Loose Ends Tied Up In Knots: 12.2009

8.12.09

Starter list: Around the World in 2010

I've got a handle on my reading for next year with fifteen ideas (click title link). At some point I'll pare that down to twelve. So many of the fiction books publishers decide to translate into English are Depressing, Weird, or Weird and Depressing. A book is either about genocide/infidelity/oppression or it is some sort of experimental novel composed entirely of questions/written from the point of view of an inanimate object. Or all of the above!

Any suggestions for NON-DEPRESSING books set outside the US? (Preferably in translation and not just an American author writing about another country.) Genre fiction is welcome, but nothing from France or UK, since I read lots of those anyway.

I'm also looking for more titles set in Asia; I only have Russia and Japan. I've already read a lot of Indian books about arranged marriages and emigrating to the UK.

As far as other parts of the world, I have:

North America:
Canada, Mexico

South America:
Chile, Argentina

Africa:
Morocco

Europe:
Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Iceland, Germany

Middle East:
Iran

Thank you!