This is going to be part of elf-house dobby's birthday surprise this year!! I am so pleased that this book is on her wishlist as the author grew up in Australia and it seems perfect to be able to send it travelling from this part of the world ..... :)

reading notes

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book is travelling .......... !!

It's karma! I am so loving the fact that this book is travelling to me by way of my very own pen pal! Carole you are truly a kindred spirit and I am so pleased that chich picked us to be Birthday Buddies, it has been so much fun and I can't thank you enough for all your support over recent months. We've emailed and giggled over our shared interests so many times - four kids, giant spiders, books, Scrabble .... here's to many more years of nattering through the ether!

thanks so much for sending me this book, not to mention all the other goodies - I've got my cardi on!

I loved this! No wonder Geraldine Brooks' novels are so interesting - her journey through life has been too, from when she was a little girl growing up in Sydney in the 1960's, to meeting her pen-pals 20 years later. She's a similar age to me and I can identify with having pen-pals and wanting to see the big wide world out there. It's so easy to make friends around the globe nowadays, especially with sites like BookCrossing, but back then it was such a thrill to get a letter in the post with a foreign stamp, and maybe a foreign coin or something - so exiting! It's still thrilling to get pm's and emails and surprises in the post! When I was four I made my first visit to Canada and that sparked off a life long interest in travelling the world, hence me being cabin crew/flight attendant for 22 years. It sounds ridiculous but reading the book I remember being in so many places around the world that she was in at the same time (well in the same year). Wouldn't it be funny if we had crossed paths? Or if I'd served her on a flight?! Small world eh?

What I'd like to do now with this book is send it off on a journey around the world in the form of a BookRing, but instead of it ending up back with me, I'd like it to go back to Carole888, my modern day pen-pal from Down Under!



Amazon Editorial Review:
As a young girl in a working-class neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, Geraldine Brooks longed to discover the places where history happens and culture comes from, so she enlisted pen pals who offered her a window on adolescence in the Middle East, Europe, and America. Twenty years later Brooks, an award-winning foreign correspondent, embarked on a human treasure hunt to find her pen friends. She found men and women whose lives had been shaped by war and hatred, by fame and notoriety, and by the ravages of mental illness. Intimate, moving, and often humorous, Foreign Correspondence speaks to the unquiet heart of every girl who has ever yearned to become a woman of the world.

Oh my goodness!!!! Wow,....house-elfdobby .... Wow!! You read it so quickly!! And what a surprise it's been to read about your plans for the book. How wonderful! I am SO excited! This is just so special! (....jumping up and down and clapping hands.....) Thank you so much for the wonderful, wonderful surprise-journal-entry .... Yes, we have had so much fun. I've often thought that some of our emails would make good material for a book .... only you would have to write the book....for I am better at reading...... and yes, here's to more great times ahead!! ☺

(ps I am so happy you enjoyed the book ..... I hope everyone else does too.... xx)

Rightio everyone, thanks for signing up! Usual BookRing rules apply:

1. Please journal the book when you receive it, and pm next in line for address to save delays later.
2. Then please journal it again when you've read it.
3. Finally, please journal it when you've posted it.

That way I can keep track of where it's going. I'll pop a list on my bookshelf, so you can easily see who is next on the list to send it to. Hope the shipping order suits you all, let me know if not and hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did. If you have any problems, or change your mind, or life happens please pm me and let me know and I'll try to sort it out. Really want the Ring to be successful so that it ends up back with Carole888. Oh and I thought it would be nice to add that if you can possibly read it within 30 days and then pass it on, that would be great then the others won't have to wait toooooo long.

Breeze553
Nu-Knees (UK)<------- book is here 29 July 2009
WelshHelen UK) <------- book on way to Anglers Rest 19 October 2009
AnglersRest (UK) <-------- Book is here November 2009 - book still here April 2010 - not sure what is happning with it ------- still here June 10th 2010 - STALLED
lauraloo29 (Canada)
glade1 (USA)
istop4books (USA)
Secretariat (USA) <---------- please skip, Secretariat has now got her own copy
klaradyn (SA)
Carole888 (Australia) - Ring ends here

Thanks everyone, look forward to seeing your Journal Entries and what you think of the book!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

At last! I've finally made it to the Post Office to get this book on it's way to Breeze553! Hope you all enjoy it when it comes to you - look forward to reading your Journal Entries! xxx

I received the book today! It's very nice of you to send a postcard showing the place where the book started its journey. Looks like a very pleasant village :) Well, I'm going to start reading the book right away!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sorry for taking so long to send the book. I've been busy with exams and university applications...

I loved Foreign Correspondence and I admire what Geraldine Brooks done in her life. It also opened my eyes to a great way to meet people from different places of the world and get to know other cultures which I find really interesting. So now I would like to find my own pen pals as well :)

Thank you so much house-elfdobby for sending the book!

It's now on its way to Nu-Knees.

Thank you, Breeze553 - Foreign Correspondence has now arrived safely in Knaresborough
Thank you, house-elfdobby, for organising this ring
And thank you, Carole888, for registering this book and setting it free in the first place!

When I chose my Top 20 Favourite Books Ever for the BookCrossing Survey last year, I only mentioned two authors twice: Jane Austen for Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion and Geraldine Brooks for Year of Wonders and People of the Book. I also loved March, a vast improvement on the soppy/preachy Little Women - although I realise it's not a good idea to admit that too loudly in some places.... (grin!) I've had Nine Parts of Desire on my Wish List for ages but hadn't even heard of this one until h-ed offered her ring.

All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that I'm really looking forward to reading this, thank you very much!

I enjoyed that - but I don't really know how to express my enjoyment. It was good, it was interesting, it was entertaining, it was informative, it was well-written, it was full of love, it was.... well, all sorts of things, really!

I'm grateful for the chance to read it, thank you!

I probably ought to add that I made several attempts at penpalship as a child/teenager but never got beyond a few hesitant introductory letters before one or other of us gave up on the idea. The Wonderful World of BookCrossing with its Forum posts, Journal Entries and the opportunities to share Private Messages with BookLovers around the globe has more than filled that gap in my experience :-) I love you all!

I have WelshHelen's address and will get it posted off to her soon, probably tomorrow.

In the hands of the Royal Mail and heading for WelshHelen, second class!
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I've since read and enjoyed another of Geraldine Brooks' non-fictions, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women.

For the first time in weeks I checked my parcel box and found three rings books in there - oops! Sorry for the delay and for any worry I caused. This is the second of the three and I hope to get it read in the next few of weeks.

First of all, a huge apology for keeping the book for so long but RL is a bit stressful at the moment.

As for the book, it brought back many happy memories of writing to my own penpals, trying to buy interesting gifts for them and receiving lovely things in the post - I remember a hand-painted wooden box, in particular, though I have no idea where it is now :-(

I'm shamelessly going to copy and paste a line from Nu-Knees' post as it sums up perfectly what I think of the book - "It was good, it was interesting, it was entertaining, it was informative, it was well-written, it was full of love, it was.... well, all sorts of things, really!" I particularly enjoy Brooks' writing style, very easy and very evocative.

Thanks for sharing house-elfdobby and Carole888, the book will be moving on to AnglersRest in the next few days, though I'm a bit wary with a postal strike hanging over our heads :-(

Posted to AnglersRest today, 1st class.

Arrived this morning a recent casualty of the postal strike. Should be read and parcelled up for onward travel later this week. Thanks for sending on to me.

This was a lovely book and I managed to devour within a few days. I guess the genealogist in me found the concept of trying to find her old penpals interesting & appealing, and I found her journey intersting. Likwise I spent sometime in Australia and made some great friends, most of whom I still keep in contact with, regardless of email we still put pen to paper. I love recieving letters with overseas stamps on!Will PM lauraloo29 and hopefully this will be off to Canada this week. Thanks for sharing.

Just wanted to say thank you to all the readers so far for keeping this lovely book going - I've really enjoyed reading your journal entries on it and I'm sure Carole888 has too. Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a great 2010!