Interesting vote this month as Sexographies (view on Amazon) ended up being one of the most polarizing books we’ve ever had with a large group of you loving the idea of reading it & an equal-sized group hating the premise. It seems like an interesting book to me so even though it didn’t win, I plan on reading it. If anyone else ends up reading it too, we can always have a separate discussion thread about it. (I’ll probably post about it at some point. But if someone gets to it sooner than I, they’re welcome to post their thoughts in the group & then I’ll join in.)
Before we get to the book which actually won the vote, I wanted to share a really interesting & sometimes heart-stopping video I stumbled on—an episode of the BBC’s Worlds Most Dangerous Roads which showcases a historic journey of 1,863 miles (3,000 km) across Peru.
Adventurer Ben Fogle & comedian Hugh Dennis drive from the high atop the Peruvian Andes to the depths of the Amazon rainforest through to a giant mud-filled canyon & ultimately the center of Peru.
The episode is exciting & shows quite a bit of Peru before Ben & Hugh meet members of the Asháninka tribe at the literal end of the road.
If you’re looking for a fun, rollercoaster ride of a video & also want to see some amazing Peruvian scenery, this episode of Dangerous Roads is free on US Amazon Prime.
BUT WHAT BOOK DID THE GROUP PICK TO READ NEXT?
Well, speaking of the Peruvian Andes…
Written by the 2010 Nobel Prize winning author & “Peru's best novelist—one of the world's best.” —The New Yorker
In a remote Andean village, three men have disappeared. Peruvian Army corporal Lituma and his deputy Tomás have been dispatched to investigate, and to guard the town from the Shining Path guerrillas they assume are responsible. But the townspeople do not trust the officers, and they have their own ideas about what forces claimed the bodies of the missing men. To pass the time, and to cope with their homesickness, Tomás entertains Lituma nightly with the sensuous, surreal tale of his precarious love affair with a wayward prostitute. His stories are intermingled with the ongoing mystery of the missing men.
Death in the Andes is an atmospheric suspense story and a political allegory, a panoramic view of contemporary Peru from one of the world's great novelists.
“Remarkable . . . a fantastically picturesque landscape of Indians and llamas, snowy peaks, hunger, and violence.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Meticulously realistic descriptions of this high, unforgiving landscape and the haunted people who perch there . . . merge into a surreal portrait of a place both specific and universal.” —Time
(A special thank you to book club member, Elke Richelsen for the suggestion.)
View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book
Find the book interesting?
Join our online book club in Facebook if you haven’t already. You can post on any bookish topic including, but not limited to, global reads. And at the end of November, we’ll be discussing the Peruvian book above in an online event for 5 days which you can pop in & out of at any time.
Happy reading!