In Xanadu: A Quest – William Dalrymple

In Xanadu turned out to be an excellent choice as my sole LHR departure lounge purchase. Having finished In the Company of Cheerful Ladies in Peshawar, I moved on to William Dalrymple’s account of his journey from Cambridge to China, accompanied by the no nonsense Laura as far as Lahore, and subsequently by ex-girlfriend Louisa.

Following as far as possible in the footsteps of Marco Polo, William and his ladies travelled from Cyprus to Israel to Syria to Turkey to Iran to Pakistan and thence across China to Beijing. Fascinating, with history and architecture interwoven with pen portraits of people they meet en route – and interesting to see/hear the young William Dalrymple. My undergraduate summer holiday activities were nowhere near so adventurous.

Buy it: Amazon link

Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China – Rachel DeWoskin

Foreign Babes in Beijing portrays Rachel DeWoskin’s time in 1990s Beijing, working both as an actress on a soap and in the equally superficial world (some would say) of PR. The people this American graduate meets and befriends over the years she spends in China never really come alive, and I got the end of the book feeling that DeWoskin hadn’t really managed to do them justice. On the other hand, she provides an amusing insider (of sorts)’s view of the workings of Chinese TV production, and her early struggles to settle and succeed in a country and a culture very different from her own.

Buy it: Amazon link

Tears of the Giraffe – Alexander McCall Smith

Luckily Katie had brought in Tears of the Giraffe as well as No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency for me to borrow, so I was able to carry on reading about the sleuthing and romancing of Mma. Ramotswe, Bostwana’s only lady private eye. In this, the second novel in the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith again creates a cast and a plot that balance the good and the bad of Botswana – ranging from fostering orphans to solving the long-ago murder of an idealistic young american to out-witting lazy and dishonest house-keepers.

Precious Ramotswe is a good woman, and in Alexander McCall Smith’s novels (so far at least) decency, kindness, optimism and common sense win out.

Buy it: Amazon link

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith

Lent to me by Katie Carter, I raced through No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in one cool, wet Bank Holiday Saturday spent in the caravan at Walton-on-the-Naze.

Like many others (I’m sure), I’d picked up the first of Alexander McCall Smith’s tales featuring (“starring”, surely?) Precious Ramotswe many a time, in the library, at the airport, in bookshops… but I’d never actually bought it – the blurb just didn’t sound enticing enough.

My mistake! Yes, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency reads like a gentle, calm tale, but it’s one that carries many a sting: death and abandonment, murder and witchcraft; but Mma. Ramotswe and her merry men and women steer a safe, thoughtful and overwhelmingly positive path through it all to the happiness and contentment you can’t but help feel they deserve.

A modern day Aesop’s fable – I’m amazed this book hasn’t got more Amazon reviews.

Buy it: Amazon link

To Catch a Tartar: Notes from the Caucasus – Chris Bird

Another great book about another culture and another part of the world. Chris Bird’s book tells the twin tales of his family’s experiences of living in the Caucasus and his experiences reporting on current affairs in the region over the course of 3 (4?) years at the end of the 20th century – notably the various wars in and about Chechnya. The personal descriptions are supplemented by Chris Bird’s own account and analysis of the region’s history, and the complexities of Chechnya, the Caucasus, and indeed many of the republics that formed the USSR, Russia in particular.

I’d love to know how Chris Bird is getting on with his career change – the book says that he was studying medicine in London at the time of publication.

Buy it: Amazon link