By Rachel Burt
Director of the Hackettstown Free Public Library

Here we are in the heart of winter, that time when the holidays are over and most of us are hunkering down and just waiting for spring. 

Thanks to the pandemic, I find myself in a situation where I haven’t been on a vacation in well over a year.  I can’t recall a time when I have yearned for a vacation as much as I do right now.  A change of scenery, a hotel, a break from routine!  Instead of booking a trip, however, I’m patiently waiting for safer times.  In the meantime, I’ve stocked my Goodreads account with travel fiction and nonfiction and will be working my way through this list as we all work our way through the winter. 

Here’s what I’ll be reading.  Contact your local library to check the availability of these or any other titles!

The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams
It’s 1941 and newly-widowed Leonora Randolph arrives in the Bahamas to investigate the Governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier.  But as she infiltrates the Duke and Duchess’s social circle, and the powerful cabal that controls the islands’ political and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the glister of Wallis and Edward’s marriage lies an ugly—and even treasonous—reality. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with spies, financial swindles, and racial tension.  The stories of two unforgettable women thread together in this epic of espionage, sacrifice, love, and courage, set against a shocking true crime and the rise and fall of a legendary royal couple.

The Paris Hours by Alex George
Paris between the wars teems with artists, writers, and musicians.  But amidst the dazzling creativity of the city’s most famous citizens, four regular people are each searching for something they’ve lost.  Camille was the maid of Marcel Proust, and she has a secret: when she was asked to burn her employer’s notebooks, she saved one for herself. Now she is desperate to find it before her betrayal is revealed. Souren, an Armenian refugee, performs puppet shows for children that are nothing like the fairy tales they expect. Lovesick artist Guillaume is down on his luck and running from a debt he cannot repay—but when Gertrude Stein walks into his studio, he wonders if this is the day everything could change. And Jean-Paul is a journalist who tells other people’s stories, because his own is too painful to tell. When the quartet’s paths finally cross in an unforgettable climax, each discovers if they will find what they are looking for.  Told over the course of a single day in 1927, The Paris Hours takes four ordinary people whose stories, told together, are as extraordinary as the glorious city they inhabit. 

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.  Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time.  There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents.  Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
In a Sunburned Country is Bryson’s report on what he found traveling in Australia: a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous work by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and curiosity.  Bryson takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path.  Wherever he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging, and these beaming products of land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book.  Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide.

What are you currently reading? Let us know in the comments below!