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Around the World – Literally, with the Clear Lake Public Library

Click the links below to read online.

Afghanistan ………. Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini ……………………….. FIC HOS

Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father’s servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing Hassan’s son from a life of slavery to a Taliban official.

Australia…………… The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion ……………….. FIC SIM

Don Tillman, a professor of genetics, sets up a project designed to find him the perfect wife,
starting with a questionnaire that has to be adjusted a little as he goes along. Then he meets Rosie,
who is everything he’s not looking for in a wife, but she ends up his friend
as he helps her try and find her biological father.

Bahamas …………… Hurricanes in Paradise, Denise Hildreth ………… LP HIL

When Riley Sinclair stepped into her new job as director of guest relations at a posh resort on Paradise Island, she felt the final pieces of her once-broken life coming together. But the waters become choppy when Riley discovers that some who come to the Atlantis Hotel are accompanied by paralyzing secrets and overwhelming fears. Riley and three guests are in desperate but unknowing need of each other, eventually forging unlikely yet powerful friendships. With a hurricane headed straight for the island, together they embark on a journey of laughter, heartache, and healing.

Bangladesh ………… The Good Muslim, Tahmima Anam ……………….. FIC ANA

From prize-winning Bangladeshi novelist Tahmima Anam, her deeply moving second novel about the rise of Islamic radicalism in Bangladesh seen through the intimate lens of a family.

Burkina Faso …….. Outlaw, Stephen Davies …………………………………YA DAV

The children of Britain’s ambassador to Burkina Faso, fifteen-year-old Jake, who loves technology and adventure, and thirteen-year-old Kas, a budding social activist, are abducted and spend time in the Sahara desert with Yakuuba Sor, who some call a terrorist but others consider a modern-day Robin Hood.

Canada …………….. White Heat, M.J. McGrath …………………………….. FIC MCG

Investigating the murder of an adventurist under her watch, half-Inuit Arctic guide Edie Kiglatuk teams up with police sergeant Derek Palliser when she realizes that the victim’s tour group was searching for something specific.

China ……………….. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck ……………………….. FIC BUC

Wang Lang, a simple peasant farmer, takes as a wife a battered slave girl who becomes an indomitable, loyal woman. Working the land together, they prosper and increase their holdings, yet Wang eventually betrays his family and neglects the earth he had worshipped.

Congo ………………. The Witch Doctor’s Wife, Tamar Myers .………….. FIC MYE

Tasked with heading a missionary guest house in the Belgian Congo in 1958, Amanda Brown must set things right when a plane passenger goes missing, a giant diamond that should not exist turns up, and she finds out a witch doctor and his wife are working as her yardman and housekeeper, respectively.

Costa Rica ………… Where You Can Find Me, Sheri Joseph ……………. FIC JOS

A week after his eleventh birthday, Caleb Vincent vanishes with hardly a trace. After a three-year search, he is found living a seemingly normal life under a new name with a man he calls his father. While outwardly stunned with joy at his safe recovery, Caleb’s parents and sister are privately scrambling to gather together the pieces of a shattered family. To escape the relentless media attention surrounding her son’s return, Caleb’s mother, Marlene, decides to flee the country and seek refuge in Costa Rica with Caleb and his younger sister, against her estranged husband’s wishes. There Marlene forms a makeshift household with her husband’s expat mother and his charming, aimless older brother, all residing in a broken-down hotel perched at the blustery apex of the continental divide. In the clouds of their new home, the mystery of Caleb’s time gone unfolds while new dangers threaten to pull him back toward his former life”–From publisher’s website.

Czech Republic ….. Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor ……… YA TAY

Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague boarding school, carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters–the chimaerae who form the only family she has ever known.

Denmark ………….. Sharpe’s Prey, Bernard Cornwell …………………….. FIC COR

The Danes had a huge merchant fleet, second only in size to Great Britain’s, and to protect it they possessed a formidable navy. But Denmark was a very small country and when, in 1807, the French decide they will invade Denmark and take the fleet for themselves, Britain has to act swiftly. Swiftly, but not particularly justly. Sharpe is inside Copenhagen when the dreadful and fateful bombardment begins.

Ghana ………………. Ghana Must Go, Taiye Selasi ………………………….. FIC SEL

Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before”–Dust jacket flap.

Haiti …………………. Island Beneath the Sea, Isabel Allende ……………. FIC ALL

The story of a mulatta woman, a slave and concubine, determined to take control of her own destiny in a society where that would seem impossible”–Provided by publisher.

Iran ………………….. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi ……………………………. 741.5 SAT

Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Ireland ……………… Circle of Friends, Maeve Binchy ……………………… FIC BIN

Two friends who grew up together in a small Irish village attend college in Dublin, where their lives become intertwined with the beautiful Nan Mahon and Jack Foley, the handsome son of a doctor.

Kenya ……………….. A Change in Altitude, Anita Shreve …………………. FIC SHR

Newlyweds Margaret and Patrick join a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the African mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.

Laos …………………. The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die, Colin Cotterill … FIC COT

When a murdered woman suddenly reappears in her Lao village home with clairvoyant powers and is enlisted by a ghost to help find his remains at the bottom of a river, national coroner Siri Paiboun oversees the excavation.

Libya ………………… Wings of Fire, Dale Brown ……………………………… FIC BRO

While testing cutting-edge weapons in the skies over Libya, he and his private team are drawn into a treacherous struggle between northern Africa’s power-hungry rulers. In the face of tragic loss, unexpected defeat and ultimate betrayal, the ex-USAF general must finally decide where his loyalties lie — and soon. For despite all the power at his command, it may be too late to stop the destruction rolling across the Sahara. And this could be McLanahan’s final battle.

Luxembourg ……… The Expats, Chris Pavone ……………………………….. FIC PAV

An international spy thriller about a former CIA agent who moves with her family to Luxembourg where everything is suspicious and nothing is as it seems.

Malaysia ……………… The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo …………………….. FIC CHO

One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride…” Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound. Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family’s only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price. After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim’s handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits and monstrous bureaucracy–including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets–and the truth about her own family–before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.

Namibia ………………. Skeleton Coast, Clive Cussler ………………………… FIC CUS

Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert combat ship Oregon have barely escaped a mission on the Congo River when they intercept a mayday from a defenseless boat under fire off the African coast. Still smarting from a weapons-trade gone bad and a double-cross, Cabrillo takes action. He manages to save the beautiful Sloane Macintyre, who’s on a mission of her own, looking for a long-submerged ship that may hold a fortune in diamonds. But what surprises Cabrillo is her story about a crazy fisherman who claims to have been attacked on the open sea by giant metal snakes in the same area.
What begins as a snake hunt leads Cabrillo onto the trail of a far more lethal quarry—a deranged militant and his followers who plan to unleash the devastating power of nature itself against all who oppose them.

Nigeria …………………. Oil on Water, Helon Habila ………………………….. FIC HAB

Two journalists—a young upstart, Rufus, and a once-great, now disillusioned veteran, Zaq—are sent to find her. In a story rich with atmosphere and taut with suspense, Oil on Water explores the conflict between idealism and cynical disillusionment in a journey full of danger and unintended consequences.

As Rufus and Zaq navigate polluted rivers flanked by exploded and dormant oil wells, in search of “the white woman,” they must contend with the brutality of both government soldiers and militants. Assailed by irresolvable versions of the “truth” about the woman’s disappearance, dependent on the kindness of strangers of unknowable loyalties, their journalistic objectivity will prove unsustainable, but other values might yet salvage their human dignity.

Palestine ……………… Day After Night, Anita Diamant …………………….. FIC DIA

Four young women haunted by unspeakable memories and losses, afraid to begin to hope, find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves in a strange new country. Based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred Jewish prisoners from the Atlit internment camp outside Haifa.

Peru ……………………… The Sunflower, Richard Paul Evans ……………… FIC EVA

Just a week before their marriage, Christine’s fiance calls off the wedding, leaving her heartbroken. With hopes of helping her through a difficult time, Christine’s best friend Jessica enrolls them both on a humanitarian mission in Peru, to work at an orphanage called El Girasol — The Sunflower.

It is while working at the orphanage that Christine meets Paul Cook, a successful and charismatic American doctor who has fled the States after one fatal day took away his career, his faith, and the woman he loved.

Unplanned events lead Paul and Christine into the jungle of the Amazon, where Christine must confront her deepest fears, and she, and Paul, must both learn to trust and love again.

Saudi Arabia ……….. A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers ……………. FIC EGG

In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and finally do something great.

Scotland ……………… Outlander, Diana Gabaldon ……………………………. PBK GAB

Hurtled back through time more than two hundred years to Scotland in 1743, Claire Randall finds herself caught in the midst of an unfamiliar world torn apart by violence, pestilence, and revolution and haunted by her growing feelings for James Fraser, a young soldier.

Turkey ………………….. The Dervish House, Ian McDonald ………………… FIC MCD

The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, and three interconnected story strands all woven around the common core of the old dervish house of Aden Dede. A terror attack, a vision of djinn, a commodities scam, a hunt for half a miniature Koran that holds the key to new technology, and a quest for a creature from Arabic legend—that may not be so legendary after all.