In this post are two shorter reviews of books that are set in other countries that I highly recommend. Both provided two things I love: rich historical detail and strong, interesting characters. Both are also set in places I’ve visited: Budapest and Pompeii. The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper Recommended by Lory at Entering the…
I loved this memoir about Coleman’s time working in a wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia. It was completely different from anything I’ve read before, and I enjoy reading about people who do things that I’ll never have the courage to do. In her early twenties, Coleman quit her job in England and backpacked around Bolivia. Wanting to do…
On the last day of the year, I’m thinking about reading challenges and my reading this year. I haven’t decided what challenges I’ll do in 2022, whether I’ll continue the ones below or start something new. 2020 and 2021 have given me reason to pause and think about why I participate in reading challenges. As…
I don’t always read as many books from other countries as I’d like, and I often find reading translated works challenging. This summer and fall I read quite a few books set in other countries, so I wanted to share these mini-reviews. I try to read books that are by authors that are from those…
The first time I heard about this book, I was struck by how much it sounded like my own family. Neumann grew up in Venezuela, but her father was born in Czechoslovakia. He survived the Holocaust but never talked about it, and she grew up not knowing any of his family, except for her father’s…
At the beginning of 2020 I focused on four challenges: Read Harder, Reading Nonfiction, Reading Around the World, and reading books I already owned. My goal in January was to keep things a little simpler. And then 2020 happened. I ended up reading a lot more for comfort this year, but still read a lot…
Every year I try to read as many books as possible that are set in other countries. I keep track of each new country read as part of the five-year Reading Around the World challenge. And I joined a book club that reads books by women authors from other countries. In 2020 (so far) I…
I had to think this year about how many challenges to take on. Too many and you make reading too stressful. And yet there are so many I’d like to participate in. My husband “challenged” me to limit myself to three, which I’m not going to do — but I have streamlined a bit. As…
This year I’m going to avoid signing up for any new challenges, but will continue with the ones I enjoyed most last year. The TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by Roof Beam Reader, asks you to take 12 books, plus two alternates, that have been on your TBR list for over a year. I often find…
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is about favorite books set in another country. I’ve been reading a lot of books set outside the U.S., so this was a perfect topic to think about. The books I’ve listed here are books that aren’t just set in another country but are…
The Sympathizer is a first novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, which won last year’s Pulitzer Prize for literature. It’s a fascinating look at the Vietnam War and its aftermath from the perspective of the Vietnamese. Right away it makes you realize how much Americans only see the Vietnam War from our own perspective, not those…
This was a really interesting novel about a real-life serial killer in Scotland in the 1950’s. I say interesting because it wasn’t quite like anything else I’ve read. It’s not a mystery or a thriller, or a true crime novel. It’s a little closer to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, although I hesitate to compare…
The Book Stop 