Welcome & Group information

Hi,

Welcome! I started this group after realizing I was making myself a little nuts trying to keep up with all the individual culturally or country-specific discussion groups. And the worst part is that I was thinking of joining more. One does want to leave time to actually read books. I thought there might be more readers out there who, like myself, might be reading fiction from Iceland or Russia one week, Sweden or Kenya the next.

Personally, it's curiosity and plain ole book lust that drives me to do this but also the desire to be less ethnocentric.

The group description was done fairly quickly and can be revised and updated as necessary. If you have suggestions, please put them here. Otherwise, open up a thread with what you want to talk about. Enjoy!

Thanks for doing this. My favorite reads are books of contemporary world fiction. You'll be hearing more from me! :-)

I thought you might be a great contributor to this discussion;-)

Hi, avaland and everyone else, I just joined too, and it looks like a great group, looking forward to all your input.

Before this EVER becomes an idea, please don't start 192/3 threads for each individual country on this group site. I discovered myself getting caught up in listmania on the "Reading the States" group that sprung up recently, and while I found it quite addictive, I also found it quite unsatisfying.

Lists can stimulate discussions, I think, and that's how I like to use them here. And we seem to have a great group of readers who are really interested in global literature and want to talk about it.

As you're traveling on LT, do please invite any prospective members to join the discussion. I doubt we can talk enough to keep the group up on the "most active" list where it can be seen, so this will help keep the discussions fresh; as well new topics, and, of course, reading new books...

Hello all,
Was just perusing the groups on LT and knew I had to join this one. I spent two days in December 2006 in England and also in Japan with a 93-year-old Sherlock Holmes (A Slight Trick of the Mind). I highly recommend this book. I know little about the great detective aside from the older movies and one or two of the stories (read many years ago); however, this book inspired me to get to know him better. I finished it in two days, and would have sooner - but I had to get off the plane and visit my family! Right now, I'm in a small town near Big Sur in California where Santa Claus has just been murdered (The Stupidest Angel). Thanks for starting this group! I look forward to finding out where in the world other LTers are!

OzzieJello, welcome! I hope you'll find here a variety of topics and discussions on many levels. Feel free to add topics to your liking.

Hi OzzieJello, and I'm a big fan of Mitch Cullin's A Slight Trick of the Mind too, really a smart little book.

Hi!

This looks like a great group and I'm excited to see where others' literary journeys have taken them. I am currently in England with Harry Potter-- my nephew has been after me to read them so he can discuss them with me, and I'm on book 2 now. They are definitely addicting! After that, I have several books set in the Middle East that I'm wanting to get to. So many books, so little time.....

Hello,

I've just joined the group - in fact this is the first group I've joined on LT. I'm especially interested in contemporary Spanish fiction, so any recommendations are welcome.

Welcome, clockpelter! This is definitely the place to find others who are interested in contemporary Spanish fiction. Please feel free to start a thread (a new topic) for it.

I took up your suggestion, avaland, about joining this group and am glad I have.

Although at home with U.S, Russian and French writers (besides my native UK ones) I'm a bit nervous about South American writers having been put off by 'magic realism' . So, any ideas?

>hazelk This is my weak area also, I think. There are two newish threads going that relate, perhaps there we both will continue to find some great ideas.

#hazelk-A wonderful novel to start with is aunt julia and the scriptwriter by mario vargas llosa. It's not magic realism,it's regular fiction, and its almost really true. It's about a young journalist who falls in love with his aunt, and i think vargas llosa really did have an older first wife that he was related to. they made a film of it also, but I cant remember the name of it. Do follow the latin american threads . There is a huge amount of great stuff. Did you see the films kiss of the spider woman and before night falls? they were both latin american novels. Manuel Puig and rei naldo arenas. The spanish author camilo jose cela wrote some powerful realistic novels-the family of pascual duarte and the hive among others.sorry Touchstones isn't working. Miriam

#15: many thanks for the suggestions. I've copied & pasted before I lose track. I've heard of Llosa and I'll search him out first.

I'm heading to Aberdeen, Scotland next week (in real life), and would like to read some Scottish books to put me in the mood. Any recommendations from the group would be greatly appreciated.

Funny enough, I just saw that my question was already posed on the 'List 4 books from 4 continents' thread... am now off to look over the Scottish books listed there.

#17-here is some fluff: Alexander mccall smith has written a series set in scotland beside the Botswana novels. one is called the sunday philosophy club, but there are others. He writes light , light fiction and mysteries among other things. Charming, but nothing to sink your teeth into. There is one I vaguely remember called the scots quaire but I don't remember the author. my library is in ny and i'm in fl. Also,John Buchan's the thirty-nine steps which was also an alfred hitchcock film, was set in scotland.

Thank you for your tips almigwin.

I found a recommendation for The Scots Quair elsewhere and ordered the first one.

The Sunday Philosophy Club was in my to be read pile, and I read it 2 weeks ago, but it did not put me in the Scotland frame of mind... it takes place in Edinburgh, and there are only brief mentions of the city. Still, I have borrowed the second one to read as well Friends, Lovers, Chocolate.

Will look into John Buchan's book... thanks!

Christopher Brookmyre's crime novels set in Scotland also have the advantage of being very funny. I highly recommend his latest A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil

We are at our 3/4 year birthday and now have over 200 members! Who would've thunk it! Many thanks to those who joined by invitation and created such an engaging forum in those first few weeks. And for all of you who have come along over the last 9 months and contribute to our wonderful conversations. Birthday celebration on December 1st!

Wow! we are coming up on the group's one year anniversary! If anyone thinks to do it on the 1st, please create a thread to celebrate!

Suggestion? When we create threads for individual book discussions in the future, could we begin the thread title with BOOK DISCUSSION: (i.e. BOOK DISCUSSION: Half of a Yellow Sun) Since we are hoping to keep these going with people contributing to the thread whenever they read the book, this will help them stand out on the long list of threads.

I just looked and there are 312 members. Here are the most commonly shared books (from the Group Zeitgeist page -- the Group profile page shows a lesser amount, and so is an older number).

Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe (91)
Half of a yellow sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (49)
The god of small things by Arundhati Roy (92)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (114)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (117)
Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan (90)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (101)
The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood (100)
The Yacoubian building : a novel by Alaa Al Aswany (34)
The English patient by Michael Ondaatje (74)
To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee (119)
One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (107)
Possession : a romance by A.S. Byatt (78)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (77)
Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (100)

I didn't try to get all the Author touchstones because so many aren't working. Note, no Dan Brown or "Harry Potter" books. The Yacoubian Building perhaps got as high as it did because of the collective read.

We are certainly a group of fine readers!!!! And from that list of books there are: 2 Russians, 1 Ukranian, 1 Indian, 2 Nigerians, 1 Egyptian, 1 Colombian, 4 English, 2 Canadians, and 1 author from the USA.

Hi, I'm just joining this group.

I am a citizen of the USA but have lived in Latin America for 24 years (half my life--you do the math!)

Our (with my husband) new ministry (work) takes us to many places around the world and I love to read about them before I go, while I'm there and after I return. It helps with understanding. So I'm hoping that eventually I'll find some books here.

Our next trip is to Turkey, Jordan and Israel. All the books I have at present on this are non-fic.

#26
I did what is known as a Tagmash on Jordan, fiction. People tag their books, and one can do a search on tags to see what comes up. A Tagmash allows one to see who has used two tags.

The results were:
Mrs. Pollifax, innocent tourist by Dorothy Gilman. a mystery involving the CIA, perhaps lighter weight.

Arabian Jazz by Diana Abu-Jaber - a first novel.

Staircase of a Thousand Steps by Masha Hamilton - people in lT seem to like this one.

The at the last mentioned novel, I went to the works detail page to see its proper subject classicification. I clicked on Jordan - fiction, and it came up with three including "Staircase" and also Pillars of Salt: a novel by Fadia Faqir.

The third novel is actually Palestinian, West of the Jordan by Laila Halaby.

Although I don't own any of these, it was fun to see what came up.

When I lived in Detroit, for a while, my insurance agent was Palestinian, and my nearest grocer was Jordanian. The Grocer specialized in Middle Eastern items, with many items kept in barrels and containers where you (or he) scooped things out, weighed them and packaged them for you. He also sold ouds which were hand-painted, and little glass cups which were held in fine detailed iron frames.

#27, vpfluke, thanks for looking those up. You know I get a kick out of Mrs. Pollifax novels! I've read or listened to quite a few over the years.

Some of the others look interesting as well. Since I'm still in South America I have little access to books. I can check our kids' school library, but it's pretty limited. We will be moving to the states in June and one of the few things I'm looking forward to is the public library and being able to buy on half.com! Now I'm at the mercy of people traveling down here who are willing to carry a book or two.

I'll look for ouds in Jordan. My daughter collects things that are similar to "shot glasses" from our travels.

I just joined this group yesterday when I found it. I have realized that many of the books I have been reading have been set in other countries, so this looks like a good place for me.

Welcome wosewoman! This is a great group but I warn you, your TBR pile will grow exponentially!

Thanks lindsacl! I just clicked on your name and checked your page (is this okay to do? I'm still pretty new to this stuff) and I see that our shared books include some of my very favourites. And that this month you are reading another book I quite enjoyed - an Equal Music. Did you know that there is a musical CD you can get to accompany the book - it has the music written so much about in the book.

>wosewoman ... it is more than OK to click on the profile page! It's a great way to learn more about the people whose messages you read here. The shared books is just one way of finding out what we have in common. You can also leave public or private comments on the profile page if you wish to communicate 1-on-1.

Anyway, I did not know about the CD for An Equal Music. The book was given to me as a gift. I will definitely check out that CD! I'm hoping I get to it this month; my reading slowed down for a couple weeks and is just picking back up again.

lindsacl, #32, I hope you like An Equal Music better than I did. I had been a great Vikram Seth fan until I read it -- and still am (on the theory that every great writer has one bad book in him). But I may be in the minority here (on An Equal Music, I mean).

Interesting. I have Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate on my list for this month. I haven't looked at An Equal Music yet.

The Golden Gate is wonderful! It can take a little while to get into the form (verse), but I loved it (I read it while visiting San Francisco, which probably added to my enjoyment). However, Seth's A Suitable Boy and Two Lives are, in my opinion, masterpieces.

I still have to read anything else by Vikram Seth. But I still really like An Equal Music. And it's not even so much the main plot that I find so interesting.. it is the very way that he writes about sound and music itself.

I still have to read anything else by Vikram Seth. But I still really like An Equal Music. And it's not even so much the main plot that I find so interesting.. it is the very way that he writes about sound and music itself.

I still have to read anything else by Vikram Seth. But I still really like An Equal Music. And it's not even so much the main plot that I find so interesting.. it is the very way that he writes about sound and music itself.

wosewoman, I think the music is the crux of the book and because it was difficult for me to appreciate it I didn't enjoy the book. But I'm glad you do.

>lindsacl - you are so right - this group is making my TBR list huge!
>rebeccanyc. Sorry that you didn't like the music aspect of the book - but yes, I really did enjoy it.

I altered the group name slightly, eliminating the 'fiction' part. I rewrote the group description also to emphasize the fiction. Anyone see any problems with this? Also, if one of you long-timers has a better group description, I'll consider using it.

And pictures: if any of you who have traveled to or lived in some unusual places have a particular picture you'd like to share (or an unusual picture from a common travel destination), I'll consider using it. Send me a note on my profile page and I'll pass along my email address...(photo credit will be noted, of course).

I wonder how many (I'm one) tend to combine their fictional and nonfictional readings. If inspired by a piece of literature about a time and place, I'm just as likely to pick up a bit of non-fiction as fiction for my next visit to that time and place.

That's a long-winded way of saying I like the change.

I think the changes are a great idea !

I combine fiction with non-fiction about places. If I read one thing (or see a movie) about a place/time period/person, I'm likely to look for more on the same or similar topics to learn all I can.

Thanks for the change.

yes, I think the change is good. I'm sure most of us read at least some nonfiction.

I often like to mix fiction with nonfiction when I read about a place. I find that nonfiction is great with facts, but novels usually give a better feel to the subject.

I think I've occasionally forgotten this was a fiction group and posted about nonfiction, so I'm glad I'll no longer be guilty of improper posting!

Would anyone mind if I start up a completely nonfiction "reads around the world" thread for myself?

#48

I wouldn't have any problem with this. What kind of thread are you going to use: flax, cotton, wool? You can't use synthetic fibers for non-fiction.

>48 DaynaRT: gosh, no; go right ahead.

>49 vpfluke: Bob, that was too funny.

Hi all! I have joined this wonderful group and looking forward to getting acquainted with you all!

=) Jill

* waves *
Hi Jill! Welcome! It's great to have you here. I've been moving a bit more slowly on my "global" reading than, say, prizewinners, but this group has really broadened my horizons. Lots of great book recommendations to be found on the threads here.