G2G Collection presents: Your travel-themed vacation reads

Reading about travel while actually traveling? Life’s little synergies don’t get much sweeter  than that. And if you’re the type who simply has to learn all about Trinidad before you reach Toronto, you’re going to need a good book or two to keep you company on the journey. We’ve compiled this shortlist of some of 2018’s best travel-related vacation reads: nonfiction guides to destinations all over the globe, and novels that make the crossing of borders their narrative foundation. Cart them along the next time you leave home, and what you see in your mind’s eye may rival what you capture with your cell-phone camera. Oh, the places you’ll (kinda) go!

Non-fiction Vacation Reads

The Best American Travel Writing 2018

Best-selling author Cheryl Strayed (Wild) compiled this collection of 24 essays about foreign and domestic excursions by some of the top voices in the field. The picture they paint may not be consistently pretty, but sometimes an unvarnished, critical eye is what it takes to be the best. If your own travel plans involve lots of short hops, this volume and a good bookmark may be your new best friends. VIEW BOOK HERE

Travel as a Political Act

One of the biggest impediments to satisfying our wanderlust is the stories we sometimes hear about how rough our dream destinations can actually be. Multimedia travel expert Rick Steves is out to dispel as many such myths as he can. The arrows in his quiver are first-person observations of rewarding times in supposedly dangerous locations on multiple continents. Read all about his positive experiences in places the news doesn’t always portray in the most favorable light, and expand your horizons for planning your next IRL jaunt. If you love travel, this is a must-have on your vacation reads list. VIEW BOOK HERE

Don’t Go There: From Chernobyl to North Korea – – One Man’s Journey to Lose Himself and Find Everybody Else in the World’s Strangest Places

The flip side to the Rick Steves ethos, this humorous memoir follows British writer Adam Fletcher and his girlfriend on a tour of some of the globe’s least attractive travel spots – a holiday that plays havoc with their individual and shared emotions. The moral: Cross-cultural understanding isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. At least not when you’ve made yourself the guinea pig. VIEW BOOK HERE

Fiction Vacation Reads

Florida

There’s more down there than Disney World, as you’ll learn in a collection of short stories by Lauren Groff that explore the dark side of the Sunshine State. And at a time when every viral story of bizarre behavior seems to have been incubated in Florida, Groff has her work cut out for her if she wants to be competitive. Being named a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award shows she’s risen to the challenge. VIEW BOOK HERE

Next Year in Havana

The latter-day easing of restrictions has made travel to Cuba an increasingly enticing proposition – just like Chanel Cleeton’s decades-spanning novel. In it, a Miami-based freelance writer makes a pilgrimage to the island that informs her grandmother’s experiences there in the days of the revolution. Hint: Love of country sometimes takes a backseat to the more personal kind. VIEW BOOK HERE

The Tuscan Child

Mystery writer Rhys Bowen spins a twisty tale perfect for your list of vacations reads. An Englishwoman travels to Tuscany to learn the truth of her late father’s experiences there during World War II. Critics have applauded the expertly rendered local color (of two distinct eras, no less), so prepare yourself for an experience a tad more authentic than what you’ll find at Olive Garden. VIEW BOOK HERE

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