dtrpath27

Okay, end of Day One, and here's what's been thrown in the ring: 1. Spain The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway Duende by Jason Webster Sacred Sierra by Jason Webster The Stone Raft by José Saramago The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luiz Zaffon Bloodletting by Federico Garcia Lorca 2. Turkey 3. Ireland Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt Paddy Clarke, ha, ha, ha! by Roddy Doyle 4. Portugal The Stone Raft by José Saramago 5. Desert Southwest The Professor's House by Willa Cather Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingslover 6. Nova Scotia Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slokum The Shipping News by Anne Proulx Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston Fall on Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill 7. India A Fine Balance A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth Eclipse of the Sun by Phil Whitaker Author Ruth Prawler Jhabvala Behind the Beautiful Flowers by Katherine Boo 8. Peru The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder 9. Czech Republic The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera 10. Moscow

Sounds intriguing. Decisions, decisions.

Oooh! Thank you so much. I never would have come across that in my search. The Ireland one sounds funny! Thanks so much for all the suggestions.

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum -- another one for Nova Scotia.

Good to know! I wouldn't have thought that just by looking at it.

Wow! Thank you for all l the great ideas. I was looking for books set in Nova Scotia last night; there really weren't that many. Searching for books by people from Nova Scotia opened up quite a few more options. I've read quite a few books from India, but I haven't heard of this author. I'll have to check it out. I will ultimately edit the first post. I am just a big visual/organizational nerd and like the tidiness of a separate post to organize my list.

Thanks! 224 books? Wow! I'll have to check out your post; I'm sure you have some good ones.

Lightning

April 2014 The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman Publishing Information: ©2012 by Scribner Pages: 343 Genre: Fiction Setting: The island of Janus Rock, Australia Synopsis: Tom Sherbourne is a decorated war hero who has just returned home after four years on the Western front. Looking for peace and solitude, Tom accepts a position as a lighthouse keeper on the isolated island of Janus Rock. Tom eventually brings his young bride to spend what he hopes to be a peaceful life. Things change when a boat with a baby in it washes to shore. Impressions: The first few chapters deal primarily with Tom's life alone on the island as he deals with the emotional aftermath of serving four years at the front. Unfortunately, it felt forced; it was like the author was writing about how she heard people returning from war were supposed to act and feel. The chapter about finding the baby also had the same feel: forced and contrived. The descriptions of the lighthouse keeping were very interesting and descriptive though. At that point in the book, I probably would have given it three stars, only because I enjoyed the lighthouse stuff so much. In the next couple sections when the focus was more on the baby, it picked up a bit. The ending section, where there was a bit of scandal went much better. It was almost as if the writer was more comfortable with the story she was telling. I do still feel that many of the characters and dialogues were still a bit thin, though. I feel like this book could have done with a little better editing and little more exploration of characters before publications. I know it sounds like I hated it, but it really had enough enjoyable moments to keep me reading. When it's all said and done, I think 3.5 out of five would be fair.

Blast! I should have reserved a spot at the top to organize the list. That's alright. I'll just add posts as I find them just like those who recommend things then update/compile it all later. Problem solved. :/ Okay, here are some that I've found so far: Spain - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luiz Zaffon Peru - The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder Desert Southwest is going to be a toughy...I'm excited for Nova Scotia. Any Nova Scotians on here? Edited to add: Speaking of Nova Scotia... Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

Hello! Now I must admit, I am an omnivore trending toward herbivore. Can I be 75% vegetarian? I like meat, but meat doesn't always like me, so given a choice, I'll make something without. I suppose it's because we ate very little of it growing up. When I lived alone I almost never cooked meat. Too much hassle. I love all the vegetarian options now; so good! Chickpeas are one of the most versatile foods ever. Love them every which way! I ate hummus before it was cool to eat hummus.

Thanks Eleonora! Keep the ideas coming. I'm loving it.

All recommendations welcome! I'm hoping to get a few recommendations/choices for each then narrow it down from there. Eta: I'm especially interested in recommendations that people have read before or that have been recommended to them. Little W, I thought it'd be fun, too. That way, if I ever get there for real, I'll know a little something extra.

Morning, ladies! I woke up and there was quite an interesting conversation going on here. First off, thanks to you both for taking time to read. They're more my musings as opposed to proper reviews, but it's nice to know they work for someone besides me. Frankie, I'm so glad I gave The Rosie Project a chance as well. Such an unexpected surprise! Reading A Confederacy of Dunces was a surprise, too. It came from a suggestion from the man who notarized some documents for us. I never would have even heard of it much less read it, but the man mentioned it a million times. When I was at the library ages later, I saw it on the shelf and gave it ago. Another pleasant surprise! I had no idea Toole had written anything else. I'll have to check it out. It's very interesting, the linguistic connections. So Finnish has a syllabry, not an alphabet? Japanese has a syllabry that is represented by three different writing systems, one of which is almost exclusively for foreign words that have come into common usage in Japan. It's interesting to see a Japanese word come into common usage elsewhere. I wonder if it's the linguistic similarities that have helped this particular word take hold in Finland...Are there other Japanese words that have done the same in Finnish? The Museum of Literary Souls is just a short story, but I liked it so much. It was only 99 cents, so you can't beat that really.

Now this I've read...the last one I was just wandering around bumping into things. Now the question is where?

Thanks, ladies! Truthfully I don't have any books in mind either. I can think of one or two that I've read that fit the bill, but I want them to be fresh reads. Last night I started looking around to compile a list, and it was so much fun! I found books and authors that I'd never even heard of. I downloaded a few samples but still have a ways to go. I am hoping to narrow it to two or three books per country, then get input from the marvelously well-read people on here to help make the final choice.

I have a bit of a wanderlust, but won't be able to satisfy it for awhile, so I thought this would be the next best thing! My challenge is to visit my "top ten places to see" by reading a book either set in that place or written by an author from that place. If you want to do your own places challenge, please feel free to post your own list and progress on this thread. The more, the merrier! If you have suggestions for books that would fit my list, I'd love to hear them. So in no particular order, here are the top ten places I'd go: 1. Spain 2. Turkey 3. Ireland 4. Portugal 5. The Desert Southwest of the U.S. (Especially the Grand Canyon & the Pueblo cliff dwellings) 6. Nova Scotia 7. India 8. Peru 9. Czech Republic 10. Moscow Many other lovely places I'd go in the world, but alas, I wanted to keep the list size reasonable so only ten! Keep in mind that I only included places I've never visited. ******** Below is the final list in order of countries visited. As I make my selections, I will update the list with a little blurb here. 1. Ireland - The Dubliners by James Joyce Originally published in 1914, it is often called one of the greatest short story collections in the English language. A candid portrait of life in Dublin at the turn of the century, perhaps too candid it was argued at the time, Joyce had to resort to 18 publishers over nine years finally to bring the collection to life.

Current TBR My TBR is constantly changing as I usually read several books at once, put some aside, forget about others... In Progress A Tale of Two Cities A Town Like Alice The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons Waiting Patiently on My Nightstand An Old Betrayal by Charles Finch Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki Junichiro (have a nagging feeling that I read this in college, but it's not on my shelf...) Snow Falling on Cedars (Also pretty sure I used to own this) Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley Wishlist (Where did my Amazon budget go this month?) Brilliance by Marcus Sakey Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevkin That's not so bad, right? I try to keep it reasonable or else the list will take on a life of its own.

Just started reading A Town Like Alice. That Nevil Shute tells a great story!

Gardening is so tiring, but it's so rewarding when it all comes together. Hopefully the earplugs will brIng you some relief.

Thanks so much for taking the time to recommend things! When I first saw her headshot, I thought she looked so young -- maybe late teens or early twenties. I was surprised to read that she's 37. Still young, but not quite as young as I'd thought.

This is the first I've read by her. I'd like to try another. Do you have any suggestions?

Establishment

Remedies