the problem with travel books and wanderlust

I am, and will always been, in love with traveling. Insatiable Wanderlust. Some times all it takes is a quick weekend trip away from everything. Most of the time though, I'm daydreaming of all the other
countries, as well as other states right here in the US, that I want to see.

Unfortunately, I am also a very broke college graduate with rent to pay and a wedding to plan.  I don't exactly have an abundance of time or money.

Luckily I do have an escape, BOOKS. I can take a road trip cross country, learning about new landmarks along with the characters, and revisiting ones that I've been to before. I can travel to different countries that I've dreamed of visiting for well... ever.

I especially like the books that have me sitting with my phone or laptop next to me so that I can google places and facts to learn more. I can know random details, or fun stories of traditions and culture without ever having been there.

Sadly the "without ever having been there", is the kicker. Traveling via book is fantastic, but sometimes it only serves to make me want to jump on the next plane to a new country. I just get in my car and start driving.

So you tell me. Am I just the weird one here? Or are there others like me? Please comment below! Where do you want to go? What are your favorite travel books?? Can't wait to see your replies!

Jana's Recent 5-Star Reads

Since becoming a book blogger, I find myself not LOVING as many books as I used to. I'm not sure if my tastes are changing, if I'm expecting more of a book because I've read so many amazing ones (and terrible ones), or if I'm just getting pickier because I feel like my readers expect brutal honesty from me. I'm not giving out as many 5-star reviews as I used to. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure... Anyone feel like weighing in here on this?

Anyway, I thought I'd highlight a few of the books that have gotten 5 stars out of me lately!

Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill 
(full review here)

This might possibly be my new favorite YA contemporary romance! I love the descriptions of London (a place I am just dying to visit), our very nerdy Julia (her nickname is Book Licker. COME ON.), and the swoony young love that blooms and burns sooooo slowly. And the witty banter and hilarious situations can't hurt. Plus, travel. This book knocked it out of the park for me. 

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo 

(full review here, in which I make a Friends reference... 

because doesn't Friends fit into everything?)

Guys. I am not a fantasy lover. Or at least I never had been. Leigh has created this super dynamic, exciting, mysterious world for us and I can't get enough of it. Plus, her writing had me salivating. It's absolutely amazing. Throw in a bad-a heroine, a sexy villain, a noble love interest, and SO MANY DETAILS, and you've got a Jana who loves the fantasy genre.

Instructions for a Broken Heart by Kim Culbertson 
(full review here)

Yet another book that takes place on a class trip to a far off place. Can you tell I missed out on study abroad and class vacations? Yeah. My love of this book probably comes from my love of Italy. Kim took me right back. Our heroine, Jessa, is perfectly flawed and so much fun to read about. And then there are some sweet boys... and introspection... a little controversy. I just loved it. And honestly, I have not been hearing enough about it these days. Don't let this one get lost on your TBR shelf! 

 
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (full review here)

I probably don't have to explain much with this one. Marissa has me loving Little Red Riding Hood, a story I hate growing up. And I got to see my best pal Cinder again, which was a surprise. I love that Marissa writes strong heroines, and then puts the focus on them. These girls don't need saving, and that's refreshing. I love the balance of humor and seriousness, and I'll never get enough of this world. Ahhhh...

Ok, so there you have it! Do any of you feel the way I do about these titles? And please. Throw some of your 5-star reads at me, because I'd really LOVE to read them! And I'm serious about advice on whether or not you're getting more picky about books as time goes on. Are you a book blogger who finds themselves getting more cynical? Are you getting more selective in your "old" age? Help a girl out!

Tahleen takes a literary trip to Hawaii

Ever since my honeymoon, I've been kind of obsessed with reading books set in the beautiful islands of Hawaii. I've read fiction and nonfiction, adult books and children's literature. Anything that takes me back to that place and its people and culture. I've found a good number of books that are not only set there, but are also great reads. Or movies.

Me, on a catamaran tour of the Napali Coast of Kaua'i

The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

I watched the movie before reading the book, and I have to say I did enjoy the former better than the latter. Though I must say, never have I seen a movie that lifted so much of the dialogue right out of the book it's based on. Both are good.

The Descendants the movie

The movie is much richer visually, for obvious reasons, and thus gives a much stronger sense of place. It also developed the land issue that Matt King must figure out (he is the head of a trust that owns a huge piece of land on the island of Kaua'i and must decide whether to sell or not). I just think the visual medium is a better way to tell this story, and I like the characters better in the way they are portrayed here.

The Calvin Coconut series by Graham Salisbury

 

I love this series, which is aimed at children ages 7-10. It is set on Oahu, and follows the life of 4th-grader Calvin Coconut (yes, it's his real name; his dad is a famous singer who legally changed their name to Coconut before leaving them). I love that the stories are things that aren't about Hawaiian "issues," they are just about Calving getting into trouble or situations and trying to solve them on his own. And yet the Hawaiian culture is such a part of everything regardless, it doesn't need to be explained to readers who might not be familiar with it. And that might be the thing I love the most about this series.

Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport

This rich and poignant novel tells the story of Hawaii's history over the course of the lives of seven generations of women. It's a long book, but well worth it—it taught me about the lives of the people of Hawaii during America's seizure of its lands, its annexation, the leprosy plague, and in the late 20th century. It is eye opening and beautiful.

Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell

This is a fantastic nonfiction book about Hawaii's history and culture. I listened to this on audio, and Vowell was great, though she did take a little getting used to.

And now I'm going to leave you with a few pictures from when I was in Hawaii.

At Waimea Canyon

Tunnels Beach

Waipi'o Valley

Do you have any places you like to visit in books?

Tahleen reviews: "Anna and the French Kiss" by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Speak, 2011 (paperback)

Okay, okay, I know. What took me so long. Life got in the way, kids. But I finally made it, months after everyone else. And of course, everyone was right.
Anna is being sent to France against her will for her senior year of high school. At least it's an American boarding school, but still, she's pissed at her dad (a famous author who sounds suspiciously like Nicholas Sparks) for taking her away from everything she knows and sending her to some foreign country on her own. But she eventually settles in, makes friends, and is forced to get to know the city by said friends, especially St. Clair (that's his last name, first name Etienne). Friendship gets complicated between these two though, when both start to feel something more but, oh hey, St. Clair has a girlfriend. Then throw in a mean girl, another dude, and the excitement only Paris has to offer and you get one awesome book.

There's really not much more I can say about this book that hasn't been said, but I'll do it anyway. Yes, St. Clair has a British accent and is a super nice guy and is extremely attractive (and short—my fiance would approve), but he also has his baggage. This includes a truly awful father and the inability to be alone at this time in his life (you'll see why). Anna is equally down to earth, and she has an appreciation for film that is rarely seen in YA novels—her aspiration is the be one of the few female film critics. Their relationship is incredibly real and exactly what a friends/more-than-friends relationship is like. Anyone who's ever been in that sort of situation will feel the same way, I'd guess. And I love that it takes the appropriate amount of time for them each to fall for the other.

Did I mention there are serious issues in here too? No? There are serious issues. Bullying, for one. At one point Anna has to deal with some truly terrible people and I actually cried at how they were treating her. That's not the only real-life issue in here, but that's where I'll stop because I don't want to give any spoilers for the few who have yet to read it.

And how could I forget the setting? This book made me want to go back to Paris, since hey, I was there for only 7 hours between trains. The food, the people, the excitement are all intoxicating. Even though it rained most of the days in the book, I still wanted to be there.
I stayed up late to finish this, something I wasn't expecting to do, and that doesn't happen very often for me. So yes, this book is everything everyone has been saying it is. It's truly worth the read, not only because of how utterly delightful it is, but because of it's depth and the truth behind every relationship.
I know the American cover isn't the best, one of the reasons I didn't read it sooner, but let me show you an alternate cover I found:

Isn't that so much cuter?
Side note: Did anyone else think the way Anna was described sounded exactly like Anna Paquin in X-Men? Gap between the front teeth, bleach in the hair, her name is Anna...

Disclosure: I got this book from the library.

Jessi Reviews "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

Title/Author: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson 
Publisher/Year: Broadway, 1999
How I Got This: I picked up a copy of this from one of my library's used book sales 
Why I Read It: I've always wanted to hike part of the Appalachian Trail and this book came highly recommended to me from one of my college classmates 
Rating: 4 Stars 

Synopsis (from Goodreads): God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail.

The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas.

With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humour, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey.

An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans.

Review: This is a book that has been recommended to me time and again, and I finally got around to reading it.

And I loved it!

I went into this book, having heard it was supposed to be funny, but I still had this preconceived notion that it would be some sort of dry history of the Appalachian Trail and the various locations along the way. I couldn't have been more wrong. Bryson ambles between a bit of history and tales about the people he met and the adventures he got into along the way, without being one bit boring. He grabbed my attention for the duration of the book, and I had a hard time putting this one down. While this is non-fiction, it's more like narrative non-fiction. Bryson writes with an effortless, conversational tone that makes for easy reading. I could have read this book easily in a day or two, had it not been for school and pesky homework getting in my way. Even then, half the time, my mind was with Bryson in the woods.

I was surprised, too, to find that the bits of history that he included were very interesting. For example, at one point, he talks about Pennsylvania's history with coal. As a native of PA, I know all about the impact of coal on the state, but I was still fascinated to read about Centralia, which I had never heard of before. A town sitting on top of a burning coal mine that has the potential to burn for thousands of years? Awesome! I love that kind of trivia--and Bryson included a wonderfully interesting amount of it throughout his tale.

I also particularly loved just reading about the adventures he and Katz, his hiking companion, got into along the way. They were such a good pair, and while reading, I had these visions of how the two of them would make a perfect duo on a tv show, like Tim and Al from "Home Improvement." The two of them certainly met some interesting people along the way, like Chicken Joe and Mary Ellen who just cracked me up.

And that brings me to the humor. Bill Bryson is my hero. He is hi-freaking-larious! When I'm at school, I typically do a lot of my reading at night before I head to bed. There were definitely nights were it took all that I had not to burst out laughing for the sake of my sleeping roommates. Basically, trying to read this book without laughing is a feat in itself. Bryson has this excellent sense of humor--a kind of off-handed wittiness. I love it. If I could take this guy out for a coffee, I would so do it, just to get a chance to see what makes him tick. I love that he tells this tale like an ordinary Joe. He doesn't get on a high horse like an environmental elitist about hiking on the AT. He misses hamburgers and soft beds while he's hiking. He doesn't try to make it out to be a philosophically transcendent experience. That's not to say that he didn't enjoy his hike--you can tell when you're reading this book that while some parts of the trail flat-out suck, it's still something that he is happy to have done.

Overall, this was just an excellent book. It has me itching for summer and a chance to be out in the woods. I recommend this to those who enjoy being outdoors or for those looking for a hilarious read.

Jen Talks Bookish Airport Observations

Earlier this month I had some traveling to do and the airport is my favorite place for people watching.  You encounter people from all over the world and everyone is headed to a different destination.  It doesn't matter the time of day or how big the airport is, observing people is best done at the airport.  I always root for the people who are running late, you know the ones you see them sprinting by with their carry-on bags that are practically bursting at the seams.

Other than in bookstores and libraries the airport is the one place I've seen an abundance of people reading.  This time around I noticed a lot more people using e-readers.  But for those travelers who were reading physical books there were two books in particular that kept popping up:  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Help.  Overall, Larsson's book was by far the book I saw most people engrossed in.

My traveling book was The Help, purchased at the airport because I accidentally packed my book in my checked luggage instead of my carry-on.  The girl who was sitting next to me on one of my flights was also reading The Help.  We talked about the book and reading for a little bit before we each put our nose in our books.

Other books I saw people reading:

• One Day
• Sarah's Key
• The Girl Who Chased the Moon
• A Visit From the Goon Squad
• Imaginary Girls
• Treachery in Death
• A couple different Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner books

I really wanted to ask the people with e-readers what they were reading but I'm kind of shy and didn't want to approach people by myself.

If you've traveled this summer what book (or books) did you bring with you on your travels?

I had my nook with me as well but prefer reading a physical book while flying.  Mainly because of that portion of time when you can't have any electronic devices on.

Also, in the U.S., some of the airport shops have a special promotion called Read and Return.  You purchase a book in their store, read it and if you return the book within six months (with the original receipt) you get half of your money back.  The program isn't in all airports but it is in a quite a few and of course I've misplaced the bookmark that had the airports listed.

Top Ten Tuesday -- FREEBIE week!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list  that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

This Top Ten Tuesday it's a freebie -- use this week to write a top ten list about ANYTHING in literature. Maybe you have a more specific list you want to do (Top Ten Dystopians, Top Ten Creatures in Paranormal Lit, Top Ten Classics, etc) or something completely your own?

Check here for future topics!

I decided that my (Jamie's) list is going to be:

Top Ten Books That Intensify The Travel Bug In Me

1. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour -- I honestly was starting to plan out my own epic roadtrip while reading this. I'm always the type who wants to go explore faraway lands but this book made me realize all the fun and awesome sites to be seen right in my own country!

2. anything Bill Bryson - if you like good travelogues...Bill Bryson is your man!

3. Eat, Pray, Love -  I know a lot of people hated this one but the descriptions made me salivate. Or maybe it was the food in the Italy section? Gross either way.

4.  French Milk -- This was SUCH an interesting read. It's a graphic novel about a girl and her mom's extended vacation in Paris. It seriously made me want to go back. Again with the food...lots of food descriptions. Food and travel just go hand and hand so well!

5.  Travels With Charley -- This one was another one that REALLY made me want to travel all over the US and see all the amazing places there are right here. Great travelogue!

6. Anna and the French Kiss - This book had me practically dying to get back to Paris. All of the places to be explored. This one made me think of how the city just romanced me to death as opposed to French Milk (above) which just made me want to eat a lot and live there.

7. 360 Degrees Longitude - This one was epic! A husband and wife traveling all around with their two children --- and biking a lot of the way! They went to sooo many places and I just honestly couldn't soak it all in. I learned so much and really felt like armchair traveling.

8. On The Road - Seriously I loved this book but I know lots of people hated it. I loved the meandering plot and just how it evoked that feeling of being on the road.

9. Memoirs of A Geisha -- This book has made me want to explore Japan (and China!) so bad in my life. I just really got a sense of the surroundings and wanted to go explore myself.


Well, only got 9 for today but those are some of the books I've read that really intensify that travel bug in me. It happens a lot to me in travelogues (obvi) and fiction that really has lush descriptions of amazing places.

Can't wait to see all your diverse lists today!!

Heather reviews Greyhound by Steffan Piper

Book/Author: Greyhound by Steffan Piper
Publisher/Year: AmazonEncore, 2010
Where I got this: bought from Amazon
Why I read it: I love road trip stories and I heard this was a good one.
Rating: 4 stars


Summary (from Goodreads): Ushered out from his Stockton, California home by his emotionally detached mother and her latest boyfriend, twelve-year-old Sebastien Ranes must fend for himself and travel two thousand miles across the country. He is on his way to live with his grandmother and sister in Pennsylvania. Along the way, he will learn that sometimes caring, guidance and understanding can come from some unlikely people.
Marcus, a fellow bus passenger, is a man who has been neglected more by society than his family. As a young black ex-con, he is not the epitome of the person most would pick as a chaperone for their child's cross country trip. Yet rather than be held apart by their differences, Marcus and Sebastien are drawn together by the things that make us all alike.
Along the way, he acts as both guide and protector, as Virgil was to Dante and Jim to Huck Finn. Imparting his own style of wisdom, he shows Sebastien that, despite the darker parts of the human condition, people can and do care for one another. This is a modern day journey not just from one house to another. This is a journey taken by a young boy into manhood, and by the reader into his world. Like every trip, there are many stops along the way. But this journey differs in the way young Sebastien arrives at his destination. Greyhound is the story of this journey.


My thoughts: I love reading about cross country road trips so when I heard about Greyhound, I was definitely interested in giving it a try. Then when I saw the book design featured an old cassette tape, I just knew I was going to love this. Sebastien Ranes was such a loveable leading character which made it all the more enjoyable to read his story. A day before his 12th birthday, his mother puts him on a bus to travel from California to Pennsylvania all by himself. Throughout the four days of his trip, Sebastien encounters more excitement and drama than many people do in a lifetime and also manages to do a lot of growing up in such a short amount of time.

Along the way, he befriends the ex-con Marcus, who takes Sebastien under his wing for the remainder of the trip and actually saves his life at one point. The adventures these two men have kept me on the edge of my seat and had me laughing out loud quite a few times. They may have been an unlikely pair but I thought the friendship they developed was so cute. I admired the way Marcus looked after Sebastien and let him in on some of life's little secrets. It was touching and sad thinking that this was the most genuine friendship Sebastien had ever had. For someone who came from such terrible parents, he was amazingly level headed and curious. If Sebastien's story had continued, I could definitely see him doing some wonderful things with his life.

In Greyhound, Piper did a great job of eliciting emotion from the reader. One minute I was so angry about the way Sebastien's mother treated him, the next I was disgusted by the creepy guy in the suit and then right after that I was oohing and ahhing at how adorable Sebastien was. I felt as though I was occupying the third seat in the back of that bus, right next to Sebastien and Marcus. I found myself very protective of him as well. Anytime there was a hint of danger, my senses were heightened, like I knew something bad was coming but I had the ability to keep him safe.

This was a nice change of pace from what I've been reading lately and I would highly recommend it to anyone who needs a quick fix for their wanderlust!

Daisy's Favourite Places to Read World Wide

We had a Top Ten Tuesday once regarding your favourite places to read. I didn't participate back then, but I wanted to show you guys some beautiful places I've been and read at around the world.


First off is Jardines de la Ciudadela in Barcelona:

I can't even begin to describe the awesomeness that is Barcelona in general, but the day me and my boyfriend spend in this park was just perfection! It's so beautiful. There's a zoo in the park or right next to it, I can't remember correctly, but in the park they have little green and yellow parrots flying around and sitting in the trees and bushes everywhere. It was just so cute. We spend the whole day sitting in the shade of a tree and just reading. It's one of the best days I've ever had. I'd go back there in a heartbeat. You actually weren't allowed to walk on the grass, but people were sitting on it everywhere, so we figured we'd be okay.



Hyde Park, London:

Well, of course I had to show you this one! I'm a huge anglophile and kept squealing when my boyfriend agreed to make a trip to London. I want to go back there so bad! They have amazing bookstores.
And parks. Oh my gosh, the parks! They are everywhere. Big ones, little ones. Filled with these little guys -->
They are so cute and pretty tame, if you bring peanuts they'll just eat them right out of your hand. I loved it.



Marmaris, Turkey:

I went there with one of my best friends from high school and it was so HOT! It was about 40-45C and even in the shade it was almost too hot to read (note: almost). The water is so blue there and the skye is almost purple, it was really beautiful.




And then finally, a little closer to home: Goffert Park & Kronenburger Park, Nijmegen, The Netherlands:

We have two pretty parks in Nijmegen, where I live and go to the university. I love to be outdoors while I'm reading, it's just so relaxing.


So, this is me, how about you guys? Any beautiful spots to share? And please, please do leave links to pictures if you can! I love discovering new places :)

Julia Reviews "Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper" by Fuchsia Dunlop

Title/Author: Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop
Publisher/Year Published: 2009 by W. W. Norton & Company
How I got this book: Funny story: I was living in Chengdu, China when the author came to the city promoting it. I wanted to go, forgot about it and ended up missing it (woe). Fast-forward a year later. My friend decides to give me this book for my birthday (previous story unknown to him). Fast forward a year later, and I've finally finished reading it.
Why I read this book: The thing I miss most about China is the food and Chengdu. This book was a combination of both.
Rating: 4.5 stars

I miss China. I lived there for about a year back in 2008-2009. More specifically I miss Chengdu: the ease of life there, the laid back friendless of its people, and it's spicy hot delicious flavors. Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper takes me back to the time I spent there, so much so that I can almost taste it again.

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper is a memoir chronicling Dunlop's time in Chengdu when it was changing into the city that it is today. During this time, Chengdu did not have a high foreigner count (Fun Fact: when I was there, it still didn't: ~11mil. total people in the city of those ~24,000 were foreigners). Her tale is a story of how she got there and what it was like being a foreigner in the city. Not only that Dunlop was the first foreigner (and a female! gasp!) to attend the famous Sichuan Cooking School. While talking about this exploits and more, Dunlop interweaves a tale of the culture of a changing China with the thing Sichuan people know best, their cooking.

Each chapter centers around a main theme, be it food or a cultural phenomena, and thus together they tie in a loose narrative. I found it best to read this book chapter by chapter, taking time in between each to savor the memories left on my tongue.

It's hard, well impossible really, for me to separate myself from my experiences and review this from an outsider perspective. But here is my probably fruitless effort to do so. Each chapter introduces the reader to an aspect of life in China, mostly through food or food metaphors. Dunlop tells a great story that is at the same time engaging as it is educational. Plus, each chapter either ends with a recipe related to what was talked about in the chapter or a fun little tidbit, like the different fire levels of cooking things or the names and shapes of different cuts of food done with a cleaver.

All in all, I think this would be an enjoyable read for anyone who is interested in the Chinese culture or loves food/travel related memoirs. For me the best part after being able to relive my memories was being able to put it down after a chapter and pick it up again months later, not needing to remember what was happening and still enjoying it all the same.

Overall a delicious read that evoked powerful emotions (be it memory or revulsion; the chapter on textures pretty much had me wearing a grimace through the entire thing) that I believe would be fun for the traveler to China or the traveler that travels in dreams and words.

4.5 spicy stars

Fun Fact: Besides spicy food, Chengdu is known for one other thing...