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.
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