Around the World in 80 Books discussion

✅ 1. Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number by Jacobo Timerman (Argentina)
✅ 2. The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier (Haiti)
✅ 3. The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner (El Salvador)
✅ 4. The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-Hwan (North Korea)
5. The Longest Winter: Scott's Other Heroes by Meredith Hooper (Antarctica)
✅ 6. The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom by Simon Winchester (China)
7. A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos by Dava Sobel (Poland)
8. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (Afghanistan)
9. Four for a Boy by Mary Reed (Turkey)
✅ 10. The Wild Coast by Jan Carew (Guyana)
11. The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Denmark)
✅ 12. Death of the Demon by Anne Holt (Norway)
13. A Better Man by Louise Penny (Canada)
✅ 14. Paradise for Sale: A Parable of Nature by Carl N. McDaniel (Nauru)
✅ 15. Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill (Laos)
✅ 16. Arrivals and Arrests by Diana Xarissa (UK)
17. Little Tiny Teeth by Aaron Elkins (Brazil)
✅ 18. The Beggar King by Oliver Pötzsch (Germany)
✅ 19. Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie (Iraq)
20. Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason (Iceland)
21. A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor (Ireland)
✅ 22. Tears of the Jaguar by A.J. Hartley (Mexico)
23. The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russia)
✅ 24. South Pacific Survivor: In Samoa by Kevin Daley (Samoa)

January - Argentina

1. Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number by Jacobo Timerman, 12 Jan 2021

This book was not a simple read. I find I have trouble with South/Latin American authors because of a difference in writing style. I notice the same when reading Isabel Allende or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In addition the information about the book claimed it was about a journalist who becomes a political prisoner in 1970s Argentina. This was true and it happened. The parts of the book that related his experiences as a prisoner were compelling and disturbing.

The book however was less about his imprisonment than about Argentine politics with the author throwing around leftist and rightist Peronist terrorists along with assorted military groups and Communists and more factions and more factions. My mind blurred.

Then about halfway through it appeared his real message was about anti-Semitism which was hammered particularly hard in the last quarter of the book. This was where he got especially repetitive with the same anecdotes and thoughts appearing on consecutive pages. I expected better writing from a journalist. Overall I can't give it more than 3 stars.

February - China
6. The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom by Simon Winchester, 23 Feb 2021

This was a very densely written biography. The life of Joseph Needham - Cambridge don, Communist, nudist, early advocate of open marriages, and advocate for China. Needham became interested in China through his mistress Lu Gwei-jen. His first extended visit took place during World War II as a British diplomat whose mission was to help the universities and scientists of China as they struggled through the ongoing China-Japan war. He traveled throughout the wide reaches of China poking into dark corners and forgotten libraries collecting stories of China's grand past and unparalleled inventiveness. Upon his return to Britain he began his lifelong work of writing Science and Civilization of China that was supposed to be ten volumes in ten years but ended up taking the next forty years of his life (and may still be ongoing).

Interesting book, interesting man. I almost find myself wanting to find one or more volumes of his magnum opus and see if I can work my way through it. Almost, but not quite.

March - Guyana
10. The Wild Coast by Jan Carew, 13 Mar 2021

I have requested this title by inter-library loan. Hope it comes in soon enough to allow time to finish it.

I'm still sorting out my feelings about this. Culturally it was so different from most of what I read that at times I felt like I was along for the ride. Set in Guyana on the north coast of South America this book was written by a native and consequently has a very authentic feel. The characters speak in a pidgin similar to what I have heard when visiting Jamaica or the Bahamas.

A coming of age story about young Hector Bradshaw, he was not the most memorable character. Coming of age stories seem to have a sameness to them and Hector did not stand out from the crowd of other youth whose stories I've read. He is the youngest of three children and sickly. His grossly inattentive father who had farmed the raising of his children out to a maiden aunt decides to send Hector to his own childhood home in the village of Tarlogie and has Sister Smart (not a nun, just another spinster) take charge of raising him. She is rather old fashioned and determined that Hector will learn to act his part as a member of a major landowning family.

Hector's family never straightens out. His father is still dissolute and immature at the end. Hector's sisters have not grown out of their disdain for a little brother. His maiden aunt still wants to trample down any sense of life and happiness in Hector's life (a possible reason his father is the way he is?). There is more growth in Sister Smart and her friend the local pastor. Even a significant amount of growth in both of hunter Doorne's sons with one coming into his own as the village shaman. But Hector's birth family seems to have been put in place and then frozen.

Hector is befriended by an old hunter named Doorne who plays multiple roles in this story. He is a friend to Hector, stern father to his own adult sons, dream/nightmare memory for Elsa (Hector's father's previous kept woman and then "wife" of Doorne's son), witch doctor in the old African rites still practiced in the village. In other words he is a real person who is many things to many people and very complex. He is the character I think of most often as I consider the novel.

This book was recommended in a book published about great book club books and I agree. The story was complex, dynamic and very believable. I enjoyed the look into Guyana's village life. I enjoyed seeing the many different well-drawn characters who I can relate to people I know.

April - Germany

18. The Beggar King by Oliver Pötzsch, 28 Apr 2021

Third in the Hangman's Daughter series by Oliver Potzsch this was not up to par for the previous two books. I felt like the plot moved very slowly and there were a lot of different plot threads going at once which contributed to the slow movement. The banter between Magdalena and Simon seemed more forced, as though the relationship needs to move one way or another and holding it in this same place is no longer working.

Potzsch's feel for his area in southern Germany and the 1600s era are very well done. He gets the feel of medieval Germany and portrays the characters very well. Where a 21st century person would be horrified by some of the things that happen, his characters accept it as a normal part of life. He doesn't get out of his settings by making them modern people living in the past. Sometimes modern me has a hard time going into his well-researched past however.

May - Samoa

24. South Pacific Survivor: In Samoa by Kevin Daley, 14 May 2021

I only gave this book 2 stars. Too many things going on at once. Relationships between characters never felt real. Dialogue was poor. Just a big pissing contest with everyone stabbing everyone else in the back unless they happened to be sleeping with them at the moment. Sad because I was looking forward to this setting.

June - Haiti

2. The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier, 24 Jun 2021

This was a very moving book about the early 1800s in Haiti. It covered several revolutions as black slaves attempted to gain freedom first from whites and then from other black and eventually from mulattos. Following the life of Ti Noel we see the life of Haiti's slaves first hand and learn of their own society within the French society of the masters. The first two slave revolts are put down but create so much havoc in Haiti that the white French control seemed to collapse on its own. Henri Christophe, a black former restauranteur, becomes king while we are away in Cuba. He is no better than the whites had been and treats the common people as slave labor for his building projects without even allowing them to return to their homes at night. Then mulattos take over and begin a system that looks very much like collectivism though Ti Noel doesn't explain that very well.

A great lesson in the power of power to corrupt. This book also shows that there is an animal in most of us that can be let loose by the smallest disruptions in society (mass rape of all white women during the second slave revolt - Ti Noel participates). A short book but extremely well written. Deserves to be a Caribbean classic.

July - Laos

15. Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill, 3 Jul 2021

This is the second book of a fun series set in Laos just after the Pathet Lao took over the government and made it communist. Dr. Siri Paiboun is the national coroner largely because they have a drastic shortage of doctors and although in his 70s Siri is still kicking. Some paranormal comes in with his ability to see the spirits of the dead. These are funny and easy to read and offer a look into how another nation lives and how they view Americans. I had previously read books 1, 9, and 11 by reading what I could find. Now several of them are part of Audible Plus so I'll be knocking out a few over the summer.

August - Norway

12. Death of the Demon by Anne Holt, 17 Aug 2021

I love Anne Holt's writing. Enough that I am willing to overlook the obscenities that usually cause me to DNF books. This one was a bit different. There were plenty of red herrings. A bit too much angst in Hanne's relationship with Cecelie - hoping that will tone down. The end however threw me. I still don't know for sure who did it. There are two possibilities and even reading the ending twice didn't make it clear.

September - El Salvador

3. The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner, 18 Sep 2021

This was a difficult book to read. A massacre is never a fun topic, however, watching my own nation's coverup of the atrocity unfold because they so desperately wanted to play "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" that they were willing to pretend it never happened made it worse. As I get older my tolerance for war gets smaller. There is too much of man's inhumanity toward man and not nearly enough trying to understand someone else's point of view. I remember when things got hot down in El Salvador. I was in Germany by the time this massacre occurred and I am certain it was never in the Stars and Stripes. The US fault in this is shameful.

October - Mexico

Tears of the Jaguar by A.J. Hartley, 18 Oct 2021

This took a long time to read. While Deborah Miller is the main character the story is told from nearly a dozen different viewpoints. There are so many bad guys from different organizations I had trouble keeping them separated. All of them knew of the discovery within hours and had boots on the ground in Mexico by the following morning. Really? Few of the characters were likable in any way. Some like Alice were purely pathetic. The plot was way too chaotic.

November - North Korea

The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-Hwan, 13 Nov 2021

The reviews claimed this was terrifying so I was a bit leery. Perhaps it might be terrifying if you haven't read much WWII Holocaust material or Siberian gulag memoirs. Truthfully, what is happening in North Korea is terrible. It is what I expect in any nation ruled by a communist government and I think it would make Marx roll over in his grave. The implementations are never in line with what he visualized. They come out as simply another strong man with no care for his nation and people but only caring for power. The difference between Saddam Hussein and Kim Il-sung is largely in the tighter control over news and more willingness to kill any of the common people to accomplish goals rather than just the marginalized people.

Chol-hwan's story about how his family held together through their incarceration was the bright point. So many holocaust stories are every man for himself. Even though he talks about not really knowing his sister until they were released because they were to tired to talk the family still came together and supported one another. How hard must it have been for him to leave them behind when he went to China? Were they punished for his speaking out? Probably. They may even have been sent back to the camps for his actions. He brings up good points about humanitarian aid. Do you send food to feed starving North Koreans and let the Kim dynasty save hard cash for weapons purchases that should have been spent on importing food? Or do you refuse to send food letting millions starve and the "Great Leader" lets that happen because he's not willing to forgo the weapons and besides they will breed more slave labor anyway? I don't know.

December - Nauru

Paradise for Sale: A Parable of Nature by Carl N. McDaniel, 25 Dec 2021

This focuses very strongly on environmental responsibility. The authors tell the story of Nauru against the backdrop of several other south Pacific islands and some small non-island areas. They point out what worked well for sustainability of life and the bioecology of an area and what didn't work well including how long it took to be able to see the devastating effects of humans on that environment. They want to encourage people to live with the earth (using WITH in the definition of completely in tune) rather than living on it (using ON in the definition of profiting from, taking advantage of). Overall I was pleased with this. It has me thinking about how to be more gentle with the environment in my own life. But not gardening yet. Maybe more landscaping with lots of local flora?