Best Kept Secrets

Have you ever just wanted to get away? Relax and have a do nothing day or better yet a do nothing week?  Sigh....it sounds heavenly to me.

I thought I'd introduce you to a few books that have ideas of little known destinations that will lead to the relaxation you are looking for and other destinations that will be perfect if you crave adventure. Here are the destinations and a few tips you may want to consider when planning your next trip.


Last-Minute Travel Secrets: 121 Ingenious Tips to Endure Cramped Planes, Car Trouble, Awful Hotels, and Other Trips From Hell Last Minute Travel by Joey Green
This guide provides travelers with more than a hundred handy and unusual secrets to overcome obstacles and upgrade accommodations using common, easily found products. 

Make the Most of Your Time on Earth by Rough Guides
This is truly the ultimate inspirational guide for world travelers and those who dream of hitting the road. There are 1000 adventures with full color photos and brief summaries of each adventure.

Lonely Planet's Where To Go When: The Ultimate Trip Planner For Every Month of the Year by Lonely Planet
Have you ever wondered where to visit and what time of year to travel there? If you have this is the book for you. There are 12 chapters one for every month of the year and 30 detailed vacation locales for each month and all the information you need to plan your trip. Just want to dream about going away--this book will work for you as well.  

100 Places You Will Never Visit: The World's Most Secret Locations by Daniel Smith
The world is full of secret places that we either don't know about, or couldn't visit even if we wanted to. Now you can glimpse the Tora Bora Cave in Afghanistan, visit the Tower of London Jewel House, and see the Chapel of the Ark. This fascinating guide book takes a look at 100 places around the world that are either so hard to reach, closely guarded or so secret that they are virtually impossible to visit any other way. 

Hopefully if you choose to take a wonderful vacation far from home you can find tips and secrets that will help you enjoy a safe, relaxing getaway, and maybe save money as well. If you prefer a staycation these books are definitely for you. The pictures will make you feel like you were there. 

Summer 2013: Feed Your Travel Bug

Summer 2013: Feed Your Travel Bug

I have been noticing a growing number of people asking for travel diaries, travelogues, and in general books about going places. Now apparently Dewey did not see fit to include a travelogue section when created his decimal system. So in an effort to meet the needs of our patrons, I have composed a top 15 list of travel books.

Cockpit confidential : Everything you Need to Know About Air Travel : Questions, Answers, & Reflections by Patrick Smith

Adrift : Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail / Bill Bryson

Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom by Ken Ilgunas.

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard.

The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari by Paul Theroux

The Best American travel writing.

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo by Tim Parks

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan

The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious and Perplexing City by David Lebovitz

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost.

A strong sense of place

The ability to be taken to new places and have new adventures has always been one of the great allures of reading to me.  Whether it's the daily life of a retiree trying to adjust to life without work or a wife or the exciting adventures of teenagers battling the forces of evil across space and time, reading has always afforded the opportunity to experience new things.  A few books I've read recently, though, have been interesting not because they bring new places to me, but because they take me to places I know well.  There's a strange sort of excitement about reading a story set in a place I'm familiar with. 


In preparation for a recent vacation, I read The Bastard of Istanbul.  It was interesting and a story worth ready, but as I hadn't yet been there, I didn't feel a pull toward the city in any way. By complete coincidence, though, over the past weekend I read Gardens of Water by Cincinnatian Alan Drew.  I didn't even realize that the book takes place outside of Istanbul until after I started it.  In addition to being a really compelling story filled with questions of culture clash, gender roles, religion, physical and mental illness, and young love, I felt a small thrill every time I recognized a street, a district, a word, or a food being referenced.   


It doesn't have to be a foreign locale to be exciting.  I've felt the same rush reading books about Columbus, like Jennifer Cruise's Bet Me or Dayton, like Martha Moody's Office of Desire.  When I lived in a small college town in Iowa, I felt compelled to read Sleeping With the Enemy, which took place in that town.  It's just fun to read about things happening where you are. 

Of course, I'll never be able to travel to as many places as I can read about.  So, until my next vacation, I'll enjoy my armchair travels and learn about new locations through good books.

Dream Big

Do you like to travel? I love to travel. In recent years with summer activities, traveling has not been an option for my family. Truthfully we have traveled but rather than exotic destinations, it’s to softball fields across Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Don’t get me wrong, I love to watch softball, but looking at a field is not the same thing as seeing the sites (sigh).



Oh to swing in a hammock on the beach, hike the mountains, swim in a pool or lounge by a lagoon. If I'm going to dream, I'm gonna dream big... climb the Himalayas and live to tell about it. I can see it now,…white water rafting in Colorado, sailing in the Caribbean or perhaps the Greek Isles and visiting the penguins in Antarctica. But alas,….this year softball wins again. We did decide to add a couple days to our Softball World Series trip so we can sail around Florida and swim with the dolphins (Yeah!).


Here are a few books to wet your whistle for vacations to come or dreams to imagine.

1001 Escapes to Experience Before You Die- An excellent book written by travel experts and people who travel to wonderful destinations around the globe. It contains hundreds of beautiful color photos, so whether you are able to travel to these locales or are like me and simply want an enjoyable read. This book will make your dreams come true.

Once in a Lifetime Trips The author captures amazing photography and uses his personal knowledge to describe destination after destination. He describes once in a lifetime experiences and lists detailed itineraries so that you can experience it too. This is not just for those who can travel, but makes for a magnificent reading experience.

Antarctica Secrets of the Southern Continent-Exquisite photos and an in depth look at all Antarctica offers from its amazing landscape to the penguins that call it home. 

Buona Vacanza!

As an avid NPR listener, I’ve been taken with a small degree of jealously of late as much of the programming this past week has focused on the veritable “V” word ~ “Vacation”. One program in particular highlighted a 2001 publication by author, Cindy Aron. In the book Working at Play, Aron, an associate professor of history, traces the growth of vacationing as a family and social ritual. She examines the tension between the American work ethic and the concept of leisure. Interestingly, I’ve been reading a book that highlights the topic of the American work ethic and leisure. In Death by Leisure: A Cautionary Tale, the author, Chris Ayres, a British journalist, chronicles his return from embedded duty in Iraq with a marines unit, to a new assignment as the showbiz correspondent for a London newspaper. Talk about culture shock! This tell-all opens with Ayres getting the sultry once-over from a beauty in a white bikini at poolside, and everything goes wacky and downhill from there with a bogus assignment to cover singer Michael Jackson, his Neverland estate and his sleepovers. Ayres marvels at the perpetually sunny weather of the sci-fi metropolis, and the Tinseltown crowd of Beverly Hills. Ayres quickly becomes caught up in the whole scene, including getting his piece of the American dream, a house. “I'm a big fan of bubbles ... they're my idea of a good time,” Ayres states in the book, but when the housing bubble bursts, the American dream soon becomes a nightmare. Ayres’ book is a wry, self-deprecating and offbeat look at the excesses of America over the last few years, disguised as an expat’s memoir of life in California. As for vacation travel, this expat offered some inspiration to NPR when listeners were asked to share stories of successful vacation travel at $100 a day or less. Our family vacations involved some serious math calculations as we traveled throughout Europe each summer for more than a decade, pre-Euro days. Camping was the order of the day, in a tent. Meals were prepared over an open fire. There’s nothing like ‘spaghetti alla carbonara’ prepared and eaten ‘al fresco’. If your vacation plans require a passport, our library offers this service. Planning a trip to Italy? Get inspired by watching the film, A Room With a View or better still, read the classic novel by E.M. Forster. And remember ~ "lavoro per vivere, non vivo per lavorare" ~ "work to live, don't live to work". Buona Vacanza!

Grande Dame, Savannah

As our Ohio weather turns colder, I am drawn to the South. In particular I long to return to Savannah, Georgia. I fell in love with Savannah before I had ever set foot in Georgia, courtesy of John Berendt's engaging story-telling. This charming city revealed herself to me as the protagonist of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Berendt's descriptions of Savannah are so detailed that I actually used his book as my tour guide when I finally visited this Grande Dame. While the murder mystery that takes place in Midnight reads like the most skillfully crafted fiction, make no mistake about it, this story is non-fiction. And in this case, truth is definitely stranger than fiction! After Berendt leads you into the city, he will introduce you to the well-to-do, the Southern Belles and Gentlemen, the voodoo priestess, the drag queen and many others whose lives intertwine without any acknowledgement on their behalf. The charismatic people of Savannah, the deep-rooted Southern traditions and the history contained in Midnight blend together in this real life mystery that I read again and again.

Buon Appetito!

Beautifully written, The Saucier’s Apprentice is author Bob Spitz’s gastronomic travelogue. Recently divorced, Mr. Spitz sets out on a journey at mid-life, perhaps seeking to find solace in travel and food. His travels take him (and the reader) to some of the finer cooking schools in France and Italy. The author is candid throughout in sharing details of his emotional journey, but thankfully, not in a morose fashion. Along the way, he also shares some wonderful recipes. Having lived and worked in Italy myself for more than a decade, I had the wonderful opportunity to experience firsthand the cuisine of Italy. The author makes the ultimate brutta figura (faux paux) when cooking with Chef Claudio in the Chianti hills of Tuscany. In response to a beautifully prepared braciole, he exclaims, ‘Voila!’ He should have said ‘ecco qua’! Great inspiration for foodies and travel bugs ~ ‘Buon Appetito’ e ‘Buon Viaggio’!