Where I Went This Summer (Reader’s Edition)

September 02, 2013


I used Grammarly to grammar check this post because it never hurts to have another set of eyes proofread your work, even if they’re automated!*

Well, it’s Labor Day today in the U.S., and that marks the unofficial end to summer. I’m sad to say that I didn’t literally get to go on vacation. So far in 2013, my travel has been limited to family visits. I haven’t explored any place new or exciting…so it’s a good thing my reading has taken me all over the world! While my passport languishes and my suitcases gather dust, here are a few places my bookshelves and library card have taken me:

The island of Crete, courtesy of Mary Stewart’s The Moon-Spinners.

Roqueville, on the Cote d’Azur, via Spinsters in Jeopardy (Ngaio Marsh).

Toronto, Ontario and Prince Edward Island, because of L. M. Montgomery’s published journals (I read the third volume of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery—it was the only one my library had). Montgomery was the author of the Anne of Green Gables series, and had already created in me a burning desire to visit Prince Edward Island someday.

Eudora Welty’s Mississippi, where I attended a Delta Wedding.

Kishinev (now called Chisinau), Moldavia via the letters in From Newbury With Love (incredibly touching book and one of my favorite reads all year).

Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina, with Amy Elizabeth Smith’s All Roads Lead to Austen. (More about this book in an upcoming post.)

France and England, where I swashbuckled all over the place with The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas).

I actually spent quite a lot of time in the United Kingdom this year—making stops in Crampton Hodnet (in the book of the same name by Barbara Pym), Edgecomb St. Mary (Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand), Newbury (see above), London and Cornwall (Jacqueline Winspear’s Messenger of Truth), among other fictional and real destinations.

So you see, when time and/or finances don’t permit me to explore the world firsthand, I turn to books to satisfy my craving for travel. And now, as I finish this post, I’ll be returning to rural Appalachia with Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior.

Where has your reading taken you this summer?

*This post sponsored by Grammarly, an online grammar checker and proofreading system.

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4 comments

  1. DanielleSeptember 2, 2013 at 9:01 PM

    I love this idea and may have to borrow it from you... :) Of late I have been to Marseille (Total Chaos--a crime novel), Russia (How the Two Ivans Quarrelled), France (Grey Souls) and to England lots of times (most recently Turtle Diary). I am lucky as I still have a short vacation to San Francisco to look forward to in October--even if it is only four days--I am still excited to get away! Thankfully you can go anywhere in the world via a story!

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  2. Kathy A. JohnsonSeptember 3, 2013 at 9:18 AM

    Danielle--Please feel free to borrow! Too bad we didn't run into each other in France, England or Russia :) I'm jealous of you visiting San Francisco in October, but my husband and I are planning a trip soon as a belated celebration of our anniversary. I need to get to work researching where to go. We want to go to the northeast, we think, and see the leaves change color. In the meantime, I'll enjoy a bit of armchair travel.

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  3. Oregon Gifts of Comfort and JoySeptember 8, 2013 at 2:27 PM

    And, that my friend, is exactly what books are for. Good for you, you got a lot accomplished!

    I went to Japan, Baltimore, Oregon (really, though the town was made up), Salem (Massachusetts) and many more places. I guess that I didn't leave America this summer, but I got around.

    Kathy M.

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  4. Kathy A. JohnsonSeptember 9, 2013 at 11:45 AM

    Kathy--Sounds like you had a nice tour of the US this summer--nothing wrong with that! Thank goodness for armchair travel, right?

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