books | international a-z | – ~ wander.essence ~

As a connoisseur of books, I traipse through a destination, before embarking on my journey, by way of literary fiction, travel stories, or memoirs. Sometimes, though not often, I read historical accounts. I enjoy the process of immersing myself in a place before I go, getting a feel for the culture, the people, and what defines a place. Reading ignites my imagination about a place and its inhabitants. It also extends my travel time. 🙂

The following list of books, set in countries all over the world, is a work in process. I invite readers to suggest additional books set in these locales in the comments below. I’m most interested in including memoir, literary fiction, historical accounts or essays, and even guidebooks. Links to Goodreads and star ratings (1-5) are provided for books I’ve read; if you click on them you may be able to read my review (if I wrote one!). The ones in bold green are books I own but haven’t read. The others are suggestions for future reading. 🙂

GENERAL WORLD TRAVEL BOOKS

The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton *****
The Mindful Traveler: A Guide to Journaling and Transformative Travel by Jim Currie *****
The Way of the Traveler: Making Every Trip a Journey of Self-Discovery by Joseph Dispenza *****
The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred by Phil Cousineau ****
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert *****
A Woman’s Path: Women’s Best Spiritual Travel Writing, ed. Lucy McCauley ****
Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach ****
Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman by Alice Steinbach
Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents by Elisabeth Eaves ****
Griffin and Sabine (Griffin & Sabine #1) by Nick Bantock *****
Sabine’s Notebook (Griffin & Sabine #2) by Nick Bantock
The Golden Mean (Griffin & Sabine #3) by Nick Bantock
the way of the wanderer: discover your true self through travel by David Yeadon ***
Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers by Nancy Pearl
The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and a Life-Changing Journey Around the World by Kim Dinan
Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign by Pico Iyer
Video Night in Kathmandu and Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East by Pico Iyer
To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey From Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret by Jedidiah Jenkins
Nomad’s Hotel: Travels in Time and Space by Cees Nooteboom
Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings by Paul Theroux
Figures in a Landscape by Paul Theroux
The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road by Paul Theroux
One Year Off by David Elliott Cohen
Travel, Sex, & Train Wrecks by Julie Morey (Kindle)
Wanderland: Living the Traveling Life by Kate Evans
Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel
Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations (Journeys of a Lifetime) by National Geographic Society
the singular pilgrim: travels on sacred ground by Rosemary Mahoney
Unsuitable for Ladies: An Anthology of Women Travelers, Ed. Jane Robinson
A Woman Alone: Travel Tales from Around the Globe, Ed. by Faith Conlon, Ingrid Emerick
1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List by Patricia Schultz
The Solo Traveler’s Handbook by Janice Leith Waugh
The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook by Janice Leith Waugh
The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats by Daniel Stone
National Geographic Student World Atlas (4th Edition)
Merriam-Webster’s Student Atlas
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

BOOKS SET IN PARTICULAR COUNTRIES

Afghanistan ↓
1. It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life in Love & War by Lynsey Addario (also Iraq, Sudan, Libya) *****
2. The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam
3. The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban by Sarah Chayes
4. An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot
5. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini ****
6. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (saw the play 1/26/20)
7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini ****
8. 99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai
9. The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
10. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad ****
11. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
12. American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Grant by Ann Scott Tyson
13. A Door in the Earth by Amy Waldman
Albania ↓
1. The Accursed Mountains: Journeys in Albania by Robert Carver
2. Agamemnon’s Daughter: A Novella and Stories by Ismail Kadare
3. Broken April by Ismail Kadare
4. Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare
Algeria ↓
1. The Lovers of Algeria by Anouar Benmalek
2. The Stranger by Albert Camus
3. The Star of Algiers by Aziz Chouaki
4. Women of Algiers in their Apartment by Assia Djebar
5. The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier (Tunisia. Crete. Turkey.)
6. Some Dream for Fools by Faïza Guène, Jennifer L. Johnson (Translator), Jenna Johnson (Translator)
7. Nedjma by Yacine Kateb
8. The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris by Leïla Marouane **
9. The Last Life by Claire Messud
10. Century of Locusts by Malika Mokeddem
Andorra ↓
1. If You Dare (MacCarrick Brothers #1) by Kresley Cole (historical romance)
Angola ↓
1. A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa ****
2. Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuściński
3. Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey Into Angola by Daniel Metcalfe
Antigua and Barbuda ↓
1. Dancing Nude in the Moonlight by Joanne C. Hillhouse
2. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
3. Mr. Potter by Jamaica Kincaid
Argentina ↓
1. An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by César Aira
2. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
3. In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
4. Enduring Patagonia by Gregory Crouch
5. We Came Here to Forget by Andrea Dunlop
6. Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez
7. The Tango Singer by Tomás Eloy Martínez
8. My Father’s Ghost is Climbing in the Rain by Patricio Pron
9. El Túnel by Ernesto Sábato
10. The Disappeared by Gloria Whelan
11. Lonely Planet Argentina
Armenia ↓
1. An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman
2. Three Apples Fell From Heaven by Micheline Aharonian Marcom
3. The Crossing Place: A Journey Among the Armenians by Philip Marsden
4. Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian ****
5. Daughter of War by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Australia ↓
1. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
2. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
3. Tracks by Robyn Davidson
4. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
5. The Secret River (Thornhill Family #1) by Kate Grenville
6. The Dry by Jane Harper
7. Force of Nature by Jane Harper
8. The Survivors by Jane Harper
9. One for the Road: An Outback Adventure by Tony Horwitz
10. The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding by Robert Hughes
11. Two Old Men Dying by Tom Keneally
12. dream stuff: stories by David Malouf ***
13. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough *****
14. Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
15. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
16. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
17. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
18. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
19. Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
20. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Molly Ringland
21. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute *****
22. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
23. The Inland Sea by Madeleine Watts
24. The Yield by Tara June Winch
25. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
26. Dirt Music by Tim Winton
27. The Turning by Tim Winton
28. On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu
29. Tasmania
  1. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Austria ↓
1. A Time of Gifts (Trilogy #1) by Patrick Leigh Fermor (& Germany, Hungary)
2. The Bells by Richard Harvell
3. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
4. Vienna
  1. The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende (+Arizona)
  2. The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict
  3. The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason
  4. The Fig Eater by Jody Shields
  5. Exile Music by Jennifer Steil (also Bolivia)
  6. All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer
Azerbaijan ↓
1. Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-rich, War-torn, Post-Soviet Republic by Thomas Goltz
2. The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss
3. Ali and Nino: A Love Story by Kurban Said
The Bahamas ↓
1. The Night Manager by John le Carré (also Cairo)
2. The Far Side of the Sun by Kate Furnivall
3. Kiss Heaven Goodbye by Tasmina Perry
4. Pirates! by Celia Rees
5. The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams
Bahrain ↓
1. The Meeting Point by Lucy Caldwell
Bangladesh ↓
1. A Golden Age (Bangla Desh #1) by Tahmima Anam
2. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass
3. Lajja: Shame by Taslima Nasrin
4. Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunnus ****
Barbados ↓
1. The Dream Keeper’s Daughter by Emily Colin
2. The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke
3. No Man in the House by Cecil Foster
4. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
5. Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire by Andrea Stuart
6. The Summer Country by Lauren Willig
Belarus ↓
1. Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future by Svetlana Alexievich
Belgium ↓
1. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
2. In the Company of Angels by N.M. Kelby (also France)
3. A Tall Man in a Low Land by Harry Pearson
4. The Bridge of Years: A Novel by May Sarton
Belize ↓
1. The Last Flight of the Scarlett Macaw by Bruce Barcott (Kindle)
2. Whiplash River by Lou Berney
3. Tequila Midnight by Kathryn Dodson
4. Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell
5. On Heroes, Lizards and Passion: Seven Belizean Short Stories by Zola Ellis
6. The Fallen Stones: Chasing Butterflies, Discovering Mayan Secrets, and Looking for Hope Along the Way by Diana Marcum
7. The Ultimate Belize Bucket List by Larry Waight
8. Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico by Ronald Wright
Benin
Bhutan ↓
1. Kingdom of the Golden Dragon by Isabel Allende
2. Tales in Colour and Other Stories by Kunzang Choden
3. Buttertea at Sunrise: A Year in the Bhutan Himalaya by Britta Das
4. Under the Holy Lake: A Memoir of Eastern Bhutan by Ken Haigh
5. A Painter’s Year in the Forests of Bhutan by A.K. Hellum
6. Dreams of the Peaceful Dragon: A Journey Through Bhutan by Katie Hickman
7. Falling Off the Map by Pico Iyer
8. A Field Guide to Happiness by Linda Leaming
9. Married to Bhutan by Linda Leaming
10. Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli
11. The Heart of the Buddha by Elsie Sze
12. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
13. Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey Into Bhutan by Jamie Zeppa
Bolivia ↓
1. Beyond the Snows of the Andes (Memoir) by Beatrice Brusic
2. Let Me Speak (Memoir) by Domitila Barrios de Chungara
3. The Bolivian Times by Tim Elliott
4. Purity by Jonathan Franzen
5. Lost in the Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival by Yossi Ghinsberg
6. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
7. Ghost Train Through the Andes: On My Grandfather’s Trail in Chile and Bolivia by Michael Jacobs
8. Whispering in the Giant’s Ear (Memoir) by William Powers
9. The Fat Man from La Paz (stories) edited by Rosario Santos
10. The Matter of Desire: A Novel by by Edmundo Paz Soldán, Lisa Carter, translator
11. Exile Music by Jennifer Steil (also Vienna, Austria)
12. Marching Powder (Autobiography) by Rusty Young & Thomas McFadden
Bosnia and Herzegovina ↓
1. The Stone Fields: Love & Death in the Balkans by Courtney Angela Brkic (Kindle) ****
2. Madness Visible: A Memoir of War by Janine di Giovanni
3. Speak, Silence by Kim Echlin (& The Hague) *****
4. Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War by Peter Maass
5. The Bosnia List: A Memoir of War, Exile and Return by Kenan Trebincevic
6. Sarajevo ↓
  1. Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood by Barbara Demick
  2. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway *****
  3. The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon (& Chicago)
  4. Goodbye Sarajevo: A True Story of Courage, Love and Survival by Atka Reid & Hana Schofield
Botswana ↓
1. When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head
2. Cry of the Kalahari by Mark and Delia Owens
3. Botswana Time by Will Randall
4. Mating by Norman Rush
5. Mortals by Norman Rush
6. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, #1) by Alexander McCall Smith *****
7. Tears of the Giraffe (#2) by Alexander McCall Smith
8. Morality for Beautiful Girls (#3) by Alexander McCall Smith
9. The Kalahari Typing School for Men (#4) by Alexander McCall Smith
10. The Full Cupboard of Life (#5) by Alexander McCall Smith
11. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (#6) by Alexander McCall Smith
12. Blue Shoes and Happiness (#7) by Alexander McCall Smith
13. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (#8) by Alexander McCall Smith
14. The Miracle at Speedy Motors (#9) by Alexander McCall Smith
15. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (#10) by Alexander McCall Smith
16. The Double Comfort Safari Club (#11) by Alexander McCall Smith
17. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
18. The Second Death of Good Luck Tinubu by Michael Stanley
Brazil ↓
1. In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende (& Guatemala & Chile)
2. Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado
3. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado
4. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
5. Tent of Miracles by Jorge Amado
6. The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma by Lima Barreto
7. A Land of Ghosts: The Braided Lives of People and the Forest in Far Western Amazonia by David G. Campbell
8. The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir by Fernando Henrique Cardoso
9. We Came Here to Forget by Andrea Dunlop
10. All Is Beauty Now by Sarah Faber
11. Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming
12. Blood of the Wicked (Chief Inspector Mario Silva #1) by Leighton Gage
13. Buried Strangers (Chief Inspector Mario Silva #2) by Leighton Gage
14. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann (Chile. Great Britain. The High Seas.)
15. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
16. Ancient Tillage by Raduan Nassar
17. In Trouble Again: A Journey Between the Orinoco and the Amazon by Redmond O’Hanlon
18. The Air You Breathe by Frances de Pontes Peebles
19. A Death in Brazil by Peter Robb
20. There Were Many Horses by Luiz Ruffato
21. Heliopolis by James Scudamore
22. Brazil by John Updike
23. Amazon Rainforest (Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, etc.)
  1. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett *****
Brunei
Bulgaria ↓
1. Café Europa: Life After Communisim by Slavenka Drakulić
2. The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cambodia ↓
1. To the End of Hell: One Woman’s Struggle to Survive Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge by Denise Affonço, Margaret Burn (Translator), Katie Hogben (Translator)
2. When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution by Elizabeth Becker
3. The Gate by François Bizot
4. A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess
5. When Clouds Fell From the Sky by Robert Carmichael
6. The Lost Executioner: A Journey to the Heart of the Killing Fields by Nic Dunlop
7. The Sea Wall by Marguerite Duras
8. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin *****
9. To Cambodia with Love by Twefic El-Sawy – Essay collection, 2010
10. The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay
11. When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him
12. Song for an Approaching Storm by Peter Fröberg Idling (Goodreads Author), Peter Graves (Translator)
13. Notes from My Travels: Visits with Refugees in Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan and Ecuador by Angelina Jolie, Caspian Tredwell-Owen
14. A Dragon Apparent by Norman Lewis
15. Three Flames by Alan Lightman
16. The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine by Somaly Mam ****
17. Holiday in Cambodia (stories) by Laura Jean McKay
18. A Cambodian Prison Portrait by Vann Nath
19. Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing Ngor
20. Hunters in the Dark by Lawrence Osborne
21. Phnom Penh by Milton Osborne
22. In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
23. The King’s Last Song by Geoff Ryman
24. Temple of a Thousand Faces by John Shors
25. Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare by Philip Short
26. Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So (Cambodian-Americans in CA)
27. River of Time by John Swain
28. Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
29. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Daughter of Cambodia #1) by Loung Ung *****
30. Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind by Loung Ung
31. A Cambodian Odyssey by Haing Ngor, Roger Warner
32. The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Cameroon ↓
1. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue (& New York City) *****
2. How Beautiful We Were: A Novel by Imbolo Mbue (unidentified African country)
Canada ↓
1. Bluebeard’s Egg: Stories by Margaret Atwood ***
2. Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
3. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
4. Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice
5. Alberta ↓
  1. Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell
6. British Columbia (including Vancouver) ↓
  1. The Spawning Grounds by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
  2. Tell It to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami
  3. The Boat People by Sharon Bala
  4. The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister
  5. Y by Marjorie Celona
  6. Shelter by Frances Greenslade
  7. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki ****
  8. The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee
  9. The Age by Nancy Lee
  10. Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot (& Pacific Northwest)
  11. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
  12. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
7. Manitoba ↓
  1. The River: A Novel by Peter Heller
  2. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
  3. All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
8. New Brunswick ↓
  1. The Birthday Lunch by Joan Clark ***
  2. Letters from Helen: A Canadian Student in Germany on the Eve of the Great War by Helen Vanwart
9. Newfoundland & Labrador ↓
  1. Death on the Ice: The Great Newfoundland Sealing Disaster of 1914 by Cassie Brown
  2. Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark
  3. Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome by Megan Gail Coles
  4. The Innocents by Michael Crummey
  5. River Thieves: A Novel by Michael Crummey
  6. Sweetland by Michael Crummey
  7. Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
  8. Lament for an Ocean by Michael Harris
  9. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
  10. The Navigator of New York by Wayne Johnston (also New York)
  11. The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami by Linden MacIntyre
  12. February by Lisa Moore
  13. Cloud of Bone by Bernice Morgan
  14. Kit’s Law by Donna Morrissey
  15. A Whale for the Killing by Farley Mowat
  16. The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float by Farley Mowat
  17. Part of the Main by Peter Neary & Patrick O’Flaherty
  18. The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
  19. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
  20. Wild Pieces: Stories by Catherine Hogan Safer
  21. Whirl Away: Stories by Russell Wangersky
  22. Annabel by Kathleen Winter
  23. Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter
10. Northwest Territories ↓
  1. Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
11. Nova Scotia ↓
  1. The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
  2. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
  3. The Birth House by Ami McKay
  4. When the Saints by Sarah Mian ****
  5. My Famous Evening by Howard Norman
  6. The Museum Guard by Howard Norman
  7. In the Field by Claire Tacon *****
  8. Nova Scotia & Atlantic Canada Fodor’s Travel ****
12. Ontario (including Toronto & Ottowa) ↓
  1. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
  2. Lost Geography by Charlotte Bacon (& Saskatchewan) ***
  3. China Dog: And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry by Judy Fong Bates ****
  4. A Good House by Bonnie Burnard
  5. Garbo Laughs by Elizabeth Hay
  6. That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
  7. The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald
  8. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Michigan) ****
  9. Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
  10. In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
  11. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
  12. Unless by Carol Shields ****
  13. Fight Night by Miriam Toews
13. Prince Edward Island ↓
  1. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery (Kindle) ****
  2. Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables #2) by L.M. Montgomery
  3. Anne of the Island (Anne of Green Gables #3) by L.M. Montgomery
  4. The Blue Moth Motel by Olivia Robinson ****
14. Quebec ↓
  1. The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
  2. Ru by Kim Thúy
15. Saskatchewan ↓
  1. Lost Geography by Charlotte Bacon (& Toronto) ***
  2. A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay ****
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile ↓
1. Daughter of Fortune (Trilogia Involuntaria #1) by Isabel Allende
2. Portrait in Sepa (Trilogia Involuntaria #2) by Isabel Allende
3. The House of the Spirits(Trilogia Involuntaria #3) by Isabel Allende
4. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
5. Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende (& Peru)
6. In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende (& Guatemala & Brazil)
7. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (Spain. Atlantic Ocean)
8. Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende
9. My Invented Country by Isabel Allende
10. Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende
11. The Soul of A Woman by Isabel Allende
12. Violeta by Isabel Allende
13. Cape Horn and Other Stories from the End of the World by Francisco Coloane
14. The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso
15. The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández
16. Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read
17. Travels in a Thin Country by Sarah Wheeler
18. Lonely Planet Chile & Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
China ↓
1. China Dog: And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry by Judy Fong Bates ****
2. The Good Earth (House of Earth, #1) by Pearl S. Buck (Kindle)
3. Sons (House of Earth, #2) by Pearl S. Buck
4. A House Divided (House of Earth #3) by Pearl S. Buck
5. Dragon Seed by Pearl S. Buck
6. East Wind: West Wind by Pearl S. Buck
7. Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck
8. Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck
9. The Mother by Pearl S. Buck
10. Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck
11. Peony by Pearl S. Buck
12. The Promise by Pearl S. Buck
13. Three Daughters of Madame Liang by Pearl S. Buck
14. Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen (Kindle)
15. My Last Empress by Da Chen (Kindle)
16. Elsey Come Home by Susan Conley
17. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang *****
18. Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream by John Derbyshire **
19. Six Records of a Floating Life by Shěn Fù
20. Monkey Hunting by Cristina García
21. China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power by Rob Gifford
22. A Single Pebble by John Hersey
23. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (China Trilogy #1) by Peter Hessler (Kindle) ****
24. Coming Home Crazy: An Alphabet of China Essays by Bill Holm
25. Cries in the Drizzle by Yu Hua ****
26. Little Gods by Ling Jen
27. Red Dust: A Path Through China by Ma Jian
28. The Crazed by Ha Jin ***
29. A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin
30. A Song Everlasting by Ha Jin
31. Waiting by Ha Jin *****
32. Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China by Ian Johnson
33. The Leavers by Lisa Ko (also New York)
34. The Vagrants by Xiyun Li
35. Red Azalea by Anchee Min ****
36. A Cup of Light by Nicole Mones ****
37. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Saijie ****
38. China Dolls by Lisa See **
39. Peony in Love by Lisa See ****
40. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See *****
41. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
42. God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan by Jonathan D. Spence
43. Frontiers of Heaven: A Journey to the End of China by Stanley Stewart
44. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan ****
45. The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan ****
46. A Map for the Missing by Belinda Huijuan Tang
47. Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian, Mabel Lee (Translator)
48. Beijing ↓
  1. The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed by Michael Meyer
49. Hong Kong ↓
  1. The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee *****
  2. The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee *****
  3. On Java Road by Lawrence Osborne
50. Shanghai ↓
  1. Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng
  2. The Binding Chair or, a Visit from the Foot Emancipation Society by Kathryn Harrison ****
  3. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro (also London)
  4. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Colombia ↓
1. Bolívar: American Liberator by Marie Arana
2. Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw by Mark Bowden
3. Lonely Planet Colombia 9 (Travel Guides) by Jade Bremner ****
4. The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation in Spite of Itself by David Bushnell
5. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras ****
6. The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
7. One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest by Wade Davis
8. Infinite Country: A Novel by Patricia Engel
9. The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel (Cuba & Florida) ****
10. Oblivion by Héctor Abad Faciolince
11. Short Walks from Bogotá: Journeys in the New Colombia by Tom Feiling
12. Return to the Dark Valley by Santiago Gamboa
13. The Robber of Memories: A River Journey Through Colombia by Michael Jacobs
14. Colombia: A Concise Contemporary History by Michael J. LaRosa
15. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez ***
16. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez *****
17. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez ****
18. Misspelled Paradise: A Year in a Reinvented Colombia by Bryanna Plog ***
19. At the Devil’s Table: The Untold Story of the Insider Who Brought Down the Cali Cartel by William C. Rempel
20. The Dark Bride by Laura Restrepo
21. Delirium by Laura Restrepo
22. The Armies by Evelio Rosero
23. There Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia by Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno
24. The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Mike’s Kindle)
25. Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
26. Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
27. The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
28. The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez *****
29. Colombiano by Rusty Young
Comoros
Democratic Republic of the Congo ↓
1. No Mercy: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo by Redmond O’Hanlon
Republic of the Congo ↓
1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver *****
Costa Rica ↓
1. A Beach House to Die For by K.C. Ames
2. Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias (Kindle)
3. The Ticos: Culture and Social Change in Costa Rica by Mavis Hiltunen Biesanz & Richard Biesanz
4. The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer by Dan Buettner
5. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
6. The Lost World by Michael Crichton
7. The Scent of Jade by Dee DeTarsio
8. The Best Short Stories of Quince Duncan by Quince Duncan
9. Monkeys are Made of Chocolate: Exotic and Unseen Costa Rica by Jack Ewing ****
10. See Before You Die: Costa Rica by J.E. Leigh
11. Happier Than a Billionaire: Quitting My Job, Moving to Costa Rica, & Living the Zero Hour Work Week by Nadine Hays Pisani ****
12. Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion, Ed. by Barbara Ras **
13. The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond (& San Francisco, CA) ****
14. Moon Costa Rica by Nikki Solano ****
15. It’s Every Monkey for Themselves: A True Story of Sex, Love and Lies in the Jungle by Vanessa Woods
Cote d’Ivoire
Croatia (& Slovenia) (past and present) ↓
1. The First Rule of Swimming by Courtney Angela Brkic ****
2. Stillness: And Other Stories by Courtney Angela Brkic
3. The Stone Fields: Love and Death in the Balkans by Courtney Angela Brkic ****
4. Chasing a Croatian Girl: A Survivor’s Tale by Cody McClain Brown ****
5. A Traveller’s History of Croatia by Benjamin Curtis ****
6. Every Day, Every Hour by Natasa Dragnic
7. The Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War by Slavenka Drakulić (Essays)
8. Cafe Europa: Life After Communism by Slavenka Drakulić ****
9. How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulić
10. They Would Never Hurt a Fly by Slavenka Drakulić
11. The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna *****
12. Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends by Lonnie Johnson
13. Balkan Ghosts by Robert Kaplan
14. On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleža
15. April Fool’s Day by Josip Novakovich
16. Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust by Josip Novakovich
17. Girl at War by Sara Nović ****
18. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
19. The Sound of Blue by Holly Payne ***
20. Zagreb, Exit South by Edo Popović
21. Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation by Laura Silber and Allan Little
22. Escape from Despair by Katarina Tepesh
23. The Museum of Unconditional Surrender by Dubravka Ugrešlić
24. Fording the Stream of Consciousness by Dubravka Ugrešlić
25. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West (definitive travelogue of Yugoslav Islands between two World Wars)
26. Running Away to Home: Our Family’s Journey to Croatia by Jennifer Wilson ***
Cuba ↓
1. Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
2. The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times by Anthony DePalma
3. Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos M.N. Eire
4. The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel (Colombia & Florida) ****
5. Monkey Hunting by Cristina García (& China & Vietnam) ***
6. Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García
7. The Agüero Sisters by Cristina García
8. Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
9. Revolution Sunday by Wendy Guerra
10. Cuba & the Night by Pico Iyer
11. The Sugar Island by Ivonne Lamazares
12. Love & Ruin by Paula McLain (& Madrid)
13. In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menéndez ****
14. La Americana (memoir) by Melanie Bowder Simón
Cyprus ↓
1. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
Czech Republic ↓
1. Between the Woods and the Water (Trilogy #2) by Patrick Leigh Fermor
2. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
3. The Last Bohemians by Kit Kimberly
4. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
5. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart
6. The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Skvorecky
7. The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk (modeled on The Magic Mountain)
8. Mendelssohn is on the Roof by Jiří Weil
9. Prague ↓
  1. Prague Winter by Madeleine Albright
  2. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
  3. T he Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera ****
  4. Prague Winter by Nikolaus Martin
  5. All That Man Is by David Szalay
Denmark ↓
1. The Arc of the Swallow by Sissel-Jo Gazan
2. The Dinosaur Feather by S.J. Gazan
3. The Boy In the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl, Agnete Friis (Kindle)
4. Faroe Islands
5. GREENLAND
  1. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic ↓
1. Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
2. In the Name of Salomé by Julia Alvarez
3. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
4. Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina by Raquel Cepeda (& New York, California)
5. Dominicana by Angie Cruz
6. Let it Rain Coffee by Angie Cruz
7. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Ecuador ↓
1. America Was Hard to Find by Kathleen Alcott *
2. Cañar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador by Judy Blankenship ****
3. Our House in the Clouds: Building a Second Life in the Andes of Ecuador by Judy Blankenship ****
4. The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova
5. Pieces of My Life by Rachel Dann
6. Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World by Larrie D. Ferreiro
7. Huasipungo: The Villagers by Jorge Icaza
8. Villa Pacifica by Kapka Kassabova
9. City on the Ledge by Philip Kraske
10. The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (+ Columbia + Venezuela)
11. The Panama Hat Trail by Tom Miller ****
12. the queen of water: a novel based on a true story by Laura Resau and María Virginia Farinango (YA) ****
13. The Amnesia Clinic by James Scudamore
14. Lonely Planet Ecuador & the Galápagos Islands by Regis St. Louis ****
15. The Old Man Who Read Love Stories by Luis Sepúlveda ****
16. Fool’s Gold by P.J. Skinner
17. The Farm on the River of Emeralds by Moritz Thomsen *****
18. Galápagos Islands ↓
  1. Enchanted Islands by Allison Amand ***
  2. The Voyage of the Beagle: Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World by Charles Darwin (intro. by Steve Jones)
  3. Plundering Paradise: The Hand of Man on the Galápagos Islands by Michael D’Orso ****
  4. Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin’s Lost Notebooks by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
  5. The Origin of Murder by Jerold Last
  6. Mr. Darwin’s Shooter by Roger McDonald
  7. Galápagos Regained by James K. Morrow
  8. The Evolution of Jane by Cathleen Schine
  9. The Origin: A Biographical Novel of Charles Darwin by Irving Stone
  10. To the Edge of the World by Harry Thompson
  11. The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner
  12. Floreana by Margret Whittmer
Egypt ↓
1. The Collar and the Bracelet by Yahya Taher Abdullah
2. The Yacoubian Building by Alla al Aswany
3. Café on the Nile by Bartle Bull
4. The Night Manager by John le Carré (also The Bahamas)
5. Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
6. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
7. Gazelle by Rikki Ducornet
8. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell
9. The Memoirs of Cleopatra: A Novel by Margaret George
10. The City Always Wins by Omar Robert Hamilton
11. A Pure Heart by Rajia Hassib
12. The Cheapest Nights by Yusuf Idris
13. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
14. Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney
15. The October Horse: A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra (Masters of Rome #6) by Colleen McCullough
16. The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
17. The Trench by Abdul Rahman Munif
18. Empress of the Nile by Lynne Olson
19. Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak by Tarek Osman
20. Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
21. The Teacher of Cheops by Albert Salvadó
22. Lifting the Veil: Two Centuries of Travelers, Traders and Tourists in Egypt by Anthony Sattin
23. The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
24. The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer
25. The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Afghanistan, New York) *****
El Salvador ↓
1. Bitter Grounds by Sandra Benitez
2. Breaking Lorca by Giles Blunt
3. The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner
4. La Diáspora by Horacio Castellanos Moya
5. Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya
6. The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux ****
7. Solito by Javier Zamora
8. Lonely Planet Central America
Equatorial Guinea ↓
1. By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel
2. Shadows of Your Black Memory by Donato Ndongo
Eritrea ↓
1. Towards Asmara by Thomas Keneally (& Ethiopia)
Estonia ↓
1. The Death of the Perfect Sentence by Rein Raud
Ethiopia ↓
1. Chameleon Days: An American Boyhood in Ethiopia by Tim Bascom ****
2. In Praise of Savagery by Warwick Cairns (Kindle)
3. Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
4. There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene (Kindle)
5. Held at a Distance by Rebecca G. Haile
6. The Hospital by the River: A Story of Hope by Catherine Hamlin and John Little
7. The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant by Graham Hancock
8. The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuściński
9. Towards Asmara by Thomas Keneally (& Eritrea)
10. The Storyteller’s Beads by Jane Kurtz
11. The Barefoot Emperor: An Ethiopian Tragedy by Philip Marsden
12. The Chains of Heaven by Philip Marsden
13. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
14. The Shadow King By Maaza Mengiste
15. Notes from the Hyena’s Belly by Nega Mezlekia
16. The Unfortunate Marriage of Azeb Yitades by Nega Mezlekia
17. In Ethiopia with a Mule by Dervla Murphy
18. The Abyssinian by Jean-Christophe Rufin
19. Eating the Flowers of Paradise by Kevin Rushby
20. In Search of King Solomon’s Mines by Tahir Shah
21. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Kindle)
22. Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
23. Remote People by Evelyn Waugh
24. Addis Ababa ↓
  1. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste *****
Republic of Fiji
Finland ↓
1. Juha by Juhani Aho
2. The Railroad by Juhani Aho
3. Art in Nature by Tove Jansson
4. Fair Play by Tove Jansson
5. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
6. The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
7. The Girl and the Bomb (Metro-Trilogia #1) by Jar Järvelä
8. Ellen’s Song by Ben Kalland
9. The Women I Think About at Night: Traveling the Paths of My Heroes by Mia Kankimäki
10. A Fool’s Paradise by Anita Konkka
11. My First Murder (Maria Kallio #1) by Leena Lehtolainen
12. The Colonel’s Wife: A Novel by Rosa Liksom
13. Unknown Soldiers by Väinö Linna
14. The Most Dangerous Game by Gavin Lyall
15. The Girl in Gray by Annette Lyon
16. The Manila Rope by Veijo Meri
17. Norma by Sofi Oksanen
18. The Howling Miller by Arto Paasilinna
19. The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
20. Berlin Poplars by Anne B. Ragde (Kindle) ****
21. The Maid Silja: The History of the Last Offshoot of an Old Family Tree by Frans Emil Sillanpää
22. The Summer House by Philip Teir *****
23. The Winter War by Philip Teir
24. Manrape by Märta Tikkanen
25. The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen
26. The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen
27. The Moose Paradox (The Rabbit Factor Series #2) by Antti Tuomainen
28. The Parson’s Widow by Marja Liisa Vartio
29. The Wednesday Club by Kjell Westö
30. Lonely Planet Finland (10th edition)
France ↓
1. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
2. A Paris All Your Own, edited by Eleanor Brown
3. The Treasure of Montsegur by Sophy Burnham
4. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier by Thad Carhart ****
5. Pancakes in Paris: Living the American Dream in France by Craig Carlson
6. Running in Place: Scenes from the South of France by Nicholas Delbanco
7. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr *****
8. Akin by Emma Donoghue DNF
9. The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France by Carol Drinkwater ***
10. Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux, Alison L. Strayer (Translation)
11. Children of the Stars by Mario Escobar
12. Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert *****
13. Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange
14. Paris out of hand {a wayward guide} by Karen Elizabeth Gordon
15. The Room on Rue Amélie by Kristin Harmel
16. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway (WWI)
17. All the Lights Above Us by M.B. Henry
18. Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull ****
19. In the Company of Angels by N.M. Kelby (also Belgium)
20. Wine and War: The French, the Nazis and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure by Don and Petie Kladstrup
21. On Pilgrimage by Jennifer Lash (also Spain) *****
22. Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon
23. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle ****
24. Paris Is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay
25. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
26. A Walk Across France by Miles Morland ****
27. Massacre at Montségur: A History of the Albigensian Crusade by Zoé Oldenbourg
28. The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer
29. A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
30. Paris Chic & Trendy by Adrienne Ribes-Tiphaine (all in French)
31. The Looking Glass by Michèle Roberts (Normandy)
32. The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheen
33. A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe (also Vietnam)
34. Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull
35. The Dressmaker’s Gift by Fiona Valpy
36. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein DNF
37. ANTILLES ISLANDS in Caribbean
  1. Guadeloupe (Leeward Islands)
    1. Victoire: My Mother’s Mother by Maryse Condé
  2. Martinique (Windward Islands), Collectivity of Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy
38. French Guiana
39. French Polynesia
  1. Tahiti
    1. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (Kindle) (Philadelphia & World)
40. Mayotte & Réunion
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany ↓
1. A Traveller’s History of Germany by Robert Cole
2. The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa ****
3. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
4. The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard Evans
5. A Time of Gifts (Trilogy #1) by Patrick Leigh Fermor (& Austria, Hungary)
6. The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
7. Travelers by Helon Habila
8. Stones from the River (Burgdorf Cycle #1) by Ursula Hegi ****
9. The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff (Poland. Italy.)
10. Leaving Berlin by Joseph Kanon
11. The Good German by Joseph Kanon
12. Lilac Girls: A Novel by Martha Hall Kelly (also Poland, Paris, NY)
13. Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr
14. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
15. Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas (Pseudonym), Wiebke Lorenz, Alison Layland (Translator)
16. The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1) by Heather Morris
17. Cilka’s Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #2) by Heather Morris
18. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Kindle)
Ghana ↓
1. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Greece ↓
1. Scorpionfish by Natalie Bakopoulos ****
2. Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières *****
3. Café Tempest by Barbara Bonfigli (Kindle) **
4. When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon ***
5. Odyssey with the Goddess: A Spiritual Quest in Crete by Carol P. Christ ****
6. Outline by Rachel Cusk
7. Corfu by Robert Dessaix
8. The Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell
9. The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier (Crete. Tunisia. Algeria. Turkey.)
10. North of Ithaka by Eleni N. Gage (Kindle)
11. Eleni by Nicholas Gage *****
12. Little Infamies: Stories by Panos Karnezis ****
13. A Separation by Katie Kitamura
14. The Olive Grove: Travels in Greece by Katherine Kizilos
15. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (& Turkey. Greece.)
16. It’s All Greek to Me!: A Tale of a Mad Dog and an Englishman, Ruins, Retsina — and Real Greeks by John Mole ****
17. Beautiful Animals by Lawrence Osborne
18. Xenos by David A. Ross (Kindle)
19. The Summer of My Greek Taverna: A Memoir by Tom Stone *****
20. Dinner with Persephone: Travels in Greece by Patricia Storace (Kindle)
21. A House in Corfu by Emma Tennant (Kindle)
22. Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens by Sofka Zinovieff ****
Grenada
Guatemala ↓
1. In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende (& Chile & Brazil) (Kindle)
2. The President by Miguel Ángel Asturias
3. Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer
4. Homies and Hermanos by Robert Brenneman
5. Jungle of Stone by William Carlson (also Belize & Honduras)
6. Central America’s Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration by Aviva Chomsky
7. The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop by Francis Goldman
8. The Long Night of White Chickens by Francisco Goldman
9. Hummingbird House by Patricia Henley ****
10. Tiemps Recios (Harsh Times) by Mario Vargas Llosa
11. The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Oscar Martinez
12. I, Rigoberta Menchú by Rigoberta Menchú
13. Love in a Fearful Land by Henri Nouwen
14. Las Flores by Denise Phé-Funchal
15. Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala by Stephen Shlesinger and Stephen Kinzer (Kindle)
16. The Mayans Among Us: Mayan Women and Meatpacking on the Great Plains by Ann Sittig and Martha Gonzalez
17. The Mastermind by David Unger
18. Silence on the Mountain by Daniel Wilkinson
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti ↓
1. Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
2. The Roving Tree by Elsie Augustave
3. Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
4. The World is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake by Danny Laferrière
Honduras ↓
1. The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
2. The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
Hungary ↓
1. The Swimmer by Zsuzsa Bánk
2. The Idiot by Elif Batuman (& Boston)
3. Budapest ↓
  1. A Time of Gifts (Trilogy #1) by Patrick Leigh Fermor (& Germany, Austria)
  2. The Afterlife of Stars by Joseph Kertes
  3. Prague by Arthur Phillips
  4. Memento Park by Mark Sarvas (& L.A.) ****
Iceland ↓
1. A Fist or a Heart by Kristín Eiríksdóttir, Larissa Kyzer (Translator)
2. Into Oblivion by Arnaldur Indridason
3. The Darkness by Ragnar Jónasson
4. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent *****
5. The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea
India ↓
1. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga **
2. The Caretaker by A.X. Ahmad
3. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
4. The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani
5. Everything was Goodbye by Gurjinder Basran
6. behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo
7. Diamond Dust: stories by Anita Desai ****
8. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai DNF (April 2024)
9. Arranged Marriage by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni ***
10. Leaving Yuba City: Poems by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni ***
11. Oleander Girl by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
12. Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni *****
13. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster *****
14. As Sweet as Honey by Indira Ganesan
15. The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob (& Seattle & New Mexico)
16. Sharmila’s Book by Bharti Kirchner
17. Shiva Dancing by Bharti Kirchner
18. The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri *****
19. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (& Boston) ***
20. Flash House by Aimee Liu
21. The Abundance by Amit Majmudar (also Midwest USA)
22. A Burning by Megha Majumdar
23. Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
24. The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra ****
25. A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee
26. Swami and Friends by R. K. Narayan
27. Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao
28. All the Lives We Never Lived by Anurdaha Roy (& Bali) ****
29. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy *****
30. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
31. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (Kindle)
32. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
33. The Color of Our Sky: A Novel by Amita Trasi ***
34. Honor by Thrity Umrigar
35. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
36. The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay
37. Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi by Stanley Wolpert ****
38. Varanasi
  1. Sister India by Peggy Payne ***
Indonesia ↓
1. The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher J. Koch
2. The End of October by Lawrence Wright (& Atlanta, GA)
3. Bali ↓
  1. Island of Demons by Nigel Barley
  2. Love and Death in Bali by Vicky Baum ***
  3. Snowing in Bali by Kathryn Bonella
  4. The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke
  5. The Painted Alphabet by Diana Darling
  6. Troppo by Madelaine Dickie
  7. A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul by Shamini Flint
  8. Under the Volcano: A Story of Bali by Cameron Forbes
  9. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert *****
  10. A Patch of Paradise by Gaia Grant
  11. Living in Bali (photos) by Retro Guntli
  12. A Little Bit One O’Clock: Living With a Balinese Family by William Ingram
  13. Lonely Plant: Bali, Lombok & Nusa Tenggara by Virginia Maxwell & others ****
  14. A House in Bali by Colin McPhee (Mike’s Kindle)
  15. Yoga Bitch by Suzanne Morrison
  16. Fragrant Rice by Janet de Neefe
  17. All the Lives We Never Lived by Anurdaha Roy (& India) ****
  18. The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman ****
  19. Bali: A Paradise Created by Adrian Vickers
  20. Bali Daze by Cat Wheeler
  21. Balilicious by Becky Wicks
  22. At Home in Bali (photos) by Made Wijaya
Iran ↓
1. What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde (& Sweden) ****
2. of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran by Jason Elliot
3. The Kidney Sellers: A Journey of Discovery in Iran by Sigrid Fry-Revere
4. To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
5. Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuściński
6. Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody
7. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi ****
8. Refuge by Dina Nayeri
9. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
10. The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri
11. The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America by Kenneth M. Pollack
Iraq ↓
1. Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq by Farnaz Fassihi
2. a sky so close by Betool Khedairi
3. The Bird Tattoo by Dunya Mikhail
4. The Baghdad Clock by Shahad al Rawi
5. Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar
6. Love in a Torn Land: Joanna of Kurdistan: The True Story of a Freedom Fighter’s Escape from Iraqi Vengeance by Jean Sasson ****
7. Mayada: Daughter of Iraq by Jean Sasson
8. When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson
Ireland ↓
1. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian Barry (recommended in American Dirt)
2. A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume
3. Border Crossings by Carole Bellacera
4. Evening Class by Maeve Binchy ****
5. Tara Road by Maeve Binchy *****
6. In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1) by Tana French ****
7. The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French *****
8. Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3) by Tana French (Mike didn’t care for this one)
9. Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad #4) by Tana French
10. The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad #5) by Tana French *****
11. The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad #6) by Tana French ****
12. The Searcher by Tana French
13. The Witch Elm by Tana French
14. When All Is Said by Anne Griffin
15. the all of it by Jeannette Haien ***
16. Dubliners by James Joyce
17. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
18. Ulysses by James Joyce
19. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
20. Thirteen Ways of Looking (a novella & three stories) by Colum McCann (& New York/London) ****
21. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt #1) by Frank McCourt ****
22. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
23. Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue
24. Are You Somebody?: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman by Nuala O’Faolain
25. Normal People by Sally Rooney
26. As It Is in Heaven by Niall Williams (also a bit in Venice, Italy) ****
27. This Is Happiness by Niall Williams
Israel ↓
1. To the End of the Land by David Grossman * (my husband’s rating after he gave up on the book)
2. From a Sealed Room by Rachel Kadish (?)
3. the light we lost by Jill Stanopolo
Italy ↓
1. The Homecoming Party by Carmine Abate
2. From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus
3. Solo in Salento by Donna Keel Armer
4. The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner *****
5. The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian *****
6. Finding Myself in Puglia: A Journey of Self-Discovery Under the Warm Southern Italian Sun by Laine B. Brown
7. All This Talk of Love: A Novel by Christopher Castellani
8. A Kiss from Maddalena by Christopher Castellani
9. Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center by Michelle Damiani
10. The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria by Marlena de Blasi
11. The Umbrian Thursday Night Supper Club by Marlena de Blasi
12. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
13. The Villa in Italy (A Vintage Mystery) by Elizabeth Edmonson
14. Naked (in Italy): A Memoir About the Pitfalls of La Dolce Vita by M.E. Evans
15. My Brilliant Friend (The Neopolitan Novels, #1) by Elena Ferrante *****
16. The Story of a New Name (The Neopolitan Novels, #2) by Elena Ferrante
17. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (The Neopolitan Novels, #3) by Elena Ferrante
18. The Story of the Lost Child (The Neopolitan Novels, #4) by Elena Ferrante
19. The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
20. The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
21. A Room with a View by E.M Forster
22. An Italian Affair by Laura Fraser ****
23. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert *****
24. The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames
25. Vila Triste by Lucretia Grindle
26. The Secrets of Villa Rosso by Linn B. Halton
27. Extra Virgin (Italy Series, #1) by Annie Hawes
28. The Confessions of Frances Godwin by Robert Hellenga ****
29. The Fall of a Sparrow by Robert Hellenga *****
30. The Italian Lover by Robert Hellenga
31. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway *****
32. Italy Out of Hand: A Capricious Tour by Barbara Hodgson
33. Summer at the Lake by Erica James
34. Lost Hearts in Italy by Andrea Lee
35. Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year by Carlo Levi
36. A Traveller’s History of Italy by Valerio Lintner
37. From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily and Finding Home by Tembi Locke
38. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
39. A Harvest of Secrets by Roland Merullo *****
40. Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris
41. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
42. A Chill in the Air by Iris Origo
43. A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, translated by Ann Goldstein
44. Born Twice by Giuseppe Ponliggia ***
45. Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst
46. The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman
47. Revamp: a Memoir of Travel and Obsessive Renovation by Pamela Reynolds
48. A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
49. One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle (Kindle) ***
50. The Miracles of Santo Fico by D.L. Smith ****
51. The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
52. Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
53. Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy by Michael Tucker
54. Been Here a Thousand Years by Mariolina Venezia, Marina Harss (Translator)
55. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
56. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (& Hollywood. Sandpoint, ID. Edinburgh.) ****
57. Love & Gelato (Love & Gelato #1) by Jenna Evans Welch
58. Love & Luck (Love & Gelato #2) by Jenna Evans Welch
59. Love & Olives (Love & Gelato #3) by Jenna Evans Welch
60. The Italian Alps
  1. The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani ****
61. Florence ↓
  1. Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces by Robert Clark
  2. The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga
  3. Oil and Marble: a Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo by Stephanie Storey
62. Rome ↓
  1. Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr ****
  2. Eternal by Lisa Scottoline ****
63. Sicily ↓
  1. The Shape of Water (Inspector Montalbano, #1) by Andrea Camilleri
  2. That Summer in Sicily by Marlena de Blasi
  3. Siracusa by Delia Ephron ****
  4. Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions (Tante Poldi #1) by Mario Giordano ****
  5. A House in Sicily by Daphne Phelps
  6. Cucina: A Novel of Rapture by Lily Prior ***
64. Tuscany ↓
  1. The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen ****
  2. That Month in Tuscany by Inglath Cooper
  3. A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure (Italian Memoirs) by Marlena de Blasi **
  4. Vanilla Beans & Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany by Isabella Dusi * (DNF)
  5. A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar
  6. Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes ***
  7. Every Day in Tuscany by Frances Mayes
  8. See You in the Piazza by Frances Mayes
  9. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes ****
  10. Home to Italy by Peter Pezzelli
  11. My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith (Montalcino) ***
  12. The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman
65. Venice ↓
  1. Venice: Pure City by Peter Ackroyd
  2. The City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt
  3. The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen ****
  4. A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi
  5. Venice Travel Guide 2023 by Stuart Hartley
  6. Venice by Jan Morris
  7. As It Is in Heaven by Niall Williams (mostly in Ireland) ****
66. Via Francigena ↓
  1. Pilgrim Route: Walking the Via Francigena Part 3 Lucca to Rome by Sandy Brown ****
  2. A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of Faith by Timothy Egan ****
  3. Via Francigena: A Tuscan Pilgrimage Lucca to Rome by Carla Mackey ***
  4. Walking to Rome: Preparing and Packing for the Tuscan Via Francigena by Ryan Tandler ****
  5. Return to Glow: A Pilgrimage of Transformation in Italy by Chandi Wyant
Jamaica ↓
1. Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield
2. Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn ***
3. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
4. Gloria by Kerry Young
Japan ↓
1. What you are looking for is in the library: A Novel by Michiko Aoyama ****
2. Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir by Elizabeth Miki Brina
3. The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck
4. A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton (Kindle) ****
5. Etiquette Guide to Japan: Know the rules that make the difference! by Boyé Lafayette de Mente ***
6. Silence by Shūsaku Endō
7. Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan ****
8. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden ****
9. The Floating World by Cynthia Gralla
10. Malice: A Mystery (The Kyochiro Kaga Series, 1) by Keigo Higashino
11. A Man by Keiichiro Hirano
12. At the End of the Matinee by Keiichiro Hirano *****
13. The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Arikawa Hiro
14. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro *****
15. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Isiguro
16. A Beginner’s Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations by Pico Iyer ***
17. The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns ****
18. Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata (Kindle) ****
19. The Rainbow by Yasunari Kawabata
20. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata ***
21. The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
22. The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami ****
23. All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami *****
24. Breasts and Eggs: A Novel by Mieko Kawakami
25. Heaven: A Novel by Mieko Kawakami ****
26. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
27. A Little Book of Japanese Contentments by Erin Niimi Longhurst
28. Tokyo Ueno Station: A Novel by Yu Miri **
29. An I-Novel by Minae Mizumura
30. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Kindle) ****
31. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata ****
32. The Little House by Kyoko Nakajima
33. The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe
34. The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
35. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki ****
36. The Inland Sea by Donald Richie ****
37. The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon
38. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki (Kindle) ****
39. Night Boat by Alan Spence
40. A Traveller’s History of Japan by Richard L. Tames
41. The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
42. The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama *****
43. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
44. The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd ****
45. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa ****
46. The Lake by Banana Yosimoto (Kindle)
47. Lonely Planet Japan
48. Hiroshima ↓
  1. The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard DNF (didn’t care for the writing)
  2. Hiroshima by John Hersey *****
  3. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa ****
49. Kyoto ↓
  1. The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto by Pico Iyer *****
  2. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
50. Shikoku Pilgrimage & Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage ↓
  1. Shikoku Japan 88 Route Guide by Buyodo Co. Ltd.
  2. Japan’s Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage: The UNESCO World Heritage trek by Kat Davis
  3. The 88 Temples of Shikoku: A Guide for the Walking Pilgrim by Oliver Dunskus
  4. Walking with Buddha: Pilgrimage on the Shikoku 88-Temple Trail by C.W. Lockhart ****
  5. The Way of the 88 Temples: Journey on the Shikoku Pilgrimage by Robert S. Sibley *****
  6. Walking in Circles: Finding Happiness in Lost Japan by Todd Wassel ****
51. Tokyo ↓
  1. The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka
  2. Fault Lines by Emily Itami ****
  3. Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
  4. Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (Kindle) *****
  5. Clueless in Tokyo: An Explorer’s Sketchbook of Weird and Wonderful Things in Japan by Betty Reynolds ***
  6. Territory of Light: A Novel by Yuko Tsushima ****
  7. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto ****
  8. Moshi Moshi by Banana Yoshimoto ****
Jordan ↓
1. The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber
2. Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
3. The Confusion of Languages by Siobhan Fallon
4. The Cry of the Dove by Fadia Faqir
5. Willow Trees Don’t Weep by Fadia Faqir
6. Married to a Bedouin by Marguerite van Geldermalsen
7. West of the Jordan by Laila Halaby (Kindle)
8. Staircase of a Thousand Steps by Masha Hamilton
9. Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri
10. Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda
11. Seven Pillars of Wisdom by Thomas Edward Lawrence
12. Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif
13. Story of a City: A Childhood in Amman by Abdul Rahman Munif
14. Shepherd of Solitude: Selected Poems 1979-2004 by Amjad Nasser
15. Live from Jordan: Letters Home from My Journey Through the Middle East by Benjamin Orbach (Kindle)
16. Desert Skies, Rebel Souls by M P Tonnesen (also Egypt & Israel)
Kazakhstan ↓
1. The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov, Andrew Bromfield (translator)
Kenya ↓
1. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, Karen Blixen *****
2. The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans
3. I Dreamed of Africa by Kuki Gallmann ****
4. Rules of the Wild by Francesca Marciano
5. Circling the Sun by Paula McLain *****
6. Leopard at the Door by Jennifer McVeigh
7. The Fall of Saints by Wanjiku wa Ngugi
8. Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
9. Safari Style, Ed. Angelika Taschen
Kiribati
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos ↓
1. Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos by Natacha Du Pont De Bie
2. Crescent Moon Over Laos by Mark Boyter
3. The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill
4. Six and a Half Deadly Sins by Colin Cotterill
5. Another Quiet American by Brett Dakin
6. The Edge of Tomorrow by Thomas A. Dooley, M.D.
7. Here There are Tigers: The Secret Air War in Laos, 1968-69 by Reginald Hathorn
8. I Little Slave: A Prison Memoir from Communist Laos by Bounsang Khamkeo
9. Love Began in Laos: The Story of an Extraordinary Life by Penelope Khounta
10. Stalking the Elephant Kings: In Search of Laos by Christopher Kremmer
11. Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong
12. One Foot in Laos by Dervla Murphy
13. The Merit Birds by Kelley Powell
14. Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America’s Clandestine War in Laos by Roger Warner
15. The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
Latvia
Lebanon ↓
1. Jasmine & Fire: A Bittersweet Year in Beirut by Salma Abdelnour
2. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya ↓
1. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
2. My Friends by Hisham Matar (also London)
3. The Return by Hisham Matar
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia ↓
1. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
2. Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan
Maldives ↓
1. Mad Love by Colet Abedi
2. Maldives Musings by Liz Banks
3. Gatecrashing Paradise: Misadventures in the Real Maldives by Tom Chesshyre
4. A Maldives Adventure by Naomi Davies
5. The Love Island Bookshop by Kate Frost
6. On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves
7. Swimming with Sharks by Anna Legat
8. Murder in Maldives by Sanchita Sarin
9. The Honeymoon by Tina Seskis
Mali ↓
1. Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah by Anna Badkhen
Malta ↓
1. The Jukebox Queen of Malta by Nicholas M. Rinaldi
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius ↓
1. The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah
Mexico ↓
1. Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis
2. Night of the Radishes by Sandra Benítez ***
3. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
4. A Stranger at My Door: Finding My Humanity on the U.S. Mexico Border by Peg Bowden
5. The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantú
6. Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
7. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros *****
8. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros ***
9. Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
10. Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country’s Descent into Darkness by Alfredo Corchado
11. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins *****
12. In the Casa Azul: A Novel of Revolution and Betrayal by Meaghan Delahunt ***
13. Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
14. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel ****
15. Feathered Serpent by Colin Falconer
16. The Years with Laura Díaz by Carlos Fuentes DNF
17. The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes
18. God’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre by Richard Grant
19. The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo by F. G. Haghenbeck
20. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez ****
21. Several Ways to Die in Mexico City: An Autobiography of Death in Mexico City by Kurt Hollander
22. Mexicasa: The Enchanting Inns and Haciendas of Mexico, Photos by Melba Levick, Text by Gina Hyams
23. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (also North Carolina and D.C.) ***
24. To Find – The Search for Meaning in Life on the Gringo Trail by J.R. Klein
25. The Happy Hammock: How to Escape the Cold and Live in Mexico by Kathrin Lake
26. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
27. Loop by Brenda Lozano
28. The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
29. Costalegre by Courtney Maum
30. All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy #1) by Cormac McCarthy ****
31. The Crossing (The Border Trilogy #2) by Cormac McCarthy
32. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
33. Lost in Oaxaca by Jessica Winters Mireles ****
34. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
35. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ***
36. Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone by Mary Morris
37. Citizen Illegal by José Olivarez
38. The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz
39. Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir by Alberto Alvaro Rio
40. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
41. The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia
42. Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
43. Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together by Andrew Selee
44. Landing in the Heart of Mexico: A Gringa’s Story by Collette Sommers
45. Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester
46. On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux
47. Mexican: A Journey Through Design by Newell Turner
48. The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
49. The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea
50. Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos
51. Quesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos
52. Bad Karma: The True Story of a Mexican Surf Trip from Hell by Paul Wilson
53. Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano
54. Lonely Planet Mexico
55. Moon Oaxaca by Cody Copeland
56. Moon San Miguel de Allende: with Guanajuato & Querétaro by Julie Meade ****
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia ↓
1. The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy (& Mongolia)
Montenegro
Morocco
1. The Time in Between by Maria Duenas (also known as The Seamstress) *****
2. The Tattooed Map by Barbara Hodgson ****
3. Tangerine by Christine Mangan ****
4. The Forgiven by Lawrence Osborne *****
5. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir, Michèle Fitoussi ****
6. Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam’s Greatest Traveler by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
7. The Saffron Trail by Rosanna Ley
8. The Sand Child by Tahar Ben Jelloun
9. A Palace in the Old Village by Tahar Ben Jelloun
10. This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun
11. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatema Mernissi
12. Beyond the Veil by Fatima Mernissi
13. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami
14. Secret Son: A Novel by Laila Lalami
15. The Blue Hour by Douglas Kennedy
16. The Saffron Gate by Linda Holeman
17. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
18. The Spider’s House by Paul Bowles
19. Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
20. For Bread Alone by Mohamed Choukri
21. In Morocco by Edith Wharton (1920)
22. Fez
  1. A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco by Suzanna Clarke
23. Marrakesh
  1. The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit by Elias Canetti
  2. A Year in Marrakesh by Peter Mayne
24. Casablanca
  1. The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah
  2. In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams by Tahir Shah ****
25. Tangier
  1. Leaving Tangier by Tahar Ben Jelloun ***
  2. The Tangier Diaries by John Hopkins
  3. Tangier: A Literary Guide for Travelers by Josh Shoemake (2013)
  4. Tangier by Steven Holgate
26. DESIGN
  1. new Moroccan Style: The Art of Sensual Living by Susan Sully
  2. Moroccan Style by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren
  3. Moorish Style by Miles Danby
  4. Moroccan Interiors by Lisa Lovatt-Smith
Mozambique
Myanmar (Burma) ↓
1. Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig
2. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (also Thailand, Japan, Australia)
3. The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
4. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker ****
5. Smile as They Bow by Nu Nu Yi
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
1. The Guru of Love by Samrat Upadhyay *****
2. Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay *****
3. The Royal Ghosts: stories by Samrat Upadhyay
4. Mad Country by Samrat Upadhyay
5. Buddha’s Orphans by Samrat Upadhyay
6. The City Son by Samrat Upadhyay
7. New Nepal, New Voices: An Anthology of Short Stories, ed. by Sushma Joshi ****
8. City of Ghosts by Johanna Stoberock
9. The Memory of Leaves by Manan Karki (Kindle)
10. Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East by Pico Iyer (travel essays from many countries)
11. House of Snow: An Anthology of the Greatest Writing About Nepal
12. The Tutor of History by Manjushree Thapa
13. Forget Kathmandu by Manjushree Thapa
14. Tilled Earth: Stories by Manjushree Thapa
15. Kathmandu by Thomas Bell
16. While the Gods Were Sleeping by Elizabeth Enslin
17. Thamel, Dark Star of Kathmandu by Rabi Thapa
18. Battles of the New Republic by Prashant Jha
19. The Living Goddess by Isabella Tree
20. The Bullet and the Ballot Box: The Story of Nepal’s Maoist Revolution by Aditya Adhikari
21. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
22. Mustang: A Lost Tibetan Kingdom by Michel Peissel
23. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
24. The Waiting Land by Dervla Murphy
25. Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson
26. Down and Out in Kathmandu: A Backpacker Mystery by Jennifer S. Alderson
27. Notes of a Native Traveler: Nepal and Thailand by Jennifer S. Alderson
28. Shopping for Buddhas by Jeff Greenwald
29. Life and Death on Mt. Everest by Sherry Ortner
30. True Summit by David Roberts
31. Horses Like Lightning: A Story of Passage Through the Himalayas by Sienna Craig
32. The Kingdom by Clive Cussler
33. Palpasa Café by Narayan Wagle
34. Bones of the Tiger: Protecting the Man-eaters of Nepal by Hemanta Mishra and Jim Ottaway Jr.
35. The Soul of the Rhino by Bruce Babbitt and Jim Fowler
36. Don’t Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees by Thomas Hale Jr.
37. On the Far Side of Liglig Mountain: The Adventures of an American Family in Nepal by Thomas Hale Jr.
38. Massacre at the Palace: The Doomed Royal Dynasty of Nepal by Jonathan Gregson
39. Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas by Jamaica Kincaid
40. Tibetan Diary: From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal by Geoff Childs
41. Annapurna: A Woman’s Place by Arlene Blum
42. Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan
Netherlands ↓
1. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier *****
2. Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
3. Amsterdam ↓
  1. The Fall by Albert Camus
  2. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank *****
  3. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green ****
  4. Molenbeekstraat by Ernst Jansz
  5. The Dinner by Herman Koch
  6. An Empty House by Marga Minco
  7. Last Call by Harry Mulisch
  8. The Laws by Connie Palman
  9. The Evenings by Gerard Reve
4. The Hague
  1. Speak, Silence by Kim Echlin (& Bosnia and Herzegovina) *****
  2. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura *****
5. Sint Maarten, Aruba, Curaçao
New Zealand ↓
1. Rain by Kirsty Gunn
2. All This by Chance by Vincent O’Sullivan
3. Let the River Stand by Vincent O’Sullivan
Nicaragua ↓
1. The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love & War by Gioconda Belli *****
2. Fire from the Mountain by Omar Cabezas
3. The Ladies of Managua by Eleni N. Gage (Kindle) ***
4. Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua by Stephen Kinzer *****
5. The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey by Salman Rushdie ***
6. Lonely Planet Nicaragua ****
7. Nicaragua: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle by Thomas W. Walker
Niger
Nigeria
1. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré ****
2. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
5. Beneath the Tamarind Tree: A Story of Courage, Family and the Lost Schoolgirls of Boko Haram by Isha Sesay
6. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
7. Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe
8. You Must Set Forth at Dawn by Wole Soyinka
9. Political Spider and Other Stories, ed. Ulli Beier
10. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
11. Efuru by Flora Nwapa
12. The Palm-Wine Drinkard & My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
13. Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer by Amos Tutuola
14. The Secret Lives of Babi Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin
15. Love Is Power, or Something Like That: Stories by A. Igoni Barrett
16. Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole
17. Oil on Water by Helon Habila
18. Travelers by Helon Habila
19. Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
20. Happiness, Like Water by Chinelo Okparanta
21. The Famished Road by Ben Okri
22. The Concubine by Elechi Amadi
North Korea ↓
1. The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
2. The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo Lee
Norway ↓
1. North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah (Kindle) ****
2. Don’t Look Back by Karin Fossum
3. Eva’s Eye (Inspector Sejer Mysteries) by Karin Fossum
4. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
5. Lonely Planet Norway
6. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson *****
7. The Last Light Over Oslo by Alix Rickloff ***
8. The Fellowship of Ghosts by Paul Watkins
Oman ↓
1. Celestial Bodies by Jokhha Alharthi
2. My Year in Oman: An American Experience in Arabia During the War on Terror by Matthew D. Heines ***
3. Another Year in Oman: Between Iraq and a Hard Place by Matthew D. Heines ****
4. The English Girl by Katherine Webb
Pakistan ↓
1. The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
2. Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid ****
3. Trespassing by Uzma Aslan Khan
4. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
5. broken verses by Kamila Shamsie
6. Kartography by Kamila Shamsie
Palau
Palestine ↓
1. The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa ****
2. The Family Orchard by Nomi Eve
3. Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad ****
Panama ↓
1. The Fling in Panama (Love and Wanderlust #1) by Liz Alden
2. Canal Dreams by Iain Banks
3. Panama: A Whole Story by Kevin Buckley
4. Panama in Black: Afro-Caribbean World Making in the Twentieth Century by Kaysha Corinealdi
5. Our Man in Panama by John Dinges
6. The Canal Builders: Making America’s Empire at the Panama Canal by Julie Greene
7. Ghosts of Panama: A Strongman Out of Control, A Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion by Mark Harmon
8. Come Together, Fall Apart (stories) by Cristina Henríquez
9. The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez (Kindle) ****
10. The Bookshop of Panama by Suzanne Hope (Kindle) ***
11. Divorcing the Dictator: America’s Bungled Affair with Noriega by Frederick Kempe
12. Erased: The Untold Story of the Panama Canal by Marixa Lasso
13. The Tailor of Panama by John Le Carré
14. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough
15. The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money by Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier
16. Panama Fever by Matthew Parker
17. Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan’s Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe that Ended the Outlaws’ Bloody Reign by Stephen Tatly
18. God’s Favorite by Lawrence Wright
19. Lonely Planet Panama
Papua New Guinea ↓
1. Euphoria by Lily King
Paraguay
Peru ↓
1. At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcón
2. The King is Always Above the People: Stories by Daniel Alarcón
3. Tschiffely’s Ride: Ten Thousand Miles in the Saddle from Southern Cross to Pole Star by Aimé Félix Tschiffely
4. When Mountains Walked by Kate Wheeler *****
5. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder *****
Philippines ↓
1. A Good Provider is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century by Jason DeParle (non-fiction)
Poland ↓
1. Lilac Girls: A Novel by Martha Hall Kelly (also Germany, Paris, NY)
2. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
3. The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
4. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk
5. The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)
6. Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft (translator)
Portugal ↓
1. Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali (Kindle)
2. A God Strolling in the Cool of the Evening by Mário de Carvalho
3. The Painter of Birds by Lidia Jorge ****
4. 300 Days of Sun by Deborah Lawrenson ****
5. Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier (Kindle)
6. The Implacable Order of Things by José Luís Peixoto
7. All the Names by José Saramago (Kindle)
8. Blindness by José Saramago
9. Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal’s History and Culture by José Saramago
10. Pereira Declares: A Testimony by Antonio Tabucchi ****
11. THE AZORES
12. MADEIRA
Qatar
Romania
Russia ↓
1. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander ****
2. Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum
3. The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander (also California)
4. The Translator by John Crowley
5. In the Casa Azul: A Novel of Revolution and Betrayal by Meaghan Delahunt ***
6. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
7. A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir by Lev Golinkin
8. Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey Into the Heart of Russia by David Greene
9. The Underground by Hamid Ismailov, Carol Ermakova (translator)
10. Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly
11. The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre
12. Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine
13. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
14. dancer by Colum McCann
15. Cilka’s Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #2) by Heather Morris
16. Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips *****
17. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
18. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy *****
19. The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
20. Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
21. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
22. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Rwanda ↓
1. A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche
2. A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope, and a Restaurant in Rwanda by Josh Ruxin
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia ↓
1. Omeros by Derek Walcott
2. The Poetry of Derek Walcott, 1948-2013 by Derek Walcott
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa ↓
1. The Girl in the Moon Circle by Sia Figiel ***
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia ↓
1. Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
2. City of Veils (Nayir Sharqi & Katya Hijazi #2) by Zoë Ferraris ****
3. Finding Nouf (Nayir Sharqi & Katya Hijazi #1) by Zoë Ferraris *****
4. Kingdom of Strangers by Zoë Ferraris
5. Three Thousand Miles for a Wish by Safiya Hussain
Senegal
Serbia ↓
1. The Book of Revenge by Dragan Todorovic
2. Diary of Interrupted Days by Dragan Todorovic
Seychelles
Sierra Leone ↓
1. The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter’s Quest by Aminatta Forna
2. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Kindle)
Singapore
1. King Rat by James Clavell
2. Saint Jack by Paul Theroux
3. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
4. Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
5. China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
6. Aunty Lee’s Delights by Ovidia Yu
7. Following the Wrong God Home by Catherine Lim
8. The Bondmaid by Catherine Lim
9. The Song of Silver Frond by Catherine Lim
10. Miss Seetoh in the World by Catherine Lim
11. People of the Pear Tree by Rex Shelley
12. Island in the Centre by Rex Shelley
13. A River of Roses by Rex Shelley
14. Sarong Party Girls: A Novel by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
15. Foreign Bodies by Hwee Hwee Ton
16. Soy Sauce for Beginners by Kirstin Chen
17. Ministry of Moral Panic by Amanda Lee Koe
18. The River’s Song by Suchen Christine Lim
19. Fistful of Colours by Suchen Christine Lim
20. Notes from an Even Smaller Island by Neil Humphreys
21. Diary of an Expat in Singapore by Jennifer Gargiulo
22. You’ll Die in Singapore by Charles McCormac
23. Spider Boys by Ming Cher
24. ‘Others’ Is Not a Race by Melissa de Silva
25. The Last Lesson of Mrs. De Souza by Cyril Wong
26. Tanamera by Noel Barber
27. Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell
Slovakia ↓
1. The House of the Deaf Man by Peter Krištúfek
2. Banana Peels on the Tracks: Coming of Age in Post-Communist Slovakia by Jason Lockwood
3. Siren of the Waters (Commander Jana Matinova #1) by Michael Genelin
4. The Magician’s Accomplice (Commander Jana Matinova #3) by Michael Genelin
5. Requiem for a Gypsy (Commander Jana Matinova #4) by Michael Genelin
6. Zoli by Colum McCann
7. Katarina by Kathryn Winter
Slovenia (also see Croatia) ↓
1. Law of Desire: Stories by Andrej Blatnik
2. I Saw Her That Night by Drago Jančar
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa ↓
1. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
2. The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh
3. Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah *****
4. The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
5. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton *****
South Korea ↓
1. White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht
2. The Book of Dead Birds by Gayle Brandeis
3. The Living Reed: A Novel of Korea by Pearl S. Buck
4. How to be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway ***
5. Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
6. If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim
7. The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
8. The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee ****
9. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
10. One Thousand Chestnut Trees: A Novel of Korea by Mira Stout *****
South Sudan
Spain ↓
1. Homeland by Fernando Aramburu, translated by Alfred Macadam
2. The Vineyard by María Dueñas ***
3. It’s Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels by Polly Evans (Kindle)
4. Waiting for Robert Capa by Susana Fortes (Kindle)
5. The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Balearic islands: Ibiza)
6. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway *****
7. Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving (Kindle)
8. Voices of the Old Sea by Norman Lewis (Kindle)
9. Travelers’ Tales Spain: True Stories, Ed. Lucy McCauley ****
10. Iberia by James Michener
11. Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom (Kindle)
12. The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
13. Duende: A Journey into the Heart of Flamenco by Jason Webster ****
14. Andalucía ↓
  1. Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucía (Driving Over Lemons Trilogy #1) by Chris Stewart *****
  2. A Parrot in the Pepper Tree by Christ Stewart (Kindle)
15. Balearic Islands
  1. Mallorca, or Majorca / Menorca / Ibiza / Formentera
16. Camino de Santiago
  1. Guidebooks: ↓
    1. A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago: St. Jean * Roncesvalles * Santiago by John Brierley ****
    2. Camino de Santiago: The ancient Way of St. James pilgrimage route from the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela by Sergi Ramis ****
  2. Personal accounts: ↓
    1. The Way, My Way by Bill Bennett (Kindle)
    2. The Way is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago by Arthur Paul Boers
    3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ***
    4. In Movement There is Peace (Anxiety Treatment Alternatives) by Elaine Orabona Foster (Kindle) ****
    5. The Road to Santiago by Kathryn Harrison *****
    6. Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim’s Route Into Spain by Jack Hitt (Kindle)
    7. I’m Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago by Hape Kerkeling ****
    8. On Pilgrimage by Jennifer Lash (mostly in France, but ends in Santiago de Compostela) *****
    9. The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit by Shirley MacLaine ***
    10. Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy
    11. Walk in a Relaxed Manner: Life Lessons from the Camino by Joyce Rupp
    12. Sunrises to Santiago: Searching for Purpose on the Camino de Santiago by Gabriel Schirm ****
    13. Steps Out of Time: One Woman’s Journey on the Camino by Katherine B. Soper (Kindle) ****
  3. Packing advice: ↓
    1. To Walk Far, Carry Less by Jean-Christie Ashmore ****
    2. Pilgrim Tips & Packing List Camino de Santiago by S. Yates ****
  4. History & Culture ↓
    1. The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago: The Complete Cultural Handbook by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson
17. Canary Islands
18. Catalonia
  1. Barcelona
    1. The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1) by Carlos Ruiz Zafó ****
19. Madrid ↓
  1. The Seamstress by María Dueñas (also called The Time In Between) – also takes place in Morocco *****
  2. Love & Ruin by Paula McLain (& Cuba)
Sri Lanka ↓
1. Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan
2. The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies
3. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Colombo)
4. Anil’s Ghost: A Novel by Michael Ondaatje
5. Running in the Family (memoir) by Michael Ondaatje
6. The Flower Boy by Karen Roberts
7. Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadurai
8. The Pavilion in the Clouds by Alexander McCall Smith
9. The Elephants of Reckoning (poetry) by Indran Amir Thanayagam “Words for the Sri Lanka Tourist Office”
Sudan ↓
1. Emma’s War: An Aid Worker, A Warlord, Radical Islam, and the Politics of Oil – A True Story of Love and Death in Sudan by Deborah Scoggins
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden ↓
1. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
2. Beartown (Beartown #1) by Fredrik Backman
3. Us Against You (Beartown #2) by Fredrik Backman
4. The Winners (Beartown #3) by Fredrik Backman
5. Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman ***
6. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman ****
7. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
8. What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde (& Iran) ****
9. Under the Storm by Christoffer Carlsson
10. Black River by Will Dean
11. Dark Pines by Will Dean
12. Femicide by Pascal Engman
13. Hanna’s Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson
14. The Details by Ia Genberg
15. Antiquity by Hanna Johansson
16. The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
17. The Singularity by Balsam Karam
18. Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard
19. The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg
20. Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius
21. The Saga of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf
22. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1) by Stieg Larsson *****
23. The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium #2) by Stieg Larsson
24. The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You by Margareta Magnusson
25. Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi
26. To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi
27. Malma Station by Alex Schulman
28. W. by Steve Sem-Sandberg
29. The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons by Karin Smirnoff
30. Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Soderberg
31. Lonely Planet Sweden (8th edition)
Switzerland
Syria ↓
1. No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria by Rania Abouzeid
2. Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman (& Turkey)
3. The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian ***
4. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf
5. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (& Turkey. Greece.)
6. Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek
Taiwan ↓
1. Heaven Lake by John Dalton
2. Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
3. Two Trees Make a Forest: A Story of Memory, Migration, and Taiwan by Jessica J. Lee
4. The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Tajikistan
Tanzania ↓
1. Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway
2. A Girl Called Problem by Katie Quirk
3. The Magic of Saida by M. G. Vassanji
4. Zanzibar ↓
  1. Admiring Silence by Abdulrazak Gurnah
  2. By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah
  3. Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah
  4. Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah
  5. The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah
  6. Memory of Departure by Abdulrazak Gurnah
  7. The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley
  8. Death in Zanzibar by M.M. Kaye
Thailand
1. The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand’s Bhumibol Adulyadej by Paul M. Handley ****
2. Siam, or The Woman Who Shot a Man by Lily Tuck ***
3. Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
4. Thailand’s Political History: From the Fall of Ayutthaya to Recent Times by B.J. Terwiel
5. Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad
6. Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
7. Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon
8. The Beach by Alex Garland
9. Jasmine Nights by S.P. Somtow
10. Catching the Sun by Tony Parsons
11. The Atlas of Us by Tracy Buchanan
12. The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley
13. A Woman of Bangkok by Jack Reynolds
14. Thai Girl by Andrew Hicks
15. Bangkok Babylon by Jerry Hopkins
16. Bangkok Days by Lawrence Osborne
17. The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne
18. Cross Currents by John Shors
19. Selected Short Stories of Thailand by William Peskett
20. The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
21. Private Dancer by Stephen Leather
22. Bangkok 8 by John Burdett
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad & Tobago ↓
1. Golden Child by Claire Adam *****
2. Cricket in the Road and Other Stories by Michael Anthony
3. Green Days by the River by Michael Anthony
4. In the Heat of the Day by Michael Anthony
5. The Year in San Fernando by Michael Anthony
6. Carnival by Robert Antoni
7. My Grandmother’s Erotic Folk Tales by Robert Antoni
8. Whatless Boys by Robert Antoni
9. A Thirst for Rain by Roslyn Carrington
10. Crick Crack, Monkey by Merle Hodge
11. Sic Transit Wagon by Barbara Jenkins
12. The Dragon Can’t Dance by Earl Lovelace
13. Is Just a Movie by Earl Lovelace
14. Salt by Earl Lovelace
15. The Wine of Astonishment by Earl Lovelace
16. The Hummingbird Tree by Ian McDonald
17. Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo
18. Out on Main Street: And Other Stories by Shani Mootoo
19. Valmiki’s Daughter by Shani Mootoo
20. The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul
21. Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul
22. A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
23. In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul
24. The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History by V.S. Naipaul (non-fiction)
25. The Middle Passage by V.S. Naipaul
26. Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul
27. The Mystic Masseur by V.S. Naipaul
28. Anna In-Between by Elizabeth Nunez
29. Bruised Hibiscus by Elizabeth Nunez
30. Even in Paradise by Elizabeth Nunez
31. The Limbo Silence by Elizabeth Nunez
32. Archipelago by Monique Roffey *****
33. House of Ashes by Monique Roffey
34. Passiontide by Monique Roffey
35. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey *****
36. Ballad for the New World and Other Stories by Lawrence Scott
37. Light Falling on Bamboo by Lawrence Scott
38. Night Calypso by Lawrence Scott
39. A Brighter Sun by Sam Selvon
40. Ways of Sunlight by Sam Selvon
41. Black Rock by Amanda Smyth
42. A Kind of Eden by Amanda Smyth
43. Lime Tree Can’t Bear Orange by Amanda Smyth
Tunisia ↓
1. The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier (Algeria. Turkey. Crete.)
Turkey ↓
1. Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman (& Syria)
2. Endgame by Ahmet Altan
3. I Will Never See the World Again by Ahmet Altan
4. Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey, Ed. Anastasia M. Ashman and Jennifer Eaton
5. Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres
6. Gardens of Water by Alan Drew
7. The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier (Tunisia. Algeria. Crete.)
8. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (& Syria. Greece.)
9. The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk ****
10. Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk
11. Snow by Orhan Pamuk
12. The Virgin’s Knot by Holly Payne
13. The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
14. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda ↓
1. We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan
Ukraine ↓
1. Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum
2. Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust by Miron Dolot
3. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
4. The Lost Daughters of Ukraine by Erin Litteken
5. The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken ****
6. The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
7. The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan (Kindle) (Mike didn’t like)
United Arab Emirates (UAE) ↓
1. Water from Heaven: An American woman’s life as an Arab wife by Anne Schreiber Thomas ****
United Kingdom (UK)
1. England
  1. Missing, Presumed (D.S. Manon #1) by Susie Steiner ****
  2. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger ****
  3. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson ****
  4. The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson
  5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë *****
  6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen *****
  7. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen ****
  8. Persuasion by Jane Austen
  9. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins *****
  10. behind the scenes at the museum by Kate Atkinson
  11. The Family Tree by Carole Cadwalladr
  12. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
  13. The Navigation Log by Martin Corrick
  14. offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
  15. a sky so close by Betool Khedairi (& Iraq)
  16. Atonement by Ian McEwan
  17. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
  18. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald (& Europe)
  19. The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
  20. Not That Sort of Girl by Mary Wesley
  21. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
  22. War Brides by Helen Bryan (Kindle)
  23. Next of Kin by Joanna Trollope
  24. Any Human Heart by William Boyd
  25. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
  26. The Humans by Matt Haig
  27. Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
  28. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
  29. The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick (& Paris to India)
  30. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
  31. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
  32. A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
  33. West Country Trilogy by Tim Pears
  34. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
  35. Seven Days in May by Kim Izzo (New York)
  36. The Salt Path: A Memoir by Raynor Winn (walking the South West Coast Path)
  37. The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
  38. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
  39. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  40. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
  41. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
  42. Regeneration by Pat Barker
  43. Silence Is a Sense by Layla AllAmmar
  44. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
  45. London
    1. Brick Lane by Monica Ali ***
    2. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger ****
    3. White Teeth by Zadie Smith ***
    4. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (Egypt too?)
    5. If Only I Could Tell You by Hannah Beckerman
    6. The Photograph by Penelope Lively
    7. Saturday by Ian McEwan
    8. Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan
    9. life isn’t all ha ha hee hee by Meera Syal
    10. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro (also Shanghai)
    11. Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
    12. The Book of Dreams by Nina George
    13. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro ****
    14. Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley ****
    15. The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley *****
    16. Happiness: A Novel by by Aminatta Forna (Kindle)
    17. The Midnight News by Jo Baker
    18. Queenie by Candice-Karty Williams
    19. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
    20. Only in London by Hanan al-Shaykh
    21. The Light Over London by Julia Kelly
    22. The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal
2. Scotland
  1. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman *****
  2. Featherstone by Kirsty Gunn
  3. Eva Moves the Furniture by Margot Livesey ****
  4. Bird Summons by Leila Aboulela
  5. The Bookshop on the Corner (Scottish Bookshop #1) by Jenny Colgan
  6. Summerwater by Sarah Moss
  7. The Edinburgh Skating Club by Michelle Sloan
3. Wales
  1. The Walking Tour by Kathryn Davis ***
  2. The Welsh Borderlands: Reflections Afoot by Anne Holmes Filson
4. Northern Ireland
5. British Overseas Territories: Anguilla / Bermuda / British Virgin Islands / Cayman Islands / Falkland Islands / Gibraltar / Montserrat / South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands / Turks & Caicos Islands
United States of America (USA)
1. See books & novels | u.s.a. |
Uruguay ↓
1. The Woman from Uruguay by Pedro Mairal
2. Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis
Uzbekistan ↓
1. A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road by Christopher Aslan Alexander
2. The Railway by Hamid Ismailov, Robert Chandler
Vanuatu
Vatican City (Holy See)
Venezuela
Vietnam
1. The Women by Kristin Hannah
2. American Romantic by Ward Just (Indochina) ****
3. A Dangerous Friend by Ward Just (Indochina)
4. The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars by Andrew X. Pham ****
5. Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham ****
6. Daughters of the River Huong by Uyen Nicole Duong ****
7. Paradise of the Blind by Dương Thu Hương ****
8. The Lover by Marguerite Duras (Indochina) ****
9. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
10. Once Upon a Distant War by William Prochnau
11. The Things They Carried (stories) by Tim O’Brien *****
12. If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O’Brien
13. Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
14. A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe (also Paris)
15. The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
16. The Greatest Beer Run Ever by John “Chick” Donohue, J.T. Molloy (Kindle)
17. The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
18. What It’s Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
19. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
20. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
21. The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood by Kien Nguyen
22. The Man From Saigon by Marti Leimbach
23. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
24. Chickenhawk by Robert Mason
25. Live from the Battlefield, autobiography of one of the greatest war correspondents, Peter Arnett
26. Nam by Mark Baker
27. In Pharoh’s Army by Tobias Wolff
28. Dispatches by Michael Herr (possibly Mari’s favourite)
29. All the Wrong Places by James Fenton
30. A Wavering Grace by Gavin Young
31. Derailed in Uncle Ho’s Victory Garden by Tim Page
32. A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan (history)
33. Winning Hearts and Minds, war poems by Vietnam Vets
34. The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam by George Black
35. You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker
Yemen ↓
1. The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers
2. The Ambassador’s Wife by Jennifer Steil (actually it’s an unknown Middle Eastern country that sounds like Yemen) *****
3. The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Jennifer Steil (non-fiction)
Zambia
Zimbabwe ↓
1. Glory: A Novel by NoViolet Bulawayo
2. Nervous Conditions (#1) by Tsitsi Dangarembga
3. The Book of Not (Nervous Conditions #2) by Tsitsi Dangarembga
4. This Mournable Body (Nervous Conditons #3) by Tsitsi Dangarembga
5. The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah
6. The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu

*******************

BOOKS SET IN UNNAMED COUNTRIES OR REGIONS AROUND THE WORLD

AFRICA ↓
- The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński
- The Tree Where Man was Born by Peter Matthiessen
- The Hotel Alleluia by Lucinda Roy
- Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux
ASIA
- My Year Abroad by Chang Rae Lee * (hated this book!)
NORTH AFRICA
- The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier
EUROPE
- Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
MIDDLE EAST ↓
- Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark by Jane Fletcher Geniesse *****
- Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World by Zahra Hankir (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Christiane Amanpour (Foreword)
- Misadventure in the Middle East: Travels as a Tramp, Artist and Spy by Henry Hemming
- All Strangers are Kin: Adventures in Arabic and the Arab World by Zora O’Neill
SOUTH AMERICA ↓
- Viva South America! A Journey Through a Surging Continent by Olive Balch
- The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts by Louis de Bernieres (see Latin American Trilogy)
- The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Ernesto Che Guevara
- Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary by Alberto Granado
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett *****
- The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux ****
SOUTH PACIFIC
- The Last Good Paradise by Tatjana Soli
CENTRAL ASIA (FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC)
- Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński
ALL OVER THE WORLD ↓
- The Measure by Nikki Erlick
- The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (also Philadelphia & Tahiti) (Kindle)
- Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuściński
- Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer