Books That Transport You to Other Places
Travel the world without leaving your couch… or putting on a face mask! Whether you’re in the mood for a spy thriller set in 1960s Cuba, a modern-day English romance, or a real-life foodie tour—these books will take you all around the globe.
August 17, 2020
Travel the world without leaving your couch… or putting on a face mask! Whether you’re in the mood for a spy thriller set in 1960s Cuba, a modern-day English romance, or a real-life foodie tour—these books will take you all around the globe.
The Unhoneymooners
Christina Lauren
Escape to a luxurious resort in Maui, Hawaii.
Partnered with a nemesis best man on a paradise honeymoon when her bride twin gets food poisoning, a chronically unlucky maid of honor assumes the role of a newlywed before unexpectedly falling for her companion.
Sex and Vanity
Kevin Kwan
Escape to Capri, Italy and New York City.
A glittering tale of love and longing as a young woman finds herself torn between two worlds–the WASP establishment of her father’s family and George Zao, a man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.
From Scratch
Tembi Locke
Escape to the Silician countryside.
An African-American actress recounts her romance with a Sicilian chef whose traditional family disapproved of their marriage and how she sought solace in their close-knit community after his death.
Big Summer
Jennifer Weiner
Escape to an extravagant Cape Cod wedding.
A woman confronts the dynamics of friendship and forgiveness while visiting Cape Cod to attend an old friend’s increasingly disastrous wedding
When We Left Cuba
Chanel Cleeton
Escape to the streets of 1960s Havana, Cuba.
Recruited by the CIA to infiltrate Fidel Castro’s inner circle, Beatriz Perez, who is consumed with revenge and the desire to reclaim the life she lost in the Cuban Revolution, will risk everything–including the man who has stolen her heart.
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters
Balli Kaur Jaswal
Escape to India.
Making an obligatory pilgrimage to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out their mother’s final rites, three estranged British-Punjabi sisters make unexpected discoveries about why their mother was forced to leave India.
Tomorrow There Will Be Sun
Dana Reinhardt
Escape to a private villa in Mexico.
Organizing a group birthday vacation in Mexico for her loved ones, Jenna is dismayed when her friends’ personalities change, her husband begins making clandestine calls and her teen daughter bonds with a local delinquent.
Her Last Flight
Beatriz Williams
Escape to a remote surfing village in Kauai, Hawaii.
Investigating the fate of a forgotten aviation pioneer in 1947, war correspondent Janey Everett tracks down the pilot’s former student before learning the remarkable story of their complicated and passionate relationship.
The Old Drift
Namwali Serpell
Escape to the Zambezi River in Zambia.
On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there was once a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. Here begins the epic story of a small African nation, told by a mysterious swarm-like chorus that calls itself man’s greatest nemesis.
The Island of Sea Women
Lisa See
Escape to the Korean island of Jeju.
The ostracized daughter of a Japanese collaborator and the daughter of their Korean village’s head female diver share nearly a century of friendship that is tested by their island’s torn position between two warring empires.
Leading Men
Christopher Castellani
Escape to Portofino, Italy.
A life-changing encounter among Tennessee Williams, his lover Frank Merlo and a taciturn Swedish beauty at a 1953 Truman Capote party culminates in deathbed revelations about Williams’s final play a decade later.
Red, White & Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston
Escape to London, England.
After an international incident affects U.S. and British relations, the president’s son Alex and Prince Henry must pretend to be best friends, but as they spend time together, the two begin a secret romance that could derail a presidential campaign.
Lost Roses
Martha Hall Kelly
Escape to Revolutionary-era Russia.
Based on true events, a tale set a generation before Lilac Girls traces the stories of three women, including Caroline Ferriday’s mother, a Romanov cousin and a fortune-teller’s daughter, against a backdrop of the Russian revolution and World War I.
Cape May
Chip Cheek
Escape to a gorgeous mansion overlooking the shores of Cape May, New Jersey.
Southern newlyweds honeymooning in 1957 Cape May are pulled into the dramas of a trio of sophisticated New England urbanites who render the deserted beach community an intimate playground of corruptive recklessness.
The Jetsetters
Amanda Eyre Ward
Escape to sun-drenched Athens, glorious Rome, and tapas-laden Barcelona.
Winning the grand prize in an essay contest, a single mother reunites her estranged adult children on a 10-day cruise while confronting long-buried secrets from their dysfunctional shared past.
The Guest Book
Sarah Blake
Escape to Crockett’s Island, off the coast of Maine.
The bereaved matriarch of a powerful early-twentieth-century American family makes a fateful decision that reverberates throughout two subsequent generations further impacted by racism, reversed circumstances, and disturbing revelations.
The Last Resort
Marissa Stapley
Escape to Riviera Maya.
Two couples begin an intensive therapy program to repair their relationships at The Harmony Resort in Riviera Maya and discover that the resort, as well as its celebrity power couple owners, is not all it seems.
The Scent Keeper
Erica Bauermeister
Escape to a remote island.
A young woman raised on a remote island with a father who identifies the scents of the natural world makes illuminating discoveries about her identity and a mysterious cache of fragrances.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors
Kawai Strong Washburn
Escape to 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
When a child falls overboard and is returned safely to his mother by a shark, his miraculous rescue is hailed as a sign from ancient Hawaiian gods, complicating his family’s troubles amid a collapsing sugarcane industry.
Horizon
Barry Lopez
Escape around the world.
Recounts the author’s travels to six regions of the world and the extraordinary encounters with people, animals, and natural elements that shaped his life.
The Food Explorer
Daniel Stone
Escape to China, India, Croatia, Bavaria, Chile, Malta, and more.
The true adventures of David Fairchild, a late-nineteenth-century food explorer who traveled the globe and introduced diverse crops like avocados, mangoes, seedless grapes-and thousands more-to the American plate.
Lost and Wanted
Nell Freudenberger
Escape to Boston.
Receiving an unsettling phone call from her former college roommate, who has just died, a rationally minded MIT professor reflects on their once-close friendship, her friend’s tragic death, and her own rediscovered feelings for a fellow scientist.
Born a Crime
Trevor Noah
Escape to South Africa.
Noah takes readers on a trip back through his formative years in a country beset by internal strife and a tyrannical ruling class struggling to forge an identity apart from the sins of its past.
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz
Escape to Dominican Republic.
Living with an old-world mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and believes that a long-standing family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness.
Disappearing Earth
Julia Phillips
Escape to the volcanoes, tundras, and forests of Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula.
The shattering disappearance of two young girls from Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula compounds the isolation and fears of a tight-woven community, connecting the lives of neighbors, witnesses, family members, and a detective throughout an ensuing year of tension.
Rough Magic
Lara Prior-Palmer
Escape to Mongolia.
The author describes her experience participating in and winning, as the youngest and first-ever female, the Mongol Derby which pits riders against each other while racing a series of twenty-five wild ponies across 1,000 miles of Mongolian grasslands.
Paris for One and Other Stories
Jojo Moyes
Escape to Paris.
A collection of eight short stories is complemented by a novella in which a young woman abandoned during a romantic mini-vacation gathers the courage to embark on an independent tour of Paris.
Less
Andrew Sean Greer
Escape all over!
Receiving an invitation to his ex-boyfriend’s wedding, Arthur, a failed novelist on the eve of his 50th birthday, embarks on an international journey that finds him falling in love, risking his life, reinventing himself and making connections with the past.
The Vacationers
Emma Straub
Escape to the Balearic island of Majorca.
Celebrating their thirty-fifth anniversary and their daughter’s high-school graduation during a two-week vacation in Mallorca, Franny and Jim Post confront old secrets, hurts, and rivalries that reveal sides of themselves they try to conceal.
Wild
Cheryl Strayed
Escape to the Pacific Crest Trail.
A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe–and built her back up again.
Beautiful Ruins
Jess Walter
Escape to Italy and Hollywood.
Follows a young Italian innkeeper and his almost-love affair with a beautiful American starlet, which draws him into a glittering world filled with unforgettable characters.