What are some of your favorite books (fiction or non-fiction) that are in international settings?
I just joined a new book club with the theme of “traveling” through books. What are some of your favorite books (fiction or non-fiction) that are in international settings? Thanks!
Just read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, very good. Will take you to ancient China?
@Elaine, I own a copy and have yet to read it! Thanks for the suggestion!
@Elaine all of her books are great
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
@Kimberly, one of the members recommended this! Thank you!
I loved The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan
@Danielle, hmm, I haven’t heard of this one. Will have to look into it! Thanks!
This doesn’t get enough mention . I loved this book and often rec it to those who lo love say…The Other Boleyn Girl, or who would love to travel to India.
Half of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie takes you all over Nigeria in the late 1960s and early 70s. Witch Light by Susan Fletcher transports you to Scotland circa the 17th century.
@Maheswari, I’ve read part of Half of A Yellow Sun, and own it but haven’t picked it up since I put it down. Thanks! I’ll have to look into Witch Light!
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
@Lauren, I’ll have to add it to my list! Thanks!
It’s one of my favorites.
The whole series is wonderful, but the last book, Labyrinth of the Spirits is a masterpiece
Yes!
The Kite Runner
@Sarah, yet another owned book that’s on my list! Thanks!
@Catherine, yet another to add to my list! No wonder my to-read list never goes down! ? thanks!
@Nicole I know the feeling. I mark one off and add 3 more. Lol
Totally!!!
Just finished Stork Mountain by Miroslav Penkov. Would be great if anyone has read it and would share his thoughts on it.
A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles
Tall.Man in a Low Land by Harry Pearson. The Reluctant Tuscan by Phil Doran. Detour de France by Michael Simkin. Solomon Time by Will Randall.
Outlander!
Ernest Hemingway’s, A Moveable Feast, still one of my favs. I read it in my teens and it inspired me with a love of books about international places.
all of the Alexander McCall Smith Mma Ramotswe books, set in Botswana.
‘Creatures of the Rock: a veterinarians adventures in Newfoundland’ by Andrew Peacock. This book is a memoir of a Vets time spent in Newfoundland Canada ; ‘Cutting of stone’ by Abraham Verghese. This book is one of my favourites! Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Try Tokyo Vice. Or The Natashas. All organized crime. Nonfiction.
I liked Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Also The Jewel of St Petersburg by Kate Furnivall (which I believe is part of a series but I have not yet read the rest of the books).
Crocodile on the Sandbank :3
https://open.spotify.com/album/1IpfxI7BKmNdRr1fPfXdJH?si=qqzDES6qSGKVM7Ee2yReKQ
Also, Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog) isn’t about international travel but it *is* a travelogue that’s been in print for 129 years because it’s so funny :3 Linking an audiobook version– abridged but masterfully performed by Hugh Laurie 🙂
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen…The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye…The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama …Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran…Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson…In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez…The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain…Paris To The Moon by Adam Gopnik…The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux…Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder….The Places Between by Rory Stewart…The Widows of Malabar Hill (A Mystery of 1920s India) by Sujata Massey…A town Like Alice by Nevil Shute…The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough…Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson and Veronica Chambers…Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott…The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede…Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall…Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation by John Carlin…The Accidental President of Brazil by Fernando Henrique Cardoso…The Prince of the Marshes by Rory Stewart…Shakespeare in Kabul by Stephen Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar…The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombi, and Magic by Wade Davis…Wolves Eat Dogs (Arkady Renko Series Book 5) by Martin Cruz Smith…The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison [Inspector Shan Tao Yun mysteries about Tibet]…Jar City: An Inspector Erlendur Novel by Arnaldur Indridason…Murder in Jerusalem by Batya Gur …
The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow by AJ Mackinnon is a delightful travel memoir filled with musings, and laugh out loud moments.
Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe