March 1st is Plan a Solo Vacation Day. On short, cold days, it can be particularly fun to think about possible destinations for treating yourself. Whether you’re considering an international excursion or a house- and book-swap with a neighbor, you might want to browse your local bookstore for inspiration.
Here are some books that transported us lately:
The Passenger travel series from Europa Editions. These destination-specific books are anthologies complete with visuals– a way to explore a location in a different way than guidebooks.
Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from around the world.
IN THIS VOLUME: Rome doesn’t judge you by Nicola Lagioia・The soul of the city by Matteo Nucci・39 memos for a book about Rome by Francesco Piccolo・Plus: a guide to the sounds of Rome by Letizia Muratori; the feigned unrest and real malaise of the suburbs; the influence of the Vatican; the excessive power of real estate speculators and the rule of gangs; disillusioned trappers; football fans of every age, and much more…
Grand Hotel Europa by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, translated by Michele Hutchison. A novel centered around a hotel.
After a passionate affair, the narrator arrives at a grand hotel that is past its glory, where he stays to transform his failed love story into a novel. He makes his acquaintance with a cast of characters and with them he philosophizes about various subjects, from refugees and immigration policies, politics, culture, good and bad tourists/tourism, to the future of Europe as one big museum. It was delightful to be taken along in this narrative, which is at times hilarious, extravagant, ribald and never dull.
— Krijn, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, WA
The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, translated by Ho-Ling Wong. A remote island, a history violent murders…
Read Yukito Ayatsuji’s landmark mystery, The Decagon House Murders, and discover a real depth of feeling beneath the fiendish foul play.
Taking its cues from Agatha Christie’s locked-room classic And Then There Were None, the setup is this: The members of a university detective-fiction club, each nicknamed for a favorite crime writer (Poe, Carr, Orczy, Van Queen, Leroux and — yes — Christie), spend a week on remote Tsunojima Island, attracted to the place, and its eerie 10-sided house, because of a spate of murders that transpired the year before. That collective curiosity will, of course, be their undoing.