A Zoo in my Luggage

Gerald Durrell - A Zoo in My Luggage

Gerald Durrell wanted to gather animals for his own zoo (even if he had no idea where it could be build). He had previously captured animals for others and now had money to start his own. So he went back to Cameroons to the area of an old friend Fon of Bafut - local tribal king with dozen wives and taste for whiskey - and had the locals to bring him local animals.

( Africans are funny to him )

An Apple for my Teacher

Louis D. Rubin, Jr (edit.) - An Apple for my Teacher

First, I have to admit I don't know a single one of these authors who write about their mentors. It may be that their books are more "literary" variety that rarely crosses the Atlantic - or even their own world of academia to the outside world. Some of them admit as much: "Radical writer in America is stuck with the anomaly that his own only audience is the literate establishment"

( How to learn to write to the social circle of your teacher )

"He can solve practical problems for you, problems of craft; but he cannot and should not meddle with the mystery of it."

Amrita

Yoshimoto Banana - Amrita

Amrita is a tale of a young woman in modern Japan who lives in a family of five - four women and one small boy. It starts with the death of her older sister Mayu, who possibly committed suicide.

( Weird tale of slice of life that goes only slightly bonkers )

Mysteries of Madrid

Antonio Muñoz Molina - Mysteries of Madrid

Lorencito Quesada, poor rural journalist who ekes out living in a garment shop, is charged by the local aristocrat to secretly find a stolen religious relic; statue of Christ that was taken from a local chapel. So he has to travel to Madrid to find pop star Marias Antequera whose wig was found in the scene of crime.

( Country buy finds the city life frightening )

In Search of Memory

Eric R. Kandel - In Search of Memory (2006)

Eric R. Kandel is an Austrian-born Jewish-American neurologist and Nobel laureate. This books is his sort of an autobiography and memoir of research he has taken part of. His interest in psychoanalysis lead to research in neurological basis of memory.
( Life, neurology, psychology and money )

The Mind's Eye

Oliver Sacks - The Mind's Eye

Book is very similar to the Man Who Took His Wife for a Hat and Anthropologist in Mars and actually refers to those books several times in notes and footnotes. In fact, the amount of notes has apparently increased. One chapter can now be expanded from a fate of a single patient to numerous other historical examples.

( How to see and not to see )

Retief At Large

Keith Laumer - Retief At Large

Jaime Retief is a secondary level diplomat in the CDT - Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne - that represents the interest of Earth humans ("terries") in the galaxy. The main political opponent of humans are the Soviet analogue aliens named Groaci, who are just about as devious as you can think of.

( Only competent human diplomat in the galaxy )