Top Ten Tuesday- Have Book, Will Travel - June 4th

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Broke and Bookish and asks participants to create a top ten list around a different topic each week. This week's topic is "Top Ten Books Featuring Travel". I love to read and to travel so it is a perfect marriage! (links are to my reviews if I have reviewed them)

1. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places on Earth by Eric Weiner: This book is at once a travelogue, sociological study and memoir. Weiner, a foreign correspondent for NPR, traveled the world for a year in an effort to determine how place and the characteristics of that place influence an individual's happiness.

2. O Come Ye Back To Ireland by Niall Williams and Christine Breen: This book tells the story of a couple that move to the rugged West of Ireland and their discoveries during the first year there. It celebrates the beauty of rural Ireland and the excitement of moving to a new country.

 3. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson: Bryson does a travel memoir like no one else- his dry humor comes right through the pages. In this book, he takes a final tour through England before moving his family back to the US

4. Little Princes by Conor Grennan: A trip around the world turns into a life mission when Grennan arrives in Nepal and meets the boys in a local orphanage. They capture his heart and they will capture yours too.

5. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman:  The author and a college friend head out on a post college trip and start in China.  This is China before it was open to the West so travel there was challenging - that coupled with the friend's gradual unraveling make for very funny scenes. The author's writing is smart and witty.

6. A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei: At direction of their mother, a group of sisters (with Mom in tow) head to China for a package tour of all the major sights. The relationship between the Mom and each sister is fractured and the trip is her (ill-fated) attempt at remedying that.

7. The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman: This beautiful book is as much an homage to Bali as a story of recovery following the 2001 bombings. I visited Bali in 2007 and this book immediately transported me back to the beauty and calm of the country

8. Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik: I read this before I started blogging and absolutely loved it.  The author, a writer for the The New Yorker, moves his family to Paris and this book chronicles their year there learning about the city and it's people. I fell in love with Paris through this book. 

9. The New York Times 36 Hours: 150 Weekends in the US and Canada: I love the 36 hours feature in NYT and this book collects those into a book.  I think this hardcover makes a great gift for a traveler, graduate, newlyweds, etc.

10. Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach:  This one is still on my shelves but I can't wait to read it. Self-discovery in the process of discovering destinations - definitely right up my alley!


What are your favorite travel books?