Where in the World are You Now? June 2007

I'm a bit early with this thread but I thought I'd post it while I was thinking about it.

Well, I just moved to Kabul, Afghanistan. On the other thread I was living in Herat. I'm still reading A Thousand Splendid Suns! :-)

#2 Will be interested in your opinion of A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I haven't checked in for a while - been too busy in London and then Los Angeles (c.1939). Burning Bright by Tracey Chevalier - NOT RECOMMENDED; and Ask the Dust by John Fante - recommended.
(Burning Bright doesn't even have a touchstone - the little silicon chips are so disgusted.)

I'm watching Edward and Florence's honeymoon on the Dorset Coast of England in On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.

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A Thousand Splendid Suns is interesting so far. I've finished about 1/4 of it.

The reviewers say it's better than A Kite Runner. For me, I don't think so. Hosseini's newest book is easy to read, and the topic is interesting, but The Kite Runner had themes that engaged me more. I think I've read so much recently about women's issues in Muslim countries that A Thousand Splendid Suns is not as fresh for me as it is for others.

I am, however, very happy to be among some of the first people to actually get hold of this book. :-)

I am in Kars in Eastern Turkey (and occassionally in Frankfurt, Germany) with Orhan Pamuk's Snow.

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I *loved* that book. I wish I were back in Kars with you, depressaholic.

I just left Aurora Greenway and her daughter Emma (Terms of Endearment) in Houston, Texas and am now visiting with Old Filth in England.

>8 writestuff:: writestuff, say hi to Eddie Feathers for me, it's been a while since I've seen him.

I've spent most of this month in the UK it seems. From Cambridge & Yorkshire to Edinburgh, and now in Aberdeen with Leilia Aboulela's The Translator.

I'm now in Denmark with Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. Apparently we'll soon be going to Greenland, which is why I got the book in the first place. I'm enjoying Smilla's character and the tidbits about Greenlandic culture, but find the mystery at the core of the novel kind of slow going.

#6 depressaholic Would like your opinion on Snow because I started it and gave up. I notice that SqueakyChu loved it.

I'm in Scotland in the midst of a Never-Let-Me-Go mutant type situation : Under the Skin by Michel Faber.

I'm in Victorian England (once again) with Arthur Phillips' Angelica but starting tomorrow I'll be taking a whirlwind tour of Africa with Africans: The History of a Continent by John Iliffe.

Lindsacl: I will definitely do that - if I can get him to stop reminiscing about Malay and Hong Kong *wink*

#12> avaland, I would like to hear what you think of Angelica, as I was VERY disappointed when I read The Egyptologist. Hopefully, Arthur Phillips' plots have improved.....

#10, cestovatela If this is the same book as Smilla's Sense of Snow (touchstone not loading) by Peter Hoeg, I read it a long time ago and found it interesting at first, for some of the reasons you give, but was disappointed with the end of the book.

Rebeccanyc, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow and Smilla's Sense of Snow are the same thing, athough I have no idea why they have different titles. Maybe different translations? Or just a different title depending on the country where it was marketed?

#16 cestovatela
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow was the name of a Hollywood movie based on the novel. Perhaps it was marketed under this title to coincide with the film?

#12 avaland, I too, am interested in what you think of Angelica! I haven't read anything by Arthur Phillips but was curious when I came across him while browsing.

Cate, DO NOT read The Egyptologist!!!!!!

Just arrived last night in South Africa, reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom.

I am in 19th century London with The Secret River which I am reading (and loving) thanks to recommendations here. And I am also in 19th century South America with Simon Bolivar in the John Lynch biography.

I'm in Japan with Sputnik Sweetheart by Hariki Murakami and really enjoying it.

#15 rebeccanyc, I "finished" Miss Smilla's Feeling for the Snow today, by which I really mean I got fed up and skimmed the last 100 pages. I really, really, really loved Smilla's character but the rest of the book...ugh. Was there really any need for a giant conspiracy of multinational corporations and drug lords and medical researchers?

I'm in Belfast, Northern Island: Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty.

I'm hanging out in New Hampshire with a little girl who has an interesting connection with God in Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

Still with The Secret River but now in early 19th century Australia. What a great book!

>26 rebeccanyc::I agree, great book (The Secret River), even better when the setting is Australia don't you think?

>26 rebeccanyc: >27 hazelk: me too! it tied for my top book of 2005 (or was it 2006?...I read it as an arc before it came out here in the US).

I am indeed in Africa with the Iliffe nonfiction text. I love this book for its succinctness. And I'm in Australia - somewhat - with the fabulist short fiction of Margo Lanagan in Red Spikes (I'm trying to finish up some of the books on my ongoing reading list).

#27, 28 It will definitely be my top book of this quarter, when we do that, and I'm sure will make it to one of my top books of the year. And I might not have read it if not for LTers who recommended it.

#26,27,28 Me too.

#27 In compensation for the over-hyped book you recently read I offer you a trip to Northern Ireland: Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty. You might like it.

I think I just invented a verb: "to over-hype." I'm clever.

Amanda, I realized you are clever a loooong time ago.....;-))

I'm in Africa too, with Cyprian Ekwensi. Burning Grass so far is kind of a season in the life of Fulani cattle ranchers in northern Nigeria. Kind of a page turner in its own atmospheric way.

>26 rebeccanyc:, 27, 28, 29, 30 ... WOW!
I'm adding The Secret River to my TBR right this minute. This discussion is reminiscent of your Half of a Yellow Sun evangelism, and the LT affinity thingie says I like what you all like so ... thanks for adding to my reading list!!

Well, The Secret River is on my TBR list now. too. How do you keep the list under control? I'm over 100 not counting the tomes I own that are TBR! I can't decide whether to stay current with new titles or work on old titles. Perhaps I'll alternate. I must say you all are keeping me excited about next reads.

I seem to get double posts--hence the edit and new info. I'm in Northampton, Massachusetts now with Running With Scissors and in upstate New York with Alison McGhee's Shadow Baby. I've decided it is better to squeeze in a paperback chapter than miss short bursts of reading time.

>34 lauralkeet: and >36 CEP: Have we mentioned The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh yet?;-)

>37 CEP: I see you own "Saving the World" by Julia Alvarez, how did you like it? (I gave up on the title touchstone)

>36 CEP:: CEP, why would I want to keep the list under control?!

>38 avaland: avaland, tell me more ...

>39 lauralkeet: check out the "most intriguing place you've been" thread in this group and that will give you a hint...

>40 avaland:, avaland, thanks for the scavenger hunt! Yes, that one sounds interesting, too!!

#38, avaland, if I couldn't get through Glass Palace, also by Amitav Ghosh, would you still recommend The Hungry Tide? It's probably relevant to mention that I gave up on Glass Palace because the multi-generational family saga was so sprawling that none of the characters got the attention they needed and I coudn't get attached to any of them.

#42--I loved both Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide, but I think they were quite different books. The Hungry Tide is much more compressed in time (although there are flashbacks), and I think the focus is on fewer characters (I read The Glass Palace several years ago, so I'm a bit fuzzy).

#43 And the setting of The Hungry Tide is an amazing place - the star of the novel, I thought.

>38 avaland: avaland Saving the World is on the TBR pile. I've enjoyed In the Time of the Butterflies and Something to Declare (short stories) also by Julia Alvarez so I picked this up on a half-price table.

>39 lauralkeet: linsacl True, true! No need to keep TBR list under control, it's an Excel spreadsheet on my PDA so it's always at hand. I just don't know which book to pick up next with so many enticing choices.

I'm in the Republic of Gilead in a dystopian future (Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale). Though its a strange and disturbing place, I've wanted to visit for ever so long.

After saving the world of Men in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King, thus completing my re-read of The Lord of the Rings, I am now on a small island off the coast of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, drowning in a car which has plunged off the road into the water while the Senator whom I met at a 4th of July party earlier in the afternoon attempts to escape. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates, a fictionalized take on the infamous Chappaquiddick incident with names and locale changed.

I started The Secret River last night, and I am already mesmerized. It is a I-cannot-put-it-down book!!!!!!!
I had it in my TBR piles for a while, and I am glad indeed I finally decided to read it. Thanks to all of you who have suggested it!!!

Perhaps you would enjoy a non-fiction work by Rory Stewart, The Places in Between. This Scottish scholar of medieval Persian/Central Asian history (at least, I think that's his emphasis) walked from Herat to Kabul in early 2003 (!!!) and wrote a book about it. By the way, he took the scenic route.

I need to go out and buy The Secret River I've been reading raves on this book for MONTHS now!

In the meantime, I've left New Hampshire and am now somewhere in Australia with Slow Man - the poor old guy is struggling right now, and I'm hoping his life will brighten up soon.

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I simply loved The Hungry Tide. For me, it was the best book I read last year. If you can, listen to it on audio. The setting is incredible. Both the amazing Sundarbans (Bangladesh tidal coast) and main character (a marine biologist named Piya) remained in my thoughts for long after I read that book. In fact, Piya is the kind of character I would be if I could be any person in any novel. I really identified with her.

Should you choose to read this book, cestovatela, please come back and let us know what you thought of it.

>30 amandameale:: only just caught up with your recommendation, amandameale, so have added it (Grace Notes) to my list. Many thanks.

Just noticed that an earlier post of mine was quietly enthusiastic about Sputnik Sweetheart. However, after half-way through I got steadily less enthusiastic. Should have started with Norwegian Wood methinks as my first Murakami.

After the intensity of Black Water, I am now in modern day and futurish England in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. I am intrigued so far by the disquieting atmosphere.

I'm finally traveling again. Chimamanda Adichie has taken me to Nigeria in The Purple Hibiscus. Thus far it's a very absorbing place.

>54 cestovatela:: cestovatela, I will be interested in your thoughts on The Purple Hibiscus. I've seen it recommended by several LTers. And, I absolutely loved her more recent book Half of a Yellow Sun, which I read based on rabid enthusiasm on threads like this one. You oughta check this one out also.

>53 TheTwoDs:: TheTwoDs, I loved Never Let Me Go, especially how understated the tone was. I felt that aspect of it really conveyed the fact that for the characters, their lives were normal. I hope you enjoy it!

I am up high on a mountaintop in the remote region of Hokkaido Japan in A Wild Sheep Chase

#55 lindsacl - I'll defiintely post a review of Purple Hibiscus in my livejournal. I requested it from Bookmooch because I had heard so many good things about Half of a Yellow Sun. I'd really like to read it too, but sadly it hasn't shown up on Bookmooch or at my local used bookstore.

#55, 58 Purple Hibiscus is a very good book, but Half of A Yellow Sun is orders of magnitude better, showing how a writer can really mature.

>59 rebeccanyc:: rebeccanyc,
What a surprise for you to weigh in on Half of a Yellow Sun !! *wink*

In Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty I ended up in Scotland. Now I'm in England: Engleby by Sebastian Faulks.

In Victorian England, awaiting the alien invasion! (The War of the Worlds)

#60, I've tried to be good, but sometimes I just can't help myself!

I'm in early 20th century Mexico with Katherine Anne Porter in Flowering Judas hanging out with a bunch of romantic and somewhat confused revolutionaries.

I just left Australia, finally leaving Slow Man to continue his plodding way through life :)

I'm now in India with A Suitable Boy.

I guess I need to also weigh in on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's wonderful books - I can recommend them both, but I think Half of a Yellow Sun is the better of the two.

I just left Moscow in the 1870's with The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin. I am now in the south of France near Marseille at Villa Air-Bel with Rosemary Sullivan in 1940.

I'm still in Africa, where Christianity and Islam are making major inroads on the continent, and I was briefly back in the UK with Graham Joyce's YA novel, TWOC.

Tonight's the Orange Prize announcement. Is this where I tell the story about meeting Adichie back when Purple Hibiscus came out? :-)

Do tell, avaland!

#67>YESSSSSSSSSS! Please DO tell the story!!!

From the BBC web site, "Adichie leads Orange Prize race," http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6725635.stm. Hope the judges listen to the bookmakers!

And yes, avaland, I can't believe you've held out on us this long!

I guess it's relevant that I finished Purple Hibiscus tonight. I posted this in the 'what are you reading now' post too, but since people here asked...

I wasn't very impressed. I felt like most of the book read like a YA novel, which made the heavy ending seem out of place. Worse, it felt like one of those "okay, gotta wrap up somehow" finishes and I didn't think it tied in with the character development earlier in the novel. I'd say it's pretty solidly mediocre.

ok, it's not all that exciting. At the New England Booksellers Convention several years ago, I attended a moveable dinner - a favorite event. We got served a several course dinner and at each course a different author rotated to our table for discussion. Because I had helped prior to the event to stuff bags with freebie autographed books (and I assisted Adichie with signing her books), they let me choose which table I sat at (so essentially I could choose a certain rotation of authors). Unfortunately, there were two authors I was then particularly interested in - Adichie and Edward Jones - they were, of course, not in the same rotation. I chose Jones. I had a lovely dinner and I and my fellow tablemates got to chat with Mr. Jones, Eleanor Clift, Robert Massie and Susan Halpern. Immediately following the dinner I scuttled over to Adichie and, not being shy, chatted her up for a few minutes. I found her lovely, young, well-spoken, although perhaps a bit timid at the time. This was her first book, remember. And since those freebie bags had a mix of books in the them, I had to scramble and swap with others to make sure I got signed copies of the Jones and Adichie. Btw, I also found Edward Jones humble, kind of soft-spoken, and very interesting (and the other authors were also quite fascinating...). Ever have that feeling that some debut novel is different, the author's vision is special in some way? There's something in the book that you recognize somehow... That's why I went after those two.

There it is, the fascinating not-so-secret life of a bookseller (former).

HOW COULD YOU KEEP THIS FROM US FOR SO LONG!!!!

>56 fannyprice:: fannyprice

I finished Never Let Me Go last night and loved it as well. It's definitely one of the more heartbreaking works I've read. As you said, the fact that the characters just accept their situations as normal, as their lot in life, really hits you hard. I wanted to grab them, hug them and somehow escape with them to someplace where that practice was not allowed.

I'm still in England, now it's 2003, just prior to the Iraq War. I've just witnessed a full day's worth of surgeries completed by a neurologist in Ian McEwan's Saturday.

I am in either Russia or the Ukraine (not entirely clear to me) in "The Steppe," a short novel by Chekhov included in The Complete Short Novels, and also along the Hudson River in New York state in The Hudson: A History by Tom Lewis.

I am in Russia with Absurdistan and plan to move on to Italy, India, and Indonesia with Eat Pray Love. Then I will be off to Japan with Goodbye Tsugumi.

Thank goodness for books. I could never afford the airfare to satisfy my curiosity of the world :).

I'm making my second trip to Afghanistan this year with Rory Stewart in The Places in Between.

I just left colonial Australia with The secret river by Kate Grenville (superlative book!) and am now in Victorian London with London dust by Lee Jackson.

I've been spending a lot of time in England lately. Right now I'm in the Victorian period, with Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now.

I've been in Maoist China with Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie. It's rather slight and in my opinion is a young adult book. As I read I thought 'can see this being made into a film' and in the epilogue it appears this is exactly what the author had in mind.

I'm at home in Cape Town, South Africa, as Rayda Jacobs shares her Confessions of a Gambler.She's a great character: the book is at turns moving (she she tells about her son dying of AIDS), familiar (full of local colour and wonderful South African slang) and very funny indeed. A fabulous read!

>81 hazelk: I have the DVD; it's a beautiful movie - story and cinematography.

I'm in Ancient Greece with The Penelopiad.

This is the BEST group on Libarything with the BEST people on Librarything. Thanks avaland for starting it up. To quote aluvalibri: "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ditto >84 amandameale: ! I'm relatively new here and loving it! I just keep wishing for more time to read all the great suggestions. Oh, for those lazy beach days with a book and the sound of the ocean!

I'm both in east coast USA and also north-west London with On Beauty by Zadie Smith. Enjoying it so far.

WOW!!!!! I have been quoted again.....much honoured!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Did I put enough exclamation marks, Amanda?)

;-))

#81 - I haven't read the book, but did see the film and agree with avaland...it's is a graceful piece of film making.

I also agree with amandameale! This is the best place for all good things....excellent new books & interesting people!

While I am still spending time in Ancient Greece and Canada, I'm still quite firmly planted (and somewhat overwhelmed) in Eastern and Southern Africa with Iliffe's Africa: the History of a Continent. However, I find much in this book that will enrich future fiction reading from the continent!

I was in London with London Dust by Lee Jackson until yesterday. I am still in England, in Kent, with Green for Danger by Christianna Brand.

I'm dealing with the stench of garbage at the Flea Palace in Istanbul - getting to know some rather odd and intriguing characters there!

I'm in Vienna, the city of music: The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek (Nobel laureate).

I'm in a dead Ford Pinto in a dusty Castle Rock, Maine dooryard with a young mother and her four year old son while a rabid 200 pound St. Bernard is seriously considering mauling us. I'm re-reading Stephen King's Cujo.

I've just left Scout and Jem in 1930s Alabama (To Kill a Mockingbird), and am now in modern-day Trenton, NJ in the heat of summer, running around with a bounty hunter named Stephanie Plum (Four to Score).

(uncooperative touchstones ... no patience to wait!)

I just left Australia with Slow Man, and now I'm in England's Worcestershire in a little town called Black Swan Green. Next up I think I'll travel to Ireland with Talk of the Town aka Knick Knack Paddy Whack by Ardal O'Hanlon (touchstone not working on the US title) Anyone know why the title was changed for the US release??

I seem to be having a really out of character romance on the coast of Spain with Esther Tusquets' The Same Sea as Every Summer.

I recently left Moscow and Archangel, Russia, after completing Archangel by Robert Harris. Brilliant! After escaping the depressing hole that is Russia, I landed in 16th century Rome via Basilica, R. A. Scotti's newest. Not non-fiction, but some fascinating history of the building of St. Peter's.

I'm reading Diary of a mad old man which is set in Japan- the first line has the characters going to watch a Kabuki play.

Before this I was reading Pug Hill, by Alison Pace. Although the book was a bit corny (I don't normally go for chick-lit), I might have to make my own pilgrimage to Pug Hill one day - they are my favourite breed of dog

I am in an unnamed city but I assume it is Belgrade in a book byZoran Živković called Hidden Camera.

Having left Maine behind, I am visitng a brothel in an unnamed Colombian city, in the Magdalena district, in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Memories of My Melancholy Whores. It will be a brief stay as the novella is only 115 pages long. This is my first Marquez, but I am already enjoying his vivid descriptions and arresting sentences, if not particularly enamored of the subject matter - our ninety year old narrator wants to bed an adolescent virgin. I have a feeling, though, this will not turn out as expected.

I finally have left Istanbul (I'm relieved to be gone from The Flea Palace) and ready to embark on a voyage with Santiago from Spain to the Eqyptian desert in The Alchemist. I hope to spend just one day there so I can hang out with Peony in Love (Lisa See) in China!

Physically, I'm in Thailand but my imagination is in Kashmir in The Inheritance of Loss. I've heard some people complain that it's slow to start, but I'm already gripped by the beautifully descriptive prose. In the last two days, I've been to a boarding school in Alabama with Looking for Alaska, a young adult book with some real truths to impart even to adults. Before that, I was slumming it in Paris and London with George Orwell in Down and Out in Paris and London. It's a vivid and fascinating book about poverty and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed more recent works like Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich or The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David Shipler.

As if I'd stop reading just because I went on vacation! I've already worked my way through more than half the books I brought with me!

I am watching the Trojan war on Mars (among other places) with Dan Simmons's Ilium. Lots of fun.

I'm in Norway - my first visit: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson.

I've been in the US for a while but today I'm in Portugal with Monica Ali's Alentejo Blue. It's very hot here, not unlike the eastern US today ...

I am at an army hospital in Muji City with occasional trips to the countryside in Waiting. Its a really good love story that takes place during the cultural revolution.

I'm back in Nigeria with Purple Hibiscus by that prize-winning Adichie lady. It's in preparation for a reader's weekend in the Yorkshire Dales at the end of the month.

#102 cestovatela: I really liked The Inheritance of Loss too!

I'm in 17th century China right now with Peony in Love - Lisa See's new book.

I globe hop a lot and time travel too. At the moment I seem to be in the middle of a military coup in ancient China surrounded by bandits and greedy politicians in Jean Levi's The Dream of Confucius. Man, things don't seem to change much no matter the century or the locale. Better run, they're looking hostile.

amandameale, let me know what you think of the Petterson; I went out and bought it last week also!

#110 avaland I'm about one hundred pages in and it's just lovely. The writing is beautiful but not difficult and the story has a mystery yet to unfold. You will love it.

I just left Pennsylvania and The Lovely Bones. I'm now in Civil War era Georgia with The March.

My brain is on vacation for a couple of days in Southern California in Dean Koontz's The Husband.

My stay in Portugal was brief but enjoyable. I'm now in Victorian England reading Vanity Fair.

I just left 1920s NY and traveled to Seattle in Amy Bloom's Away.

#110 and 111, I bought it too and am looking forward to it.

I believe I am in the UK with Angela Carter's short novel, Love (I'm not even going to attempt a touchstone for that one!) AND I'm in the Congo with King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (non-fiction).

I just left the French riviera and am now in England with The making of a marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

My brain well-rested, I am now journeying through time and around the world on a whirlwind history of libraries in Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles. I have just arrived at the ancient Library of Alexandria. If only I could save all of these books!

Just joining this group...

I'm in ancient India with Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse; then I take a break and wander over to the Pacific Northwest (US) in the Olympic rainforest - The Good Rain by Timothy Egan. In the evenings, I'm in Nova Scotia in the early 20th century with Ami McKay's The Birth House.

I find it difficult to stay in one place!

Oops, I took a little detour as I was cleaning a book shelf and ended up on the North Pole (The North Pole was Here). It's 80 degrees here in actual Portland, but reading this made me cold! I'm bundled up under a blanket.

I left Peony in Love in China and have now returned to the United States to investigate a drowning in Michigan at The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, A Death, and America's Dilemma.

I am in Nigeria now reading Purple Hibiscus I really like it a lot.

teelgee- The Good Rain sounds interesting are you enjoying it?

Hey fikustree -- I am enjoying it, Egan is a wonderful writer. Lots of good history presented in a very accessible and often humorous way. He's a bit over the top with his metaphors sometimes, but I can overlook that. This spring I read his most recent book The Worst Hard Time about the dust bowl, it was just excellent. So I've gone from dusty and dry to perpetual rain... drip drip drip.

Having finished my tour of historical libraries - which included stops in Athens, Alexandria, the Vatican, London, Paris, Boston and many other locales - in Library: An Unquiet History, I am now lost. I have just started The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue and have witnessed the replacing of a human child with a changeling. I'm not sure where I am, other than that when I'm with the changeling, I am in a house in 1949 and when I'm with the stolen child, I am in the woods, which might be magical. The changeling recalls his mother speaking German to him, but I don't think I'm in Germany, as the stolen child's name is Henry Day. Two chapters in and I can tell I'm going to enjoy this one.

I just arrived in Hungary with Embers by Sandor Marai. I am already captured by the beautiful language.

I'm in England: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.

I'm in Paris in the '50s with the delightful The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy - a fine place to be.

I ended up in the early years of Seattle in two of the books I'm reading - in the nonfiction The Good Rain Egan describes the genesis of modern Seattle from the 1850s into present day. At the same time I was reading about the late 19th/early 20th century there, Lillian, the main character in Away: a novel by Amy Bloom was arriving in 1925 Seattle. I was going back and forth between the two and thoroughly enjoying the synchronicity.

Am currently in Sri Lanka with Romesh Gunesekera's Reef, after a visit to Paris (Villa des Roses - which was okay - and the fictional Carribean Island of Santa Maria God's Angry Babies - which was excellent).

Message 127> Having finished McEwan's book this evening I've just left Chesil Beach. Despite the fact that the book is closed, I think I'll be there in spirit for quite a while.

In a bid to take my mind off the scene above, I've journeyed to 19th century Cornwall in Geoffrey Farrington's vampire novel, The Revenants. Apparently Farrington's work harks back to pre-Stoker notions of vampires as found in the stories of John Polidori and J. S. Lefanu. I've only read the first forty pages but it's an absorbing, well-paced read so far.

I just moved from Tucson Arizona to Appalachian Virgina with Barbara Kingsolver and her delightful family in the nonfiction Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life.

I'm in the Red Room ....hahaha! just kidding! I'm actually in the Congo still with Henry Morton Stanley...

avaland! you are busted! LOL!!!

16th century France. Gargantua and Pantagruel. Only about 50 pages in but it's very amusing so far. I started with the Urquhart/ Le Motteux translation but when I compared it to Burton Raffel's, I realized that I needed to switch. Some of the flavor is lost but many more of the allusions are explained or, more importantly, translated.

I'm in 18th century England with the Dashwoods in Sense and Sensibility. Charmed, I'm sure.

I've been quite nomadic lately. In Ghostwritten, David Mitchell took me to Japan, China and Mongolia before I took a break and went to Tibet with Xinran in Sky Burial, a beautiful non-fiction story about China. Now I've rejoined David Mitchell and Ghostwritten and I'm in Russia with some art thieves.

Turns out I was mostly in western Pennsylvania in The Stolen Child, with short trips to 1968 West Germany and Czechoslovakia (which we illegally entered by crossing the border at a shallow river running through some woods) and a brief journey to the northern California coast. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, especially to fans of crossover-fantasy and myths and folklore, as it is about changelings.

Now, to my surprise, I have returned to western Pennsylvania in Josie and Jack by Kelly Braffet. This one is very dark, two children, 16 year old Josie and her 18 year old brother Jack live in a large old house owned by their physics professor father. The college where he teaches is 3 hours away, so he lives on campus during the week and the kids are on their own, only seeing him on weekends. There is lots of drinking, smoking, drugs and an overall menacing tone. Dad is abusive, verbally and physically and basically a nihilist. The kids are nominally home-schooled, but really they are left to their own devices. There's a strong We Have Always Lived in the Castle influence, as Josie is extremely mistrusting of outsiders.

I'm in former Czechoslovakia reading Zoli by Colum McCann.

In addition to having one foot in Africa, I'm in Burma with The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly.

After leaving battle-scarred Victorian England (The Time Machine), I have been floating around aimlessly, trying to find a good place to settle down. Right now I'm in non-fiction land juggling like six different books. Sigh....

I'm hopping back and forth from Florida to New York with the Volk family in Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk.

I am in mother Russia reading (or rather listening too) Anna Karenina