= Excellent
= Good/Very Good
= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
Archive for July 27th, 2007
Friday, July 27th, 2007SOUTH AMERICA - Reading The World
South America
Countries read are in bold blue
Potential books to be read are listed below each country. Books read are in red. An asterisk (*) indicates books I own but have not read yet.
1. Argentina (Buenos Aires)
- A Secret for Julia, by Patricia Sagastizabal
2. Bolivia (Sucre)
- The Fat Man From La Paz: Contemporary Fiction from Bolivia, by Rosario Santos
3. Brazil (Brasilia)
- The Alchemist, by Paulo Coehlo (finished 15 June 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- The War of the End of the World, by Mario Vargas Llosa
4. Chile (Santiago)
- Memoirs, by Pablo Neruda
- The House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende
5. Colombia (Bogota)
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
6. Ecuador (Quito)
- The Amnesia Clinic, by James Scudamore
- Huasipungo (aka: The Villagers), by Jorge Icaza
7. Guyana (Georgetown)
8. Paraguay (Asuncion)
- At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig, by John Gimlette
9. Peru (Lima)
- Conversation in the Cathedral, by Mario Vargas Llosa*
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (finished 23 December 2007; rated 3/5; read my review)
10. Suriname (Paramaribo)
- Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice, by Mark Plotkin
11. Uruguay (Montevideo)
- Let the Wind Speak, by Juan Carlos Onetti
12. Venezuela (Caracas)
- The Lady, The Chef, and The Courtesan, by Marisol
NORTH AMERICA - Reading The World
North America
Countries read are in bold blue
Potential books to be read are listed below each country. Books read are in red. An asterisk (*) indicates books I own but have not read yet.
1. Antigua and Barbuda (St. Johns)
- Annie John, by Jamaica Kincaid
2. Bahamas (Nassau)
3. Barbados (Bridgetown)
- In The Castle of My Skin, by George Lamming
4. Belize (Belmopan)
5. Canada (Ottawa)
- Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald (Finished 26 April 2007; set in Cape Breton Island; rated 4/5; read my review)
- Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood (finished 13 May 2007; rated 4.5/5; set in Toronto; read my review)
- The Outlander, by Gil Adamson (finished 27 December 2007; rated 5/5; set in Western Canada; read my review)
- The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney (finished 5 April 2008; rated 5/5; set in Ontario Canada; read my review)
- The Way the Crow Flies, by Ann-Marie MacDonald*
- The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, by Wayne Johnston (set in Newfoundland)
- Mercy Among the Children, by David Adams Richards (set in New Brunswick)
6. Costa Rica (San Jose)
7. Cuba (Havana)
- Dreaming in Cuba, by Christina Garcia
8. Dominica (Roseau)
- The Orchid House, by Phyllis Shad Allfrey
9. Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo)
- Feast of the Goat, by Mario Vargas Llosa*
- In The Time of Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez
10. El Salvador (San Salvador)
11. Grenada (St. George’s)
- Under the Silk Cotton Tree, by Jean Buffong
12. Guatemala (Guatemala City)
13. Haiti (Port-au-Prince)
- The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat
- Krik?Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
14. Honduras (Tegucigaipa)
- The Soccer War, by Ryszard Kapuscinski
15. Jamaica (Kingston)
- Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys
16. Mexico (Mexico City)
- Mexico, by James Michener*
- Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, by Hayden Herrera
- Consider This, Senora, by Harriet Doerr
17. Nicaragua (Managua)
- The Jaguar Smile, by Salman Rushdie
- The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War, by Gioconda Belli
18. Panama (Panama City)
19. Saint Kitts and Nevis (Basseterre)
20. Saint Lucia (Castries)
21. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Kingstown)
22. Trinidad and Tobago (Port-of-Spain)
- Chutney Power, by Willi Chen
- The Lonely Londoners, by Sam Selvon
23. United States (Washington D.C.)
- The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (finished 18 January 2007; rated 5/5; set in California; read my review)
- To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (finished 21 March 2007; rated 5/5; set in Alabama; read my review)
- Travels With Charley in Search of America, by John Steinbeck (finished 29 March 2007; rated 5/5; set in 1960s America; read my review)
- Summer Crossing, by Truman Capote (finished 21 July 2007; rated 4.5/5; set in New York City; read my review)
Friday, July 27th, 2007
AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA - Reading The World
Australia - Oceania
(click on map to enlarge)
Countries read are in bold blue
Potential books to be read are listed below each country. Books read are in red. An asterisk (*) indicates books I own but have not read yet.
1. Australia (Canberra)
- The True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey*
- The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville*
- The Secret River, by Kate Grenville (finished 13 October 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
2. Fiji (Suva)
3. Kiribati (Bairiki)
4. Marshall Islands (Majuro)
5. Micronesia (Palikir)
6. Nauru (no official capital)
7. New Zealand (Wellington)
- The Bone People, by Keri Hulme (finished 12 July 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- The Colour, by Rose Tremain (finished 25 August 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
8. Palau (Koror)
9. Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby)
- The White Mary, by Kira Salak (finished 16 July 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
- Throwim Way Leg, by Tim Flannery
10. Samoa (Apia)
- Where We Once Belonged, by Sia Figiel
11. Solomon Islands (Honiara)
12. Tonga (Nuku’alofa)
13. Tuvalu (Funafuti)
- The Happy Isles of Oceania, by Paul Theroux
14. Vanuatu (Port-Vila)
Friday, July 27th, 2007
ASIA - Reading The World
Asia
Countries read are in bold blue
Potential books to be read are listed below each country. Books read are in red. An asterisk (*) indicates books I own but have not read yet.
1. Afghanistan (Kabul)
- A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (finished 8 December 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (finished 13 June 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
2. Azerbaijan (Baku)
- Ali and Nino, by Kurban Said
3. Bahrain (Manama)
4. Bangladesh (Dhaka)
5. Bhutan (Thimphu)
6. Brune (Bander Seri Begawan)
7. Burma/Myanmar (Yangon)
- The Lizard Cage, by Karen Connelly*
- The Glass Palace, by Amitav Ghosh
8. Cambodia (Phnom Penh)
- Highways To A War, by Christopher J. Koch
- First They Killed My Father, by Loung Ung
9. China (Beijin)
- Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai Sijie (finished 8 January 2007; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
- Peony in Love, by Lisa See (finished 18 June 2007; rated 3.75/5; read my review)
- The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck (finished 28 November 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Wild Swans, by Jung Chang
- Oracle Bones, by Peter Hessler
10. Cyprus (Nicosia)
11. East Timor (Dili)
12. India (New Delhi)
- The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai (finished 16 March 2007; rated 4.25/5; read my review)
- The Space Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar (finished 21 April 2007; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
- The God of Small Things, by Arundhai Roy (finished 29 September 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, by Kiran Desai (finished 21 December 2007; rated 3/5; read my review)
- Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts*
13. Indonesia (Jakarta)
- This Earth of Mankind, by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
14. Iran (Tehran)
- Laughing Without An Accent, by Firoozeh Dumas (finished 17 May 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
- Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi*
- My Father’s Notebook, by Kader Abdolah
- Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora, by Persis M. Karim
- The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani
15. Iraq (Baghdad)
16. Israel (Jerusalem)
- A Woman in Jerusalem, by A.B. Yehoshua*
17. Japan (Tokyo)
- The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard (finished 8 August 2007; rated 4/5; read my review)
- Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden*
- Shipwrecks, by Akira Yoshimura
18. Jordan (Amman)
- A Beggar at Damascus Gate, by Yasmine Zahran
- Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir
19. Kazakstan (Astana)
20. Korea, North (Pyongyang)
- The Guest, by Hwang Sok-Yong
21. Korea, South (Seoul)
22. Kuwait (Kuwait City)
23. Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek)
24. Laos (Vientiane)
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman
25. Lebanon (Beirut)
- Gate of the Sun, by Elias Khoury*
26. Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)
27. Maldivs (Male)
28. Mongolia (Ulan Bator)
29. Nepal (Kathmandu)
30. Oman (Muscat)
31. Pakistan (Islamabad)
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid (finished 11 January 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
- When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, by Cecilia Manquerra Brainard
- Maps For Lost Lovers, by Nadeem Aslam32. Philippines (Manila)
33. Quatar (Doha)
34. Saudi Arabia (Riyadh)
35. Singapore (Singapore City)
36. Sri Lanka (Colombo)
37. Syria (Damascus)
- A Lake Beyond the Wind, by Yahya Yakhlif
38. Tajikistan (Dushanbe)
39. Tibet (Lhasa)
- The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiesson
40. Thailand (Bangkok)
41. Turkey (Ankara)
- The Flea Palace, by Elif Shafak (finished 15 June 2007; rated 2.5/5; read my review)
- Birds Without Wings, by Louis De Bernieres (finished 28 July 2007; rated 4/5; read my review)
- Bliss, by O.Z. Livaeli*
42. Turkmenistan (Ashgabat)
43. United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi)
44. Uzbekistan (Tashkent)
45. Vietnam (Hanoi)
- The Sorrow of War, by Bao Ninh
46. Yeman (Sana)
Friday, July 27th, 2007EUROPE - Reading The World
Europe
(click on map to enlarge)
Countries read are in bold blue
Potential books to be read are listed below each country. Books read are in red. An asterisk (*) indicates books I own but have not read yet.
1. Albania (Tirane)
- Broken April, by Ismail Kadare
2. Andorra (Andorra la Vella)
3. Armenia (Yerevan)
4. Austria (Vienna)
- The Fig Eater, by Jody Shield*
- The Terror of Ice and Darkness, by Christoph Ransmayr
5. Belarus (Minsk)
6. Belgium (Brussels)
- Summer in Termuren, by Louis Paul Boon
7. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo)
- The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway (finished 10 April 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
- People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (finished 4 July 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
8. Bulgaria (Sofia)
9. Cape Verde (Praia)
10. Croatia (Zagreb)
- Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West
- Cafe Europa, by Slavenka Drakulic
11. Czech Republic (Prague)
- Giraffe, by J.M. Ledgard
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
12. Denmark (Copenhagen)
- Music and Silence, by Rose Tremain (finished 09 October 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Leeway Cottage, by Beth Gutcheon*
- The Royal Physician’s Visit, by Per Olov Enquist
13. Estonia (Tallinn)
- The Czar’s Madman, by Jaan Kross
14. Finland (Helsinki)
- Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida (Lapland) (finished 30 September 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Seven Brothers, by Aleksis Kivi
15. France (Paris)
- Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky (finished 17 February 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay (finished 02 September 2008; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
- Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
16. Georgia (Tbilisi)
- Ali and Nino, by Kurban Said
17. Germany (Berlin)
- The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (finished 28 January 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- The Reader, by Bernhard Sclink
- Stones From The River, by Ursula Hegi*
- Paper Kisses: A True Love Story, by Reinhard Kaiser
18. Greece (Athens)
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis De Bernieres
19. Hungary (Budapest)
- Embers, by Sandor Marai (finished 30 March 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Fatelessness, by Kmre Kertesz
20. Iceland (Reykjavik)
- Independent People, by Halldor Laxness (finished 05 May 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- The Fish Can Sing, by Halldor Laxness
21. Ireland (Dublin)
- The Blackwater Lightship, by ColmToibin (finished 9 November 2007; rated 4/5; read my review)
- The Gathering, by Anne Enright (finished 9 March 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Silver Wedding, by Maeve Binchy*
- The Law of Dreams, by Peter Behrens
22. Italy (Rome)
- A Thousand Days in Tuscany, by Marlena De Blasi*
- The Almond Picker, by Simonetta Agnello Hornby
- The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
- The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
23. Latvia (Riga)
24. Liechtenstein (Vaduz)
25. Lithuania (Vilnius)
26. Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
27. Macedonia (Skopje)
- Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West
28. Malta (Valletta)
29. Moldova (Chisinau)
30. Monaco (Monaco)
- Anything Considered, by Peter Mayle
31. Montenegro (Podgorica)
32. Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague)
- The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank
33. Norway (Oslo)
- Giants in the Earth, by O.E. Rolvaag*
- Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder*
- In the Wake, by Per Peterson
- Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset
34. Poland (Warsaw)
- The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman (finished 12 May 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
- Anything by the author Ryszard Kapuscinski
- Nine, by Andrezej Stasiuk
35. Portugal (Lisbon)
- Alentejo Blue, by Monica Ali (finished 22 February 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
36. Romania (Bucharest)
- Land of Green Plums, by Herta Muller
- The Hooligan’s Return, by Norman Manea
37. Russia (Moscow)
- The Madonnas of Leningrad, by Debra Dean (finished 7 May 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak (finished 24 November 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- The Brothers Karmazov, by Fyodor Doestoevsky*
- A Russian Journal, by John Steinbeck*
- War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy*
38. San Marino (San Marino)
39. Serbia (Belgrade)
- Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andric
40. Slovakia (Bratislava)
- Zoli, by Colum McCann
41. Slovenia (Ljublijana)
- Veronika Decides To Die, by Paulo Coelho (finished 2 November 2007; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
42. Spain (Madrid)
- The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (finished 7 July 2007; rated 4.75/5; read my review)
- For Whom The Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway (finished 7 April 2007; rated 2.5/5; read my review)
- Guernia, by Dave Boling (finished 14 September 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
43. Sweden (Stockholm)
- Hanna’s Daughters, by Marianne Fredriksson*
- April Witch, by Majqull Axelsson
- Doctor Glas, by Hjalmar Soderberg
- The Princess of Burundi, by Kjell Eriksson*
44. Switzerland (Bern)
- Hotel Du Lac, by Anita Brookner (finished 22 July 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
45. Ukraine (Kiev)
- Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
46. United Kingdom (London)
- Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell (finished 26 March 2007; rated 5/5; set in England; read my review)
- Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes (finished 30 April 2007; rated 4/5; set in England; read my review)
- Old Filth, by Jane Gardam (finished 29 May 2007; rated 3.75/5; set in London and Wales; read my review)
- How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewelln (finished 15 August 2007; rated 5/5; set in South Wales; read my review)
- Resistance, by Owen Sheers (finished 6 March 2008; rated 4.5/5; set in Wales; read my review)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (finished 31 July 2008; rated 5/5; set on Guernsey in the Channel Islands; read my review)
47. Vatican City (na)