Monday, October 10, 2022

Ten Books I Read on Vacation


I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week we're talking about books we've read while on vacation, and where we were when we read them. Here are ten of mine!
1. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
I read this one while visiting New Zealand to see some friends get married. I was so enthralled with it that I was literally reading it on my phone while waiting for the wedding to start! :D
2. The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
This is the book I was listening to on audio when I went on vacation to the New Jersey shore. I remember sitting in the warm sun, looking out at the ocean, listening to the narrator tell me the story.
3. The God We Never Knew by Marcus J. Borg
I read part of this book during a trip to Colorado for another friend's wedding. My best friend and her husband had also flown in for the wedding and we were on flights out of Denver at the same time, and I remember sitting in the airport telling her about this book I was reading.
4. A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
I read this book while I was at the 2018 conference of the organization now known as Q Christian Fellowship. (Coincidentally, this was also in Denver.) I remember that I was there for a pre-conference retreat and was sitting in the hallway before it began, reading this on my phone.
5. Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
This book had been my to-read list, and I chose to read it when my family took a Christmas trip to Hawai'i. (Note that there's now a push by some Native Hawaiians for people to pause tourism to the islands.)
6. Reading People by Anne Bogel
My family used to own a lakehouse, and it was always a great spot to read while looking out over the lake. This is one of the books I specifically remember reading on a Labor Day weekend trip there.
7. The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay
Back in 2015 I took a cruise with some friends, and I didn't realize when I loaded this on my Kindle that it was going to be so long (~450 pages) nor so compelling. It's not that I didn't socialize with my friends, but whenever there was downtime I was once again absorbed in this story.
8. Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Back before my family owned the lakehouse, we would often spend a week in the summer renting a cabin on a different lake with some of my extended family and their church group. The last time we went I didn't yet own a Kindle, so I brought a stack of nonfiction hardcovers from the library and blazed through them. This one was probably the favorite of the bunch.
9. Take This Bread by Sara Miles
When I got the opportunity to go to World Youth Day in Krakow in 2016, I loaded my Kindle with every spiritual memoir I had on my to-read list at the time. There were several good ones I read over the course of our time in Poland, but this one stands out as the one I'd recommend the most widely.
10. Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson
On a trip to a Mexican resort with friends, I pretty much parked myself in a poolside chair and read all day every day. This book I read in a single day there, and it was definitely my favorite from the trip.

What books have you read on vacation?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Honey Girl, Stars and Sparks on Stage, Girl Sex 101, and The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
Five years ago I was reading: All Things Bright and Beautiful and Bleak House
Ten years ago I was reading: Sacred Marriage

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