Whether you’re hoping for a relaxing read to keep you company on a secluded beach or a pageturner to occupy the time while you’re sitting in the car passenger seat, no road trip is complete without a good book or two.
What books should you bring to transport you to far-off lands while you travel to your destination? LSU English instructor Katie Will shares her picks. All are available at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library or your favorite bookstore.
TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW
‘Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America’
by John M. Barry
Louisiana and New Orleans play starring roles in this tale about how prejudice, profit motives and arrogance can be detrimental to response efforts during natural disasters. “It will make you weirdly eager to learn more about levees,” Will says.
FOR THE KIDS
‘The Phantom Tollbooth’
by Norton Juster
This 1961 children’s fantasy adventure novel focuses on a bored boy named Milo who uses his imagination while on an unexpected adventure. Will describes it as “clever, weird and funny in ways that both kids and adults find appealing” with “evocative illustrations.”
TO GET YOUR HEART RACING
‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’
by Ray Bradbury
Gore-free fantasy-horror greets readers in this tale about a terrifying carnival. Will likens it to A Wrinkle in Time, Stranger Things and Us. “It transports you back to teenage feelings of earnestness and creeping dread—without actually having to become a teenager again,” Will says.
WILL’S ALL-TIME FAVORITE
‘The Remains of the Day’
by Kazuo Ishiguro
A retired butler takes a road trip to visit an old colleague and uses the traveling time to reflect on his role in the events that separated them. “It’s a subtle, poignant story told by a fascinatingly unreliable narrator,” Will says. “I’ve never felt so simultaneously protective of and outraged by a character as I am by [the protagonist] Stevens.”
A LITERARY CLASSIC
‘The God of Small Things’
by Arundhati Roy
This novel is set in India between 1969 and 1993 and follows a twin boy and girl as they experience traumas that separate and unite them. For adult audiences, the story includes strong language, mature sexual themes and depicts child abuse. “It’s painfully beautiful,” Will says, “somehow sprawling and microscopic at the same time.”
TO SEE HISTORY IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT
‘Wolf Hall’
by Hilary Mantel
Tudor history gets a Game of Thrones-style presentation in this novel, the first in a trilogy about Henry VIII’s enablers. Mature themes and content including adultery, death and beheadings makes this a read better suited for an older audience. “Mantel’s gorgeous writing is a cliché by now, but it really is stunning,” Will says.
HOT NEW RELEASES
What are the new books everyone will be talking about this summer? We asked the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for a list.
Mexican Gothic
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
Devolution
by Max Brooks
The End of October
by Lawrence Wright
I’d Give Anything
by Marisa de los Santos
Party of Two
by Jasmine Guillory
Utopia Avenue
by David Mitchell
The Imperfects
by Amy Meyerson
Hamnet
by Maggie O’Farrell
What You Wish For
by Katherine Center
Take a Hint, Dani Brown
by Talia Hibbert
This article was originally published in the August 2020 issue of 225 Magazine.
