eve_prime | Sun Books 2007

I'm pretty late on planning this year's outdoor reading, but I still have two months for it. In the summer, I go for books on the Mediterranean, Central and South Asia, and Africa, especially travel narratives and history. It's a sensory engagement thing. The list is just a guideline - last year I ended up reading a whole lot of India books, and the previous year it was novels by Amin Maalouf. Anyway:

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, and sequels, if I like them (edit - loved it, must read sequels)

Road Through Kurdistan by A.M. Hamilton

Persian Pictures by Gertrude Bell

The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes

Forgotten Queens of Islam by Fatima Mernissi (reread)

Journey to the Source of the Nile by Christopher Ondaatje (reread)

From Stonehenge to Samarkand: An anthology of archaeological travel writing

Maybe Ajax by Sophocles

Maybe one of Arnold's old books about Indian history, perhaps Prehistoric Ancient and Hindu India by R.D. Banerji (1934)

Maybe The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay (reread)

Maybe Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World by Stephen O'Shea

Black Sea by Neal Ascherson (edit - added)

If you have any suggestions in this vein, I'd be interested!