Staff Picks: Grab a Book, See the World!

Thu, 08/11/2022 - 12:50pm by eapearce

Reading a book lets you step out of your real life for a little while and enter different worlds—sometimes in small ways and sometimes in vast ones. One of the best things about reading is picturing places we’ve never been or haven’t been to in a long time. Here are some recommendations that will transport you to destinations near and far.

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon | Request Now
First published in 1982, Blue Highways is the acclaimed memoir of Heat-Moon’s three-month soul-searching travels around the United States in the late 1970s. After experiencing some personal troubles, Heat-Moon, who is of Osage heritage, equipped his van with a bed, portable toilet, and additional storage space and set out on a road trip, sticking only to what he called “blue highways”--the small, out-of-the-way, and sometimes forgotten roads of rural America. He traveled nearly 13,000 miles, stopped in small towns with names that interested him, avoided major cities and thoroughfares, and engaged the variety of people he met in conversation. The stories that emerge from his travels are fascinating, thought-provoking, sometimes uplifting and sometimes sad. The forty years that have elapsed since its publication make Blue Highways no less worth reading!

Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris | Request Now
Growing up in rural Canada, Kate Harris dreamed of exploring the world. As she grew up, she realized that “explorer” was no longer exactly a paying job that people had. So, she decided to become a scientist. But first, she and her friend set out on the adventure of a lifetime: biking the legendary Silk Road, from beginning to end. Their journey takes them through some of the remotest, most beautiful, and most challenging places on Earth, and over the course of their travels, Harris realizes that an explorer is anyone who pushes boundaries and challenges themselves to see new places and experience new things. Part travelogue, part memoir, part history book, and part meditation on the journey of life itself, Lands of Lost Borders won a wide variety of awards worldwide when it was published in 2018 and is truly a one-of-a-kind read.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead | Request Now
Shipstead’s latest ambitious masterpiece, which took her many years to research and write, is a fictional account of two intertwined characters: pioneering aviatrix Marian Graves, who sets off to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe via airplane, and present-day troubled Hollywood actress Hadley Baxter, who is slotted to play Graves in a forthcoming biopic. The sweeping story spans over a century and is a stunning portrait of two barrier-breaking women, supported by intensely written secondary characters that feel just as real. It’s written with such rich detail that it’s hard to believe that the story is fictional. On Graves’ flights, she travels all over the world and Shipstead writes about the strange places she visits–refueling her plane forces her to make very unusual stops–in incredibly beautiful prose. Great Circle is the stunning story of two intelligent, talented, troubled women that stays with you long after you turn the last page.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey | Request Now
When Abbey’s nature-based memoir was first published in 1968, it garnered little attention, but in years since it has been appropriately heralded as a stunning work that emphasizes the importance of environmental conservation. The book chronicles Abbey’s experiences as a park ranger at Arches National Park throughout the 1950s, detailing the flora and fauna he encounters, his meditations on living alone in nature, protecting the park from hapless tourists and development, and his experiences exploring the wilderness around him. His beautiful descriptions of the American West are some of the finest written and will make anyone want to visit–and preserve–our stunning national parks.