#readingoceania2024 #solomonislands A bit of a cheat as this is a book that largely takes place in the UK and the WWI trenches in France. However, the reminiscences of an anthropological journey to the Solomon Islands gives the book a broader view of humanity‘s relationship to death. Excellent book.

#Readingoceania2024 I was going to use this for Tonga as Cook did stop there in addition to New Zealand, Tahiti, Kiribati and, of course, Hawaii. However, there was exactly two pages on Tonga. I‘ll have to find another book. This was a good view into Cook‘s third voyage of discovery though. It illustrated well the geographical and cultural differences between the islands and it really highlighted how the European and Oceania cultures clashed.

#ReadingOceania2024 #Tuvalu Although another “palagi‘s” (outsider‘s) POV, unlike Troost, Ells worked in Tuvalu. As the People‘s lawyer or public defender he had real inside knowledge of at least how customs and the law interacted and has very interesting stories of crime on the islands. As the country is very small, everyone knows everyone else‘s business which definitely impacts legal proceedings. Plus he knew Prime Ministers and Presidents

#readingoceania2024 #vanuatu I am getting a bit tired of the “my year in ….” (Name of South Pacific island) format but he keeps things light and moving and you do catch a bit of history and culture although much of what you catch is being a foreigner there. I learned a bit about cannibalism. I am slowly getting a glimpse of the differences between all the countries in Oceania. Just wish I could locate some better literature along the way

#readingoceania2024 #australia Fictionalized account of a real historical figure who was known as a bit of an Australian Robin Hood. Largely written as an explanation of events from Ned Kelly to his daughter it has a rough plot construction. I would have liked to hear more from other characters to have gotten more context but I did learn some Australian history along the way.

#readingoceania2024 #kiribati A really wonderful illustrated chronicle of a trip to Kiribati. The authors and illustrators were curious in all the right ways and you get historical timelines, maps, about 30 little vignettes where you learn everything from what kind of fish to eat to how one shouldn‘t eat breadfruit before playing bingo. The illustrations are really well done and show everything including how to get your woman to come back to 👇

#readingOceania2024 #palau #belau A significant collection of poetry, short stories and excerpts from across Micronesia including Kiribati and Palau. It leans heavily on work from Guam (Guahan). I couldn‘t find a Palau book so I am using this. The editorial was quite good. The quality of the writing is very high and the groupings are well done

#ReadingOceania2024 #Fiji I‘ve been reading A.S. Byatt so almost any book would seem slight in comparison but this was a nice mystery with a very unhard boiled protagonist detective. The book is set in an island paradise where British colonials have decided to import indentured servants from India to slave in the sugar plantations rather than disrupt the natives way of life. Racial, gender and class struggles illuminated without a heavy hand.

#readingoceania2024 #palau Looking for something from or about Palau and saw this. Now I am just posting to warn others. This was written by AI and is a truly horrible example of AI. It is repetitive and goes into no detail. The phrase “significant impact” or “significant changes” is in every paragraph without sharing what those impacts and changes were. I read it as it was very short but highly recommend that others stay away.

#readingoceania2024 #antartica I selected this for my Antarctica reading as it has some amazing black and white photographs taken during Shackleton‘s failed expedition to the South Pole by photographer Frank Hurley. Shackleton‘s story of amazing leadership and perseverance comes alive in all its brutal cold conditions in the photographs. The book, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, is also fairly well written.

#Readingoceania2024 #Marshallislands Although this book falls squarely in the travel genre known as “my one year in______”, unlike most books from Peace Corp volunteers, this author has a lovely sense of humor, is capable of some self insights and knows how to write. We spend a year with him in a very small outer atoll island village and learn with him much about their language, culture and way of life. Thoroughly enjoyable and informative

#Readingoceania2024. #Micronesian This novel is one disturbing read that not only challenges the myth of tropical paradises but shows a glaring light on western scientific greed. There are two narrators, the main character and his editor who writes in the footnotes. Both are unreliable and morally suspect. Although a slow read, and chilling, it is worth the effort.

#readaroundtheworld #libya Bookwormy has exited Litsy. I will miss her. This book is both a memoir of the author‘s search for his father who had been kidnapped by Qaddafi, but also a careful look at the politics surrounding Libya‘s historical revolutions, and finally how one grieves when one can not be sure of the death of the person you mourn. Slightly chronologically confusing but otherwise well written.

#readingoceania2024 #Papuanewguinea A story about the inspiration of teachers and their ability to open horizons through the love of a good book, in this case Great Expectations. However, set in the middle of an horrific and brutal civil war. Moving read.

#readaroundtheworld #finland Published in the 1950‘s, but set during the WWII when Finland found itself trapped between Russia and Germany. Their stories are told from the point of view of the common soldiers who were undisciplined, starving and wearing rags while their German partners had nice uniforms, were very disciplined but nevertheless considered fools. Each war story is a kind of folktale and all are chilling in an off center way.

#readaroundtheworld #ukraine I love Bulgakov‘s The Master and Margarita and this is not quite up to that. The novel reads almost like a cinematic script with the city of Kiev playing a leading role. It is 1918 and there are White Russians, Red Bolshevik's, Ukrainian national socialists, Germans and our title group; the White Guard who are Ukrainians loyal to the memory of the tsar. A flowing easy read and a wonderful history lesson.

#ReadAroundtheWorld #Poland Not a holiday read, but a good one. Our Mrs Seidenman is not so much the main character as the pivot point around which a dozen or so players are introduced to us as the Warsaw ghetto crumbles in 1943. We see the impact on them now, but then the author shows us their whole life‘s trajectory and sometimes their death. In this way we are shown the threads of everyday people‘s lives in the web of historic moments.

Onward Wharton readers - one of my favorite Correggios….

#readaroundtheworld #jamaica A near allegorical telling of the people‘s lives in a low down neighborhood of Kingston and their desire to fly free. The tale travels back and forth in time as we learn about Ma Taffy, her daughter by upbringing but not birth Gina and Gina‘s son Kaia. The author almost teases with young adult fare and then turns around and slaps us for falling for that. I learned a lot about Rastafarian and Bobo Shanti beliefs.

#ReadingtheAmericas2023 #Stkitt If desperate to find a St Kitt and Nevis book, this children‘s book which takes less than an hour to read, might do. A boy, a girl and a monkey find themselves time traveling to a key historical moment for St Kitt. With their help they change history. The British win instead of the French. Strange way to teach history to children though, but with goggle‘s help I learned a bit.

#readingtheamericas2023 #honduras What starts out as an allegorical tale of western man‘s relationship to nature slowly turns into a psychological thriller. The narrator is a young teenaged boy and his relationship with his egotistic father careens from worship to loathing as the father‘s hubris brings destruction to his family and as nature does what she does best - surprise!

#readaroundtheworld #egypt A story of multiple romances and a murder told through the eyes of 4 separate character‘s narrations. Mahfouz, the Nobel Prize winning author, manages to give us a lens into these characters lives while reflecting the romance and betrayals of the Egyptian Revolution. However, Zohra, the strong willed and beautiful young woman who is at the center of the plot does not get her own narration. Alexandria sounds wonderful

#readingtheamericas2023 #canada Wonderful character study of a young orphan who struggles to build a life for herself of her own design. The main character becomes a mother and a writer and the nature of storytelling in both these roles provides rich layers on top of her simple outer life, her deep inner life and her complicated loves. Plus she lives by a river that flows in two directions.

#Guadeloupe #ReadingtheAmericas2023 I should have started with a different book by Condé as her latest and last book is a parody of the life of Jesus who is born a bastard in Guadeloupe. I did not have the background for it either in her voice or humor. The telling comes very much from the verbal story sharing tradition and there are persistent sneers at history and religion written by colonials but it was slow and pointless to my ears.

#readingtheamericas2023 #colombia This memoir recounts the author‘s traumatic childhood in Colombia. It captures a totally non western perspective on her family‘s interactions with ghosts, water spirits, and being able to foresee the future. Coming from a long line of healers, our magical realism is simply realism to this author. All people and places have their stories and this is a unique and powerful perspective on their ability to heal.

#readaroundtheworld #democraticrepublicofthecongo After reading my last Congo book I really wanted to learn more of the history of that region. This non-fiction well researched book provides great information about the atrocities the Belgian king and his henchmen visited upon the people of the Congo River watershed and the brave journalists and advocates who fought to make it known to the world. To paraphrase Kurtz: “the horror, the horror”

#readaroundtheworld #democraticrepublicofthecongo #zaire A short novel that starts as a relationship between a prostitute and a high level minister in the government and ever so slowly reveals itself as something more. Both our main characters have ties to their tribal culture and both believe that certain acts must be done to free themselves from uncertainty. Ultimately a metaphor for a country struggling with self determination.

#readaroundtheworld #turkmemistan Not badly done graphically and it did have some insights but I was put off by the author gently mocking the Turkmenistans for their assumptions about Americans. It was humorous and I am sure that they did believe all Americans were rich and routinely got into gun fights but nevertheless…

#readaroundtheworld #turkmenistan I found this graphic novel for Turkmenistan. It looks interesting.

#Readingtheamericas2023 #monserrat A bit of a cheat given this is a YA adaptation of the original autobiography but it is what the library delivered. I will go back and look for the original to read. Meanwhile this was quite impactful as a first hand narrative of the horrors of slavery. Only partially taking place on Montserrat but there are very few books about Monserrat..

#readingtheamericas2023 #haiti Although the ghost of Haitian hardships permeates this short book, the story is a story of mother / daughter relationships. The pain of one generation is handed down to the next. The love of one generation gives strength to the generations that follow. Still, one generation‘s memories become the weight that the next generation must carry.

#readaroundtheworld #grenada I read a book about contemporary Grenada history not long ago so looked for a book that was less historical. This selection was a long slow read with little driving plot but I fell into it and enjoyed the family interactions. Pynter is a boy born blind who regains his sight and participates in the country‘s revolt. However, what captivated me was his relationship with his father, mother, aunts, twin and nephew.

#anguilla #readingtheamericas2023

#martinique #readingtheamericas2023 Remarkable story of an island people and how they came to build a small place of their own, a shantytown named after the fuel tanks. It is the memories, writings and narrated stories as told to an urban planner by a woman of incredible strength. Translated from French but full of Creole dialect. A rambling, messy wonderful book.

#Guyana #readaroundtheworld #readingtheamericas2023 A prose poem of no western logic. An indigenous woman who was abused by her master, kills him before fleeing. It is only one of his deaths. A boat, crewed by dead men who struggle to grasp life, chases after her. Our narrator is the dreamer. Our captain is a metaphor for colonial exploitation. The images are of the wilds of 16th century Guyana. I didn‘t understand it but it was still good.

#Ecuador #readaroundthewotld #readingtheamericas2023 Set in the time of the first cacao bonanza of the early 1900‘s in Ecuador, this murder mystery has our main character disguised as a man to find the killer. It was difficult to credit that she could pull that off given her character but it was an entertaining read. Plus as a chocolate lover I find anything to do with chocolate is appreciated.

#readingtheamericas2023 #DominicanRepublic Fictionalized account of four sisters who tell their story of growing up under Trujillo‘s ruthless dictatorship. The tale begins with the one surviving sister reflecting back on their relationship with their parents and each other. The pace quickens when they speak of their husbands, their fears, their children, surviving in prison and standing up for freedom. “The Butterflies” still evoke 👇

#Readingtheamericas2023 #aruba Beautiful, smart prostitute with heart of gold and the men (on Aruba) who loved her. Slow and at 490 pages seemingly endless. I skipped over sex scenes and it was still endless. Some of the characters well drawn, some two dimensional. The good thing was it really did give me a look at Aruba. The bad thing was it felt like a waste of time. Ah well, on to Ecuador..

#readingthamericas2023 #argentina Turning the masculine gaucho stereotype on its head, this love song to the pampas tells of Martín Fierro‘s wife and her traveling companions. The myth of Empire as progress clashes with our characters traveling back to a better time within a traditional Indigenous culture. Gender roles are fluid, mushrooms abound, and sexual encounters are described with modern detail. Booker International short list

#readaroundtheworld #seychelles I‘m not a fan of short stories but this was so much better than Seychelles Idyll I was delighted. Many of the vignettes are simply the author reminiscing about some of the events, lore and characters on the islands where he lived for 20 years. The islands themselves with their beautiful and dangerous lagoons are the main character. The stories were uneven but I did learn a lot about the culture and history.

#ReadAroundTheWorld #Seychelles Written by a London policeman who was seconded to the then Crown Colony of the Seychelles right before their independence. It is supposed to be fiction but it is written as if it was notes taken on his trip: beautiful beaches, odd characters, mating giant turtles, and many British career civil servants with much drinking. I think I better find another option for the month. Has anyone else found anything good?

#readingtheamericas2023 #nicaragua Rushdie visits Nicaragua in 1986 when the FLSN are still idealistic after their election victory in 1979 but fighting a civil war with the Contra insurgents. He admits to only capturing a moment in time but the personal insights he brings to that moment are well presented.

#readingtheamericas2023 #grenada. Difficult read as all the dialogue is in Creole and the Revolution and US invasion is told through the voice of individuals experiencing it in the confusion of the moment. Hard to completely connect with the characters but nevertheless an interesting read.

#readaroundtheworld #Scotland The streets and housing schemes of Glasgow are once again the setting forStuart‘s second novel about a young man finding a place for himself with an alcoholic mother, a capable older sister and a violent older brother. The detailed descriptions, the realistic secondary characters and the tension of the plot combine to enhance the love story amidst extreme violence.

#readingtheamericas2023. #uruguay Not the poetic, multi-voice brilliance of Memory of Fire but nevertheless an interesting history of the whole world through small vignettes of key people. Like all history, this one comes with a point of view. We hear about the enslaved as well as the enslavers, we hear about South and Central America, not just Europe and North America. Plus, who knew, the history of the world is full of women.

I thought I should read an indigenous author for the US prompt for #ReadingtheAmericas2023 Erdrich is a Chippewa from Minneapolis and owns a bookstore. Our MC works in Louise‘s fictional bookstore and struggles with her own sense of self and with a ghost. The story takes place in the early days of the pandemic when we were all a bit haunted. The sentence of the title is both a grammatical language construct and a time of incarceration.

#Readingtheamericas2023 #Mexico I have not read many Mexican authors but the ones I have read tend to make the peasants and tenant farmers the heroes of the revolutionary story. Here we have a story about owners holding onto their land. Truly the book is a touch slow, a touch too sentimental, a bit too much magical realism with sentient bees. However, there is a fully realized female character and a simple reading style that I loved.

#Readintheamericas2023 #puertorico A love story to a city and a woman that could never be held onto. The author captures both the love and bitter despair as he walks the streets of San Juan. The argument about authors from Spain not being the center of Hispanic literature unbalances the ending but otherwise I thought it unique and worthy as it captured the in between and confused state of Puerto Rico while giving me a lusty love story.

#ReadingtheAmericas2023 #Barbados An example of how different a reading versus listening experience can be. The beautifully lyrical accents of the narrators creates a light mood but the content is not at all light. The stories reflect sex trafficking, domestic abuse, and broken homes. The voices are often of children or innocents and their naïveté really caused a chill. An interesting book to be able to hear the warmth and feel the chill.

#ReadingtheAmericas2023 #Jamaica James‘ debut novel illustrating the extremes of religious fervor in Jamaica in 1957. The good versus evil paradigm significantly shifted here with some obeah and magical realism thrown in. The writing holds up though. It is violent and graphic so it didn‘t go well with my holiday spirit but better to end the year with this than begin a year with it. My first #ReadingtheAmericas2023