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April 2011
Compiled by Heather Backman of the Howe Library, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.

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BOOKS

Adams, Douglas     Last Chance to See
Alexander, Lamar     Six Months Off: An American Family's Australian Adventure
Baggett, Jennifer     Lost Girls, which is kind of an EAT, PRAY, LOVE for 20-somethings.
Baker, Ian     The Heart of the World
Bengis, Ingrid     Metro Stop Dostoevsky
Bennett, Vanora     A Taste of Dreams
Berendt, John     City of Falling Angels
Bernstein, Richard     Ultimate Journey
Bird, Christiane     A Thousand Sighs, a Thousand Revolts
Birkett, Dea     Serpent in Paradise
Blanchard, Melinda     Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean
Brooks, Tim     Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow: An American Hitchhiking Odyssey
Brown, Liam D'Arcy     Green Dragon, Sombre Warrior
Cahill, Tim     Pass the Butterworms
Carey, Peter     Wrong About Japan

Chiang, Lynette     The Handsomest Man in Cuba
Cohen, David Elliot     One Year Off: Leaving It All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey
Corbett, Judy     Castles in the Air
Crichton, Michael     Travels
Davidson, Robyn     Tracks
Davis, Patricia V.     Harlot's Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss, and Greece
De Blasi, Marlene     A Thousand Days in Tuscany
De Blasi, Marlene     A Thousand Days in Venice
Dinesen, Isak     Out of Africa
Doran, Phil     Reluctant Tuscan
Eames, Andrew     The 8:55 to Baghdad
Earley, Pete     Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas
Edmont, Gregory     Spotted in France
Ehrlich, Gretel     This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland
Elliot, Jason     An Unexpected Light: travels in Afghanistan

Ferguson, Will     Hitching Rides with Buddha: A Journey Across Japan
Fletcher, Martin     Silver Linings: Travels Around North Ireland
Forman, Gayle     You Can't Get There from Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World
Frazier, Ian     Travels in Siberia
Gable, Sally     Palladian Days
Gage, Eleni     North of Ithaka
Gilbert, Elizabeth     Eat, Pray, Love
Glick, Daniel     Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, and a Journey To the End of the Earth
Gopnik, Adam     Paris to the Moon
Grant, Richard     American Nomads: Travels with Lost Conquistadors, Mountain Men, cowboys, indians, hoboes, and bullriders
Haffar, Rif     Away From My Desk: A Round-the-World Detour from the Rat Race, the Tech Wreck, and the Traffic Jam of Life in America
Harrison, Kathryn     The Road to Santiago
Hawks, Tony     Playing the Moldavians at Tennis
Hawks, Tony     Round Ireland with a Fridge
Heat-Moon, William Least     Blue Highways: A Journey into America
Jacobson, Mark     12000 Miles in the Nick of Time: A Family Tale
Heat-Moon, William Least     River Horse: A Logbook of a Boat Across America

Heat-Moon, William Least     Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey
Hessler, Peter     River town: two years on the Yangtze
Horwitz, Tony     Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
Muller, Karin     Along the Inca Road
Hunt, Linda     Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
Jensen, Carsten     I Have Seen the World Begin
Kerouac, Jack     On the Road
Loomis, Susan Herrmann     On Rue Tatin
Mahoney, Rosemary     Down the Nile: alone in a fisherman's skiff
Mayes, Frances     A year in the world : journeys of a passionate traveler
Mayes, Frances     Under the Tuscan Sun
Mayor, Mireya     Pink boots and a machete : my journey from NFL cheerleader to National Geographic explorer
McGinniss, Joe     Going to Extremes
McGregor, Ewan     Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World
Mercer, Jeremy     Time Was Soft There
Millard, Candice     The River of doubt : Theodore Roosevelt's darkest journey

Moore, Tim     French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France
Murra, Jan     Cast-Off: True Adventures and Ordeals of an American Family on a French Farm
Newman, Steven M.     Worldwalk
Nicholson, Michael Across the Limpopo: A Family's Hazardous Journey Through Africa
Niven, Jennifer Ada     Blackjack : a true story of survival in the Arctic
Noren, Allen     Storm: A Motorcycle Journey of Love, Endurance, and Transformation
Obmascik, Mark     The Big Year
Paulsen, Gary     Pilgrimage on a steelride : a memoir about men and motorcycles
Pelton, Robert Young     The Adventurist
Pender, Rose     A Lady's experiences in the Wild West
Perrottet, Tony     Route 66 A.D.: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists
Pham, Andrew X     Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
Prose, Francine     Sicilian Odyssey
Richman, Adam     America the edible
Roberts, Jason     A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler

Ross, Mark C.     Dangerous Beauty: Life and Death in Africa
Rudiak-Gould, Peter     Surviving Paradise
Rudolf, Conrad     Pilgrimage to the End of the World
Salzman, Mark     Iron & Silk
Sanders, Michael     From Here, You Can't See Paris
Savage, Barbara     Miles from Nowhere: A Round-the-World Bicycle Adventure
Scheer, George     Booked on the Morning Train
Seal, Jeremy     A Fez of the Heart
Settle, Mary Lee     Spanish Recognitions
Simon, Ted     Jupiter's Travels
Simony, Maggy     The Traveler's Reading Guide: Ready-Made Reading Lists for the Armchair Traveler
Smith, Lori     A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey Into Adventure, Love, and Faith
Steinbach, Alice     Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman, and its sequel, Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman
Steinbeck, John     Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Stern, Jane and Michael     Two for the road : our love affair with American food

Stewart, Chris     Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia
Stewart, Rory     The Places In Between
Sullivan, Robert     Cross Country
Tennant, Emma     A House in Corfu
Theroux, Peter     Sandstorms
Tidwell, Mike     In the Mountains of Heaven
Troost, J. Maarten     Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
Troost, J. Maarten     Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
Troost, J. Maarten     Lost on planet China
Tschiffely, A.F.     Tschiffely's ride, ten thousand miles in the saddle from southern cross to_ pole star
Vanderhoff, Ann     Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude
Vowell, Sarah     Assignation Vacation
Walton, C .S.     Little Tenement on the Volga
Warmbrunn, Erika     Where the Pavement Ends
Watkins, Nan _     East toward dawn : a woman's solo journey around the world
Wilkins, Mesannie     Last of the Saddle Tramps

Willard, Pat     America eats! : on the road with the WPA
Winchester, Simon     The man who loved china: the fantastic story of the eccentric scientist who unlocked the mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
Winchester, Simon     The River at the Center of the World
Wisner, Franz     Honeymoon with my Brother
Wren, Christopher     Walking to Vermont: from Times Square to the Green Mountains
Yeadon, David     Seasons in Basilicata

AUTHORS

Bourdain, Anthony
Bryson, Bill
Cahil, Tim
Chatwin, Bruce
Drinkwater, Carol
Jenkins, Peter
Mayle, Peter     His Provence books -- most notably Toujours Provence.
Murphy, Dervla     Irish author has travelled the world alone, brilliant reads
Naipaul, V. S.
O'Hanlon, Redmond
Palin, Michael
Raban, Jonathan
Stewart, Rory
Theroux, Paul
Thubron, Colin
Toth, Susan Allen     Toth has written some excellent books about England - My Love Affair with England, England As You Like It, and others

BOOKS WITH LONGER RECOMMENDATIONS/FURTHER INFO

Christmas, Jane     Incontinent on the Continent: My mother, her walker, and our grand tour of Italy by Jane Christmas. Funny and thought-provoking.

Darlington, Terry     Narrow Dog to Indian River by Terry Darlington - story of an English couple who take an English canal boat down the Intracoastal Waterway. They also wrote Narrow Dog to Carcassone, which I haven't read.

Fermor, Patrick Leigh     Try Patrick Leigh Fermor's 'A Time of Gifts,' originally published back in the 1930's and recently reprinted in the glorious New York Review Books Classics series. It is the first of two volumes - the second is 'Between the Woods and the Water,' also a NYRB title - tracing a young man's journey on foot from London to Constantinople, not long before WWII was to change so much forever.

Gelman, Rita Golden     Rita Golden Gelman's Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World would be a good inclusion. This is Gelman's memoir about leaving LA to visit Mexico when her marriage was on the rocks. She ended up staying in a Mexican village for a couple of months and then began to travel around the world on her own.

Hardyment, Christina     Heidi's Alp by Christina Hardyment. It has been years since I read it, but I bought a copy for my daughter when she said she didn't think she could travel through Europe with kids. It's the story of an English (if I remember right) couple and their children who travel through Europe looking for places featured in children's literature.

Jaynes, Gregory     My recommendation is not at all similar to the books your patron enjoys but I loved the snarky "Come Hell on High Water: A Really Sullen Memoir" by Gregory Jaynes. O.K., it's not even recent (1997).

Knisley, Lucy     French Milk, by Lucy Knisley. It's about the month she and her mother spent in Paris to celebrate their 22nd and 50th birthdays.

Lansky, Doug     "Up the Amazon without a paddle" by Doug Lansky is one of the funniest books I've ever read. It is a collection of short travel pieces he wrote for magazines, in one article he describes an old ski lodge as looking "... like it once beloved to the Addams family, but had since fallen into disrepair..."

Lisagor, Kimberely     Disappearing Destinations by Kimberely Lisagor and Heather Hansen takes the_reader to beautiful locations worldwide and then explains why these are ecologically threatened.

Luard, Elizabeth     "The old world kitchen" by Elizabeth Luard is a compilation of peasant cooking that she learned living different places where her husband's job sent them. She talks about the food of different areas and how women in Spain and France had to teach her how to kill and clean chickens and other kitchen basics that we don't need anymore, interspersing the recipes with historical and social tidbits. Great fun.

Montgomery, Sy     Boston Globe nature columnist Sy Montgomery has written two thrilling and delightful travel memoirs involving rare animal species: "Journey of the Pink Dolphins: an Amazon Quest" and "Search for the Golden Moon Bear", a hilarious trek through Laos and Cambodia that includes an unforgettable scene where the author tries to gag down her order of Following Veal soup.

Phelps, Daphne     "A house in Sicily" by Daphne Phelps is like "A year in Provence" only further south.

Scieszka, Casey     "To Timbukto" for a non-fiction book club. I don't usually read much non-fiction, but I plowed through this over 500 page book in less than a week. It is by Casey Scieszka (I'm not sure how to spell it, but she is Jon's daughter) and her boyfriend Steven (sorry, don't have his last name near). They meet on a Study Abroad in Morocco I think. A year or so later they travel Asia. Casey has a grant to study the effects of Islam in schools. They spend quite a while teaching English in China, travel to other Asian countries, and end up with several months in Mali in Africa. Casey writes and Steven illustrates. They style of the book was much like Hugo Cabaret with some pages all back and white illustrations, and some with only a small illustration. I am a very shy person, so it was so fascinating to read about how they lived with the local people and made many friends. I can't recommend this enough.

Shah, Tahir     He doesn't actually do much traveling in this book, but in "The Caliph's House: a Year in Casablanca," travel writer Tahir Shah humorously describes renovating an abandoned palatial compound that just happens to be occupied by a jinni.

Thompson, Craig     There's a really wonderful and quite touching graphic novel written by Craig Thompson (of 'Blankets' fame) called Carnet de Voyage. It's about the authors travels through Africa and Europe -- lots of loneliness and self examination. It is very quiet and reflective for a graphic novel. I think it's a breath of fresh air in the genre.

Traveler's Tale Series     I personally enjoy the "Travelers' Tales" series, but I don't often see them in libraries. Some of the anthologies are funny and some are serious. Most of the ones I have enjoyed are short vignettes of travel experiences, many from very well known writers (Tim Cahill, Dave Barry, etc.) Some of the humor titles include: Not so funny when it happened; Sand in my bra and other misadventures (tales of women on the road) More sand in my bra, etc. Many of these would fit into a "memoir" category, and they're always an interesting read.
Website: http://travelerstales.com/

www.webrary.org/rs:flbklists/travelmemoirs.html
First published on the Web: 4/16/2011
Last updated: 4/16/2011, 10:20 AM