Adult Summer Reading 2011 – Asia

Another friendly reminder that we’re in the midst of our Summer Reading contest. Win a cool prize just for commenting on a book you’ve read since June 6. Fill out a form, or comment on our Summer Reading page or the Goodreads group page.

This year’s Summer Reading theme is Novel Destinations, so we’ve been visiting each of the continents. Our next stop: Asia!

1. Just so you don’t have to leave the comfort of your recliner (or hammock, or lawn chair, or whatever…), we’ve created a list of good Armchair Traveler reads for Asia.

2. I can personally recommend the following titles for a look at this vast continent:

• City of Thieves by David Benioff – Trail along with Lev and Kolya as they attempt to find a dozen eggs for a Soviet colonel during the Siege of Leningrad.
• Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle – A graphic novel detailing the author’s experience as a “househusband” while living in the police state of Burma.
• The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama – Mr. Ali opens a marriage bureau after retirement, to help clients find love and happiness.
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – Two women endure life with their brutal husband under Taliban rule, while developing a long-lasting friendship.
• The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason – A young man ventures into the Burmese jungle to tune a piano, and its beauty, danger, and people enchant him in ways he couldn’t have imagined.
• Pearl of China by Anchee Min – The fictional story of Pearl S. Buck and her childhood best friend, Willow.
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell – It’s 1799, and Jacob plans to earn his fortune in Nagasaki, but finds life in feudal Japan political and dangerous.
• The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa – The Professor has a short-term memory problem and looks to his housekeeper and her 10-year-old son to help him.
• The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz – Haruko, a commoner, becomes the wife of the Crown Prince of Japan, and must learn to meet the rigid restrictions placed on royalty.
• Stalin’s Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith – Although this is the 6th in the Arkady Renko series, it’s one of the best – Russian police detective Renko is investigating reports of the “appearance” of Stalin in the Moscow Metro, which leads him to the more contemporary “ghosts” of Chechnya.

3. If you like historical fiction, check out one of these novels based on famous figures:

• Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra
• The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby
• The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble (Hyegyong, Crown Princess of Korea)
• Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther by Ginger Garrett
• Genghis: Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden (first in the “Conquerors” series)
• Memoirs of Pontius Pilate: A Novel by James R. Mills
• Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min
• Alexander and Alestria by Sa Shan
• Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss
• Shadow Princess by Indu Sundaresan (Shahjahan, Empress Mumtaz Mahal)

4. Pick up one of these for a good look at the various ways history has shaped Asia:

• Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes
• Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire by Jason Goodwin
• When Asia Was the World by Stewart Gordon
• Southeast Asia: A Concise History by Mary F. Somers Heidhues
• India: A History by John Keay
• Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great’s Ill-Fated Journey Across Asia by John Prevas
• The History of the Central Asian Republics by Peter Roudik
• Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by J. McIver Weatherford
• The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia by Frances Wood

5. Wanting a classic? Here are some to dig in to:

• Arabian Nights
• The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
• The Analects by Confucius
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
• Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
• The Tale of Genji by Shikibu Murasaki
• Hiroshima by John Hersey
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Adult Summer Reading 2011 – Africa

Summer Reading continues, so don’t forget to write a review for a cool prize. Remember, reviews can be done by hand, or enter your review on our Summer Reading Page or on Goodreads!

Continuing on our Novel Destinations tour, we’ll visit the “greenest continent”, Africa.

1. Again, we’ve developed an Armchair Travel booklist for Africa (it’s probably rather a hot time to visit just now).

2. Or, try one of these classics:

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• So Long a Letter by Miriama Ba
• July’s People by Nadine Gordimer
• The Cairo Trilogy by Najib Mahfuz
• Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
• The Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa-Thiongo

3. Looking for a history? Check out one of these:

• Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious Stones by Greg Campbell
• Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink by John Campbell
• Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden
• King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild
• Born in Africa: The Quest for the Origins of Human Life by Martin Meredith
• The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by Martin Meredith
• Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader

4. Here are a few of my personal recommendations for books set in Africa:

• The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay – The story of a white African boy who learns about the human spirit and survival from a variety of teachers in South Africa during WWII.
• The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad – A journey into the Congolese jungle introduces a young idealistic man to the inner savagery of all humankind.
• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba – The inspiring  true story of a young man who builds a windmill, using old library books, to help his village.
• Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela – A look at one of the most intriguing men alive today (and a hero of mine!).
• The Famished Road by Ben Okri – Azaro straddles the living and spiritual worlds, and struggles to deal with the poverty, hunger, and love he feels for his family and village.
• Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey – Ghana police detective Darko Dawson investigates the murder of a young woman whose demise recalls some of the traditional area mythology.
• The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith – Precious Ramotswe investigates crimes in her native Botswana.

5. Finally, African memoirs have become increasingly popular recently. Here are a few to try out:

• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
• They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan by Deng Alephonsion
• Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller
• When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin
• The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari
• Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai
• Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe by Andrew Meldrum
• Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir
• This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
• You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir by Wole Soyinka

Adult Summer Reading 2011 – Week One: Europe

Since this year’s Adult Summer Reading theme is NOVEL DESTINATIONS, we thought we’d take a closer look at books set on each of the continents (and we separated the U.S. from the pack , so it  will get it’s own look). Our first stop features books with a unique sense of Europe.

1. If you like the idea of travel, but not the hassle, check out the Europe Armchair Traveler Booklist designed by your TFPL Reference Librarians.

2. Nordic Noir is hot right now. If you like Stieg Larsson, you might want to give another one of these Scandinavian authors a try:

• Karin Fossum
• Peter Hoeg
• Arnaldur Indridason
• Camilla Lackberg
• Henning Mankell
• Liza Marklund
• Jo Nesbo
• Hakan Nesser
• Anders Roslund
• Maj Sjowall

3. Want to try a classic? Here are a few ideas:

• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
• Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

4. Here are a few of my own personal recommendations for books set in Europe:

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard – In 1818, Hector gets pulled into a murder inquiry by the charismatic director of France’s new national police force, the legendary Vidocq.

Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett – This is the first in the “House of Niccolo” series. Niccolo is a young man ahead of his entrepreneurial time, which just happens to be the Renaissance. The series ranges all over Europe.

The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies – A POW camp creates tension in Esther’s village in Wales, bringing old issues, as well as loyalties, to the surface.

The Little Book by Selden Edwards – An aging rocker finds himself transported back in time to 1897 Vienna.

Pompeii by Robert Harris – Marcus, a Roman engineer, is called on to inspect an aqueduct in the Bay of Naples, and finds evidence something is happening with Mt. Vesuvius.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer – Prior to WWII, Andras leaves his native Hungary and finds love in Paris, but historical events are going to change everything.

The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte – A secret in an old painting leads Barcelona art restorer Julia on a chase to uncover a modern killer.

5. Want to try a good European history? Look for one of these:

• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill
• Europe: A History – Norman Davies
• The Crimean War: A History – Orlando Figes
• Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nance Bazelon Goldstone
• Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
• Barbarism and Civilization: A History of Europe in Our Time by Bernard Wasserstein
• The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson

Summer Reading Returns!

If it’s June, it must be time for Adult Summer Reading! This year’s theme is NOVEL DESTINATIONS.

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The contest works the same as it has in past years: read a book, write a short review, and enter to win a prize! And this year, we’re adding a challenge called the Novel Destinations Passport. Read 8 books, one set on each of the seven continents (and one in the U.S.) and get an extra entry.

You can enter your reviews on an official form and turn into the Library, create a review in the comments section of the Summer Reading page of the blog, or join us on Goodreads and enter your review there. The Novel Destinations Passport can only be entered on paper (makes it a little easier on us), but you can get a copy in the Library or here. Above all, have fun.

Begin your summer trip around the world at the Library!