Miss Lonelyhearts is the Dear Abby of her day during America’s Great Depression. But Miss Lonelyhearts is a he, not a she, and that’s only the beginning of the ways Miss Lonelyhearts deceives her readers. Though he feels pity for his readers and their terrible lives, Miss Lonelyhearts has little to offer to help them.

Oddly, the most disturbed character in the book is Miss Lonelyhearts himself. He obsesses over the troubles of his readers but no one is able to help him. His editor doesn’t even try, regarding the whole Miss Lonelyhearts column as a joke, a publicity stunt. His fiancé suggests he quit the job, something he can’t bring himself to do. Miss Lonelyhearts tries several ways to help himself but all fail.

This is a very short novel, a novella really, but it is very thoughtful and darkly comedic. I read it twice, the second time after reading some commentary about the novel, and the second reading was a rich reading for me. The commentary says that Miss Lonelyhearts is a Christ-like figure who, in the end, sacrifices himself for his people, but to no end. The author, the commentary goes on to write, saw there was no place for the innocent, the sacrificial, in the evil modern world.

21. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Lenny and George are friends who travel together, looking for work during the Great Depression in America. George is world wise and street smart but Lenny is slow and naïve. George and Lenny have struggles finding work and Lenny, because of his limited intelligence, is always struggling to keep from jeopardizing the jobs the men find. Despite their struggles, George and Lenny have big dreams, dreams of getting their own place and living off the “fatta the land.”

Lenny and George find work on a ranch, but within hours of arriving, the men are worried about keeping their jobs. The owner’s son is a small man who is always looking for a fight. In addition, the owner’s son’s wife is a flirt, inciting her husband’s raging jealousy and anger. And it is not long before trouble comes.

A powerful story, with vivid characters and rich symbolism. One of my favorite reads of all time.

22. Nine Hills to Nambonkaha by Sarah Erdman

Erdman relates the stories of the two years she spent as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small village in the Ivory Coast in Africa in the late 1990’s.  I had to look up the copyright date after I started the book; was the book taking place in the 1990’s or the 1890’s? It could have been either based on the lives of the villagers. No running water, no electricity. Mothers didn’t know the birthdates or even the ages of their children. Very little reading or writing. No knowledge of birth control or ways to combat disease. Little knowledge of the outside world.

Where should Erdman, assigned to the little village as a health care worker, start? She begins to teach the mothers about their babies, how to help them gain weight, getting them immunized, and gradually begins to help them learn about ways to avoid getting AIDS and about birth control. In the end, she feels a deep sense of accomplishment in her work in the village.

My new favorite travel story.

AFGHANISTAN

The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby

Afghan Caravan by Idris Shah

ALBANIA

Broken April by Ismail Kadare

Biografi by Lloyd Jones

ALGERIA

Between Sea and Sahara: An Algerian Journal by Eugene Fromentin

Nedjima by Kateb Yacine

ANDORRA

Andorra by Peter Cameron

Approach to the History of Andorra by Lidia Armengol Vila

ANGOLA

Angola Beloved by T. Ernest Wilson

ANGUILLA  

Green Cane and Juicy Flotsam: Short Stories by Caribbean Women

Under an English Heaven by Donald E. Westlake

ANTARCTICA

Aurora Australis by Ernest Shackleton

Shiver by Nikki Gemmell

ANTIGUA & BARBUDA

Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

Antigua, Barbuda and Redonda: A Historical Sketch by Desmond Nicholson

ARGENTINA

A Secret for Julia by Patricia Sagastizabal

Bad Times in Buenos Aires by Miranda France

ARMENIA

The Crossing Place by Phillip Marsden

ARUBA & NETHERLANDS ANTILLES

Nights in Aruba by Andrew Holleran

AUSTRALIA

Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

AUSTRIA

The Left-Handed Woman by Peter Hanke

The Nebelungenlied

Tractatus by Wittgenstein

AZERBAIJAN

Leyli and Majnun by Mehmed bin Suleyman Fuzuli

Ali and Nino by Kurban Said

BAHAMAS

Paradise Overdose by Brian Antoni

BAHRAIN

Looking for Dilmun by Geoffrey Bibby

BANGLADESH

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore

Bangladesh: Reflections on the Water by James J. Novak

BARBADOS

Castle of My Skin by George Lamming

BELARUS

Two Souls by Maxim Haradsky

BELGIUM

A Tall Man in a Low Land by Harry Pearson

The Sorrow of Belgium by Hugo Claus

BELIZE

Belizious Cuisine

BENIN

The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin

BERMUDA

Bermuda’s Story by Terry Tucker

BHUTAN

A Baby in a Backpack to Bhutan by Bunty Avieson

BOLIVIA

The Fat Man from La Paz: Contemporary Fiction from Bolivia by Rosario Santos

BOSNIA & HERCEGOVINA

The Fall of Yugoslavia by Misha Glenny

BOTSWANA

Bayeyi & Hambukushu: Tales from the Okavango

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

BRAZIL

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Masters and the Slaves by Gilberto Freyre

BRUNEI

Time and the River by Prince Mohamed Bolkiah

BULGARIA

Bulgarian Rhapsody by Linda J. Forristal

BURKINA FASO

The Maxims, Thoughts and Riddles of the Mossi by Dim-Dolobsom Oudraogo

BURUNDI

Burundi on the Brink 1993-95 by Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah

CAMBODIA

The River of Time by John Swain

CAMEROON

The Poor Christ of Bomb by Mongo Beti

The White Man of God by Kenjo Jumban

CANADA

Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje

CAPE VERDE

Arquipelago by Jorge Barbosa

CAYMAN ISLANDS

The Cayman Islands: The Beach and Beyond by Martha K. Smith

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

The Central African Republic: The Continent’s Hidden Heart by Thomas E. O’Toole

CHAD

Chad: A Nation in Search of Its Future by Mario J. Azevedo

CHILE

House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

CHINA

The Search for Modern Island by Jonathan D. Spence

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

Imperial Women by Pearl S. Buck

COLUMBIA

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Poetry by Jose Asuncion Silva

COMOROS & MAYOTTE

The Comoros Islands: Struggle Against Dependency in the India Ocean by Malyn Newitt

CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF (ZAIRE)

In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz by Michaela Wrong

The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett

CONGO, REPUBLIC OF

Congo Journey by Redmond O’Hanlon

COOK ISLANDS

An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale

COSTA RICA

Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion

COTE D’IVOIRE

Climbie by Bernard Dadie

Le Fils de la Femme Male by Maurice Bandaman

CROATIA

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West

Café Europa by Slavenka Drakulic

CUBA

Trading with the Enemy byTom Miller

CYPRESS

Journey into Cypress by Colin Thubron

CZECH REPUBLIC

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera

Utz by Bruce Chatwin

DENMARK

Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg

Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales

Kierkegaard’s philosophical works

DJIBOUTI

Khamsine by William JF Syad

DOMINICA

Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rys

The Orchid House by Phyllis Shad Allfrey

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

EAST TIMOR

The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo

Crossing: A Story of East Timor by Luis Cardoso

ECUADOR

Huasipungo (The Villagers) by Jorge Icaza

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

EGYPT

Cairo: The City Victorious by Max Rodenbeck

The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz

EL SALVADOR

Cuentos de Barro (Tales of Mud) by Salarrue

ENGLAND

The English by Jeremy Paxman

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley

ERITREA

Eritrea at a Glance by Mary Houdek

Even the Stones are Burning by Roy Pateman

ESTONIA

The Czar’s Madman by Jaan Kross

ETHIOPIA

The Sign and the Seal by Graham Hancock

FALKLAND ISLANDS

The Battle for the Falklands by Max Hastings

FIJI

Children of the Sun by Bryan McDonald

FINLAND

Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi

FRANCE

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

FRENCH GUIANA

Papillon by Henri Charriere

GABON

African Silences by Peter Matthiessen

GAMBIA

Chaff on the Wind by Ebou Dibba

GEORGIA

Please Don’t Call It Soviet Georgia by Mary Russel

Bread and Ashes by Tony Anderson

GERMANY

Faust by Goethe

The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass

GHANA

Asante: The Making of a Nation by Nana Otamakuro Adubofour

GREECE

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

GREENLAND

Last Places: A Journey in the North by Lawrence Millman

GRENADA

Under the Silk Cotton Tree: A Novel by Jean Buffong

GUADELOUPE

Anabase by Alexis Leger

The Tree of Life by Maryse Conde

GUAM & NORTHERN MARIANAS

Micronesia: Winds of Change

GUATEMALA

Hombres de Maiz by Miguel Angel Asturias

GUINEA

L’Enfant Noir by Camara Laye

GUINEA-BISSAU

Under the Neem Tree by Susan Lowerre

GUYANA

To Sir With Love by ER Braitwaite

Nine-Two Days by Evelyn Waugh

HAITI

Beast of the Haitian Hills by Pierre Marcelin

All Souls’ Rising by Madison Smartt Bell

HONDURAS

El Gran Hotel by Guillermo Yuscaran

The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski

HONG KONG

An Insular Possession by Timothy Mo

Fragrant Harbour by John Lanchester

HUNGARY

Fateless by Kmre Kertesz

Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Geza Gardonyi

ICELAND

Independent People by Halldor Laxness

Angels of the Universe by Einar Mar Gudmundsson

INDIA

Discovery of India by Jawaharlal

India: A Milion Mutinies Now by V S Naipaul

INDONESIA

The Fugitive by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Saman by Ayu Utami

IRAN

Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith by Gina Nahai

Persian Pilgrimages by Afshin Molavi

IRAQ

The New Iraz by Joseph Braude

Gilgamesh

IRELAND

McCarthy’s Bar

ISRAEL

Amos Oz

ITALY

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

JAMAICA

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

JAPAN

Inside Japan by Peter Tasker

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

JORDAN

Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence

KAZAKHSTAN

The Silk Road by Irene Frank

KENYA

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

KIRIBATI

In Search of Tusitala by Gavin Bell

KOREA, NORTH

KOREA, SOUTH

Yi Sang’s Wings

Korea Unmasked by Rhie Won-Bok

KUWAIT

From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman

KYRGYZSTAN

Djamila by Chinghiz Aitmatov

LAOS

Bamboo Palace by Christopher Kremmer

LATVIA

Lacplesis (The Bear Slayer) by Andrejs Pumpurs

LEBANON

From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple

LESOTHO

Stories By and About Women in Lesotho by K. Limakatso Kendall

LIBERIA

Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State by John-Peter Pham

LIBYA

Ismailia Eclipse by Khaled Mattawa

LIECHTENSTEIN

Secrets of the Smallest State of Europe by Thomas Ecchardt

LITHUANIA

Balta drobule by Antanas Skma

LUXEMBOURG

How to Remain What You Are by George Muller

MACAU

City of Broken Promises by Austin Coates

MACEDONIA

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West

MADAGASCAR

Madagascar, Island of the Ancestors by John Mack

MALAWI

The Rainmaker by Steve Chimombo

Jungle Lovers by Paul Theroux

MALAYSIA

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

The Return by KS Maniam

MALDIVES

Mysticism in the Maldives

MALI

The Unveiling of Timbuctoo by Gailbraith Welch

MALTA

For Rozina…A Husband by Francis Ebejer

The Kappilan of Malta by Nicolas Monserrat

MARSHALL ISLANDS

Man This Reef by Gerald Knight

MARTINIQUE

The Collected Poetry of Aime Cesaire

Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau

Malemort by ESdouard Glissant

MAURITANIA

Impossible Journey: Two Against the Sahara by Michael Asher

MAURITIUS

Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de St Pierre

Petrusmok by Malcolm de Chazal

MEXICO

History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo

The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz

MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF

Islands Islands: A Special Good by Bernadette V Wehrly

MOLDOVA

Playing the Moldovans a Tennis by Tony Hawkes

The Moldovans by Charles King

MONACO

Anything Considered by Peter Mayle

The Bridesmaids

MONGOLIA

The Secret History of the Mongols

MONTENEGRO

Wild Europe by Bozuidar Jezernik

MOROCCO

Year of the Elephant by Leila Abouzeid

Women of Marrakesh by Leonora Peet

MOZAMBIQUE

Dumba-Nengue by Lina Magaia

MYANMAR

Freedom from Fear & Other Writings by Aung San Sauu Kyi

Burmese Days by George Orwell

The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

NAMIBIA

Born of the Sun by Joseph Diescho

NAURU

Nauru: Phosphate and Political Progress by Nancy Viviani

NEPAL

Tenzing and the Sherpas of Everest by Judy and Tashi Tenzing

NETHERLANDS

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Fall by Albert Camus

NEW CALEDONIA

Kanake by Jean-Marie Tjibao

NEW ZEALAND

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

NICARAGUA

Stories and Poems by Ruben Dario

The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie

NIGER

In Sorcery’s Shadow by Paul Stoller

NIGERIA

Chinua Achebe

Ben Okri

Wole Soyinka

NORWAY

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

OMAN

Travels in Oman by Phillip Ward

PAKISTAN

Pakistan: The Eye of the Storm by Owen Bennett-Jones

Shame by Salman Rushdie

PALUA

Embattled Island by Arnold H. Leibowitz

PALESTINE

Gaza by Dick Doughty

The Bible

PANAMA

When New Flowers Bloomed

Tekkin’ a Waalk by Peter Ford

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Throwim Way Leg by Tim Flannery

PARAGUAY

Son of Man by Augusto Roa Bastos

At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig by John Gimlette

PERU

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

PHILIPPINES

Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café by Alfred A Yuson

Video Nights in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer

PITCAIRN ISLANDS

Fragile Paradise by Glynn Christian

POLAND

The Heart of Europe by Norman Davies

PORTUGAL

Fernando Pessoa & Co by Fernando Pessoa

O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo by Jose Saramago

PUERTO RICO

Sweet Diamond Dust by Rosario Ferre

Foreign in a Domestic Sense by Christina Duffy Burnett

QATAR

Arabian Time Machine by Helga Graham

REUNION

La Reunion by Catherine Lavaux

ROMANIA

The Hooligan’s Return by Norman Manea

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

War and Peace by Tolstoy

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

RWANDA

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Phillip Gourevich

SAINT KITTS & NEVIS

Historic Basseterre by Sir Probyn Innis

Caribbean Life and Culture by Sir Fred Phillips

SAINT LUCIA

Collected Poems by Derek Walcott

SAINT VINCENT & THE GRENADINES

Wild Majesty by Peter Hulme

SAMOA

Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel

SAN MARINO

Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe by Thomas Ecchardt

SAO TOME & PRINCIPE

Former Portuguese Colonies by Herb Boyd

SAUDI ARABIA

Sandstorms by Peter Theroux

SCOTLAND

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

SENEGAL

God’s Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane

SERBIA

The Serbs by Tim Judah

Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric

SEYCHELLES

Aldabra Alone by Tony Beamish

SIERRA LEONE

Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell

SINGAPORE

Foreign Bodies and Mammon Inc by Hwee Hwee Tan

Fistful of Colours by Suchen Christine Lim

SLOVAKIA

Bozena Slancikova

Ivan Krasko

SLOVENIA

Questions about Slovenia by Matjaz Chvatal

Slovenia by Joco Znidarsic

SOLOMON ISLANDS

Ples Bilong Iumi by Sam Alasia

Lightning Meets the West Wind by Keesing & Corris

SOMALIA & SOMALILAND

Aman: The Story of a Somali Girl by Janice Boddy

SOUTH AFRICA

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

SPAIN

Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

SRI LANKA

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje

SUDAN

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

Emma’s War by Deborah Scroggins

SURINAME

Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice by Mark Plotkin

Suriname by Henk E Chin

SWAZILAND

The Kingdom of Swaziland by D Hugh Gillis

SWEDEN

Culture Shock by Charlotte Rosen Svensson

SWITZERLAND

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

SYRIA

Come Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie

TAHITI & FRENCH POLYNESIA

The Marriage of Loti by Pierre Loti

TAIWAN

Harmony in Conflict by Richard Hartzell

TAJIKISTAN

Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Taimur Zulfikarov

TANZANIA

Memoirs of an Arabian Princess by Emily Said-Ruete

THAILAND

Pan Ma Ba by Chart Kobjitti

Thai Food by David Thompson

TIBET

Tears of Blood by Mary Craig

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

TOGO

An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie

TONGA

Tonga Islands by Dr John Martin

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

A House for Mr. Biswas by VS Naipaul

TUNISIA

Lion Mountain by Mustapha Tlili

Pillar of Salt by Albert Memmi

TURKEY

Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan Orga

TURKMENISTAN

Magtymguly Feraghy

Sacred Horses by Jonathon Maslow

TURKS & CAICOS

A Summer on the Borders of the Caribbean Sea by J Dennis Harris

Water and Light by Stephen Harrigan

TUVALU

The People’s Lawyer by Philip Ells

The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux

UGANDA

The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden

The Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa

UKRAINE

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Arabic Short Stories by Denys Johnson-Davies

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Underworld by Don DeLillo

URUGUAY

Tierra de Nadie (No Man’s Land) by Juan Carlos Onetti

UZBEKISTAN

Chasing the Sea by Tom Bissell

The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam

VANUATU

To Kill a Bird with Two Stones by Jeremy McClancy

VATICAN CITY

When in Rome by Robert J Hutchinson

Inside the Vatican by Thomas J Reese

The Sistine Chapel by Fabrizio Mancinelli

VENEZUELA

Dona Barbara by Romulo Gallegos

VIETNAM

The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh

VIRGIN ISLANDS

Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn

WALES

Journals from the Antheap by Dannie Abse

YEMEN

Yemen by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

ZAMBIA

A Point of No Return by Fawanyanga Mulikita

The Tongue of the Dumb by Dominic Mulaisho

The Smoke that Thunders by Dominic Mulaisho

ZIMBABWE

The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing

41. China Road by Rob Gifford

Last year I traveled the Silk Road, the ancient road that cuts through China. This year, it’s my opportunity to travel down China Road, Route 312, a new superhighway through modern China. Modern China, I have found, is a mass of dangerous contradictions. For one, China is an economic superpower that continues to be ruled by a despotism that severely limits individual freedom but turns a blind eye to industrial pollution and the basic human rights of workers. The Chinese people are unhappy with this situation but nothing is done. The Chinese character seems built on acceptance of the world as unjust place; on fortitude, plugging on as best one can; on putting on a polite face, ignoring proglems and speaking banal platitudes about life. A second enormous contradiction is that communism requires strict compliance to the rules imposed on the society and a citizenry kept ignorant but the modern world, especially the modern world market, necessitates an educated citizenry. These contradictions cannot continue. This cannot go on, the author writes, and yet it must, for the sake of a strong global economy.

And China has other, terrible problems the world knows little about. Because of the one-child policy, thousands of baby girls were aborted or killed, leaving a stark shortage of wives for the baby boys who were allowed to live and grow up. Pollution of both water and air is a terrible threat to China’s immediate future. Rural poverty is slowly creating an enormous sense of injustice in the people living in the country. Many centuries of totalitarian government both from the inside and the outside have left China far behind the world, especially in technology.

The trip down China Road was no getaway vacation for me.

“A road’s a kind of holy thing,” said Roger the Minstrel to his son, Adam. “That’s why it’s a good work to keep a road in repair, like giving alms to the poor or tending the sick. It’s open to the sun and wind and rain. It brings all kinds of people and all parts of England together. And it’s home to a minstrel, even though he may happen to be sleeping in a castle.”

Adam is a young boy of eleven, spending his time in school while awaiting the return of his father, a minstrel of some repute, and the resumption of his life with his father on the road. Adam’s father does return and together father and son head out on the road but, like all road trips, this adventure has many unexpected twists and turns, including the kidnapping of Adam’s beloved dog and Adam’s separation from his father. The fun of being on this road with Adam is seeing the people and places of another time, parsons and knights and other minstrels and other travelers.

As a librarian, I began to see myself like Roger and Adam, as a kind of minstrel, singing songs, reciting poetry, relating stories. Ah, a new epithet: “Minstrel of the Library.”

#20 Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska

A book about bullfighting seems like the last book I would want to read, but Shadow of a Bull is not just a book about bullfighting. Shadow of a Bull is a rich book about the trials of being the son of a hero, a book about the struggles of a boy trying to find his own way in a world that is attempting to force him to take a path the boy does not want to take. Manolo is the son of a magnificent bullfighter. When Manolo’s father is killed in the ring, the people look to Manolo to become the man his father was. Manolo does not want to be a bullfighter. But he does not want to disappoint his mother and his father’s friends and all the people of his town. He is afraid, paradoxically, of both the bull and of being a coward. He can find no way out.

The author is somehow able to share with the reader the beauty and the horror of bullfighting. I was surprised to find that I could see bullfighting in a new way, as an art, as a heroic act, though I continue to feel revulsion as well.

#21 The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene Dubois

What a peculiar story! William Sherman, tired of teaching ungrateful children, decides to travel around the world in a hot air balloon. Sherman succeeds, but not in the way he’d anticipated. Unexpectedly, Sherman crashes on the island of Krakatoa. Instead of finding a deserted island, however, he comes upon a strange community of people. The community has a source of wealth, a magnificent diamond mine, that allows the people to do anything they wish. The people have created a zany civilization founded upon the idea of restaurants, eating out at a different family’s restaurant every night. Sherman is shown novel designs for homes and odd inventions that have come from the clever minds of the island’s residents. Despite their apparent creativity and great wealth, the people choose to live on an island that, every hour of the day, threatens their lives. And, of course, as one might expect, the moment comes when Krakatoa blows. Somehow, the people are able to escape without harm and Sherman is able to return home to San Francisco.

Very, very peculiar book.

And what an odd coincidence that Twenty-One Balloons is my twenty-first book of the year!

15. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Changez is the best Pakistan has to offer the world, brilliant, handsome, ambitious. Nothing can go wrong for him; he sprints through Princeton, best in his class, and easily obtains the best job in New York City and a beautiful American girlfriend.

And then 9/11 happens and everything does go wrong.

It’s the way this story is written that is so wonderful. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is written with Changez speaking directly to an unidentified American in Pakistan, a conversation, a dialogue really, that extends the entire length of the book. It felt like Changez was talking directly to me, the reader, confiding in me the animosities, the hurts, the frustrations of those who grow up outside America’s borders.

Changez reveals the differences between himself, the outsider, and Americans. He tells us he has come to “savor the denial of gratification.” He is irritated with Americans and the “ease with which they spent money”, their “self-righteousness”. He admires his own ability to function both “respectfully and with self-respect,” something he sees Americans as unable to do. He resents Americans, who did not even exist as a people while his ancestors were building a rich civilization.

And what an ending. It’s been a long time since I read a book with such a powerful and satisfying ending.

  Around the World in 80 Books Challenge (61) 

Africa (10)

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana)

Mango Elephants in the Sun by Susana Herrera (Cameroon)

Angry Wind by Jeffrey Tayler (Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali)

The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (Ethiopia)

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton (Kenya)

Glory in a Camel’s Eye by Jeffrey Tayler (Morocco)

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevich (Rwanda)

Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux (Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa)

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin (Zimbabwe) 

Antarctica (1)

Surviving Antarctica by Andrea White (Antarctica)

Asia (14)

The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (Afghanistan)

Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler (China)

Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (India)

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Indonesia, India, Italy)

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer (Iran)

Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel (Israel)

Japanland by Karin Muller (Japan)

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Korea)

Tasting the Sky by Ibtisam Barakat (Palestine)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)

Madonnas of Leningrad (Russia)

Zaatar Days, Henna Nights by Maliha Masood (Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey) 

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron (Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Turkey)

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (Vietnam)

Australia/South Pacific (5)

Tracks by Robyn Davidson (Australia)

Shooting the Boh by Tracy Johnson (Borneo)

Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost (Fuji, Vanuatu)

The Naked Tourist by Lawrence Osborne (New Guinea) 

An Evening Among Headhunters by Lawrence Millman (Tonga)

Europe (21)

Andorra by Peter Cameron (Andorra)

Dobry by Monica Shannon (Bulgaria)

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Denmark)

Small Island by Andrea Levy (England)

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida (Finland)

Words in a French Life by Kristin Espinasse (France)

The Keep by Jennifer Egan (Germany)

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (Greece)

The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Hungary)

Independent People by Halldor Laxness (Iceland)

The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy (Ireland)

Lost Hearts in Italy by Andrea Lee (Italy)

The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden (Netherlands)

The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom (Northern Ireland)

Dreamers by Knut Hamsun (Norway)

The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Poland)

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (Scotland)

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley (Serbia)

Spanish Lessons by Derek Lambert (Spain)

Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson (Sweden) 

A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas (Wales)

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka (Ukraine)

North America (5)

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat (Canada)

Madam Dread by Kathie Klarreich (Haiti)

Place Where the Sea Remembers by Sandra Benitez (Mexico)

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad)

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (United States) 

South America (4)

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson (Brazil)

Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende (Chile)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Columbia)

Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Peru)

http://myreadingchallanges.blogspot.com/2007/02/around-world-in-80-book.html

http://bookaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/