Quest: Voice of the World

Books are a great way to travel the world, and it's much cheaper and time efficient than physically departing on a voyage. Countless cultures and subcultures exist today. Alas, a single lifetime is simply not enough time to see them all. But read enough and perhaps you will get one of the best multicultural experiences anyone could ever dream of. It is a delight to listen to such well traveled readers, for they have the voice of the world.

Add books you've read that helped you discover and learn more about modern (last 100 years) real world societies, countries or cultures (the books may be fiction or nonfiction).

5 occurrences

1984

by George Orwell

DystopiaLiterary Fiction

292 PagesJune 1949

Read by 60 people

3 occurrences

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

by Trevor Noah

HumorMemoir & Autobiography

288 PagesNovember 2016

Read by 8 people

3 occurrences

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

Historical Fiction

592 PagesSeptember 2005

Read by 40 people

3 occurrences

The Diary of a Young Girl

by Anne Frank

Memoir & AutobiographyHistory

276 PagesJune 1947

Read by 33 people

2 occurrences

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Aristotle and Dante #1

RomanceContemporary Fiction

359 PagesFebruary 2012

Read by 15 people

2 occurrences

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

Historical FictionDramaContemporary Fiction

340 PagesMay 2003

Read by 23 people

2 occurrences

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

by Michael Lewis

Historical FictionEconomicsPolitics

270 PagesMarch 2010

Read by 4 people

2 occurrences

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

by Kate Moore

BiographyScienceHistory

477 PagesJune 2016

Read by 9 people

2 occurrences

Steve Jobs

by Walter Isaacson

Memoir & Autobiography

472 PagesOctober 2011

Read by 5 people

2 occurrences

The God of Small Things

by Arundhati Roy

Historical FictionContemporary FictionLiterary Fiction

340 PagesApril 1997

Read by 8 people

2 occurrences

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

by Ben Horowitz

BusinessMemoir & Autobiography

304 PagesOctober 2014

Read by 2 people

2 occurrences

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

by Bryan Stevenson

Memoir & AutobiographyHistoryPolitics

352 PagesOctober 2014

100

Read by 5 people

2 occurrences

The Library Book

by Susan Orlean

MysteryHistorical FictionTrue Crime

317 PagesOctober 2018

Read by 6 people

2 occurrences

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

DystopiaPhilosophyFantasy

220 PagesJanuary 1932

Read by 25 people

2 occurrences

Are Prisons Obsolete?

by Angela Y. Davis

HistoryPoliticsPhilosophy

128 PagesJanuary 2003

Read by 4 people

2 occurrences

I'm Glad My Mom Died

by Jennette McCurdy

Memoir & AutobiographyHealth & Wellness

320 PagesAugust 2022

Read by 20 people

2 occurrences

Failure is not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

by Gene Kranz

ScienceMemoir & AutobiographyHistory

January 2000

Read by 2 people

2 occurrences

Educated

by Tara Westover

Memoir & AutobiographyEducationalReligion & Spirituality

368 PagesFebruary 2018

Read by 13 people

2 occurrences

The Glass Castle

by Jeannette Walls

Memoir & Autobiography

304 PagesMarch 2005

Read by 12 people

2 occurrences

Into Thin Air

by Jon Krakauer

Memoir & AutobiographyAdventure

434 PagesMay 1997

Read by 7 people

2 occurrences

The Things They Carried

by Tim O'Brien

Historical FictionMilitary Fiction

254 PagesMarch 1990

Read by 4 people

1 occurrence

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

by Iris Chang

Historical FictionMilitary FictionPolitics

315 PagesDecember 1991

Read by 4 people

1 occurrence

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

by James Weldon Johnson, Noelle Morrissette, William L. Andrews

Historical Fiction

134 PagesJanuary 1912

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale #1

DystopiaFantasy

325 PagesAugust 1985

Read by 37 people

1 occurrence

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot

by Mikki Kendall

Nonfiction

288 PagesFebruary 2020

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

The Three-Body Problem

by Cixin Liu

Remembrance of Earth's Past #1

Science Fiction

400 PagesMay 2006

Read by 25 people

1 occurrence

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

by Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind

Historical FictionEconomicsTrue Crime

480 Pages2003

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Darius the Great Is Not Okay

by Adib Khorram

Darius the Great #1

Contemporary FictionHealth & Wellness

321 PagesAugust 2018

Read by 3 people

1 occurrence

Worn Out: How Our Clothes Cover Up Fashion's Sins

by Alyssa Hardy

256 PagesSeptember 2022

100

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Irgendwo zu Hause

by Fumio Obata

176 PagesJuly 2016

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Here, Bullet

by Brian Turner

PoetryMilitary FictionMemoir & Autobiography

90 PagesNovember 2005

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Born on the Fourth of July

by Ron Kovic

Military FictionMemoir & Autobiography

224 Pages1976

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins--Social Security, Unemployment...

by Kirstin Downey

Memoir & AutobiographyHistoryPolitics

496 Pages2009

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Regeneration

by Pat Barker

Regeneration #1

Historical FictionLiterary Fiction

256 PagesMay 1991

Read by 3 people

1 occurrence

Things My Son Needs to Know About The World

by Fredrik Backman

HumorMemoir & AutobiographyParenting & Family

208 PagesAugust 2012

Read by 2 people

1 occurrence

Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World

by Christiane Amanpour, Zahra Hankir

EssaysJournalismPolitics

278 PagesOctober 2019

100

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Razorblade Tears

by S.A. Cosby

Contemporary FictionSuspenseThriller

319 PagesJuly 2021

Read by 6 people

1 occurrence

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

by Mariana Enríquez

Magical RealismLiterary FictionSlipstream/Interstice

208 PagesNovember 2009

Read by 2 people

1 occurrence

Queer Intentions: A (personal) journey through LGBTQ+ culture

by Amelia Abraham

Memoir & AutobiographyPoliticsGender & Sexuality

9h 26m May 2019

Read by 3 people

1 occurrence

Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

by Blake Masters, Peter Thiel

EconomicsSelf-HelpBusiness

224 PagesOctober 2014

Read by 4 people

1 occurrence

Law: A Very Short Introduction

by Raymond Wacks

Very Short Introductions #180

EducationalPhilosophyPolitics

172 PagesMarch 2008

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

A Rumor of War

by Philip Caputo

Military FictionMemoir & Autobiography

384 PagesJanuary 1977

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Aristotle and Dante #2

Historical FictionRomanceContemporary Fiction

October 2021

Read by 2 people

1 occurrence

The Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game

by Sean K. Reynolds, Steve Shell, Tammie Webb Ryan

414 PagesJuly 2023

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

by Patrick Radden Keefe

BiographyHistoryTrue Crime

535 PagesApril 2021

100

Read by 2 people

1 occurrence

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership

by James B. Comey, James Comey

Memoir & AutobiographyHistoryPolitics

290 PagesApril 2018

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

My Best Friend's Exorcism

by Grady Hendrix

ParanormalFantasyComedic Fiction

332 PagesMay 2016

Read by 12 people

1 occurrence

Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

by Jason Hickel

EconomicsPoliticsPhilosophy

320 PagesJanuary 2020

Read by 1 person

1 occurrence

Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI

by David Grann

True Crime

298 PagesApril 2017

Read by 6 people

1 occurrence

Red Envelope

by Atom Yang

Contemporary RomanceContemporary Fiction

45 PagesDecember 2015

Read by 1 person