August RandomCAT: On the Road Again

Now that travel has come back into our lives after the long lockdown, this month’s RandomCAT challenge is to celebrate being on the road again. Whether it is to relax, to work or to have fun with friends, there is plenty to choose from in fiction and non-fiction: memoirs, time-travel, adventure, vacations, business trips, or exploration, by air, sea or land. Enjoy your travels!

Some suggestions, although many cross over into more than one category:

Memoirs:
Eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Time Travel:
The Time-Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Adventure:
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Long Way Down by Ewan McGregor
Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski

On Vacation:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch
The Girls of August by Anne Rivers Siddons

Business Trips:
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva

Exploration:
The Martian by Andy Weir
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz
The Ra Expeditions by Thor Heyerdahl
Mrs Chippy’s Last Expedition: The Remarkable Journey of Shackleton’s Polar Bound Cat by Caroline Alexander

To a Health Spa:
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
Mrs Pargeter’s Pound of Flesh by Simon Brett
Fatally Flaky by Diane Mott Davidson

By Sea:
No Signposts in the Sea by Vita Sackville West
Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian
Dead Wake: the last crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larsson

By Cruise Ship
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen
Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard

By Train
Murder on the Orient Express (and others) by Agatha Christie
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Silver Locomotive Mystery by Edward Marston
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

By Air
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

Imaginary:
Around the World in Eighty Days by
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

More
The Long Way Home by Robin Pilcher
North Star by Hammond Innes
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Highway by C.J. Box

Whatever you choose, enjoy the trip. Let us know what you plan to read and when finished don’t forget to update the Wiki at: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2021_RandomCAT

Love this theme! I have Paulette Jiles's News of the World on deck for August, which I think will work because the main storyline is a journey.

A quick glance gives me a nice list, but leaning toward:

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England / Ian Mortimer

Ah, the other one I was leaning toward does not appear to be easily available to me.

>2 christina_reads: I may borrow your idea as I just picked that book up from the library.

I have lots of choices here, but I'm looking especially at:

Caitlin Ross and the Commute from Hell by Brian Olsen
Less by Andrew Sean Greer and
Islander by Patrick Barkham

I'm thinking I might read It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels by Polly Evans about a cycle trip in Spain.

A good way to make my next audiobook selection Himalaya, by Michael Palin.

I'll read Travels With Alice by Calvin Trillin which works for another CAT too. I love travel books!

What a fun topic! I think I will be reading The River At Night by Erica Ferencik, an adventure thriller about 4 women on a river rafting trip.

I'm considering The River by Peter Heller about a canoe trip in Canada's north, and North Star by Hammond Innes. Maybe both.

Luckily for me, this coincides with the Non-Fiction challenge in the 75s group, where the August challenge is Transportation. So for both challenges, I am going to read Isles of the North by Ian Mitchell, an account of the author sailing from his home in the Western Isles over to Orkney and Shetland and then to western Norway. I have previously read his Isles of the West, where he sails through the Hebrides.

Very nicely done, with lots of suggestions! This is a great topic! I am missing traveling, so at least I can read about it. Maybe a cruise ship mystery? Maybe Turtle in Paradise which is one of my faves, and I just received the graphic novel version. Lots to choose from.

Great topic. I'm going to mull this one over for a while.

I found this one, Walk Me Home by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

I think I'm going to read Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse for this one. It sounds like travel is central to the book for a couple of the main characters, and I'm anxious to get to it, so we'll see how it goes!

I read The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford.
I was wrong in thinking this would be a cozy mystery in the style of Agatha Christie's famous novel. It is more like her autobiographical works: An Autobiography and Come, Tell me How You Live from which Ashford has taken many details. She cleverly follows Christie's life story and how she met Max Mallowan, her second husband. It begins with Christie fleeing England on the Orient Express as her now divorced husband Archie marries his mistress. On the train she met two other women, one fictitious and the other a real life friend of Christie's. As a travelogue it was first class, describing the journey, the food, the people, and the sights in detail. Naturally, there is the hint of mystery. It's an enthralling read that held me captivated.

Agatha Christie has been a favourite author since I was a pre-teen, reading all of her work and several books about her. And while "faction" is not a genre that attracts me, Ashford did not disappoint. It has encouraged me to revisit some of my favourite Christie novels.

>16 VivienneR: I have this one on my TBR - happy to hear it is a good description of the trip itself as that interests me just as much as the story of Christie's disappearance.

> I have swapped out my choice for this as my hold on Nomadland arrived at the library. It is certainly supporting my ideas about our modern society and just how fragile the foundation is upon which it is built.

Finished Nomadland for this challenge. This is well worth a read, as a discussion on the widening gap between rich and poor and just how this is playing out in the lives of middle-class America.

So for this month, I'm reading Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom, about a young Finnish woman on a long train journey across Russia.

I've just finished It's Not About the Tapas by Polly Evans about her 6-week trip through Spain by bicycle.

Starting Less by Andrew Sean Greer, in which our hero goes on a round the world trip to avoid a social event.

Oh, I just realised the Tuf voyaging fits here! He travels across space in a huge ship with his cats.

>22 Robertgreaves: That's so relatable! (Seriously, I would do that to get out of some social events...)

I read the graphic novel version of Turtle in Paradise. The drawings were just okay by me, although I love the story. I just pictured things a little differently than the artist portrayed them.

This isn't what I planned to read but The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax will work here. After Mrs. Pollifax walks into the CIA and tells them she would like to be a spy, they actually do hire her as a courier. She makes her first airplane trip to Mexico City, is kidnapped and taken to Albania, escapes with two others and manages to get to Yugoslovia.

>26 clue: Oh, I love Mrs. Pollifax. Just thinking about that book makes me want to read it again. I hope you enjoyed it.

Now listening to the audio book Mrs Pollifax, Unveiled, in which Mrs Pollifax flies off to Syria on another adventure.

>27 NinieB: Yes, I liked it a lot. Very different from what I was expecting. I definately want to continue on.

>26 clue: Yay! This is on my pile to read soon. I devoured most of the series about 20 years ago and want to read them again.

>28 nrmay: That's one of the few Mrs Pollifaxes that eluded me on my original pass through the series! Hope I can track down a copy.

In case you missed it, the September thread is here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/334357

I read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce which I think fits. Harold is retired and out of the blue decides to walk from one end of England to the other. Walking is a form of travel.

I also read Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis which is about 3 explorers and their indigenous guide as they explore a planet called Boohte. Very fun and satirical.

COMPLETED Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Minor author Arthur Less accepts various personal and professional invitations in order to have an excuse to miss his ex's marriage to somebody else and travels from San Francisco to New York and then on to Italy, Germany, France, Morocco, India and Japan before returning home.

I listened to Timekeeper by Tara Sim. It's a time travel story.There were other time related aspects to the story. I found these time related aspects of the story implausible. I figured out the big secret in the story fairly early on, despite the story barely holding my attention. I don't recommend this book.

I read a book that involves time travel; Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

I'm reading The Talented Mr. Ripley - so far he has been on a cruise ship, a bus, a train, and a boat.

Phantom Banjo has travelling folk musicians. Unfortunately it couldn't hold my interest.

I've started North Star by Hammond Innes an adventure story on the high seas and so far, it's gripping.

I read a classic adventure, travel book; Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Traveled in submarine exploring all the oceans.

I've started A Walk for Sunshine: A 2160 Mile Expedition for Charity on the Appalachian Trail by Jeff Alt, which I just purchased at a gift shop on the Skyline Drive for something to read while we waited for our 45 minutes for our dinner reservation.

I have completed my read of The River At Night by Erica Ferencik. This is a thriller about 4 middle aged women who chose to go white river rafting on their all-girls vacation. A little over-the-top, but a fun escape read.

For this challenge, I read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. We travel from Paris to London (and around those cities) using planes, cars and even an armored truck.

Chop Suey Nation / Ann Hui
3.5 stars

Ann Hui grew up in Vancouver, and later moved to Toronto where she became a journalist. In 2016, she decided to do a cross-Canada road trip with her partner while stopping at Western Chinese (aka “Chop Suey Chinese”) restaurants and talking to and learning about their owners and the history of the Chop Suey Chinese restaurants in Canada and North America. This is as she learns that her parents had run a Chinese food restaurant before she was born that she never knew about. She weaves in her father’s story, as he immigrated from China (years after his father and sisters came to Canada), grew up, married, worked in and ran restaurants, and had children.

I listened to the audio, read by the author herself, and quite enjoyed this. I was particularly interested in the chat with the owner of the Silver Inn Restaurant in Calgary (where I live), as I was only there for the first time a couple of years ago. This s where “ginger beef” was invented. (I also hadn’t realized that ginger beef is specifically a Western Canadian dish!) But, there were other interesting stories, too. I have to admit it took a while to get “into” her father’s story – I found it more interesting after he arrived in Canada. Ann Hui did a good job of reading the book. She did stumble over words occasionally, but it didn’t detract from the story,

I finished Isles of the North by Ian MItchell - an account of his journey sailing from the Hebrides to the Northern Isles (Orkney/Shetland) and across to Norway.

>45 Jackie_K: That one sounds good - what did you think of it?

>46 Crazymamie: Review is just up on my thread - I enjoyed it, but it was a bit hectoring at times (he is not a fan of the RSPB or Scottish Natural Heritage, so criticises them at every opportunity). But it's well-written, and I enjoyed the sailing bits. I'd have liked a bit more about his time in Norway, that bit was a bit short. I did like that he spoke to locals everywhere he spent time, and foregrounded their voice rather than the national politicians who make decisions that affect people miles away on the islands.

>47 Jackie_K: Thanks for that.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England / Ian Mortimer
4.25 stars

This is nonfiction. The “time traveller” in the title is the reader; the “guide” is, of course, the book. The book takes us back in time to 14th century England, and walks us through, telling about the places (countryside, cities, towns), the people (classes of people), what they wore, what they ate, how they travelled and where they might stay (inns, people’s houses, which of course are different depending on the person’s wealth and rank). Basics like languages, the calendar and time, money and measurements. There are chapters and health and hygiene, as well as the law and what people did. Some things changed between the early and late 1300s and some of this is described, as well.

I found this so interesting. There is so much detail to immerse you into this time and place in people’s daily lives. And I do like the way it’s set up, with the reader “time travelling” there. I feel like this is the setting for (or at least bits and pieces are) many role-playing games, as well as much fantasy, whether on purpose or not. It turns out this is a series! I will definitely be continuing.

>49 LibraryCin: I love these books! I have three of them, not sure if that is all there are? They are just fascinating and easy to read.

>50 JayneCM: I think I saw four of them...? But I'd have to look again. I only added the next to my tbr; when I finish that one, I'll add the one after that, etc...

>51 LibraryCin: I had a look and I do not have the last one. And now it is not available with the same cover design as my other three. That makes me sad. I do like all my books in a series to be matchy-matchy!

>52 JayneCM: - I have one book series that I actually keep (don't have a lot of room so most leave) that changed the cover design and made me so sad. I know that if an author changes publishers that can happen sometimes, but that was not the case. I wonder why they do that.

>52 JayneCM: LOL! Oh, that's too bad, though.

Thanks to everyone for taking part. I hope you all had fun, and like me, have been on the receiving end of some BBs.