Extreme Reading

I have officially completed the extreme level of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge.

This required me to read 3 books set in different countries of Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, South America plus two books set in Antarctica and a wildcard book set in any time or place new to me. Because that wasn’t quite complicated enough I added my own slant that all the books had to be by new-to-me authors.

Participating in this challenge opened my reading up to 21 new authors, many of whom I wouldn’t otherwise have read. For some of them a single exposure will be enough but many will be reappearing on my reading list in the not too distant future. In fact I’ve already read and/or ordered additional titles from several of the terrific authors discovered on my virtual tour around the globe where I met an array of fascinating people and learned a thing or three I didn’t know.

Here’s my final list of 21 books

Africa

• A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (Botswana)
• Blood Rose by Margie Orford (Namibia/South Africa)
• Wife of the Gods by Kwei Querty (Ghana)

Antarctica

• Black Ice by Matt Dickinson
• In Cold Pursuit by Sarah Andrews

Asia

• The Prophet Murders by Mehmet Murat Somer (Turkey)
• Mrs D’Silva’s Detective Instincts & the Shaitan of Calcutta by Glen Peters (India)
• Villain by Shuichi Yoshida (Japan)

Australasia

• Bold Blood by Lindy Kelly (New Zealand)
• The Curse of the Golden Yo-Yo by Robin Bowles (Australia)
• Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay (New Guinea)

Europe

• The Rule Book by Rob Kitchin (Ireland)
• A Death In Tuscany by Michele Guittari (Italy)
• A Not So Perfect Crime by Teresa Solano (Spain)

North America

• Borderline by Nevada Barr (Texas, USA)
• The Uncomfortable Dead by Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcommandante Marcos(Mexico)
• April Fool by William Deverell (Canada)

South America

• Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Pineiro (Argentina)
• Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
• Southwesterly Wind by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza (Brazil)

Wildcard (any time or place new to me)

• Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson (England, late 1700’s)

And here are all the places I’ve visited virtually

Thanks to Dorte of DJs Krimiblog for conceiving of and hosting the 2010 Global Reading Challenge. It was a hoot and lived up to all aspects of its name and I would encourage you to sign up for the 2011 version of the challenge (in which I am reliably informed you won’t have to read books set in Antarctica to be considered an extremist).