Israel

Bonnie said, "We Just Want to Live Here is by Amal Rifa'i and Odelia Ainbinder, both teenagers who live in Jerusalem, but one is Muslim and the other is Jewish. Reading their correspondence helped me understand how each side feels in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. My review of this book is HERE."

In We Just Want to Live Here: An Unlikely Teenage Friendship in the Two Jerusalems we meet Palestinian Amal Rifa'i and Israeli Odelia Ainbinder, two teenage girls who live in the same city, yet worlds apart. They met on a student exchange program to Switzerland. Weeks after they returned home, the latest, violent Intifada broke out in the fall of 2000. But two years later, Middle East correspondent Sylke Tempel encouraged Amal and Odelia to develop their friendship by facilitating an exchange of their deepest feelings through letters. In their letters, Amal and Odelia discuss the Intifada, their families, traditions, suicide bombers, and military service. They write frankly of their anger, frustrations, and fear, but also of their hopes and dreams for a brighter future. Together, Amal and Odelia give us a renewed sense of hope for peace in the Middle East.

Canada

Bonnie said, "Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather takes us to Quebec, Canada. Reading this novel made me want to see the rock of Quebec. You can read my review of this book HERE."

Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather is set at the end of the 17th century in Quebec. This novel describes the quiet, isolated life of Cecile Auclair and her father, the town apothecary.

Scotland

Bonnie said, "My Heart's in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland by Liz Curtis Higgs was a lot of fun to read. The author wrote the book in such a way that I felt I was actually riding along with her in Scotland, visiting one place and then another, eating here and there, feeling the rain. This book is different from any I have ever read before, and I can hardily recommend it to you. Take that trip with her and spend ten days in Scotland ... as I did. Read my review of the book."

“Let’s go, shall we? Just the two of us? I consider Galloway the country’s best kept secret: a place where time holds its breath, where ancient ruins dot the countryside in moss-covered splendor, where the natives are friendly and tourists are few, only because they don’t know what they’re missing. So, ten days in bonny Scotland. You’ll join me, aye?” -- from the book.

Best-selling novelist Liz Curtis Higgs invites you to take an entertaining journey through the South West of Scotland, known as Dumfries and Galloway. Without crossing the pond, changing time zones, or driving on the left side of the road, you’ll explore quaint villages and crumbling castles, old bookshops and charming tearooms in the delightful company of a guide whose love for this quiet nook of Scotland illuminates every page. Warm, personal, and deeply evocative, My Heart’s in the Lowlands transports you to an unforgettable corner of Scotland that will lay claim to your heart forever.

Egypt

Bonnie said, "Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich came out earlier this year, and is a very good choice for Egypt. Here's my review. It's historical in that it's about Napoleon invading Egypt, but it's also very much FICTION and not something that happened. The fun part is imagining what if it HAD happened this way."

What mystical secrets lie beneath the Great Pyramids? Traveling with Napoleon's ambitious expedition, American adventurer Ethan Gage solves a five-thousand-year-old riddle with the help of a mysterious medallion. Ethan Gage, assistant to Ben Franklin and expatriate American in post-revolutionary France, wins an ancient—and possibly cursed—medallion in a card game one night. It turns out that the medallion, covered in seemingly indecipherable symbols, may be linked to a Masonic mystery. That same night, however, Ethan is framed for a prostitute's murder and barely escapes France with his life.

Faced with either prison or death, Gage is offered a third choice: to accompany the new emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, as France sails to conquer Egypt — with Lord Nelson's fleet following close behind. Once Gage arrives, he encounters incredible surprises: one in the form of a beautiful Macedonian slave and another in the dawning knowledge that the medallion may solve one of the greatest riddles of history — who built the Great Pyramids, and why. What is revealed to Gage is more shocking than anyone could ever have imagined.

William Dietrich's books have been hailed for their vivid imagery, evocative atmospheres, impeccable historical accuracy, and ambitious plots. Now, in the breakout novel of his career, he delivers an enthralling story of intrigue, greed, and danger. Moving from the lascivious salons of post-revolutionary Paris to the Mediterranean's high seas to the treacherous sands of Egypt, Napoleon's Pyramids is a riveting, action-packed thriller that will captivate readers and introduce them to this supremely talented author.

Bolivia

Sally said, "G'day, I have a suggestion for Bolivia. It is a young adult book called: Diego! Run by Deborah Ellis. It is a new release here in Australia - not sure about the rest of the world - but won't be too far away - and can be purchased online." Bonnie said, "Thanks, Sally. It turns out that we Americans have the same book, but with a different title. I Am a Taxi sounds like the same book, doesn't it?"

For twelve-year-old Diego and his family, home is the San Sebastian Women's Prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His parents farmed coca, a traditional Bolivian medicinal plant, until they got caught in the middle of the government's war on drugs. Diego's adjusted to his new life. His parents are locked up, but he can come and go: to school, to the market to sell his mother's hand-knitted goods, and to work as a "taxi", running errands for other prisoners. But then his little sister runs away, earning his mother a heavy fine. The debt and dawning realization of his hopeless situation make him vulnerable to his friend Mando's plan to make big money, fast. Soon, Diego is deep in the jungle, working as a virtual slave in an illegal cocaine operation. As his situation becomes more and more dangerous, he knows he must take a terrible risk if he ever wants to see his family again.
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UPDATE: Sally has read the book and written a review.

Hong Kong

Bonnie said, "I recommend The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama, which takes the reader to Hong Kong when it was a part of the British Empire. Wikipedia says, 'Hong Kong was a dependent territory of the United Kingdom from 1842 until the transfer of its sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997.' Here's my review."

Readers of Women of the Silk never forgot the moving, powerful story of Pei, brought to work in the silk house as a girl, grown into a quiet but determined young woman whose life is subject to cruel twists of fate, including the loss of her closest friend, Lin. Now we finally learn what happened to Pei, as she leaves the silk house for Hong Kong in the 1930s, arriving with a young orphan, Ji Shen, in her care. Her first job, in the home of a wealthy family, ends in disgrace, but soon Pei and Ji Shen find a new life in the home of Mrs. Finch, a British ex-patriate who welcomes them as the daughters she never had. Their idyllic life is interrupted, however, by war, and the Japanese occupation. Pei is once again forced to make her own way, struggling to survive and to keep her extended family alive as well. In this story of hardship and survival, Tsukiyama paints a portrait of women fighting the forces of war and time to make a life for themselves.

Ireland

Bonnie said, "A good book for Ireland is The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín. I posted a review of the book last week."

It is Ireland in the early 1990s. Helen, her mother, Lily, and her grandmother, Dora have come together to tend to Helen's brother, Declan, who is dying of AIDS. With Declan's two friends, the six of them are forced to plumb the shoals of their own histories and to come to terms with each other. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín is a deeply resonant story about three generations of an estranged family reuniting to mourn an untimely death. In spare, luminous prose, Colm Tóibín explores the nature of love and the complex emotions inside a family at war with itself.

France

Jill said, "Hi, Bonnie: I finished my 'France' read for this challenge: Chocolat by Joanne Harris. My review is posted on my blog. It's a wonderful tale of internal struggles in a small French village when a young woman and her daughter settle there and open up a chocolate shop - right before Lent. A wonderful read and highly recommended!"

Chocolat is a timeless novel of a straitlaced village's awakening to joy and sensuality. In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival. Chocolat's every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere.

India

Bonnie said, "Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors is a good choice for India. It's about the building of the Taj Mahal, one of the NEW seven wonders of the world. I have already read the book and written a review of it."

Journey to dazzling seventeenth-century Hindustan, where the reigning emperor, consumed with grief over the tragic death of his beloved wife, commissions the building of the Taj Mahal as a testament to the marvel of their love. Princess Jahanara, their courageous daughter, recounts their mesmerizing tale, while sharing her own parallel tale of forbidden love with the celebrated architect of the Taj Mahal. This impressive novel sweeps readers away to a historical Hindustan brimming with action and intrigue in an era when, alongside the brutalities of war and oppression, architecture and the art of love and passion reached a pinnacle of perfection.

Rwanda

C.B. James said, "If you're interested in Dian Fossey I'd like to recommend Woman in the Mists by Canadian author Farley Mowat. It's an account of Dian Fossey life that includes a long section on her work with the gorillas and on attempts to solve her murder."

Woman in the Mists by Farley Mowat is the first full-length portrait of Dian Fossey, the world-famous scientist whose lonely crusade to save the mountain gorillas of Africa ended in her murder.

Rwanda

Bonnie said, "I discovered Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey as I was reading about the two books about Rwanda suggested by Amy. Dian's story touches these three countries: Zaire (now the Congo, Brazzaville), Uganda (briefly), and Rwanda (where she was murdered)."

One of the most important books ever written about our connection to the natural world, Gorillas in the Mist is the riveting account of Dian Fossey's thirteen years in a remote African rain forest with the greatest of the great apes. Fossey's extraordinary efforts to ensure the future of the rain forest and its remaining mountain gorillas are captured in her own words and in candid photographs of this fascinating endangered species. As only she could, Fossey combined her personal adventure story with groundbreaking scientific reporting in an unforgettable portrait of one of our closest primate relatives. Although Fossey's work ended tragically in her murder, Gorillas in the Mist remains an invaluable testament to one of the longest-running field studies of primates and reveals her undying passion for her subject.

Rwanda

Amy said, "I have two books for Rwanda. One which I have read is called Left to Tell by Imaculee Ilibigiza. I really enjoyed it. I have another on my TBR list called We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch. It is highly rated on Amazon."

Immaculee Ilibagiza shares her story in Left to Tell: One Woman's Story of Surviving the Rwandan Holocaust. She grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee's family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans. Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love — a love so strong she was able to seek out and forgive her family's killers. The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman's journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch is nonfiction. In April 1994, the Rwandan government called upon everyone in the Hutu majority to kill each member of the Tutsi minority, and over the next three months 800,000 Tutsis perished in the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews. Philip Gourevitch's haunting work is an anatomy of the war in Rwanda, a vivid history of the tragedy's background, and an unforgettable account of its aftermath. One of the most acclaimed books of the year, this account will endure as a chilling document of our time.
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A review of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families can be found at SmallWorld Reads.

Ireland

Jill said, "I just finished my 'Ireland' book for this challenge. It's called Tipperary by Frank Delaney, and I received it as an early reviewer for Random House through www.librarything.com. I did not enjoy this book at all, but people who really, really want to learn about Irish history and have the patience of a saint (perhaps even St. Patrick) may like this book. Personally, I am glad to get it over with. My review is posted here.

Tipperary by Frank Delaney won't be published until November. Here's what Publishers Weekly says about the book:

Seventy-five years after the death of Charles O'Brien, an Anglo-Irish itinerant healer and occasional journalist born in 1860, his memoir is discovered in a trunk. The result is this touching novel from Ireland author Delaney, in which the manuscript's putative discoverer adds his own unreliable commentary to the fictive Charles's probably embellished perceptions, making for a glowing composite of a volatile Ireland. Charles claims to treat Oscar Wilde on his deathbed; advise a young James Joyce ("When you write... be sure to make it complicated. It will retain people's attention"); tell an appreciative Yeats the story of Finn MacCool; and inadvertently bring down Charles Stewart Parnell. He also meets the founders and leaders of Sinn Fein and the IRA, and will, as will Ireland itself, entwine his fate with theirs. And at 40, never-married Charles meets the love of his life, 18-year-old April Burke, an Englishwoman who repeatedly spurns him and exploits him, but who has a large role to play in his life. The narrator claims that his interest in Charles and April is academic, but he eventually confesses that he suspects their stories have some personal relationship to his own. Delaney's confident storytelling and quirky characterizations enrich a fascinating and complex period of Irish history.

Canada

cbjames said, "I would like to suggest Carol Shields for Canada. The Stone Diaries is terrific."

The Stone Diaries is Carol Shields's most celebrated work and one of the most critically acclaimed and successful novels of the past two decades. A fictional autobiography of an ordinary woman, this multi-award-winning book (Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Governor-General's Award) serves as a record of the last century. Daisy Goodwill is on a journey of self-discovery. From her last days in a Florida nursing home she looks back in an attempt to make sense of her life story. Her birth in a turn of the century farmhouse is a shock, born to a woman so obese she doesn't even realize she is pregnant. Widowed on her honeymoon after her husband takes his own life, there is another marriage, children and a beloved hobby that becomes a career, of sorts. It is a life like any other, filled with the richness of human relations and the sting of disappointments both big and small. The beauty of this work lies in the details, the tiny brushstrokes of character and setting, at which Carol Shields is the undisputed master.

Cuba

3M said, "I plan on reading Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene for Cuba. I haven't read it yet, though, so I can't vouch for it." Bonnie's response, "I just looked it up and discovered a couple of GOOD things about the book: (1) it's a comedy, and (2) it's just been released in a new paperback edition on July 31, 2007. Thanks for the suggestion, 3M, because I plan to read this book."

This is from an Amazon reviewer who gave the book FIVE STARS:

This 1958 novel was a complete surprise to me. I'd read three books by this author before and found them dark and introspective. But Our Man in Havana is a satirical spoof and I found myself giggling throughout. It deals with a theme that Greene has revisited on many occasions - that of a spy in a foreign country. But this time, it's all in fun, although between the 220 pages of this slim volume, he manages to say a few important things about social class, the Catholic Church, and the absurdity of international relations.

The hero of the story is Jim Wormold, a divorced vacuum cleaner salesman from England in pre-Castro Cuba. His 17-year-old daughter is growing up fast and he finds he needs money. So when the British Secret Service recruits him, he invents a whole world of secret agents and intrigues just to keep the money flowing. He is even sent a secretary, which introduces a bit of romance to the outrageous plot. All of a sudden, the lies he has invented seem to be coming true and the plot thickens, moving along at a breakneck pace. I was totally involved, and found myself laughing out loud at times. What a delightful read! Highly recommended.

Cuba

Bonnie said, "Adios Hemingway is a book suggestion for Cuba, until we find a better one. Here's my review of the book. Since I was not overly impressed with the book, I'll quote a review by someone who liked it."

Library Journal's review, edited slightly: "When asked by his former partner to help solve the mystery of a dead FBI agent found in Hemingway's Cuban home, Finca Vigia, Conde cannot resist the opportunity to investigate the murder and cross swords with the literary lion who helped him define what it meant to be a writer. As he interviews those still living who knew Papa or worked for him and follows various clues, including a pair of Ava Gardner's knickers, Conde ruminates on Hemingway's legend, his failing health, and his relationship with Cuba. Fuentes provides a detailed and credible portrait of Hemingway's last days in Cuba in this entertaining literary whodunit. Perfect for readers of detective fiction who happen to be Hemingway aficionados."

Japan

Bonnie said, "Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama is a novel that has stayed with me since I read it over a decade ago. It's the gardens I remember, one that is made up entirely of stones (literally, a rock garden) and one with colorful flowers. Which one do you think is the samurai's garden?"


On the eve of the Second World War, a 20-year-old Chinese man is sent to his family's summer home in Japan to recover from tuberculosis. He will rest, swim in the salubrious sea, and paint in the brilliant shoreside light. It will be quiet and solitary. But he meets four local residents: a lovely Japanese girl his own age and three older people. Young Stephen has his own adventure, but it is the unfolding story of Matsu, Sachi, and Kenzo that seizes your attention and will stay with you forever.