travel – Page 16 – Cannonball Read 17

Travel History

Topographies by Stephen Benz

July 2, 2019 by Ale Leave a Comment

I got an advanced copy to do a review for The Literary Review, and while travel essays aren’t normally in my wheelhouse, this collection was a winner. Benz travels widely from the Florida Everglades to the Moldovan post-Communist landscape, the deserts of the American West and to the streets of Central America. Historically minded, and introspective of both the culture of the landscapes and the people who inhabit them, Benz’ accounts are a vivid and engaging story of overlooked places and history. The collection is […]

Je t’aime

A Year in Paris by John Baxter

March 10, 2019 by Chris Leave a Comment

Non-fiction book for Feb 2019 My Book Box. If anyone writes more beautifully about Paris than John Baxter, I’ve yet to read them. This book is supposedly about Paris throughout the year. It loosely follows this (there are some jumps in season, time, and place) as well as a brief history of the Revolution’s desire to change the calenderer. It is best to think of this book as part memoir of seasons of his life in Paris, as well as seasons of Paris. Each chapter […]

…Nearly every American hungers to move

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

March 10, 2019 by tillie Leave a Comment

John Steinbeck is 58 and he feels like he’s lost touch with America. He used to know his country, even write books about it, but now he’s unsure. The only sensible thing to do, of course, it to buy a customized truck and set out on a ginormous road trip across America ‘where the people are’ and get to know them all again. I, an American writer, writing about America, was working from memory, and the memory is at best a faulty, warpy reservoir. I […]

Sex and Travel (Emphasis on the Sex)

Wanderlust by Elizabeth Eaves

January 18, 2019 by Wanderlustful Leave a Comment

Wanderlust is Elizabeth Eaves’ memoir of her travels from her late teen years to her mid-30s, and like any travel memoir it suffers somewhat from the delusions of grandeur of its main character/author. The friend who lent it to me did so with the disclaimer that, “she’s a bit pretentious, but aren’t all travel writers? I think you have to be in order to think that other people are going to be interested in your travel diary.” My friend is not wrong. I love to […]

A Road Trip with a Dog

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

January 8, 2019 by thewheelbarrow 3 Comments

I read this due to my Steinbeck kick. I was a little worried about reading it immediately after The Grapes of Wrath but it was the perfect antidote to my melancholy mood. This is a travel journey by one of America’s preeminent authors who decided that that he no longer felt in touch with America and her people and wanted to find her again. Discontented seems to best describe the way he felt with his life when he set off on his journey in 1960 […]

Don’t let the cover mislead you. There are no grizzlies on the Appalachian Trail.

December 18, 2018 by narfna 4 Comments

I added this book to my TBR the very first day I joined Goodreads in July 2008, so yes I do feel accomplished for finally having read it. And it was a good time! I was a bit worried based on a few reviews I’d read ahead of time that it would be dated, and it was a tiny bit (mostly in some jokes Bryson makes that read a little fatphobic to my 2018 eyes and ears, but would have been absolutely bog standard in […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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