My Books

• NEW: Keep your eye on The Library Store , where I keep click-through ads for you to purchase these books and other things. Sure, I make a few pennies if you buy, but that helps pay for my books and movie tickets. Thanks.

Books Coming and Going

Currently reading

• Between Two Deserts by Germaine Shames (re-reading- Israel)
• The Caligraphers Daughter by Euenia Kim (Korea)
• Mistress to the Sun by Sandra Gulland (France) (Haven’t started yet)
• Abroad by Paul Fussel (General) This one is going to take a while and will stay around as a kind of reference book.

Waiting to be read

ROAD TRIP BOOKS

• Autumn Across America, By Edwin Way Teale (recommended by a comment) U.S.
  
• Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon (This is a re-read. I apparently lent my copy years ago, and just found another at Bookman’s used books.) U.S.
  

OTHERS ON THE SHELF, TABLE, AND FlOOR

• France, A Traveler’s Literary Companion Ed. by William Rodarmor and Anna Livia
  
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (The Restored Edition)France
• A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg (Strictly for me–not travel) A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell (re-reading) (Italy)
  
• Alexander the Great by Nikos Kazantzakis (Greece and the known world)
• Crete by Barry Unsworth (Greece)
• An Area of Darkness by V. S. Naipaul (India)
• A Journey to Flaubert’s Normandy by Susannah Patton (France)
• A Journey to Dorothy Parker’s New York by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick
• A Journey to John Steinbeck’s California by Susan Shillinglaw

Note:  Dozens more are in a notebook, but I stopped putting them up here, because my lovely readers have suggested books so fast that I can’t keep up. If you suggest a book, have faith, it is in my TBR notebook.

Not Yet Obtained

• Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (Library book, returned and will check out again)
• An Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof (recommended here)

• Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner (Bhutan, Thailand, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Qutar and Great Britain, WHEW!)
• Innocents Abroad Too by Michael Pearson (A semester abroad book)
• City of Djins by William Dalrymple (recommended here)(India)
• Spain: A Culinary Road Trip by Gywnth Paltrow (just curious about the actress turned travel/food writer)
• more in the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander Mc Call Smith (Africa)
• Signora DaVinci by Robin Maxwell (Italy)
• Ill Met by Moonlight by W. Stanley Moss (Greece–recommended here)
• One Summer’s Grace (England) by Libby Purves
• A Year in the Merde by Stephan Clarke
• Off the Rails in Phnom Phenh by Amit Gilboa
• Letters from Yellowstone

RECENTLY FINISHED

NOTE:  Although these are marked “See Review”, I am quite aware that I discuss rather than review books. And it is important to remember that I am looking principally at their urge-to-travel factor rather than literary merit when I rank them. Do follow the link on “See Review” to go to the complete blog post discussion.

Great Discoveries: Explorations that Changed History, a Time book. Ed. Richard Stengel (Review will appear in December)

The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa by Alexander McCall Smith♥♥♥ (Reviewed 9/24/09)

Waiting on a Train by James McCommons (Will be reviewed in November when it is released.)

Rock Springs by Richard Ford (short story in collection American Short Story Masterpieces edited by Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks This book was recommended by Todd Felton as one of the books on his list for a class on American road trip books.  Liked the story, but wouldn’t think of it as a useful book for travelers.

Fiji, Moon Guidebook (Review will appear in December, but not here.)

Literary Trips, Following in the Footsteps of Fame, Ed. by Victoria Brooks (Library book–priority) (Various places) (Review 9/02/09)♥♥♥♥

American Fugue by Alexis Stamatis (Road Trip in America) Review 9/04/09 ♥♥♥

The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn (Hawaii) Review 8/21/09♥♥1/2

Pascali’s Island by Barry Unsworth (Greece) Recommended by a comment at The Traveler’s Library. See review ♥♥♥♥

Vagabounding by Rolf Potts (The World)♥♥♥ Review 8/20/09

Land of Marvels by Barry Unsworth (Iraq when it was Turkish Mesopotamia) See review ♣

High Country by Nevada Barr (US National Parks) See review ♥♥♥

The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway (France and Spain)♥♥♥

Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain by Chris Stewart (See review)♥♥♥

Paris in the Moon, Adam Gopnik (See review- Bastille Day, June 14)♥♥♥

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson (India)(review copy) (See review)♥♥♥♥

An Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley (Italy) (review copy)(See review)♥♥♥♥

The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz (review copy)♥♥♥(See Review)

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (Cuba) ♥♥♥

The Quiet American by Graham Greene (Vietnam) ♥♥♥♥ See review.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (England-Audio Book)♥♥♥ See review in a series on travel classics.

The Middle Passage by V. S. Naipaul (West Indies, S.America)♥♥♥ He describes in depth the social situation in the places he visits, focusing on race relations, in this his first travel book. He does not seem to be particularly sympathetic to anyone, being a generally grumpy traveler complaining about the heat and smoking endlessly and looking down his nose at most of the people he meets. And yet something attracts me to the book–I believe it is the relentless detail. I felt I could really see the scenes and people he described. See review.

Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink by Tom Miller♥♥ (Borderlands America) See review

The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre (Puerto Rico)♥ Okay, it was a nominee for the National Book Award and garnered almost unanimously good reviews, so what am I missing here? This book about several generations of families in Puerto Rico is ambitious and has a clever gimmick, but I found it tedious. The voice is monotonous–no use of rhythm and very little of poetry of language. I would not have finished it, had I not been reading it for a book club. Okay–I learned a little about Puerto Rican politics, but because of the untrustworthy narrator, that is even shaky.

Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck♥♥♥♥ (U.S.) See post on Steinbeck and McMurtry’s road trip books.

Roads by Larry McMurtry♥ See review. (U.S.)

In a Narrow Grave by Larry McMurtry ♥♥♥ (Texas) McMurtry is at his best when he is explaining Texas, although the novel is his home territory and this is essays. The book was written when he was 30, shortly after the movie Hud was made and he became famous. He delves into the changes from the cowboy life to the suburbs, and he is sad to see it change.

Backroads of the Texas Hill Country,by Gary and Kathy Adams Clark♥♥A departure from my list of literature, but I needed some practical guidance on my Texas road trip as well as help from McMurtry.This book proved to be a pretty thorough guide. See Who Writes Texas.

A Journey into the Transcendentalists’ New England by R. Todd Felton ♥♥♥♥ I’m a sucker for travel tied to literature and writers, so of course I loved this book.  Felton is a good writer and New England is a fertile ground for writers. See Felton’s article.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by  Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic) ♥♥♥♥ A great read, but I wouldn’t want to go there (based on the book). See complete review.

The Informer by Liam O’Flaherty (Ireland)♥♥  I loved the Aran Islands that were O’Flaherty’s home. But this book leave the islands behind. A detailed account of one night in the life of a down-and-out Dubliner and the revolutionaries. It was the style of the writing that put me off this book, although others might love it.

Three Cups of Tea ♥♥ by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Pakistan and Afghanistan) Oddly, I did get a lot of knowledge of Pakistan, and Central Asia’s religious and political turmoil from this book despite the fact that the writing was awkward and overblown. This book is unabashedly propaganda for the very worthy cause of Greg Mortenson, building non sectarian schools in  countries that are mostly Muslim.

Monkey Hunting ♥♥♥♥ by Cristina Garcia. See my review.(Cuba)

A Trance After Breakfast by Alan Cheuse, See review (Various)

Miraculous Air by C.M. Mayo (Baja California, Mexico)♥♥♥ See review.

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby♥♥♥ (Afghanistan and Pakistan) See Review

Paul Bowles, by Gena Dagel Caponi Brief and rather scholarly  biography of a writer I was curious about. From her description, I am not particularly moved to read his travel books–which he did not like to call travel books.♥♥