Fiction Titles

Adams, Douglas. So Long, And Thanks For All the Fish. “The fourth book in the hilarious series that began with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this installment returns Arthur Dent, after his years of space adventure, to a replacement Earth the first was destroyed to make way for an intergalactic highway. The new planet is identical to the old one except that all the dolphins are missing, and Dent tries to uncover the reason”.—Publisher’s Weekly

           Christie, Agatha. Murder On the Orient Express. En route to Paris, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot has booked winter passage on the fabled Orient Express. Among the curious assortment of fellow passengers, one wealthy American holds a unique distinction: He has been found dead of multiple stab wounds in the night compartment of the Calais coach. By dawn, thirteen travelers, each bearing a secret, will find themselves suspect in the most ingenious crime Poirot has ever solved.

            Creech, Sharon. Walk Two Moons. After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

            Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. The tale of a wounded soldier Inman, who walks away from the ravages of the war and back home to his prewar sweetheart, Ada. Inman's odyssey through the devastated landscape of the soon-to-be-defeated South interweaves with Ada's struggle to revive her father's farm, with the help of an intrepid young drifter named Ruby.

            Greene, Bob. All Summer Long.  They got together for their 25th high-school reunion, and came up with a crazy, enticing idea--to hop into a Ford and hit the highway for one more mellow, footloose summer in the sun. So Ben, a divorced TV journalist and his two best friends, Ronnie, a high-powered CEO, and Michael, a high school English teacher, hit the road to remember who they were--and still are.

            Kingsolver, Barbara. Pigs In Heaven. On a trip to the Hoover dam, six-year-old Turtle Greer witnesses a freak accident, her insistence on what she has seen and her mother's belief in her lead to a man's dramatic rescue. But Turtle's moment of celebrity draws her into a conflict of historic proportions.

            Kadohata, Cynthia. The Floating World. “The novel occurs in a series of "episodes that move through Olivia's adventures on a cross-country drive, her teen-age years in a small Arkansas town, her job in a chicken hatchery and her later life on her own, in a Los Angeles apartment building filled with starstruck neighbors." --N Y Times Book Review

            McManus, James. Going To the Sun. "Penny is a thirtyish Beckett scholar with little hope of finishing her dissertation; she has a serious case of diabetes and a ghost from the past. It has been seven years since she mercifully injected her boyfriend, who was mauled by a bear in Alaska, with a fatal dose of her own insulin. Now she is cycling from Chicago to Alaska on a mission not even she fully comprehends. When she has an accident in North Dakota, a very tall, young black man claiming to be a basketball pro and driving a new Mercedes convertible without license plates offers to help. She accepts despite her fears. A complex friendship develops in a short time."-- Library Journal

Non-Fiction Titles

            Bryson, Bill. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America. An inspiring and hilarious account of one man's rediscovery of America and his search for the perfect small town.

            Heat-Moon, William Least.  Blue Highways: A Journey into America.  The author, a thirty-eight-year-old laid-off college professor of Sioux and white blood, drove around the United States on the "blue highways" (the rural back roads, which are colored blue on old maps). This is an account of his travels to such places as Nameless, Tenn.; Wanchese, N.C.; Conyers, Ga.; Dime Box, Tex. and Liberty Bond, Wash.

            McAddoo,Richard.  Eccentric Circles: Around America in a House on Wheels. In their retirement, McAdoo and his wife decided to see America in a recreational vehicle. They drove their 18-foot camper through the small towns and off-the-beaten-track sightseeing spots, exploring cities and staying with friends and relatives along the way.—Library Journal

            Raban, Jonathan.  Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A discovery of America.  Raban retraces the steps of Hector St. John de Crvecoeur (the eponymous Mr. Heartbreak) who, in 1782 wrote the pioneering account of the immigrant experience in America. He travels across country and across social boundaries, from the homeless in Manhattan to Korean immigrants in Seattle.

            Steinbeck, John.  Travels With Charley: In Search of America.  A poodle, a novelist, and a van named Rocinante in search of America in 1960.