Well, that's over.  From the front flap of the book:

Prompted to read a book translated into English from each of the world's 195 UN-recognized countries (plus Taiwan and one extra), Ann sought out classics, folktales, current favorites and commercial triumphs, novels, short stories, memoirs, and countless mixtures of all these things.

The world between two covers, the world to which Ann introduces us with affection and no small measure of wit, is a world rich in the kind of narratives that engage us passionately: we meet an irreverent junk food–obsessed heroine in Kuwait, an explorer from Togo who spent years among the Inuit in Greenland, and a former child circus performer of Roma background seeking sanctuary in Switzerland. 

I was excited to read this book because I was looking forward to hearing about Morgan's experiences sourcing native literature from each country and her thoughts about what she read.  After all, isn't that what the title and flap seem to be offering?

Unfortunately, that's not what I got.  What I got was a dissertation on reading globally, writing for a global audience and a whole lot of theorising about imperialism, racism, war and how they relate to writing and publishing.  The only time Morgan mentions her experiences with sourcing and reading literature from every UN recognized country at all in this book is when she's using them as citations to support the idea she's espousing at that moment.  As to her thoughts about what she read - they're almost non-existent until nearly the end when she discusses her feelings about the perceptions of non-Europeans/North Americans of the British and the Yanks.

I'd have given this book 1 star, but the book does have merit; it's thoughtful, insightful, and well-written.  If this is what you're looking for, definitely check out this book.  But this wasn't what I was looking for; I was looking for what was advertised on the packet and since I didn't get that my rating is lower than the book objectively deserves.

So whose story was I following, then?  Which reading of the world had produced the list of 195 sovereign states - with its single addition of Kosovo to the list of UN-recognised nations - that I was using as the basis for my project?  where did it come from, this strange register of country names, so ubiquitous that, in spite of all my research into the fraught question of nationhood, I had blithely taken as  universal yardstick?

 

I retraced my virtual steps.  [...] So categorical and universal did [the list] appear to be, that it was almost as though some independent, pan-global body had debated the issues and reached an official consensus, placing it on a par with such universal truths as death, or toast always landing butter-side-down.

 

And then in amongst the landslide of parroted and regurgitated information, [...], I found an innocuous-looking list of 'Independent States in the World' on the US government website. [...] The truth hit me: despite all my efforts to establish an objective list of countries at the start of the year, I had succumbed to that  most twenty-first century of maladies, data infecta. [...] I had been reading the American world all along.

 

Oh give me a damn break.  Because you used a list whose source came from an American government website all the foreign literature you've read so far (6 months worth according to the author) is now infected and somehow less foreign?  Less meaningful?  As an American I've always been aware of our influence to a degree, but I have to admit I had no idea that by just compiling a list of Independent nations we immediately voided the legitimacy of said nations.  Who knew that simply publishing a list was all you needed to own the world?  Impressive.

My sarcasm sounds less imperialistic and her dismay even sillier ("After the initial phase of fist-biting and forehead-slapping over my own stupidity subsided, I started to think about what to do."), when you read her solution to this "problem":

After a couple of sleepless nights, and a weekend in which not much was consumed other than my own fingernails as I sat squinting at a range of involved and contradictory articles about sovereignty around the world, the solution came to me.

 

[...] my new yardstick was to be UN recognition.

 

The result of this world changing decision?

[...] then shifting from an American to a global perspective could simply be a matter of bringing in Palestine to replace the only country on the list of 196 with no degree of UN recognition at any time in its history: Kosovo.

 

Wow.  Glad you got that sorted out and your conscience can rest easier knowing that your project was sanitised of the American world view by the simple expedient of swapping Kosovo for Palestine.  While I'm sure Palestinians are relieved at your  recognition, I'm guessing Kosovo is less than thrilled.

First world tempest in a tea-pot.

The postman got a break from me this week, but one of my locals and my library, did not.

Between my library system getting a few upgrades and my taking the time to dig around their website a bit more, I'm figuring out how to get more out of it than I have up until now. They have a user list function, so I've been creating a list of books as I come across interesting titles.  As you can see, it's working well so far.

My library haul includes Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.  This is going to be my Science Fiction read for Summer Book Bingo.  I dislike dystopian settings, but I dislike space and AI fiction more - and I love Fforde's other work so I'm totally willing to give this a go for the humour alone.

I also picked up a couple of titles I found in an article on LitHub that recommended books about books: A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan  and The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly.  Sitting next to The Book of Lost Books was Book by John Agard, which looked cute and short.

The library haul was rounded off with Picnic in Provence by Elizabeth Bard  and Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini and Rebecca Paley  because I've seen so many good things said about both here on BookLikes.

Two of the three bookshop buys were impulses from shelf browsing; I had just read about The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe by Kelli Ann Morgan  mere hours before seeing it on the shelves, so that felt like karma.  The Clasp by Sloane Crosley looks funny and I've read her essays - they're hysterical.  The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman  because it's birds, science and look at that cover!

Total new books: 9

Total books read this week: 9

Total physical books on TBR: 227

I hope everyone has had or is having (depending on which side of the dateline you're on) a fabulous weekend!