BEATRIX POTTER: The Extraordinary Life of a Victorian Genius. Linda Lear. 447 pages. A fellow artist, she’s also called by her middle name and her first name is Helen. So wonderful to read this after stomping around her country on my trip with Dianne and Gail in fall 2008. It’s poignant how Potter was original, creative, and a good businesswoman in Victorian times yet also felt so bound, obedient, and strangled by her mother.

BOOKS I HAVE READ, from the most recent to when I started keeping records in July 2003: 

THE BOOK OF UNHOLY MISCHIEF. Elle W . 367 pages. A story of chef “Guardians” preserving forbidden scientific and philosophical knowledge in Middle Ages Venice.

WOMEN AND MONEY: Owning the power to control your destiny. Suze Orman. 246 pages. Besides the blah blah blah of sound financial planning and facts, Orman offers many themes that are thought-provoking such as keeping your name, taking control of your own accounts, maintaining separate personal funds, etc.

HOW WE DECIDE. Jonah Lehrer. 259 pages. A few too many male stories of decisions, but otherwise interesting discussion of how we make decisions using emotions and facts.

THE DOUBLE BIND. Chris Bo—. Schizophrenic describes delusion incorporating Great Gatsby characers.

TEN MEN DEAD: The story of the 1981 Irish hunger strike. David Beresford. 334 pages. I should have read this before going to Ireland in 2006. Details of 1981 prisoners who died after political fasts for five conditions. Brits conceded after all died and others gave up. The “comms”–tiny messages written on cigarette papers–were fascinating.

LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY. Susan Vreeland. 429 pages. Two months on Seine island with Renoir and models. Sometimes too much inner dialogue, but for an artist much lovely detail. I saw this painting at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. soon afterwards.

LEANING INTO THE WIND: Women write from the heart of the west. 337 pages. A collection of short pieces–the longest is maybe two pages–of loss, love, beauty, strangeness, living on the great plains. Writing is mixed. Poetry, personal reflection, work with animals.

THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER. George Orwell. 232 pages. Terrific descriptions of north England culture and poverty, thoughts on socialism, predictions for the future. So sad Orwell died at 46.

A BEGGAR AT THE GATE. Thalassa Ali. 333 pages. Follows stifled British woman in Raj India amid idiotic, arrogant Brits. Mystic Indians with their own tribal challenges starting to see Brits as the real problem. Compelling love story and details of the Punjab.

QUIET CORNERS OF PARIS. Jean-Christophe Napias. 166 pages. Writing can be a bit brittle. Lovely photos, arranged by arrondissement. I often don’t recognize the location descriptions, though.

A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN. Virginia Woolf. Introductory essay a slog of its own. Each woman needs a room with a lock and 500 pounds a year of her own money to spend.

THREE CUPS OF TEA: One man’s mission to promote peace one school at a time. Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. 331 pages. Even a flawed person can work for peace and justice. On-going story of crusade for building schools in Central Asia.

THE STORY OF MY BOYHOOD AND YOUTH. John Muir. 145 pages. Bought this at Muir’s birthplace in Dunbar. So attentie and admiring of all nature. Worked hard and noticed everything.

THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN: A Tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary. Simon Winchester. 242 pages. I reread this. Madness amidst scholarship. Well done.

WAR JOURNAL: My five years in Iraq. Richard Engel. 377 pages. Written about 2002 to 2007ish? Published 2008. Sometimes all over the map, but what else to expect? An obscene, fanatical, male mess. Hard to read the horror and chaos.

SHORT STORIES. Maeve Binchy. Four stories read in Scotland on my trip. Last one on alcoholic returning from rehab quite compelling. Good writing.

THE WELL-ORDERED HOME: Organizing techniques for inviting serenity into your life, Lathleen Kendall-Tackett. 119 pages. Can be infantile rambling amidst a few good ideas. Needed a strong editor.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Emily Bronte. 247 pages. Overwirtten, but the compelling characters shine through. Obsessive love.

THE DUD AVOCADO. Elaine Dundy. 255 pages. A 21-year-old girl in 1950s Paris: semi-autobiographical. First published in 1958. Drinking to excess, actors, out all night carousing. Hard to relate.

ARRANGED MARRIAGE. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. 300 pages. Eleven stories. Good writing; heartbreaking snapshots into Indian culture, expat living in California, roles, being authentic, and communicating.

THE POCKET GUIDE TO BEING AN INDIAN GIRL. B.K. Mahal. 259 pages. Smarty-pants British slang and Indian words often not translated: immersion in teenage angst and attitude. Daughter and father journey to find their true selves.

JESUS’ SON. Denis Johnson. 160 pages. Eleven stories. Really good writing. Junky hip with observations on the rest of us.

THE POET AND THE MURDERER: A true story of literary crime and the art of forgery. Simon Worrall. 263 pages. And I thought I knew a bit about Mormons. Sad details of Mark Hofmann forgeries and Sotheebys’ greed and arrogance. Worrall needed a Salt Lake editor to do consistent spellings and references. Some inexcusable errors.

LE MARIAGE. Diane Johnson. 322 pages. Lots of Parisian tidbits mixed in with attitudes towards Americans and the French. But I don’t like any of these people. Some serious subjects addressed: adultery, marital respect, culture clashes, mother feelings. NOT a comic novel.

VISIONS OF GERARD. Jack Kerouac. 130 pages. So sad, more accessible, like you’re looking right into Kerouac’s beating heart as he describes his wonderful, doomed older brother’s nine years of life.

VISIONS OF CODY. Jack Kerouac. 398 pages plus notes. Dense writing, was he just taking constant notes or mining his head for these details?

SUNK WITHOUT A SOUND; The tragic Colorado honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde. Brad Dimock. 274 pages. A 1928 mystery of river runners plus the reenactment of the route with Dimock and his wife.

THE ROAD. Cormac McCarthy. 287 pages. Sparse, searing odyssey after the apocalypse. Everything burned and looted, but goodness in father and son endures.

ESCAPE. Carolyn Jessop. 413 pages. Memoir of FLDS family: control, lust, and domination protected by God’s wishes. Jessop quite brace to reveal all the abuse. Ends with Warren Jeffs’ capture.

MIDDLESEX. Jeffrey Eugenides. 529 pages. Weird but mostly engaging story of incestuous Greek immigrant grandparents’ move to Detroit. A fictional family moes through riots, etc., plus daughter’s identity change to a man.

BIG SUR. Jack Kerouac. 241 pages. More of the Dulouz Legend, once he’d become famous and drunk after On the Road. Detailed, brilliant, poetic, gossipy, yet kind, tragic.

HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT. Whitney Otto. 179 pages. Read for Book club July 2008. Ruminations on quilting, men, marriage, betrayal. Book could have used another editing go-round.

THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE. Thomas Hardy. 337 pages. Beautifully written moor drama of power, humility, fitting to one’s environment. Timeless conflicts. Complicated, dense descriptions. Egdon Heath is a character. Love that Diggory Venn!

KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL. Deborah Rodriguez. American woman sets up school. Incredibly consistent male hysteria and interference at every turn. Salons a necessary female haven.

THE REVOLUTIONARIES WORE PEARLS. Kaye Lowman. 134 pages. Could use some editing and fewer exclamation points, but a warm story of ordinary women who changed the tide of unhealthy infant feeding.

THE HUMMINGBIRD’S DAUGHTER. Luis Alberto Urrea. 495 pages. Lovely story of a northern Mexican curandera who gained respect and adoration from Indians and Mexicans. From lowly beginnings to Santa Teresa.

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION. Michael Chabon. 411 pages. Weird, revisionist Jewish story with Jesish state in Sitka, Alaska. Strong writing in detective noir style.

THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH. Robert Hicks. 404 pages. Based on real story of Carrie McGavock who cares for 1,500 soldiers buried at her plantation cemetery after the 1864 Battle of Franklin.

HULLABALOO IN THE GUAVA ORCHARD. Kiran Desai. 209 pages. Quirky characters acting sometimes in desperation over controlling family situations. Interwoven with searing facts of Indian culture.

THE GLASS CASTLE. Jeannette Walls. 288 pages. Tale of criminally negligent parents a tough read. Reader wants peripheral adults to intervene, remove kids. Children of alcoholics tell a sad, confused tale.

ONE OF OURS. Willa Cather. 395 pages. Such good writing. Nebraska farm boy marries wrong, is overlooked, but finds meaning and adventure in WWI France.

THE SWALLOWS OF KABUL. Uasmina Khadra (nom de plume for Mohammed Moulessehoul). 195 pages. Two doomed Afghani couples in Taliban-ruled Kabul. Shocking and frightening snapshots.

THE BROKEN CEDAR. Martin Malone. 306 pages. Lebanese family and an Irishman looking for his father who was hung but survived. Sboer, careful portrait of great pain, death, love.

THE BOOK THIEF. Markus Zusak. 550 pages. Death narrates Leisel’s life as a foster child in Nazi Germany. Lovely, stark comments by Death as Germany wins, then plummets.

THE WELSH GIRL. Peter Ho Davies. POW camp for Germans in WWII in Caernaervon, Wales. Discussion of place, ethics, war, and the real enemy. English are more the Welsh enemies than the Nazis.

SEVEN VOICES ONE DREAM. Mary Ann Cahill. 212 pages with black-and-white photographs. Choppy patchwork of interviews with the founders of La Leche League. Interviewer’s questions can detract from the otherwise interesting responses and memories (though often repetitive) of the seven housewives who started an international organization in 1956 from humble roots in suburban Chicago. Some macro editing would help this otherwise charming group/organization memoir. Contains photos of the founders in the early days and with their families.

AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR: A NOVEL. Patrick Taylor. 337 pages. Taylor is an actual M.D. from Northern Ireland. The original title was The Apprenticeship of Dr. Laverty, but perhaps that didn’t grab American readers like anything with “Irish” in the title.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS. Khalid Hosseini. Follows several Afghani women and the men, soldiers, and regimes that torment them through war, child-bearing, marriage, sacrifice, and escape. An excellent companion to Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.

EINSTEIN’S DREAMS. Alan Lightman. 179 pages. Physicist-author imagines fantastical turns and twists of time and sequences of life in patent clerk Einstein’s Vienna (?) and Zurich (?).

THE CITY OF FALLING ANGELS. John Berendt. 398 pages. Nonfiction series of pieces about Venice centered around the burning down of the opera house Fenice (“feh-NEE-chay”). A detailed look at culture and the Italian and American players in the history, culture, and preservation of Venice.

THE RISING SHORE–ROANOKE. Deborah Homsher. 270 pages. Fiction based on the facts known about the Roanoke, Virginia, “Lost Colony.” Follows story of two women–Eleanor Dare and her serving girl Margaret Lawrence–as they navigate growing up and sailing to the New World. I had lunch with the author with Jane Maestro in Ithaca, New York, in March 2008.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Erich Maria Remarque. Author is from Osnabruck, Germany–where all the Grossmans are from–and served in WWI. Gentle, insightful, coming-of-age in the trenches of World War I. Also saw two movies based on book. Both quite good. The 1930 version has strengths as does the recent remake with Richard “John Boy” Thomas. Required reading for the whole world.

THE PLACES IN BETWEEN. Rory Stewart. 297 pages. Scotsman walks across Afghanistan right after the fall of the Taliban. Text is interspersed with author’s sketches.

THE GLEEMAIDEN. Sylvian Hamilton. 405 pages. Third of a novel series featuring the knight Sir Richard Straccan. Can be confusing with story lines and characters from the author’s previous THE BONE-PEDLAR. I hadn’t realized “glee” is Irish for song: now “glee club” makes a lot more sense. I picked this book up in Dubai, but I don’t usually go for historical fantasy.

IGNORANCE: A NOVEL. Milan Kundera. Translated from the French by Linda Asher. 195 pages. Twists and emotional turns of two Czech emigres who return to Prague after 20 years. Both remember yet don’t remember. Kundera interjects snatches of The Odyssesy, as Odysseus grapples with returning to Ithaca.

THE BRONTES: A FAMILY HISTORY. John Cannon. 141 pages. A small book that packs a literary wallop. The Brontes’ family history in Ireland (where the family name was originally Brunty) seems to contain many of the plots of the Bronte sisters’ books. Fascinating and a requirement for any English major’s book shelf.

THE NARROWS. Michael Connelly. 400 pages. I’m not a mystery buff, but the settings had me hooked. From Los Angeles to Catalina Island to Las Vegas to the Mojave Desert (notably the Zzyzzx exit), the details are personally compelling for this southwestern gal. The detective, Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch, is a sad, complicated yet ethical character you woudn’t mind sharing an apartment complex with.

A STEP FROM HEAVEN. An Na. 156 pages.  Heartbreaking and wonderful story of a Korean girl’s assimmilation into southern California culture along with her depressed, abusive father and her carrying-on mother.

THE DANCING GIRLS OF LAHORE: SELLING LOVE AND SAVING DREAMS IN PAKISTAN’S PLEASURE DISTRICT. Louise Brown. 290 pages. Brown is an English woman who lives for extended periods in a Lahore red-light district documenting the culture of the sex workers and their families. Brown also recommends Ruswa’s UMRAD JAN ADA, Manto’s SELECTED STORIES, and Weiss’s WALLS WITHIN WALLS plus several films about Indian and Pakistani women.

BLOODY FALLS OF THE COPPERMINE; MADNESS, MURDER, AND THE COLLISION OF CULTURES IN THE ARCTIC, 1913. McKay Jenkins. 236 pages. Two Catholic priests go up to northern Canada to convert Eskimo people who’ve seen maybe three white people in their entire lives. The priests are murdered, an enthusiastic crew from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police go up to investigate, and things, of course, fall further apart. Some RCMP members quite sensitive, though. The main Eskimo suspect tells the court he thought the two white men were trappers. Therein lies the kernel of this cultural tragedy.

MARCH: A NOVEL. Geraldine Brooks.  273 pages. Brooks takes Mr. March from Louisa May Alcott’s LITTLE WOMEN and fleshes out his Civil War experiences: what happens to a man during war, and how can he return to his family but a grossly changed man? I watched COLD MOUNTAIN right afterwards. If CM’s Inman had lived, he might have been just as broken and emotionally knotted up as March. The Australian author Brooks is the wife of Tony Horwitz, whose CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC I also really enjoyed.

THE RED-HAIRED GIRL FROM THE BOG: THE LANDSCAPE OF CELTIC MYTH AND SPIRIT. Patricia Monaghan. 250 pages with pronunciation guide, glossary, notes, and an index. To my delight, Monaghan starts with describing the hag magic of County Clare. Makes me want to return to Ireland, this book in hand.

THE LADY AND THE UNICORN. Tracy Chevalier. 248 pages. Historical fiction based on the few facts known about the six huge luminous ”The Lady and the Unicorn” tapestry series in the Cluny Museum in Paris. I would have liked more details of medieval Paris, but I’ll take Chevalier’s take on this.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. Alexander Dumas. I unashamedly read the abridged version. Dumas wrote this during the same year as he wrote THE THREE MUSKETEERS. I have read that he had a studio of writers whom he supervised.

ETHAN FROME. 1911. Edith Wharton. 130 pages. The themes and images really pop out of this dimunutive book: being trapped and crippled, power and manipulation, sex, choices, suicide pacts, and the desolation of finances and of dreams. Zeena Pierce (pierces the heart, piercing manner) and Mattie Silver (shining) are names carefully chosen by Wharton. “Florida” seems to be a symbol of all that’s warm and what could have been for Ethan. Wharton wrote this while living in Paris on the rue de Varenne, a street with nice apartment complexes and the Biron Hotel (now the Rodin Museum). From rue Varenne, you can see the Hotel des Invalides and its dome where Napoleon is buried. In Wharton’s time, Rodin was working in the Hotel Biron with other artists. Wharton’s upper class situation seems almost cruel as she carefully chronicles Starkfield’s “inarticulate” (her word) New Englanders.

MADAME BOVARY. 1857. Gustave Flaubert. 321 pages. Careful, detailed writing. Slow going but quite wonderful. Emma Bovary is woefully unprepared for life, though sometimes I felt the truly tragic figure was her husband Charles. The short description of the aimless eight-hour ride where Emma is seduced in a carriage is masterful.

SHE CAME TO STAY. 1943. Simon de Beauvoir. 409 pages. Her first novel, based on the menage-a-troi between her, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Olga Kosakievicz (to whom the book is dedicated). Endless conversation with little action.

THE RAZOR’S EDGE. 1943. Somerset Maugham. 314 pages. I’m rereading this. The writing is measured and gorgeous. The Everyman Larry character compelling, but the narrative bogs down when Larry describes religion in India.

INTO A PARIS QUARTIER: REINE MARGOT’S CHAPEL AND OTHER HAUNTS OF ST.-GERMAIN. 2003. Diane Johnson. 194 pages. Ex-pat author describes her neighborhood and its history in great detail. Book weakens when she makes modern political comments.

A MOVEABLE FEAST. 1964 (but covers 1922-26). Ernest Heminway. 140 pages. I reread these short sketches about living in Paris before he became famous. Paris is a feast you keep with you the rest of your life, thus the moveable part. Tales of meeting, drinking, and hanging out with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Scott and Zelda were a tragedy together.

TETE-A-TETE: THE LIVES AND LOVES OF SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR AND JEAN-PAUL SARTRE. 2007. Hazel Rowley. 351 pages. Brings these two to agonizing life. Jean-Paul was constantly falling love with new women; Simone was bi-sexual and prone to fits of sobbing over her own love affairs and shortcomings. Fascinating to learn the details of Simone’s life that she then used in her fiction. 

LONESOME TRAVELER. 1960. Jack Kerouac. Eight essays. Such brilliant, original writing with not a single cliche or wasted breath of a word. In biography, he comes off as casual and sloppy; in his own observations, he seems keen and precise.

WORDS IN A FRENCH LIFE: LESSONS IN LOVE AND LANGUAGE FROM THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. 2006. Kristin Espinasse. 282 pages of comments and French lessons based on Espinasse’s blog <french-word-a-day.com>

KEROUAC: A BIOGRAPHY. 1974. Ann Charters. 367 pages with fascinating, detailed notes. Dizzying back-and-forth of Ti Jean’s unhappy life. Fascinating, wearying, drunken catalogue. Kerouac’s travels more complex and erratic than even On the Road reveals. 

THE GLASS CASTLE. Jeannette Walls. Fiercely protective but honest memoir of woman’s family living in California desert and West Virginia. Alcoholic father and negligent mother both brilliant but criminally neglectful of children. Insight into homelessness. 

SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT; A SKEPTIC’S JOURNEY TO RELIGION. September 2007 book club. Nevada Barr. Essays on her life and falling into what she seemed to need: an Episcopanlian congregation. Sometimes poorly written with little editing, sometimes very honest.

FUNNY IN FARSI; A MEMOIR OF GROWING UP IRANIAN IN AMERICA. Firoozeh Dumas. Writing can be uneven, but her 27 essays about being an outsider are sweet and educational. 

LONG AGO IN FRANCE. MF.K. Fisher. Newlywed sallies forth in Dijon in 1929, the same year my grandparents went to Paris with my 5-year-old father. Talks of eccentric people and living cheaply. 

ALL IS VANITY. Christina Schwartz. August book club. Good read, dark plunge of writer using friend’s financial decline as basis for novel, destroying friendship.

DANDELION WINE. Ray Bradbury. Semi-autobiographical essays on life in a small Illinois town in the summer of 1928. (Perhaps set in 1928 to avoid going into talking about the Depression?) Some essay fair, some brilliantly poignant.

BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS. Dai Sijie. I read this again after four years for July 2007 Book Club. Two young Chinese men are forced into re-education program in a dismal village. They discover a suitcase of Western books and share their discovery with a seamstress. The seamstress takes some of the books’ theme to heart and flees to the city.

RED POPPIES; A NOVEL OF TIBET. Alai. A coming of age story of the privileged son of a powerful chieftain. Was a bestseller in China. The chieftains succumb to opium, syphilis, and Communists.

THE BOTANY OF DESIRE; A PLANTS-EYE VIEW OF THE WORLD. By Michael Pollan. Gardener explores histories of the apple, tulip, marijuana, and the potato. Fun and fascinating read.

BRICK LANE. Monica Ali. A Bangladeshi woman struggles with her boorish academic husband in London. Straight narrative mixes with letters from the sister with big gaps in times and flashbacks to life in Bangladesh. Lovely, long book.

A YEAR IN VAN NUYS. Sandra Tsing Loh. A spoof on A YEAR IN PROVENCE. Such a delightful contrast to Reichl’s traditional style. Cartoons, edgy memos and e-mails, lot of wonderful rants. Very L.A. A balm for my California soul.

TENDER AT THE BONE: GROWING UP AT THE TABLE. Ruth Reichl. I kept asking myself, “Why do I care about this?” Maybe Reichl has adoring fans. When someone says, “You should write a book!” maybe sometimes you shouldn’t. Reichl’s parents range from negligent to mentally ill. More introspection and depth would have helped. And she needs humor. So straight.

PASSIONATE NOMAD: THE LIFE OF FREYA STARK. Jane Fletcher Geniesse. Very detailed and exquisitely slow reading. Many themes: looks and destiny, writing and observation, language and access, and colonialism and self-determination.

THE GOOD EARTH. Pearl S. Buck. Originally published in 1931. A Chinese Grapes of Wrath perhaps. Awful treatment of women. Calm, cool writing. No analysis. All the inner thoughts of male farmer Wang Lung.

PASTRIES; A NOVEL OF DESSERTS AND DISCOVERIES. Bharti Kirchner. Very readable, compelling, sweet. Nice treatments of baking, emotional moving on.

INSIDE THE KINGDOM: MY LIFE IN SAUDI ARABIA. Carmen bin Ladin. Very vain, but strong and honest. She tries hard to be a good mom. Carmen stands alone against her Saudi husband Yeslam bin Laden. Is terrified for her daughters.

NIGHT AND DAY. Virginia Woolf. Can be slow going, but lovely turns of phrase and inner thoughts and agonies. So well written, but lots of semi-colons.

QUEEN BEES AND WANNABEES. Required reading for all women. Damage of hierarchies and conflict that can last a lifetime.

YOU’RE WEARING THAT? UNDERSTANDING MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS IN CONVERSATION. Deborah Tannen. Covers topics like metamessages, the Big Three (weight, hair, clothes), closeness, daughters and fathers, evolving relationships even after death.

THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER. Kim Edwards. Book Club pick for February 2007. 401 pages. The “Memory Keeper” is the name of a camera the lead character Norah buys for husband David. The treatment of childbirth and initiating breastfeeding was certainly short on detail and impact. David gives their Down Syndrome twin daughter to nurse, thinking she’ll deliver it to an institution, but she ends up raising it. Many repercussions for the family. Based on a true, sadder story of a man who found out he had a Down Syndrome brother who had died in an institution.

DOGEATERS. Jessica Hagedorn. 1990. Set in Manila. Graphic, hip, in vernacular. Many Filipino voices, covering family conflicts, agendas, getting what you want, facades, manipulation, and observation.

THE POWER OF ONE. Bryce Courtenay. 1989. 513-page coming-of age saga set during World War II in South Africa. “Peekay” is brilliant, English, sensitive, and wants to be welterweight champion of the world. Good cultural details and memorable characters. January 2007.

THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD. Debra Dean. Book Club pick for January 2007. A quick read. Effective interplay of present and memory of woman with Alzheimer’s. Descriptions of art in The Hermitage can feel forced, like an art history lecture. Artwork can be seen at Hermitage’s Web site. And be sure to rent The Russian Ark, a movie made entirely in ONE TAKE at The Hermitage. January 2007.

LUCKY GIRLS. Nell Freudenberger. Such good writing. Five stories. I do tire of having to keep changing my mind’s eye with each new set of characters in each story. Prefer reading longer forms. December 2006.

THINGS FALL APART Chinua Achebe. Book Club pick for December 2006. Plodding then fascinating then disturbing as outsiders bring religious difference and new values to Nigerian villager. December 2006.

NEVER LET ME GO. Kazuo Kishiguro. Book Club pick for November 2006. Wordy, endless examination of small incidents in boarding school for organ donors. Creepy as facts and history doled out.

DARK STAR SAFARI. Paul Theroux. Overland from Cairo to Cape Town. Damage of outside aid, deterioration of large cities, Theroux’s love of the bush, turning 60.

A WALK IN THE WOODS. Bill Bryson. Book Club pick for October 2006. Comic, serious description of hiking Appalachian Trail by guy returning from 20 years working in England. Bryson describes self as a writing spy.

TRAVELS WITH MYSELF AND ANOTHER. Martha Gellhorn. Not afraid of anything. Writes with black humor. Calls Hemingway (the “Another” in the title) her U.C., “Unwilling Companion,” on their China trip. Seeks out war, admires competence, doesn’t suffer fools.

REBECCA. Daphne du Maurier. Saw Hitchcock movie of this starring Laurence Olivier. Cornish coast noir centering on dead first wife of Maxim de Winter. It’s quite a dramatic hook to name the book after a character who never appears. Creepy, hopelessly sexist, and class conscious. Wonderful exposition.

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET. Sandra Cisneros. Short, poetic chapters of colorful, spare impressions of Hispanic life. Lovely.

FOR THE LOVE OF IRELAND; A LITERARY COMPANION FOR READERS AND TRAVELERS. Edited by Susan Cahill. Variety of Irish writing, snippets plus directions to locations. Rich in literary, geographic detail.

JAYWALKING WITH THE IRISH. David Monagan. Look at Cork with eyes wide open: thugs, conversational conning, suspicion all wrapped in charm and alcohol.

NIGHT DRAWS NEAR; IRAQ’S PEOPLE IN THE SHADOW OF AMERICA’S WAR. Anthony Shadid. The real, honest, non-Western version of 2003 invasion events. Compelling, disturbing, genuine.

FRENCH IMPRESSIONS; ADVENTURES OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY. John Littell. Can be goofily overwritten, but author-son is using mother’s letters and articles to reconstruct year in Montpellier with family.

INTO THIN AIR. Jon Krakauer. Great detail on Everest history, climbers’ stories, very engaging. Should what happens on the mountain stay on the mountain?

THE PRINCES OF IRELAND: THE DUBLIN SAGA. Edward Rutherford. Evelen centuries of Irish soap opera. Lots of detail, but poor dramatic involvement with the history. Can be exhaustingly talking. After 500 pages, I gave up.

MADAM VALENTINO: THE MANY LIVES OF NATACHA RAMBOVA. Michael Morris. Could use editing, but good details of a talented woman trying to live her own life in the shadow of a famous, weaker, charming man.

POMPEII. Robert Harris. Day to day, minute by minute, visualization of Vesuvius’ eruption through story of Marcus Attilius, aqueduct engineer.

ALL I DID WAS ASK: CONVERSATIONS WITH WRITERS, ACTORS, MUSICIANS, AND ARTISTS. Terry Gross. Variety of NPR “fresh Air” interviews (some combined). Great way to examine the art of interviewing.

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING. Joan Didion. Book Club pick. Detailed, brilliant, examination of husband John Dunne’s death. She tries to remember every premonition, hint, omen; goes hour by hour till heart attack.

THE GOOD WOMEN OF CHINA: HIDDLE VOICES. Xinran. Shocking, jaunting, sad stories of young, old, struggling women in traditional, changing China.

ON THE ROAD. Jack Kerouac. Fabulous, frantic continuous travel rant of guys hitching, driving, taking buses and drugs, meeting girls. Defined the beat generation.

THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE. Forrest Carter. Book Club pick. Gentle, dignified story of boy and his Cherokee grandparents. I cried and cried at their deaths. Carter in KKK but maybe a novel of redemption.

DARK LOVER: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RUDOLPH VALENTINO. Emily W. Leider. Mesmerizing, detailed, exhaustive background yet highly readable. So sad more f his movies aren’t available.

SOMEWHERE HOME. Nada Awar Jarrar. Inner dialogues and life stories of different Lebanese women. Lots of flashbacks, integrating of all stages of their lives.

HIGH FIDELITY. Nick Hornby. Wonderful stream of anxious consciousness, worry, memory, music, and film. A style worth studying. Endless analysis of all conversations, relationships, music choices.

EX-PAT: WOMEN’S TRUE TALES OF LIFE ABROAD. Edited by Christina de Tesson. Varied essays by women in Paris, Belize, Ukraine, Belfast, etc. Real mix of writing skill.

TEACHER MAN: A MEMOIR. Frank McCourt. Lots of inner dialogue about jobs on docks and in classrooms. Lovely, loving descriptions of high school teaching up to the brink of writing Angela’s Ashes.

WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE. Julie Otsuka. Book Club pick. Quiet, spare descriptions of Japanese-American family’s evacuation to Topaz. Return to Berkely is especially chilling, lonely, heartbreaking.

TINTIN IN THE NEW WORLD. Frederic Tuten. Weird, extended lectures from characters. Tintin grown up and in love with a heartless woman.

GOOD NIGHTS. Jay Gordon. Describes many aspects of co-sleeping including some sleep training (after baby is 12 months old). Sometimes cutesy, overwritten. Could have been tightened to be more helpful to sleep-challenged readers, like with bulleted lists.

RED WATER. Judith Freeman. Book Club pick. Three polygamous Mormon wives describe life with and after John D. Lee, hardships of frontier life. Legacy of injustice, real and perceived.

A BED OF RED FLOWERS; IN SEARCH OF MY AFGHANISTAN. Neloffer Pazira. Written by star of the movie “Kandahar” and “Return to Kandahar.” Important voice: it isn’t just “the Taliban are bad.” Afghani history, culture very complicated and violent.

THE TORTILLA CURTAIN. T. Coraghessan Boyle. Book Club pick for December 2005. Some writing clumsiness, name choices can be dumb, great contempt for Anglo characters. Felt like reading House of Sandy and Fog: nothing good can come of this.

WEEKEND IN PARIS. Robyn Sisman. What fluff! I kept waiting for irony, another shoe to drop, SOME kind of darkness to present itself. Moments of insight, but lightweight.

MINARET. Leila Aboulela. Riches to rags Sudanese woman in London. Good insight into fears of domestic workers.

THE NAMESAKE. Jhumpa Lahiri. Book Club pick for November 2005. Terrific narrative writing of Gogol’s life, Bengali culture, second generation children, love.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME. Mark Haddon.
The halting, painfully detailed writing of an autistic boy about his separated parents and a murdered dog.

GILEAD. Marilynne Robinson. Book Club pick. Slow, thoughtful writing of an old preacher. Lots of Bible talk.

TRAVELLING WITH DJINNS. Jamal Mahjoub. Meditation on life, family, travel, Africa-Europe. Also flashbacks to marital problems, parents’ deaths, and sibling relationships. Quite good.

TOUJOURS PROVENCE. Peter Mayle. Essays on various aspects of ex-pat living in south of France. Some hints of the writing/famous author’s life.

THE KING’S ENGLISH: ADVENTURES OF AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLER. Betsy Burton. Book Club pick. Not well-written, but all subject matter of interest.

SAVAGE BEAUTY; LIFE OF EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY. Nancy Milford. Wow. Probably wouldn’t have been friends with Millay. Promiscuous, bisexual, self-absorbed. Very impressive, detailed writing.

ISHMAEL; AN ADVENTURE OF THE MIND AND SPIRIT. Daniel Quinn.Philosophic dialogue between gorilla “Ishmael” and man can be quite clunky and stilted.

CRESCENT: A NOVEL. Diana Abu-Jaber. Love affair in L.A. with half-Iraqi woman cook and Iraqi exile. Lovely food and Iraq descriptions. Realistic Arab ex-pat portrayals.

SCHEHERAZADE GOES WEST; DIFFERENT CULTURES, DIFFERENT HAREMS. Fatema Mernissi. Reads like a dissertation. Recommend reading the last chapter first.

ALL SOULS; A FAMILY STORY FROM SOUTHIE. Michael Patrick MacDonald. Essential reading for anyone who loves Boston. Author’s four brothers died. Memoir of choosing life over suicide in face of family pain.

LIFE OF PI. Yann Martel. Book Club pick. Great writing; lots of animal detail. Whole story an allegory for what really happened.

THE MANHATTAN BEACH PROJECT. Peter Lefcourt. Not one iota of detail about Manhattan Beach. Reality TV series “Warlord” gets set up. Fast, smart writing. Shows depth of problems, power struggles, anarchy of various ‘Stans.

MEET JOHN TROW. Thomas Dyja. He also did Civil War baseball book, Play for a Kingdom. Midlife crisis played against absorption of Civil War character John Trow.

THE TIGER LADIES: A MEMOIR OF KASHMIR. Sudha Koul. Lovely progression of past life in Kashmir to ex-pat Kashmiri living in New Jersey.

LE DIVORCE. Diane Johnson. Ex-pat Americans in Paris. Stepsisters’ relationship. Inane book jacket info calls this a comedy, but serious themes: adultery, suicide, despair.

MY FORBIDDEN FACE: GROWING UP UNDER THE TALIBAN: ONE WOMAN’S STORY. Latifa. Was 16 when Taliban took over Kabul. Family refreshingly complicated.

SOLDIERS OF SALAMIS. Javier Cercas. Journalist obsessed with incident in Spain’s Civil War. Plodding till last section.

THE WARLORD’S SON. Dan Fesperman. Great spare language. Believable, rich in details about Afghanistan. Strong, sensitive, knowing portrayals.

THE KNOWN WORLD. Edward P. Jones. Dense, almost Biblical peopling of `1850s South and complex slave stories, families.

DEATH ON THE NILE. Agatha Christie. Movie of this made me want to see Nile myself, but there really wasn’t enough Egyptian stuff. Lots and lots of complicated motives, criminal details.

THE FUTURE HOMEMAKERS OF AMERICA. Laurie Graham. Air Force wives in Cold War British air base. Fun, compelling characters. Frequent movers, then all visit each other as circumstances change. I life the short chapters.

A HUNDRED AND ONE DAYS; A BAGHDAD JOURNAL. Asne Seierstad.
Account of reporting conditions in Saddam’s and post-Saddam’s Iraqi capital. Day-by-day, hour-by-hour before, during, after U.S. attach. Seierstad’s hunger, adrenaline for danger, war-zone reporting.

THE SOUTHERN GATES OF ARABIA; A JOURNEY IN THE HADHRAMAUT. Freya Stark. Writing can be long-winded with too many commas and not enough periods. Her warmth, curiosity, and respect for all people shine through. Terrific descriptions, from geography to costume to her own illnesses.

WITHOUT RESERVATION: THE TRAVELS OF AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN. Alice Steinbach. Newspaper reporter takes nine months off to go to Paris, London, Oxford, Venice, etc. Some pretty predictable, some quite insightful. Talks about Freya Stark’s recent death in Italy.

WHISPERS IN THE SAND. Barbara Erskine. Woman traces great-grandmother’s trip to Egypt. Sometimes too romance novelly, but sure did make me want to return to Egypt to see all our cruise sites again plus Abu Simbel.

ZOYA’S STORY: AN AFGHAN WOMAN’ STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. Zoya.Reads like a dictated story. Young woman with RAWA during Taliban years.

THE PILOT’S WIFE. Anta Shreve. Good inner and outer dialogues. Good writing about dread, exhaustion, fear. Husband’s secret life revealed after plane crash. Do we really know each other?

THE SEWING CIRCLES OF HEART: A PERSONAL VOYAGE THROUGH AFGHANISTAN. Christina Lamb. Astonishing variety of experiences and voices. I do wonder about risks she poses for those she visits. She doesn’t even dye her hair. Post-Taliban impressions.

LAST TANGO IN ABERYSTWYTH. Malcolm Pryce. Welsh noir—though I don’t recognize this Aberystwyth as same one I visited in 1978. Quirky writing; can be too many characters to follow.

FROM RAGS TO RICHES: A STORY OF ABU DHABI. Muhammed Al-Fahim. Needs editing. Good personal take on Abu Dhabi’s history and rise from primitive conditions to modernity.

EMMA’S WAR: LOVE, BETRAYAL AND DEATH IN THE SUDAN. Deborah Scroggins. Great background on Sudan’s conflicts, though can be slow going. Good writing; lots of comments interwoven.

THE VILLAGE OF WIDOWS. Ravi Shankar Etteth. Set in Delhi. Two murder mysteries. Detective/cartoonist learns truth about father and discovers doctor’s evil plot.

SERVING CRAZY WITH CURRY. Amulya Malladi. Sisters, mothers, and daughters in conflict. Indian family in San Francisco area. Good, fast read. Good Indian food. Devi attempts suicide, goes mute, cooks.

A BORDER PASSAGE: FROM CAIRO TO AMERICA—A WOMAN’S JOURNEY. Leila Ahmed. Achingly perceptive on all nuances of being female. Sometimes painful memoir. Very sensitive to influences on us as women. Some parts get bogged down in politics.

HONEYMOON IN PURDAH: AN IRANIAN JOURNEY. Alison Wearing.
Canadian woman goes on “honeymoon” with gay friend throughout Iran. Good writing, remarkable access to a variety of people.

PALACE WALK. Volume 1 of THE CAIRO TRILOGY. Naguib Mahfouz.Hypocrisy of head of household in WWI Cairo. Incredible imprisonment of women in their own homes. Wordy. Lots of various voices, perspectives from main characters.

MAYADA: DAUGHTER OF IRAQ. Jean Sasson. Iraqi history, ignorant men in government, torture. Love and concern for Iraqi women comes through.

MAN FROM ST. PETERSBURG. Ken Follett. Book Club pick. Lots of romance for a thriller.

BEYOND THE PYRAMIDS. Douglas Kennedy. Wanders around 1985-ish Egypt. Gives modern voice. Sometimes warm, sometimes frivolous, always curious.

THE POISONWOOD BIBLE. Barbara Kingsolver. Book Club pick. Doom written all over this. So much parental darkness. Such a relief to hear father burned to death.

STAYING ON. Paul Scott. Good back-and-forth writing of different characters’ perspectives. Nice raging, wounded voce of old woman.

WEST WITH THE NIGHT. Beryl Markham. Such good writing (though it’s been rumored that her husband actually wrote this). Sensational, slow-motion treatment of a horse race.

THE RED TENT. Anita Diamant. Fabulous. Day-to-day women’s lives in Biblical times.

HEAT AND DUST. Ruth Prawer Thabvala. Life, love, betrayal during British Raj in India. Depressed woman find “nawab,” Indian prince.

INTERPRETER OF MALADIES. Jhumpa Lahiri. Wow. Stories’ writing is compact, searing. Subjects look into the heart.

THE MATRIMONIAL PURPOSES. Kavita Daswani. Indian woman putting up with matrimonial pressure. Billed as Indian “Sex in the City” but not as biting. Love of parents shines through.

THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL. Asne Seierstad. Straight-forward depiction of Afghani family. Translation from the Norwegian sometimes stiff.

HOLY COW! AN INDIAN ADVENTURE. Sarah MacDonald. Unapologetic, kind of raw, young person’s view of Delhi life. Love-hate of India. Crass, immature at times.

THE SUN IN THE MORNING. M. M. Kaye. British woman growing up in rich colonial India. Warm, reflective writing. Such a good memory of how it feels to be young. First of a three-part memoir.

HONOR LOST: LOVE AND DEATH IN MODERN-DAY JORDAN. Norma Khouri.Shocking, sad, very personal.

GUESTS OF THE SHEIK. American woman n small southern Iraqi village. Great information.

HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG. Reread. Book Club pick. Such a tragedy. Painful to finish. Like watching a truck with the brake lines cut: it can’t go well. Fine writing.

MRS. MIKE. September 2004. Narrative of young bride in the Canadian wilderness.

MOTHER WITHOUT A MASK. December 2004. British mom lives with women in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN. Azar Hafisi. December 2004 Like a fleshed-out thesis.

SECRET LIFE OF BEES. Reread. Book Club pick for November 2004. Great, thoughtful writing. Sometimes a few too many celebrations.

PALE HORSE, PALE RIDER. June 2004 Title story great portrayal of woman in flu epidemic.

THE GREAT INFLUENZA. May 2004 Wow. Can be very slow, but brilliant background. Needs editing for smoother syntax.

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER. Carson McCullers. May 2004 Odd, lots of loneliness in all characters. See into each character; like we’re the deaf-mute.

YEAR OF WONDERS. April 2004 Novel about plague in rural England. Compelling, well written. Odd ending in an Arab country.

AS THEY WERE. M.F.K. Fisher. May 2004 Great writing. Living in France, growing up in California.

PRICE OF HONOR. Han Goodwin. April 2004 Chapters on each Arab nation. Pretty scary: the worst of fundamentalist violence against women, control at all costs.

SOMETHING TO DECLARE. Julian Barnes. April 2004 Essays on France. Dense, complex writing. Too much about Flaubert.

PARIS IN MIND. March 2004 Various essay, not just Parisian romance. The real Paris.

MICHELANGELO AND THE POPE’S CEILING. March 2004 Wow. So much great art history detail! Would have liked better descriptive illustrations. Sistine is so huge.

ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS. March 2004 Immature writing, but can sometimes be engaging.

THE DA VINCI CODE. Dan Brown. February 2004 Loved all the art references. Talky and teachy.

STORYTELLER’S DAUGHTER. February 2004 Wow. Afghanistan. Shocking. No apologies. Non-fiction. Wonder how Americans can ever understand Afghans.

A CUP OF TEA. February 2004 Short chapters, like movie scenes. Good tension. Sparse, a bit weak.

MARRYING THE MISTRESS. Book Club pick for January 2004. Well written. Good read. Characters have depth.

BLUE SHOE. Anne Lamotte. December 2003 Great writing. Very engaging.

THREE JUNES. Book Club pick for December 2003. Loved Fenno character. One section too long. Good writing.

THE VIRGIN BLUE. Book Club pick for November 2003 Could have been denser. Tried hard to be historical. Predictable romance.

SEE JANE DATE. November 2003 Funny, sometimes feels like sit com writing.

DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON. George Orwell. November 2003.Orwell worked as dishwasher, etc. Very graphic. The poor man’s look.

TESS OF THE D’UBERVILLES: A WOMAN’S TRAGEDY. Thomas Hardy.Can be slow going. Wonderful account of rural life.

UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN. Jon Krakauer. October 2003.Solid writing, sometimes tedious. Mormons pretty scary.

PLAINSONG. September 2003 Wonderful writing. Plain and spare.

TENDER IS THE NIGHT. F. Scott Fitzgerald. July 2003 Hated characters, so aimless. Good writing. The unprincipled rich, Gatsby abroad.

MRS. DALLOWAY. Virginia Woolf. July 2003. Elegant stream of consciousness, especially excellent on mental illness.

BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS. August 2003 Elegant. Not romantic. How literature opens up the world especially to a young girl.

GONE WITH THE WIND. Margaret Mitchell. September 2003 Movie came out when my mother was 16. Scarlett so awful. Great grounding in Civil war.

THE BOOK CLUB. July 2003 Romantic novel billed as fiction.

Coffee morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 1,000
Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 30 ¾ ” wide x 36 ½” high. Framed in 1” wide black wood.

Man playing yellow oud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 700
Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 31 ½” wide x 37 ½” high. Framed in 1” wide black wood.

On break at Denny’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 200
Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 25” wide x 37” high. Framed in 3/4” wide black wood.

Patio on the Arabian Gulf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,200
Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 49” wide x 37” high. Framed in ¾” wide black wood.

Red book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 300
Acrylic on canvas, 2006. 25 ½” wide x 31 ½” high. Framed in 1” black metal.

Red cloak in rice field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 800
. Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 30 ½” wide x 48 ¼” high. Framed in 1/4” wide black metal.

Red guitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 300
Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 24 ½” wide x 36 ¼” high. Framed in 1/4” black metal.

Red oud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 400
Acrylic on canvas, 2006. 24 ½” wide x 36 ¼” high. Framed in 1/4” wide black metal.

Slicing watermelons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 800
Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 31 ½” wide x 37 ½” high. Framed in 1” wide black wood.

Waiting for Fred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 500
Acrylic on canvas, 2006. 24 ½” wide x 36 ½” high. Framed in ¼” wide black wood.

Watching winter cardinals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 150  (SOLD)
Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 34 ½” wide x 34 ½” high. Framed in 2” wide green wood.

Woman in yellow leotard reading . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 700
Acrylic on canvas, 2005. 19” wide x 37” high. Framed in ¾” wide black wood.

Young mother in the fabric souq . . . . . . . . . . . . . NFS
Property of the Utah Breastfeeding Coalition

All prices for single purchases are firm. Prices for multiple paintings are negotiable.

BIRTH FAMILY LIFE
I was born on a winter morning.
I grew up in California, just south of LAX and a mile from the ocean.
Harry Truman was President when I was born.
I weighed 7 pounds.
I was my parents’ first child.
I am named after my mother Helen and my grandmother Helen.
I am called by my middle name.
My family nickname is “Bug.”
I have two younger brothers.
I am the only one of my parents’ children who had children.

When I was 9, I wanted to be an archaeologist and go to Egypt to dig.
When I was 13, I wanted to play softball.
When I was 18, I was tired of school and didn’t want to go to college.
When I was 22, I graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara.
When I was 23, I went to Paris on a one-way ticket
When I was 25, I wanted to be a country and western star.
When I was 33, I got married.
When I was 34, I had my first child.
When I was 40, I had my last child.
When I was 57, I went to Egypt for the first time.

RELATIONSHIPS AND THE MOVING LIFE
A friend of my brother’s was my boyfriend for three years in high school.
I met a guy on crutches in college. We went together three years.
I went to Paris on a one-way ticket in 1971.
I met another guy on the steps of the Pantheon three weeks later.
I moved to Chicago in 1972.
I moved to Brooklyn in 1975.
I met my husband in 1979 when he moved into the apartment next to my rental house.
I married him in 1981.
We took a month-long honeymoon throughout the western U.S.
We have been married for 25 years.

EDUCATIONAL LIFE
I graduated from the UC Santa Barbara with an English degree.
I got certified to be a teacher in Chicago.
I earned 30 credits of teaching credits at University Of New Mexico.
I am working on a Master of Professional Communication degree at Westminster College.
I took a Berlitz Arabic class in Dubai.

WORK LIFE
I was a cook and waitress at Taco Bill’s Mexican restaurant in Hermosa Beach.
I was a waitress for the San Francisco 49ers summer training camp.
I worked in UCSB’s Arts & Music Library.
I was a preschool music teacher for a year.
I worked in the Singer Freiden factory testing cash registers in Albuquerque.
I worked as a secretary for three years in Chicago and went to night school.
I taught first, second, and third grades in Albuquerque for five years.
I taught my sons at home for eight years.
I was accredited as a Leader with La Leche League in 1985.
I have been a cartoonist for La Leche League’s magazine LEAVEN for over ten years.

MUSICAL LIFE
I sang with my church choir for three years in high school.
I sang in our church’s productions of “Bye Bye Birdie” and “The Music Man” in high school.
I sang in a folk trio in college for a year.
I heard “Help Me Make It Through the Night” while stopped at a traffic light and wanted to be a country & western singer.
I sang in the band “Country Rye” in Cincinnati.
I wrote 30 songs during a four-month non-working period in Brooklyn, New York.
I admire Gladys Knight and Etta James but sing more like Loretta Lynn.
I played in small clubs and bars as a solo act in Albuquerque.
I sang at my mother’s Unitarian church every summer for many years.
I haven’t sung or played the guitar in a long time.

I had my first son in 1982.
I had my second son in 1985.
I had my third son in 1988.
I love little kids.
I am looking forward to being a grandmother.

I lived in California for the first 22 years of my life.
As a single person I lived in New Mexico, Illinois, Ohio, and back to New Mexico.
As a a married person I’ve moved 14 times, living in New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Alaska, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania, Utah, Dubai, and now back in Utah.
My husband and I are a great moving team: forgiving, energetic, and non-traditional thinkers.
I lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for ten months.

I am a morning person.
I am a planner.
I get agitated if things happen too fast or if I have to be spontaneous.
I walk every morning for 45 minutes.
I am an introvert and enjoy time alone.
I love animals and am now taking care of my son’s cat.
I would like to live on a farm.
I am not a religious person.
I love foggy winter beach weather.
I am a small-town person.

HOME LIFE
I live in a house in a suburb.
I enjoy doing my own housework, even ironing.
I have one son in high school.
I have taken up painting again.
I have a one-woman painting show at the Sandy Library until January 31, 2007.
I can drive a stick shift.
I have been in five car accidents, none of which were my fault.
I get crabby when the weather’s hot and humid.
I don’t like my two older sons being so far away.
I get anxious about being gone from my family when I travel . . . but I love to travel.

WRITING LIFE
I majored in English in college, and took one creative writing class.
I worked as an editorial secretary for the Henry Regnery Company in Chicago where I wrote hundreds of rejection letters to authors.
I wrote a weekly column for The Nome Nugget newspaper.
I edited newsletters for La Leche League for over ten years.
I was in a writing group in Dubai.
I would like to teach writing some day.

Abdullah, Morag Murray. My Khyber Marriage: Experiences of a Scotswoman as the Wife of a Pathan Chieftain’s Son, 1990. Valley of the Giant Buddhas, 1993.
Armstrong, Sally. Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan. 2003.
Brodsky, Anne (ed.). With All Our Strength: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. 2003.
Chavis, Melody Ermachild. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan: The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.
Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to 9/10/01.
Elliot, Jason. An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan. 2001.
Fesperman, Dan. The Warlord’s Son. 2004.
Follain, John. Zoya’s Story: An Afghan Woman’s Struggle for Freedom. 2002.
Follett, Ken. Lie Down with Lions.
Habibullah, Amir. My Life—From Brigand to King. 1990.
Henner, Eloise. Letters from Afghanistan. 2003. Letters about 1970s stint as a teacher.
Hirsh, M. E. Kabul. 2002.
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. 2003.
Khadra, Yasmina (pen name of Mohammed Moulessehoul). Swallows of Kabul. 2004.
Kremmer, Christopher. The Carpet Wars: Ten Years in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. 2002.
Lamb, Christina. Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage through Afghanistan. 2002.
Latifa. My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman’s Story. 2002
Mamda, Mahmood. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. 2004.
Mehta, Sunita (ed.). Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future. 2002.
Newby, Eric, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. 1998.
Palmer, Louis. Adventures in Afghanistan. 1990.
Seierstad, Asne, The Bookseller of Kabul. Translated from Norwegian. Life in an Afghani family.
Shah, Saira. Storyteller’s Daughter. Afghani-British woman travels throughout Afghanistan.
Shakib, Siba. Samira & Samir: The Heartrending Story of Love and Oppression in Afghanistan.
Sulima and Hala. Behind the Burqa: Our Life in Afghanistan and How We Escaped to Freedom. 2002.
Wilson, Steven E. Winter in Kandahar. Fiction. 2003.

GENERAL NOMADIC LIFE, ARABS, BEDOUINS, ISLAMIC HISTORY

Khadra, Yasmina (pen name for Mohammed Moulessehoul). In the Name of God, 2000.
Wolf Dreams. 2003. Morituri. 2003. Double Blank. 2005.
Abu-Luqhod, Lila. Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories, 1993. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, 2000.
Afkhami, Mahnax (ed.). Faith and Freedom—Women’s Human Rights in the Muslim World. 1995.
Anvay, Carol. Daughters of Another Path—American Women Choosing Islam. 1995.
Asher, Michael. The Last of the Bedu, 1996.
Brooks, Geraldine. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. 1995.
Byron, Robert. The Road to Oxiana. 1982. Travels throughout Arabia in 1930s.
Dallas, Roland. A Life on the Edge.
Doughty, Charles M. Travels in Arabia Deserta: Selected Passages. 2003. Travel across Arabia in 1870s.
Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. In Search of Islamic Feminism: One Woman’s Global Journey.
Geniesse, Jane. Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark. 1999.
Glain, Stephen. Dreaming of Damascus: Merchants, Mullahs and Militants in the New Middle East. 2003.
Goodwin, Jan. Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World.
Haddad, Yvonne (ed.). Islam, Gender and Social Change. 1997.
Hekmat, Anwar. Women and the Koran: The Status of Women in Islam, 1997.
Herge. Adventures of Tintin: Land of Black Gold and The Crab with the Golden Claws. Cartoon books.
Hoyland, Robert. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. 2001.
Mackintosh-Smith, Tim. Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam’s Greatest Traveler. 2004.
Maalouf, Amin. Crusades through Arab Eyes, 1989.
Leo Africanus. 1990. Islamic culture in the time of Columbus.
Mernissi, Fatima. Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society. 1987.
Forgotten Queens of Islam. 1990.
Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems. 2001.
The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. 1988.
Miles, Hugh. Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenges America, 2005.
Naipaul, V.S. Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey. 1987.
Raswan, Carl. Black Tents of Arabia: My Life Among the Bedouins, 1998. (from the German) Desert experiences of German soldier after WWI.
Sabbagh, Suha (ed.). Arab Women—Between Defiance and Restraint. 2002.
Stark, Freye. Alexander’s Path, 1990. A Winter in Arabia, 2002.
Taylor, Andrew. Travelling the Sands: Sagas of Exploration in the Arabian Peninsula. 1995.

EGYPT

Aciman, Andre. Out of Egypt: A Memoir. 1994.
Ahmed, Leila. A Border Passage: from Cairo to America—A Woman’s Journey. 1999.
Christie, Agatha. Death on the Nile.
Dalrymple, William. White Mughals.
Edwards, Amelia B. A Thousand Miles Up the Nile.
El Saadawi, Nawal. Woman at Point Zero. 1979; Two Women in One. 1986.
The Fall of the Imam. 1988; She Has No Place in Paradise. 1989.
Memoirs from the Women’s Prison. 1994.
Fernea, Elizabeth and Robert. Nubian Ethnographies.
Follett, Ken. Key to Rebecca.
Frank, Katherine. A Passage to Egypt: The Life of Lucie Duff Gordon.
Ghosh, Amitav. In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler’s Tale. 1994.
Gordon, Lucie. Letters from Egypt, 1983-65. Time Warner. 1983.
Gruber, Mark. Journey Back to Eden: My Life and Times among the Desert Fathers. 2002.
Monk’s life among the Copts.
Jacq, Christian. Ramses: The Lady of Abu Simbel. 1998. (from the French)
Karabell, Zachary. Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal. 2003.
Kennedy, Douglas. Beyond the Pyramids. Non-fiction.
American traveler avoids monuments and temples to try to find modern Egypt.
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. Mara, Daughter of the Nile.
Mahfouz, Naguib. The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk; Palace of Desire; Sugar Street. Three generations of one family from World War I to 1950s in Cairo. Midaq Alley. 1992.
Peters, Elizabeth. Lord of the Silent.
Reeves, Nicholas. Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet. 2001 and 2005.
Serageldin, Samia. The Cairo House, 2003.
Tyldesley, Joyce. Daughters of Isis and Nefertiti: Egypt’s Sun Queen.

INDIA

Ali, Monica. Brick Lane. East London setting.
Ali, Samina. Madras on Rainy Days.
Ali, Thalassa. A Singular Hostage, 2002, and A Beggar at the Gate. 2004.
Bajwa, Rupa. The Sari Shop.
Daswani, Kavita. The Matrimonial Purposes. Fiction. Dealing with pressure to marry.
Desai, Anita. The Village by the Sea and Fire on the Mountain.
Divakaruni,Chitra Banerjee. Arranged Marriage.
Etteth, Ravi Shankar. The Tiger by the River and The Village of Widows.
Forster, E. M. Passage to India.
Ghosh, Amitav. The Glass Palace. (sage of 3 generations from Mandalay, India, Burma)
Jayapal, Pramila. Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland. Non-fiction.
Jhabvala, Prawer. Heat and Dust. Depressed English woman falls in love with Indian prince.
Kaye, M. M. Shadow of the Moon, 1957. The Far Pavilion, 1978.
“Share of Summer” memoirs: Sun in the Morning (Vol. I, 1990), Golden Afternoon (Vo.l. II, 1997), Enchanted Evening (Vol. III, 1999).
Kirchner, Bharti. Darjeeling.
Koul, Sudha. The Tiger Ladies: A Memoir of Kashmir.
Kumar, Amitava. Husband of a Fanatic: A Personal Journey through India, Pakistan, Love, Hate. 2005.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies (short stories) 1999 and The Namesake (novel)
MacDonald, Sarah. Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure. Australian woman moves to India after vowing she’d never return.
Mistry, Rohinton. A Fine Balance.
Narayan, Shoba. Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes.
Newby, Eric and Wanda. Slowly Down the Ganges. 1998.
O’Hagan (Editor). The Weekenders: Adventures in Calcutta. 2004.
Scott, Paul. Staying On. An elderly British couple “stay on” in India after British Raj.
Shanghvi, Siddharth Dhanvant. The Last Song of Dusk.
Sundaresan, Indu. The Twentieth Wife & The Feast of Roses. Fictionalized history.
Thomson, Hugh. Nanda Devi: A Journey to the Last Sanctuary.

IRAN

Al-Saltanah, Taj. Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to modernity. 1884-1914.
Asayesh, Gelareh. Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America. 1999.
Bahrampour, Tara. To See and See Again. Iranian-American fled Iran in 1979. 2000.
Benham, Miriam. Zelzelah. Memoir of life in Iran, then Dubai.
Dubus III, Andre. House of Sand and Fog. Fiction. Iranian family in California struggles to succeed.
De Bellaique, Christopher. In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran. 2005.
Dumas, Firoozeh. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America. 2004.
Farmaian, Sattareh Farman. Daughter of Persia: A Woman’s Journey from Her Father’s Harem through the Islamic Revolution. 1992.
Firouz, Anahita. In the Walled Gardens. 2003.
Friedl, Erika. Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village.
Goldin, Farideh. Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman. 2003.
Hakakian, Roya. Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran. 2004.
Latifi, Afschineh. Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran.
Maalouf, Amin. Samarkand. 1992 (from the French)
Mahmoody, Betty. Not Without My Daughter.
Moaveni, Azadeh. Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in American and American in Iran.
Molavi, Afshin. Persian Pilgrimages: Journeys across Iran. 2002.
Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran. Teacher introduces students to western literature.
Nahai, Gina. Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith.
Pahlavi, Farah. An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah—A Memoir. 2004.
Pari, Susanne. The Fortune Catcher. 1997.
Rachlin, Nahid. Married to a Stranger, 1993. Foreigner, 1999.
Rachlin, Nadhid. Persian Girls
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. & Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return.
Stark, Freya. The Valleys of the Assassins: and other Persian Travels [in 1930s]. 2001.
Ward, Terence. Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran. 2003.
Wearing, Alison. Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey. Non-fiction.
Canadian woman travels on “honeymoon” with gay friend throughout Iran.

IRAQ

Al-Amir, Daisy. The Waiting List: An Iraqi Woman’s Tales of Alienation. 1994.
Al-Radi, Nuha. Baghdad Diaries: A Woman’s Chronicle of War and Exile.
Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. Guests of the Sheik.: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village.
American woman tells of life in small southern Iraqi village.
Horwitz, Tony. Baghdad without a Map: And Other Misadventures in Arabia. 1991.
Rich, Paul. Arab War Lords and Iraqi Star Gazers: Gertrude Bell’s the Arab of Mesopotamia. 2001.
Sasson, Jean. Mayada: Daughter of Iraq. American woman tells of friend imprisoned in Iraq.
Seierstad, Asne. A Hundred and One Days. 2005. Journalist in Baghdad.
Stark, Freya. Baghdad Sketches. 1996. British woman travels in 1920s Iraq.
Thesiger, Wilfred. The Marsh Arabs. 1964.
Turnipseed, Joel. Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir. 2003.
Wallach, Janet. Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia. 1996.

JORDAN

Caulfield, Annie. Kingdom of the Film Stars: Journey into Jordan. 1997.
Christie, Agatha. Appointment with Death. (set in Petra)
Hamilton, Masha. Staircase of a Thousand Steps. 2002.
Khouri, Norma. Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan. Jordanian tells of friend’s honor killing after love affair.
Levy, Udi. The Lost Civilization of Petra.
Munif, Abd Al-Rahman. Story of a City: A Childhood in Amman and Cities of Salt.
Noor, Queen. Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life. 2003.
Swann, T. B. The Sudden Wings.
Taylor, Jane. Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans.

KURDISTAN

Byrd, Christiane. A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts. Travels in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran.
Saleem, Hiner. My Father’s Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan.

KUWAIT

Paine, Tom. The Pearl of Kuwait. 2003.
Sasson, Jean. The Rape of Kuwait.
Zahlan, Rosemary. The Making of the Modern Gulf States: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, 1989.

LEBANON

Al-Shayk, Hanan. Only in London. 2002; I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops. 1998.
Beirut Blues. 1996; Women of Sand and Myrrh; The Story of Zahra. 1996.
Diaz, Tom. Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil, 2005.
Firro, Kais. Inventing Lebanon: Nationalism and State Under Mandate, 2002.
Gavin, Angus.Beirut Reborn: The Restoration and Development of the Central District, 1996.
Jarrar, Nada Awar. Somewhere, Home, 2003.
Malone, Martin. The Broken Cedar, 2003.
Salibi, Kamal. A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered, 1988.
Sasson, Jean. Ester’s Child.

MOROCCO

Bowles, Paul. The Sheltering Sky. 1949 & The Spider’s House. 1955. A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard, 1981. Beat writer on kif smokers. 1981.
Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. Street in Marrakech. 1998.
Gemmell, Nikki. The Bride Stripped Bare. 2005.
Harris, Walter. Morocco That Was, 2003.
Maxwell, Gavin. Lords of the Atlas: The Rise and Fall of the House of Glasua, 1893-1956, 2002.
Mernissi, Fatima. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood.
Oufkir, Malika. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail. 2002.
Siler, Jenny. Flashback.
Taylor, Debbie. The Fourth Queen. Scottish woman kidnapped to join harem.
Taylor, Jeffrey. Glory in a Camel’s Eye: Trekking through the Moroccan Sahara, 2003.

OMAN

Beasant, John. Oman: The True Life Drama and Intrigue of an Arab State. 2003.
Clapp, Nicolas. The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands. 1999.
Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen.
Collin, Richard. The Man with Many Names. 1995.
Eickelman, Christine. Women and Community in Oman.
Ellis, Ralph. Solomon, Falcon of Sheba: The Tombs of King David, King Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba Discovered. 2003.
Fiennes, Ranulph. The Feathermen. 1991.
Ludlum, Robert. The Icarus Agenda. 1988.
O’Shea, Raymond. The Sand Kings of Oman. 2000. About Oman in 1940s.
Risso, Patricia. Oman and Muscat: An Early Modern History, 1986.
Ward, Philip. Travels in Oman: On the Track of the Early Explorers. 1986.
Wikkin, Unni. Behind the Veil in Arabia: Women in Oman. 1970s study of women in Sohar. 1991.

PAKISTAN

Jamie, Kathleen. Among Muslims: Meetings at the Frontiers of Pakistan. 2002.
Lamb, Christina. Waiting for Allah: Pakistan’s Struggle for Democracy.

PALESTINE

Abdul-Baki, Kathryn. Ghost Songs: A Palestinian Love Story, 2000.
Barghouti, Mourid. I Saw Ramallah. 2003.
Grossman, David. The Yellow Wind. 2002.
Hass, Amira. Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege. 1996.
Karmi, Ghada. In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story. 2002.
Khalifeh, Sahar. Wild Thorns.
Souad. Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men.

QATAR

Abu Saud, Abeer. Qatari Women: Past and Present, 1984.
Al-Arayed, Jawad. A Line in the Sea: The Qatar v. Bahrain Border dispute in the World Court, 2003.
Anscombe, Frederick. The Ottoman Gulf, 1997.
Cordesman, Anthony. Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE: Challenges of Security, 1997.
Ferdinand, Klaus. Bedouins of Qatar, 1993.
Moorehead, John. In Defiance of the Elements: A Personal View of Qatar, 1977.
Willis, Terri. Qatar, 2004.

SAUDI ARABIA

Al-Shaykh. Beirut Blues, The Story of Zahra, and Women of Sand and Myrrh.
Bin Ladin, Carmen. Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia. 2004.
Genia. Single in Saudi. 2004. Sex, drugs, and disrespect in the KSA.
Nicholson, Eleanor. In the Footsteps of the Camel: A Portrait of the Bedouins of Eastern Saudi Arabia in Mid Century, 1984.
Roush, Patricia. At Any Price: How America Betrayed My Kidnapped Daughters for Saudi Oil. 2003.
Sasson, Jean. The Princess Triology: Princess Sultana’s Daughters, Princess Sultana’s Circle, 2001; Princess: The True Story of Life Inside Saudi Arabia’s Royal Family.

SUDAN

Hale, Sondra. Gender Politics in Sudan: Islamism, Socialism, and the State, 1998.
Nazer, Mende. Slave.
Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. 1970.
Scroggins, Deborah. Emma’s War: Love, Betrayal and Death in the Sudan. 2002.

SYRIA

Bell, Gertrude. The Desert and the Sown: The Syrian Adventures of the Female Lawrence of Arabia. 2001.
Moss, Tewdwr. Cleopatra’s Wedding Present: Travels through Syria. 2001.

TURKEY

Orga, Irfan. The Caravan Moves On: Three Weeks Among Turkish Nomads [in 1950s]. 2003.
Portrait of a Turkish Family. 2003. World War I in Istanbul.
Pamuk, Orhan. Snow, Birds without Wings, The White Castle, The Black Book, My Name is Red.
Seal, Jeremy. A Fez of the Heart: Travels around Turkey in Search of a Hat. 1996.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Al-Fahim, Mohammed. From Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi. 1995.
Holton, Patricia. Mother without a Mask: A Westerner’s Story of Her Arab Family.
British woman lives in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain with Emirati family in 1960s.
Moore, Robin. Dubai. Fiction. Love, business, and intrigue in 1970s U.A.E.
Sampler, Jeffrey and Saeb Eigner. Sand to Silicon: Achieving Rapid Growth Lessons from Dubai. 2003.

YEMEN

Aithie, Charles. Yemen: Jewel of Arabia. 2000.
Breton, Jean-Francois. Arabia Felix from the Time of the Queen of Sheba: Eighth Century B.C. to First Century A.D.
Dresch, Paul. Tribes, Government, and History of Yemen. 1994.
A History of Modern Yemen. 2000.
Hansen, Eric. Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea. 1992.
Mackintosh-Smith, Tim. Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land. 1998.
Yemen: The Unknown Arabia. 2001.
Travels in Ibn Battutah. 2002.
Rushby, Kevin. Eating the Flowers of Paradise: One Man’s Journey through Ethiopia and Yemen. 1999.
Stark, Freya. Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut. 200

Intolerance. 1916. 178 minutes. Silent. D. W. Griffith, director. Four stories of life and history, notable for Babylonian sequences.

The Sheik. 1921. Silent. Rudolph Valentino. For its time, Rudy’s sensuality (despite the stiff acting) caused a sensation. Arabian decorating also became popular.

The Son of the Sheik. 1926. Silent. Rudolph Valentino (his last film). Better than The Sheik.

The Mummy. 1932. This is the original and can still make you jump. Boris Karloff is Imhotep. There have been many remakes and sequels. The 1999 Mummy is pretty good with Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep.

The Arabian Nights. 1942. John Rawlins, director. Edgar Barrier, Leif Erickson, Maria Montez. Sheherazade is cast under a spell by the evil caliph.

Casablanca. 1942. Michael Curtiz, director. Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blain and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. Ex-pats waiting to escape war-torn Europe in Morocco. A classic with excellent supporting cast.

Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. 1944. Arthur Lubin, director. Scotty Beckett, Maria Montez. Exploits of Caliph of Baghdad’s son.

A Thousand and One Nights. 1945. Alfred Green, director. Phil Silvers, Cornell Wilde.

Sinbad the Sailor. 1947. Richard Wallace, director.
Maureen O-Hara, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Sinbad, Anthony Quinn as evil Emir.

Samson and Delila. 1949. Cecil B. DeMille, director. Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature.
Remade in 1996 with Elizabeth Hurley and Eric Thal in title roles.

Bagdad [note spelling]. 1949. Charles Lamont, director. Maureen O’Hara.

The Flame of Araby. 1951. Charles Lamont, director. 74 minutes.
Jeff Chandler: Bedouin chief Tamerlane, Maureen O’Hara: Princess Tanya of Tunis.

David and Bathsheba. 1951. Henry King, director. Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward.

Son of Ali Baba. 1952. Kurt Neumann, director. Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie.

The Egyptian, 1954. Edmund Purdom, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature.

Land of the Pharoahs. 1955. Howard Hawks, director. Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins. Complications as the Pharoah builds his pyramid tomb.

Solomon and Sheba. 1959. King Vidor, director.
Yul Brynner, George Sands, and Gina Lollobrigida as the Queen of Sheba.

Lawrence of Arabia. 1962. 228 minutes. David Lean, director. Peter O’Toole unites Arabs to defeat Turks during World War I.

Cleopatra. 1963. Joseph Mankiewicz, director. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton. Lavish retelling of entanglements between Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, and Marc Antony. The most expensive movie ever made for its time.

She. 1965. Robert Day, director. Ursula Andress, Peter Cushing. Set in Palestine.

Khartoum. 1966. Eliot Elisofon, Basil Dearden, directors. Charleton Heston as Charles Gordon, Laurence Oliver as Mahdi. Colonial politics in Sudan.

The Battle of Algiers. 1966. Fight for freedom from French rule. Serious documentary-feel movie, not for the faint of heart.

The Wind and the Lion. 1975. John Milius, director. Sean Connery as Berber chieftan, Candice Bergen. Based on true story of American woman’s kidnapping.

The Man Who Would Be King. 1975. John Huston, director. Michael Caine and Sean Connery as British soldiers reinventing themselves after abandonment in India.

The Message. 1976. Moustapha Akkad, director. 220 minutes.
Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas. Explains Islam tenets and history.

Lion of the Desert. 1981. 206 minutes. Moustapha Akkad, director. Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed. Hero defends Libya against Mussolini (Rod Steiger).

Raiders of the Lost Ark. 1981. Stephen Spielberg, director. Harrison Ford as adventurer Professor Jones seeking to take Ark of the Covenant from the Nazis. Introduced Petra to worldwide audiences.

Sadat. 1983. Two VHS tapes. Richard Michaels, director. Louis Gosset, Jr., as Sadat.

Door to the Sky. 1989. Morocco.

A Dangerous Man: Lawrence after Arabia. 1991. Made for television. Ralph Fiennes. Takes up where Lawrence of Arabia left off. A more complex portrait of Lawrence.

From Mesopotamia to Iraq. 1991. Iraq.

Aladdin. 1992. Animated. Ron Clements, John Musker, directors. Disney production. Robin Williams, Scott Weinger, Lea Salonga. Music quite good. Jeremy Irons’ Jafar (the bad guy) can be pretty scary for kids. The Return of Jafar was the direct-to-video sequel.

The Tornado. 1992. Lebanon.

The Extras. 1993 in Arabic with English subtitles. Nabil al-Maleh, director. Poor young Syrian couple’s difficult courtship.

Black Hawk Down. 1993. Ridley Scott, director. American military fiasco in Somalia.

Stargate. 1994. Roland Emmerich, director. Kurt Russell, James Spader.

Abraham. 1994. Joseph Sargent, director. Richard Harris as Abraham, Barbara Hershey as Sara. Filmed in Quarzazate, Morocco.

The English Patient. 1996. Anthony Minqhella, director. Ralph Fiennes as archaeologist Lazlo de Almasy mapping the desert, falls into doomed love affair with Kristin Scott Thomas as Katherine Clifton. “Cave of the Swimmers” and other desert cinematography quite stunning.

A Summer in La Goulette. 1996. Tunisia. Three girls have relationships with men of different faiths.

Living in Paradise. 1998 in French and Arabic with English subtitles. 105 minutes. Bourlem Guerdjou, director. Algerian man brings family to his construction job in France with disastrous results.

The Prince of Egypt. 1998. Animated. Story of Moses from Disney. Val Kilmer voices Moses.

Christine. 1999 in Farsi with English subtitles. Iran.

The English Sheik and the Yemeni Gentleman. 2000. 76 minutes. Bader Ben Jirsi, director. Man returns to Yemen to rediscover his home with an Englishman who has lived in Yemen for 16 years.

Good Kurds, Bad Kurds. 2000. 79 minutes. Kevin McKiernan, director.

Rules of Engagement. 2000. William Friedkin. Yemeni Arab mobs attack US embassy for no apparent reason. Film is notable for its racist, cartoon cutout portrayal of Arabs as bad guys.

Daughters of the Sun. 2000. 92 minutes. Maryam Shahriar, director. Woman disguises self as boy to work in carpet workshop.

Joseph—King of Dreams. 2000. 74 minutes. Animated. Disney’s direct-to-video sequel to The Prince of Egypt. Ben Afflect voices Joseph.

Kandahar. 2001. 85 minutes. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, director. Farsi and English with English subtitles. Woman returns to Afghanistan to find sister.

Fables of Bah Ya Bah. 2001. 60 minutes. Animated. Ammar Al-Shorbaji, director. Six short stories.

The Last Supper. 2002. 96 minutes. Fereydoun Jeyrani, director. Love and revenge.

Rana’s Wedding. 2002 in French and Arabic with English subtitles. Set in Palestine.

Lost Boys of Sudan. 2003. 87 minutes. Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk, directors. Two teenage Dinka boys go from Sudan to America.

Anonymous (1770?– )
Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies: Two Women’s Travel Narratives of the 1790s. Edited by Deirdre Coleman

Anonymous. (1920?– )
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Walks in the Conquered City. A Diary. 2000.

Abu-Jaber, Diana.
Arabian Jazz. 2003.
The Language of Baklava: A Memoir. 2005.
Crescent. 2005.

Ackeley, Mary L. Jobe. (1886– )
Carl Akeley’s Africa: The Account of the Akeley-Eastman-Pomeroy African Hall Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History. 1931.
Restless Jungle. 1936.
The Wilderness Lives Again: Carl Akeley and the Great Adventure. 1940.
Rumble of a Distant Drum: A True Story of the African Hinterland. 1946.
Congo Eden. 1950.

Alec-Tweedie, Ethel Brilliana. (1860–1940)
A Winter Jaunt to Norway: With Accounts of Nansen, Ibsen, Bjőrnson, Brandes, and Many Others. 1894.
Sunny Sicily: Its Rustics and Its Ruins. 1904.
An Adventurous Journey (Russia-Siberia-China). 1928.
Tight Corners of My Adventurous Life. 1933.

Alexander, Caroline
One Dry Season [retracing Mary Kingsley’s journey through West Africa]. 1991.
Has also written books on Shackleton expedition and Bounty mutiny.

Angelous, Maya.
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes. 1986. Describes her move to Ghana in 1962.

Aschkenas, Lea
Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island

Atwood, Melinda. American.
Jambo Mama: Adventures in Africa [Kenya]. 2000.

Bailey, Rosemary. British. (1953– )
Life in a Postcard Escape to the French Pyrenees. 2003.
The Man Who Married a Mountain: A Journey through the Pyrenees. 2006.

Bartel, Mimi.
Oh, No! Not Another Ruin! Wickedly Funny Travel Tales of an American Adventuress. 2000.

Bedford, Sybill von Schoenebeck. (1911–2006)
A Visit to Don Actavio: A Traveller’s Tale from Mexico. 1953.
The Faces of Justice: A Traveller’s Report. 1961.
As It Was: Pleasures, Landscapes and Justice.
Pleasures and Landscapes: A Traveller’s Tales from Europe. 2003.

Beevor, Kinta. (1911– )
A Tuscan Childhood.

Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian. British. (1864–1926) “British Queen of Iraq,” formed Baghdad Archaeological Museum, committed suicide, buried in Baghdad.
Arab Warlords and Iraqi Star Gazers: Gertrude Bell’s The Arab of Mesopotamia.
The Desert and the Sown: The Syrian Adventures of the Female Lawrence of Arabia. 1907.
Amurath to Amurath. 1911.
Persian Pictures.
Poems from the Divan of Hafiz.
Safar Nameh.
The Thousand and One Churches
About Bell:
A Quest in the Middle East: Gertrude Bell and the Making of Modern Iraq. By Liora Lukitz. 2006.
Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally to Lawrence of Arabia by Janet Wallach.1996.

Bengis, Ingrid.
Metro Stop Dostoyevsky: Travels in Russian Time. 2003.

Berg, Natasha Ilum. Swedish. (1971– )
Rivers of Red Earth. 1999.
Tea on the Blue Sofa: Whispers of Love and Longing from Africa. 2004.

Bird, Christiane.
A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts. Journeys in Kurdistan.
Neither East nor West: One Woman’s Journey through the Islamic Republic of Iran. 2002.

Bird, Isabella Lucy. English. (1831–1904)
An Englishwoman in America. 1856.
The Hawaiian Archipelago. 1875.
A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. 1879.
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. 1880.
Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan.1891.
Among the Tibetans.1894.
Korea and Her Neighbours. 1898.
Chinese Pictures. 1900.
Notes on Morocco. 1901.

Birkett, Dea.
Serpent in Paradise. Journey to Pitcairn Island. 1997.

Bisland, Elizabeth. American. (1861–1929)
In Seven Stages: a Flying Trip around the World. 1891.

Blackburn Julia.
The Emperor’s Last Island: A Journey to St. Helena. 1993.

Blixen, Karen. [pen name Isak Dinesen.] Danish. (1885–1962)
Seven Gothic Tales. 1934.
Out of Africa. 1937.

Bly, Nellie. (1864-1922)
Nellie Bly’s Book: Around the World in Seventy-Two Days. 1891.

Bond, Marybeth.
Gutsy Women: More Travel Tips and Wisdom for the Road.
A Woman’s World.
A Woman’s Passion for Travel: More Stories from a Woman’s World.
A Mother’s World: Journeys of the Heart.
Gutsy Mamas: Travel Tips and Wisdom for Mothers on the Road.
A Woman’s Europe.

Brayfield, Celia. British.
Wild Weekend.
Deep France: A Writer’s Year in the Béarn. 2004.

Bullock, Fanny. See Fanny Bullock Workman.

Burkett, Elinor. American.
So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places. 2005.

Calderon de la Barca, Frances. (1804–1882)
Life in Mexico. 1843.
Kulu: The End of the Habitable World [Indian Himalayas].

Calcott, Lady Maria. Scottish. (1786–1844)
Journal of a Residence in India. 1812.
Letters on India, with Etchings and a Map.1814.
Three Months Passed in the Mountains East of Rome, during the Year 1819, 1820. 1821.
Journal of a Residence in Chile during the Year 1822. And a Voyage from Chile to Brazil in 1823 1824.
Journal of a Voyage to Brazil, and Residence There, During Part of the Years 1821, 1822, 1823 1824.
Voyage of the H.M.S. Blonde to the Sandwich Islands, in the Years 1824-1825. 1826.

Campbell, Deborah.
This Heated Place: Encounters in the Promised Land [Israel]. 2004.

Carey, Alice. American.
I’ll Know It When I See It: A Daughter’s Search for Home in Ireland. 2005.

Caulfield, Annie.
Kingdom of the Film Stars: Journey into Jordan. 1997.

Chetwode, Lady Penelope Hester Betjewode. British. (1910–1986)
Kulu: The End of the Habitable World [Indian Himalayas].
Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalucia [Penelope and “La Marquesa,” her mare]. 2002.

Child, Julia Carolyn McWilliams. (1912–2004)
My Life in France. Written with Alex Prud’homme. 2006.
About Child:
Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child. By Noel Riley Fitch. 1999.

Clark, Eleanor.
Rome and a Villa. 2000.

Clifford, Sue. British.
England in Particular: A Celebration of the Commonplace, the Local, the Vernacular and the Distinctive. Written with Angela King. 2006.

Constable, Pamela.
Fragments of Grace: My Search for Meaning in the Strife of South Asia. 2004.

Cooper, Susan Fenimore. (1813–1894)
Rural Hours [in North America]. 1850.

Cox, Jennifer.
Around the World in 80 Dates.

Dale, Wendy.
Avoiding Poison and Other Noble Vacation Goals. 2003.

David-Neel, Madame Alexandra. (1868–1969)
Immortality and Reincarnation: Wisdom from the Forbidden Journey
Magic and Mystery in Tibet
My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City
The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects.
About David-Neel:
Far Beyond the Garden Gate: Alexandra David-Neel’s Journey to Lhasa. A children’s book by Don Brown. 2002.
The Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel: A Biography of the Explorer of Tibet and Its Forbidden Practices. By Barbara Foster.

Davidson, Robyn. Australian. (1950– )
Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback [with camels]. 1995.
From Alice to Ocean: Alone [except for visits by photographer Rick Smolan] across the Outback. 1992. Picture-book version of Tracks.
Desert Places: A Woman’s Odyssey with Wanderers of the Indian Desert. 1997.

De Blasi, Marlena.
A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance.
A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure

Dewoskin, Rachel.
Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China. 2006.

Didion, Joan. American. (1934– )
Salvador. 1983.
Miami. 1987.
Where I Was From [California]. 2003.
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live. 2006.

Dietrich, Amalie. (1821–1891)
The Hard Road: The Life Story of Amalie Dietrich, Naturalist. By Charitas Bischoff. 1931.

Dinesin, Isak. Pen name of Karin Blixen.

Diski, Jenny. British. (1947– )
Nothing Natural. 1986.
Rainforest 1987.
Like Mother. 1988.
Then Again.1990.
Happily Ever After. 1991.
Monkey’s Uncle. 1994.
The Vanishing Princess [short stories]. 1995.
The Dream Mistress. 1996.
Skating to Antarctica. 1997.
Don’t [essays]. 1998.
Only Human: A Comedy. 2000.
A View from the Bed (2003) (essays)
After These Things (2004)
On Trying to Keep Still (2006)
Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America without Interruptions. [Autobiography] 2002.

Dixie, Florence Caroline Douglas, Lady. Scottish. (1857–1905). The Lady Florence Dixie Hotel is in Puerto Natales, Chile.
Across Patagonia: A Victorian Equestrian Adventure. 1881.

Drier, Katherine Sophie. (1877–1952)
Five Months in the Argentine from a Woman’s Point of View. 1920.

Drinkwater, Carol. British. (1948– )
The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France. 2001.
The Olive Season.
The Olive Harvest.
The Illustrated Olive Farm.
The Olive Route: A Personal Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean. Coming in 2007.

Duff, Diana.
Leaves from the Fig Tree [East Africa?]. 2003.

Durham, Mary Edith. British. (1863–1944)
Through the Lands of the Serb. 1904.
The Burden of the Balkans. 1905.
High Albania. 1909.
The Struggle for Scutari. 1914.
Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle. 1920.
The Sarajevo Crime.1925.
Some Tribal Origins, Laws and Customs of the Balkans. 1928.
Albania and the Albanians: Selected Articles and Letters, 1903-1944. Edited by Betjullah Destani. 2001.

Eastlake, Lady Elizabeth Rigby. British. (1809–1893)
A Residence on the Shores of the Baltic. 1841.
Letters from the Shores of the Baltic. 1842.
Lady Travellers. 1845.
Livonian Tales. 1846.

Eberhardt, Isabelle. Swiss. (1877–1904). Traveled as a man, Si Mahmoud Essadi. Died in Algerian flash flood at age 27.
Algerian News. 1905.
In the Shadow of Islam. 1906.
The Oblivion Seekers [translated from the French by Paul Bowles].
The Day Labourers.
Prisoner of Dunes.
Departures: Selected Writings.
About Eberhardt:
The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt. Translated by Nina de Voogd.
Isabelle: The Life of Isabelle Eberhardt. By Annette Kobak.
Australian-French bio-pic “Isabelle Eberhardt,” starring Matilda May, was made in 1990.

Edwards, Alice B. (1831–1892)
Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys [of the Dolomites]. 1873.
A Thousand Miles up the Nile. 1877. 1996.
About Edwards:
Alice B. Edwards: Traveller, Novelist, Egyptologist. By Joan Rees

Egan, Kerry. American.
Fumbling: A Journey of Love, Adventure, and Renewal on the Camino de Santiago. 2006.

Ehrlich, Gretel. American.
The Solace of Open Spaces [Wyoming]. 1984.
Heart Mountain. 1989. Made into a documentary in 1998.
A Match to the Heart: One Woman’s Story of Being Struck by Lightning. 1994.
Questions of Heaven: The Chinese Journeys of an American Buddhist. 1994.
Yellowstone: Land of Fire and Ice. 1995.
This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland. 2002.
The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold.
Island, the Universe, Home.

Eickelman, Christine.
Women and Community in Oman.

Erdman, Sarah.
Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village [in Côte d’Ivoire]. 2003.

Evans, Polly.
It’s Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels. 2006.

Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. American. (1931?– )
In Search of Islamic Feminism: One Woman’s Global Journey.
Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village.
A View of the Nile. 1970.
A Street in Marrakech. 1998.

Fisher, Mary Kennedy Francis (M.F.K.). American. (1908–1992)
Aix-en-Provence.
Long Age in France: The Years in Dijon [1929–1932]. 1991.
Map of Another Town: A Memoir of Provence. 1964.
Two Towns in Provence. 1983.
A Considerable Town [Marseille].
About Fisher:
M.F.K. Fisher and Me: A Memoir of Food and Friendship. By Jeannette Ferrary. 1998.

Forbes, Joan “Rosita.” (1890–1967)
The Secret of the Sahara: Kufara [Libya]. 1921.
Adventure: Being a Gypsy Salad: Some Incidents, Excitements and Impressions of Twelve Highly-Seasoned Years. 1923.
From Red Sea to Blue Nile: Abyssinian Adventures. 1925.
Gypsy in the Sun [autobiography]. 1944.

Forman, Gayle. (1970?– )
You Can’t Get There from Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World. 2005.
Fortescue, Lady Winifred. (1888–1951)
Perfume from Provence. 1935.
Sunset House.
There’s Rosemary, There’s Rue. 1939.
Trampled Lilies. 1941.

Foss, Rene.
Around the World in a Bad Mood!: Confessions of a Flight Attendant. 2002.

Fraser, Laura.
An Italian Affair.

French-Sheldon, Mary “May.” American. (1847–1936)
Sultan to Sultan: Adventures among the Masai and Other Tribes of East Africa. 1892.
About French-Sheldon:
White Queen: May French-Sheldon and the Imperial Origins of American Feminist Identity.
By Tracey Jean Boisseau. 2004.

Fountaine, Margaret. (1882–1940) Collected butterflies in 60 countries.
Love among the Butterflies. 1980.
Butterflies and Late Loves: Further Adventures of a Victorian Lady. 1986.
About Fountaine:
Wild and Fearless: The Life of Margaret Fountaine. By Peter Owen. 2006.

Funder, Anna.
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall.

Gable, Sally. (1939– )
Palladian Days: Finding a New Life in a Venetian Country House. Written with Carl I. Gable. 2005.

Gallmann, Kuki. Italian.
I Dreamed of Africa [Kenya]. 1992. Made into a 2000 movie starring Kim Basinger.

Gaunt, Mary Eliza Bakewell. Australian. (1861–1942)
Alone in West Africa. (fiction) 1912.
A Woman in China. 1914.
A Broken Journey. 1919.
Where the Twain Meet. 1922.
Reflections in Jamaica. 1932.

Gellhorn, Martha. American. (1908–1998)
What Mad Pursuit. 1934.
The Trouble I’ve Seen. 1936.
A Stricken Field [set in Prague]. 1940.
The Heart of Another [Spanish Civil War].
The Wine of Astonishment. 1948. Republished in 1989 as Point of No Return.
The Face of War. 1959.
The Lowest Trees Have Tops. 1967.
Travels with Myself and Another [Ernest Hemingway]: A Memoir. 1978.
The Weather in Africa. 1984.
The View from the Ground. 1988.
About Gellhorn:
Martha Gellhorn: A Life. By Caroline Moorhead. 2003.

Gelman, Rita Golden.
Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World. 2001.

Genia [one name]. American.
Single in Saudi. Nurse works two years in Saudi Arabia in 1970s.

Gershman, Suzy.
C’est la Vie: An American Conquers the City of Light, Begins a New Life, and Becomes—Zut Alors!a—Almost French. 2004.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. American. (1969– )
Broken Spears: A Maasai Journey. 2003.
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia. 2006.

Goa, Karen. New Zealander.
Bitten by the Bullet: Motorcycle Adventures in India. Written with Steve Kryzstyniak. 2002.

Gordon, Luci Duff,
Letters from Egypt, 1883–1865. 1865.

Gordon-Cumming, Constance. Scottish. (1837–1924)
At Home in Fiji. 1881.
A Lady’s Cruise on a French Man-of-War. 1882.
Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii. 1883.
In the Hebrides. 1883.
Granite Crags of California. 1888.
In the Himalayas and on the Indian Plains. 1884.
Notes on Ceylon. 1889.
Notes on China and its Missions. 1889.
Memories [autobiography]. 1904.

Gough, Laurie. Canadian. (1970?– )
Island of the Human Heart
Kiss the Sunset Pig.
Kite Strings of the Southern Cross: A Woman’s Travel Odyssey.

Gray, Patience
Honey from a Weed: Fasting and Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades and Apulia. 2001.

Gregory, Morna.
Toilets of the World. 2006.

Griest, Stephanie Elizondo.
Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana. 2004.

Grissman, Carla
Dinner of Herbs. 2001.

Hadley, Leila.
Give Me the World. 1958. Travels with her six-year-old son Kippy.

Hahn, Jennifer.
Spirited Waters: Soloing South through the Inside Passage. 2001.

Halliday, Ayun
No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late. 2003. Stephen Colbert liked it.
A Sarong in My Backpack: Adventures from Munich to Pushkar. 2006.

Harrison, Kathryn.
The Road to Santiago. Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. 2003.

Hawes, Annie.
Extra Virgin: A Young Girl Discovers the Italian Riviera Where Every Month Is Enchanted.

Henner, Eloise.
Letters from Afghanistan [when a teacher in the 1970s]. 2003.

Hobson, Charlotte.
Black Earth City: When Russian Ran Wild. 2003.

Hofmann, Corinne.
The White Masai. 2006.
Back from Africa.
Reunion in Barsaloi. 2006.

Holton, Patricia. British.
Mother without a Mask: A Westerner’s Story of Her Arab Family [in the UAE in the 1960s].

Hopkins, Anne.
Sticks & Wires & Cloth. Travels around U.S. in a biplane. 2003.

Hunt, Linda Lawrence.
Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk across Victorian America. Estby and her 18-year-old daughter walk from Spokane to New York City in 1896. 2003.

Hunt, Shally.
The Sea on Our Left. Couple travels throughout England, Scotland, and Wales. 2000.

Innes, Martha. British.
Getting to Manaña [life in southern Spain].

Irvine, Lucy. British. (1956– )
Castaway [in Papua New Guinea]. Made into a movie starring Oliver Reed in 1986.
Faraway.
Runaway [Solomon Islands].

Jacobs, Fay I.
As I Lay Frying: A Rehoboth Beach Memoir. 2004.

James, Kelly.
Dancing with the Witchdoctor: One Woman’s Stories of Mystery and Adventure in Africa. 2001.

James, Winifred Lewellin. Australian. (1876–1941)
The Mulberry Tree.1913.
A Woman in the Wilderness. 1915.
Out of the Shadows. 1924.
Gangways and Corridors. 1936.

Jamie, Kathleen. Scottish. (1962– )
The Autonomous Region: Poems and Photographs of Tibet.
Among Muslims: Everyday Life on the Frontiers of Pakistan. 2002.
Golden Peak: Travels in Northern Pakistan.
Findings. Coming in 2007.

Jayapal, Pramila.
Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland.

Johnson, Osa.
Four Years in Paradise [Kenya].

Jones, Ann.
Looking for Lovedu: A Woman’s Journey through Africa. 2002.

Jung, Anees. Indian.
Unveiling India.1987. Journalist returns to India after studying abroad.
Seven Sisters: Among the Women of South Asia. 1994.

Kelley, Susie. British.
Best Foot Forward: From La Rochelle to Lake Geneva—the Misadventures of an Englishwoman. 2003.
Two Steps Backward: The Misadventures of an Englishwoman in France. 2004.
A Perfect Circle: A 10,000-Kilometer Journey around France. 2006.

Kincaid, Jamaica.
Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya. 2005.

Kingsley, Mary Henrietta. British. (1862–1900)
(not to be confused with the American romance novelist Mary Kingsley)
The Development of Dodos. 1896.
Travels in West Africa. 1895.
About Kingsley:
Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa. A children’s book by Don Brown. 2000.
A Voyager Out: The Life of Mary Kingsley. By Katherine Frank. 2006.

Kirk, Martha. American.
Green Sands: My Five Years in the Saudi Desert. 1994.

Kirkland, Carolina.
Some African Highways. 1908.

Kistner, Alzada.
An Affair with Africa. 1960–1972 in Belgian Congo.

Kuegler, Sabine (1972?– )
Jungle Child [memoir of childhood in Papua New Guinea]. 2005.

Lamb, Christina.
Sewing Circles of Heart: A Personal Voyage through Afghanistan. 2002.
The Africa House: The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream. Stewart Gore Browne in northern Rhodesia in the 1900s. 2004.

Larkin, Emma.
Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Tea Shop(UK)
Finding George Orwell in Burma (US)

Lee, Elaine.
Go Girl! The Black Woman’s Book of Travel and Adventure.

Lee, Kathleen.
Before the Afterlife.

Lenard, Yvone.
The Magic of Provence: Pleasures of Southern France. 2000.

Lessing, Doris May Tayler. (Born in Iran 1919– )
Going Home. 1957.
African Stories. 1964.
African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe. 1992.

Li, Leslie.
Daughter of Heaven: A Memoir with Earthly Recipes. 2005.

Liftin, Hilary.
Dear Exile: The Story of a Friendship Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean. Letters between friends in Kenya and New York. 1999.

Livingston, Carol.
Gecko Tales: A Journey through Cambodia. 1997.

Loomis, Susan Herrmann.
On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town. 2001.

Lycett-Green, Candida. British. (1942– )
England: Travels through an Unwrecked Landscape (with Rudolph Steiner). 1996.
Over the Hills and Far Away. 2002.
The Dangerous Edge of Things. 2006.

Lyon, Nancy. American.
Scatter the Mud! [Irish slang for rough travel]: A Traveller’s Medley.

Macauley, Emilie Rose. British. (1881–1958)
The Towers of Trebizond [Turkey]. 1956.
The World My Wilderness. 1987.
About Macauley:
Rose Macauley. 1972. By Constance Babington Smith.
Rose Macauley: A Writer’s Life. 1991. By Jane Emery.

MacDonald, Sarah. Australian.
Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure.

Mahoney, Rosemary.
The Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground. 2003.

Maillart, Ella. Swiss (1903–1997)
Parmi le Jeunnesse Russe: De Moscou au Caucase. 1932.
Turkestan Solo: A Journey through Central Asia. 1934.
Forbidden Journey: From Peking to Cashmir. 1937.
The Cruel Way [through Afghanistan to Iran] 1947.
Gypsy Afloat. 1942.
Cruises and Caravans. 1950.
Ti-Puss (Maillart’s cat, set in south India]. 1950.
The Land of the Sherpas. 1951.

McNeil, Jean. Canadian. (1968– ) Writer for Rough Guides.
Hunting Down Home [fiction, set in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia]. 1999.
Nights in a Foreign Country.
Private View [about London].
Interpreter of Silences [Cape Breton]. 2006.

Maggio, Theresa. American.
Matanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily [tuna fishing]. 2001.
The Stone Boudoir: Travels through the Hidden Villages of Italy. 2002.

Mannin, Ethel Edith. British. (1900–1984)
South to Samarkand. 1936.
Connemara Journal. 1947.
Bavarian Story. 1948.
German Journey. 1948.
Jungle Journey: 7000 Miles through India and Pakistan. 1950.
Moroccan Mosaic. 1953.
Land of the Crested Lion: A Journey through Modern Burma. 1955.
The Country of the Sea: Some Wanderings in Brittany. 1957.
The Flowery Sword: Travels in Japan. 1960.
With Will Adams through Japan.1962.
A Lance for the Arabs: A Middle East Journey.1963.
Road to Beersheba. 1963.
Aspects of Egypt: Some Travels in the United Arab Republic. 1964.
Lovely Land: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.1965.
An American Journey. 1967.
Bitter Babylon.1968.
England at Large. 1970.
England My Adventure. 1972.
Mission to Beirut. 1973.
Stories from My Life. 1973.
An Italian Journey. 1974.
Confessions and Impressions [autobiography]. 1930.
Privileged Spectator: Autobiography. 1939.
Brief Voices: A Writer’s Story [autobiography]. 1959.
Sunset over Dartmoor: A Final Chapter of Autobiography. 1977.

Marble, Joan. American. (1923?– 2004)
Notes from an Italian Garden. 2001.
Notes from a Roman Terrace.

Markham, Beryl Clutterbuck. Kenyan. (1902–1986) First person to fly Atlantic east to west alone in 1936 (Lindbergh’s west-to-east flight was in 1927), Karin Blixen’s neighbor, WWTN author rumored to be written by her husband or Blixen
West with the Night. 1942.
About Markham:
Straight On Till Morning: The Biography of Beryl Markham. By Mary Lovell. 1987.
The Lives of Beryl Markham. By Errol Trzebinski. 1993.

Marsden, Kate. British. (1859–1931) Founded St. Francis Leprosy Guild.
Riding through Siberia: A Mounted Medical Mission in 1891. 2005.

Mayes, Frances. American. (1940– )
Under the Tuscan Sun. 1997. Made into a movie starring Diane Lane in 2003.
Bella Tuscany. 2000.
In Tuscany. 2000.
A Year in the World. 2006.

Mayo, C. M.
Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico.
Sky over El Nido.

McCarthy, Mary. American. (1912–1989)
Stones of Florence.1963.
Venice Observed.

Mead, Margaret. American. (1901–1978)
Coming of Age in Samoa. 1928.
Growing Up in New Guinea. 1930.
Letters from the Field 1925–1975. 2001.
New Lives for Old: Cultural Transformation in Manus [New Guinea], 1928–1953. 1956.
About Mead:
Margaret Mead and Samoa. By Derek Freeman. 1983.
Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture [Smithsonian Exhibition]

Mehta, Gita. Indian.
Karma Cola. 1979. A look at Westerners and Indians.

Meredith, Louisa Anne. Australian.
Some of My Bush Friends in Tasmania. 1860.
Over the Straits. 1861.
Tasmanian Friends and Foes, Feathered, Furred and Finned. 1880
Last Series, Bush Friends in Tasmania. 1891.

Miller, Judith.
God Has Ninety-Nine Names : Reporting from a Militant Middle East. 1997.

Mittelbach, Margaret.
Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger. Written with Michael Crewdson. 2005.

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley.
Letters of the Right Honorable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Written During Her Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa to Persons of Distinction, Men of Letters, &C. in Different Parts of Europe. 1762.
About Montagu:
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times. 1907.

Montgomery, Sy.
Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest.
The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans

Morrell, Abby Jane. (1809– )
Narrative of a Voyage to the Ethiopic and South Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Chinese Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean, in the Years 1829, 1830, 1831. 1833.

Morris, Holly.
Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for a New Kind of Heroine. 2005.

Morris, Jan (nee James Morris). American. (1926– )
The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country. 1985.
Hong Kong. 1990.
The World of Venice. 1991.
Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere. 2001.
A Writer’s House in Wales. 2001.
Over the Bridge: An Australian Journey.
The Oxford Book of Oxford. 2002.
Coast to Coast: A Journey through 1950s America. 2002.
The World: Life and Travel 1950–2000. 2005.
Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj. 2005.

Morris, Mary
Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Travelling Alone. 1998.

Mulder, Monique.
I’ve Been Here Far Too Long: Field Study Fiascoes and Expedition Disasters. 1996.

Muller, Karin. American.
Hitchhiking Vietnam: A Woman’s Solo Journey in an Elusive Land
Inca Road: A Woman’s Journey into an Ancient Empire
Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa .

Murphy, Dervla. Irish. (1931– )
Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle. 1965.
Tibetan Foothold. 1966.
The Waiting Land: A Spell in Nepal. 1967.
In Ethiopia with a Mule. 1968.
On a Shoestring to Coorg: An Experience of South India. 1969.
Where the Indus Is Young: A Winter in Baltistan. 1977.
A Place Apart. 1978.
Ireland, Orbus. 1985.
Eight Feet in the Andes: Travels with a Mule in Unknown Peru. 1986.
Tales from Two Cities: Travels of Another Sort. 1987.
Cameroon with Egbert. 1990.
Muddling through in Madagascar. 1991.
The Ukimwi Road: from Kenya to Zimbabwe. 1985.
Transylvania and Beyond. 1993.
Visiting Rwanda. 1998.
South from the Limpopo: Travels through South Africa. 1999.
One Foot in Laos. 2001.
Through the Embers of Chaos: Balkan Journeys. 2003.
Through Siberia by Accident. 2005.
Wheels within Wheels [autobiography]. 1979.

Murra, Jan. American.
CastOff: True Adventures and Ordeals of an American Family on a French Farm. 2001.

Murray, Amelia Matilda. (1795–1884)
Letters from the United States, Cuba, and Canada. 1856.

Nicholson, Eleanor.
In the Footsteps of the Camel: A Portrait of the Bedouins of Eastern Saudi Arabia in Mid Century. 1984.
Through the Lion Gate: An American Woman Challenges the Traditions of a Veiled Society and Discovers a Daughter. 2003.
About Nicholson:
Through the Lion Gate: How a Hollywood Spirit Discovered Saudi Arabia. By Al-Ayyam Al-Jamilah. 2004.

North, Marianne. (1830–1890)
Recollections of a Happy Life [in Africa], Being the Autobiography of Marianne North. 1893.

Orlean, Susan. American. (1955– )
Red Sox and Bluefish: And Other Things That Make New England New England. 1987.
My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere. 2004.

O’Shaughnessy, Edith. (1870–1939)
A Diplomat’s Wife in Mexico. 1916.
Diplomatic Days. 1917.
My Lorraine Journal [Alsace-Lorraine]. 1918.
Alsace in Rust and Gold. 1920.
Intimate Pages of Mexican History.
Other Ways and Other Flesh [Lichtenstein]. 1929.
Viennese Medley. 1927.

Osler, Mirabel. British.
The Elusive Truffle: Travels in Search of the Legendary Food of France

Padel, Ruth.
Tigers in Red Weather: A Quest for the Last Wild Tigers. 2006.

Paine, Caroline. (1820?–1890?)
Tent to Harem: Notes of an Oriental Trip [Egypt to Turkey, 1850–51]. 1859.

Paine, Sheila
The Afghan Amulet: Travels from the Hindu Kush. 2006.
The Golden Horde: From the Himalaya to the Mediterranean. 2006.

Peck, Annie Smith. American. (1850–1935)
The South American Tour. 1913.
Flying over South America: Twenty Thousand Miles by Air. 1932.
About Peck:
Annie Smith Peck: Queen of the Climbers. By Marilyn Mangus. 1997.

Pitt-Kethley, Fiona. British. (1954– )
Journeys to the Underworld. 1991.
The Pan Principle. 1994.
Red Light Districts of the World. 2000.

Ramsey, Alice Huyler. (1864–1933) First woman to drive across continental US.
Alice’s Drive.
About Ramsey:
Alice Ramsey’s Great Adventure. A children’s book by Don Brown. 2000.

Reichel, Ruth. American.
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table. 1998.
Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table [in New York, China, France, and L.A.]. 2001.

Rochefort, Harriet Welty. American.
French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French. 1998.

Roden, Claudia. Egyptian.
The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. 1968. Useful as reference for Middle Eastern culture.

Ross, Violet Martin. Irish. (1862–1933) Co-wrote with Edith Denone Somerville.
An Irish Cousin. 1889.
In the Vine Country. 1893.
Through Connemara in a Governess Cart. 1893.

Ruete, Emilie, Princess Salme of Zanzibar and Oman. Zanzibari. (1844–1924)
Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar. 1886, 1907.

Scroggins, Deborah.
Emma’s War: Love, Betrayal and Death in the Sudan. 2002. Nicole Kidman to star as Emma McCune in upcoming movie.

Shah, Saira . British.
Storyteller’s Daughter [British-Afghani woman travels in Afghanistan]. 2003.

Salak, Kira. American.
Four Corners: One Woman’s Solo Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea [in the steps of Ivan Champion]. 2001.
Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu [in the steps of Mungo Park]. 2004.

Savage, Barbara.
Miles from Nowhere: A Round-the-World Bicycle Adventure.

Seacole, Mary. Jamaican.
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands. 1857. Autobiography.

Seierstad, Asne. Norwegian (1970– )
The Bookseller of Kabul. 2003.
A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal. 2005.
With Their Backs to the World: Portraits from Serbia. 2006.

Settle, Mary Lee.
Turkish Reflections: A Biography of a Place. 1991.

Shaffer, Tanya.
Somebody’s Heart Is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa. 2003.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. British (1797–1851)
History of a Six-Weeks’ Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. 1817.
Rambles in Germany and Italy. 1844.

Sherwood, Jura Macle. American.
In the Shadow of the Mosque: Tales of Saudi Arabia. 2005.

Simeti, Mary Taylor. (1941- )
On Persephone’s Island: A Sicilian Journal. 1995.
Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-five Centuries of Sicilian Food.
Travels with a Medieval Queen. 2001.

Smith, Julia Llewell.
Traveling on the Edge: Journeys in the footsteps of Graham Greene. 2003.

Stablein, Marilyn.
Monkfish Memoirs #1: Sleeping in Caves: A Sixties Himalayan Memoir. 2003.

Stanhope, Lady Hester. British. (1776–1839)
Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope. 1845.
Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope. 1846.
About Stanhope:
Lady Hester Stanhope. By Virginia Childs. 1990.

Stark, Freya Madeleine. British. (1894–1993) Buried in Arabian robes in Asolo, Italy.
Alexander’s Path. 1990.
Baghdad Sketches [in 1920s]. 1996.
Rome on the Euphrates.
The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhremaut [Yemen]. 1936.
Letters from Syria. 1942.
Riding to the Tigris. 1959.
The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels [in 1930s]. 2001.
A Winter in Arabia. 2002.
About Stark:
Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark. By Jane Fletcher Geniesse.1999.

Steinbach, Alice. American.
Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman. 2000.
Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman. 2004.

Stevenson, Helen
Instructions for Visitors [in France]: Life and Love in a French Town.

Stopes, Marie Carmichael. British. (1880–1958) Founded Mothers’ Clinic for Birth Control.
A Journal from Japan: A Daily Record of Life as Seen by a Scientist. 1910.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. American. (1811–1896)
Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. 1854.

Strong, Anna Louise. American. (1885–1970) Supported communist movements worldwide.
The Road to the Grey Pamir [present-day Tadjikistan]
Inside North Korea: An Eyewitness Account
Lithuania’s New Way . . . and many other reports on conditions in communist societies
About Strong:
Right in Her Soul: The Life of Anna Louise Strong. By Tracy Strong and Helene Keyssar. 1983.

Tattlin, Isadora.
Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana. 2003.

Thomas, Rosie.
Border Crossing on the Road from Peking. 1999.

Thompson, Joyce.
Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu: A Woman’s Adventurous Search for Family, Spirit, and Love. 2003.

Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland. (1802–1899)
Pearls and Pebbles; or, Notes of an Old Naturalist. 1894.

Tree, Isabella. British. (1964– )
The Bird Man: The Extraordinary Story of John Gould. 1991.
Islands in the Clouds: Travels in the Highlands of New Guinea
Sliced Iguana: Travels in Mexico. 2001.

Tristan, Flora. (1803–1844)
Mémoires et pérégrinations d’une paria. 1838.

Turnbull, Sarah. Australian.
Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris. 2004.

Vanderhoof, Ann.
An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude. 2004.

Von Arnim, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth and Her German Garden.
The Solitary Summer.

Warmbrunn, Erika.
Where the Pavement Ends: One woman’s Bicycle Trip through Mongolia, China & Vietnam. 2001.

Watkins Nan.
East toward Dawn: A Woman’s Solo Journey around the World. 2002.

Waugh, Louisa.
Hearing Birds Fly: A Year in a Mongolian Village. 2003.
Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking and Resistance. 2006.

Wearing, Alison. Canadian. (1967– )
Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey [with gay man posing as honeymooners]. 2001.

Weideger, Paula. American.
Venetian Dreaming. 2002.

West, Rebecca. [pen name (from an Ibsen play) of Cicily Isabel Fairfield Andrews] British.
(1892–1983)
Survivors in Mexico. 2003.
The Sentinel.
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon [about Serbia]. 1942.
A Train of Powder [Nurnberg Nazi trials]. 1955.
The Birds Fall Down [Russian Revolution]. 1966.
About West:
H.G. Wells and Rebecca West. By G.N. Ray. 1974.
Rebecca Wes. By Motley F. Deakinn. 1980.
Rebecca West. By V. Glendinning. 1987.
Rebecca West: A Life. By Carl E. Rollyson. 1996.
Travel Writing as Autobiography: Rebecca West’s Journey of Self-Discovery. By Vesna Goldworthy. 2000.
Paradoxical Feminism: The Novels of Rebecca West. By Ann V. Norton. 2000.
Rebecca West: Heroism, Rebellion, and the Female Epic. By Bernard Schweizer. 2002.

Wheeler, Sara
Travels in a Thin Country: Journey through Chile. 1995.
Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica. 1997.
Also:
Cherry: A Life of Cherry Apsley-Garrard [of Scott’s Antarctic expedition]. 2005.
Too Close to the Sun: The Life and Times of Denys Fynch Hatton. 2006.

Wilde-Menozzi, Walli.
Mother Tongue: An American Life in Italy.

Wong, Jan. Canadian. (1953– )
Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now. 1997.
Jan Wong’s China. 2000.

Woolson, Constance Fenimore. American. (1840–1894)
Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches. 1875.
Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches. 1880.
The Front Yard and Other Italian Stories. 1895.
Cairo in 1890. 1917

Workman, Fanny Bullock. (1859–1925)
Algerian Memories: A Bicycle Tour Over the Atlas to the Sahara. 1895.
Through Town and Jungle: Fourteen Thousand Miles A-Wheel among the Temples and People of the Indian Plain. 1904.
Two Summers in the Ice-Wilds of Eastern Karakoram: the Exploration of Nineteen Hundred Square Miles of Mountain and Glacier. 1917.
The Ice World of Himalaya: the Peaks and Passes of Ladahk, Nubra Suru and Baltistan. 1994.

Wright, Irene Aloha. American. (1879–1953?)
English Voyages to the Spanish Main, Volumes 1–3.
Cuba. 1910.

Wright, Lili.
Learning to Float: The Journey of a Woman, a Dog, and Just Enough Men [Maine to Key West]. 2002.

Zeppa, Jamie. Canadian. (1964– )
Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan. 1999.