Around the World discussion

Every year we look back and share the best and worst reads of the year for each of us - ready, set, go!

Best:
The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey
I Will Never See the World Again
Serenade for Nadia: A Novel
The Alice Network
The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow Turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American POWs
Love After Love
Against the Loveless World
Transcendent Kingdom

Worst:
America for Beginners
Baba Yaga Laid an Egg
The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain

I'm going wider than my official ATW list, as we all have different rules about what goes in and what we leave out. Overall, it's been a good reading year!

Best
Czech Republic - There Was Still Love
Australia - Scrublands
Armenia - Three Apples Fell from the Sky
Canada - The Glass Hotel
Unnamed - The Rain Heron
Syria - The Stray Cats of Homs
Nigeria - The Death of Vivek Oji
England - Sorrow and Bliss
Trinidad - Love After Love

The book that will stay with me long after this extraordinary year is over, is Sorrow and Bliss

Worst
Australia - The Resilience Project
China - The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Wales - Abigale Hall *
England - Mr. Nobody
Nepal - The Himalayan Summer *
Australia - Prick with a Fork (still reading...)

* I couldn't bring myself to finish these ones.

Oh my favourite thread of the year!

I will return to this after I do my annual wrapup on my blog. I always try to squeeze a few more in, you know how it is. :)

This was a record year of reading for me, due to circumstances. That being said, the "best" will be confined to 5-star reads, and the "worst" will be confined to 1-star & 2-star reads. The majority of "worst" reads are set in the US and won't make the list.

Best
Kristin Lavransdatter (Norway)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Japan)
The Devotion of Suspect X (Japan)
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood (South Africa)
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (Brazil)
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (Nigeria)
And Then There Were None (UK)
Diary of a Madman and Other Stories (Russia)
The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore (Ireland)
The Sea, The Sea (UK)
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (North Korea)
Phineas Finn (UK)
Poems by Charles Baudelaire (France)
Bel-Ami (France)
Letter from an Unknown Woman and Other Stories (Austria)
Clarimonde and Other Stories (France)
The Robber Bride (Canada)
The Selected Poems of Li Po (China)
A Season in Hell (France)
The Flowers of Evil (France)
Sappho (Greece)
The Mayor of Casterbridge (UK)
Germinal (France)
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law (Eritrea)
Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (Kenya)
Labyrinths (Argentina)


The Worst
Ungirls (South Africa)
There's a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed (Spanish author)
Gimmick! (Netherlands)
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (France)
Eat Him if You Like (France)
The Elementary Particles (France)
The 120 Days of Sodom (France)
The Enigma of Constantine the Great (Andorran author)

Diane, pronounced "djən" wrote: "This was a record year of reading for me, due to circumstances. That being said, the "best" will be confined to 5-star reads, and the "worst" will be confined to 1-star & 2-star reads. The majority..."

Great list Diane - will have to check out some on your Best list.

I loved The Sea The Sea - it had an impact on me. The end made me feel sad and a little teary but also 'wow'. I also love Anthony Trollope - I've read Phineas Finn a few times now. An excellent look at political machinations.

I just finished another "best" book, The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer, set in Austria.

Now That I've written up the marathon post of Best Reads of 2020, I can post here!

I read books by authors from 34 different countries:

Outstanding Read of 2020
A Ghost In The Throat by Doireann Ni Ghriofa (Ireland)

The Best Fiction
Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin (France)
The Book of Harlan by Bernice McFadden (US)
Quicksand by Nella Larsen (US)
Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe)
Circe by Madeline Miller (US)
The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (Argentina)
A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (Italy)
Auē by Becky Manawatu (New Zealand)

Best Non Fiction
Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao (Taiwan/China)
Atlantis: A Journey in Search of Beauty by Carlo & Renzo Piano (Italy)
Handiwork by Sara Baume (Ireland)
A Spell in the Wild: A Year (and Six Centuries) of Magic by Alice Tarbuck (Scotland)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isobel Wilkerson (US)
On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing Persons by Laura Cumming (UK)

Book That Kept Me Going Through 2 Months of Total Confinement
Courageous Dreaming: How Shamans Dream the World into Being by Alberto Villoldo (Cuba/US)

Books That Gave Me Solace Through the Grief of Losing a Loved One
The Grief Recovery Handbook: The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses including Health, Career, and Faith by John W James
Sacred Oils: Working with 20 Precious Oils to Heal Spirit and Soul by Felicity Warner
Angelic Attendants: What Really Happens As We Transition From This Life Into The Next by Julie Ryan

Now 2020 is done!

Best:
Washington Black - Barbados, Canada, UK
The Water Rat of Wanchai - Canada, Hong Kong, Guyana, British Virgin Islands, Thailand
Still Life - Canada
Crazy Rich Asians - Singapore
Last place was a bit of a toss up, but let's go with The Cellist of Sarajevo - Bosnia

Worst:
Two star read - She Plays with the Darkness - Lesotho
And the one star read of the year - The Blood Spilt - Sweden

A brief recap of my 2020 reading journeys! You can go here for my full thread. And here's a map of where I read for people who like visual data.

In total, I visited 14 countries.

BEST
— Mexican Gothic (Mexico); review
— Hurricane Season (Mexico); review
— The Ghost Bride (Malaysia); review
— Butter Honey Pig Bread (Nigeria); review



WORST
— It Is Wood, It Is Stone (Brazil); review
— In Thrall to the Enemy Commander (Egypt); review
— Bohemian Gospel (Czech Republic); review
— Mark of the Lion (Kenya); review

I LOVE your map and I'm copying the idea for 2021.

I might make two - one for Europe 2021 (where I'm focused) and one for all Around the World reading that I end up doing anyway.

I also loved Mexican Gothic and didn't even finish It is Wood, It is Stone. It has such a great cover but it ended up just being a white lady novel and was so disappointing.

Thanks, Jenny!! I started doing the map back in 2015, but I never thought to share it until now. Looking forward to seeing yours!

Ugh, It Is Wood just...no. So frustrating. I know it was silly to make assumptions, but I had hoped that a Brazilian-born author would write a story that was more...Brazilian.