The WanderLit world tour is about to embark. My New Year’s Resolution is to read a book a week. Not just any old book but books carefully selected to carry my imagination around the globe and experience world cultures by sinking deep into the pages of traveling writers and foreign authors. Creating my list, I wanted to build in a little variety. I have everything from genre fiction to history, biography, lit-fic and tour books.
One thing that pops up over and over is women writers and women’s stories. I guess it always comes back to Wanderlust and Lipstick.
Here’s how it works. in the left column, you will find a patchwork quilt of book covers. Those are books that I have finished. They will also appear in the WanderLit blog. Many will appear as full book reviews. Others might be classics with a tie-in to a literary destination. Still others might just be mentioned in the course of reading, writing and wandering.
On the right column, you will find the books I am starting during the current month. You are welcome to read along or join the discussion. For those of you asking about my complete book list, it appears below. It’s more than long enough to get me through the year! I have organized titles alphabetically by country so you can investigate books from the area you are interested in.
Do you want to join the journey? You can use my list or create your own literary world tour challenge on the goodreads group “Around the World in 52 Books” If you do join goodreads, look me up. I’d love to follow your list too! (You might find a certain WanderShopper Shaw there too!) Where will your books take you this year?
WanderLit World Tour-Book List
Afghanistan
The Patience Stone
The Storyteller’s Daughter: One Woman’s Return to Her Lost Homeland
Africa (Kenya, Rhodesia and Zambia)
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
Amazon
The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Australia
Daisy Bates in the Desert: A Woman’s Life Among the Aborigines
Borneo
The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II
Botswana
Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide
Cambodia (and Canada)
The Disappeared
Canada
Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada
China
Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Congo
Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo
Cuba
Three Trapped Tigers
Dominican Republic
Drown
Ethiopia (Yemen and Israel)
Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen
England
Underground London: Travels Beneath the City Streets
The French Leiutenant’s Woman
Oxford: A Cultural and Literary Companion
Egypt
Palace Walk
Fiji and Vanuatu
Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
Finland
Wonderful Women by the Sea
France
Paris Was Ours: Thirty-Two Writers Reflect on the City of Light
Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe
Ghana
Wife of the Gods
Haiti
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti
Iran
Things I’ve Been Silent About: Memories
Ireland
Are You Somebody?: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman
Israel
Israel Is Real
India (and Nepal)
Sold
The God of Small Things
Italy
The Spartacus War
Caesar’s Women
Korea
Lessons from the Monk I Married
The Calligrapher’s Daughter
Laos (and Thailand and USA)
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
Lebanon
A Girl Made Of Dust
Liberia
This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President
Malaysia
Joss and Gold
Mali
Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali
Mexico
The Lacuna
Morocco
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
Newfoundland
The Shipping News
New Guinea
Where the Spirits Dwell: An Odyssey in the Jungle of New Guinea
New Zealand
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story
Netherlands
The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam
Tulip Fever
Nigeria
Little Bee
Oceania
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
Russia
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
The Siege
Rwanda
Baking Cakes in Kigali: A Novel
Saudi Arabia (Egypt and Iraq)
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
Scotland
Sacrifice
Spain
Death in the Afternoon
Sweden
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Turkey
Three Apples Fell From Heaven
USA
What Work Is
Crazy Brave: A Memoir
Vietnam
The Lotus Eaters
Wales
Writer’s House in Wales
Everywhere
To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Spinsters Abroad: Victorian Lady Explorers Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman