Top Ten Tuesday: Destination Titles
I’m making a rare visit to Top Ten Tuesday this week. Rare as in I haven’t made even a single contribution this year! I love any excuse to show case novels that enable you to travel around the world without leaving your favourite armchair or sofa.
This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “Destination Titles (titles with name of places in them. These places can be real or fictional).”. i could have made this easy for myself by mixing up real and imagined destinations but what’s the fun in that?? So all ten books in my list exist in real life. Some are places I’ve visited and would love to see again, others are on my wishlist of places to visit in the future.
The links take you to my reviews where they exist.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
The count in this novel gets to stay in a luxury hotel where he can enjoy fine wines and a daily visit to the barber. So very different to the hotel in which I stayed on my first visit to Moscow in December 1979, Security personnel were stationed on every floor to keep a close watch on foreign visitors, every meal was served cold and the only alcohol choice was beer or vodka. I’ve been back several times since but have yet to find the kind of hotel featured in this novel. Maybe one day…
Johannesburg by Fiona Melrose
As the nights draw in here, I’m longing for the blue skies and warmth of South Africa. Good food, wonderful wine, stunning scenery. What’s not to like??
Paris Nocturne by Patrick Modiano
if you’re going to get lost in any city after dark, why not Paris?? it’s city of light after all.
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Sadly there isn’t much evidence now of the Shanghai of the 1930s which is when this book is set but it’s just as vibrant a city. And if I need another reason to visit, it’s this — the best massages I’ve ever experienced were in Shanghai. What time is the next flight??
Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
This novella about an unusual relationship between a widower and a single woman fourty years his junior, has me longing to visit Tokyo while the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom.
A Passage to India by E M Forster
Am I cheating by naming an entire country? Honestly I just couldn’t narrow down my choice of destination to just one part of India; this is such a vast country with huge differences between north and south, east and west. If pushed I’d be happy if I could get to Kerala or Rajasthan.
It’s time to move from individual countries and focus instead on some specific locations within those countries.
Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting
It might seem a bit strange to say the Somme is on my wishlist of places to visit. This was, after all, the site of one of the deadliest battles in history with one million people either wounded or killed. My interest was sparked when I discovered that it was one of the places my great great grandfather was sent with his regiment during World War 1. He was one of the lucky ones — after three months at the front, his batallion was despatched to Salonika, escaping the worst of the fighting at the Somme.
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
I hadn’t read Steinbeck’s novella at the time I visited Monterey and could think of far more interesting things to do on my holiday than visiting a place that used to be full of sardine processing factories. Now I’d jump at the chance to visit the place frequented by Mack and his gang of misfits.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall is the first book in Hilary Mantel’s groundbreaking fictional biographies about Henry Viii’s right hand man, Thomas Cromwell. The book takes its name from Wolfhall or Wulfhall, the family seat of the Seymour family in Wiltshire. The manor house still exists I think a visit could well be on the cards in 2025.
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
And finally, somewhere that begins in a part of the UK that I can see from my bedroom window on a clear day. Raynor Winn’s memoir relates a long distance walk she and her husband did when they were left homeless through a business scheme that went wrong. They end up walking 600 miles along the coast, sleeping in a flimsy tent and eating rehydrated noodles. In between however, they marvel at the beauty of the coast and the light on the water.
Marwah @ The Booklore Fairy
Great list! I haven’t read any of these books but The Salt Path looks amazing. I love that all your destinations are real places, my list is mostly fictional 🙂
If you’d like to visit, here’s my TTT: https://thebooklorefairy.blogspot.com/2024/11/top-ten-tuesday-destination-titles.html
BookerTalk
I did start with a list based on fictional locations and then changed direction when I realised how many books I’d read that had actual places
lydiaschoch
Shanghai would be a cool place to visit.
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday.
BookerTalk
It’s an exciting city – some of the modern buildings are spectacular
Carol
What a fabulous list! I forgot about GiM for my list.
BookerTalk
Wel I’d forgotten about some of your titles too so we’re even!
hopewellslibraryoflife
Excellent choices! I’ve read several, probably based on your reviews. I still need to read Joburg
BookerTalk
I haven’t read the other book by Melrose (Midwinter) which I’m told is even better than J’Burg
hopewellslibraryoflife
I’ll look forward to your review. I pick up an actual book and my eyes close. I’ve managed to read a few more on my kindle this year–there is hope, but the election just sucked the concentration and sanity right out of me.
BookerTalk
I can sympathise with your reaction to the election result. It’s deeply worrying to think what the future holds when you have people with such extreme views in a position of power
hopewellslibraryoflife
I don’t know what is truth and what is crap any more. Is he pulling our leg with this cabinet? Sigh. We’ll see in Janaury.
BookerTalk
Trump is so full of BS that its hard to believe anything he says. Maybe the governmental system (what we call here the civil service) is bloated and needs to be more efficient but putting someone like Musk in charge we know it’s not going to be handled with much care and consideration. He’ll do what he did with Twitter, make rapid decisions without fully understanding the consequences
hopewellslibraryoflife
It is bloated and it could use trimming, but the GOP are the ones who expanded it the most under Regan lol. The biggest worry is Social Security and Medicare–elderly. It isn’t a “savings account” but we’ve all paid in every day of our working lives. My Mom and now friends are starting to live off SS. Medicare is what makes a nursing home affordable. It’s the insufferable “well I listened to good advice and fully funded my retirement account by age 25” people that make me so angry.
BookerTalk
We used to look at your health system and roll our eyes in despair while congratulating ourselves on our NHS system. Now that is in tatters and no-one seems brave enough to try and fix it
hopewellslibraryoflife
Our private pensions have been stolen in mergers/acquisitions too many times to count–my parents were left with nothing but social security and then when Dad died Mom got to have only the bigger of the two, not both. It’s not perfect but it is all many of us have. I have a tiny retirement account–too stupid when young to listen.
BookerTalk
What happened to your parents is dreadful – you pay in all your working life thinking that you are giving yourself security for the future only for it to be snatched away.
hopewellslibraryoflife
My Dad lost two pensions. That’s not unusual in his age group. Sad. Greed, as represented by the president-elect is every where. I hope you have an easy Tuesday! I’m finishing work in 1/2 hour. I have the West Coast so work till 8 pm “my” time–5 p.m. out there. I LOVE It!
A Life in Books
Thanks for a very pleasant wander around the globe. Perhaps I could visit Wolf Hall in reality as Wiltshire’s only next door.
BookerTalk
Oh yes please do, then you can tell me all about it….
Elle
We passed through Monterey in 2023 and they’ve got a lovely statue on the main street honouring Steinbeck and his Cannery Row characters—well worth a look if you’re ever around.
BookerTalk
Excellent news!
Margaret
I’ve read several of these. I have the Amor Towles book but have yet to read it. I loved Wolf Hall, Cannery Row and a Passage to India but not so much The Salt Path, although I think it’s one of the most remarkable books that I have read. I admired their determination and persistence in the face of all the difficulties and obstacles they met, but I was amazed and appalled that they could take themselves away from medical care and set off, almost totally unprepared and not fit enough to walk 630 miles along a coast path.
margaret21
I love your armchair travels that you’ve taken us on today. I’ve read several, and sampled most of the authors, if not these specific books. So maybe I’ll try Amor Towles next – and the Lars Mytting looks interesting too
castlebooks
Eduardo Mendoza – City of Wonders (La Ciudad de los Prodigios) – best book about Barcelona