Where in the World are You Now? February 2008

I just posted on the January thread, but it's February somewhere in the world!

I'm still in Alera with Tavi battling against a host of invading Canim warriers and with Amara trying desperatly to make her way back to the city of Ceres in Jim Butcher's Cursor's Fury.

Once the battle is over I'll probably make a trip to Israel and learn about the Valero family in Sephardi Entrepreneurs.

Finished Cursor's Fury last night and am still in wow mode. I think that the Codex Alera has officially become my favorite by Jim Butcher....at this point I'm almost like, Harry who?

Was going to pick up Sephardi Entrepreneurs first thing this morning, but my bag was very heavy from having to lug my work comp home with me last night - which turned out not to be needed as my telecon was canceled - so instead slipped the smaller and much lighter Candide by Voltaire into my bag. Its a short one and I should be done with it in no time.

Already with Candide I have visited France, Bulgaria, Holland, Lisbon, and am now sailing off to South America. I am on-board a ship with him, his lady love and an old woman who is telling her life story so through her flashback I have seen Italy and Morocco.

I'm now on my second tour of duty. As a more seasoned Israel Defense Forces lieutenant, I've just returned to Beaufort, my post in southern Lebanon. Mortars are starting to fall. Gotta run and check on my "kids"...

Beaufort by Ron Leshem

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P.S. When my tour of duty is over, I'd love to make a quick trip to visit you, Irisheyz77, in Jerusalem! How about a falafel and a good cup of Turkish coffee in a cafe on King David Street? Let me know when you get to Israel!

the Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander, takes place in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the time of dissappearances.

The first 40 pages have gone quickly, marked by humor, oddballs and with a slightly bizarre twist.

appears to be a sarcastic view of the jewish experience in diaspora.

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appears to be a sarcastic view of the jewish experience in diaspora

It becomes even more than this after the book ends.

I *loved* that book! It made me see what a terrific writer Englander truly is.

Just left Russia for Eatonville, south west Florida with Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

I'm in Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA - not too far from my real home actually!

Zoology by Ben Dolnick

I'm currently in 1814 Australia where a group of settlers are taking land away from native people on The Secret River. With 60 pages to go, it's getting a bit tense.

I've left the post-Apocalyptic U. S. of The Road and journeyed to Libya in In the Country of Men.

I am still in Norway with Out Stealing Horses and reading aloud to my son Three men in a boat, so that makes being in England as well.

whymaggiemay I just found In the Country of Men at the second hand book shop and am looking forward to that as well.

primlil - oh, that trip to Norway was one of my favorites in 2007!

It's June 30, 1934...I'm in a cell in Stadelheim prison, Munich Germany....where I have just witnessed the execution of Roehm, the S.A. Chief and Hitler's close friend. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

I'm still in the UK with Cranford, and still in Bogota, Colombia with Delirium by Laura Restrepo. I've been preoccupied with other things that have taken me away from reading.

#11 primlil - Norway is the most wonderful place as well as the wonderful book! How are you liking Three Men in a Boat?

#14 avaland - did you know that the BBC here as just run a serialisation of Cranford? Look out for it if it crosses over the pond. I think many of you guys would really love it. It was brilliant. I read the book when I was at school but guess I would appreciate it more now!

Edited for finger slip typos.

#15- did you know that the BBC here as just run a serialisation of Cranford? Look out for it if it crosses over the pond. I think many of you guys would really love it. It was brilliant. I read the book when I was at school but guess I would appreciate it more now!

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Yes, Cranford is coming up on Masterpiece Theatre on a Sunday night in May. Right now they're doing a Jane Austen series, and then there are a few other films before they show Cranford (including a new version of Room with a View, which I'm not sure is necessary since the Julian Sands/Helena Bonham-Carter/Maggie Smith version is just about perfect). My family knows that Sunday nights are booked for me for the next few months.

I've just survived a catastrophic earthquake in 1999 Turkey in a suburb 3 hours by ferry out of Istanbul.

ETA oh yeah! the book: Gardens of Water by Alan Drew (Early Reviewers). Knew I forgot something!

I am in WWII Germany with The Book Thief looking over the shoulder of death.

#13 Just1MoreBook: I read Shirer's book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich way back in the late 1970s and thought it really good although perhaps it has been superceded now. Later bought a used copy (mine was gone) for my wife who said her father would like it but then couldn't bring myself to hand it over. Perhaps now is the time to reread it.

#11 primlil, I'm only a couple of chapters into In the Country of Men but I'm enjoying it. I'll let you know what I think in a few more chapters.

I'm On Chesil Beach.

>15 juliette07: & 16, Yes, I did know that (from LT, of course!) and thought it would be as good a time as any to reread it. I am rather partial to Gaskell:-) I am also glad to hear it is well done.

I'm currently dividing my time between Palestine (Sephardi Entrepreneurs) and Russia (War and Peace). Have also been thinking about traveling to Greece and Italy with Corelli's Mandolin.

I'm flipping between Spain in The Club Dumas and the eastern United States in The Muse Asylum. And there are semi-fictional aspects to The Philosopher's Secret Fire which leads one to the 'other people' in such places as Haiti, Ireland, Greece, and the upper and lower worlds.

If I remember my dates correctly, I'm in mid-seventeenth century China with Snowflower's Secret Fan. OK, I broke down and got a copy of this novel that's been on our library's hold list for over a year, and am now cheating by listening to an audiobook, but it's really good! I'll have to go back to reading tomorrow, as the audiobook is due back.

markon

edited - oops! I mean 19th century.

#19 PossMan: LOL, I tried to read “Rise and Fall” one summer while in college, but from the location of the down turned page apparently the beach was too distracting. Shirer is very detailed at times, but that is also part of the beauty of the book. Shirer’s book interests me because he began reporting on the Nazis in 1925! One of my favorite history books is Inside
Asia by John Gunther, published in 1939. It's interesting to read about a subject from different perspectives.

Just1MoreBook #26: Yes, and it's not just the war itself — there's a lot on the pre-war politics of the Reich (as one would expect from the title). In fact it's only on page 279 in my copy that we get to the chapter called "First Steps" (on the path to war) and page 455 before we get to October 1938 and Poland's turn.

#27 PossMan: I'm only on page 222! (I’m still in the jail cell with Roehm due to the CA primary last night) We must have the same copy, as "First Steps" is on 279 for me also. I enjoy the "politics" part, as it's the psychology behind the events that fascinates me.

I have left both Palestine and Russia behind for a bit to travel through Darfur with Daoud Hari in his memoir The Translator. I know that I should be focusing on Sephardi Entrepreneurs since it came first but my bag was really heavy this morning with snow predicted that I didn't want to deal with the extra weight. Plus I had read a little bit of The Translator last night and I was hooked. Will get back to the Valero's once I have left Darfur.

So far Hari's memoir is very gripping. Its such a powerful and tragic story, but its also one of hope. I was nearly brought to tears this morning on the train while reading it and am sure that many will fall before I am through. It has been a long time since a book has affected my emotions enough to bring me to tears.

My trip to Baltimore, Maryland, USA, in Back When we Were Grownups by Anne Tyler is being cut short. The CD is due back at the library in two days! :-(

>30 SqueakyChu: SqueakyChu - can't you download it? Or is that a no-no?

24- I read The Muse Asylum a couple of years ago and now remember how enjoyable it was - I tend to like books about writers...and this one has a nice mystery to it.

I'm in 11th century Andalusia with Southey's translation/adaption of the Chronicle of the Cid.

I've departed Turkey (Gardens of Water) and have just arrived at the Baltimore airport from Korea in Digging to America by Anne Tyler.

I am in Virginia in the 20s, with The Romantic Comedians by Ellen Glasgow.

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I wanted the CD to listen to while I commute to work. I actually have the book at home, but I want to start to read my Early Reviewer book next after I finish my current read.

It's not a serious problem, though. I'm now listening on CD to Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs. I was in hysterics laughing on my way to work this morning. It's so much better than listening to the news on the radio!

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Sorry I missed you in Baltimore!

I'm now in a hotel in London in Possible Side Effects by Austen Burroughs.

Yeah, maybe we'll hook up there again one day - I also have Back When We Were Grownups on Mount TBR.

I'm in a world that seems very similar to ours with a little boy and girl and tiny people called Gallivespians. I observe all of this through The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman

I took a side trip
to a prep school in Vermont.
I'm also reading Gossip of the Starlings
by Nina de Gramont.

(which *almost* rhymes) Ha! :D

There once was a starling from Nantucket...

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LOL! We could do this whole thread in rhyme!

I gave up on Baltimore and have moved on to Smuttynose Island, part of the Isles of Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire in The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve.

SqueakyChu, I challenge you to rhyme with Smuttynose. and smutty prose doesn't count! ;o)

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Nope! It's your read...so you have to do the rhyme! :D

For inspiration, see Adobe's 100 book challenge,
all the reviews
are Haikus ;o)

http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=26793

I'm in awe!

Currently in south China, 1928. Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama. A way of life now long gone.

Ooo, marell, I just bought that, after reading her Samurai's Garden, which was a beautiful book! Let me know what you think of it.

This will be home territory for many of you guys :) but I have needed my atlas these last few days. I was in Eatonville with Janie Starck and her dreams emanating from under the pear tree, I then found myself in a hurricane and thought of some of you friends who live in Florida. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was an eye opener and I loved the non stereotypical approach of the author.

I then moved forward in time to 1942 and the second world war, starting in Berkeley, California, with a train trek to the Utah Desert with When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka.

As it is Lent I am also reading Pilgrim Road A Benedictine Journey Through Lent by Albert Holtz. A brilliant book on many fronts but joy of joy each day takes me to another 'place' visited by the author, a Benedictine monk. So far, since Ash Wednesday I have been to Canterbury England, The Channel Tunnel, La Paz Witches' Market, Bolivia and Rue de Sevres, Paris.

Right now I am in Budapest, Hungary - just beginning I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson

Edited as touchstones not working.

I recently left the Darfur area of Sudan where I was traveling with Daoud Hari's memoir The Translator. I am now reading some very strange letters with Tick in Deer Park,Washington in The 13th Reality: Journal of the Curious Letters

Maybe, I'll try to get a copy of Albert Holtz's "Pilgrim Road : a Benedictine journey through Lent". I've been reading Radiance: A Spiritual Memoir a collection of of writings from Evelyn Underhill.

#50 Irisheyz77 Just read a review of The Translator , went straight to Amazon uk only to find it is not available yet agh!! I was so inspired =)

#51 vpfluke I would highly recommend the Albert Holtz book and I *think* I got it via Amazon. Let me know how you got on ...

Today I am in Muros Spain!

juliette - it doesn't come out in the US until March. Definately worth wishlisting though. Thisbook was amazing. I normally put my ER copies out into the world when I am done...but I don't think that I can part with this one. At least not yet. I want to read it a few more times and just in general absorb it all in.

I also just left Darfur with The Translator what a wonderful book. It left me really moved. Now I am going back to Chile with Of Love and Shadows.

I've departed Smuttynose Island and now have landed, finally, in Petersburg Russia for a little War and Peace.

Message 48: Hi teelgee. Women of the Silk is a wonderful book in my opinion. The narrative is fast moving. The story takes place from 1919 to 1938. There is a sequel, The Language of Threads. Thank heavens, because I wasn't ready for this story to end. Let me know your thoughts when you've finished.

irisheyz77 - thanks for the thought and please don't think I was hinting at all =) I have plenty to keep me going! Simply thanks for the inspiration!

#55 teelgee - I am still mourning the fact that I have completed War and Peace - I will never ever be able to read that last page for the first time and reflect on the book for the first time. Really looking forward to hearing from you as you journey on.

I am following some deranged Indian scalpers around the 1849 American southwest in Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy.

juliette - no i didn't think that you were hinting at all. The way I wrote my statement was probably a little unclear and I'm sorry if I made it seem like I thought you were hinting.

definately keep your eyes out for the book....its one of those rare stories that really touches the soul and stays with you after you read it.

fuzzy- Blood Meridian is a wild ride, one you will not forget!

I am in 1950s England in The Remains of the Day, in Melbourne with Theft and having Dinner at the homesick Restaurant in the USA.

I'm in Turkey with Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Next up will be a trip to Jerusalem with Joseph B. Glass' Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem. It's been sitting for a while as I've been away since 1/18.

# 59 Thanks Irisheyz77 =)

Today my Pilgrim Road took me to Dieppe in France this morning. He recalls, amongst other thoughts how this was the place that many Canadians landed during 1942 with the cost of 1000 lives.

I am in modern day Copenhagen with The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg. I am about thirty pages in and completely confused about what the heck is going on. Just when I think I have things figured out, some other secret something is introduced and I don't have a clue about anything for pages. Has anyone else read this yet? Does it get better?

I've left Cranford and moved forward in time to the present, London area, I suspect, with a collection of wry, quirky and thoughtful short stories, Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman, also known to some of us as user and LT author shearrob.

In Canada with A Complicated Kindness and Kenya with Dreams From My Father. Enjoying both.

I'm in 19th century Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul via The Janissary Tree. In addition to all the wonderful local color, Goodwin's descriptions of local cooking are making me hungry!

If you have an interest in finding books about a particular geography, you might check out my website: http://www.codexmap.com - it provides an interactive and searchable Google map with books plotted by location. And if you find one you like, there is a link on every book page to add the book to your LibraryThing library...you can also build a booklist inside CodexMap, and see a map with only "your" locations plotted on it.

In addition to being in Petersburg, Russia with War and Peace, I'm spending some time in Bart Township, Pennsylvania studying Amish Grace : How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy after the October 2006 school shooting.

ETA link, no touchstone :o(

I've left England behind and have moved to Malaysia to visit The Travel Writer.

I've been galloping across the ancient world with Alexander the Great and Ptolemy in Mary Butts novel, The Macedonian. In somewhat less than fifty pages, I've been to Macedonia, Phoenicia, Egypt and am now in Samarkand (called by the ancient Greeks, Maracanda). Since it's a full size novel, despite the fact that Alexander has only eight more years to live (he is twenty-five at this point in the story), I doubt my travels or battles are done.

I'm not terribly taken with Alexander himself (never have been-military heroes generally leave me cold), but Butts' prose is extraordinary and her vision of the ancient world is vivid and compelling. I'm very much looking forward to reading her Scenes from the life of Cleopatra after I finish 'The Macedonian'.

I am in Paris, France, 1700s with Grenouille.

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Currently and unbelievable though it may sound, I am in central Russia hanging out with some ummm. . .Slavic lycanthropes courtesy of A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia and Other Stories by Victor Pelevin. Weird, I know but as you all already know, absurdist literary transportation is always the imminent threat with reading!

I'm currently in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the private boarding school known as The House of Night adjusting to a new life along with Zoey Redfern who has just been Marked.

How are the werewolves in Central Russia? That book has been on my list for a few years, but I haven't run across a copy yet (and I have enough other reading that I haven't actively pursued it . . . but I really want to read it. What a great title).

I'm in a remote English seaside cottage with Charles Arrowby, a retired London theatre director. He likes to go bathing in The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch.

I was in London with Shakespeare in Will in the World, and am now in Washington DC with The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. I seem to be on a nonfiction kick, but will add in some fiction soon.

I am both in Haiti with Vale of Tears by Paulette Oriol and in Australia with Australian Classics : 50 great writers and their celebrated works by Janet Gleeson-White.

Today I am in Berlin with Albert Holtz in the Pilgrim Road A Benedictine Journey Through Lent as he reflects upon the Berlin Wall. He is leading me to different settings every day, reflects upon it and writes a prayer on his theme.

Yesterday I left the World War concentration camps of Dachau and Auschwitz as I completed I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson

Tomorrow I am *really* going to France! Au revoir for the next week!

Have fun in France juliette! =D

How did you like I Have Lived a Thousand Years? I visited Auschwitz last year and I think that this could be an interesting an powerful read.

I have left Bill Manhire behind in Antarctica for a while with The Wide White Page and taken up residence on the banks of the foggy Okkervil River with On the Golden Porch by Tatyana Tolstaya.

I am currently in Sarajevo with an Australian doing book restoration. As I progress through Geraldine Brooks People of the Book we will be travelling back in time, step by step and to different parts of Europe, including Vienna and Venice.

I finally left an undisclosed Latin American country in of love and shadows and am now in ancient India with Ganesha Goes to Lunch

wosewoman- sounds interesting, what is the title?

I'm still in Russia, Moscow right now, in War and Peace. In my other life, I've left Bart Township and am mostly wandering around American kitchens and grocery stores In Defense of Food, an important book by Michael Pollan (which isn't touchstoning, so I'll make a link).

In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto.

I was in Chad and Darfur with Daoud Hari's The Translator a tribesman's memoir and am now in Israel and New York ( briefly ) with Etgar Keret's
The Nimrod Flipout

I've left Norway now but am still in England with Cranford. I am now also in the Blue Mountains of Australia with The Waterlily by Kate Llewellyn, which is a wonderful journal of her garden and life, although its about 20 years old now. I have just brought her latest book The Dressmaker's Daughter and am looking forward to reading it.

teelgee how are you enjoying the new Pollen book? It is on my list of must gets.

wosewoman I have just been reading about this new Geraldine Brooks book - it seems to have received mixed reviews.

primlil, it's really good, so well written and accessible and full of such important info about the "Western diet." Highly recommend!

I am in Nigeria during the 1960s with Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. And in New Mexico with a young bison, a sculptor and a pilot in A Buffalo in the House by R. D. Rosen.

>84 torontoc: torontoc, I see that Keret's latest collection (forthcoming?) got a rather poor review from Publishers Weekly. It surprised me somewhat after the Nimrod Flip-out got such great ones.

>FionaCat, Half of a Yellow Sun was my best read* of 2007, I hope you find it as powerful a story as I did. *it's always so hard for me to choose 'best' books, I often feel it's like comparing apples and oranges.

In Florida with Their Eyes Were Watching God, Australia with A Pound of Paper, and Hiroshima, Japan with Hiroshima Diary. At least my reading is diverse, if not quick.

I'm in Hunstdale, Pennsylvania with Aislinn trying to avoid the notice of Faerie's in Wicked Lovely.

I'm in a strange paper world somewhere in underground England trying to escape The Raw Shark Texts.

Until yesterday I was in Thatcher's England with The Line of Beauty and then last night I jumped feet first into 1950s French colonial Vietnam with Pyle and Fowler in The Quiet American by Graham Greene.

I have just arrived in Darfur with The Translator : a Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari, while still at War and Peace in Russia and Austria.

fikustree, the title of the book is People of the Book

>85 primlil:. I have seen those mixed reviews too, but so far I think is a good book. Not all the way through it yet. I have also read two other books by Brooks March - which was very good, and Year of Wonders which I thought was outstanding.

I'm in a tea shop in England with a melancholy divorcee in Anita Brookner's The Misalliance.

I am now in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada in 1975 with Elizabeth Hay's Late Nights on Air.Hay won the Giller Prize for this book.
88 avaland- I can understand how Keret can get both good and bad reviews- his stories can be a little uneven-I liked his surreal ones the best.

I just finished the Phillip Pullman trilogy and Chevalier's The girl with the pearl earring.I am now in New England spending time with an adultress in Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter.

I've decided to leave the Wicked Lovely yet cold town of Huntsdale, PA for the warmer temps of Haiti in Vale of Tears

I am currently in late Hapsburg era Prague, being dazzled by Robert Crumb's typical illustration brilliance in R. Crumb's Kafka by Robert Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz. After that, I'll just be fending off the looming robot rebellion and doing my part to help save planet Earth with Daniel H. Wilson in How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion and How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Alien Invaders, Ninjas, and Zombies. Those blasted robots. . .such a nuisance!

The Rape of Sita has brought me to Mauritius.

Haiti was getting a little too hot for me as well as depressing so I finished Vale of Tears and decided to head off to 1920's era Hong Kong to visit with Kitty and her doctor husband in W. Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil.

I'm soon to leave New York City from Zoology and travel to Haiti in Krik Krak!

It's 18 degrees (Fahrenheit) now for real where I live in Rockville, Maryland, so I'm all for traveling to a virtual place of warmth (even great heat) today!

I can't wait to see what you think about Haiti SquakyChu....my Haiti was a little sad and depressing. As was poor poor Coralie who never could seem to catch a break...or rather wasn't smart enough to hold onto what she had.

I am still in Ancient India wandering around The Palace of Illusions and learning the Mahābhārata from the perspective of Draupadi.

I'm all over the map. In battles in Austria right now, with War and Peace, in London at the Claremont Hotel with Mrs. Palfrey and Into the Wilds of Alaska.

I've left the English seaside and am now in late 16th-century Turkey. I just started My Name is Red last night and being only a few pages into it, I am still a bit puzzled as to what is going on but I'm sure it will become clearer soon.

I've been in the mid-19th century London area for a week or so already, staying at Bleak House (Charles Dickens). I expect to be there for the rest of this month, but this weekend I will take a side trip to Vienna to visit Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

I'm all over the place! While I have agreed with myself to return to Colombia with Delirium, I haven't actually picked it back up yet, I'm in Australia still with Australian Classics, in New England in the very early part of the 19th century with The Bonds of Womanhood (nonfiction) and traveling the US (sort of) with another nonfiction book, Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers (a very interesting mix of viewpoints, btw).

However, I am also firmly planted at this moment in Massachusetts, USA because we're having a snowstorm and I have cinnamon bread baking in the oven, the smell of which has me grounded right here.

#109, avaland -- cinnamon bread sounds wonderful. May I have a (virtual) piece, hot with butter, please.

I'm in Paris between the wars with a Soviet secret agent who is trying to stop being one, in Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge, and in contemporary New York/Washington with The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon.

#79 Irisheyz77
As far as I Lived A Thousand Years is concerned I think it would compliment your vist to Auschwitz visit. As I have *really* been in France where I do not have internet access my review is not up yet but will be soon!

Earlier in the week I was in modern day Turkey in Snow by Orhan Pamuk. (touch stone has come up wrongly here?)

At present I am in Northern Italy during World War 2 in A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell.

I just left roaming around Tibet and China in Sky Burial by Xinran and am now in 19th C Australia and London with The Secret River by Kate Grenville.

This morning I visited Aubrac, Central France with Albert Holtz as I continue journeying with him in Pilgrim Road A Benedictine Journey Through Lent.
He was describing how a bell, named Maria, la Cloche des Perdus rings out every evening from the squat church steeple in Aubrac. Literally meaning the bell of the lost people it rings to guide pilgrims to the safe haven of the village as they travel the path to Santiago de Compostella. Anyone lost in the wilderness could just listen for the bell and then follow the sound to the safety of the town.

What made this especially delightful for me is that I 'know' this village and apart from being a famous point on the pilgrimage route it is also renowned for beautiful knife making. You may have heard of the famous Laguiole knives.

@112 - Julie - I have lived a thousand years is on wishlist. =)

This morning I left the Painted Veil of China to travel back to Alera to check up on what everyone is is up to there in Captain's Fury.

Left Florida and journeyed to Zimbabwe with Love in the Driest Season and then on to Budapest, Hungary with I Have Lived a Thousand Years.

I am in an unnamed German city towards the end of WWII with a Russian spy posing as a nurse, having left with her from besieged Leningrad, in Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge.

Well, I was in an Iraqi prison with I' Jaam, a new favorite book of mine! Now I'm back on home turf in Tennessee in a new book This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record; both books I'm reviewing for my blog. I think I'll be going to Norway next - haven't decided!

I was in wartime France, Norway and England with the fascinating Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre. I am now in 1950s South Africa with The way of the women by Marlene Van Niekerk

I spent a very short time indeed in Turkey (message #107), because I just couldn't get into the book at all. I'm now in India with two lovely women -- one wealthy, one her servant -- an interesting view of class differences in The Space Between Us.

I just left Morocco with Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami and I am now off to Turkey with The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk.

We seem to be having an Orhan Pamuk 'phase'. Look forward to hearing how you find The Black Book

The last few books I've read were okay, but a little light on the literary side. Pamuk is one of my favorite authors and I truly savored even the first few lines.

I am in Poland, with a Rabbi and his family, with Deborah by Esther Kreitman.

On to Haiti! Krik!

I will be joining you there soon A_musing! Hope to finish my visit to India this evening.

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Me too! Krak! :-)

I am traveling back and forth between California and Pakistan trying to raise money to build a school and drinking Three Cups of Tea with pretty much everyone I meet.

Overnight and this morning I was in Girton College Cambridge, England with Virginia Woolf as she gave a lecture A Room of One's Own. I have now moved to South Africa with Nadime Gordimer in The Lying Days.

I am dancing through carnival in After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti

#128
That's where I am too, I've been there before, but my whole book club is there this month.

@131 - good thing there seems to be plenty of tea to go around for everyone. =)

I know you've been there before...but be careful when traveling up the KKH highway! And always be sure to drive in style ;-)

Pic was so large so I deleted it. To see what it was go here:

http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x201/jonathancasale/pakistan/?action=view&amp...

Found out two days too late that Greg Mortenson was going to be giving a talk in a nearby town.

http://www.ikat.org/articles/2008/02-22-08Wicked.htm

=(

Also didn't realize that the pic ^^ was so large....I'll replace it with a link in 2 shakes.

It is interesting to note that as Mortenson has come to the fore with his book and fundraising, Sir Edmund Hilary's group has run TV ads to raise funds to build schools in the Himalayas.

I did enjoy Three Cups of Tea tremendously and would love a chance to hear Mortenson speak.