A week or so ago, Gamaliel Ratsey said:
I'm going Rome for a break, as I've mentioned elsewhere. Any good books I should take? About Rome. My current selections lack local flavour.
In preparation for going on holiday, I love to read novels set in or around the places I'm to visit. I imagine some of you are the same. I thought a thread in which we could ask for recommendations might be nice. How does that sound?
I'm most interested in reading novels, but all and any discussion of other reading matter welcomed, obviously.
― Tim, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 21:55 (fourteen years ago)
To start off, let's try Philadelphia. There've got to be some good novels set there, right?
Less likely, but you never know: Kalamazoo, Michigan.
How about Madison, Wisconsin? Please note, I'm up-to-date on Lorrie Moore, I'm afraid.
Special prize for anyone who can recommend a good novel set in Rockford, IL.
ROAD TRIP!
― Tim, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 21:57 (fourteen years ago)
about rome, MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN
* although hadrian was rather peripatetic, so
― eid orb (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 27 April 2011 22:08 (fourteen years ago)
I know Google Books does that weird maps thing which shsows locations mentioned in novels--I wonder if there's a way to reverse it, ie put in a location, and get the literary refs
― You're fucking fired and you know jack shit about horses (James Morrison), Wednesday, 27 April 2011 23:34 (fourteen years ago)
I'm off to berlin & munich in july
recommend me a novel set in either &/or each
― cozen, Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:51 (twelve years ago)
The Fox In The Attic and The Wooden Shepherdess by Richard Hughes.
― Tim, Sunday, 28 April 2013 20:28 (twelve years ago)
oh cool! my turn
i'm heading to thailand for a few months this summer - a novel set in bangkok would be ok but i'd prefer something set more rurally. cambodia/myanmar/laos would be fine too
― 'scuse me while i make the sky cum (k3vin k.), Sunday, 28 April 2013 20:32 (twelve years ago)
i'm going to singapore later this summer. any good books set there?
― Pat Finn, Sunday, 28 April 2013 23:59 (twelve years ago)
Think Somerset Maugham and some others stayed at this place and got some inspiration http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/12/travel/singapore-sling-is-spoken-here.html but I couldn't tell you what exact books came out of it.
― The Cosimo Code of the Woosters (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 29 April 2013 00:06 (twelve years ago)
Mr. Norris Changes Trains, Christopher Isherwood, set in Berlin.
― Aimless, Monday, 29 April 2013 00:54 (twelve years ago)
thanks james
― the gentrification of chill (Pat Finn), Monday, 29 April 2013 01:38 (twelve years ago)
Rebecca Cantrell has written a few mystery novels set in pre-Nazi Berlin. More hardboiled genre fiction than classic lit, but her historical research is impeccable.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 29 April 2013 07:29 (twelve years ago)
"Heroes Like Us" by Thomas Brussig, which I recall being very good indeed, set just before the Berlin Wall came down.
― Tim, Monday, 29 April 2013 08:27 (twelve years ago)
Singapore - J G Farrell's Singapore Grip.
― woof, Monday, 29 April 2013 09:09 (twelve years ago)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_in_Berlin <- Len Deighton
― koogs, Monday, 29 April 2013 11:35 (twelve years ago)
thankig u all
I've picked up louis macniece's "autumn journal"; and might grab that brussig book if I can find a cheap copy
― cozen, Monday, 29 April 2013 11:54 (twelve years ago)
kev, not sure you go for mysteries but i've enjoyed books by john burdett. it's not just bangkok, the detective gets to chang mai and other places
― fesh pince (anky), Monday, 29 April 2013 20:02 (twelve years ago)
(i would love a novel set in laos too btw, need to get back there)
I enjoyed Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski which is mostly set in rural Thailand.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 30 April 2013 20:41 (twelve years ago)