Where in the World Are You Now? May 2009

TalkReading Globally

Join LibraryThing to post.

Where in the World Are You Now? May 2009

This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply.

1avaland
May 2, 2009, 8:47 am

I'm still in the future with Margaret Atwood.

2bojanfurst
Edited: May 2, 2009, 8:52 am

I am currently in 19th century Bosnia thanks to Ivo Andrić and Bosnia Chronicle (the original title is Chronicle of Travnik).

Bojan
http://www.bojanfurst.com
http://fuerst.my-expressions.com

3FicusFan
May 2, 2009, 8:52 am


I am in modern day south Florida, Broward County with The Cutting Season by Arthur Rosenfeld

4TedWitham
May 3, 2009, 12:28 am

I've moved to ancient Denmark, and Fools creatively interfering in the local politics of rival kings in in An Antic Disposition by Alan Gordon. Definitely an enjoyable medieval mystery, where geography counts.

5hemlokgang
May 3, 2009, 2:37 am

I am in England and England, with Tom Jones and The Forsyte Saga.

6englishrose60
May 3, 2009, 6:42 am

In USA with The Yearling and The Weight of Water and Ecuador with Indecision.
I have also just finished a trip to Canada to experience The Tenderness of Wolves.

7FicusFan
May 3, 2009, 7:01 am

I am in Compact space on Meetpoint Station with Chanur's Legacy by C.J. Cherryh.

8tropics
Edited: May 3, 2009, 8:08 pm

On a trawler off Thursday Island, northern Australia in The Bird Man And The Lap Dancer: Close Encounters With Strangers by Eric Hansen.

Eric's other wonderful books include Stranger In The Forest: On Foot Across Borneo, Motoring With Mohammed: Journeys In Yemen And The Red Sea and Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale Of Love, Lust, And Lunacy.

9janeajones
May 3, 2009, 12:10 pm

in 19th c. Mexico with C.M. Mayo's The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire and Brazil with The Diary of Helena Morley translated by Elizabeth Bishop.

10srubinstein
May 3, 2009, 3:20 pm

It's 1860 and I'm in Springfield Illinois with "Honest Abe" in Team of Rivals. If he was with us today, he would undoubtedly be a member of LT for Kearns Goodwin writes, "Everywhere he went, Lincoln carried a book with him."

11varielle
May 3, 2009, 3:28 pm

Hmm, perhaps he's been reincarnated as "you know who".

12DieFledermaus
Edited: May 3, 2009, 4:44 pm

I'm in Poland with Henryk Grynberg's The Jewish War and Victory and also one of the cities from the tree of life (no names given yet) in Dreams and Stones by Magdalena Tulli.

>10 srubinstein: - That could be an interesting thread - "What famous dead people would be on LT if they were alive today?"

13CarlosMcRey
May 5, 2009, 12:43 am

I'm either in Germany, Austria or the Czech Republic (the border is not well defined) with Danny, Howard and the rest in The Keep. I'm also on Duma Key in Sarasota County, on the Gulf Coast of Florida, with Edgar Freemantle.

14FicusFan
May 5, 2009, 7:06 am


I am in Gion in Japan with the non-fiction The Geisha of Gion (also known as Geisha: a Life) by Mineko Iwasaki.

15CD1am
May 5, 2009, 4:15 pm

I've been in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, helping with a murder investigation related to art theft. in Lie in the Dark. An excellent book.

My last stop was Teheran and a small town in Ireland, with three Iranian sisters who escape on the eve of revolution, eventually starting a Persian restaurant in the small Irish town, where one of the things they serve is Pomegranate Soup. As a bonus the book contains recipes at the start of each chapter.

16shawnd
May 5, 2009, 6:46 pm

I'm in Libya In The Country of Old Men with Hisham Matar. It's hot.

17abbottthomas
May 5, 2009, 8:17 pm

I'm not moving far from home but 3-4 decades back in time with When the lights went out: Britain in the Seventies - an Early Reviewers book.

18varielle
May 6, 2009, 10:11 am

I'm still in ancient Rome with Cicero arguing the case against that nasty, greedy old Verres in front of the curule chair and the very interested citizens of Rome in Robert Harris' Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome.

19wonderlake
May 8, 2009, 7:56 am

I am in present day Miami, Florida reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay. He keeps on mentioning that we're in Miami on what seems like every third page !

20FicusFan
May 8, 2009, 8:08 am


I am stationed on a dusty, backwater planet called Gobi with the Marines in The Clone Republic by Steven L. Kent.

21whymaggiemay
May 8, 2009, 7:13 pm

I've left Korea and West Virginia in Lark and Termite (fabulous) and have journeyed to England with A Spot of Bother. The book is fun, but not nearly as good.

22rebeccanyc
May 8, 2009, 7:17 pm

I'm in a fantastical version of pre-World War II Poland with Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass.

23thekoolaidmom
May 8, 2009, 9:13 pm

LOL... didn't realize there was a May thread for this... duh! I'll repost this here, that way I'll have this thread on my posts list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am trapped in some old theater with several writers in what we thought was going to be a safe and productive retreat. Two people have already died, including our jailer... he was the only person who knows where the keys are. Miss America has tried all the fire alarms, but nothing happened. The laundry facilities are out, sabotaged, as is the furnace. We're all hungry and trying to tell each other stories to take our minds off our grumbling tummies... As the food is running out, Director Denial's cat is edging closer to the "livestock" category...

The book is Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

24wosewoman
Edited: May 8, 2009, 11:05 pm

I am about to embark to the Shetland Islands with Ann Cleeves. I think we will be finding some Red Bones.

25CarlosMcRey
May 8, 2009, 11:38 pm

I'm in Sapukai, Paraguay in Roa Bastos' Hijo de hombre.

26tropics
May 9, 2009, 9:15 pm

In India, China and Africa in Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski.

27janeajones
May 10, 2009, 8:45 pm

I've recently left the Mexican Empire of Maximilian and Carlota and The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C.M Mayo and 12th c. England in The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin to land in present-day Poland with House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk. Her prose is lyrical and gorgeous!

28FicusFan
May 10, 2009, 10:35 pm


I am moving all over Europe, and the Middle East with The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva.

29eairo
May 11, 2009, 1:10 am

In London Underground with 253 others.

30TedWitham
May 11, 2009, 8:12 am

Around the world, but mainly in Australia with Charles Darwin, and the reaction to his work in Evolution in the Antipodes by naval historian Bishop Tom Frame.

31bojanfurst
May 11, 2009, 1:09 pm

Just finished Bosnia chronicle and moving on to the Island of Cape Breton on Canada's east coast.

32deebee1
May 11, 2009, 1:14 pm

> 31 bojan, how did you like Bosnia Chronicle? i read it recently and liked it even better than his better known novel The Bridge on the Drina.

33bojanfurst
May 11, 2009, 1:46 pm

>32 deebee1: Deebee, I really enjoyed it. I speak the language so I was able to read it in the original and it is exquisitely written. The characters are perfect and the complexity of the situation Andric is describing is unbelievable. Have you read Death and the Dervish? If you liked the Chronicle I think you will enjoy the Dervish as well. Very different writing style.

Bojan

34aarti
May 11, 2009, 1:52 pm

I'm on a small farm in Virginia with Barbara Kingsolver in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

35quillmenow
May 11, 2009, 2:52 pm

I'm in Baltimore, Maryland with Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist.

36wonderlake
May 12, 2009, 9:55 am

From sunny Miami, to chilly 1867 Canada - The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney.

37avaland
May 12, 2009, 2:43 pm

After visiting the future with Margaret Atwood, I returned to Morocco and Spain with Tahar Ben Jelloun's Leaving Tangier, but now I'm in Japan scribbling the factors of the number 220 with The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.

38thekoolaidmom
May 12, 2009, 3:22 pm

I'm currently in southern Germany learning about wildlife and fish hatcheries (presumably to know how to poison the food chain, I guess) in They Plotted Revenge Against America by Abe March.

39Nickelini
Edited: May 12, 2009, 5:20 pm

I'm about to leave for Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories in Late Nights on Air, by Elizabeth Hay. Although it's waay north, it's still well south of the Arctic Circle.

40cushlareads
May 15, 2009, 1:00 am

I'm Up the Junction in Battersea with Nell Dunn.

41DieFledermaus
May 15, 2009, 1:06 am

I'm wandering Warsaw in Nine with Andrzej Stasiuk and hitting multiple Latin American countries in The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories.

42wosewoman
May 15, 2009, 1:10 am

I'm back in London with Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid in Deborah Crombie's Where memories lie.

43TedWitham
May 15, 2009, 4:14 am

In a country town in 1960s Western Australia with teenaged narrator Charlie and his new friend Jasper Jones. Craig Silvey must have known the same places as me when I was growing up!

44ddelmoni
May 15, 2009, 10:44 am

I'm in Venice, Italy with The Glassblower of Murano.

45FicusFan
May 15, 2009, 10:53 am


I am in the Aegean in the Bronze age after the sack of Troy, looking for a new home with other survivors in the Black Ships by Jo Graham.

46SqueakyChu
May 15, 2009, 11:21 am

I'm in Barrington, Georgia, USA, watching a fire in What the Deaf-Mute Heard by G.D. Gearino.

47varielle
May 15, 2009, 2:16 pm

I'm in India visiting the Dalai Lama and exploring the link between Buddhism and Judaism in Stalking Elijah.

48abbottthomas
May 15, 2009, 2:40 pm

Back in the bayou with 'Streak' Robicheaux andHeaven's Prisoners.

Why he can't enjoy the fishing and his wife's company and leave his .45 in the drawer I'll nev...............

49detailmuse
May 19, 2009, 8:40 am

On the outside, I'm on a midwest road trip. Inside, I'm in China, completely engaged in an audiobook of The Good Earth. Which makes it all the more frustrating that disc 4 (of 9) skips so badly it's un-listenable. A bibliomergency!

50SqueakyChu
May 20, 2009, 8:25 am

I'm in Casablanca, Morocco, in Secret Son by Laila Lalami. I just found out some distrubing news from my mother.

51hemlokgang
May 20, 2009, 9:04 am

I am in an obscure coastal village of England learning about Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson, and I am also in New York City rooting for the good guy in The Associate by John Grisham.

52srubinstein
May 20, 2009, 10:40 am

It's 1860 and I'm still in Springfield Illinois with Abe and Mary Lincoln where he is choosing his Cabinet after being elected President Team of Rivals but I've also ventured into Manchuria around 1937-38 with three generations of Chinese women in Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

53FicusFan
May 20, 2009, 11:19 am

I am in modern day London, but will soon be heading to a remote village with a hellish country house, looking for a missing doctor's wife, in How the Dead Live by Derek Raymond

54catarina1
May 20, 2009, 3:54 pm

I am being entertained in China by Susan Jane Gilman's Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven and understand why I prefer to travel alone.

55avaland
May 22, 2009, 4:13 pm

I've left Japan and am now in WWII era Oklahoma, USA with Four Freedoms by John Crowley. I'm also in various rural areas of the US with By the North Gate, a short fiction collection circa the 1960s, by Joyce Carol Oates.

56MissTeacher
May 22, 2009, 6:49 pm

I'm still in North Carolina in two ways--one physically, and one with the reconstructed Fraser clan in Drums of Autumn.

57thekoolaidmom
May 22, 2009, 9:35 pm

Well, I just left London Below in Neverwhere. And I've been to London, the Kingdom of Dreams, and even went to Hell to fight a demon to get my stuff back in The Sandman : Preludes and Nocturnes, the first installment of Gaiman's graphic novel series.

58CarlosMcRey
Edited: May 22, 2009, 10:41 pm

I'm in Rome and Vatican City with all the various goings-on of Angels and Demons and in the San Luis Province of Argentina in Homenaje a los Maestros de San Luis que Respondieron a la Encuesta de Folklore de 1921. I'll soon be heading into Poland with Cossacks as part of the Red Cavalry section of The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel.

59TedWitham
May 22, 2009, 10:57 pm

I'm dashing from Washington to London to Bahrain on a mission to save the world from the sting of The Scorpion's Gate

60detailmuse
May 23, 2009, 10:48 am

I've just left a tiny, dying Mexican town -- no one left there except women and old men, everyone else has left to find work elsewhere -- and am on a quest Into the Beautiful North of the USA, to find some men (a la The Magnificent Seven) to bring back to protect -- and re-populate :) -- the town.

61streamsong
May 23, 2009, 12:00 pm

I'm in France with Renee, hiding her rich intellectual life behind what she feels a typical concierge should be, while 12 year old tenant Paloma leads an interestingly parallel life as she hides behind her stereoptypical visiion of what a typical preteen should be. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is an elegant and somewhat prickly read; I'm hurrying through it for my real life bookclub on Thursday.

62Cloud9
May 23, 2009, 1:47 pm

I'm in post war Italy in a Villa in Tuscany with a mysterious Renaissance garden and a possibly a murder in Mark Mills' The Savage Garden - the plot is gathering pace.

63thekoolaidmom
May 23, 2009, 8:32 pm

I'm in San Francisco, getting used to being a vampire and looking for a new minion. My first "snack," embarrassingly, was a nibble on the neck of a freshly-shaved 36-pound cat.

Relax! I didn't kill him, and I gave him a sweater...

I'm reading You Suck by Christopher Moore, my first experience with this author.

64FicusFan
May 23, 2009, 9:27 pm

I am in NYC with Angels, Vampires and a Vampire Hunter who tracks runaway vampires and returns them to their masters, the angels. With Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh.

65MissTeacher
May 23, 2009, 10:57 pm

Enjoy your drunkard and your cat, koolaid!

66quartzite
May 24, 2009, 4:40 am

I'm in Saskatchewan, Canada in a mystery Deadly Appearances by Gail Bowen.

67charbutton
May 24, 2009, 5:50 am

I'm in Ethiopia reading tales of Haile Sellaise's rule told by his staff to Ryszard Kapuscinski and recorded in The Emperor.

68weaponxgirl
May 25, 2009, 2:43 pm

iv decided to go to latin america with "the war of don emanuels nether parts by louis de bernieres."

69FicusFan
May 25, 2009, 6:47 pm


I am in Mesopotamia about 5600 years ago in The Last Warrior Queen by Mary Mackey.

70SqueakyChu
Edited: May 26, 2009, 8:21 am

I live in Georgia, but I have decided to go to New York in search of my grandmother in Counting Coup by G. D. Gearino.

71teelgee
May 26, 2009, 9:00 am

I'm traveling between New York City, Dumfries, Scotland and Naxos, a Greek Island over the course of Three Junes.

72ddelmoni
May 26, 2009, 9:40 am

I'm in Palm Beach, Florida (so far) in Gold of Kings and Pisa, Padua and Florence, Italy in Galileo's Daughter, having just left Venice in The Glassblower of Murano.

73MissDotty
May 26, 2009, 9:48 am

I am in Kenya travelling with The Camel Bookmobile.

74CD1am
May 26, 2009, 4:06 pm

I'm in 1910 Paris with Perdita at the Conservatoire as she agonizes over what to do about her love for Reisdan in The Knowledge of Water.

75MissTeacher
May 26, 2009, 5:25 pm

I've left 1770's Fraser's Ridge, NC, and have scootched across the country to San Francisco in Bloodsucking Fiends.

76rebeccanyc
May 26, 2009, 5:43 pm

I am about to leave 1928 Berlin, as I am about to leave Berlin Alexanderplatz.

77hemlokgang
May 26, 2009, 7:01 pm

I am in the Phillipines in a Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson, and also in Germany with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

78thekoolaidmom
May 26, 2009, 7:53 pm

#77 hemlokgang, I'm sooo jealous! You're reading The Book Thief for the first time. I loved it!

As for my reading, I'm in Sumas, Washington, just a couple miles from the Canadian border, and I've just slipped down the trap door of a tunnel that leads to UnderEarth. I'm following two strangers who went medieval on some mutant-gorilla-with-claws, then snuck off.

I'm reading Goblins! An UnderEarth Adventure by Royce Buckingham. ( I'm also giving away a copy In the Shadow of Mt. TBR )

79Nickelini
May 26, 2009, 9:45 pm

Wow, there's a book set in Sumas? How obscure, yet still in my neighborhood. I must track that one down.

80CarlosMcRey
Edited: May 27, 2009, 2:35 am

Left the wacky hijinks of Rome and Vatican City in Angels and Demons for the sunny beaches of Duma Key, Florida. I'm also spending some time with the Red Cavalry in Poland with Isaac Babel.

81shawnd
May 27, 2009, 9:40 am

Just left Egypt in Being Abbas el Abd and now feeling more satisfied in Nigeria reading I Do Not Come to You by Chance.

82tropics
May 27, 2009, 10:39 am

In Anatolia with John Ash in A Byzantine Journey

83eairo
May 27, 2009, 4:21 pm

I am in 17th century Oxford, two parts into An Instance of The Fingerpost. I think I'll take a break go for a tour to see how The Third Policeman does his work. I will return to Oxford for two more parts.

84arubabookwoman
May 28, 2009, 12:40 am

I'm in Ipoh, Malaysia with Evening Is The Whole Day and enjoying every minute.

85MissDotty
Edited: May 28, 2009, 1:10 am

Just finished living in Iowa with a cat called Dewey and am now in the Himalayas with Michael Palin.

86abbottthomas
May 28, 2009, 5:13 am

I'm on a Bakerloo line train in the London Underground between Embankment and Elephant and Castle stations checking out my fellow passengers with 253 by Geoff Ryman.

87eairo
May 28, 2009, 6:11 am

re 86: I hope you'll enjoy the ride like I did.

88MissDotty
May 28, 2009, 6:30 am

>86 abbottthomas: and 87 I had to look this up but wow it looks great, now dutifully added to my wishlist!

89whymaggiemay
Edited: May 29, 2009, 4:11 pm

I'm in the guise of a sparrow and sitting on a windowsill in London trying to discover a plot unfolding in Ptolemy's Gate and in Baltimore, Maryland about to contact my mother's cousin to see what she may know about my Aunt, Annie in Annie's Ghosts (touchstone wrong).

90abbottthomas
May 28, 2009, 6:39 pm

>87 eairo: I liked your post #63 you linked there - it would have been good to see it as a review, permanently attached to the work: I would have given it the 'thumbs up'.

91eairo
May 29, 2009, 6:26 am

re 90: It is usually my intention to do that but most times I think that some editing is needed to turn a forum post to a review. I always think I'll do it some day soon but that day has not yet come. But I'll try...

92januaryw
May 30, 2009, 1:56 am

I just left India with my friend the murderer in White Tiger and now I am in Romania with a new nonfiction book called: Bread, Salt and Plum Brandy by an American who served there as a Peace Corps volunteer.

93lilisin
May 30, 2009, 4:05 am

I am in feudal Japan with the future Taiko. We will be roaming the battlefields into June for sure. :)

94FicusFan
May 30, 2009, 7:35 am

I decided to start Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. It is translated and is about a young man who has been away in the west (UK) being educated and living a western life. He comes back to his home, a small village in Sudan and tries to reconcile who he is, with what he learned, and still fit in as an authentic Sudanese person and not a sad western copy.

95lkernagh
May 30, 2009, 11:18 am

I was in 12th century England trying to discover who had murdered King Henry II's mistress in The Serpent's Tale and I am now heading for a small town in Ontario in the 1980's where an eight year old girl has disappeared in is/was by Jenny Sampirisi - touchstone not working.

96teelgee
May 30, 2009, 12:04 pm

I'm moving between the outskirts of Nagasaki a few years after the atomic bomb, and somewhere near London 30-ish years (?) later in A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro.

97tropics
Jun 2, 2009, 11:25 am

I'm in a small village in occupied France 1942 in Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

98MissTeacher
Jun 7, 2009, 5:37 pm

I'm in Britain with crotchety old King Lear and his Fool.

99tropics
Edited: Jun 7, 2009, 7:26 pm

Wandering, lost and hungry, through 16th century North America in A Voyage Long And Strange: Rediscovering The New World - Tony Horwitz

100teelgee
Edited: Jun 7, 2009, 9:00 pm

99: wandering lost in the previous month too! The June thread is up here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/65853#1313850 :o)