TTT: Books for Armchair Travelers

Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Armchair Travelers

No time or funds for exotic trips? No worries. 

Here are some books which will take you to those spots free of charge!

Italy:

 Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (Cinqueterre) 

 The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (Venice)

Spain:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Barcelona)

 To the Field of Stars: A Pilgrim's Journey to Santiago de Compostela by Kevin Codd (The Camino)

India and Sri Lanka:

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Malabar Coast of Southern India, in the state of Kerala)

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Old Delhi and Kashmir) 

Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan (Jaffna in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka)

The continent of Africa:

 The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré (Nigeria)

West With the Night by Beryl Markham (Kenya)

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

East Asia:

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (Vietnam)

Pachinko by Min Lin Lee (South Korea)

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner (Cambodia)

The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (Kamchatka, Eastern Russia)

Australia and New Zealand

Island Home by Tim Winton (Western Australia)

Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump (New Zealand)

The Americas

In Darkness by Nick Lake (Haiti)

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (Chile)

The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede (Newfoundland, Canada)

Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton (USA)

I could go on but will stop. I will also be taking notes on your lists to give me idea of good books to read about your reading around-the-world experiences.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- ¡Mexico!

¡Mexico!

Weather: In Xcaret, Q.Roo, Mexico: 80 degrees and sunny yesterday. Here: 45 degrees and sunny today.

We just got back from a week-long vacation to Mexico on the Yucatán Peninsula near Cancún. Here are a few highlights of our week:

• Top left: We met up with two of my siblings, Tony and Kathy, and their spouses. In the photo we are finishing our meal in the Asian restaurant at the resort. In addition to two buffets on site, there were several specialty-themed restaurants (Mexican, Asian, Italian, Fish, etc.) which required reservations. I've never been to an all-inclusive resort before. I liked it a lot for the ease and convenience. During the days couples would split up and do whatever they wanted and then every evening we would get together for dinner and sometimes drinks and games afterwards. On Sunday, Feb. 7th, we all gathered at the Sports Bar on the resort site and watched the Superbowl together. They switched the audio to English but it didn't matter since it was so loud in the bar. There were a lot of noisy fans cheering for their favorite team. Since we are all from the West Coast of the US, we all cheered for the Seahawks. 
• Top center: This is the view from my lounge chair on many days as I laid under the palm trees near the sea. My husband preferred to lounge on the curtained beds next to my chair. I ended up reading almost a whole, big book (over 400 pages.) The temperatures in the shade were usually in the low 80s with a nice ocean breeze. Often we could see the adventurous souls who ventured out for parasailing, as they sailed by being pulled by boats. Books completed this week: The Guardian and a Thief by Marjan Kamali and The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante. I'm still currently reading the Wild Dark Shore by McConaghy. I'm listening to Vinegar Girl by Tyler.
• Top right: One afternoon we went to a nearby cenote, The Garden of Eden Cenote, for a refreshing outing. A cenote is a natural, water-filled sinkhole formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock, revealing an underlying, crystal-clear groundwater system. Derived from the Mayan word ts’ono’ot ("well"), these pools are predominantly found in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and were historically considered sacred, representing entrances to the underworld. In the photo you see me and Don sitting on a mossy rock watching little fish nibble at the dead skin on our feet and legs. This was my favorite activity of the trip...the cenote, not the fish.
• Middle left: I did a lot of bird watching. Pictured is the Great Kiskadee. Other new birds to me: the Great-tailed Grackle; a group of Ocellated Turkeys; several Tropical Mockingbirds; Yucatán Jays, they were everywhere around the cenote; the Common Squirrel-Cuckoo; I heard the Altamira Oriole and saw its woven, upside-down nest; Brown Pelicans; Black vultures. I also met the Harris Hawk who was working the resort with a handler to keep down the number of grackles who would harass us otherwise. Two other birds seen around the cenote which I've seen before -- an Anhinga pair and a Green Heron working the edges of the sinkhole.
• Center: Sunrise over the Caribbean Sea.
• Middle right: Ruins at Tulum, one of the last cities built and inhabited by Mayans, prominent during the 13th to 15th centuries. (Wiki)
• Bottom left: Nohuch Mul pyramid is the tallest structure in the Mayan ruins at Coba. My sister joined Don and I one day to explore the ruins at Coba and Tulum. Coba is very spread out so our guide (a beautiful Mayan woman) and Don rode bikes between sights, while Kathy and I were escorted around by pedicab. The Spaniards never found this location so it is more intact than many of the other Mayan settlements because it was abandoned about 1100 CE and the jungle had grown over it before the Europeans arrived. We could have climbed the pyramid, behind us in the photo, but that didn't sound fun to Kathy and I so Don didn't push it. (Wiki)
• Bottom middle: Spider monkeys. Signs everywhere at the resort implored people to not feed the animals, but the monkeys were opportunistic little thieves. If someone left their sliding glass door open even for a minute, they would race in and steal from the complimentary fruit bowl. The resort also had a bunch of coatimundis running around. They are raccoon-like. Agoutis, rodents which are like little capybaras. White-tailed deer and iguanas were everywhere.

  

  Here is one stealing our last apple.

  
  
• Bottom right: Don and I grabbed a last hour of sun before we left our Mexico resort and made our way home to Washington State.
• Thank you, Tony and Becky for making our Mexico trip possible!

Look who missed their grandparents and greeted us today:

The grandkids were excited by the kit we gave them to create an axolotl, in the Mexican art style, Alebrijes -- Alebrijes (ah-leh-bree-hehs) are the brightly colored, fantastical Mexican folk art creatures, often featuring mixed animal parts, carved from wood or made from papier-mâché. Originating in Mexico City in the 1930s by Pedro Linares, they are now iconic, intricately painted, whimsical figures primarily produced in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Happy Valentine's Day to the love of my life!

Now. Time to get to the laundry and plan a trip to the grocery store.

-Anne

Review: ATMOSPHERE: A LOVE STORY (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: Atmosphere: a Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Book Beginning/ First Line Friday quote:

Dec. 29, 1984                                                                                                                            Joan Goodwin gets to the Kennedy Space Center well before nine, and Houston is already airless and muggy.

Friday56 quote: 

Happiness is so hard to come by. I don't understand why anyone would begrudge anyway else for managing to find some of it.

Summary: 

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars. (Publisher)

Review: I loved Daisy Jones and the Six and disliked Malibu Rising both by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Though one would never know how I felt about the books by my ratings. I gave both of these books a rating of 4 stars. Ha! Therefore, I decided to read Atmosphere: a Love Story with a little trepidation. Would I love or dislike this one? Well, I'm happy to report, I loved this one.

Back in 1979, Joan Goodwin and Vanessa Ford are in the second class of potential female astronauts with NASA. They work hard and build a strong bond with the other members of their initiation class. Both of these women were tapped for their special skills -- Joan, astrophysics; Vanessa, for mechanics. The two form a strong bond and eventually fall in love. But during this time period being involved in a gay love affair would be a sure way to get fired, especially from such a organization as NASA. For this reason Joan and Vanessa have to keep their relationship a secret from everyone including their friends and family. When there is an accident in space the reality of their relationship verses the need to remain astronauts comes into focus.

When I sat with this story for a while after finishing the book, I determined that it advised me on an emotional level the validity of same-sex marriage. Everyone deserves to be loved and no one should dictate who others love. It was a powerful experience for me.

My rating: 4.5 stars

_______________________________________________

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

TTT: If You Love These Books -- You Will Love Books

TTT: If You Love These Books, You Will Love These Books

                  If You Loved ...                                       You Will Probably Love This One...

-Anne

Review: THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Book Beginning/ First Line Friday quote:

December 1981: I stood on the lacquered floor -- a small woman in black with a rectangular name badge on my chest. 

Friday56 quote: 

Lionesses. Us. Can't you see it, Ellie? Someday -- you and me -- we'll do great things. We'll live lives for ourselves. And we will help others. We are cubs now, maybe. But we will grow to be lionesses. Strong women who will make things happen.

Summary: Set in Tehran, Iran in the years 1950-1980, The Lion Women of Tehran tells the story of two girls who meet when they are in primary school and then follows the ins and outs of their lives and their friendship as they grow and change. There is Ellie who is raised to be a princess, to fulfill her mother's ideal of what a young woman can become -- a pampered wife and mother herself. And there is Homa who is raised by a communist father and a mother who loves to cook. She dreams big of what a woman's life could be outside the cultural norms. Both girls are brilliant and work hard at their studies. One day, while in college with the political turmoil roiling through the country, an innocent slip of the tongue leads to a betrayal that will have lifelong consequences. The novel is full of love and courage, "and is a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young" (Publisher).

Review: The Lion Women of Tehran was a book club selection for January's meeting. Every woman in the club liked the book, which rarely happens, yet no one spoke of it in gushing, rhapsodic terms. It was a good, but not clutch-the-book-to your-chest-and-sigh good book. The publisher compares this book to The Kite Runner, set during the same time period in Iraq. But I argued this book, though very impactful, did not have the same emotional punch as its predecessor. One thing we all agreed upon, the book really highlights food and Iranian cuisine well. The descriptions of the food in the book made all of our mouths water. I wanted to try everything.

It was an excellent club choice, however, because there was so much to discuss about women's rights and how women have fared throughout history at the hands of men involved in extreme, fanatical wings of religions. Homa, who fights for women's rights in Tehran, because women are not allowed to keep their children if they get divorced in the 1960s, is shocked when the government is overthrown in the late 1970s and women are sent packing back to the middle ages, requiring women to cover themselves, not allowing most women to even work outside the home. Here we are in 2020s USA, and we can feel these same breezes blowing on our cheeks. Our grandmothers won the right to vote. Our mothers won the right for women to use contraceptives and to have equitable division of property and children after divorces. Now we are being threatened by Christian Nationalists, currently in charge of our government, that women will need to revert to old family values -- staying home and raising children -- which all they purport women are good for! See what I mean? We had a lot to discuss.

One woman reviewer on Goodreads said this about The Lion Women of Tehran:

While this novel didn't deliver the emotional punch I was expecting it to, it does fulfill its promise at providing a story filled with feminine courage and moral fortitude. Ellie and Homa are good examples of what women have always been fighting for and will continue to do so, especially in places where it is dangerous to do so. 3.5 stars

I agree with her estimation of the book. I liked the feminine courage and moral fortitude of the story. I liked the message of about important good friends are for us. I gave it 4 stars.

_______________________________________________

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

-Anne

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

Classics Club Spin #43

It is time for another Classics Club Spin. 

The spin happens on Sunday, February 8th. At that time a number will be announced and I will have until March 29th to finish that book. All you have to do, if you want to join in, is create a numbered list of 20 classics you still want to read and wait for the announcement, then commence reading.

My One-Big-Book of 2026 is Moby-Dick, so I honestly hope to have that book win the spin. I also have my own copies of Madame Bovary, The Good Earth, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes so those books would be a cinch for me to start. We'll see where the spinner stops.

CC Spin # 43

1. The Good Earth by Buck

2.   The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov

3.      Death Comes for the Archbishop by Cather

4.      Don Quioxides by de Cervantes*

5.      The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov

6.      Heart of Darkness by Conrad*

7.      The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle

8.      Invisible Man by Ellison*

9.      Madame Bovary by Flaubert*

10. The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne

11. The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway

12. Siddhartha by Hesse

13. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Highsmith

14. On the Road by Kerouac

15. Elmer Gantry by Sinclair

16. Moby Dick by Melville*

17. Midnight’s Children by Rushdie*

18. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Sparks

19. Dracula by Stoker*

20. Scoop by Waugh

*Books in the top 30 classic books list.

And the number is…. 

2!

So I will be reading The Master and Margarita.   Here is a summary of what I can expect: A humorous look at life in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. It wasn’t published until after the author’s death. 

-Anne

TTT: Books with Cool Typography on Covers

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Cool Typography on Their Covers. 

All read by me in 2025.

(I wouldn't say these are the world's best examples of cool typography, but apparently I didn't read great examples of typography last year.)

How Do You Spell Unfair? by Carole Boston Weatherford.
UNFAIR is the point!

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.
There's an extra HUNTER in there.

Shackled: How Two Corrupt Judges Defied Justice, Made Millions, and Harmed Thousands of Children by Candy J. Cooper.
$HACKLED by or for money.

Flamer by Mike Curato.
It was the summer of campfires where the Mike came to self-acceptance.

Road Home by Rex Ogle.
How do you find the way home when you've been kicked out?

How to Write a Poem by Kwame Alexander and Deanna Nikaido
Imagination is the focus on these poems.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.
The typography wins for the batch I've shared.

Tilt by Emma Pattee.
The whole world is tilted after an earthquake.

Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout.
Hmm. Can't remember what blackbirds have to do with this Holocaust story.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Iconic cover.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Songs for Now

Weather: Overcast, foggy, potential for rain. A very grey day.

Songs for Now:

Proud to Live in Minnesota by Tim Sparks

Streets of Minneapolis by Bruce Springsteen

Won't You Be My Neighbor? by Lady Gaga "We need Mr. Rogers at this time." (The second half of the video is the whole song.)

Lift Us Up: A Song for America by Bethany and Peter Yarrow. An oldie but a goodie for this time.

Soldier of Fortune by Marie Gauthier. Think of the ICE agents as she sings, compare them to Roman soldiers crucifying Jesus and the Nazi Gestapo hauling people off to sure deaths in concentration camps.

🠞And this song. Follow this link to Facebook to hear Philip Labes sing "Jesus" about how Jesus was an immigrant and now he is being deported from our country and our hearts. 

🠞Late addition. Ice Out Now by Mandy Dean. The movement is being propelled by music.

________________________________________________________

And a poem about now:

* If you don't recognize the name of the poet, Amanda Gorman is the woman who read a lovely, hopeful poem, "The Hill We Climb," at President Biden's Inauguration.

A new word for now: from "There is a Word for What is Happening in Minneapolis" by Gal Beckerman, published in The Atlantic, Jan. 30, 2026.

"The fight against ICE in Minneapolis defies easy categorization. Is it activism? Protest? Political opposition? Resistance? None of these terms quite captures what we are seeing: people putting their bodies on the line to care for immigrants and impeding the operations of a paramilitary force in their city. My colleagues have come up with their own, apt ways to describe it: Maybe this is “neighborism,” or a movement for “basic decency.” I like the way an elderly couple named Dan and Jane, in one dispatch, explained their motive for joining the effort: “humanist.”... The word that comes to mind is dissidence...Dissidence is not revolution; it is is not political opposition. It's something much more elemental. It emerges  in environments where power -- usually government power -- tramples on the basic conditions of life as people know and value them. We recognize what that means in Minneapolis: People do not like to see their neighbors terrified and rounded up. They do not like to see masked men with guns acting with impunity. They do not like their children being afraid to go to school...The movement that has arisen on the city's frigid streets is about defending what any reasonable American would call "normal" -- the expectation of a life without the threat of violence and coercion."

 Books read in January (hyperlinks to my reviews):

• Worth Fighting For: Finding the Courage and Compassion When Cruelty is Trending by John Pavlovich -- essays on motivation for Christians (not Christian Nationalists!) to keep fighting for justice. My first book of 2026. 4 stars.
• The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende -- Two stories of children separated from parents, one because of the Holocaust, the other through cruel policies of separating families at the border. Their stories coalesce. A book club selection. 5 stars.
• Wreck by Catherine Newman -- a woman, Rocky, is navigating through her life after the death of her mother and the diagnosis of a serious disease. She's a wreck. 5 stars.
• So Far Gone by Jess Walter -- An audiobook with Don. A man who has hermited himself away from the world is called upon to help his grandchildren and find his daughter, who is married to a man deeply involved in the Christian Nationalist movement. The book has serious themes, but is quite humorous. 5 stars.
• Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy -- a memoir by a favorite author of The God of Small Things. Her life and this memoir is also very wrapped up in Roy's relationship with her mother, Mary. Another audiobook with Don. This was the #1 best book of 2025. I see why. 5 stars from both of us.
• A Passage to India by E.M. Forster -- a classic set in India in the 1920s. this is my first classic of the year and my first Forster book. 4 stars. (Review pending.)
• The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali -- an epic tale of two girls/women who become friends in childhood and remain so throughout their lives as Iran goes through political turmoil. A powerful story. A book club selection. 4.5 stars. (Review pending.)
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans -- a story told through letters, emails, and notes. We get to know a woman, Sybil, through the letters she writes and receives. Another book club selection. 4.25 stars.
• Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach -- The funniest science writer alive. I've read several of Roach's books and always enjoy them. This book however was a little over my head in places. An audiobook-with-Don selection. We just finished it yesterday to avoid the looming deadline at the library. 3.5 stars. Don rated it 3 stars (he doesn't do fractions). (Review pending.)
• Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid -- Two female astronauts fall in love but it is the early 1980s and they cannot be open about their relationship. I really liked the space information. I gained some new thoughts. Audio. 4.5 stars. (Review pending.)

Currently reading:

• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy -- A family on a remote island, caretakers of the planet's seed bank. A strange woman who washes ashore. A storm on the horizon.

Up Next:

• Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
• Detransition, Baby by Terrey Peters
• Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

I'm not sure the first half of the last line of our national anthem rings true today:

"O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave". 

Everyone is not free in America anymore, but that means we all need to embrace the second half and be BRAVE for what is ahead.

This week let's all find ways to show our "neighborism!" I love you all, dear readers, and wish you a peaceful week.

-Anne