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)
- The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga (finished 03 January 2009; rated 4/5; 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)
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi (finished 27 December 2009; rated 4/5; read my review)
- Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, by Marjane Satrapi (finished 28 December 2009; rated 4.5/5; 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)
- A Thousand Veils, by D.J. Murphy (finished 13 June 2009; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
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)
- Finding Nouf, by Zoe Ferraris (finished 24 July 2009; rated 4/5; read my review)
35. Singapore (Singapore City)
36. Sri Lanka (Colombo)
- A Disobedient Girl, by Ru Freeman (finished 28 September 2009; rated 5/5; read my review)
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)
= Excellent
= Good/Very Good
= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
So I just quickly browsed through this list. About a year ago my then 12yo brother in law stayed with hubby and I for a week or two and we put up maps of the US and world as we were “teaching” him. Anyway, I was reading a lot of world literature then and really wanted to put pins into the cities where I was “visiting.” I never did, but this challenge makes me think of that. It would be great to keep track, but I’m not sure if I would call mine a challenge (maybe just an endeavor).
Anyway, great book for India is “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie.
Good luck!
Whether you want to call it an endeavor or a challenge, it is definitely fun to do, Trish! Thanks for the recommendation on an Indian read
Terrific challenge, Wendy. Many of those titles sound
so intriguing. I look forward to reading your thoughts about the ones you choose to read.
Thanks for stopping by! I’m excited to read from this list
I can suggest one for the Philippines:
Tess Uriza Holthe, _When the Elephants Dance_ (Penguin 2003)
Oh, and Sri Lanka:
Karen Roberts, _The Flower Boy_ (Random House 2000).
I read the Holthe and liked it very much. The Roberts is on my TBR shelf–it’s pretty though!
Penny, Thank you for your wonderful suggestions! I will add them to the list of possibles
Awesome Asia list! I can highly, highly recommend Toer’s This Earth of Mankind. I just finished it, and am ready to hunt down Child of All Nations. Since you’ve read Midnight’s Children, I guess you can add Rushdie to India. Thoughts for other books would be Colin Cotterill’s The Coroner’s Lunch, an odd but fun mystery set in 1970’s Laos; Orhan Pamuk’s Snow or My Name is Red for Turkey; and Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore for Japan. Your list has given me ideas for other books I need to be getting to this year!
Mome Rath: You have some interesting recommendations – thank you so much!