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Book Map

It is Book Map Day! I love book maps. I start a new one every year to see where in the world I’ve been reading each year. This year I got fancier with it.

  • The purple teardrop shapes are fiction.
  • The purple circles are fiction that was originally published in a language other than English.
  • Green stars are nonfiction.
  • The green circle is translated nonfiction.

Daily Discussion – World literature I want to read

This is a huge topic.  I have a Goodreads TBR list called International To Read to keep track of this for me.  I’ve worked through this list pretty well this year but I’m sure I’ll be loading it up again during this readathon with new books I hear about.

I had two reading goals this year.  I wanted to read more books set in South America and to read more translated books.  I’m doing good with translation but not so good with South America.

If I had to pick just a few from my list that I really want to get to soon I’d choose:

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest CountryThe Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country by Helen Russell

 

Denmark is officially the happiest nation on Earth. When Helen Russell is forced to move to rural Jutland, can she discover the secrets of their happiness? Or will the long, dark winters and pickled herring take their toll?

The Blue FoxThe Blue Fox by Sjón

 

The year is 1883. The stark Icelandic winter landscape is the backdrop. We follow the priest, Skugga-Baldur, on his hunt for the enigmatic blue fox. From there we’re then transported to the world of the naturalist Friðrik B. Friðriksson and his charge, Abba, who suffers from Down’s syndrome, and who came to his rescue when he was on the verge of disaster. Then to a shipwreck off the Icelandic coast in the spring of 1868.

The fates of Friðrik, Abba and Baldur are intrinsically bound and unravelled in this spellbinding book that is part thriller, part fairy tale.