This week’s quote is from one of my favorite travel writers, Bill Bryson. He says:

But that’s the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned. I don’t want to know what people are talking about. I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can’t even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.

Review-wise, it was an infinitesimally slow week. (You can see all the reviews here.)

Tiny Librarian checked in this week with Dishing with the Kitchen Virgin, by Susan Reinhardt, a collection of “food stories, culinary missteps, and recipes from yummy to yucky.” Tiny Librarian’s verdict: “A quick, funny, foodie read, perfect for this challenge.”

Lily read one of my all-time favorites, Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. Lily writes, “For me, Azar Nafisi gave me the greatest gift a writer can give to a reader: a new appreciation for literature, which sadly and quite unconsciously I have started to take for granted.” Very true.

And Amira checked in with Banker to the Poor, by Muhammad Yunus, which deals with microlending and the World Bank, two things I know absolutely nothing about it. Amira writes, “The book is recommended, although it didn’t really clear up any of the controversy over microcredit, for me.”

Here’s hoping for more next week!

A quick quote from A Map of Home, by Randa Jarrar:

There’s no telling where home starts and where it ends.

I like that.

On to the review roundup:

Kim read The Ladies Auxiliary, by Tova Mirvis, the story of an Orthodox Jewish women’s group in Memphis, Tennessee (of all places!). Kim writes, “Since the story is told by the women of this community there is a lot about the food and the preparing for Shabbos and all of the many different Jewish holidays. I found it all so interesting but the best part was the portrayal of the different characters and the relationships in this tight-knit religious community.”

Amira read French Milk, and didn’t like it, primarily, because “Her Paris wouldn’t be my Paris. Of course, if I could spend 5 weeks in another country, I wouldn’t even consider Paris.” Enough said. 🙂 She also read Love in the Driest Season, by Neely Tucker, which she did enjoy. She writes, “It’s the story of an American couple who adopts a baby from Zimbabwe in 1999 and 2000. It does follow Neely Tucker’s trips around Africa some, as a foreign correspondent, and can be graphic in those sections, but mostly, it focuses on the adoption. Before reading this book I’d read some misleading reviews that criticized the Tuckers, but I have to heartily disagree. “

Nicole read Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami. She says that while she didn’t learn much about Japan from reading the book, she did enjoy the magical elements in the story, as well the riddles, which she “expected to be answered at the end and wrapped up neatly with a bow. Too bad for me — there weren’t any answers and I was left to my own devices.” Still, it was a good experience overall.

We hit China this week! Erin managed it for us, reading Wild Swans, by Jung Chang. She writes, “Though I have read about China in other stories, this particular account was just painful to read…mesmerizing and fascinating but the atrocities committed by the leaders and citizens of China are so far beyond my scope of understanding it was difficult for me to absorb it all.”

Bridget read Five Quarters of the Orange, by Joanne Harris, who also wrote Chocolat. Bridget writes, “So though I liked a lot about the book, I didn’t really like the characters, and found the lack of regret or remorse about their actions during the war to be disturbing…. In a nutshell, it was a good read, but not as satisfying as I had hoped.”

Mrs. B. checked in with two books: The Matchmaker of Perigord, by Julia Stuart (one sentence: “This book is charming, laugh-out-loud funny and unique.”) and Low Country by Anne Rivers Siddons, of which she writes, “Here’s something I love about ARS – her writing is real. So real it can’t help but strike a chord in the reader somewhere.”

And Lucia also checked in with two books: Letters to My Daughter, by Maya Angelou, which Lucia says, was “An interesting and beautiful read but it left me wanting more and felt as if it ended too abruptly.”; and A Map of Home, by Randa Jarrar, which Lucia describes this way: “The novel is essentially a coming of age novel with the backdrop of war, intense cultural transitions and collisions, and the angst of adolescence. At times funny, gritty, heartbreaking and very hard to put down.”

A great week! Happy reading, everyone.