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I just finished Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity by James Martin. I really enjoyed it. I found it to be a mature, thought-provoking examination of this issue. Setting: USA

I'm in 1920's Bombay (currently Mumbai) in India with a protagonist based on one of India's first woman lawyers who needs to find out the truth about a murder in The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

It's remarkably original and intense.

I’m in 1952 Lapland (Finland) with an arc of Evil Things, an historical mystery by Katja Ivar. It’s early days but it’s quite good. If anyone’s interested, it’s available to request at Edelweiss +.

Headed to China with The Princeling of Nanjing. I hear I'll be taking side trips to the U.K. and the U.S.

Just wrapped up a quick read set mostly in California - Screwjack by Hunter S. Thompson. Loved it. Setting: mostly California.

I just finished the sweetest book, Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. I loved this book from the same man that brought us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I absolutely loved the behind-the-scenes look at this man's life. Setting is mostly England.

Today I also read Intervention by Richard Russo, located mostly in Maine.

I’m in New Zealand this weekend, with See You In September.

I just left Iceland, circa 1918: Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was.

My brief review.

I am in 1930s Oklahoma (US) with Laurie Loewenstein’s Death of a Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery.

This weekend I read a heartbreaking early graphic novel set in New York City, Destiny: A Novel in Pictures by Otto Nückel as well as Eugene Onegin and Other Poems by Alexander Pushkin.

I was browsing through my challenge books and realised I haven’t yet been to Afghanistan this year! Shock, horror! So I’m remedying that with Return to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul - it’s like pulling on a pair of comfy slippers.

I’m in England between the wars, in a snowstorm, with Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story by j jefferson farjeon. The pages are flying by.

Andrea wrote: "I was browsing through my challenge books and realised I haven’t yet been to Afghanistan this year! Shock, horror! So I’m remedying that with [book:Return to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul|2895975..."

Have you read the first one, Andrea?

I'm in Bermuda and U.K. with The Coordinates of Loss - I'm more than half way through and I'm still trying to make up my mind...probably not a good sign.

Lilisa wrote: "Andrea wrote: "I was browsing through my challenge books and realised I haven’t yet been to Afghanistan this year! Shock, horror! So I’m remedying that with [book:Return to the Little Coffee Shop o..."

Yes, although it was a long time ago - forgotten both the characters and the plot. Shouldn’t matter too much though.

Andrea wrote: "Lilisa wrote: "Andrea wrote: "I was browsing through my challenge books and realised I haven’t yet been to Afghanistan this year! Shock, horror! So I’m remedying that with [book:Return to the Littl..."

Adding the first one!

Andrea, I sent through a response to your post but it doesn’t seem to have made it here. I ways putting forward a book based in Afghanistan by Gale Lemmon, called “The Dressmaker of Khair Khama��.

I'm in Mexico with Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide which is a graphic biography of a Mexican photographer that's also very poetic.

Carol wrote: "Andrea, I sent through a response to your post but it doesn’t seem to have made it here. I ways putting forward a book based in Afghanistan by Gale Lemmon, called “The Dressmaker of Khair Khama��."

Thanks Carol - I've added The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe! Maybe next year.

Andrea, I’d be interested on your comments should you get Round to reading it, it is on my Want to Read list, which is very long at the moment.

I'm in Sweden with Beartown and close to finishing my re-read of The Air You Breathe set primarily in Brazil with a portion in the U.S.

I’m in Bogota with The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez. It’s a 5-star read at the 20% mark.

I'm in Israel/Palestina with Unholy Land - an alternate history fiction by Lavie Tidhar. So good!

In Martinique and Grenada with Sugar Money and in Sweden with Us Against You.

I find myself in Greenland with The Girl Without Skin by Mads Peder Nordbo.

I’m in Japan with Newcomer: A Mystery by Keigo Higashino.

I have traveled from Mexico to Spain with a woman artist who sketches archaeological artifacts in Sword of the Spaniard by Michael Scott Bertrand. The female protagonist is interesting, but seems rather fragile emotionally. I prefer my female protagonists stronger.

Edit 12/14 This was a DNF for me.

I’m in South Africa with Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.

I'm in the historic goblin city of Tenebrion and Dwelholm in Elfland with The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge. I very rarely read middle grades/YA, but this one is so entertaining! Great story and wonderful drawings. Definitely a 'for all ages' book, especially for adults who need a quick shot of whimsy.

I have cut my recent trip to Spain short because I was finding it unpleasant and am now in alternate Rome in 2019 with "Carina and Conrad's Roman Holiday" which is part of Roma Nova Extra, an anthology of short stories by Alison Morton which take place in various periods of Morton's alternate timeline. I have also been in alternate ancient Rome in earlier stories. I thought the ancient stories were rather wonderful.

I am now in 19th century Sweden with In the Month of the Midnight Sun The authorities are afraid of a Sami revolt, and think that the Sami are responsible for three murders.

I'm in hot and steamy Barcelona with The Summer of Dead Toys - perfect for curling up with on the balcony to escape the pre-Christmas madness and enjoy the sunshine!

I'm in ancient Troy (or more precisely outside its gates) with The Silence of the Girls. And I truly feel like I am there.

In Italy with A Thousand Days in Venice and in the U.S. with East of Eden.

I am in 15th century Grenada, Spain as Ferdinand and Isabella are about to complete the Christian conquest of Spain in The Bird King by American Muslim G. Willow Wilson. As the book opens Grenada is still under Islamic rule. There is a fantasy element in this novel, but I haven't encountered it so far.

I’m in London, in 1945, with Murder by Matchlight by E.C.R. Lorac. It’s my third read of hers in 2018 and I’m once again enjoying her mystery writing and her extraordinary sense of place.

I thought I was finished for this year but today I find myself in Morocco with The Moroccan Girl. Good so far.

In my final trip for 2018, I am in 2011 in Hawaii with Rei Shimura who is about to return to Japan. This is at this point the last in the Rei Shimura mysteries, The Kizuna Coast by Sujata Massey.

I had been to India with The Widows of Malabar Hill by Massey, and noticed that there had been a Rei Shimura novel centrally dealing with a Japan devastated by the Great Eastern Kanto Earthquake in 2011. It's also a mystery. This could be an extraordinary trip.