Feb. GeoCAT - Central Asia

map from Wikipedia.org

Probably the easiest country to find a book about will be Afghanistan. I can still remember reading Caravans by James Michener when I was in high school and being totally intrigued by this part of the world. There is no shortage of books about the Afghan War and Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Other topics which might carry you to this region are the Silk Road or the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. I created links to a tag search for each country and have included a tiny bite of history for each courtesy of the World Fact Book

Kazakhstan
Ethnic Kazakhs, a mix of Turkic and Mongol nomadic tribes who migrated to the region by the 13th century, were rarely united as a single nation. The area was conquered by Russia in the 18th century, and Kazakhstan became a Soviet Republic in 1936. (source - cia.gov)

Uzbekistan
Russia conquered the territory of present-day Uzbekistan in the late 19th century. Stiff resistance to the Red Army after the Bolshevik Revolution was eventually suppressed and a socialist republic established in 1924. (source - cia.gov)

Kyrgystan
A Central Asian country of incredible natural beauty and proud nomadic traditions, most of Kyrgyzstan was formally annexed to Russia in 1876. The Kyrgyz staged a major revolt against the Tsarist Empire in 1916 in which almost one-sixth of the Kyrgyz population was killed. Kyrgyzstan became a Soviet republic in 1936 and achieved independence in 1991 when the USSR dissolved. (source - cia.gov)

Turkmenistan
Present-day Turkmenistan covers territory that has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries. The area was ruled in antiquity by various Persian empires, and was conquered by Alexander the Great, Muslim armies, the Mongols, Turkic warriors, and eventually the Russians. In medieval times, Merv (located in present-day Mary province) was one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by Russia in the late 1800s, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Central Asia. In 1924, Turkmenistan became a Soviet republic; it achieved independence upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. (source - cia.gov)

Tajikistan
The Tajik people came under Russian rule in the 1860s and 1870s, but Russia's hold on Central Asia weakened following the Revolution of 1917. Bands of indigenous guerrillas (called "basmachi") fiercely contested Bolshevik control of the area, which was not fully reestablished until 1925. Tajikistan was first created as an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan in 1924, but the USSR designated Tajikistan a separate republic in 1929 and transferred to it much of present-day Sughd province. Ethnic Uzbeks form a substantial minority in Tajikistan. Tajikistan became independent in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and experienced a civil war between regional factions from 1992 to 1997. (source - cia.gov)

Afghanistan
Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-communist mujahedin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama BIN LADIN. (source - cia.gov)

I'm planning to read Return of a King by William Dalrymple about Afghanistan.

I'm going to read The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye. I don't know much about it except that it looked good enough to add to my TBR list four years ago and it is at least partially set in Afghanistan. We'll see how this goes.

I have books 4-6 of A Bride's Story series by Kaoru Mori. I do believe they take place in this region. At least most of them do. What say you Mamzel?

I have several books set in Afghanistan that would work, though I wish I had something from another country in the region, since Afghanistan will probably be over-represented in our reading! But I'm trying to read off my shelves, so.....

Right now, The Swallows of Kabul is calling to me loudest, maybe because it's short :)

All of my options will likely relate to Afghanistan as well, and I'll probably end up reading Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but I think one option for Tajikistan would also be Rumi's poetry...

D'oh! I'm reading Afghanistan right now! Not sure when I'll have time to come back to plan, but my post here will remind me every time someone else posts!

I did a little research and discovered Chingiz Aitmatov, an author who lived in Kyrgyzstan while it was part of the USSR. His novel The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years is available at my library, so I'm going to give it a try! It looks weird but potentially fascinating!

I am going to use this GeoCAT to finally get around to reading my copy of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

I have a couple of books set aside for this Cat. The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini and The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, both books are set in Afghanistan.

>10 DeltaQueen50: Oh, And the Mountains Echoed is a good idea. Hmmmm....

I have already read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, so it's about time to get to And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. I bought it right away when it was published, but it has been waiting on my shelves ever since.

I'll be considering A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and The Bookseller of Kabul.

I'm going with Bookseller of Kabul

LOVED both A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed.
Prepare for heartbreak.

I didn't think of it until I just started it a couple of hours ago. In addition to the audio that I'm almost finished (Afghanistan), my f2f book club for January is reading I Am Malala (Pakistan)! So, I'm actually reading two that fit for Feb right now!

>15 LibraryCin: Hmm... Pakistan is Southern Asia which is September, I believe. http://www.librarything.com/topic/200489

>16 Tara1Reads: Oh, you're right! I just saw all the 'stans listed and figured it fit. Doesn't matter, anyway, I'm reading it now! :-)

I've got A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar on my pile of books-to-read-next, so that's what I'll read. It's set in Afghanistan.

For this month's challenge I'll be reading Kyrgyz author Chinghiz Aitmatov's Jamila in a German translation that I've had for years but never read. Apparently Kyrgyzstan likes the book so much they've given it a stamp:



I may also read A Bride's Story, Volume 2, which is set in Central Asia near the Caspian Sea. For non-fiction, I've ILL-ed Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane, which I've wanted to read for some time now.

For anyone unsure what to read for this region, might I suggest Wolf Totem? It was one of the best books in translation I read last year & I think that the Mongolian setting falls into this area.

>19 inge87: I've also been considering Dshamilja. There are quite a lot of Soviet era authors in my TBR, this looks like a good opportunity to (finally!) tackle them.

>21 MissWatson: Dshamilja looks like it will be a short, satisfying read. The Soviet Union and its satellite states did a lot of terrible things, but they also produced some remarkable literature.

I'm not taking part in any of the CATs, but wanted to suggest a book for anyone who's after travel writing - Colin Thubron's The Lost Heart of Asia. It's years since I read it, but I enjoyed it very much. He wrote it in the early years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, it covers all 5 of the 'stans.

>19 inge87: Thanks for bringing that book up - I have it and I didn't realize it was by a Kyrgyz author - Feb is the perfect time to read it.

>23 Jackie_K: That's the book I'm planning to read in February. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

>25 VivienneR: I'm not sure how well it will have aged in the intervening 20+ years since it was written, but I always like his writing.

I will be reading a story set in Afghanistan - concerning Navy Seals

I'm not sure how much is actually about Afghanistan in this book, but it is tagged with it:
The End of Your Life Book Club / Will Schwalbe

Alternately (though apparently it's not "officially" on my tbr, a few people have mentioned And the Mountains Echoed, so that's a possibility, as well.

Hooray! Dejah_Thoris posted in another thread about reading a GN set in Turkmenistan called Joe and Azat. I can't believe it's available through my very small town's library ILL.

I am also hoping that my LTER book These Heroic Happy Dead about soldiers returning from war will have enough about Afghanistan to count, but now I'm tickled to death to have a (short!) book that definitely fits into the category.

>29 streamsong: I'm so glad you saw that post on the RandomCat thread! Joe and Azat looks like fun - I'm getting mine through my library system, too.

Central Asia is NOT a region about which I've read much. The only countries on list I've read anything from or about are Afghanistan and Mongolia; the rest are new to me. That said, I was happy to find some great options from the library. I hope to read a book for each country for the Challenge, but I'm not sure that will happen - it didn't for South America, lol.

Afghanistan: This is the easy one. I'll probably go with The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders, a work of graphic nonfiction by Emmanuel Guibert. I may also aim for Kabul Beauty School and/or The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

Kazakhstan: I plan to read The Devil and the Disappearing Sea about the shrinking of the Aral Sea, but the coffee table style book The Soul of Kazakhstan (lots of photographs) or Apples Are From Kazakhstan are potentially in the mix.

Kyrgyzstan: For this I found a self published mystery with some good reviews: This is Bishkek, Baby. It's available free for Kindle Unlimited readers if anyone wants to join me. I also may breakdown and buy Restless Valley: Revolution, Murder, and Intrigue in the Heart of Central Asia which focuses mainly on Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Mongolia: I have quite a few options for Mongolia, but I think I'm going with The Cave of the Yellow Dog.

Tajikistan: I didn't come up with much for Tajikistan. I think I'll have to fall back on Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia which focuses on both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Turkmenistan: Hooray for Joe And Azat! I have not idea if it will be any good, but I was pleased to find a book that looked like it might be some fun. Unknown Sands also looks interesting. I may also break down and purchase Daily Life in Turkmenbashy's Golden Age a self published work that seems to be highly regarded.

Uzbekistan: I've requested Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia and may add the previously mentioned Restless Valley.

Will I get to all these books? No - but I'll try!

>29 streamsong:
Just ordered Joe & Azat from Amazon, My library doesn't have it. :(

>30 Dejah_Thoris:
All of those books look good! I'm fascinated by that part of the world.
I've got Lost Heart of Asia home from the library right now for this challenge.

I've had A Thousand Splendid Suns on Mt. TBR since it was published, so I'm planning on finally getting to that one.

I'd love to read something set in one of the ex-Soviet countries, though at this stage I only seem to be finding books about Afghanistan.
A fort of nine towers: An Afghan Family Story
The Buddhas of Bamiyan by Llewelyn Morgan
Tea with the Taliban: travels in Afghanistan by Ian Robinson

I've added one to the wiki that I started this month for RandomCAT but won't finish in January: Corpus Christi: Holy Communion and The Renewal of the Church by Athanasius Schneider. The author was born to ethnic German parents in Kyrgyzstan, where they had been exiled by the Soviet government, and is now a bishop in Kazakhstan.

I have two books I would like to get to; A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush and The Places in Between both are in Afghanistan.

I'm not participating, but have just taken 2 BBs from Dejah_thoris: The Photographer, and Daily Life in Turkmenbashy's Golden Age.

I've started the month with The Watch by Joydeep Bhattacharya which is a simple story that cuts right to the heart of the matter - war is senseless. Beautifully written.

I just finished Dshamilja, by Kirgiz author Tschingis Aitmatow (that's how the name is spelled in my German edition). Wonderful, just wonderful, his descriptions of the Kirgiz landscape are amazing, and there is also a beautiful love story.

I'm starting The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. Unfortunately, I am leery of the blurb written by Greg Mortenson and the first chapter which very deftly inserts brand names and Harvard Business School and other institutions which, rather than impressing me, makes me doubtful of the author's sincerity and intention of publishing this story. I'm trying to put it behind me as I push on.

I was checking out the GeoCAT and remembered three travel books from the 1930s that might fit. Ella K. Maillart's Forbidden Journey and Peter Fleming's News from Tartary cover the same journey from Peking to Kashmir. I really enjoyed the Maillart book because she's more observant than Fleming, who is a bit full of himself. Another excellent book about Central Asia is Robert Burton's The Road to Oxiana. From the blurb for the Penguin Classics edition: In 1933 Robert Byron began a journey to Persia and Afghanistan, via Jerusalem, Damascus and Baghdad, in search of the origins of Islamic architecture......At once poetic, scholarly and acidly humorous, Byron's travel journey is a passionate ode to the pursuit of experience and a portrait of an extraordinary traveller.

Adding Peter Hopkirk's Setting the East Ablaze, a history of the Great Game in Central Asia. It reads like a boys' adventure story, but it's real.

I just learned about a new book that just came out this week: Postcards from Stanland: Journeys in Central Asia by David H. Mould. Just in time for the Central Asia GeoCAT!

I finished The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. A truly inspiring story of how a teenage girl managed not only to support her own family but hire others and even start a little school under the oppressive Taliban regime in Kabul.

I've read A Bride's Story, Vol. 4 and volumes 5 & 6 by Kaoru Mori. They are described as historical romance manga. The series takes place in late 19th century Turkic Central Asia. Various nomadic tribes are represented but the main story is about Amir, a twenty year old that is married to Karluk, a twelve year old from a different clan. It's definitely geared to a younger audience but don't let that stop you from enjoying a delightful series with gorgeous artwork.

I read Jamilia in an evening last week - I really enjoyed it - felt like I was there.

I finished And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. A powerful book, even though it turned out to be different from what I expected. Set mainly in Afghanistan, but we also visit France, Greece and the US.

I've just started In the Sea There Are Crocodiles, by Fabio Geda. It's the true story of a young boy's journey from Afghanistan through Iran, Turkey, Greece, and into Italy, after the Taliban invades his village.

I've just ordered Jamilia and I have A Thousand Splendid Suns sitting on my shelf so I'm going to try and fit both in.

I read Joe and Azat and liked it. Set in Turkmenistan.

touchstone not working?? :(

I've read A Fort of Nine Towers, Qais Akbar Omar's memoir of growing up in Afghanistan. It was eye-opening.

I finished Fifteen Days by Canadian journalist Christie Blatchford who recounted events from her stint as an embedded reporter with Canadian forces in Afghanistan.

>48 nrmay: Touchstones are down right now (the thread is here).

Finished Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and I was really impressed. More than any book I've come across, this work by Robert D. Kaplan did an impressive job of looking into the culture and the history in a way that, even from the perspective of 1990 and then 2000, does an admirable job of explaining how we've reached the point where we find ourselves now as a global community with eyes on and soldiers involved in the wars there.

>41 cbl_tn: That's another BB! Onto the wishlist it goes...

This has been a very dangerous thread for me this month! Lots of BBs to dodge!

I finished Mud City, the third book in Deborah Ellis's Breadwinner series. It's a children's/YA book about an Afghan girl living in a refugee camp in Pakistan. I definitely recommend Ellis's books for middle-school kids.

I am starting The Places In Between by Rory Steward.

I just finished Shadow of the Silk Road. It chronicles the author's travels along the ancient Silk Road from Xian, China to Antioch, Turkey. It was basically a travelogue filled with bits of history. In reading this book, I discovered how much I don't know about Central Asia!

I am doing the GeoCAT with an Awards focus. This book was a NYT Bestseller and the Washington Post Best Book of the Year in 2006.

I read Jamilia yesterday. It's a quaint little book and it gives some insight into life at the time it was written.

I just finished The Photographer, an excellent read with photos, drawings and text illustrating a journey the French photographer Didier Lefevre took with MSF (Doctors without Borders) to Afghanistan in 1986 while the Russians were fighting in that country. For me a 5 star book.

>58 dallenbaugh: It was one of my top reads last year. It was beautifully put together.

I also finished the short graphic novel Joe and Azat. It's loosely based on the author's experiences as a Peace Corp volunteer in Turkmenistan. The author pretty much sums it up in the opening frame. "It was a strange place. A lot of the strangeness came from the President for Life, Turkmenbashy."

edited for spelling .....

That's 2 more BBs! (The Photographer, and Joe & Azat). They both sound great.

The book that really focused on Afghanistan I wanted to read this month only came in for me today (it was on hold at the library). I have two other books I am hoping to finish before the end of the month, so this one will have to suffice, instead.

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
3.5 stars

Will's mother, Mary Anne, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There is no cure. Will was often with her at her appointments and treatments, when they would discuss books. They made their own two-person book club.

I liked this book. I was impressed with how positive Mary Anne was. She also had an amazing life, traveling all around the world to help people, particularly refugees. At the time she was diagnosed, she was trying to raise money to build a library in Afghanistan. It was a fairly simple book, in that not a lot happened, but I enjoyed it.

Two of the books I read this month fit the GeoCAT:
Turkmenistan - Joe and Azat by Jesse Lonergan (Nice sum-up @ 60, streamsong!) - slice of life of local culture
Afghanistan - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - a strong sense of place and culture.

I just started The Bookseller of Kabul today and I'm hoping to be able to finish over the weekend. We'll see!

I finished The Kite Runner. Without a doubt, my best read so far this year!

Lori, if you're doing all three CATs, you get a CAT Trick with The Kite Runner!

I finished The Bookseller of Kabul - very good book. I didn't realize until today when I looked up the Wikipedia entry on the book that the real bookseller of Kabul had sued the author for defamation of character; initially he won, but the judgment was overturned on appeal.

I read and reviewed Dshamilja (the German edition of Jamilia) today. I've had a copy since 2008, but never read it until now. It was quite good and provided an interesting look at the difficulties experienced Kyrgyz villagers during the Second World War.

I finished Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden over the weekend. This is book 1 in the Conqueror series focusing on Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. I've also been working on The Plight of a Postmodern Hunter by Chingiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz author & Mukhtar Shakhanov, Kazak poet. This book is a conversation between the two men, who were friends, which gives a good feel of the place and culture of the area. I won't finish it today for the end of the month, but I've been surprised by how much I've enjoyed reading it so far.

Thanks to everyone who shared their reads this month. I thought this was going to be a particularly difficult region to find authors from and books about but you guys rooted up some splendid examples. Good luck with the rest of the year!

71. Just finished And The Mountains Echoed. I did not like it as well as his other two, but it was interesting to see how he moved on from his earlier novels.

I, too, read And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, and my thoughts are very similar to >71 librariansteffen2:. It is still an excellent read, it just didn't have the emotional impact his first two books had on me.

I recently finished A Thousand Splendid Suns. It is a great book and one I wouldn't have read without this challenge.

I squeezed in Jamilia last night after seeing all the positive thoughts on it. A quick read which I highly enjoyed.

I finshed Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 by William Dalrymple about the First Anglo-Afghan War. Dalrymple unearthed a number of Afghan accounts of the war that had not been seen by the authors of any of the earlier English histories of the war. It is likely to be the definitive history of this war.

I've finally finished The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov. The author was from Kyrgyzstan, and the book is set in Kazakhstan. It's actually quite a good read that encompasses death, love, and the importance of memory. But for me, it wasn't a book that I felt compelled to keep reading, which is why it took me so long to finish! Still, I'm glad I read it and would seek out more by Aitmatov. Some of you have reported good things about Jamilia, so I might try that one next.