Reading the World Challenge – Pakistan

April 10, 2026Leave a comment

Since I sort book donations at the library and frequent bookstores I decided to start this challenge with countries that cross my path organically, we’ll see how far that gets me. Pakistan was the next country to have both a fiction and nonfiction book come through the book donations which makes it country number 4.

This is the first country that did exactly what I wanted this challenge to do. Listening to I Am Malala with my family on a road trip gave me the deeply religious northern part of the country and how Islamic radicals fought to take control. The Museum Detective gave me a glimpse of a more cosmopolitan Pakistan with the Karachi setting. Both gave a real sense of the country, even if they differed on what view they were offering.

Nonfiction

I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai, 2014, 230 pages

We listened to the version that was ‘rewritten for an audience her own age’. I chose it for the main reason that it would be short enough for a road trip, it’s only 5 hours. It was a good choice for us, but I don’t know how much was missing or changed from the original version.

Malala is an amazing person. Confident, brave, dedicated. He activism for the education of girls at such a young age is amazing. Her parents are to be commended. Learning more about how the Taliban came to have such a prominent role in her region was enlightening. I hadn’t known much about her life before she was shot and this book does a really good job of showing what happened before that made her a target of the terrorist organiztion.

It felt a bit repetitive at times, but still worth reading 100%. The audio included her speech in front of the UN at the end and I liked hearing her voice and her passion for education.

Fiction

The Museum Detective by Maha Khan Phillips, 2025, 326 pages

The police find a sarcophagus on a drug bust and Dr. Gul Delani is called in the middle of the night. She works for the museum and is an expert on mummies. We learn of the old Persian Empire, the history of mummies, the customs and social structure of Karachi, as well as the role of women. Was the sarcophagus real? Would there be danger for her if it was?

This was a nice flip side to the Malala coin. Women in Karachi were also second place citizens, but women could rise above, especially if your family had money. I really liked this one and would gladly read another book about Gul.

The closest I’ve come to reading anything about Pakistan before this was American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar – Stacy’s Books about a boy whose parents came from Pakistan and a Pakistani friend who came to stay with them.

My goal is to read a fiction and nonfiction book set in and written by someone who was born in that country. As recommendations trickled in I realized that it’s the ‘born in that country’ part that is going to make some books not work. I’m excluding the immigrant experience. It wasn’t my intent, I just didn’t really think it through in those terms. I’m not going to change the rules at this point. Maybe I’ll do a spin off challenge for that.

Countries completed…

Reading the World Challenge – Sweden

March 30, 20262 Comments

Since I sort book donations at the library and frequent bookstores I decided to start this challenge with countries that cross my path organically, we’ll see how far that gets me. Sweden was the next country to have both a fiction and nonfiction book come through the book donations which makes it country number 3.

I think the nonfiction book was great in representing Sweden and its traditions. I enjoyed the fiction for more on what the day to day looks like.

Nonfiction

The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly by Margareta Magnusson, 2022, 160 pages.

I first started with this slim memoir. The subtitle Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You gives you a sense of the author’s humor. Magnusson shot to notoriety with her first book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and although I didn’t read it, she does touch on it in the book, even giving some tips at the end. Essentially, once you hit middle age you should start decluttering little by little so that when you die, the ones you leave behind don’t have to deal with it.

This book was more about stories of her life. During WWII her parents evacuating Margareta and her sister to a farm to stay with friends to keep them safe when their town was considered a target of Hitler. She moved to the United States for a few years with her family and leaned English from dubbed TV. Due to her husband’s job they and their five children moved to many countries briefly before settling back in Sweden. Now she lives alone in an apartment in the city and here gives her thoughts on getting older along with stories about Swedish life. I loved learning about the traditions.

“The moment you start thinking it is too late, then you begin to die.”

I was completely charmed by her and loved this book! Highly recommend and I’ll be looking for her first book now. Sadly, she died this month at the age of 91 and her daughter confirmed that she let her attic and basement empty.

“Another thing I’m happy about is my old books. I like the books of Somerset Maugham-my husband introduced me to his work. I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tove Jansson, David Sedaris, Kristina Lugn, Kazuo Ishiguro, and many more. I don’t want to get rid of any of them. Many new ones get published every year that I should perhaps read for a first time, but instead I read my old ones for the fifth, sixth, or seventh times. They are old friends.”

Fiction

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman, 2013, 372 pages.

I read and loved A Man Called Ove by Backman a few years ago and yet still managed to not read any of his other books. This is a book about the beauty of fairytales.

Elsa is just 7 and leaps and bounds smarter than anyone she goes to school with. She gets into fights at school daily. Her grandmother is 77 and Elsa’s best friend. And she is a hoot. I loved her character so much.

The book opens with Elsa and her grandmother in an interview room at the jail waiting for Elsa’s mom to come pick them up 😆.

While I shed a tear or two and I ended up liking this one, I was not invested in the first half. It may be because I listened to it while driving and maybe I missed some important stuff in the beginning.

“If you can’t get rid of the bad, you have to top it up with more goody stuff.”

That certainly applies to the state of the world these days.

Other books I’ve read set in Sweden

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman was a 5 Star read!!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was a 5 Star thriller. I’m not sure why I never read the rest.

My goal is to read a fiction and nonfiction book set in and written by someone who was born in that country. As recommendations have trickled in I realized that it’s the ‘born in that country’ part that is going to make some books not work. I’m excluding the immigrant experience. It wasn’t my intent, I just didn’t really think it through in those terms. I’m not going to change the rules at this point. Maybe I’ll do a spin off challenge for that.

Countries completed…

Israel
Japan

Reading the World Challenge – Japan

February 8, 20262 Comments

I finally finished my second book for this challenge. I really need to pick up the pace. Since I sort book donations at the library and frequent bookstores I decided to start this challenge with countries that cross my path organically, we’ll see how far that gets me. The fiction book showed up in my quarterly TBR box and the memoir came through the library donations.

Nonfiction

The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori 1995, 275 pages

A memoir by Kyoto Mori telling of her trip back to Japan after living in the US since college. This took me a while to finish. I had a hard time getting into it, but the last half was good. The first half was a lot of looking back at her childhood in Japan before her mother committed suicide and her father remarried. The second half interspersed those memories with what was happening on her trip more smoothly and I found myself picking up the pace as I finished.

I liked getting to know the traditions and stories. Her father’s family was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. Her grandparent’s lived in the country in poverty. Even the way her family interacts with her and each other was an interesting observation.

Her relationship with her father was a recurring theme and I totally got it. Reading some of the other reviews that was a complaint by many, but I thought it made sense. If your father was the big reason that you left, going back would color all of your interactions with family.

Fiction

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida 2024, 297 pages

The book is a collection of stories with a central location, the Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul in Kyoto. The clinic can only be found when a person is struggling with life and the doctor only ever prescribes one thing, a cat!

Such a charming story with each chapter the name of the prescribed cat with a picture. Cat lovers will like the sweetness of a cat being able to cure all ills. A fun magical fiction book for Japan.

***

That being said here are four books I’ve read and liked in the last few years that were set in Japan.

A Bowl Full of Peace: A True Story by Caren Stelson and Akira Kusaka – This 40 page kids picture books about the bombing of Nagasaki has stuck with me.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story by Marie Kondo

Favorite Book – The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

January 5, 2026Leave a comment

Before I add books to my Top 100 I do a reread, or in this case a re-listen last year, to make sure they still belong on the list. As I read the review I originally posted in 2015 I still agree with everything I said. but the most compelling part is what I didn’t say. I didn’t spoil Hanna’s big secret. But Hanna’s big secret is the thing that turns the story into something worth reading, contemplating, and discussing. I think the emphasis on the relationship between a 15 year old boy and a 30 year old woman is obviously worth debating, but it isn’t what makes this story stick.

So much story in 200 pages. It’s translated from German so it may not feel the most poetic, but it packs a punch. I’m drawn to books that can say much with few words. I recommend the audio book and the movie.

From my 2025 review

The Reader by Bernard Schlink

Unabridged audio read by Campbell Scott. 4 hours, 30 minutes

Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.
When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover–then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.

from Goodreads

I watched the movie made from this book in 2009 when it came out because I love Kate Winslet and I ended up being very moved by it. And it was with those images in my mind that I listened to the book expertly narrated by Campbell Scott. He became the young and then the adult Michael for me. Between the movie and Campbell’s narration there was a warmth and richness to this story that I don’t know if I would have found in reading the book alone. At just over 200 pages it tackled a lot and much of it had to be personally considered by the reader. What I’m saying is that I can vouch for the audio, but I don’t know it I would have loved it as much if I had read the book alone.

The first part is the love? story between the 15 year old Michael and the 30 something old Hanna. I didn’t ever truly figure out the why of it on her end, but it’s an easier sell for a 15-year-old boy to be captivated by a woman who teaches him all about sex . I found it realistic especially since as he started to spend more time with his peers he began to question Hanna’s place among them.

Flash forward a few years and Michael is at university studying law and his class is studying a trial of women accused of Nazi crimes and he sees Hanna for the first time since he was 15. She was a guard for one of the concentration camps and now must face her day in court. Michael is riveted and doesn’t miss a day.

I loved this for how much it manages to pack into such a short book. There was the strange physical relationship between the two, but then it moved into things more thought-provoking, horrifying and sad. It’s a great book for discussion and those who are interested in post-war Germany. Not a happy book, but one that left me satisfied and enriched.

My Top 100 Fiction list

October Reads

November 5, 20252 Comments

A slow reading month with only eight books, but given the craziness of the month it’s a win! October had two birthdays (mine and Gage’s), one anniversary (our 27th wedding anniversary), and a wedding trip/vacay to Colorado where the three of us and my mom watched my cousin’s daughter (and one of my flower girls) get married. Oh, and we also added a 2 pound furball to the house, making this a 3 cat house, and one of the other cats, Razzi, had to have surgery. I’m honestly looking forward to a more low key November!

Spotlight!

Not a Free Ion by Elinor Wilder. 112 pages, 2025

My friend wrote a book! This novella is a set up for the series and I’m so proud of her! Not a Free Ion is a novella that sets up the Claw Ridge Mountains community that is home to wolf shifter packs. It’s a love story with a shifter who lost his sense of smell and a neurodivergent woman who has always loved him. They finally get there second chance when the stakes are high.

I’m not usually into wolf shifters or novellas BUT this was a fun introduction to the first book, where I’ve had the privilege to read a few early chapters. If you do like shifter stories, go ahead and show some love to my friend by reading this one. The opening rescue chapters will have you hooked from page one.

Life and Other Inconveniences by Kristan Higgans. 435 pages, 2019

This was my favorite book of the month by one of my favorite authors. A widowed matriarch who is dying, a granddaughter once cast away now invited back with the promise of a sizeable inheritance for her daughter, and an absent son/father who still has a role in the story.

I loved watching Emma come into her own as she went back to the place she was raised and where her one and only love still lived with his new family. I liked hearing Genevieve’s voice as she told her story and the purified air way she had at looking at the world. I also loved that the mystery of the missing, presumed dead son was just a small part of the story and that when the truth finally became known it was almost a surprise I wasn’t sure was going to happen.

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez. 389 pages, 2022

I really liked this age gap, social disparity romance. I loved watching kind hearted, somewhat clueless Alexis of a medicine dynasty fall in love with Daniel and the small town he lived in. I also fell in love with Daniel, the man of many hats, and the close-knit small town that needed and embraced Alexis.

This did address abuse both emotional and physical, which I appreciated. Too many girls/women can’t see the emotional abuse after they’ve accepted it as fact. Any story that can save girls from those relationships is one that should be shared widely.

In Polite Company by Gervais Hagerty. 368 pages, 2021

Simons is a Charleston blue blood who always feels out of place. When she starts questioning her engagement to the perfect man according to her family she must make a choice.

I loved the Charleston setting and all of the ins and outs of the elites that live there. The story was part family ties and part dating horror stories and it moved along at a good pace. The grandma’s story of being brave was a nice through line.

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida. 297 pages, 2023

Such a charming story with each chapter the name of the prescribed cat with a picture. Cat lovers will like the sweetness of a cat being able to cure all ills.

The Love Haters by Katherine Center. 309 pages, 2025

Zany scenes told with wit and humor are a Katherine Center gift. Her latest, the Lover Haters, has that along with a perfect specimen of a man and a woman dealing with body issues. Oh, and a large Great Dane who is involved in much of the story.

This was fun and I liked it. Not my favorite of hers, I like my men with at least as many flaws as I have, but still good.

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. 279 pages, 2006

Gage and I read the second Percy Jackson together. It’s slow going with school starting, but we did it! And he’s willing to continue so that’s the best thing

I still like how these books make mythology fun and are educating as well as entertaining. I’m looking forward to the next one just as much as he is!

The Dark Side by Danielle Steel. 288 pages, 2019

So, this is my first Danielle Steel book in decades and, wow, it was not what I was expecting! I am not a big believer in trigger warnings and am sure I would have ignored them if there’d been any, but this book was just one big trigger for me.

My trigger warnings for you includes sick children and lots of child ER visits. I found no joy in this book from beginning to end, so if you like those types of books, have at it 😆

I don’t often post about books I don’t really like, but given how much it bothered me I thought I’d warn you.

Reading the World Challenge – Israel

October 3, 2025October 3, 20252 Comments

I’ve finished my first country and while it took a little longer than I anticipated I feel like I’m off to a great start. My nonfiction book was written by an Arab born and raised in Israel and the novel’s main storyline was the prejudice against migrants with many chapters coming from her perspective. So, I liked that both books helped me see Israel from the eyes of someone not in the majority.

Nonfiction

Around the World in 60 Seconds: The Nas Daily Journey-1,000 Days, 64 Countries, 1 Beautiful Planet by Nuseir Yassin with Bruce Kluger, 2019, 272 pages

My review is here.

Fiction

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, translated from Hebrew by Sondra Silverston, 409 pages, 2013

My review is here.

That being said here are three books I’ve read and liked in the last few years that were set in Israel, but not written by someone born there.

Too Far From Home by Naomi Shmuel – a children’s book about a girl who was born in Israel to two immigrant parents. A good book about prejudice and belonging. 4 stars

Dawn by Elie Wiesel – This is the second in the Night trilogy and a profound look at the evil of war. 5 stars

How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden – A graphic memoir by a New Yorker taking her 10 day Birthright trip to Israel. 3.75 stars

Reading the World Challenge – Israel

September 29, 20254 Comments

ISRAEL Fiction

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, translated from Hebrew by Sondra Silverston, 409 pages, 2013

How I found, chose this book-It chose me. I ran across this book while I was cleaning up our spring book sale and the cover spoke to me.

I finally finished my fiction read from Israel and it was a gritty, moral look at the prejudice one can have against refugees in any country. It’s dense and slow moving, but it does pack a punch.

Dr. Etian Green hits a black migrant on his drive home from a long shift at an Israeli hospital. Even a doctor couldn’t save the man and so begins the moral crisis for this husband, father, and healer. When he is blackmailed by the man’s widow Etian’s whole life begins to spiral.

It felt like a quiet book because there wasn’t a lot of dialogue. What I got instead was a front row seat to the inner minds of Etian, his wife, and the beautiful widow. Fascinating. Etian goes from dislike of the refugees to understanding their plight in his country.

The writing was beautiful. The story was thoughtful and somewhat suspenseful. But I had zero problem putting this down until about 3/4 of the way through, when it picked up and I stayed up late to finish it. So, it’s a good book, but not one you’ll breeze through. And it’s the better for it.

And that cover? Gorgeous.

A few examples of the writing…

“However much he wanted to feel compassion for them, he couldn’t help recoiling from them. Not only from their smell and bodily fluids but also from their faces-alien, staring, filled with undying gratitude. He didn’t speak their language, and they didn’t speak his, so they communicated with waving hands and facial expressions.” p. 54

“A thin man reached out for a handshake, and Eitan shook his head, thinking that somewhere along the way, his empathy button had stopped functioning. He should have felt something. Kindness. Compassion. The responsibility of one human being for another. Not only toward this man standing here and shaking his hand emotionally while he himself was only waiting for him to stop. He hadn’t felt anything for the man on the ground with his head split open either. Or perhaps he had felt something but not the right something. Not what he should have felt.” p.75

“But Eitan knew he had never been more awake. And, appalled, he realized that at that moment, at that specific moment, he was prepared to set the whole house on fire.” p.208

“It would be his fault. Because he hadn’t taken good enough care of his family, and families are fragile things.” p.227

This Week

September 7, 202510 Comments

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done one of these. But as fall weather rolls in, so does my desire to jump back on here and gab about books, movies, and maybe Gage too. I miss it.

Challenge: This week I started a new challenge I’m calling Reading the World. The post is here and I’m looking for recommendations for books from other countries. Here are recommendations I need today…Fiction books written by and set in Pakistan, Poland, Sierra Leone, Vietnam. And nonfiction books by people from and set in the countries of Afghanistan, Canada, Columbia, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Trinidad&Tobago, and Egypt.

I started the challenge with Israel because I had both a nonfiction and fiction book. When I finish I’ll move on to Sweden because I have both books ready to go.

Finished this week: Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas. I love her historical romances, but this first of the Bow Street Runners series was not a favorite. I love her so much that I’ll still pick up the second one.

Currently reading: Around the World in 60 Seconds: The Nas Daily Journey-1000 Days, 64 Countries, 1 Beautiful Planet by Nuseir Yassin. This is the first book of my challenge and I’m so close to finishing. It is the perfect way to begin my journey around the world. Expect a review tomorrow.

I’m listening to Lethal Prey by John Sandford, the 35th book in the Lucas Davenport series. This one also has Virgil Flowers and I love them together. The murderer in this one is pretty cold. Makes me look around at some normal looking people with suspicion.

Movies: Jason and I watch Sinners this week. What a weird and compelling movie. I both loved the original storytelling and didn’t care for the twist, lol. And for family movie night we watched Escape Room on Netflix. We like escape rooms, just not ones this deadly. We all liked the movie though.

TV: We’re working our way through The Middle. I think we’re on season 5 and we all love it, Gage especially. Jason and I watched the first episode of the Great Bristish Bake Off. We’re in a pool that Jason won last season so he’s under some pressure to do well this time too.

Puzzles: Today I’m hosting a puzzle swap at my house. I’ve been having an informal Little Free Puzzle Library on my porch since January and needed to clean out the 70+ puzzles that have been acquired. This is the 1000piece+ table.

This weekend: So far it’s been fairly quiet. I see lots of laundry in my future today and most likely a family game. What about you?

Linking up with The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz.

Reading the World Challenge

September 6, 20254 Comments

I’m back! I’ve been unable to use my blog for weeks but think everything is okay now. Bloggers know how frustrating this can be. I haven’t used my blog as much as Instagram these past few years because I wasn’t able to use my own photos. I still haven’t entirely fixed that problem but did manage to get this one on here so there is hope.

On September 1st I embarked on a new challenge. I’m calling it Reading the World and I’m going to attempt to read a fiction AND nonfiction book from every country in the world.

I’ve been toying with the idea for a few years and finding a few people attempting to read one book from each country on Instagram gave me the push I needed. I’m going to use the current UN list of 193 countries, but am opening to reading the territories too if books are recommended, but it’s not a priority.

I need your help! The rule (made this up myself) is that the author must be from the country and the book must be set in the country. There’s wiggle room for sci-fi or fantasy where the setting is fluid. Please recommend favorite books! I combed my shelves and pulled out this stack, once I have one fiction and one nonfiction from a county it gets read. The only one I had to start was Israel, so I’m currently reading there.

Send me any recommendations and especially these since I already have one book. I need nonfiction books for these countries. I’m partial to memoirs, but anything is fine.
Canada, Afghanistan, Japan, Poland, Nigeria, Sweden, S Korea, Trinidad &Tobago. I need fiction options from Sierra Leone and Pakistan. I’m open to kids books too, sometimes those are my favorites!

I’ll be on here more since I’ll be tracking my progress. I’m excited for this challenge and excited to blog more. I’ve missed it.

Favorite Series – Lincoln Lawyer/Mickey Haller by Michael Connelly

July 22, 20256 Comments

These books about defense attorney Michael Haller set in Los Angeles are part of the bigger Harry Bosch series. I’ve watched the Bosch series on Amazon, but haven’t read the books. I I’ve also watched the Lincoln Lawyer series on Netflix. I’ve loved both of them. There are only 7 books of the Lincoln Lawyer so far and I thought I’d start there. Once I started I couldn’t stop!

This series is addicting if you like courtroom drama. The writing is good and the plotting is stellar. There are twists that you don’t see coming. Mickey Haller flies high in some books and lands low in others, but always manages to land on his feet and right the wrongs that happen in the justice system. I’m cheering him on because he has that bleeding heart, albeit one that needs to pay the bills. I flew through these in a few months time.

That being said, they are part of the larger series, so you aren’t privy to the happenings of those books or the years that went by. In some of the books quite a bit of time had passed and you just had to pick up where it was and know your questions might not be answered.

And the Netflix series, while drawing some storylines from the book, really doesn’t follow it closely. Some of the side characters are considerably different too. I enjoy both print and screen versions so that’s okay.

Considering how much I loved these I probably will start the Bosch series soon and this might get wrapped up in that series. Time will tell.

I think all but the first have been 5 star reads for me.