Travel the World in Books: My Book Map & Books I'd Like to Read!

In case you haven't seen, I'm doing the Travel the World in Books Readathon at the moment and Monday's challenge was to make our own book maps on Google! I've only just finished because I only had author origin in my spreadsheet, but here's my map! The red pins are the author's origin, the purple stars are the setting of the novel, and the blue pins are for when they're the same.



Not as diverse as I'd like but awareness of the gaps in your knowledge is the first step, right?

On to my TBR for this event!

I've started with The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, because people have been telling me it's great for so long, but the other three are all books I've had on my shelves for years too. As you can see, the desire to read diversely isn't the problem with me, it's just the actuality of making it happen!

I think it's so important to read books set in other countries and by authors from other cultures because there's so much that I won't ever experience for myself and books can help me to learn about and understand other people's experiences. Reading diversely creates and increases empathy and understanding and in my opinion that's one of the most important things needed in our world today!

Because it's me, there will be a post/page coming with a list of books I want to read from all the countries missing a pin on my map! I'll probably remain a day or two behind with the discussion topics for this readathon but I really love the idea of having different things to post about each day, and obviously am loving the chance to get some recommendations for world lit!

Literary Awards to Diversify Your Reading

A while back I wrote a post about why awards short and longlists are good for our reading during which I said that I liked how literary awards helped bring to my attention titles and authors I'd never previously heard of. This year I set myself goals (that I have spectacularly failed to achieve) for diversifying my reading, and following on from the idea of discovering the unknown I thought I'd write a post highlighting some literary awards that feature diversity.

Many of these are awards for translation, and so the experiences of the authors may not be a milliion miles away from my own, but they are still from another culture and country.

Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation

This award is given every two years for a translation of a work intended for young readers. It has been awarded since 1996 and past winners include Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelle (trans. Sarah Ardizonne), Duel by David Grossman (trans. Betsy Rosenberg) and In The Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda (trans. Howard Curtis).

Their website.

Samuel Johnson Prize 


This is a prize for a non-fiction work in the English language and is awarded annually. It was founded in 2009 and the longlist for this year has just been announced and features, among others, The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq by Emma Sky which I talked about the other week in my post on Atlantic Books! Previous winners include Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikotter, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale.

Their website.

International Rubery Book Award

Given my current obsession with independent publishers it will hardly come as a shock that this award features here. It has been awarded yearly since 2011 to the best work of fiction and the best short story from an independent publisher or self published. As there have only been five winners I feel I can probably list them all here. They are: Jump Derry by Christine Donovan, The Restorer by Daniela Murphy, The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up by Jacob Appel, Flatlands by Victor Tapner and Don't Try This at Home by Angela Readman.

Their website

Forward Prizes for Poetry


Although these awards are really well known I know a lot of people, myself included, don't read much poetry so if you're looking to diversify into the genre this could be a good place to start. (another place I'd recommend is Jen Campbell's Youtube channel - you can find various of her poetry related videos here. She's a seriously well read lady!)

There are a lot of winners and not just the one prize. The Forward Arts Foundation also organizes World Poetry Day so rather than mention previous winners here I'll just direct you to their website. Go explore!

Man Booker International Prize


This award has just been reconfigured for next year. It used to be awarded every two years to an author of any nationality for a body of work that was written in English or generally available in English translation. Starting in 2016 it will be awarded annually to a book in English translation and the prize will be shared equally between the author and the translator.

Previous winners include Chinua Achebe (author of Things Fall Apart amongst other things), Alice Munro and Philip Roth.

Their website

These are just the British awards that I've found. Wikipedia has a whole huge page on literary awards throughout the world and although I would love to delve into them all I had to start somewhere! I'll probably do at least one more of these posts because although I'm sure none of us needs to, adding to your TBR is fun, right?

Let me know of any that you love that I've missed!

Diversity TBR: Literary Awards

In case you were unaware, I really like lists. I particularly like impossibly long longlists for literary awards which I have little to no chance of ever completing a full read before the shortlist, and eventual winner, are announced. In pursuit of that elusive diversity that I'm after this year I've been doing a little research into some awards which are non-UK or USA based. There are a few whose past winners I'd love to add to my (ridiculous, unmanageable and once again ridiculous) TBR.

The Hans Christian Andersen Award

This is a pair of awards presented by the International Board on Books for Young People to a living author and a living illustrator for their lasting contribution to children's literature. It does include a lot of British and American authors/illustrators but also a lot from other countries. Some I'm excited to explore include Erich Kastner, Tove Jansson, Eleanor Farjeon, and Uri Orlev. Unfortunately a lot of the authors who have won don't seem to have work available in translation which (due to the fact that I'm rubbish at languages) limits the amount I can read. I shall do my best though!

Etisalat Prize for Literature

Established in 2013 (so not too much backlist to catch up with!) this is the first Pan-African prize for a first-time African writer of a fiction book. There are only two winners so far one of which (We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo) was already on my radar but I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on it!

Asian Literary Prize (Formerly the Man Asian Literary Prize)

Awarded yearly from 2007 to 2012 to the best novel by an Asian writer, written or translated into English published in the previous calendar  year. I like the look of a lot of the winners. For reference, they are thus:
* Wolf Totem - Jiang Rong (2007)
* Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco (2008)
* The Boat to Redemption - Su Tong (2009)
* Three Sisters - Bi Fieyu (2010)
* Please Look After Mom - Shin Kyung-sook (2011)
* The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twang Eng (2012)

Caine Prize 

Awarded for the best original short story by an African writer written in the English language. I have an issue with the majority of the African authors I've read being of Nigerian heritage and although that's great as it's still a culture I know very little about, it would be good to broaden my reading to some of the many other African countries. Also short stories are great. I'll be searching some of the winners out!

Scotiabank Giller Prize

Awarded for excellence in Canadian fiction. This has been running since 1994 so there's quite a bit of choice, but hey Margaret Atwood's won it so I'm excited. Past winners I'd most like to read include:

* Half Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
* A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
* Barney's Version -Mordecai Richler
* The In-Between World of Vikram Lall - M.G Vassanji
* Runaway - Alice Munro
* Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay

Do you follow any of these awards? Anything I'm excited about that you've loved or hated? As usual, any non white/American/UK authors you love that I've not heard of and need to be reading?

The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The Household Guide to Dying is a moving, witty, and uplifting novel about Delia, who writes an acerbic and wildly popular household advice column. When Delia realizes that she is losing her long battle with cancer, she decides to organize her remaining months - and her husband and children's future lives without her - the same way she has always ordered their household. Unlike the many faithful readers of her advice column - people who are rendered lost and confused when faced with dirty shirt collars - Delia knows just what to do. She will leave a list for her daughter's future wedding; fill the freezer with homemade sausages, stews, and sauces; and even (maddeningly) offer her husband suggestions for a new wife. She'll compile a lifetime's worth of advice for her children, and she'll even write the ultimate "Household Guide to Dying" for her fans. There is one item on her list, however, that proves too much even for "Dear Delia," and it is the single greatest task she had set for herself. Yet just as Delia is coming to terms with this, an unexpected visitor helps her believe in her life's worth in a way that no list ever could.

I first found this book over at Page Turners, while looking for another book for the Australia section of the Global Reading Challenge. After saying over and over again how I need to cut down on the amount of challenges I'm doing, I went and upped my participation level to Medium, meaning I've got tor read 2 books from each continent now, instead of one....Anyway! 

I expected The Household Guide to Dying to be much heavier than it actually was. For a book about death, it is very much, as the subtitle suggests, a story about life. My favourite part of this book, was the references to Mrs Beeton, and keeping hens. This is something that I really want to do. I'm not sure why, but for absolutely years I've been seized with an insane desire to keep hens, and have fresh eggs in the morning. Well, if I'm honest, actually I'd just like to have a farm,but don't think I could bring myself to kill the animals...

Aside from that, I liked the way that the story expanded, to involve not just the present and the future, but also the past. I have to say that while I enjoyed the novel, I did find a bit disjointed and slightly less than coherent. The story of Delia's past never really connected with her present for me. While I understand that when people have a tragedy in their past they will often try to distance themselves from it, it wasn't like she'd cut it out of her life completely, but nor had she managed to reconcile it with her life in the present. Despite constantly talking about the fact that she is dying, it didn't seem to really affect her emotionally until the end. However, I did think that her husband, Archie, was the strongest character from this point of view; throughout the story, he is clearly struggling to come to terms with what is happening, and the book follows his emotional journey much more so than Delia's. There were some moving scenes, but I did feel that the book was ultimately more about other people's experiences and tragedies than Delia's own.

I read this for the Global Reading Challenge, but although I will still count it, it did not have a very strong sense of place for me. It is set in Australia, but really it could be anywhere, as there is not much reference to weather, culture, or place throughout the novel.

Overall, I read the book quickly, and enjoyed it, but it didn't quite manage to live up to my expectations.

Rating: ***

Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw

Reading this book made me realise just how much 'easy' reading I've been doing lately. Map of the Invisible World is about Indonesia in the '60s, a country I know next to nothing about, so it was very interesting from that point of view, as well as for the actual story. It's a book that requires concentration, and I found it really rewarding to read.

The storyline focuses on Adam, an orphan, who has been adopted by Karl, and Indonesian born Dutch man. At the beginning of the novel, Karl is seized by the polic, and taken away to be 'repatriated'. The basic focus of the novel is on Adam's struggle to find Karl, and the people that he meets while doing this. It is a reflection of the struggles within Indonesia, told with a combination of the naivety of Adam, a teenager who is still very innocent, the experience of the country from the point of view of an American, who has lived there for years, a girl who wants to make a difference, and the anguish of a Sumatran extremist.

According to the blurb, the novel is about the seperation of Adam from his brother, Johan, as a child. In actualilty, Johan only seems to appear in order to lend more depth and understanding to Adam's story. His struggle to come to terms with his past and identity, mirror the struggles within the country, to assert itself, and for me, this made the novel very beautiful and poignant to read.

Map of the Invisible World was both beautifully written, intensely engaging, and hugely informative. It reminded me that my cognitive faculties are alive and well, and for this I'm very grateful!

Rating: ****

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis amazed me. For starters, it is the first graphic novel I have ever read which is not from the fantasy genre. I found the use of the cartoons a hugely effective way of portraying the storyline, and was also stunned by how unexpectedly funny it was, given the subject matter. It actually made me laugh out loud.

The book is basically Satrapi's autobiography, and tells her story from childhood, beginning in 1980, during the Islamic Revolution in Iran, all the way through to 1994, when she left Iran to study in Paris. The fact that it is graphic helps to slightly distance the reader from the horrors contained within the story. As a child, Marjane learns about the imprisonment of her grandfather, experiences the imprisonment and execution of her uncle, and has to contend with the Guardians of the Revolution, while out buying Kim Wilde tapes off the Black Market.

The second part of the novel deals with her period of living in Vienna, where her parents sent her to continue her education, aged 14. From the horror and repression of Iran during a war, Satrapi emerges to a society which shuns her as a foreigner: when she fights back against her headmistress telling her that Iranians have no education, she is expelled, and eventually spirals from drugs, a boyfriend who spends all of her money, and who mother hates her for being different, into homelessness,a nd finally back to her family in Iran.

Persepolis is surprisingly humorous and hugely perceptive. It depicts many of the way in which the so called 'emancipated' Western world can be just as repressed and restrictive as the East. For me, it took a period about which I knew nothing, and informed me, while at the same time entertaining me (and annoying my fiance, as I persisted in reading the funniest bits aloud to him.. I know, it's annoying).

The thing that I loved the most about this novel, was the emphasis on books and education. I completely agree with Satrapi when she says 'One must educate oneself'. And on that note, I'm off to rent the film...

Rating: ***** (I'd give it more if I had them!)