Spring break is just around the corner, time to relax and recharge after this long, cold winter. What better way to do that than go on a vacation. And while Mullen Library can’t take you physically, we have curated a selection of books that will Take Your Brain on Vacation! These titles have been chosen for their unique locations, adventure-laden plots, relaxing vibes, and armchair travel. We’ve even thrown in some entertaining non-fiction for those who still want to do a little learning with their leisure. Because we know everyone’s idea of a vacation is a little different, we have broken the titles down into three categories: Resort, Glamping, and Backpacking. Resort titles are books to luxuriate in; they will take you somewhere beautiful and leave you rested. Glamping books have a little more substance but are worth it for the vibes and stunning location. Backpacking books are a bit more work but reward you with an adventure you couldn’t get any other way. These books are displayed on the library’s first floor for you to browse and borrow. However you choose to spend your spring break, Mullen Library has the perfect book waiting for you. Happy reading!

 

Highlighted Reviews

Silence: in the age of noise by Erling Kagge translated from the original Norwegian by Becky L. Crook (Pantheon, 2017, Philosophy/Travel/Memoir) Glamping

Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge was the first person to walk alone across Antarctica to the South Pole. Fifty days without a radio, trekking in bitter cold across desolate landscapes, left him in the company of something he had long avoided: silence. And in that silence, he was forced to recon with the thoughts he would ordinarily shut out with the noise of the world and begin listening to what nature was telling him. Upon his return, he became obsessed with silence, what it was, why it felt so important now more than ever, and how do we find it. The result of that obsession was the publication of his seventh book, Silence, In the Age of Noise. In it, Kagge wrestles with those questions, consulting with poets, artists and other explorers, resulting in 32 meditations on silence. While the success of these meditations varies, on the whole, Kagge gives us book both lyrical and approachable. Short enough to devour in one sitting but thought provoking enough to enjoy bit-by-bit. Filled with striking imagery and perhaps more questions than answers, the book will leave readers itching to find a silence of their own.

 

The complete short stories, volume 1 by Enid Dinnis (CUA Press, 2025, Christian Fiction/Short Stories)  Backpacking

The complete short stories, volume 1, by Enid Dinnis is a compilation of hidden gems from a forgotten author of the Catholic Literary Revival. Her writing was grounded in the lives of everyday people, allowing Dinnis to share Catholic Mysticism in a way that still resonates with the readers of today. Born in 1873, Dinnis was the daughter of an Anglican vicar in East London. She converted to Catholicism in 1897, a decision that was not without its familial drama. In 1918 Dinnis went on to make her oblation to The Daughters of the Heart of Mary, a “hidden” congregation, where she would later go on to lead as Superior. This allowed Dinnis to remain a regular member of London’s writing society, living a secular lifestyle, even as a consecrated nun. Dinnis’s short stories are well served by this dual lifestyle. Each one is an amalgamation of Catholic doctrine, fairy tales and folklore, woven into the lives of ordinary people, often living at the edge of society. These stories, wrought with mysticism and the supernatural, served as an antidote to the overly rational and materialistic world view that was popular in the early 20th century. Written over 100 years ago, they still push off the page with their original urgency, enticing you to keep reading and see the wonder in everyday life.

 

Orbital: a novel by Samantha Harvey (Grove Press, 2024, Science Fiction)  Backpacking     

Orbital, Samantha Harvey’s small but mighty 2024 Booker Prize winning novel goes nowhere, and that’s the point. Set over a 24 hour period, Harvey gives us a glimpse into the minds of six astronauts, orbiting the earth on the International Space Station. Representing America, Japan, Britain, Italy, and Russia, these six astronauts live side by side for 9 long months. There is nothing thrilling about their daily routine, it is monotonous, unglamorous (did you know astronauts swallow their toothpaste?), and they are so far from home. But they wouldn’t have it any other way: being an astronaut is a calling. They are among the blessed few who get to look down upon the Earth, knowing it exists beyond them, and they exist because of her. Seeing beyond the limitations set on the ground, they know Earth in her totality, giving them a shared sense of humanity. Called “Ravishingly beautiful” by Joshua Ferris of the New York Times, Orbital is a meditation on Earth and our co-existence with her. Orbital takes you on a journey that is more important now than ever.

 

Illuminations: a novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, Historical Fiction/Religious Fiction) Resort

Illuminations: a novel of Hildegard von Bingen is a historical fiction following the life of a 12th century nun Hildegard von Bingen. A visionary, polymath, writer, musician, and doctor, Hildegard was a woman ahead of her time, remarkable in her talents even by today’s standards. She was officially canonized in 2012, 833 years after her death, though she was considered a saint for centuries, owing to her prophetic visions. The book begins near the end of Hildegard’s life, with her and her sisters in the church graveyard, having done something unspeakable. And while Hildegard is firm in her faith, knowing what they did was right, she fears the reckoning that is to come. Not for herself, she knows her time is almost gone, but for the future of her sisters. So, when a young monk comes knocking at the door, saying he is to write her Vita, she sits for her interview, hoping the sum of her life will be enough to protect them. The rest of the book unfolds, written as an imagined interview for her Vita, allowing the reader to see the evolution of Hildegard from fearful child to righteous woman of the Church. This is a fascinating read, breathing life into the story of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, one of Catholicism’s most interesting female saints.

 

Four points of the compass: the unexpected history of direction by Jerry Brotton (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024,  Non-fiction/History/Geography/Culture) Glamping

If you were lost in the woods with a map and a compass, could you find your way to safety? The truth is many of us could not, some of us can’t even drive across the city we live without a little help from GPS. How did this come to be that a species that once navigated by the stars can’t always find their way across town? New York Times bestselling author Jerry Brotton’s book, Four Points of the Compass: the Unexpected History of Direction, examines that question, dissecting humanity’s complicated history with directions and our continued entanglement with them. Brotton begins with an orientation of sorts, using a reference point that has become an almost universally known representation of Earth, NASA’s famous 1972 photo of Earth, later dubbed “The Blue Marble.” This is where Brotton first hooks readers, taking something they think they know, and turning it on its head. What follows is a well laid-out and fascinating look into the history of the cardinal directions as they intertwined with the fabric of humanity, affecting religion, exploration, language, and even politics. What results is as much an elegy on directions as it is a warning not to let them go so lightly. Four Points of the Compass is one of those books that will stay with you long after you’ve read the last page.

 

The magicians by Lev Grossman (Viking, 2009, Fantasy) Resort

When Quentin Coldwater, a high school senior, suddenly finds himself sitting for the entrance exam at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, he thinks all of his dreams have come true: magic is real! But as Quentin and his friends soon find out, magic is exacting, unkind, and above all, dangerous.  Quentin is brilliant and self-obsessed in a way that makes him miserable and self-destructive; his friends are equally unmoored. Grossman’s characters are realistic to the point of being unlikeable. The Magicians is often described as a “Harry Potter for adults,” but that comparison undersells both the novel and its audience. While it draws on familiar elements from Harry Potter and Narnia, it is not attempting to replicate either. Instead, Grossman crafts a darker, more satirical world, embracing moral ambiguity and emotional complexity. For readers willing to follow characters who are often flawed and slow to mature, the novel offers a compelling and energetic introduction to the trilogy.

 

 

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For the Resort

 

A wedding in Provence: a novel by Ellen Sussman (Ballantine Books, 2014, Romance/Women’s Fiction)

“Olivia, a fiftysomething divorcee, and Brody, a slightly younger widower, are about to get married at La Maison Verte in Cassis, France. Joining them are Brody’s mom, Olivia’s two adult daughters, and Olivia’s friends, who own the inn….Complicating the joyous occasion is Olivia’s eldest daughter, Nell, who has invited a dangerously sexy stranger to the nuptials. Women’s fiction fans will enjoy Sussman’s (French Lessons) knowing exploration of mother/daughter relationships and the bond between sisters. The vivid description of Provence will whisk the reader away to the Mediterranean tout suite.”  -Library Journal 

Beach reads and deadly deeds by Allison Brennan (Mira, 2025, Romance/Cozy Mystery Fiction)

“An idyllic island is the perfect setting for amour and murder. A brief prologue follows lovestruck Diana Harden as she secretly climbs to the clifftop home of Ethan Valentine, the object of her affection, and an anonymous figure sneaks up behind her and strangles her with her own scarf. Cut to workaholic accountant Mia Crawford, on her way to the Caribbean for her “nonnegotiable anniversary bonus” and angling for romance. The addition of a literary quotation at the beginning of each chapter, a nod to Mia’s bibliophilia, adds a dash of panache to this volume…A tropical romp that folds a frothy romance into a whodunit.” -Kirkus 

Behold a pale horse: a mystery of ancient Ireland by Peter Tremayne (Minotaur Books, 2012, Mystery/Catholic/Historical Fiction) 

“In a flashback to the days before she married, Sister Fidelma of Cashel has a wild adventure in A.D. 664 Italy…Several local lords who have religious differences are struggling for power, and Fidelma is soon caught in the middle…Once again, Tremayne (The Chalice of Blood, 2011, etc.) presents a detailed, readable depiction of life in ancient times with a clever mystery neatly woven into the plot.” -Kirkus

Cooking for Picasso: a novel by Camille Aubray (Ballantine Books, 2016, Historical/Women’s/Biographical Fiction)

“In 1936, young Ondine Belange’s parents give her a mission: deliver lunch daily from their Café Paradis to a reclusive man renting a nearby villa. They swear her to silence, for the patron’s name is Pablo Picasso. Picasso has fled Paris, his wife, and mistress for the picturesque countryside of Juan-les-Pins. Ondine soon finds herself swept up in the artist’s adventures, meeting Matisse and Cocteau; witnessing jealous fights between Picasso’s mistresses; posing for a series of portraits; and even taking him briefly as her lover. He sees her as an artist in her own right—a culinary artist…An amuse-bouche filled with secret ingredients, covert liaisons, and hidden compartments.” -Kirkus 

Death at the alma mater by G. M. Malliet (Midnight Ink, 2010, Mystery Fiction)

“In Malliet’s latest series installment (after Death and the Lit Chick), St. Mike’s College Cambridge is crumbling and needs money for repairs, so the school hosts a fundraising weekend for wealthy alumni. All goes well until one of the alumni is found dead. Det. Insp. Arthur St. Just works his way through an impressive list of suspects with shared history, clashing egos, and lots of secrets. Malliet delivers a witty, classic British cozy mystery with just a touch of romance. Davina Porter delivers an elegantly rendered performance. Verdict Fans of cozy or classic mysteries will find this a delightful treat.” -Library Journal 

Lady Sunshine: a novel by Amy Mason Doan (Graydon House, 2021, Mystery Fiction) 

“The filmy past and unfinished business are novelist Amy Mason Doan’s recurring subjects, and in “Lady Sunshine,” those themes emerge like sea glass: pretty and inviting, all sharpness smoothed away…From inspiration to publication, music and nostalgia make “Lady Sunshine” a feel-good book, and who at this moment doesn’t crave a little comfort?” -San Francisco Chronicle

Murder on Brittany shores: a mystery by Jean-Luc Bannalec; translated by Sorcha McDonagh (Minotaur Books, 2016, Mystery Fiction)

“Bannalec’s riveting sequel to 2015’s Death in Brittany takes Commissaire Georges Dupin from Concarneau, a town on the Brittany coast, to the Glénan Islands 10 miles offshore. The bodies of three men have washed up on the beach of one of the islands after a strong storm the night before…Commentary on such subjects as tourism, ecology, and commercial development enhance the complex plot, as do vivid descriptions of the terrain (“The long, flat islands floated on the deep opal sea as if by magic, a little blurred, shimmering”). The final twist leaves readers wondering how justice is best served.” -Publishers Weekly

My not so perfect life: a novel by Sophie Kinsella (The Dial Press, 2017, Contemporary/Romance Fiction) 

“Country girl Katie Brenner is living the life she’s always dreamed of in London…But behind her perfectly curated Instagram account, life isn’t actually as great as she’d like it to be. She’s barely making it financially, living with terrible roommates, and trying desperately to impress her boss, Demeter…It’s easy to root for Katie as she deals with problems that are relatable (being fired, dealing with roommates) and less-than-relatable (running a glamping business). The romance is charming, but the main strength of the story is Katie and Demeter’s evolving relationship. Kinsella creates characters that are well-rounded, quirky, and a complete joy to read.A delightful and charming story that will appeal to Shopaholic fans.” -Kirkus

Northanger Abbey by  Jane Austen (W.W. Norton, 2004, Gothic/Satire/ Romance Fiction) 

“It is a light novel—Austen’s lightest—and that lightness should be burdened as little as possible through overthinking it. Nevertheless, at risk of weightiness, it’s worth exploring how Northanger Abbey is more than a satire of other novels. Managing disastrous first impressions, discerning the sincerity of another’s intentions, seeing into somebody’s character: these are all here, explored in just as nuanced a way as they will be in Emma or Pride and Prejudice. Northanger Abbey is not Austen’s best novel, or even her second best. But it is, far and away, my favorite.” -The Paris Review

On her game: Caitlin Clark and the revolution in women’s sports by Christine Brennan (Scribner, 2025, Biography/Non-Fiction) 

“The very definition of a household name, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and WNBA sensation needs no introduction at this point — but another victory lap probably won’t hurt. Brennan, a longtime sports columnist and former NPR contributor, offers an adoring account of the 12-month span that saw Clark conquer women’s basketball and help spur its unprecedented boom in popularity, as well as an undertow of controversy that occasionally included Brennan herself.” -NPR 

Rock the shack: the architecture of cabins, cocoons and hide-outs edited by Sven Ehmann, Robert Klanten, and Sofia Borges; text and preface by Sofia Borges (Gestalten, 2013, Architecture/Environmental/Non-Fiction)

“Filled with all sorts of quirky small houses, rural pavilions, tree-houses and the like, Rock the Shack, which was published in 2013 by Gestalten, documents a kind of rural revival, where fatigued city denizens decided to build isolated retreats away from their urban homes as a way of getting back in touch with a more natural, calmer way of living…Organised in thematic groups based on the topographical surroundings of each project (land, forest, mountain and water), Rock the Shack is a pleasure to leaf through, not only for the sheer innovation and originality of the designs contained within, but also for the way in which it poses the question: of all the possessions and amenities we have learned to live with, isn’t there a lot we could do without?” -Yatzer

Rules for visiting: a novel by Jessica Francis Kane (Penguin Press, 2019, Contemporary/Women’s Fiction) 

“Rules for Visiting has too many fun, hilarious, and extremely touching twists and turns to detail further here, and its coming out right around Mother’s Day is no coincidence. By the end of the book, I loved May as a character, and I understood her; she reveals elements of her own history and choices slowly, in dribs and drabs. She doesn’t need me to like her, though. She has her plants, her father, some new or revitalized friendships, and her own sharp and witty mind to keep her company. She is no Grendel — only a deeply alive human.” -NPR

Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez; lettering by Jared K. Fletcher (Vertigo, 2006, Graphic Novel/Romance Fiction) 

“The much heralded Love & Rockets cartoonist turns in his first original graphic novel and it showcases a creator still making vital work after two decades. The story is of young people too creative, too smart and too passionate for the constraints of suburbia. Miguel Serra wakes up from a yearlong coma, slower physically but not mentally. He is literally out of step with the rest of the world, a perfectly disaffected youth…Sloth packs a lot of emotion and complicated storytelling into an unusual tale.” -Publishers Weekly

Star wars: aftermath / Chuck Wendig (Del Rey, 2015, Science Fiction) 

“The book — the first of a trilogy — is the first canonical foray into the Star Wars timeline past Return of the Jedi. The second Death Star has been destroyed, and Emperor Palpatine has been killed. But cutting off the proverbial head wasn’t enough to take down the giant snake of the Empire. Aftermath picks up months after the game-changing events on Endor and presents a picture of a galaxy in the middle of the messy process of transformation…His writing gets you up close and personal with anyone we come in contact with, whether we spend chapters with them or only a few pages. Wendig does wonders with dialogue and voice and carving out space for everyone to breathe. Aftermath is a strong foot forward into unexplored territory and puts down just enough foundation that you can start picturing the Resistance and First Order of The Force Awakens taking shape.” -Nerdist

The Sisters brothers by Patrick deWitt (Ecco, 2011, Western/Humorous Fiction) 

“The plot is simple and unique, with the appearance of a simple gun-job but the reality of a realistic job where characters think for themselves. What I loved about this book was how utterly bizarre it was alongside how it was completely believably. Every single word. It all caught me off guard but at the same time was expected. Read it!”-Grimdark Magazine

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Tor, 2023, Science Fiction/Fantasy Fiction) 

“Thornhedge stands out as a strikingly original take on the Sleeping Beauty tale, based on a central reversal that I, for one, hadn’t seen before. In deference to the spoiler-sensitive, I’ll only mention a couple of questions that most readers will find themselves asking early on: exactly what is that forbidding hedge of thorns around the castle keep really for, and why is the fairy changeling Toadling so devoted to keeping it secret that she maintains a lonely vigil for centuries? By the time we learn the answers, we’re so thoroughly invested in Toadling’s own story, and her cau­tious relationship with a peripatetic and not very heroic knight named Hamil, that the real focus of the novella becomes clear. And while it does eventually involve some brutal murders, sui­cide, abandonment, and hideously reanimated corpses, it’s finally a sweet-tempered tale of loyalty, patience, honor, redemption, and love.” -Locus Magazine

 

Glamping 

 

April in Spain: a novel by John Banville (Hanover Square Press, 2021, Historical/Mystery Fiction)

“Banville returns to his series hero, Dublin pathologist Quirke, in this moody thriller set in the Basque village of Donostia, where the morose but sublimely sardonic Quirke is vacationing (an alien concept for him) with his newish wife, Evelyn, a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor. After stabbing himself with an oyster knife, Quirke is treated by a doctor who looks oddly familiar. Could she be April Latimer, who disappeared years earlier in the wake of a scandal and was presumed dead? …This leisurely paced tale crackles with the kinetic energy of an approaching thunderstorm as Banville brilliantly contrasts the blue skies of Spain with the wine-dark seas roiling inside his characters’ heads.” -Booklist

Café Neandertal: excavating our past in one of Europe’s most ancient places by Beebe Bahrami (Counterpoint, 2017, Travel Writing/Anthropology/Archeology/Non-Fiction)

“Memoir of a food-and-travel journalist who displays her love of archaeology. Bahrami (Historic Walking Guides: Madrid, 2009, etc.) covers events from 2010 to 2015, most of them at the dig at La Ferrassie in France, where seven nearly complete Neanderthal skeletons were found. The author describes her position as “the upstairs-downstairs journalist-crew-anthropologist folded into [a] camp of some thirty quirky, very opinionated, very international, and very bright archaeologists and students as they worked into one of the great mysteries of the human journey on earth.”…Written with all the flair and enthusiasm of an experienced writer eager to share her love of her subject.” -Kirkus

Daikon: a novel by Samuel Hawley (Avid Reader Press, 2025, Historical/Romance/Alternative History Fiction)

“In this thrilling what-if scenario from historian Hawley (The Imjin War), the U.S. sends three—not two—atomic bombs to Japan during WWII, and one falls into enemy hands… The result is the most imaginative take on Hiroshima since Edwin Corley’s The Jesus Factor.”-Publishers Weekly

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Jennifer Croft (Riverhead Books, 2018, Magical realism/Short Stories/Travel/Fiction)

“Flights, whose central recurring tropes are physical movement, the mortal body and the meaning of home. It is a novel of intuitions as much as ideas, a cacophony of voices and stories seemingly unconnected across time and space, which meander between the profound and the facetious, the mysterious and the ordinary, and whose true register remains one of glorious ambiguity. Olga Tokarczuk is a household name in Poland and one of Europe’s major humanist writers, working here in the continental tradition of the “thinking” or essayistic novel.” -The Guardian

Less: a novel by Andrew Sean Greer (Little, Brown and Company, 2017, Contemporary/Romance/Literary Fiction)

“Greer mercilessly skewers the insecurity of authors as well as the vanity of the literary industry’s self-absorption in the face of its irrelevance to most people’s lives. The stealthy genius of this novel is that it simultaneously tells the life story of a basically sweet man whom the industry has eaten alive…Novels about novelists are always a risk, but Less is about anyone who has allowed their calling to define them at the expense of their humanity. Writers may blush in the mirror it holds up to them, but many readers will find it as endearing as the very best of Armistead Maupin.” -The Guardian

Project mind control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the tragedy of MKULTRA by John Lisle (St. Martin’s Press, 2025, Political Science/History/Non-Fiction)

“Historian Lisle (The Dirty Tricks Department) offers new insight into the CIA’s notorious MKULTRA program in this enthralling account. Lisle gained access to previously unknown depositions (823 pages of material) in five civil rights cases filed against the program and its head, Sidney Gottlieb, by its victims…Declining to delve into conspiracy (the mind control experiments were not successful, he reassures), Lisle instead pinpoints institutional failures that led to a feedback loop of secrecy. It’s a stark portrait of horrifying government abuse.” -Publishers Weekly

Silverview by John Le Carré (Viking, 2021, Thriller/Spy/Mystery Fiction)

“A standalone spy story, it unfolds in an East Anglian seaside town, seemingly in the late 00s (it’s not specified), where Julian, 33, tired of life working in the City, has pitched up, capital-rich, to open a bookshop….Ultimately, Silverview unspools as a cat-and-mouse chase narrative, with the novel’s dual perspective putting us in the control room, one step ahead of the characters, able to see the bigger picture, albeit heavily pixelated until the final pages. Such are the layers of irony that it’s easy to forget that the sting in the tale was already delivered upfront, in an enigmatic opening shorn of vital context.” -The Guardian

Station eleven: a novel by Emily St. John Mandel (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014, Science Fiction/Literary Fiction)

“…most apocalypse novels push grimly forward into horror or dystopia, Station Eleven skips back and forth between the pre-flu world and Year Twenty after global collapse, when the worst is over and survivors have banded together into isolated settlements. Gradually, the book builds cumulative power as connections are made between the two time frames, and characters who do or don’t survive…Station Eleven is not so much about apocalypse as about memory and loss, nostalgia and yearning; the effort of art to deepen our fleeting impressions of the world and bolster our solitude.” -The Guardian

The amazing story of quantum mechanics: a math-free exploration of the science that made our world / James Kakalios (Gotham Books, 2010, Quantum Theory/Trivia and Miscellanea/Non-Fiction)

“Kakalios (Physics and Astronomy/Univ. of Minnesota; The Physics of Superheroes, 2007), who served as the science consultant for the film version of Watchmen, loves pulp science fiction and comics but admits that their predictions flopped. …They had forecast a revolution in energy which didn’t happen,…Central to this revolution was quantum mechanics, a weird but critically important field. In the ultra-tiny quantum world, light travels as a wave or as a particle depending on the experiment…A quirky but sensible explanation of quantum mechanics that avoids the oversimplification of TV science documentaries.” -Kirkus

The artist of disappearance: three novellas by Anita Desai (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, Short Stories/Literary Fiction)

“These stories about art are also stories about ourselves. The characters, sketched in with Desai’s usual blend of irony and tender sympathy, are people who look at pictures and read books: the rich who collect and neglect art, the civil servants who fail to support it, the adapters and critics and publishers who cluster round the edges, their restless jostling muddying and blurring its outlines. Last of all, but most beautifully, in her final story Desai writes about the secret part of all human beings that can create no matter how wretched our circumstances, a precious gift she suggests must at all costs flee the roaring, vacuous maw of 21st-century media.” -The Guardian

The cat’s table by Michael Ondaatje (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, Historical/Adventure Fiction)

“The Cat’s Table seems at first as if it might be a picaresque novel set in a constricted space, a favourite choice of many writers since Sebastian Brant’s 1494 Ship of Fools. Ondaatje gives us the cat’s table, the opposite of the captain’s table, and the most undesirable dining assignment aboard the cruise ship Oronsay. This allows Ondaatje to lay out an extraordinary assortment of characters like cards on a table, shuffle and redeal them. It gives the passengers a sense of invisibility and the freedom to behave as they wish. As we read into The Cat’s Table the story becomes more complex, more deadly, with an increasing sense of lives twisted awry, of misplaced devotion.” -The Guardian

The relic by José Maria Eça de Queirós; translated from the Portuguese by Robert M. Fedorchek (CUA Press, 2023, Christian Fiction)

“The Relic is an irreverent fictional autobiography narrating the picaresque adventures of Teodorico, a Portuguese playboy determined to be the sole heir of his absurdly pious, sexually repressed, and tyrannical Auntie. Sent to the Holy Land, he returns with what he presumes is the “relic of relics” in hopes of persuading Auntie to bequeath her vast fortune to him. While in Jerusalem, Teodorico has a vision in which he witnesses Christ’s trial and crucifixion and the founding of Christianity—with a twist.” -University of Massachusetts Press

The road that made America: a modern pilgrim’s journey on the great wagon road by James Dodson (Avid Reader Press, 2025, Biography/Travel Writing/Non-Fiction)

““The Great Wagon Road is probably the least known historic road in America,” writes Dodson, better known for books on golf than on the nation’s past. Yet, as he writes in this pleasingly informal travelogue, he comes by his passion for the GWR naturally, having been inducted by a scholarly father in the pleasures of visiting historical places…Armchair travelers will enjoy Dodson’s wanderings—and may even be inspired to explore the road on their own.” -Kirkus

The thousand crimes of Ming Tsu: a novel by Tom Lin (Little, Brown and Company, 2021, Mystery/Western/Thriller/Gothic Fantasy/Romance Fiction)

“Is a character’s genre their destiny? In the case of The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, an orphan crossing an inhospitable landscape on a quest for revenge, a troupe of magicians who have fallen in with an assassin, and a woman whose past is unavoidably catching up to her future all occupy different genre interpretations of a particular story: Western, gothic fantasy, thriller, and even romance…There’s a lot to love in this expansive debut novel from Tom Lin. The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is a truly cinematic Western. Its vistas and action sequences are perfectly designed for fans of graphic novels and the big screen alike.” -NPR

Tigerman: a novel by Nick Harkaway (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014, Science Fiction/Mystery/Literary Fiction) 

“Tigerman isn’t just good, it’s shake a Granny good. The kind if good that makes you wonder why every book isn’t this smart and joyous and beautiful and heart breaking. It’s the story of Sergeant Lester Ferris, he’s a soldier acting as the British consul on a doomed island, basically running out the clock on his retirement… This is a brilliant postcolonial novel and it maintains an exquisite balance between the ugly and the beautiful, the action and the result, between a boy and the hero he so badly needs.” -NPR

Venomous lumpsucker by Ned Beauman (Soho Press, 2022, Science Fiction)

“Outwardly, Venomous Lumpsucker is a jaunty, cerebral eco-thriller, set a couple of decades hence, about the hunt for the last surviving colony of a fictional fish, Cyclopterus venenatus, the venomous lumpsucker. Inwardly, however, it’s a novel about grief, specifically the grief we feel for animals, and for ourselves, as we live through the Holocene extinction – the mass vanishing of species caused by human activity, when every encounter with an animal, as the novel puts it, “is soaked through with horror and loss”’. -The Guardian 

 

Backpacking 

 

All the colour in the world: a novel by CS Richardson (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2023, Historical/Romance/Literary Fiction)

“Across the spare, elliptical, and supremely artful (and art-filled) chapters of “All the Colour in the World,” Richardson touches on the arduous decades of Henry. A lonely though creative child who becomes an art history scholar, he experiences loss and trauma in harrowing abundance… “Colour” studies a man buffeted — and buffeted again — by fateful circumstance. Richardson’s paean to Henry’s endurance doubles as a heady celebration of art, an act and form the author respects in all its facets.” –The Toronto Star

Be still and know: Zen and the Bible by Ruben L.F. Habito (Orbis Books, 2017, Interfaith relations/Non-Fiction)

“What the reader will take away is a deeper appreciation for the divine Truth and Presence that grounds every legitimate religious tradition.  H. is not arguing either for syncretism or indifferentism, but rather he builds on the reality of the sensus plenior that allows for the Bible always to lead us to greater and deeper real truths if we can leave behind some of our preconceptions, biases, and limitations that conspire to skew our vision of what God is actually trying to show us.” – Catholicbookreview.org

Exit west: a novel by Mohsin Hamid (Riverhead Books, 2017, Romance/Political/Magical Realism)

“We are all migrants through time,” observes Man Booker Prize short-lister Hamid (The Reluctant Fundamentalist). The impulses driving such a movement, especially when rooted in violent conflict, is at the core of Hamid’s exceptional fourth novel. In an unnamed city (not unlike the author’s native Lahore, Pakistan), Saeed and Nadia meet, find love, and expect to share a future, but a militant takeover forces them to flee their homeland. Hamid reveals their tenuous journey from a dreamlike distance that perfectly blends reality with fablelike parable.” -Library Journal

Held by Anne Michaels (Alfred A. Knopf, 2024, Historical/Literary fiction)

“Held is full of lacunae – great gaps of time in which characters die or give birth or are exiled or despair. Like one of those elaborate knitting patterns, it is largely made up of holes and absences. Its stories are told in glimpses. It is for the reader to join the dots… “Sometimes history is simply detritus,” writes Michaels. Her book is an assemblage of truncated stories and floating ideas, but its fragmentation gives it flexibility and resilience. She demonstrates that fugitive pieces can make up a structure as strong and as meaningful as a finished monument.” –The Guardian

Inseparable: a never-before-published novel by Simone de Beauvoir ; translated from the French by Sandra Smith (Ecco, 2021, Coming of Age/Literary Fiction)

“Inseparable is a short novel Beauvoir wrote in 1954, which was published for the first time last fall in France by Beauvoir’s adopted daughter, Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir…The subject of the novel is the relationship between Sylvie Lepage, the narrator, and Andrée Gallard, her volatile best friend, set against the backdrop of the Parisian bourgeoisie of the interwar period. Imagine an atmosphere composed of convent schools, large families, Action Française, an interminable social calendar, country homes, a lingering sense that God is against you. In this milieu, there are only two routes for proper young women — marriage or the convent — because, as Andrée’s mother says, “Being single is not a vocation.”’ –LA Review of Books

James: a novel by Percival Everett (Doubleday, 2024, Adventure/Historical Fiction)

“…the acclaimed novelist Percival Everett is out with James, a re-telling of the story from Jim’s point of view. But it isn’t a rebuke of the original. “My writing James is not in any way an indictment of Twain at all,” he says. “I’m writing the novel that Twain was – not ill equipped – but unequipped to write. That being the story of Jim. So I consider this more as being in discourse with Twain.”‘-NPR

Shadow ticket by Thomas Pynchon (Penguin Press, 2025, Historical/Thriller/Noir Mystery Fiction)

“One thing you’ll take away from this novel is that it’s really, really funny. Pynchon delights in verbal acrobatics—from simple turns-of-phrases to full Jazz-age song parodies. Indeed, Shadow Ticket is rather a musical novel—Pynchon creates more than a dozen songs in these pages with lyrics like “Ubiquitous … you’re out / everywhere, you’re / ubiquitous … like the / airwaves, through the air…” And so forth.  It gets even sillier: Perhaps one of the most ludicrously entertaining parts of the novel is a several-pages digression about whether cheese is conscious.” – Chicago Review of Books 

Stone angels: a novel by Helena Rho (Grand Central Publishing, 2025, Historical/Literary Fiction)

“In Rho’s immersive debut novel (after the memoir American Seoul), a Pittsburgh woman explores her Korean roots. In 2006, recent divorcee Angelina Lee travels to South Korea, which she left at age six, to attend a summer university program in Seoul. Hoping to reunite with family she doesn’t remember and grieving her mother’s recent death by suicide, Angelina goes to Gwangju to meet a cousin and their grandmother…Readers will savor this weighty family drama.” –Publishers Weekly

Time shelter: a novel by Georgi Gospodinov ; translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2022, Science Fiction/Literary Fiction)

“Time Shelter is Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov’s third novel, and for all its focus on the apparently bygone, it could not be more timely. A mysterious therapist, Gaustine, founds a clinic that treats patients with Alzheimer’s by recreating the pasts in which they felt most secure… The novel’s title – Time Shelter – is a neologism in Bulgarian as it is in English, a grafting from the noun “bomb shelter”. It’s well found in its ambiguity: sheltering from time, and sheltering within time. Both are attractive but impossible. Nostalgia used to feel like a source of harmless escape, and occasional sustenance. It is starting to seem like a fossil fuel, foreshortening our future as it burns.” -The Guardian 

Whereabouts: a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, written in Italian and translated by the author (Alfred A. Knopf, 2021, Literary Fiction)

“The unnamed narrator of this slim book is a somewhat peevish, unmarried, middle-aged writer and literature professor who has lived in the same Italian city her entire life. In a series of meditative and melancholy episodes that span nearly a year, she records her efforts to locate her place in the world. As its title suggests, Whereabouts is a novel about place, both geographical and emotional — both of which are subject to constant change.” -NPR

Patricia Ford is a graduate student in the Department of Information Sciences at The Catholic University of America and will earn her Master’s of Science in Library and Information Science (M.S.L.I.S.) degree in the spring of 2027.  Patricia earned her B.S. in Environmental Biology and M.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Tulane University.