Around the World in 80...Pages

If you listen to NPR like Mark and I do, you'll know that they have a summer series featuring different peoples' reading lists. Usually these lists have a theme, and there's usually a correlation between the theme and the list-maker's area of interest or expertise. Well, I don't exactly have an area of expertise, but one area of interest is...reading. But who wants to read a book about reading? So I'm making a list "themed" on something else I love...travel. These aren't necessarily travel books, but they are unforgetable books set in places all over the world. If you're looking for a summer read and want an international experience, check them out.

Love In the Time of Cholera--Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Set in an unidentified Caribbean port town--a tale of passion and unrequited love. Garcia Marquez is one of my favorite authors, and Oprah likes him too (literary snobs, don't let that count against him. He won a Nobel Prize, too).

Memoirs of A Geisha--Arthur Golden. Read it before the movie comes out in December. The title sums it up. You'll be hooked. (Set in Japan, obviously).

Silence--Shusako Endo. About Portuguese missionaries who come to Japan in the 16th century, just as the government is beginning its campaign of persecution.

The Kite Runner--Khaled Hosseini. Boyhood friendships. Racial tension. Afghanistan. Taliban. One of the best books I've read in a long time...lots of other people think so too, apparently. It's on the best-seller list, and a movie is in the works.

The Poisonwood Bible--Barbara Kingsolver. A missionary family moves to the Belgian Congo in the 1960s. A compelling tale about how NOT to be a missionary.

Sophie's World--Jostein Gaarder. This is really an crash-course in philosophy disguised as a novel. But it's set in Norway. One of the best set-in-Scandanavia books that I've read.

The Middle of Everywhere--Mary Pipher. A book set in the heartland of America--Lincoln, Nebraska. The cast of characters, however, isn't what you would expect. In this non-fiction work, Pipher tells about her experiences in working with Sudanese, Iraqi, and Vietnamese (among others) refugees. I have read this book countless times--her stories are maddening and inspirational and convicting.

Well, there you have it. If you're looking for a world-tour experience on a low budget, head to your nearest library. But you don't have to take my word for it...