Where in the World are You Reading Now? pt 2

So where are you now? Feel free to share a bit about your current book and make sure to include the setting. Happy reading!

My first book for May was set in Iran, during and after the Revolution. It's a book of magic realism called The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar.

Thanks for setting up the new thread!

I've left Norway in La Soif by Jo Nesbø, a Harry Hole mystery, and I'm sharing my time between Canada (Québec) in Un café avec Marie by Serge Bouchard and the Southern States with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a series of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I'm in Bulgaria and Vienna seeking a Time Shelter with Georgi Gospodinov.

I'm in a parish in England with George Elio learning about Clerical Life.

I'm back from Southern Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe, in The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. Whereas most of the novel is set in England, there are key chapters in Africa that are intrinsic to the story, and were really my favourites.

I'm in New Zealand, reading Potiki by Patricia Grace.

I haven't read much this month but have covered some territory: Bulgaria, Iran, NYC, and most recently England with Persuasion and Ireland with Foster.

I am in Thailand, reading about the Thai upper class of the thirties in Les nobles by Dokmai Sot. And I've almost finished The mirror of my Heart, an anthology of Persian poetry by female poets from Iran or countries in the Persian cultural sphere of influence (in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan...)

Tanzania is in the throes of German colonialism in Afterlives.

I am in Eastern Texas in the throes of the Dustbowl in The Four Winds.

Have Remained in Paris but time-shifted. Was there for my last book earlier this century amongst Ivoirian immigrants with (Standing Heavy by GauZ, but have now shifted back just over a century to the city of Zola and La Curee (The Kill).

I am in Manchester, England, where the Jacobite rebellion is being fomented in Mask of Duplicity by Julia Brannan.

I'm hopping from the US to Sénégal in The Rooster Bar by John Grisham, and from the Dominican Republic to Sweden in Le Guerrier solitaire by Henning Mankell

Currently in Boston awaiting Saturnalia.

I'm touring France, first in Bretagne Sur la dalle, the latest by Fred Vargas, and now in Paris with recent Nobel-prize winner Annie Ernaux in Les Années, which is her autobiography.

I'm in 8th century Gaul. But I believe we will be going to Spain with the Saracen Storm.

Just finished up Enigmas of Spring by Brazilian novelist Joao Almino.

Somewhere in Northern England, I think Yorkshire, to serve the soldiers coffee and donuts. I am an Red Cross Clubmobile girl! Hope this Beantown Girl can make it to the continent!

Am currently in Virginia, USA, reading Demon Copperhead both for a book group, and for my tour of the American states.

I left Oklahoma and the Osage Nation in Killers of the Flower Moon and am now in Egypt with Woman at Point Zero.

I'm just coming back from Monaco in the charming Mémoires d'un tricheur by Sacha Guitry

I have returned to Holland after serving time in Bergen Belsen and try to take up where I left off in my fathers watch shop--biography of Corrie Ten Boom. The Watchmaker's Daughter by C.J. Archer

I seem to have developed Nervous Conditions after travelling in Zimbabwe with Tsitsi Dangarembga.

I am in Prague with Fingers of Rain!

Gave up on Demon Copperhead - very disappointing. Have now travelled across the Atlantic to Ghana, and am reading The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah. A distinct improvement on reading so far!

The Exploding View uncovered some of the racism in South Africa after apartheid had ended, and now I'm in a maternity/fever ward in Ireland during the 1918 pandemic with The Pull of the Stars.

I am in Argentina, where Elena knows, or suspects what happened to her dead daughter.

I'm leaving Japan in Niré by Aki Shimazaki to go to the Galapagos (my first time!) in Wish you were here by Jodi Picoult.

I enjoyed Niré because it is set in Yonago, a port on the Sea of Japan (North East of Hiroshima near the Daisen volcano). It presents a different lifestyle than the usual big city books.

>29 Cecilturtle: I've just wishlisted Niré :-)

I've just left the steppes of Kyrgyzstan (or a fairytale version of them) with Aventures merveilleuses sous terre et ailleurs de Er-Töshtük le géant des steppes and am now in the French-speaking canton of Valais in Switzerland, where Charles Ferdinand Ramuz describes a feud between German and French speakers in La séparation des races.

I stopped off in Malawi to see The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and then spent some time in This Other Eden on Malaga Island, Maine.

>30 Dilara86: I'm a big fan of Shimazaki: her books can be read in one sitting but they are delicate and full of feeling; it's a style I really enjoy.

I am now in NYC headed for Nice, France in Akin by Emma Donoghue.

Mostly in Great Britian, disrupting a terrorist plot. Disruption: Inside the Largest Counterterrorism Investigation in History

From Ghana to the UK for a book group read: reading Amy-Jane Beer's The Flow, about British rivers.

>35 Willoyd: The Flow won the 2023 Wainwright nature writing prize this week, I'm looking forward to reading it. I'm currently reading one of the other of this year's Wainwright-shortlisted books, Belonging: natural histories of place, identity and home by Amanda Thomson, which I already think is going to be my book of the year.

>36 Jackie_K: Yes, I saw that - one of the prizes I keep an eye on. It's been on my TBR shelf for a while, but it's actually a book group choice, partly because she's doing a talk at a local wildlife festival in October. The Thomson sounds instantly interesting. Im 2/3 the way through The Flow, and it's on already on my book of the year shortlist! Could be an interesting one this year!

I just left a Dayton, Tennessee, courtroom where I watched The Trial of the Century. I, Agnes Grey, am now a governess at Horton Lodge in Yorkshire.

I made a quick stop at the Midnight Library then returned to Guatemala to meet The Polish Boxer.

I'm on the island nation of Nauru, reading a small anthology of writing called Stories from Nauru. Slim, but fascinating. I'll be finished later tonight - it's barely an evening's volume of reading.

I'll be leaving Germany soon, Berlin and Munich, in The Scent of Secrets by Jane Thynne, a historical novel about an aborted plot against Hitler in 1938.

After the Polish Boxer, I travelled to Rwanda to visit Our Lady of the Nile, now I'm in New York City with Bellevue and Philadephia/Washington DC/Kentucky with Horse.

From Nauru, I went to Florida via Their Eyes Were Watching God, then on to a cruise ship travelling from New York to Buenos Aires in Chess Story, before travelling back to the US, in West Virginia this time, where I'm currently reading October Sky. All 3 books proving great reads!

After vising The Gardener of Baghdad I went to England with Elizabeth Gaskell on the Moors (and other places!).

>40 Willoyd: A book from Nauru is quite a find! May I asked how you were able to obtain it?

I'm currently in Samoa with Telesā: The Covenant Keeper by Lani Wendt Young.

This is a fantastical YA book in which a teenage american-samoan girl who was raised in the US comes to visit Samoa to learn about her mother who died when she was very young, and finds that her heritage is far more complicated than she imagined...

>45 chlorine:
I got it through abebooks from a dealer in California. Paid rather a lot for postage to the UK, making it perhaps the most expensive book per page I've ever bought (it's a very slim volume!), but it's rather compensated for by the sheer enjoyment/pleasure in having a book from that country on my shelves! I have to say, the Pacific Island nations has taken some planning and preparation, but I think I'm pretty much there now in terms of sorting out books to read. TBH, a couple of the small European nations (Monaco and Lichtenstein) proved rather more problematic in the end, and I'm having to brush up my language skills a bit to tackle them!

>46 Willoyd: Thanks for your answer and congrats on your progress on Pacific Island nations!

After finishing Bellevue, the history of a hospital in New York City, I travelled to 1917 France with Captaine Rosalie. Now I'm in Palestine and Israel with Apeirogon and Germany/Hungary/Poland with My Brother's Voice.

Now in Paris, in 1862, reading La Curee (The Kill) by Emile Zola. Too early to count for my world tour though, which I've limited to post-1920 books.

>49 Willoyd: La Curée was a good Zola for me, enjoy!
I'm currently in China at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th with Mémoires d'un eunuque dans la cité interdite (Memoirs of a eunuch in the forbidden city).

Time traveling between helping Devlin and Falco who can Trust No One and in Colossae with Paul of Tarsus visiting the Colossians.

I'm travelling the United States with Unsheltered by Barbara Kingslover in New Jersey and Dites-leur que je suis un homme by Ernest J, Gaines in Louisiana.

>50 chlorine:
About half way through and loving it! Although not part of my world tour, I am working my way through the Rougon-Macquart sequence, using the new Oxford World Classics translations, my French not good enough to appreciate and enjoy them (focusing those efforts on Maigret!). BTW, my French choice currently a toss-up between Life, A User's Manual and The Mandarins (partly because I have copies that I've been intending to read for a while!).

>53 Willoyd: I'm also reading (slowly) my way through the Rougon-Macquart series, in the recommended reading order listed on the wikipedia page. The next one for me will be Une page d'amour.

>54 chlorine:
That's the order I'm reading them in as well. As you will know, La Curee is only the third on the list, so early days, but have read both Au Bonheur des Dames and La Bete Humaine previously - I will read them again when I get there in the sequence. All been excellent (particularly enjoyed ABdD), and this is one of the best yet. (Yet to work out how to insert accented letters!).

I started an Early Reviewer book I received last week called Half a Cup of Sand and Sky. So far it's excellent. It's set in Tehran during the Iranian Revolution.

I’m in France looking for my beau in A Very Long Engagement.

>57 varielle:
Loved that book, even on reread.

>55 Willoyd: Au bonheur des dames is very famous among the Rougon-Macquart and one of the few that ends well.
My reading order is a bit of a mess as I started reading them in publication order the switched to the recommended order. Also I read a few when I was in high-school, but will re-read them (and I'm looking forward to it). My favorite from that time were Nana and L'assomoir.

I've been to war-torn Poland in Ces enfants d'ailleurs (spans 1938-1950) by Arlette Cousture and Canada where the remaining family immigrates. Cousture is known for her sagas: very plot focused with superficial character development but the writing is solid. I'm enjoying this first tome, but not enough to read to read the second which will follow the characters in Manitoba and Québec.

Just finished a visit to Nevada (as part of my tour of the United States) with Walter Van Tilburg Clark's The Ox-Bow Incident. Far, far better than expected!

I spent some time in Australia with Five Bells and am now in Kenya with The House of Rust.

I'm in Algeria reading Meursault, contre-enquête by Kamel Daoud which is an answer to Camus' L'étranger (The stranger) but I'm struggling to make sense of it.

Currently coming to the end of a trip to Pakistan, reading Jamil Ahmad's The Wandering Falcon, mostly set in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

>64 Willoyd: Although it was clear that the author wasn't a professional writer, I loved this one.

>65 labfs39:
Yes, so did I: there's a clariy of writing, and an empathy with what and who he's writing about that I found addictive. It left me wanting more, which is unusual in a novel (even one told in short stories, like this).

I started Ten Years of the Caine Prize for African Writing with "The Ultimate Safari" by Nadine Gordimer, a South African Nobel Laureate. This story was set in Mozambique.

I'm up in Scotland in When Will There be Good News by Kate Atkinson. It's quite morbid (as the title implies) but the writing is wry so it makes the story bearable. It's fun to see how all the bits of plot are coming together.

In the midst of Oxfordshire, England at the turn of the 19th/20th century: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

>69 Willoyd: That's my book club selection for December. I hope it's a good one.

>70 labfs39:
I'm actually really enjoying it - about one-third way through. Not great 'literature' (but it's not designed to be), but a well-told story, and I love the premise. Indeed, it's worming its way nicely under my skin.

I've just left a small village in Iceland in Sigló by Ragnar Jónasson to land in 18th century in South Korea The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble.

I read State of Emergency by Jeremy Tiang. Excellent novel following a family from 1940s to the present in Singapore and Malaysia.

Still in Oxford, as now reading Sarah Ogilvie's The Dictionary People as a factual follow-up to The Dictionary Of Lost Words. Popping over to Belgium every now and again as also reading Bart Van Loo's The Burgundians - really interesting.

I'm now in England bound for New South Wales aboard The Floating Brothel.

I am in Ancient Greece, Song for Achilles but longing for more modern times. I’m interrupting it for short trips to modern America and France with Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, preferring jeans to tunics.plus other modern amenities.

After a quick jaunt through Oxford, England with Dictionary of Lost Words, I'm in Senegal reading So Long a Letter.

I'm reading an international YA thriller, La Conspiration by Maggie Hall. So far, I've been to the USA, France and Turkey. I suspect I'll be whisked to a bunch of other countries before the 400 pages are up. We'll see where I land.

I stayed in Senegal for a second book, the excellent, but brutal, At Night All Blood is Black.

I started the new year in Japan's Old Capital, Kyoto, and am now in WWII Germany anxiously reading The Seventh Cross. When it gets too much, I switch to a schooner in the Atlantic with the old sailor, Peter Duck.

I'm in Louisiana with The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice; once you get past the stylistic flourishes, it's actually quite an interesting piece of historical fiction about the mixed-raced French nobles, right after the Louisiana Purchase.

I've also started the les contes des mille et une nuit (One Thousand Nights), volume 1 anyway, which I'll slowly be reading throughout the year. This will have me travelling throughout the orient, from the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Iran and to the borders of India. So far I'm loving the mix of prose and poetry and very colourful, magical stories.

I’m back in Germany after a 55 year stopover in the US. Somehow I keep going back to Germany, a country I had avoided in my travel years. Now I’m back with Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch. It a fun read.

Chekhov just moved from his hometown of Taganrog to Moscow and is starting to make a name for himself as a humorist in this engaging biography.

After witnessing Changes in Ghana, I am now with Beka Lamb in Belize.

>82 kjuliff: Now I’m back with Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch.
I read this, then read Ulinka Rublack's book The Astronomer and the Witch, upon which this is based. Found the latter fascinating - a really good read.

I am in Kyrgyzstan, saying Farewell Gulsary.

While visiting a barge-bookstore (so cool!) in Paris, I discovered a publishing house called Histoires jamais entendues. They are all short stories written by an author from his/her country as if she or he had overheard the story in a pub/tea house/sake bar, etc. So far there are 5 countries published: Japan and Nepal which I am currently reading; I also have Ireland, Spain and Brazil. There another 12 countries planned from Canada, to Russia and the Canary Islands.

Histoires jamais entendues dans un sushi bar au Japon by Masayo Kokonoke
Histoires jamais entendues dans une maison de thé du Népal by Sherpa Yeh Peh

>87 Cecilturtle: These sound so interesting. I wish they were also available in English translation. I'm not sure my French is up to it. I guess I could try one...

>88 labfs39: They are short, less than 200 pages, and each story only a few pages long. If you speak French it may be a good way to practice :)

I'm currently at the birth of the Soviet Union, in Ten Days that Shook the World.

Although I'm still meandering through Chekhov's Russian short stories, I am now also in Greece with Patroclus in The Song of Achilles.

>91 labfs39: I’m in Paris in 1941 seeing the bourgeoisie writ large.

I'm in the middle of a literal bloodbath right now, whilst three are battling for control of of a temple site, that will become known as Stonehenge.

I have finished Maximum City Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta which I really recommend. Mehta does a fantastic job of describing the streets, layers and multitudes of Bombay.

I’ve gone to Mars. It’s a refreshing change. Lots of misogynists and sexists. A spaceship called “Woke” is on its way so we may repent. Yes even the blacks and the women. We await their arrival in two years time. Meanwhile we are living it up, experimenting with time. If we can’t change, may be we can change time.

I'm awaiting Death in Rome.

After leaving Greece, I went to an extragalactic moon with Murderbot; then to Hidden Valley Road, Colorado; to Palestine obsessed with a Minor Detail; and finally from England to the Caribbean on a schooner with Peter Duck. Now I'm off to Africa to search for the source of the Nile, River of the Gods.

After seeking Death in Rome, I am learning that death is a Human Matter in Guatemala.

I am touring Japan looking for Le roi des gyozas (The king of gyozas) but I might leave early as it is not grabbing me, and just stay in New Zealand with Remember me : Poems to Learn by Heart from Aotearoa New-Zealand. I am also paying short, occasional visits to Afghanistan with an anthology called A thousand Golden Cities, which I dip in in between novels.

I've just come back from a moving experience in L'Énigme du retour by Dany Laferrière where I toured the Haitian countryside.

>98 ELiz_M: On my way to East Africa, I made a quick detour to the Morisaki Bookshop in Japan.

I’m in the Netherlands in The Discomfort of Evening

I spent some time with Man in Montreal, with flashbacks to Vietnam.

I spent a lovely time in Kazakhstan with The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years and now I'm headed to Hanoi in My Vietnam, Your Vietnam.

I'm in a Chinese reeducation camp eating Grass Soup.

I'm listening to the Confessions of a Mask in Japan.

I'm in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake with What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam Chancy - very powerful and beautifully written. I enjoy the Creole and French peppered in.

I also travelled between France and Japan in Suite inoubliable by the Japanese writer Akira Mizubayashi who writes in French. It's a story about 3 generations, from World War II to the present, united by a cello and a love of Bach. I really wanted to like the story but I found the character development lacking.

After Grass Soup I read two more memoirs of 1960s China: Red Scarf Girl and Feather in the Storm. I'm now reading the experimental novel based on the author's experiences as an "educated youth" sent down to the hinterlands during the Cultural Revolution called A Dictionary of Maqiao.

I've already more than completed the Romania leg of this challenge, but I am back there (my happy place) reading Dan Perjovschi: The Horizontal Newspaper by Gloria Luca, about an evolving artwork on a large public wall in the city of Sibiu.

I interrupted my reading about China with Apeirogon, a novel based on the true stories of a Palestinian and an Israeli, both of whom lost a daughter to violence. Then I read A Faraway Island, a YA novel about two sisters who are refugees in Sweden during the Holocaust.

I finished Half of Man is Woman, a Chinese novel set in the hinterlands during the Cultural Revolution, and am now reading the second book in the Faraway Island series, set in Sweden during WWII.