Being taken to distant lands without ever having to leave home is probably one of the most common cliches about the benefits of reading... but it's true! So during this time of summer vacations, even if you don't have one planned, you can do plenty of amazing armchair traveling, especially with these five recent reads that will take you all around the world, a couple of which even have characters who are making trips around the world themselves!
At Home in the World
In this memoir, Tsh Oxenreider chronicles her family's year of traveling around the world - nine months, two parents, three kids, and a backpack each. As they travel everywhere from China to Singapore to Australia, Uganda, France, Croatia, and beyond, her stories mix really well the mundane (homeschooling the kids, the playgrounds they find and ways they celebrate holidays while abroad) to the profound (the feelings of community they find, what it means to be rooted, and what it means to be "at home in the world"). Along the way you get some pretty great descriptions of mouth-watering food, breathtaking sights, and even a bit of Tsh's lovely poetry. Though I have a lot less of the wanderlust bug in me than this family, I appreciated how Tsh articulates the pull between wanting your home home and wanting to experience the world. These two things are not necessarily at odds; as Gretchen Rubin says in her blurb about the book: “In this candid, funny, thought-provoking account, Tsh shows that it’s possible to combine a love for adventure with a love for home.” And while I had plenty of moments where I thought, "gah, I could never do this with three kids in tow!" I also appreciated how she showed the resilience (and hard moments, keeping it real) of kids
and parents in traveling the world - and gaining such invaluable life experience. Made me feel encouraged that I can manage more of that traveling with a kid business!
3.5/5 stars
Convenience Store Woman
Keiko Furukura has always been considered strange, someone who is overly blunt/literal, can’t quite understand cues or expressions, and just doesn’t conform to norms in general in terms of communication and expressing emotions. But when she starts a job at 18 as a convenience store clerk in Tokyo, she finds a way to fit into society, loving the predictable structure and organization of the store, and the script for communicating with customers, which helps her navigate communication, proper clothing, etc. to play the part of a “normal person”. But now that she’s been in the job for 18 years, she’s again finding herself no longer “acceptable” to society because she’s in a dead-end job, has never had a boyfriend, and doesn’t seem to have further aspirations – even if she’s happy with her own life. This short little book follows her daily life for a bit as she considers and acts on this societal pressure to confirm. The convenience store setting makes for a fascinating look at Japanese culture, partly because of they are so much a part of Japanese people’s lives (which I learned about in this What Should I Read Next episode) and also because it’s a little microcosm that shows their cultural/societal expectations and roles really well. I’d recommend this for fans of
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine for sure, though I’d note that this character is even stranger, so I just felt like I didn’t end up with quite the same endearing feel that I did for Eleanor. Definitely gives great insight into people you encounter who don’t fit society’s mold, and empathy for how it might make them feel to know this about themselves.
3.5/5 stars
The Widows of Malabar Hill
In 1920s India, Perveen Mistry is Bombay’s first female lawyer, working in her father’s firm where she generally serves in more of an assistant role (given society’s doubts about a female in this position), until something suspicious comes up regarding the estate of one of her father’s clients and his 3 widows, who live in full purdah (strict seclusion where they do not speak to any men outside of the family). As Perveen starts to meet with the widows, she starts to sense there’s something more fishy going on than just the intitial strange thing she spotted in the paperwork, and this becomes all the more apparent when the steward of the estate is found murdered. Using her unique position as a female lawyer, Perveen embarks on an investigation of her own, as she tries to help the widows and their children. Meanwhile, part of Perveen’s past seems to be ominously following her, and in chapters that alternate in time, we gradually uncover the history of her tragic marriage. If you’re a fan of the Maisie Dobbs series, this would definitely be for you, given the era it is set in, the protagonist being a path-breaking, confident yet compassionate woman with a sad backstory to uncover, and the tone/type of mystery. What I liked even more about this one is the great pacing, and also the real sense you get of India in this era, from the different religious groups and castes to the effects of British colonialism to really getting a sense of what the bustle of multicultural 1920s Bombay would have been like to experience. Bonus: it’s actually inspired by a real-life woman who became India’s first attorney. I hope that it becomes a series, because I’d read more books starring Perveen!
4/5 stars
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
Having just moved from Munich to Sicily, Poldi fully plans to drink herself to death, not thinking she has much to live for now that she’s 60, her husband is gone, and her life’s adventures appear to be over. But then her handsome handyman goes missing, and her amateur sleuthing begins. Poldi is quite a memorable character, with a lot of flair, from wild outfits to drinking benders to seducing policemen – but the island of Sicily is an out-sized character too, with great descriptions of the terrain, the history and people, and the FOOD. Imagining all of this setting and atmosphere was probably my favorite part of reading it. I would say this is a “cozy mystery”, the type that often has an amateur sleuth, no gore, and relatively little tension or nail-biting moments despite a murder being investigated. They can be fun reads, but at times this one bordered on silly for me, with the wacky Poldi and her proclamations, crazy wigs, and larger-than-life personality. The tone is quite light and humorous, even if it deals with a murder or two. So if you like a cozy mystery and want one that’s great for summertime, here’s a good bet for you. Similarly, if you liked
A Man Called Ove, this has some of the same feel with a kinda cranky widow(er) who doesn’t think s/he has anything to live for, but ends up finding surprising relationships and new life along the way. Otherwise, if you’re a reader with more complex/psychological mystery tastes like mine, I’d maybe give it
2.5/5 stars
Circling the Sun
I really loved how Paula McClain brought to life a historical figure in
The Paris Wife (though historical fiction really isn’t my personal first pick for genre), so I was very intrigued when I saw she had done the same for Beryl Markham, an aviator and all-round interesting woman with an unconventional upbringing in colonial Kenya in the 1920s. I have actually read Beryl’s own memoir,
West with the Night, before a trip to Kenya, and thought it was great. This one just didn’t do it for me, unfortunately. There are a lot of interesting elements in her life – being raised a bit wild (according to the British anyway) with her native Kipsigis best friend, path breaking and record setting in “men’s” areas like horse training and plane piloting, and quite an involved passionate (real-life) love triangle with dashing safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen (writer of
Out of Africa). The way this book is written, it felt to me like basically a straightforward reporting of her life - what happened, who it happened with, how it happened - and I’m just someone who prefers a little historical back-and-forth, or mystery, so while the events and accomplishments of her life are individually fascinating, I found myself a teensy bit bored. But if you’re into historical fiction of a biographical variety, or you want a trip around the world in a more harrowing fashion (flying across the Atlantic from east to west non-stop…in 1936, eek), this biographical fiction might be right up your alley.
2.5/5 stars
Looking for more armchair travel? Currently I'm being transported to Sweden with
Us Against You, the follow-up to
Beartown, and I'm loving being back there - especially as the story takes place in the summer this time, so it feels perfect. Some other recent(ish) favorites, where the setting/culture you travel to can feel just as much a character as the characters themselves, and that take you all over the world, include
The Dry,
A Gentleman in Moscow,
Pachinko, and
Crazy Rich Asians. (Oh, and then there are whole other categories I've covered:
books about road trips,
travelogue type stories, and
all things Paris!)
Where have you been metaphorically traveling lately?
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