Thursday, January 2, 2014

Around the world in 2013

I managed to travel virtually to 26 countries during 2013 via the books that I read.  Here's the breakdown, with the full list of titles and links to reviews below.

27: United States
12: Ireland
8: England
5: Australia, Scotland
4: Germany
3: France, Iceland, Italy
2: China, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden
1: Korea, Thailand, Norway, Wales, Greece
12: More than one country (Austria, Burma, Cambodia, England, Germany, Ireland, Laos, Mexico, Poland, Thailand, Ukraine, USA)
3: Fictional
10: Non-fiction

Australia
Black Wattle Creekby Geoffrey McGeachin ***.5
Diggers Rest Hotelby Geoffrey McGeachin ****.5
Roll With It by Nick Place ***.5
The Low Roadby Chris Womersley ****
White Dog by Peter Temple *****

China
A Loyal Character Dancer by Qui Xiaolong ***
The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang ***

England
A Private Business by Barbara Nadel ****
All the Lonely People by Martin Edwards ***.5
Broken Dreams by Nick Quantrill ***
Dead Man's Time by Peter James ***
Icelight by Aly Monroe ****.5
Last Rights by Barbara Nadel ***
The Reckoning by Jane Casey ***.5
The Riot by Laura Wilson ***.5

France
A Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie ***
Bed of Nails by Antonin Varenne ****
The Dark Angel by Dominique Sylvain ***

Germany
Stettin Station by David Downing ***.5
The Good German by Joseph Kanon ****
The Murder Farm by Andrea Maria Schenkel ***
Tretjak by Max Landorff ***.5

Greece
The Silver Stain by Paul Johnston ****

Iceland
Season of the Witch by Arni Thorarinsson **.5
Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason ***
Where the Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath ***

Ireland
Bogmail by Patrick McGinley ***.5
Crocodile Tears by Mark O'Sullivan ****.5
Echoland by Joe Joyce ***
I Hear Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty ****
Irregulars by Kevin McCarthy ****.5
Little Criminals by Gene Kerrigan *****
Once in Another World by Brendan John Sweeney *****
Ratlines by Stuart Neville *****
The Deal by Michael Clifford ***
The Devil I know by Claire Kilroy ****
The Guts by Roddy Doyle ***.5
The Lost by Claire McGowan ***.5

Italy
Blood from a Stone by Donna Leon ***
Liar Moon by Ben Pastor ****
The Dance of the Seagull by Andrea Camilleri ***.5

Korea
Jade Lady Burning by Martin Limon ****

Norway
Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller ****

Russia
The Twelfth Department by William Ryan ****
Zugzwang by Ronan Bennett ***

Scotland
Laidlaw by William McIlvanney *****
The Barber Surgeon's Hairshirt by Douglas Lindsay ***
The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcom Mackay ***
The Sea Detective by Mark Douglas-Home *****
The Woman Who Walked into the Sea by Mark Douglas-Home ***

South Africa
Ishmael Toffee by Roger Smith *****
Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer ****.5

Spain
Death of a Nationalist by Rachel Pawel ***
The Maze of Cadiz by Aly Monroe ***.5

Sweden
Black Seconds by Karin Fossum ****
Exposed by Liza Marklund ****

Thailand
A Nail Through the Heart by Tim Hallinan ***

USA
Beautiful, Naked and Dead by Josh Stallings ****
Black Irish by Stephan Talty ***.5
City of Heretics by Heath Lowrance ***.5
Countdown City by Ben Winters ***.5
Cripple Creek by James Sallis ***.5
Die a Little by Megan Abbott ****
Frank Sinatra in a Blender by Matthew McBride ***
Go With Me by Castle Freeman ****.5
Graveland by Alan Glynn *****
Hard Bite by Anonymous-9 *****
Home Invasion by Patti Abbott *****
Outerborough Blues by Andrew Cotto ****.5
Pale Horses by Nate Southard *****
Penance by Dan O'Shea ****
Piggyback by Tom Pitts ****.5
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline *****
Screwed by Eoin Colfer ***.5
Severance Package by Duane Swiercynski ****.5
The Big Gold Dream by Chester Himes ***
The Devil Doesn't Want Me by Eric Beetner ****.5
The Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley ***.5
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye ****
The Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler ***
The Perfect Crime by Les Edgerton ***.5
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt ****
The Thicket by Joe Lansdale *****
The Third Rail by Michael Harvey **.5

Wales
Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer *****

More than one country
A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr *** (Germany, Poland)
The City of Strangers by Michael Russell ***** (Ireland, USA)
Down Among the Dead Men by Ed Chatterton **** (England, USA)
Hour of the Cat by Peter Quinn **** (USA, Germany)
In Search of Klingsor by Jorgi Volpi **** (Germany, USA)
Love Songs from a Shallow Grave by Colin Cotterill ***** (Laos, Cambodia)
Missing in Rangoon by Christopher G. Moore ***.5 (Thailand, Burma)
Ostland by David Thomas ***** (Germany, Ukraine)
Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston **** (Mexico, USA)
The Darkling Spy by Edward Wilson ****.5 (England, Germany)
Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton ***.5 (England, Germany)
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd *** (Austria, England)

Fictional
Snuff by Terry Pratchett **** 
The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke ***
The Polka Dot Girl by Darragh McManus ****

Non-Fictional
Landscape and Society in Contemporary Ireland by Brendan McGrath ***.5
Hunting Eichmann by Neal Bascomb ****
The Master Switch by Tim Wu ****
Dresden by Frederick Taylor ****
The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver ****
Behind the Battle by Ralph Bennett **
The Spy Who Loved by Clare Mulley ****.5
Big Data by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier **.5
Too Big to Know by David Weinberger ***.5
Information: A Very Short Introduction by Luciano Floridi ****

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done Rob

Marina Sofia said...

A very interesting way of thinking about the books read - really enjoyed your wide-ranging travels.

TracyK said...

That is a great list, Rob. Exactly what I want to do, read all over the world. I will bookmark this for a reference.