reading lately: road tripping

Books themed around road trips of some variety or another seem quite suitable for summer reading, don’t they? Here are 5 I have read over the last months that you might enjoy taking along as entertainment on a trip of your own:

The Wangs vs. the World
Charles Wang has lost his fortune in a bad business investment, so he gathers up his two younger kids from their boarding school/college in an old station wagon (their one car that hasn’t been repossessed yet), along with their step-mother, and sets off on a trip from California to upstate New York, where his eldest daughter lives. Unsurprisingly, there are crazy situations and family drama along the way… It’s a family saga of the Little Miss Sunshine type of comedic road trip, with all of the things the characters are going through individually (moody teenager, struggling artist, etc.) and in their relationships with each other - and then also with the added dimension of what it means to belong in America, while pining for a homeland (China). It reminded me of Crazy Rich Asians a bit with the Asian wealth/family/cultural dynamics, but I’ll say I like the Crazy Rich Asians series a bit better - more frivolous, but more entertaining! 3/5 stars


News of the World
Set just after the Civil War, this novel follows Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd as he crisscrosses northern Texas on horseback, stopping at towns to give readings from his stack of newspapers to paying audiences who are eager to hear all the news of the world. On this journey he is asked to transport a young orphan girl back to her people, after she has been freed from her capture by the Kiowa tribe. He reluctantly agrees, and they set off on the dangerous journey to San Antonio, at first at odds with each other but eventually forming a sweet father/daughter relationship. This book gives a Western kind of feel, but in such a quiet, moving, nuanced portrayal of an aging captain and the relationship that develops between him and his charge, who now fits neither in the Kiowa world she has become accustomed to, nor in her clan of German immigrants. I’m not normally into Westerns or all that much historical fiction, but this book is excellently done, and so captivating that I just felt part of the world, not like I was reading about a researched time and place. 4/5 stars


The Sisters Brothers 
This one is also in the Western tradition, but more of a quirky, dark comedy version - think a Coen brothers type of reinterpretation of the genre. Charlie and Eli Sisters are gunslingers for hire, with a current job of hunting down a prospector named Herman Kermit Warm. Along their horseback journey from Oregon to California, all manner of foibles ensue. Thought this part of the Publisher’s Weekly review was spot-on: “As more of the brothers' story is teased out, Charlie and Eli explore the human implications of many of the clichés of the old west and come off looking less and less like killers and more like traumatized young men… DeWitt has produced a genre-bending frontier saga that is exciting, funny, and, perhaps unexpectedly, moving.” Not usually my genre - especially the gratuitous shootouts - but it was so engaging, wacky at times, thoughtful at others, that I really enjoyed it. 3.5/5 stars


Dark Matter
And now for a different kind of road trip: traveling across dimensions. I have to use the Publisher’s Weekly description because I still don’t fully grasp the sci-fi here: Jason Dessen, a quantum physicist with a mediocre career and a very happy family life, is “abducted into a world in which his quantum many-worlds theory has become a fully realized technology for inter-dimensional transfer. In this world, Jason didn’t marry his girlfriend and never had a son. Jason is determined to get back to his family and his own world, but nefarious powers in the alternate reality conspire to stop him from revealing the criminal lengths they have gone to create the world-hopping technology.” I heard this described as The Martian, but for the subject of quantum physics - as in a book that makes a high-level science topic into an entertaining thriller that’s accessible for those who aren’t usually into science fiction. Unfortunately this one just didn’t live up to it for me, as I thought The Martian was better written (I loved Mark Watney’s voice, whereas I didn’t really like the main character in this one, and I thought the dialogue bits were terrible) and as I found the technical science parts in Dark Matter to just be kind of boring. Curious to hear any other opinions on this one though, as I heard it recommended several times on podcasts, leading me to pick it up… 2.5/5 stars


Lady Cop Makes Trouble
This version of a road trip involves tracking down a fugitive on the streets of New Jersey and New York, by the formidable Constance Kopp. In the first book in the series (Girl Waits with Gun) Constance and her unconventional sisters protect themselves from the threats of a factory owner and his gang of thugs, at the end of which she becomes one of the nation’s first female deputies. In this follow-up, she continues to aid Sheriff Heath, this time searching for an escaped convict, all the while trying to hold down the homefront with her wacky sisters, and also prove her merit as a female officer at a time it was not so socially acceptable. While I liked the first book better, this new one is the same kind of lively romp with colorful characters, making it pretty good entertainment. And I love a story about women forging their own paths. Looking forward to book #3 coming out soon. 3/5 stars


And if those aren't enough ideas, some other enjoyable road trip-centered stories are: The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, Love May Fail, The Art of Crash Landing, and An Abundance of Katherines. Plus I have a review of a several other books related to the travel theme here!


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