December GeoCAT: Books You Missed Earlier

The World is big
Books are many
Time is short

Perhaps you didn't get round to a book in one of the categories this year or you were inspired by something somebody else read or you want have another go at reading something from a region. Whatever the reason, now is your chance to catch up. As a reminder here is a list of this year's regions and threads:

January -- Central and Eastern Europe https://www.librarything.com/topic/346581#n8001871
February -- A place you would like to visit https://www.librarything.com/topic/347732#
March -- Australia & New Zealand https://www.librarything.com/topic/348590
April -- South America, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean https://www.librarything.com/topic/349432
May -- Polar regions, islands, bodies of water https://www.librarything.com/topic/350250
June -- South Asia and South East Asia https://www.librarything.com/topic/350836
July -- Western Europe https://www.librarything.com/topic/351555
August -- Central and Western Asia https://www.librarything.com/topic/352221
September -- Africa https://www.librarything.com/topic/353067
October -- Canada and US https://www.librarything.com/topic/353627
November -- East Asia https://www.librarything.com/topic/353627

Please add your reading to the wiki if feel so inclined: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/GeoCAT_2023#December:_Books_you_didn.27t...

I never actually did figure out which area Greece fit into but I think it would probably best fit Eastern Europe which we did last January. I am going to read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller which I have had on my Kindle for far too long.

This year reminded me how much I've enjoyed works by Nigerian author Wole Soyinka, but I've still not gotten around his poems, so that's what I'll be reading!

I'm going for a double: this CAT and the ClassicsCAT. Re-reading the classic A Passage to India by E. M. Forster, which fills the June GeoCAT gap.

I have one I started, but did not finish, Goliath, set in the U.S and would like to finish that this year.

I didn't get around to reading a book for our Central & Western Asia month in August, so I might try Frankenstein in Baghdad.

I have a few months I missed, so since I'm going to read Auntie Lee's Deadly Specials by Ovidia Yu for the AlphaKit, I can count it for the June Geo - SE Asia.

I have competed my read of The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Although I was afraid that it couldn't possibly live up to it's hype, it does. It's a wonderfully written, moving account and brings the times and the characters to life.

I finished The Red Palace by June Hur a day too late for November's challenge, so I'll place it here instead. It's an atmospheric YA mystery set in 18th century Korea.

I've read Auntie Lee's Deadly Special By Ovidia Yu which is set in Singapore and would have been read in June.

I read Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes.
Not sure what I expected from Keyes but whatever it was this wasn’t it.

I've read A Passage to India for June (and the December ClassicsCAT) and Before the Coffee Gets Cold for November.

I have finished Der Mann, der nicht mitspielt, a historical mystery set in Hollywood, which I meant to read for the US month.

Completed Gone Again by Doug Johnstone, which took place in Scotland (A place I would like to visit)

Recently The Guardian listed some of the best seasonal short stories: here are two I read that appeared on their list:

The Turkey Season by Alice Munro from My Best Stories

It’s hard to imagine Munro as a fourteen-year-old turkey gutter, but she gives the reader an authentic description, including that of her workmates. Just one of the wonderful stories in this collection.

The SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris from Holidays on Ice

I had many laughs-out-loud while reading this and it reminded me of being taken to visit Santa as a child: the long lines of waiting parents and children, and my amazement at the utterly magical scenes while not ever noticing the shabby parts, that I’ve come to realize, were much more numerous.

i made it to Malaysia with The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds by Selina Siak Chin Yoke. I was surprised how much I ended up enjoying this one which i think I got as a free Kindle early release back in 2016.

I have finished My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin, set in Australia.

I am starting My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, which was one of those I had planned for August but didn't get round to.

Driftnet by Lin Anderson : a gritty mystery set in Scotland
The first in this series, set in Glasgow, Scotland and featuring Rhone Macleod, a forensic scientist. The characters haven’t yet formed individual “voices” a problem heightened by Anderson’s slightly disconnected writing, an issue I would like to think will be corrected as the series develops.

Currently reading some of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series, which is set in Alaska, since the Americas was the region I missed completely.

I finished A Small Death in Lisbon, set in Lisbon, a city I finally got to visit a couple of months ago.