Around the World discussion

Dear fellow readers,
I really enjoy books in which the characters explore their history and relationships through traveling to a variety of places, such as Three weeks with my brother by Nicholas Sparks and Traveling with pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd. Would you please recommend other books that are like this. Thank you!

Hi Aleks - The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca, Tea & Bee's Milk: Our Year in a Turkish Village and The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France come to mind. The books don't necessarily focus on people's relationships per se, but overall on travel/living in a different country by families/couples that has impact on their lives. Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but take a gander.

Hello Aleks. You could try Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time.

Mansa wrote: "Hello Aleks. You could try Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time."
I would recommend following that one with Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way... just to know that much of the original has been demonstrated as non-factual. It's a nice story, but was presented as non-fiction.

Aleks wrote: "Dear fellow readers,
I really enjoy books in which the characters explore their history and relationships through traveling to a variety of places, such as Three weeks with my brother by Nicholas ..."

I was remembering The Book of Wanderings: A Mother-Daughter Pilgrimage by Kimberly Meyer.

I'm trying to limit my "Around the World in Early Years" list to two book options per country so that it is easier to read and doesn't get too overwhelming. However, I just read the summary for Cry, the Beloved Country, and wanted to add it to my list. This would mean though that I have three picks for South Africa. Therefore, I would like to move at least one of the books to my "Books from Countries to Read in Later Years" list or my armchair shelf which I am using for all of the books I feel don't need to go on an ATW list.

The other two books are The Elephant Whisperer and Devil's Peak. All three have one at least one award but Devil's Peak has won two. However, it likely also has the least to do with South African culture since it is a Crime/Thriller novel, not a memoir (The Elephant Whisperer) or historical fiction book (Cry, the Beloved Country) The later was also a worldwide bestseller in 1948 and was written by one of South Africa's most well-known authors, Alan Paton. All three are also written by an author from South Africa and have between 3.9 and 4.48 stars, The one with the highest rating being The Elephant Whisperer and the one with the lowest surprisingly being Cry, the Beloved Country. However, ratings can be finicky as different people are giving reviews and ratings or each book with different things in mind when they give do so. This means that there are variables besides how well the book is written and the likelihood of enjoyment by the most amount of people. Furthermore, the number of ratings are fairly low for Devil's Peak (approx 3,300) in comparison to the number of reviews for Cry, the Beloved Country (almost 64,000) as well as a number of other known books on Goodreads. They seem to all be available through an interlibrary loan and if need be they are all between eight and thirteen dollars Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to put where?

I've read and enjoyed Devil's Peak. It's a mystery/thriller story, so it's not focused on cultural stuff, but you get a glimpse of the structure of the society and the dynamics between the races. So I guess it depends on your goal in reading. If you want more cultural stuff, this isn't the book you're looking for. (why does that sentence remind me of Starwars? :D)

Vya wrote: "I've read and enjoyed Devil's Peak. It's a mystery/thriller story, so it's not focused on cultural stuff, but you get a glimpse of the structure of the society and the dynamics between the races. S..."

: D Thanks. I'm not entirely sure what I am looking for, unfortunately, but perhaps in choosing my books I need to keep my overall goal in mind. That is developing a broader understanding of the world, learning to see things from different perspectives, and in general expanding my horizons. I think for now I will list The Elephant Whisperer and Cry, the Beloved Country as my two for the "Books to Read in Early Years" list and move Devil's Peak down to "Books to Read in Later Years". Although, it may be that I end up reading Devil's Peak before the other two as I plan to read a few books outside of this challenge as well.