived in Modern Times in 1947.

I'm in the state of Maine, in a town called Empire Falls and wish I were enjoying the experience a bit more.

I've spent much of the month struggling to save the small Midwestern American towns of Methland, then following around some lottery-conning Ravens in Georgia.

Now I'm exploring My Life in France just after WWII with newlyweds Julia and Paul Child. What a light, fun, positive place it is to be -- in Julia Child's narrative.

I'm in my hometown of São Paulo, Brazil, for a month. Then I'll be heading back to Miami, where I live. But I'm spending my nights in Oxford, reading Oxford Menace, by Veronica Stalwood.
Spending some time also with Virginia Woolf, now in London, April 1918 - through her Diaries.

I am in Lisbon, Portugal, with The Maias.

Off to China to meet Brothers by Yu Hua, while also traveling in northern Mexico, moving Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea.

I was in Toronto, then in Heaven( in the suburbs) with Heaven is Small by Emily Schultz.

I'm in Dublin with The Woman Who Walked Into Doors.

I am in modern day London, with magical and dead and un-dead additions with Vicious Circle by Mike Carey.

I'm in the Channel Islands with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I've left Moscow and have now headed to the Holy land circa 1260 and the Crusades in Brethren.

I'm staring at an airplane full of dead people at JFK Airport with The Strain.

So drneutron, you see dead people.

teelgee, you crack me up.

I'm in 19th century London, in Sarah Water's Affinity.

I took a short break from Australia in Song of Wirrun to hang out in England for awhile in An Accidental Light.

After Indecision in Ecuador I am back in England with Vera Brittain's Testament of Friendship.

I'm in Silk Hope, NC with two sisters who've just lost their mother, one of them can't get their act together and there's lots of problems with pigs and men.

I'm on the English coast in To the Lighthouse (V. Woolf) and floating down the Thames: Sacred River with Peter Ackroyd.

I'm in Congo , trying to understand why a famous architec chose to live in a leaper colony and why he was pegged A Burn-Out Case by Graham Greene

Message edited by its author, Aug 13, 2009, 5:20am.