My Reading Challenge
Read Around the World
One book per country, told by the people who call it home.
How the Challenge Works
I'm traveling the world one book at a time. For every country, I choose a book that lets me see that place through the eyes of someone who knows it best.
My Passport So Far
Countries read: 5
Currently reading: Germany
Up next: Poland
By region: Americas 3 · Europe 2
Currently Reading · Germany
The Magic Mountain
by Thomas Mann · translated from the German by John E. Woods
STATUS: Currently reading
My Review
Review coming soon. I'm reading this one now and will share my thoughts, favorite passages and rating when I finish.
About the Book
Thomas Mann's Nobel Prize-winning classic follows a young man whose short visit to an Alpine sanatorium stretches into seven years of ideas, romance and philosophy on the eve of World War I.
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Where I'm Headed
Up Next
Up Next · Poland
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
by Olga Tokarczuk · translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
STATUS: Up next
About the Book
In a remote village in the Polish mountains near the Czech border, an eccentric retired engineer who loves astrology and William Blake becomes convinced that the local animals are taking revenge on the hunters dying around her. A darkly funny literary mystery from the Nobel Prize-winning author.
My Review
Coming after I read it.
Have a favorite book by an author from your home country? Suggest the next stop →
My Reading Passport
Books I've Read
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United States · Americas
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
FINISHED JANUARY 2025 · ★★★★★ · Kindle
My Review
From that first chilling line, this book had me hooked. It's the book that made me fall in love with dark academia: a circle of brilliant, isolated classics students at a small Vermont college, a secret they will do anything to protect, and prose so atmospheric I could practically smell the old books and autumn leaves. Tartt tells you right away that something terrible happened, and the slow unraveling of why kept me up far too late. An absolute five stars, and a reread every fall.
United Kingdom · Europe
Weyward
by Emilia Hart
FINISHED MAY 2026 · ★★★★☆ · Kindle
My Review
Witchy in all the best ways. Three women in three different centuries, all connected to one cottage in the Cumbrian countryside, each discovering her own strength. I loved how nature is woven through every chapter, from the birds to the insects, and the way the three stories echo one another. A beautiful, empowering read for spooky season or any time you want a little magic.
Mexico · Americas
Mexican Gothic
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
FINISHED MAY 2026 · ★★★★☆ · Audiobook
My Review
A glamorous socialite, a decaying mansion in the misty mountains of 1950s Mexico, and a family with very dark secrets. Noemí is such a sharp, fun heroine, and the atmosphere is pure gothic: lush, creepy and unsettling. The audiobook was perfect for crisp evening walks, and the story gets wonderfully strange toward the end.
Colombia · Americas
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez · translated by Gregory Rabassa
FINISHED JULY 2026 · ★★★★★ · Physical book
My Review
A true masterpiece. Following seven generations of the Buendía family in the town of Macondo felt like living inside a dream, where the magical and the everyday sit side by side. The names repeat (keep a family tree handy!), but the writing is so lush and the story so sweeping that I did not want it to end. I also watched the Netflix series, and it doesn't do the book justice. Read the book first. Magical realism at its finest and one of the most memorable books I have ever read.
Sweden · Europe
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson · translated by Reg Keeland
FINISHED: DATE NOT RECORDED · ★★★★★ · Physical book
My Review
A disgraced journalist and an unforgettable hacker team up to solve a decades-old disappearance tied to a powerful, secretive family. It is dark and completely gripping, but the real reason I loved it is Lisbeth Salander, one of my favorite characters ever written.
Lisbeth is brilliant and fiercely private: a genius hacker with a photographic memory who doesn't care one bit what anyone thinks of her. She has survived things that would break most people, yet she refuses to be a victim and lives by her own unshakable moral code, especially when it comes to men who hurt women. She's prickly and hard to know, but once she decides you're worth it, she is loyal to the end. I was cheering for her on every single page.
The whole Millennium series is amazing; once you start, you will want to keep going.