I am really excited for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt, because it’s about travelling – one of my favourite things to do apart from reading and drinking tea! Specifically, this week is all about books about or set in places on your bucket list. I tried to pick books that don’t overlap with from 10 Books for Armchair Travellers prompt that we did back in February, although there are a couple of repeats.

Since I don’t have that many books that I’ve read from countries on my bucket list (far more from countries I’ve already been to), I decided to do 5 books I’ve read and 5 books* I haven’t read. I also tried to select quite a few books by authors from the country as well as books set in the country.

*It ended up being slightly more than five since for some countries I have multiple choices.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at where my bucket list will be taking me!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme originally created by The Broke and the Bookish and currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Titles link to Bookshop.org UK and are affiliate links.

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Sweden: My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman (translated by Henning Koch)

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other. (2013 | Literary/Contemporary Fiction | The Storygraph)

This was my first and so far favourite Fredrik Backman book, although it’s been about a decade since I read it, so my memory is pretty hazy.

Technically I’ve been to Sweden – I went to Copenhagen (Denmark) a couple of years ago and took a day trip across the sea to Malmö (Sweden), but I was only there a couple days and I haven’t really properly visited the country, so this is definitely still on my bucket list.

Malaysia: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

A newly-retired judge returns to the Malaysian Highlands where she had spent some time in her young adulthood following the end of World War II. Faced with impending memory loss, she begins to recall and record her time as an apprentice in the Garden of Evening Mists. (2011 | Literary/Historical Fiction | The Storygraph)

This was one of the three five-star reads I had last year and it is also the book that put Malaysia on my bucket list – but specifically the highlands, not the beach resorts.

Kenya: The Perfect Nine by Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o

The founding story of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya, from a strongly feminist perspective. A verse narrative blending folklore, mythology, adventure and allegory chronicling the efforts of the Gĩkũyũ founders to find partners for their ten beautiful daughters and the challenges they set for the 99 suitors who seek their hands in marriage. (2018 | Literary | The Storygraph)

I found this book really interesting when I read it, although I don’t think I enjoyed it hugely. I thought it had enough merit to keep around on my bookshelves, though, so I might revisit in future. Either way, it’s a really interesting insight into the culture of the Gĩkũyũ people.

Kenya is on my list to see the Great Migration, although whether that will ever happen depends on if I ever have that kind of money.

Italy: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

Four unhappy women escape their stifling lives in England to escape to a small castle in Italy for a month. The lulling warmth of the sun and the beauty of the gardens slowly peels back the women’s outer shells, leading them through disquiet and discomfort to harmony. (1922 | Literary Fiction | The Storygraph)

This is probably the only book on this list that isn’t by an author from the country in question. It’s also the only country on this list that I’ve actually been to multiple times (like… more than three or four times, I think, although quite a few were when I was very little). However, I have yet to go to the Italian Riviera region and I really want to, especially after reading The Enchanted April.

China: Ghost Music by An Yu

For three years Song Yan has filled her Beijing apartment with the tentative notes of her young piano students. She finds herself adrift, but her husband seems reluctant for a child of their own. It takes the arrival of her mother-in-law, together with sudden strange parcels and stranger dreams, to shake Song Yan from her malaise. Summoned to an ancient house in the heart of the city, can she find the notes she needs to make sense of the pain and beauty in her life? (2022 | Literary | The Storygraph)

Ghost Music is a slightly unsettling, extremely atmospheric book about feeling lost and finding one’s spark in life.

I’ve been to Taiwan and Hong Kong, but I haven’t been to Mainland China yet, so it’s the last major East Asian country I’ve yet to go to. They recently removed the visa requirement for UK passport holders so I’d really like to make the most of it but I have no money… we’ll have to see whether they waive the visa requirement long enough for me to find a full time job and save up some money post-master’s degree!

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Now we’re getting into the books that I haven’t read.

Norway: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas (translated by Elizabeth Rokkan)

The schoolchildren call it the Ice Palace: a frozen waterfall in the Norwegian fjords transformed into a fantastic structure of translucent walls, sparkling towers and secret chambers. It fascinates two young girls, lonely Unn and lively Siss, who strike up an intense friendship. When Unn decides to explore the Ice Palace alone and doesn’t return, Siss must try to cope with the loss of her friend without succumbing to a frozen world of her own making. (1963 | Literary/Classic | The Storygraph)

I really want to go to the Norwegian fjords and up north to see the northern lights, so what’s more appropriate than a book set in the fjords.

Croatia: A Muzzle for Witches by Dubravka Ugrešić (translated by Ellen Elias-Bursač)

On its surface, the book is a conversation with the literary critic Merima Omeragić, covering topics such as “Women and the Male Perspective,” “The Culture of (Self)Harm,” and “The Melancholy of Vanishing.” But the book is more than a simple interview: It’s a roadmap of the literary world, exploring the past century and all of its violence and turmoil–especially in Yugoslavia, Ugresic’s birth country–and providing a direction for the future of feminist writing.  (2021 | Essays | The Storygraph)

Croatia has been on my radar for a few years now as it is a relative accessible/inexpensive place for me to travel to. If I go, though, I don’t want to stay on the beach – I’ve seen some truly incredible photos of the country and I want to explore everything.

Mongolia: Suncranes and Other Stories (translated by Simon Wickhamsmith)

Spanning the years following the socialist revolution of 1921 through the early twenty-first century, these stories from the country’s most highly regarded prose writers show how Mongolian culture has forged links between the traditional and the modern. They depict the drama of a nomadic population struggling to understand a new approach to life imposed by a foreign power while at the same time benefiting from reforms, whether in the capital city Ulaanbaatar or on the steppe.  (Translation: 2021 | Literary/Short Stories | The Storygraph)

I’ve become really fascinated with Mongolia in recent years, although I still feel like I know so little. Alongside a couple of history books I’ve acquired, I think this short story collection could provide a really interesting insight into contemporary society.

Vietnam: The Song of Kièu by Nguyēn Du (translated by Tim Allen)

Considered the greatest literary achievement in Vietnamese,  The Song of Kieu tells the story of the beautiful Vuong Thuy Kieu, who agrees to a financially profitable marriage in order to save her family from ruinous debts, but is tricked into working in a brothel. Her tragic life involves jealous wives, slavery, war, poverty, and time as a nun. Adapted from a 17th-century Chinese novel, Jin Yun Qiao, Nguyen Du upended the plot’s traditional love story by conveying the social and political upheavals at the end of the 18th century in Vietnam. (1820 | Verse/Classic | The Storygraph)

My research interest is related to premodern East Asian women’s writings, and since Vietnam was also heavily influenced by the East Asian cultural sphere in the premodern period, this book becomes an easy addition to my TBR list.

Vietnam has been on my bucket list for a while, especially for the premodern sites and some of the countryside landscape – I actually came across some photos of Ninh Binh on Instagram and have wanted to go ever since!

Tanzania: Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi (translated by Jay Boss Rubin)

Teenage Rosa lives with her parents and four younger sisters in a village on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, where she attends the local school and helps out on the family farm. Life would be relatively peaceful if it weren’t for Rosa’s father, who drinks to oblivion and abuses his wife and daughters. Initially relieved to be admitted into a residential school on the mainland, Rosa soon discovers that she’s ill prepared for life outside her village. As she becomes accustomed to the attention–and manipulations–of men, she begins to understand her sexuality as a weapon. But this understanding, born of the need to survive in a world of double standards, comes with a price. (1971 | Literary/Classic | The Storygraph)

As someone who loves mountains and lakes, Tanzania seems like a great destination even outside of seeing the Serengeti. (Not that I think I’ll be doing any multi-day mountain hikes anytime soon…)

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Where do you want to go next (either in real life or through the pages of your next read)?

Keira x