For students interested in China:
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
Iron & Silk by Mark Selzman
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamtress by Dai Sijie, translated by Ina Rilke
Waiting by Ha Jin
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

For students interested in France:
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Encore Provence by Peter Mayle
The Three Musketeers
La Fountaine Fables
French or Foe? by Polly Platt

For students interested in the ancient world:
The King Must Die by Mary Reneault
The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault
Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw
Venus in Copper (and other mystery books) by Lindsay Davis
The Aeneid, Iliad and Odyssey by Homer
Graves’ I Claudius and Claudius the God

 

For students interested in the Spanish-speaking world:
The Conquest of the Incas by John Hemming
The Buried Mirror by Carlos Fuentes
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Yo, Something to Declare)
When I Was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman by Esmerelda Santiago
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire
Dreaming in Cuban by Sonia Garcia
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Don Quijote by Miguel Cervantes