Category Archives: Travel book

“The chosen of All-Muggleton”

Posted on August 13, 2017 by

Packing for a lengthy trip that includes a great deal of moving on and off trains, buses, boats and trams (not to mention walking) presents a particular challenge for a reader who hopes to travel light: How many books should … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Classic, Fiction, Humorous, Travel, Travel book | Tagged | 8 Comments

Bigamous reading

Posted on March 25, 2016 by

When I haven’t the energy to read Proust, I read something else. In that respect, I’m no different from anyone else. But the other day my daughter commented on how strange it was that I was sitting on the couch reading … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Graphic Novel, History, Humorous, Little Free Library, Mystery, reading, Travel book | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

You have to give it time

Posted on February 3, 2015 by

The Wells Bequest (2013), Polly Shulman. In an unplanned tag-team review, I’m following up on a book Calmgrove reviewed last fall, Polly Shulman’s The Grimm Legacy (the review of which you can read here). That novel introduced us to the New-York Circulating Material … Continue reading →

Posted in Science fiction, Time travel, Travel book, YA Lit | Tagged | Leave a comment

Henry Pulling’s Middle Age Crisis

Posted on April 17, 2014 by

Graham Greene, Travels with My Aunt (1969) Nestled in a playground near my apartment is a Little Free Library, to which I frequently contribute, and from which I frequently borrow, although I’ve yet to return any of the borrowed books. The other … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Fiction, Humorous, Travel book | Tagged | 3 Comments

Mark Twain in Europe

Posted on September 14, 2013 by

Yesterday I referenced Mark Twain, and so today’s post: The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain (1869), Grosset & Dunlap, 472 pp. In the first paragraph of Chapter V, Twain notes a lunar rarity. We had the phenomenon of a full moon … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Humorous, Travel book | Tagged | 4 Comments

Ocean (Dostoyevski) or Cellophane (Vonnegut)?

Posted on September 7, 2013 by

Breakfast of Champions (1973), Kurt Vonnegut, 303 pp. I have to start with 2 quotes: A sacred picture of Saint Anthony alone is one vertical, unwavering band of light. If a cockroach were near him, or a cocktail waitress, the picture … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Humorous, Travel book | Tagged | 4 Comments

Pulp-ish Fiction

Posted on August 29, 2013 by

Laura (1942), Vera Caspary, 194 pp., and Now, Voyager (1941), Olive Higgins Prouty, 263 pp. The term “pulp fiction” always makes me think of Sax Rohmer’s Dr Fu Manchu, or Lester Dent’s Doc Savage. Those characters’ names take me back to the early … Continue reading →

Posted in Mystery, Romance, Travel book | Tagged , | Leave a comment