Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Started with the bottom line,
E1 Minaret by Leila Aboulela set in London and Khartoum, I didn't read any book set in Sudan last year. Interesting and well written.

E2 A book about a journey The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn. This is her second book, hard to follow The Salt Path but this is a journey, in more than one way... to find a new role in life after walking the SW coastal footpath, there's also a trek in Iceland.

E3 Rivers, lakes, or swamps
The RiverPeter Heller. This did have a river as an essential part of the story but there were too many flashbacks, detailed descriptions of fishing equipment for me.

Finishing off row E

E4 Medieval woman author The Treasure of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan

E5 Set in the southern hemisphere Isabel Allende's recently published Violeta - think I should have read this more slowly, regretting that I've finished!

Decided to go up the "5" column so my next read was epistolary.

D5 Lady Susan by Jane Austen, a short but engaging book that ends in a rather unsatisfactory way; the letter writers cease to correspond and there's a summary of how it ended.

Continuing my journey up the "5" column I came to translated woman author.
C5 The Tiger and the Acrobat by Susanna Tamaro original title La Tigre e l'Acrobata, translated from the Italian by Nicoleugenia Prezzavento and Vicki Satlow. This had the feel of a children's story with some adult reflections thrown in and some lovely line drawings. A short, reflective read but which didn't really engage me.

B5 - A local author Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay about 9 miles from where I live and this novel is set at her home Greenway (called Nass House in the novel) 16 miles away. I've visited Greenway several times so could picture the gardens, the river and the boathouse. I listened to a good audio version narrated by David Suchet, a good way to spend a day stuck at home with covid.

B2 Published in the last 3 years Agent Running in the Field

So I've had to interrupt my travels up the "5" column as I'm stuck at home with covid and have had to read what's to hand. I've spent today alternately reading and listening to this, the library had an audio version online with John Le Carré narrating. This is his swan song, he died in December 2020. An excellent listen and read.

C2 Classic Horror Dracula by Bram Stoker

Continuing my self isolation covid reading I found both an audio and ebook of Dracula on Overdrive. Should have had garlic soup last night instead of leek and potato!

C4 Between 100 & 200 pages A Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee

My 1973 Penguin edition (price 30p) ran to 122 pages. It was an interesting read for me to come back to, I first read it as a teenager after being enthralled by As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. Spain got under his skin and this comes across in his writing.

D1 Debut Novel Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

Multigenerational novel told through the voices of women, taking me from Miami and Texas to Mexico and Cuba.

D3 Historical Fiction The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker

The second of her 'Regeneration' novels set in England in 1918, this weaves fact and fiction as it follows the life of the working class officer Billy Prior still traumatised by the horrors of WW1. I now need to read the final book The Ghost Road.

A5 Non binary or trans author Spain by Jan Morris

Got back to finish my ascent of the "5" column. I missed this short travelogue/personal assessment of Spain when Morris revised the 1964 book in 1979, year when I was living and working in Spain for the first time. An interesting read (especially having just read A Rose for Winter) though I don't share Morris' assertion that (in Spain) "autocracy represents the natural order of things".

Congrats on finishing the 5 or E column! I'm glad to see Jan Morris is getting some attention as a writer due to this year's Magic Squares; I'll have to look up Spain. Forty years down the road it's a lot easier to see that autocracy is not the natural order of things in Spain; I wonder what her experience was in Franco's Spain to come up with that assessment.

B4 Nobel Laureate On Cats by Doris Lessing

Originally published in 1967 as Particularly Cats but added to and republished in 2008. Unsentimental look at her life with various cats.

Mome_Rath wrote: "Congrats on finishing the 5 or E column! I'm glad to see Jan Morris is getting some attention as a writer due to this year's Magic Squares; I'll have to look up Spain. Forty years down the road it'..."

I wonder too, despite that she has some interesting observations. The opening chapter likening Spain to El Escorial and giving a brief but intriguing overview of Spanish history is a great introduction.

B3 Set in Africa Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith

A trip to Botswana, rather thin on plot, a bit like a leggy plant that has shoots going in several directions but fails to bloom. A few years since I last read one of this series and it'll be a while before I go back.

D4 Translated from Korean The Vegetarian

Han Kang's disturbing novel dealing with mental health, going outside societal and familial norms. Translated into English by Deborah Smith.

love your concise reviews/ summaries of each book.

B1 Food themed Food

Some poems by Ogden Nash on the theme of food, he's not a fan of parsley.

D2 A 19th century classic Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë's tale of child abuse, coercive control and recklessness in a miserable climate with an unconvincing happy ending.

C1 Set in Canada / Canadian author Last Night in Montreal

My first encounter with Emily St. John Mandel, mystery, travel, pursuit, tight rope walking, language and family relationships. Takes you from Brooklyn to a wintery Montreal via an unusual US road trip. Will be reading more by this author.

A2 Biography/autobiography Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me

Kate Clanchy reflects through a series of chapters on her career as a teacher and writer in the English secondary sector. Beautifully written and stresses the importance of telling stories and finding a way for the voices of the less privileged to be heard.

C3 Sports or recreation A Woman's Game: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Women's Football

Suzanne Wrack, a sports journalist with the Guardian, examines not just the development of women's football but of women's rights in a very readable book. Published in June this year it now needs an extra chapter on the Lionesses' victory in the Euros.

A3 Main character with disability The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic children's novel, well worth a reread in the gloom of soggy late November here in Devon.

A1 Sci-Fi Radio Free Albemuth
Philip K. Dick's dark novel about a totalitarian USA

and just made it through all 25 squares with my final read finished on New Year's Eve

A4 Caribbean author The Mermaid of Black Conch by
Monique Roffey's tale of