Where in the World Are you Now - May/June 2011

We are late putting this up...

Recently I have been in Morocco and Spain with The Last Patriarch by Najat El Hachimi, and in the Sudan and London with Minaret by LEila Aboulela, and in Mauritius with The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah. All were excellent in their own ways.

I am in London now finishing up an audio book of The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, and soon will be nowhere on this planet when I resume Embassytown by China Miéville.

I am in a future Chicago with M.Clifford's The Book.

Sometimes I'm in Johannesburg, South Africa; other times I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland. It just depends...

*reading Marabou Stork Nightmares, a brilliant book by Irvine Welsh*

I'm in the Dominican Republic, having just begun In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.

Just been in England rereading Brighton Rock by Graham Greene and now in Warsaw with The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer. I'm also jumping around the globe with David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas from the Chatham Islands to Belgium and now California.

I have been Running in the Family with Michael Ondaatje in Sri Lanka and am now discovering The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry in France.

#4 Hey rocketjk, I have just started The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa set in the Dominican Republic. Not yet sure what I think. How are you finding In the time of Butterflies as that was my other choice for this country?

This week I've been in early 21st century Kashmir, in The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed, and this morning I reluctantly left Freetown, Sierra Leone, also in the 21st century, in The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna, the best novel I've read so far this year. I'm currently celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Don Fidencio and his brother Don Celestino along the Texas-Mexico border in Amigoland by Chicano author Oscar Casares.

#7> Well, I'm only about 15 pages in so far, but I am settling in nicely, as I am enjoying Alvarez's writing style and the narrator is interesting. I will let you know how I like it as I get further in.

> Great to hear your enthusiastic comments re The Memory of Love. As you may know, I really enjoyed Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna.

I'm about to enter Fantasia in Algeria with Assia Djebar.

I have lived a Life and a Half/La vie et demie in the fictional and fantastical African country of Katamalanasia.

I'm in Oslo, Norway, terrified by a particularly gristly serial killer in Jo Nesbø's thriller/procedural, The Leopard. Harry Hole, where are you??!!!!

High in the Snowy River in eastern Australia, looking forward to experiencing The Trout Opera.

I'm in Bangladesh and North Eastern India in Sultana's Dream.

I am in Anywhere USA with The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis and on my way from NYC to the Boston area with Herzog.

I started out the week in Iraq in 2009, with Death to the Dictator!: A Young Man Casts a Vote in Iran's 2009 Election and Pays a Devastating Price by Afsaneh Moqadam, then traveled to Kashmir with Basharat Peer this morning in Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalist's Frontline Account of Life, Love, and War in His Homeland, followed by a quick trip to Spain during and after the civil war in Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas.

Next up: a trip to Chile with Luis Sepúlveda in The Shadow of What We Were, followed by a visit to war torn Algeria in Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War by Assia Djebar.

I'm back in Sweden with Lizbeth Salander, frustrated and laid up in the hospital, plotting cyber vengeance in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

With many characters on the island of Guadeloupe - all beautiful and mysterious - in Crossing the Mangrove by one of my favorite West Indian authors, Maryse Conde.

I've left Bangladesh and Sultana's Dream but staying in south Asia and moving on to Sri Lanka with Bone China.

Just finished reading about a series of murders in le village aux huit tombes which takes place in Japan written by Seishi Yokomizo.

From New York City and then a plane trip to Poland (in The Taste of a Man, I've somehow ended up in the Gaza Strip (Israel/Palestine) in Matches by Alan Kaufman!

Don't you just love the places our books take us?!

I'm in a forested property on a Brandenburg lake outside Berlin with Jenny Erpenbeck in Visitation

Just moved to Mexico, reading Irma Voth by Miriam Toews which arrived this week as an early reviewer book. I've recently had a lovely read from Scotland, Findings by Kathleen Jamie; a beautifully written and well observed book.

I'm in Sweden with Penwoman and off planet with Embassytown.

Spend a short while in London with Daphne du Maurier's The Doll. (No touchstone.)

I'm in Peru with The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa.

I'm in South Africa with Specimens of Bushman Folklore and Bushmen in a Victorian World - not the most exciting reading I've ever done but it's for study rather than pleasure.

I am in the ruins of Pompeii trying to figure out what daily life was like, with the excellent assistance of Mary Beard.

ETA: Touchstone GRRRR. Link is: http://www.librarything.com/work/10610656

Oh, and THIS time of course it works.

Read another Japanese book while in Japan: Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama. Good book but not as powerful as another book I've read. Further thoughts can be found in the region thread or my Club Read 2011 thread.

I'm in Paris with Suite Francaise and about to jump across to Shostakovich's Leningrad with Sarah Quigley's The Conductor, both set during WW2.

At the moment I'm in Edinburgh, which I travelled to via ferry & train from Dublin, in The Whole Truth.

I am in, among other places, London, trying to answer The Finkler Question.

I have just left The Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem as well as the New York of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder who is trying to avoid A Drop of the Hard Stuff.

Travelling at the speed of light between the US with The Circus Fire, South Africa (Bushmen in a Victorian World) and Cyprus (A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible.

I've just left The Sojourn through the Carpathian Mountains, southern parts of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, and Italy, especially Sardinia.

I'm in Portugal during World War Two reading the espionage novel Memo to a Firing Squad by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan.

I had a lovely visit to Sri Lanka with Roma Tearne in Bone China, so I've decided to go back for more of that exotic island and visit Shyam Selvadurai in Funny Boy.

Headed for LA for The Second Coming (John Niven, no touchstone).

I'm in Jamaica, learning how Antoinette Cosway became Bertha Rochester in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.

>24 avaland: Reading very little lately. Left Penwoman in Maine this weekend (och!), so returning to the strange world of Embassytown.

In Galina in the Balkans with The Tiger's Wife.

Just left a professional killer inthe port town of Bléville in France in Fatale.

I have just arrived in Norway with He Who Fears the Wolf.

I'm currently in Nigeria with the The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta for the upcoming Belletrista issue. It's been an interesting read so far comparing the different tribes of Nigeria, and reflecting on the roles of women in Nigerian culture as a wife, mother, and daughter. Also raises interesting points on modern society versus the traditions of the local tribe. Good so far but definitely not a quick read as I don't want to miss out on any cultural detail as that's the most intriguing part.

I'm somewhere east of southern Roslagen in Sweden where creepy things are happening at the Harbour.

I 've just left contemporary Boston where Faith is challenged.

I have finally left the Gulag and have also left The Pumpkin Eater in 1950s/60s London.

in Malta during WWII with The Information Officer

Finished The Joys of Motherhood, by Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta, today as a means to round out my May. Not the most cheerful of books but it's certainly an informative read.

I'm in Germany staying in a house beside a lake with Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck and have experienced the 1871 pogrom in Odessa with Bernice Rubens' Brothers.

I'm back in London, in Richmond Hill, in Red Dahlia by Lynda La Plante

I'm in a rich, vivid Cuba with José Lezama Lima's Paradiso.

I am in Ethiopia Cutting for Stone, waiting for the characters of my book to arrive. I've heard they are in Aden now, near, almost here.

I've been starting this book more than a week now but I am still on page 30 or so, as I fall asleep almost immediately when I start reading ... I hope it is just me being tired and not the book.

I've just heard the Five Bells in contemporary Sydney.

With Italian partisans in WWII looking for The Path To The Spiders' Nests.

I am in Brazil geting to know Dom Casmurro.

Somewhere in Boston (I think), with the Binewski family in Geek Love.

Also in NYC with The Burning Wire.

In New Zealand, with the unsettling Departure Lounge.

I am back in Japan with The Sea and Poison, an excellent book (so far) about Japanese doctors performing vivisections on American soldiers. It's been hard to put down.

I've left Ayachuco, in the Peruvian Andes, during Red April.

Getting embroiled in Cuban exile politics in Miami with Los Gusanos.

I'm in Minnesota at the moment, in Want to Play

I'm in Yorkshire, England, reading All Creatures Great and Small.

I'm back in Norway, where I seem to be spending quite a bit of time lately. This time it's with ER book Burned by Thomas Enger. (No Touchstones - I can understand why these take a while to appear with new books but I don't get why the ER books don't get a listing when they are first offered.)

Hey y'all - been gone 1 yr+ - nice to see the old gang-avaland, rebeccanyc, eairo, squeakychu!.... I am in California with The Best American Noir of the Century.

I was in California, then Germany for the 1936 Olympics, then back to California, then Hawaii, then in a POW camp in Japan, then back to California with Unbroken . Just finished. I'm not sure where I'll be with I'd know you anywhere. Connecticut?

I'm in Mississippi with Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.

I'm in London, 1907, right now, but I expect I'll be traveling to Luxor, Egypt, soon, with Amelia Peabody and co. courtesy of The Ape Who Guards the Balance.

Loved The Sea and Poison so I kept going with the Japanese authors but despite this I am now actually in Hell (by Yasutaka Tsutsui).

in Turkey with Pamuk and his novel Snow a tale about the conflicts in modern Turkey between the secular and islamic influences. An important issue protrayed within the suspense of a great novelist.

Just left London, Ontario, with Jason Dickson's intriguing volume Glenn Piano by Gladys Priddis, from BookThug's Department of Narrative Studies - a quasi-Pessoan experiment in writing the poetry book of a fictional character. Now heading to Vancouver with Fred Herzog's incredible colour photos from the 50s - Chinatown, gas stations, bus stops, supermarkets. At Toronto's recent photo festival, Contact, MOCCA had an exhibit of some of these. Wow! So, staying home in Canada for now...

I've just escaped from the newly formed state of India in 1947, in Amit Majmudar's impressive debut novel Partitions. However, I've jumped from the frying pan into the fire, as I'm now accompanying Patrice Lumumba, the first president of the independent Republic of Congo in 1960, just before his murder in A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire. I'm also in another troubled region, the country of Yemen, in Yemen: Dancing On the Heads of Snakes, a nonfiction book by Victoria Clark.

The Aimé Césaire sounds interesting; I read some of his poetry in high school and I saw a great movie about the murder of Lumumba at the Film Forum in New York, probably about 10 years ago.

#72> Orhan Pamuk is one of my all-time favorite authors.....enjoy!

I've gone off world again, learning where and how I can safely go in Embassytown. China Miévelle's writing is a delight!

I'm back in London of 1997 in the years of 'cool Britannia' with Kill Your Friends, the forerunner to The Second Coming which is the funniest book I've read in a long time. This looks to be equally good.

I have left late 19th century London with Favourite Sherlock Holmes Stories: Selected by the Author and The Foundation Pit of Stalinist Russia.

In Bangkok with a Nail Through The Heart

76>

thanks for your encouragement with Pamuk. I am enjoying SNOW - it reminds me in a strange way of Dickens- i think it is his use of chapters - each one seems to be an installment all its own.

i also have My Name Is Red. which of Pamuk's are your favorites?

currently in 16th century Russia in Russia People and Empire 1552-1917 ...I must say, I'm getting a wonderful tour of the old Russian territories, I just have to be careful about running into those Cossacks from time to time >.>

I am still in Rio de Janeiro chewing my fingernails and waiting to see if Betinho and Capitu conquer their familial protests and are wed........Dom Casmurro.

I'm in a small town in Ontario looking for the Lost Girls

ETA - Ontarion? I'm sure you knew where I meant.

#83 I'm sorry, I hate anticipation like that. My fingernails are also always the first to suffer >.> ....

Finished reading Hell by Yasutaka Tsutsui (the author touchstone goes to the book) which was quite good and entertaining. Currently switching to some Chinese history with The Death of Woman Wang by Jonathan D. Spence. Thoughts on Hell can be found on my Club Read thread.

I am in 1980s Nanjing, having Chinese Lessons and learning about my new classmates.

In the throes of moving from Kellynch Hall in Somersetshire to Bath, and noting how much Persuasion each character needs to change and move.

Since it was that kind of day I just sat down and re-immersed myself into Japan with Keigo Higashino's The Devotion of Suspect X all in one day. It was fun! Haven't done that in a long time either. Like being a kid again where all you do is sit and read.

I am still reading the Amelia Peabody series, so I've been mainly in Egypt.

Right now I'm in Cairo/Giza during WWl courtesy of He Shall Thunder in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters.

I have been Once upon a River, Michigan's Stark River, in Bonnie Jo Campbell's deeply unsettling and thrilling novel.

I'm in Paraguay, in the mind of 19th century dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, with Augusto Roa Bastos's Yo el supremo. There's an excellent Wikipedia article on the book here:

I, the Supreme

I'm walking through the 'Scandinavian wilderness' of Sweden with The Ritual.

And now (rather more pleasantly) I'm on the south coast of Crete preparing for the start of WWII and living in The House of Dust and Dreams.

I'm on a mission starting in the US and Israel in the middle of Iran, where all are fearing the Return of the Prophet.

I'm in Prague with the Bauer family and their nanny Marta in 1939, in Far to Go by Alison Pick.

I am in Mississippi enjoying Light in August and also in Kansas trying to find out what happened at Ape House.

I have one foot in C18 France learning what The Great Cat Massacre tells us about how people saw the world at that time, and another foot in 1980s (I think) New Zealand with Potiki.

off the coast of Turkey on the fictional Greek island of Navarone in The Guns of Navarone

I'm still in Egypt with Amelia Peabody, this time it is 1915, courtesy of Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters.

I expect to spend most of the summer thus engaged, and am enjoying it immensely.

I'm travelling between Sweden & South Africa in The White Lioness

In Egypt also, on an unspecified mission among The Crescent Dunes.

In Brazil, reading Brasyl by Ian McDonald.

I've just left Sacred Trash from a medieval Cairo synagogue.

I'm in Jamaica with The Long Song.

It is the Season of migration to North for me now ... I am somewhere in Sudan, in a village in the bend of the Nile.

I'm in Ireland in 1920 and I've got Troubles.

Second World War Poland and across Europe with Alan Furst's The Polish Officer.

The July/August thread is here.

I really enjoyed this book The Long Song, interested to know how you are finding it!

Moved to current thread.