Traveling Through Fiction
Over the past four years I’ve complained a good bit about our travel schedule. I accompanied my husband on many of his business trips, mostly because I wouldn’t have seen him otherwise! But I quickly wearied of being constantly on the go.
Enter 2020. The first 11 weeks of the year had me on the road to somewhere (personal or business) some part of 6 of those weeks. Then came the Stay At Home order, and all our travel stopped. Since May, we’ve been to Dallas to see family, and I drove to Boston with my daughter to get her settled in her new apartment, ready for her new job, but nothing more. And now that I can’t travel, can’t experience new places and learn new things, I’ve missed it!
But looking back over my March-April-May-June reading, I’ve realizes I never stopped traveling! Of course I’ve “been” to many interesting American and British settings, both contemporary and historical. But then those are my normal fare. Here are some of the more unusual and exotic places I’ve been through books lately:
The Middle East
In the early days of March I finished reading The Desert Queen by Janet Wallach. This lone non-fiction title in my list is part biography of Gertrude Bell and part history of the Middle East. In this book, I traveled from Egypt to Palestine to Iraq, Turkey, and the Arabian desert, first by camel, later by automobile.
I am also currently in the Middle East in Ronie Kendig’s Conspiracy of Silence, which combines military suspense thriller with Biblical archeology.
India
Two—two!—historicals set in India! Mimi Matthews’s A Modest Independence not only let me experience 19th century India, it let me experience the laborious travel to get there. I loved that! Now I’m in A Mosaic of Wings by Kimberly Duffy and loving the view a different of India via the main character’s 19th century scientific research trip. Both books let me see and smell and hear and feel several different spots in this fascinating country.
Vietnam
Not a place I know much about, but Catherine West’s Yesterday’s Tomorrow set me firmly in Southeast Asia. I felt the heat, the jungle, and also the tension of the Vietnam war. Not always a pleasant place, for sure, especially during the 1970s, but more fascinating than I imagined it would be.
Leningrad/St. Petersburg
My husband raved about David Benioff’s City of Thieves, set in WWII Leningrad, so I finally read it. Just to be clear, this man is an amazing writer and storyteller, but it was much to graphic for my tastes. Still, he carried me through the bleakness of a Russian winter under communist rule while also giving glimpses of the wonder of old St. Petersburg.
Spain
I don’t know much about 20th century Spain, so the novel The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys held me in its grip. 1950s Madrid, under General Franco. I loved the Spanish words peppered throughout, the feeling the heat and color of the city. Even though it was heartbreaking, it put me in that place and time. I’ve never before had any real interest in traveling to Spain. Now I do.
Underground kingdom of talking rabbits
Ok, I know this is kind of a silly one, but was fun to go to a totally make-believe place with talking rabbits fighting for good against evil in The Green Ember by S.D. Smith. This is a middle grade adventure series I highly recommend to those with kids.
In these months of staying at home, where have you traveled through books that you wouldn’t normally go?
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What a variety of places to explore, D’Ann! I’ve made a few literary excursions to England, Holland, and Germany but most of my journeys have been in the states. Every read has required a time machine, though, so that’s fun!
Time machines are the best! Of course even in the exotic locales most of mine have required that, too! 😉
Thank you for such interesting recommendations!
We’re trying to decide now whether we should take our annual trip to California. Our daughter is sending flight information, but we need to pray about this.
It’s hard to know what to do. And different for every person and situation! Hugs to you as you decide.
Immediately put “Fountains of Silence” on my list! Thank you! Not only is it written by an author I already enjoy, but my son is currently living in Madrid for dissertation research. We planned to visit him in April for our first-ever trip to Europe, but we all know what happened there. (*sigh*) I also enjoyed Sepetys’ “Out of the Easy,” as New Orleans is one of my favorite cities. The NOLA connection is also due to our son, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s at Tulane.
I didn’t know she had a NOLA one! I read Between Shades of Gray and those on and was just thinking I needed to look up her other books! Out of the Easy would be special to us, too, because our daughter did undergrad at Nicholls State and our son is in graduate work at LSU and so we’ve spent our fair shard of time in NOLA, too. With your son in Madrid and you are going there, you must read this! It is fabulous! I love her work so very much!
Hi Anne, Seems like we haven’t been anywhere except through books. Since I’ve been researching WWII, I’ve been to England, France, Germany and the US during the war! I’ve also been to 19th century and 20th century Texas and Louisiana, thanks to Lisa Wingate! (The Book of Lost Friends).
Lots of good places to go! I need to get to Lisa Wingate’s new book! 🙂
I LOVE the way books allow us to travel wherever we choose! I recently read Elizabeth Musser’s upcoming novel, The Promised Land, and felt like I was walking a pilgrimage on the Camino in France.
That sounds like a great place to travel to! I’ll have to put that one on my list for when it releases.
Most of my reading lately has been fictional WWII stories. At the top of the list is Snow on the Tulips, by Liz Tolsma, set in the Netherlands near the end of WWII. I also read A Secret Courage by Tricia Goyer, set in England during WWII with German spies among the characters. Several years ago I read Salt to the Sea by Ruta Septys. The teenagers in the story were from varied backgrounds with one goal in mind–escape the Nazis. A tremendously, heart breaking novel!But the most beautiful “travel” novel that I have read recently is The Key to Everything by Valerie Fraser Leusse. Peyton, the main character, follows a map his father used to ride his bicycle from St. Augustine to Key West (in 1947.) Wonderful reading!