Reading List

This is a continuously updated post.

Here's a list of great books I've read from different countries and US regions! Some are translated, some are written in English by authors whose families are from those countries. This is obviously not an exhaustive list but a jumping off point. I have SO MANY books by Japanese and Korean authors downloaded on my Kobo for Peace Corps reading 

If you want to buy any of these books, please purchase them through my Bookshop page! Independent bookstores will get the sale and I'll get a few cents. I'll try to update my Bookshop list often but this list is so big so forgive me if I'm behind.

Countries are in alphabetical order and authors are in alphabetical order by their last names.

Argentina

    Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin (translated by Megan McDowell)

Chile

    The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Egypt

    When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt by Kara Cooney

France

    Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard

    French Exit by Patrick deWitt

    Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (don't judge it's fun ok!!)

    The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani (translated by Sam Taylor)

Ghana

    Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Iceland

    Magma by Thora Hjorleifsdottir (translated by Meg Matich)

    Miss Iceland by Auour Ava Olafsdottir (translated by Brian FitzGibbon)

India

    Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

    Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Ireland

    The Secret Place by Tana French

    Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

    Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

    Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

    Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Japan

    Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett)

    If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura (translated by Eric Selland)

    The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura (translated by Lucy North)

    The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya (translated by Asa Yoneda)

    Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)

    Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)

    The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (translated by Stephen Snyder)

    Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi (translated by David Boyd and Lucy North)

    Dead-End Memories: Stories by Banana Yoshimoto (translated by Asa Yoneda)

    Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (translated by Megan Backus)

Nigeria

    My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

    Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

    Questions for Ada by Ijeoma Umebinyuo

North Korea

    Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

    Without You, There is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim

    The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee

South Korea

    If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

    Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo (translated by Jamie Chang)

    DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi

    The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo (translated by Chi-Young Kim)

    Human Acts by Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)

    The Vegetarian by Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)

    The White Book by Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)

    I'm Waiting for You by Bo-Young Kim (translated by Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu)

    If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim

    Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada

    b, Book, and Me by Kim Sagwa (translated by Sunhee Jeong)

    The Cabinet by Un-su Kim (translated by Sean Lin Halbert

    Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun (translated by Janet Hong)

    Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

    Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park (translated by Anton Hur)

    Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin (translated by Chi-Young Kim)

Sweden

    The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson 

    An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten (translated by Marlaine Delargy)

United Kingdom

    Brick Lane by Monica Ali

    Talking to Women by Nell Dun

    Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

    Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

    84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Haniff

    Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

    The Ghost MapL The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic by Steven Johnson

    To Bed With Grand Music by Marghanita Laski

    How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

    One Day by David Nicholls

US South

    South of Broad by Pat Conroy

    The Great Santini by Pat Conroy

    The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy

    The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

    Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

    Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

    Shug by Jenny Han

    Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett

    The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

    The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.

    Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

    The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

    Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney C. Stevens

    The Color Purple by Alice Walker

    The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

    Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

US West

    The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich

    Unsolaced: Along the Way to All That Is by Gretel Ehrlich

    Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West by Justin Farrell

    Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston

    Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country by Pam Houston

    The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman with Tectonic Theater Project

    Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

    They Called Her Mrs. Doc by Janette Oak

    Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx

Vietnam

    The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

General Travel

    Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America by Craig Childs

    All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft by Geraldine Deruiter

    From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

    Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (let go of your judgments, the book is actually good)

    The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

    Less by Andrew Sean Greer

    The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Place in the World by Eric Weiner

    Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds: 100 New Ways to See the Word by Ian Wright

Every Book I Read in 2018: Part 1

I haven't posted in 3 months but who cares! (I wrote this intro back when I hadn't posted in 3 months, but I've posted twice since working on this post! Horray for improvement!) Maybe I should post about my 4.5 month backpacking trip around Europe where I went to some cool ass countries and met some really bombass people and had a great time. But why talk about any of that on my travel blog when I just tell you about every book I read and give you my unwarranted opinions about them? I'll tell you where I was when I was reading them to keeping things ~spicy~ and ~travel related~. And no there are no affiliate links because I'm too lazy for that and I don't care anymore anyways.

Back when my original reading goal was 50 books, I was just going to make this one long post. But since I've been home I've been reading a shitton (to give you a general idea of how much a "shitton" is: I read 20 books in a little over a month of being home) and right now I'm at 61 books and that's just TOO MUCH for anyone to read. So here are the first 35 books I read in 2018, and Part 2 will follow in the coming weeks.

Also, be my friend on Goodreads!

1. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Read on my mom's couch after my wisdom teeth removal surgery. High on opioids and pissed off at the world because my FACE HURT. This book made me cry so hard and I highlighted so many quotes. I'd like to attribute the crying to the drugs and the mouth pain but honestly, it's probably because I'm a little bitch baby that cries easily at everything.

2. How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley
Also read on my mom's couch. Not impressive. Move along.

3. Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray
Since I was doing all this reading on my mom's couch I felt like a 9-year-old again and decided to regress into my Star Wars phase. Except now I'm older and more Star Wars exists so there are more stories to read! How fun! They have Star Wars YA now! This was my second Claudia Gray book and it was enjoyable.

4. What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton [AUDIOBOOK]
Listened to in my car over winter break. I listened to most of this at the end of 2017 but it is VERY LONG and I only listened to it while in the car (because I'm an old lady that borrows audiobook CDs from the library) so I finished it in 2018. All you need to know is that I cried at many parts while listening to this book, dreaming of what we could have had.

5. Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
Read in my college dorm, winter. I read this because I saw the movie and it rocked my world. I read the book so slowly because every sentence is beautiful and I didn't want it to end because I knew I'd never be able to read this book for the first time ever again.

6. Everything Everything by Nicole Yoon
Borrow from my friend Shannon, god bless her. I don't remember much about this book so that tells you all you need to know.

7. Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
Mainly read on my couch in my dorm. SOOOOOOOOOOOO good! The institution of marriage is fascinating and scary.

8. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Read for my Southern American Literature course. Very gay and southern. Loved it.

9. All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister
Read in my bed. Committed put me in a very feministy-nonfiction mood. It dragged at points but had so many good facts you should definitely read it.

10. Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Read on the beach in Grenada (the island in the Carribean, not Spain) because I'm fancy sometimes. Very good and very smart, I'd like to read more like this.

11. Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Started to read in Grenada, finished in Virginia. I liked it but Didion is too smart for me.

12. Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
Read in bed at home after graduation. I cried! Shocker!

13. William Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson [AUDIOBOOK]
Mainly listened to while cleaning my room. I learned lots of things but can't remember any of it.

14. Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney C. Stevens
Read in my room (don't worry soon I will be traveling and my reading locations with be a lot more fun). It's about teens in youth group in a small southern town and there's stuff about sexuality and growing up and Christianity and I LOVED it.

15. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Read in one day on the porch of my grandparent's river house. It was good and important but should be read in middle school or early high school.

16. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Also read in one day on the porch of my grandparent's river house. Would be a good gift to a teenager or a new mom (if you know she's into that kind of stuff, of course).

17. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Started reading in Grenada, read more in my dorm room, finished in my room after I moved back home. It took me so long to read because I didn't want it to end! It's one of those books that doesn't have an OBVIOUS point but I loved it. I want more books about smart girls traveling and making mistakes and not really learning from them.

18. Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton [AUDIOBOOK]
Listened to in my room as I cleaned everything out in preparation for my Europe trip. Didn't enjoy much about this audiobook, but I like how honest she is. And man, she is honest.

19. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson [AUDIOBOOK]
Listened to driving up and down I-95 to go to my in-class portion of my TEFL course. I've decided that I'm never going to walk the whole of the AT (Appalachian Trail) so I might as well listen to the accounts of people that tried. Bill Bryson is easy to listen to and knows how to weave a story, except there was this whole portion where he talked smack about a solo female hiker for no reason. She has more balls than you do, Bill.

20. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng [AUDIOBOOK]
Finally, my books and I are in Europe! Listened to while cleaning the kitchen of the hostel I worked at in Slovakia. For some reason, I thought this would be a fun YA book with a dash of murder, but it's way more serious than that. A good look at race and family dynamics.

21. Carol (Price of Salt) by Patricia Highsmith [AUDIOBOOK]
Listened to while cleaning the kitchen and just sitting in my room, taking a break from socializing. It's read by the same narrator as Everything I Never Told You and I liked her voice. A bit slow for an audiobook but the writing is beautiful.

22. Hunger: A Memoir of My Body by Roxane Gay [AUDIOBOOK]
Listening while trying to hold my bladder on really bumpy minivan rides in Moldova. Gay narrates this herself and it is very good and important and everyone should read it.

23. The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
Read in Romania. As far as "classics" go Mansfield is a bit easier to read, although I have to be in a particular mood for her. Which is why it took me so long to read such a slim book! Passed it on to an English guy from Bradford.

24. An Appeal to the World: The Way to Peace in a Time of Division by Dalai Lama XIV
Read on a park bench in Varna, Bulgaria. I've never read the Dalai Lama before but man is he quotable.

25.  Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton [AUDIOBOOK]
Listened to while walking around Bulgarian towns. This was the perfect book to read since Clinton was the First Lady while the Clinton Administration was involved with eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia region, which happened to be where I was traveling.

26. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
Bought from a secondhand bookshop in Varna, run by a kind and scatterbrained American lady. I love the Bridget Jones series so much and if I ever get a PhD in Literature I can easily write a whole paper on how genius Bridget Jones is. You may think it's a fun bit of Pride & Prejudice fluff, but think a lil bit harder.

27. Origin by Dan Brown
Read in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. A quick read. Dan Brown is alright.

28. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Started in Plovdiv, finished by the time I reached Sofia. The fun thing about hostel bookshelves is that all of the books that were big last year trickle their way into circulation. I loved this one so much. I love a well-done generational story. This one really helps you realize how trauma can be passed down from generation to generation.

29. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal [AUDIOBOOK]

Listened to while walking around Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I 100% recommend that you only listen to this as an audiobook. The voice actor does such a great job and this is the first fiction audiobook that I was actually excited to listen to every day.

30. The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
Found on a bus in Scotland, read in London. It was very twisted and not well written but it was a quick read. Could've been great if written by someone else.

31. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Read in Marusici, Croatia. Very literary and probably too smart for me. It was interesting but I couldn't figure out the purpose of it all.

32. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Picked up in Trebinje, Bosnia, I think. Honestly can't remember where I was when I read this. I can see why lots of people like this book but I really do not like Hamid's writing style.

33. The Wrong Knickers: A Decade of Chaos by Byrony Gordon
Read on the bus in Albania. A fun book title for people to see you reading in public! I enjoy women writing about their lives, no matter how privileged and whiny their life can be, but ugh. This one could've been good but ends with a dude saving her at the end. Gag me with a spoon.

34. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Read in Tirana, Albania. Really loved this one! Aaronovitch has an interesting voice and there's a lot of actual history in this book. My only problem is that his female characters are really flat and only seen as a pair of tits to the main character. I'll see if this improves in his later books.

35. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
Read in Himare, Albania. I didn't read the book Simon vs. the Homospaien Agenda but I saw the movie Love, Simon and loved it and this was the only book on the hostel shelf in English so I gave it a whirl. It was GREAT! The characters aren't perfect and they make mistakes and it's just a fun YA read!

And there you have it! Stay tuned for Part 2 to find out what books I ended by 4.5 month backpacking trip with and see what I've read since I've been home.

Have a good day, and go read a book!

Book Review: All Over the Place by Geraldine DeRuiter

So far, in the Year of Our Lord 2017, I've read 15 books, 10 of which have been of the memoir and essay genre.  Of those 10 books, All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft has been my absolute favorite.

Geraldine DeRuiter is a blogger-turned-memoir writer and usually this transition doesn't work out well.  It takes a special type of writer to transcend storytelling mediums; if you thought Geraldine was a talented blog writer then just wait to have your socks blown off when you read All Over the Place.

As you can tell from the tagline, it's a story of travel and love, but the most compelling arc of this book is the story of family.  Geraldine takes you through her family history, from anecdotes about her brother, to her mom, father, and her husband.

You'll laugh, as any reader of her blog will expect, but she'll also make you cry.  A lot.  From discussing her brain tumor to pondering on the purpose of life (in a way that's completely non-wanky), you'll find yourself shocked at the amount of times you'll cry over a book that has been marketed as "hilarious".  (Like, it definitely is, but don't feel guilty for having to use an entire toilet paper roll to wipe away all your snot.)

Wow, writing this review has really made me want to re-read this book.  You go buy your copy here and I'll go re-read my copy and it'll be a great day for everyone involved.

*this review is Geraldine approved