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At the end of December, 2006, I did a Bookflurries diary called Around the World in Forty Books.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
It has been a long time since I wrote the diary. I think it is time to share my list again and hear yours. I love to travel by book. I will add new favorite books to my old list and not keep it to forty as I did last time. If I could only pick one book to recommend (and how could I) it would be Iberia by James Michener. This is the book that launched me on an eight week trip to Europe in 1972 that I have great nostalgia about and of which I hold many good memories.
My list of my most favorite stories of the world: (NF means Non-Fiction and YA means young adults.)
Truly around the world:
A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, bio of William Dampier by Diana and Michael Preston NF
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Voyager by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yaeger with Phil Patton NF
Well-traveled:
A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler, a bio of James Holman by Jason Roberts NF
Prince Borghese’s Trail or Peking to Paris: 10,000 Miles over Two Continents, Four Deserts and the Roof of the World in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge by Genevieve Obert NF
AFGHANISTAN:
Sewing Circles of Herat by Cristina Lamb NF
The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan by Ben Mcintyre NF
My Forbidden Face by Latifa NF
Zoya’s Story by Zoya and Follain and Cristofaire NF
Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad NF
Places in Between by Rory Stewart NF
In the Sea there are Crocodiles: Based on the True Story of Enaiatollah Akbari by Fabio Geda
AUSTRALIA:
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough
BOTSWANA:
Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith and all the Precious Ramotse series starting with The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
CAMBODIA:
When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him
CANADA:
Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet NF
Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness, bio of Anne Hobbs as told to Robert Specht NF
Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart NF
Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
I Heard the Owl Cry My Name by Margaret Craven
Mrs. Mike by Nancy and Benedict Freedman based on the life of Katherine Mary O'Fallon Flannigan
CARIBBEAN:
Island Stories ed. by Salkey
CHILE:
Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende
and House of Spirits
On the Blue Shore of Silence by Pablo Neruda
and 100 Love Sonnets
CHINA:
Lake with No Name: A True Story of Love and Conflict in Modern China by Diane Wei Liang (Dong Yi) Tiananmen Square NF
Small Woman by Gladys Aylward NF
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Silk Road: Xi'an to Kashgar by Judy Bonavia NF
Dream of a Walled City by Lisa Huang Fleischmann
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
CUBA:
Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire NF
CZECH REPUBLIC:
To the Castle and Back by Vaclav Havel NF
Prague Winter by Madeleine Albright NF
ENGLAND:
London 1945 by Maureen Waller NF
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott and
All Things Bright and Beautiful
All Things Wise and Wonderful
The Lord God Made Them All
FINLAND:
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
FRANCE:
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
GERMANY:
Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner, memoir of Germany 1914-1934 NF
HAITI:
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer by Tracy Kidder NF
Brother, I Am Dying by Edwidge Danticat NF
and Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work NF
Comedians by Graham Greene
HUNGARY:
Memoir of Hungary by Sandor Marai NF
INDIA:
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby NF
Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The Space between Us by Thrity Umrigar
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden
IRAN:
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi NF
Journey from The Land of No by Roya Hakarian NF
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan NF
IRAQ:
Baghdad Burning I and II by Riverbend NF
Prince of Marshes by Rory Stewart NF
IRELAND:
Ulysses by James Joyce
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt NF
The Fall of Light by Niall Williams
ISRAEL:
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz NF
The Source by James Michener
O Jerusalem by Collins and Lapierre
ITALY:
The Secret of Santa Vittoria by Robert Crichton
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
JAPAN:
The Ginger Tree by Oscar Wynd
Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama and
Street of a Thousand Blossoms
Hiroshima by John Hersey
KENYA:
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen NF
and Letters from Africa NF
and Shadows on the Grass NF
Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama NF
KOSOVO:
Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley NF
LIBYA:
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
MALI:
Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa’s City of Gold by Frank Kryza NF
MALTA:
Jukebox Queen of Malta by Nicholas Rinaldi
MEXICO:
The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck NF
MOROCCO:
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail life of Malika Oufkir by Fitoussi NF
NETHERLANDS:
Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent van Gogh by Irving Stone NF
NIGERIA:
The Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
PAKISTAN:
Shabanu and sequel Haveli by Suzanne Staples YA
PHILIPPINES:
Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides NF
POLAND:
The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman NF
Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman NF
RUSSIA:
The Journey into the Whirlwind
and Within the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzberg NF
Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
and The Cancer Ward
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
RWANDA:
An Ordinary Man, autobio of Paul Rusesabagina with Tom Zoellner NF
Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey NF
SCOTLAND:
The Canoe Boys by Alastair Dunnett NF
Memoirs of Sir Robert Carey NF
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Steel Bonnets by George MacDonald Fraser NF
King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett
SPAIN:
Iberia by James Michener NF
Or I’ll Dress you in Mourning (bullfighter Manuel Benitez "El Cordobes") by Collins and Lapierre NF
SOUTH AFRICA:
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
SUDAN:
What Is the What by Dave Eggers memoir based on the story of the Lost Boys of the Sudan and Valentino Achak Deng
THAILAND:
Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon NF
VIET NAM:
Cat from Hue by John Laurence NF
Rumors of War by Philip Caputo NF
The Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao
Buffalo Afternoon by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Up Country by Nelson DeMille
Please share your favorites from the list or other stories you have enjoyed.
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Write On! Revising, briefly.
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Hill Country Ride for AIDS - a community of kindness
by anotherdemocrat
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Confessions of a recreational quilter
by jeanette0605
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Book review: Jake Tapper's 'The Outpost'
by Susan Gardner
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Political Book Club: The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton...
by Susan from 29
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early