Around the World discussion

My main goal for 2016 is to finish reading a book from every country in Africa. I have a working list of countries I have left with book options available to me from my own shelves or the statewide academic library consortium. I welcome any suggestions!

First of 2016, and not planned, just sounded interesting on the shelf!

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli, set in Mexico and translated from the Spanish. It is the story of an auctioneer named Gustavo Sanchez Sanchez, and is under 200 pages. My review is here.

Two of 2016 - one of my picks for Uganda, the first African country I'm visiting. The book is The Gravity of Sunlight by Rosa Shand, set in Uganda just as Idi Amin is taking control, from the perspective of an American living with her husband, teaching at a school. More than anything it is about relationships, fidelity, and the clash of cultures. My review is here.

Three of 2016 - as if I needed anything else set in France! But sometimes your book club decides for you, and in this case it is a historical account, a biography of sorts, of the Widow Clicquot and also the wine empire Clicquot. Not very interesting to me at all but does span quite a long time period in French history.
Book - The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It
My Review

Impressive Jenny - you are rocking right into 2016! :-)

Interesting pick for Uganda, I recently read All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu (sorry no ability to link currently) which is also a novel of departures, although in this case it is of a village boy with academic aspirations and what happens to him in the two countries he travels to. It is insightful and invites many questions as to the historical and political background, so much that we know little of.

Your Uganda read has cemented itself to my TBR.

Rusalka wrote: "Your Uganda read has cemented itself to my TBR."
Let me know what you think!

Claire wrote: "Interesting pick for Uganda, I recently read All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu (sorry no ability to link currently) which is also a novel of departures, although in this case it is of a village boy w..."

Oh I've heard of that one. I also have Thirty Girls on my stack, which is set two or three decades after the Shand, and I'm expecting a lot of difference between the two.

Book 4 of 2016, and I think I just read this one on a whim. It is set in Nigeria and I've read plenty of books set there, just never books about ocean aliens in modern day Lagos. Heh.

Book: Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
My review: here

Book 5 of 2016, should I even count something else from Italy, but maybe you need a suggestion of a quick read!

Book: Like Family by Paolo Giordano
My review: here

Book 6 of 2016, one of the first books to come from the official Republic of South Sudan - There Is a Country: New Fiction from the New Nation of South Sudan. My review discusses what I learned and what I think may be missing.

Book 7 of 2016, which I have a review copy of so it's not out quite yet - Forty Rooms, for Russia, translated from Russian. It is the story of a woman told through the rooms she inhabits and I thought it was beautiful - the experimental structure didn't inhibit the story and there are many layers about being a woman, embracing a calling or creative venture, who decides who we are, etc. My review is here.

Book 8 of 2016, another from South Sudan but published before it was officially a country - Beyond the River Yei: Life in the Land Where Sleeping Is a Disease. This book is out of print and I had to get it through interlibrary loan. My review includes more information about the current state of sleeping sickness in middle and eastern Africa.

So I stopped posting after book 8, in January, whoops. So I will just make a list of what I read in 2016, alphabetical by country. You can see the entire list from 2012 onward here (it doesn't fit in a Goodreads box!)

Algeria –
The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud

Angola
A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Antartica
Ice Diaries: An Antarctic Memoir by Jean McNeil
My Last Continent by Midge Raymond

Australia
Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
Walking on Trampolines by Francis Whiting

Austria
A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler

Barbados
Sugar in the Blood by Andrea Stuart

Belarus
The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach

Cabo Verde (Cape Verde)
Historia, Historia by Eleanor Stanford

Cameroon
Mystique: A Collection of Lake Myths by Beatrice Bime

China
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

Congo Demo. Rep. of the
Congo Republic of the
Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou

Cuba
Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce Maria Loynaz

Denmark
One of Us is Sleeping by Josefine Klougart

Ecuador
The Potbellied Virgin by Alicia Cossio Yanez
Enchanted Islands by Allison Amend

Egypt
The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz

France
Front Seat Passenger by Pascal Garnier
The Island of Books by Dominique Fortier
The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages by Sophie Hardach
The Velvet Hours by Alyson Richman
The 6:41 to Paris by Jean-Philippe Blondel

Ghana
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Greece
The Seventh Elephant by Alexis Stamatis

Hungary
The Door by Magda Szabo

Iceland
Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjon

Indonesia
Black Water by Louise Doughty

Ireland
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney

Israel
Some Day by Shemi Zarhin

Italy
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
Siracusa by Delia Ephron

Japan
Super Sushi Ramen Express by Michael Booth

Kenya
The Book of Secrets by M.J. Vassanji

Korea-South
Human Acts by Han Kang
The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Mali
The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu by Kira Salak
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer
Walking with Abel by Anna Badkhen

Mexico
The Story of My Teeth by Valerie Lusieli

Mozambique
The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy by Paulina Chiziane

Myanmar/Burma
The Elephant Company by Vicki Croke

New Zealand
Into the River by Ted Dawe
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

Nigeria
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

Reunion Island (French Territory)
Indiana by George Sand

Russia
Forty Rooms by Olga Grushin
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Memories: From Russia to the Black Sea by Teffi

Rwanda
Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga
Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga

Senegal
Xala by Ousmane Sembene

Spain
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

Sudan
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

Sudan, South
Beyond the River Yei
There is a Country: New Fiction from the New Nation of South Sudan

Swaziland
When Hoopoes Go to Heaven by Gaile Parkin

Tanzania
Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar by Emily Ruete

Uganda
The Gravity of Sunlight by Rosa Shand
Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji
All Our Names by Dinew Mengestu
Thirty Girls by Susan Minot

Vietnam
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War

Zimbabwe
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "So I stopped posting after book 8, in January, whoops. So I will just make a list of what I read in 2016, alphabetical by country. You can see the entire list from 2012 onward here (it doesn't fit ..."

Uuuhhhh, fantastic list Jenny - thanks! A great resource - will definitely be stealing from it for sure. Impressive!