Books and Travel - Holiday Travel Reads | Fiction | DONNE TEMPO
Books and Travel - Holiday Travel Reads
November/26/09 12:11 PM Filed in: Fiction
review by Cecie O’Bryon
England
With the Holiday Travel Season upon us, my thoughts wonder to what to pack for the train, plane or automobile trip ahead.
But then, when packing for a trip I am always torn about what reading material to bring. In the past, I traveled Europe with one suitcase for clothes and one full of books.
During a recent trip to Cancunwe stayed in a spa, trekked through Mayan ruins and reveled in the wonderful weather, fascinating history, and a truly fabulous hotel.
On my journey were the books packed into my suitcase.
But which books? Making those decisions is never easy. They needed to paperbacks exclusively - to avoid going overweight fees on my luggage. While this limited my selection, as did the fact that I put this task off until the night before departure, there were quite a few good choices.
Below are the books I traveled with. It was an exciting trip which did not allow enough time to get through them all.
However, in order to enhance your holiday travels, I thought I’d share my tropical reading choices, allowing me to take travels through reading while traveling abroad.
The Jewel Box by Anna
Davis
(Pocket Books, Simon and Schuster / ISBN 978-1-4165-3736-6 )
An oddly pulpy read about a female columnist and her exploits in flapper era London.
The story line and characters were entertaining but the novel as a whole seemed to be courting the fine line between historical romances and fiction.
I do like to hear about dinner clubs and dancing though.
Vision in White by Nora Roberts
(Penguin/ ISBN 978-0-425-22751-0)
This was a wonderful choice for a plane ride. Another hit from writer Nora Roberts, Vision in White is easy popular fiction, light on pulp.
The story focuses on a group of four female friends who live on an estate where they together run a wedding business.
This installment (it appears to be the beginning of a franchise) had the emotionally remote photographer of the group finding true love and personal growth.
Dating Da Vinci by Malena Lott
(Sourcebooks/ ISBN 978-1-4022-1393-9)
Ramona, a widowed thirty-something ESOL teacher, and the mother of two sons, finds herself involved in a rebound relationship with a young Italian student named Da Vinci.
Ramona gets her groove back via the relationship, discovering that life has indeed gone on when she is described to Da Vinci’s fraternity brothers as his girlfriend.
Yet, she must find the courage to leave Da Vinci and find a grown up romantic partner.
The men in this novel were all too perfect but it was easy to read and, surprisingly, to relate to (don’t we all have 25 year old Italians proposing daily?)
The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
(Simon and Schuster/ ISBN 978-0-7432-6625-3)
I had heard wonderful rumors about this memoir and found it so engaging I read it through on two planes and a Florida layover.
Helene tells her own story of growing up a
privileged, pedigreed child in Liberia and the
difficulties she, and all those she knew, had
transitioning after the Liberian coup in 1980.
Helene was able to immigrate to the US, go to school and fulfill her dream of becoming an international journalist. It was not until 2003 that she returned to Liberia. Most fascinating was the history of Liberia, founded by freed slaves from America with the support of the US government and private funding. In our conscious culture this story was not one I knew and I plan to learn more!
Helene covered her own difficult emotional journey as well as her family story in an understandable and beautiful way.
What didn’t make the beach or plane read...
The Kings Grace by Anne Easter Smith
(Touchstone, Simon and Schuster/ ISBN 978-1-4165-5045-7)
I’ve read it since and found it an interesting and entertaining digression on the Tudor versus York question in medieval England. 584 pages.
One September Morning by Rosalind Noonan
(Kensington/ISBN 978-0-7582-0929-0)
This looks like a military mystery where the bereaved wife tracks down the truth about her husband’s death in Iraq.
Enjoy your trips in books and with books!
Cecie O’Byron England also reviews books in The Written Word for The Communities at the Washington Times.
With the Holiday Travel Season upon us, my thoughts wonder to what to pack for the train, plane or automobile trip ahead.
But then, when packing for a trip I am always torn about what reading material to bring. In the past, I traveled Europe with one suitcase for clothes and one full of books.
During a recent trip to Cancunwe stayed in a spa, trekked through Mayan ruins and reveled in the wonderful weather, fascinating history, and a truly fabulous hotel.
On my journey were the books packed into my suitcase.
But which books? Making those decisions is never easy. They needed to paperbacks exclusively - to avoid going overweight fees on my luggage. While this limited my selection, as did the fact that I put this task off until the night before departure, there were quite a few good choices.
Below are the books I traveled with. It was an exciting trip which did not allow enough time to get through them all.
However, in order to enhance your holiday travels, I thought I’d share my tropical reading choices, allowing me to take travels through reading while traveling abroad.
(Pocket Books, Simon and Schuster / ISBN 978-1-4165-3736-6 )
An oddly pulpy read about a female columnist and her exploits in flapper era London.
The story line and characters were entertaining but the novel as a whole seemed to be courting the fine line between historical romances and fiction.
I do like to hear about dinner clubs and dancing though.
Vision in White by Nora Roberts
(Penguin/ ISBN 978-0-425-22751-0)
This was a wonderful choice for a plane ride. Another hit from writer Nora Roberts, Vision in White is easy popular fiction, light on pulp.
The story focuses on a group of four female friends who live on an estate where they together run a wedding business.
This installment (it appears to be the beginning of a franchise) had the emotionally remote photographer of the group finding true love and personal growth.
Dating Da Vinci by Malena Lott
(Sourcebooks/ ISBN 978-1-4022-1393-9)
Ramona, a widowed thirty-something ESOL teacher, and the mother of two sons, finds herself involved in a rebound relationship with a young Italian student named Da Vinci.
Ramona gets her groove back via the relationship, discovering that life has indeed gone on when she is described to Da Vinci’s fraternity brothers as his girlfriend.
Yet, she must find the courage to leave Da Vinci and find a grown up romantic partner.
The men in this novel were all too perfect but it was easy to read and, surprisingly, to relate to (don’t we all have 25 year old Italians proposing daily?)
The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
(Simon and Schuster/ ISBN 978-0-7432-6625-3)
I had heard wonderful rumors about this memoir and found it so engaging I read it through on two planes and a Florida layover.
Helene was able to immigrate to the US, go to school and fulfill her dream of becoming an international journalist. It was not until 2003 that she returned to Liberia. Most fascinating was the history of Liberia, founded by freed slaves from America with the support of the US government and private funding. In our conscious culture this story was not one I knew and I plan to learn more!
Helene covered her own difficult emotional journey as well as her family story in an understandable and beautiful way.
What didn’t make the beach or plane read...
The Kings Grace by Anne Easter Smith
(Touchstone, Simon and Schuster/ ISBN 978-1-4165-5045-7)
I’ve read it since and found it an interesting and entertaining digression on the Tudor versus York question in medieval England. 584 pages.
One September Morning by Rosalind Noonan
(Kensington/ISBN 978-0-7582-0929-0)
This looks like a military mystery where the bereaved wife tracks down the truth about her husband’s death in Iraq.
Enjoy your trips in books and with books!
Cecie O’Byron England also reviews books in The Written Word for The Communities at the Washington Times.