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Fiction To Feed Your Wanderlust…

“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to discover what’s in between.”

One of the great pleasures in life is to place ourselves somewhere else, a sensation we seek to embody as often as possible. We've all heard it, we've all said it; put one foot in front of the other, keep moving forward. At times, our feet may need a little inspiration. And if that inspiration comes in the form of a literary road trip, tales told from aboard a train, or a luxurious fictional flight, I’m all for it!

Movement, on or off the beaten path, with or without a wrong turn, can galvanize our thinking, unfurl our imaginations, invite us to be bold and acquaint us with strangers. Whatever path you choose, even if it’s an exploration of the road not taken, I hope the wanderings you find yourself on as an armchair traveler through the reads gathered here invite you to immerse yourself in an adventure.

Even if only for a short time.

An Unexpected Journey…

The Book Of Doors – Gareth Brown

Cassie works in a bookshop, shelving books, chatting with customers, and living a happy, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favourite customers, a lonely old man, dies right in front of her. She is devasted. She loved his stories and the only thing she has to remember him by is the last book he was reading. And what a book it is. Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them. But there are those willing to kill to obtain the secrets contained within its pages and she will need help to protect it. A love letter to the magical power of books to open up other worlds for those brave enough to turn the pages!

The Road To Roswell – Connie Willis

Levelheaded Francie is trying hard not to roll her eyes at her college roommates UFO themed wedding. I mean, obviously aliens don’t exist. Imagine her surprise when she is abducted by one. The fact that her abductor is nothing like what popular media have portrayed…that just adds to the weirdness. And she isn’t the only hostage; there’s a charming con man, a sweet old lady with a small gambling addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love of westerns, and a UFO chasing nutjob with a touch of hysteria. A delightfully silly story full of Men In Black and Close Encounters…of every kind!

NOS4A2 – Joe Hill

Victoria has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across the state or across time. Manx likes to lure children for rides in his classic car with the unique vanity plate. A car that can slip out of the everyday world into a terrifying amusement park. One only suitable for children’s nightmares. A lifetime ago, Vic was the only kid to escape Manx’s evil world and he has never forgotten. Or forgiven. A road trip destined for hell!

Bullet Train – Kotaro Isaka

Satoshi looks like an innocent schoolboy, but in reality, is a stylish and devious assassin. The risk fuels him but so does a good philosophical debate, for instance asking himself if killing is wrong. A parent seeking vengeance certainly thinks so and tracks Satoshi onto the bullet train to exact his revenge. The train is full of other potentially lethal characters, and we must wonder what they are all doing there. Turns out there is a whole lot more going on aboard this crazy train! A propulsive thriller full of double crosses that never goes off track. Get what I did there?

The Last One – Will Dean

When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise, she expects the vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. What she gets is much more sour than sweet. After their first night of dancing, dining, and making new friends, they fall into bed, exhausted. When Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is nowhere to be found. When she opens the door to the corridor, all the cabin doors are open, and to her horror she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. Brilliant and twisted!

He Started It – Samantha Downing

Beth, Portia, and Eddie haven’t seen each other in years, for very good reasons. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final request, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross country road trip to fulfill the conditions of their inheritance. Even though I didn’t believe a single word or deed from any of these characters, I loved them all. Vividly drawn, they were complicated, droll, and utterly unique. This author layers twist upon twist with a relentless pace that leaves the reader in wonderous freefall for the bulk of the book. My advice, buckle up, you are in for a bumpy ride!

The Passengers – John Marrs

Just as self-driving cars become trusted as the safer option, eight people find themselves in a terrifying situation; including a TV star whose fame is fading, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, and a bickering couple. A voice has told them “You are going to die”. From cameras hidden in the cars, their panic is broadcast to millions around the world. And then, they get a vote on who might live or die. A timely and horrifying thriller.

Cover Your Tracks – Daco Auffenorde

Margo, eight months pregnant, is traveling by train to her hometown. While passing through an isolated portion of the Rockies in blizzard conditions, the train makes an unexpected stop. Up head, deadly snow from a massive avalanche is plummeting down the mountain. Former Army Ranger Nick insists that everyone’s survival depends on moving to the back of the train. Only Margo believes him. When they uncouple the car before the avalanche buries the rest of the train, they think they are safe. Until a turn in the weather forces them to run for their lives, straight into an unforgiving wilderness. Fast paced thrills and chills!

The Unmaking Of June Farrow – Adrienne Young

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s disappearance decades ago and finds herself wondering if the door she believed was a hallucination lead to the answers she’s been searching for? When it appears to her again, she realizes she can touch it and pass through it. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will change both the past and the future. A fresh and magical twist on time travel.

Cassandra In Reverse – Holly Smale

Cassandra is a creature of habit. Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now. She’s been dumped, fired and her local café has run out of her favourite muffin. Then something truly unexpected happens, she discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidently obliterated. Hopefully she won’t fix the wrong things. A lighthearted time travel novel.

How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe – Charles Yu

Every day in Minor Universe 31 people get into a time machine and try to change the past. That’s where our main character steps in. When not taking client calls to save people from themselves, he is searching for his father, the man who invented time travel and then vanished. A laugh out loud and absolutely absurd tale of time travel.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles…

A Short Walk Through A Wide World – Douglas Westerbeke

Paris 1885: Aubry, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the dinner table, she starts to bleed to death. When treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city where she realizes that the very act of movement is what is keeping her alive. Walking. So begins her lifelong journey to outrun death. An incredible story, beautifully written.

The Mostly True Story Of Tanner & Louise – Colleen Oakley

Tanner needs a place to live, but with no money options are scarce. When the opportunity to work as a live in caregiver for Louise arises, she takes it. One slip on the rug and Louise’s daughter forced this full-time nanny on her. They start off happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things, odd things. When Louise appears in her room in the middle of the night with a packed bag, it’s about to get a lot odder. A delightful pairing of a college dropout and an eighty-four-year-old woman on the run from the law. Wildly entertaining with an abundance of heart and wit!

The Woman On The Orient Express – Lindsay Jayne Ashford

Hoping to make a clean break from a fractured marriage, Agatha Christie boards the Orient Express in disguise. But unlike her fictional detective, she can’t neatly unravel the mysteries she encounters on her journey. It appears she is not the only passenger with secrets. Her cabinmate’s first marriage ended in tragedy, propelling her towards a relationship mired in deceit. Then there’s the newly married woman carrying another mans child. Their lives are about to intersect in ways that will have lasting repercussions.

A Thousand Miles To Graceland – Kristen Mei Chase

Grace can’t escape the feeling that her life is on autopilot, then her husband announces he’s done with their marriage. Now she has a choice: wallow in humiliation or reluctantly grant her eccentric mother’s seventieth birthday wish with a road trip to Graceland. Between spontaneous roadside stops to psychics, wig mishaps and familiar passive aggressive zingers, they may finally start to understand each other. A truly lovely and often hilarious mother daughter story!

The Devil & The Dark Water – Stuart Turton

Murder on the high seas. A remarkable detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist. What more could you ask for? It’s 1634 and Samuel, the world’s greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, who is determined to prove him innocent. No sooner is the ship out to sea than devilry begins to haunt the voyage and people start turning up dead, killed in impossible ways. Think Shirley Jackson meets Sherlock Holmes. I love a good mashup!

13 Little Blue Envelopes – Maureen Johnson

Ginny never thought she’d spend her summer vacation backpacking across Europe. But that was before she received the first little blue envelope from Aunt Peg. A little on the unusual side considering Peg has been dead for three months. But the letter includes $1000 cash, a plane ticket, and instructions for how to retrieve twelve other letters Peg wrote. Letters that tell Ginny where she needs to go and what she needs to do when she gets there. Soon she is swept up in an adventure unlike any she could have imagined. Utterly enchanting!

The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles

In June 1954, Emmett is driven home by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he just served his sentence for involuntary manslaughter. His mother is long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm belongs to the bank. Without much holding him there, Emmett decides to grab his eight-year-old brother and head for a better life. Then he discovers that a couple of friends from the work farm hitched a ride in the trunk and have a different plan in mind. Richly imagined and beautifully told. Towles delivers an enthralling odyssey with prose as profound always!

Whistling Past The Graveyard – Susan Crandall

Starla is a feisty little girl, born to teenage parents, and being raised by a strict grandmother whose main goal is to ensure that she doesn't turn out like her mom. In the summer of 1963, 9-year-old Starla runs away from her grandmother's home in Mississippi bound for Nashville, where her mom is trying to become a famous singer. Walking alone in the country, Starla happily accepts a ride from a Black woman named Eula who is traveling with a white baby. Eula longs for a child of her own and Starla longs for her mom and dad to be together so she can have the family she dreams of. What they end up getting is so much more.

One Last Stop – Casey McQuiston

For cynic August, moving to New York is supposed to prove her right; that things like magical cinematic love stories don’t exist and the only smart way to go through life is alone. Surely her waiting tables at a diner, moving in with too many weird roommates and a long subway commute can’t possibly change that. Right? Wrong. Then she meets Jane, a gorgeous girl who seems to be stuck on a never-ending train ride she can’t get off.

Mosquitoland – David Arnold

After the collapse of her family, Mim is dragged from her home in Ohio to Mississippi to live with her dad and new step monster. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland, so she ditches her new life and hops aboard a Greyhound bus. With a quirky cast of fellow travelers her journey will take a few turns she never saw coming. An absolute gem!

The Flight Attendant – Chris Bohjalian

Flight attendant Cassie wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man and no idea what happened. She is no stranger to hangovers and unexpected adventures, but this feels a bit much. Afraid to call the police in a foreign country, Cassie begins unspooling a web of lies that she will inevitably become entangled in. International intrigue, juicy tidbits on a unique profession, and great characters, this is a must read!

The List Of Last Chances – Christina Myers

Ruthie is newly unemployed, freshly single, sleeping on a friend’s couch and downing a bottle of wine each night. Having overstayed her welcome and desperate for a job, she responds to an ad looking for someone to drive an aging woman and her belongings across Canada. Once on the road she finds herself on a part sightseeing tour and part trip down memory lane. A heartfelt and humorous detour full of Canadian charm and quirk!