There are two obvious directions I could go with this. One is fictional books in which the characters travel. Another is non-fiction books about people traveling. But there’s also some others I thought about. There’s travel that is forced upon people. There’s immigration. There’s Sci-Fi travel – space or time or metaphysical. There’s movement that’s not really travel because it doesn’t take you a long way, or sometimes it going and coming back. There’s travel that either impacts or is impacted by historical events. So I’m going to do a whole bunch of categories with titles and explanations, and see what I can come up with!
Fiction
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman
The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle
All of these are fiction books in which the characters travel – to look for something, for fun, or to learn about a loved one who has passed. All have interesting elements – based on clues, looking for faeiries, murder or intrigue. But all are fictional tales that involve traveling for one reason or another.
Fictional Travel – Sci-Fi
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This is the Sci-Fi portion of the list. The first allows someone to experience various lives they could have had after they die, thus traveling through space and time. One Last Stop involves time travel of a sort. Cloud Cuckoo Land is partially set on a space ship. And Project Hail Mary is entirely based on a space mission.
Forced Travel
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
This is all different types of travel, sort of. Forgiveness covers the incarceration of Japanese people in British Columbia during WWII – in this book some of them are forced out of their homes and cities and sent to live in rural areas in horrible conditions. When Breath Becomes Air is a little more metaphysical, as the travel in this is between life and death. It kind of doesn’t fit… but at the same time, isn’t that the most mysterious journey, and one we all face? The Lie of the Land is about a family who move out of London into a run-down farm house in the countryside because the couple have both lost their jobs and can’t afford to get divorced. It’s a great look at the ways in which economic pressures affect relationships these days. In The Salt Path a couple are cheated out of their savings and lose their home. All they have is a tent, so they decide to set out to hike and camp their way along the salt path that traverses 600 miles of Britain’s southern coast.
Literal Travel – Travel Memoirs
The Window Seat by Aminatta Forna
The Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell
The Size of the World by Jeff Greenwald
All four of these books look at travel in various ways. Tourism and travel writing. A life that has involved living in lots of different parts of the world. A family move to a far away island. A decision to travel around the world without leaving the surface. Quite different, but all involve actual movement around the globe in one way or another.
Immigration
Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Immigration is its own kind of movement, and one that I find really interesting and affecting. It’s challenging – at the very least it means choosing to leave behind your home and the people there to start over in a new place. But sometimes it also involves running from danger in a home country and facing multiple challenges in a new country that is safer, but not necessarily a place that’s been freely chosen. I think, especially with all the anti-immigrant sentiment that’s been brewing (particularly in the US), it’s really important to understand the other side of that coin, and have empathy for the people who are leaving behind everything for an unknown future that they just hope will be safe and better. I always feel like the courage and pain of this needs to be met with welcome and hospitality, not hatred and prejudice.
Travel with Emotional or Important Historical Backstories
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Borders by Thomas King, illustrated by Natasha Donovan
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
The first two of these books are very emotional. Both involve travel after the loss of a loved one. Both are excellent – but maybe have some tissues handy! Borders was a fascinating look at the ways in which colonization caused physical divides in First Nations communities. This looks at a family trying to cross the Canada/USA border, but not leaving their ancestral territory. It really brought home the reality of how the arbitrary lines that were drawn on maps by colonizers did not take into account the existing traditional territories and land use of the First People. And the Band Played On is sort of investigative journalism looking at the origins and spread of the AIDS epidemic. It’s been a while since I read it so it’s a little fuzzy, but I do remember the shocking revelation that one flight attendant who travelled widely had probably picked it up and brought it with him to liaisons all over the world. At least I think that was how it went, but either way, it was an interesting look at how disease spreads and how quickly it can happen. Made more poignant by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local Travel
Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig
The Fortnight In September by R.C. Sherriff
These three books are a little unusual. In each there is travel – by boat, by bus and by train – but it’s not proper travel to a foreign locale. In Hidden Nature the author is dealing with some difficult decisions and realizations in her life and takes up rowing on the canals near her. So she’s moving, but just little trips. Then there’s Between the Stops, a memoir that is structured around the route Toksvig travels between her home and her work on the Number 12 Bus. It’s a fascinating structure for a memoir – she discusses landmarks she passes, uses them to segue into stories from her life, from which she branches off in various directions. She then returns to the bus and its passengers, musing about all kinds of things based on her observations and interactions with them. I really enjoyed it because of this interesting structure and the varied content it covers. Then there’s The Fortnight In September in which a family travels by train from their home to a seaside town for a two week vacation. It’s sort of travelling, but they’ve been there every year for ages and it’s not very far from their home, so it’s not so much the travel as the internal lives of the family that’s the point of the novel.
Well, hopefully that made some sense outside my brain! Did anyone else veer off course a little with this week’s prompt? Which book were you most pleased to include on your list this week?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.
I loved Project Hail Mary and One Last Stop. Great list!
Definitely fun, immersive reads! Thanks!
I love how much thought you put into this. This is an amazing post! First, I want to read all of the books you posted in Local Travel. I love books like those. Lie of the Land sounds really good too.
And this ” I always feel like the courage and pain of this needs to be met with welcome and hospitality, not hatred and prejudice.” Seriously, I don’t understand how other people DON’T feel this way! It makes no sense to me and is so sad.
Fantastic post.
Sorry I’m so late replying – life has gotten away from me! It was a fun one to consider, and I liked being able to share a wide variety of different books in one post with a loose connection! Yes, I agree, it is sad and upsetting when kneejerk judgment can create so much suffering. I’m very lucky because I was around a lot of immigrants when I was very little, as my mother taught ESL (English as a second language) so we got to meet a lot of very interesting people. But some of them had been through absolute horror, and what brought them here was traumatic and incredibly difficult. I saw them struggle, I saw how difficult it was to settle into a place that was so different, but I also saw the generosity, kindness and got to share the beauty of their different cultures and ways of seeing the world. I think I was incredibly lucky to have had this, and it breaks my heart that so much opportunity for the exchange of ideas and experiences is lost in these situations. Anyway, that’s my two cents! Thank you so much for this comment!
I loved My Brother’s Husband! It was so sweet. I really want to read One Last Stop, too.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
My Brother’s Husband was very emotionally impactful, and I’m glad I got to read it! One Last Stop was a bit of an experiment as I’m not the hugest romance reader, but I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it! Good combination of character development, fun, important issues and intrigue!
Wow! You have thought outside the box! I enjoyed Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries and The Midnight Library.
Have a great week!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/20/top-ten-tuesday-books-that-feature-travel/
Yes, I wanted to find something a bit different because I’ve shared the same list (or similar) of books about traveling to experience other places and cultures and novels that feature travel so many times, and I’m a little bored of it! It was fun to try and think of other ways to approach the topic! I haven’t finished Emily Wilde yet, but I liked the part I did read, though it was a little darker and creepier than I expected!
Wow! I think you covered books about every possible type of travel!
I’m especially interested in The Lie of the Land.
Haha! I tried to be a little creative about it as I’ve shared so many posts about my favourite books about travel – fictional and non-fictional – and I’m bored of that list! It was fun to think about it from different perspectives! The Lie of the Land is very good – I like the blending of genres and the combination of family strain, growing, sadness, survival and no small amount of humour. Amanda Craig writes intelligent characters intelligently, and I enjoy spending time with them and seeing how they deal with and learn from their circumstances. Definitely one I’d recommend!
Great list! I didn’t even think of all the reasons people travel from one place to the other. I also find immigration stories really interesting since I grew up hearing stories about how my ancestors came from the U.K. to the U.S. in search of more prosperous futures. I’m amazed by the courage it took to just embark into the unknown.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
I found myself mulling over the idea, I think mostly because I’ve been blogging for long enough that I’ve written lists of books about travel many, many times! I wanted to find a way of sharing different books this time! My parents came from the UK before I was born, so I’m the first of my family to be born in North America. It’s an interesting position to be in as I’m right in the centre of the transition and cross-pollination of cultures and experiences! I always meant to move on myself – I’ve never felt that connected to place – but then I met my husband and his family are all here, so we stayed and I think now there are very solid roots, whether I like it or not! I’m trying to learn more about the natural landscape here, because my kid spends most days out in the forest, and has given me the gift of understanding more about the plants and creatures we share this space with! I’m finding that helps a little, but I still feel like an interloper who doesn’t really have a right to be here… but maybe that’s not a bad thing! I tangented… but yes, immigration stories are really varied and interesting!
I’ve read a couple of books from your list, but I have to say I enjoyed meeting Arthur Pepper the most. This week, I veered a bit off topic and went with translated books.
Pam @ Read! Bake!! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/lost-in-translation-eleven-favorite-translated-fiction/
I love how you phrased that – “I enjoyed meeting Arthur Pepper the most.” What a wonderful way of thinking about that reading experience! I felt exactly the same way!
CLOUD CUCKOO LAND is the best. I love that book so much. And CRYING IN THE H-MART. Powerful stuff. What a wonderful and thoughtful list of books.
Both of those were interesting reads, and both tackled big things!