Summertime means vacations, and that can mean road trips!!

I loooove to road trip – toss all kinds of stuff in the car and just go places. Five gallon container of water, tent, tons of snacks (the kinds that don’t melt or spoil are the best!), a GPS and an atlas – and you are ready to go! Ideally, you can stop off at every single brown highway sign to see the sights. (Brown signs are for recreation and cultural interest.)

You can pick out some standard drives, or head for a specific destination. We are really lucky here in Minnesota to have so many great Scenic Byways: “a road corridor that has regionally outstanding scenic, natural, recreational, cultural, historic or archaeological significance. These corridors offer an alternative travel route to our major highways and daily travel patterns, while telling a story about Minnesota’s heritage, recreational activities or beauty. ”

If you love to road trip, or if you have always wanted to do one, check out the books below! And if you are more of an armchair traveler, here are the books that will let you enjoy adventures from the comfort of your home.

You can use this flyer o help you build your own display! Road trip books

(We are linking to Amazon in the book images below; if you click thru it in theory we get a small piece of Amazon’s profits.  In practice, it rarely works – so just enjoy the information either way!)

The Longest Road, by Philip Caputo

I listened to this on a road trip with my dad, as we drove the entire length of Alaska. We have also driven in a long road trip from Illinois to Key West, so this book really resonated with us!! (I think Caputo could have been nicer to his wife sometimes; but travel does not always bring out out best behavior!)

“Standing on a wind-scoured island off the Alaskan coast, Philip Caputo marveled that its Inupiat Eskimo schoolchildren pledge allegiance to the same flag as the children of Cuban immigrants in Key West, six thousand miles away. And a question began to take shape: How does the United States, peopled by every race on earth, remain united? Caputo resolved that one day he’d drive from the nation’s southernmost point to the northernmost point reachable by road, talking to Americans about their lives and asking how they would answer his question.

Caputo, his wife, and their two English setters made their way in a truck and classic trailer (hereafter known as “Fred” and “Ethel”) from Key West, Florida, to Deadhorse, Alaska, covering sixteen thousand miles. He spoke to everyone from a West Virginia couple saving souls to a Native American shaman and taco entrepreneur. What he found is a story that will entertain and inspire readers as much as it informs them about the state of today’s United States, the glue that holds us all together, and the conflicts that could pull us apart.”

 

  Take Me With You, by Catherine Ryan Hyde

I read this road trip to hear about the visit to National Parks – always the BEST travel destinations!! (I’m on a quest to visit all the state parks in Minnesota, and we are so lucky to have such great parks!!) This book is emotional, but does not dwell in the sadness – like any good road trip it keeps moving forward and does not get bogged down in the details. Good story!

“August Shroeder, a burned-out teacher, has been sober since his nineteen-year-old son died. Every year he’s spent the summer on the road, but making it to Yellowstone this year means everything. The plan had been to travel there with his son, but now August is making the trip with Philip’s ashes instead. An unexpected twist of fate lands August with two extra passengers for his journey, two half-orphans with nowhere else to go.

What none of them could have known was how transformative both the trip—and the bonds that develop between them—would prove, driving each to create a new destiny together. ”

 

 

Rules of the Road, by Joan Bauer

I stumbled into the book, and was living in Chicago at the time, so the location grabbed me. But then I wanted to keep reading it for the adventure of the road trip! A good YA, for actual YAs or adults who enjoy a nice trip.

“Meet Jenna Boller, star employee at Gladstone Shoe Store in Chicago. Standing a gawky 5’11” at 16 years old, Jenna is the kind of girl most likely to stand out in the crowd for all the wrong reasons. But that doesn’t stop Madeline Gladstone, the president of Gladstone’s Shoes 176 outlets in 37 states, from hiring Jenna to drive her cross country in a last ditch effort to stop Elden Gladstone from taking over his mother’s company and turning a quality business into a shop-and-schlock empire. Now Jenna Boller shoe salesperson is about to become a shoe-store spy as she joins her crusty old employer for an eye-opening adventure that will teach them both the rules of the road and the rules of life.”

Blue Highways: A Journey Across America, by William Least Heat-Moon

I love to see small towns, and sights off the big interstate highways – and this book really started a lot of us in thinking about taking those kinds of adventures to see things you would not otherwise have discovered!

“William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about “those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi.”

His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.”

Out West: A Journey through Lewis and Clark’s America, by Dayton Duncan

A few summers ago, I drove the entire Lewis and Clark Trail, visiting every public library along the way. It was an amazing adventure!! And I clutched my copy of this book, and several other great Lewis and Clark books, to make sure I could maximize my adventuring. (Note: it totally worked. I had a fantastic time!)

“One hundred and eighty years after Lewis and Clark’s “Voyage of Discovery” (1804–1806), Dayton Duncan set out in a Volkswagen camper to retrace their steps. Out West is an account of three separate journeys: Lewis and Clark’s epic adventure through uncharted wilderness; Duncan’s retracing of the historic trail, now in various ways tamed, paved, and settled; and the journey of the American West in the years in between. Readers traveling with Duncan will encounter the people who inhabit today’s West: farmers and ranchers, cowboys and mountain men, Native Americans, residents of dying small towns, city dwellers who have survived cycles of boom and bust. From the Gateway Arch in St. Louis to the Oregon coast, readers will be treated to a landscape as variously impressive as its people.”

 

  Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, by Neal  Peart

This was a really interesting road trip book, with a lot of letters to friends included and other material that contributed to the text. Starting off the motorcycle trip with an amazing amount of sorrow, having lost his daughter and his wife in just a few short months, the story covers a few years and talks about the adventures he had driving from Canada, to the United States, to Mexico, and back.

“This bold narrative written by the drummer and lyricist for the band Rush shows how Peart tried to stay alive by staying on the move after the loss of his 19-year-old daughter and his wife. ”

Paper Towns, by John Green

You can enjoy this very popular story in book format, or check out the movie! Green is a very popular YA author, with many other interesting books after this road trip adventure!

“When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.”

NEED OTHER BOOK IDEA????

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I recently got a MoviePass, and I have to tell you: it’s changing my life this summer!! For $10 a month, I can go see a new movie every single day if I want to. In practice, it’s about one a week – but that is approximately four more movies a month than I generally go to see in the theater. (I am receiving no credit at all from MoviePass if you click there, or if you sign up – it’s just a fun thing that I wanted to pass on to you.)

So movies have been on my mind a lot lately. Libraries are, of course, always on my mind – and the multitudes of books to be found there. And I started noticing, while sitting through interminable commercials and previews, that a LOT of movies started life as books.

This is awesome!!

Let’s share the love that Hollywood, and all of us, feel for books by reading them and encouraging patrons to read more fun books. Once we bring them in with movie/book combos, we can keep handing them other books they will enjoy!

If you want to share some of these on a display, feel free to Books to Movies Summer 2018 for your library!

(CMLE might get a small kickback from Amazon if you buy things after clicking on these links. In theory we do; in practice it doesn’t actually work – but we want you to enjoy books from any source that works for you!)

 

Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan

I’m really excited to see this – the previews are show a world that is huge, lush, and gorgeous!! And after hearing several of the cast talk about the good time they had filming this, it made me even more excited to see it!

“When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country’s most eligible bachelor.

On Nick’s arm, Rachel may as well have a target on her back the second she steps off the plane, and soon, her relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers.”

A Simple Favor, by Darcey Bell

Anna Kedrick is staring in this movie, and really – I’ll go see any of her movies! This one looks delightfully creepy, and though it doesn’t come out until September, I’m including it here because it looks so fun!

“It starts with a simple favor—an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky after school, she happily says yes. Nicky and her son, Miles, are classmates and best friends, and the five-year-olds love being together—just like she and Emily. A widow and stay-at-home mommy blogger living in woodsy suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a sophisticated PR executive whose job in Manhattan demands so much of her time.

But Emily doesn’t come back. She doesn’t answer calls or return texts. Stephanie knows something is terribly wrong—Emily would never leave Nicky, no matter what the police say. Terrified, she reaches out to her blog readers for help. She also reaches out to Emily’s husband, the handsome, reticent Sean, offering emotional support. It’s the least she can do for her best friend. Then, she and Sean receive shocking news. Emily is dead. The nightmare of her disappearance is over.

Or is it? Because soon, Stephanie will begin to see that nothing—not friendship, love, or even an ordinary favor—is as simple as it seems.

A Simple Favor is a remarkable tale of psychological suspense—a clever and twisting free-fall of a ride filled with betrayals and reversals, twists and turns, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty, murder and revenge. Darcey Bell masterfully ratchets up the tension in a taut, unsettling, and completely absorbing story that holds you in its grip until the final page.”

The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh, by A. A. Milne

While the movie here is not directly about the books, focusing instead on the fantasy that Christopher Robin has grown up and needs to have the magic of Pooh and friends back – how cool does this sound?? I know I’m not alone in my Winnie Pooh love, so join me at the theater after you browse the Pooh collection in your own library!

“Since 1926, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends—Piglet, Owl, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, and the ever doleful Eeyore—have endured as the unforgettable creations of A. A. Milne, who wrote two books of Pooh’s adventures for his son, Christopher Robin, and Ernest H. Shepard, who lovingly gave them shape through his iconic and beautiful illustrations.

These characters and their stories are timeless treasures of childhood that continue to speak to all of us with the kind of freshness and heart that distinguishes true storytelling.”

Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigations of a Lifetime, by Ron Stallworth

I read a magazine article about this story a while ago, and it sounded so amazing that I wanted to know more – and here it is! Read the book, then enjoy the movie. The year is 1978, and the story is terrifying. A great way to get a more complete picture of our coutnry’s (very) recent past – with  heroes we can all root for! (That’s key in summer movies!)

“When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a PO box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man. He figures he’ll receive a few brochures in the mail, maybe even a magazine, and learn more about a growing terrorist threat in his community.

A few weeks later the office phone rings, and the caller asks Ron a question he thought he’d never have to answer: “Would you like to join our cause?” This is 1978, and the KKK is on the rise in the United States. Its Grand Wizard, David Duke, has made a name for himself, appearing on talk shows and in major magazine interviews preaching a “kinder” Klan that wants nothing more than to preserve a heritage and to restore a nation to its former glory.

Ron answers the caller’s question that night with a yes, launching what is surely one of the most audacious and incredible undercover investigations in history. Ron recruits his partner, Chuck, to play the “white” Ron Stallworth while Stallworth himself conducts all subsequent phone conversations. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotages cross burnings, exposes white supremacists in the military, and even befriends David Duke himself.

Black Klansman is an amazing true story that unfolds like a crime thriller and a searing portrait of a divided America and the extraordinary heroes who dare to fight back.”

 

The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Bracken

You know that at CMLE, we are big fans of YA books – and Hollywood also understands that big adventures led by YAs can be exciting for everyone! Check out this series, and enjoy watching it translated to the big screen.

“When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that killed most of America’s children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control. Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. But when the truth about Ruby’s abilities—the truth she’s hidden from everyone, even the camp authorities—comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. On the run, she joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp: Zu, a young girl haunted by her past; Chubs, a standoffish brainiac; and Liam, their fearless leader, who is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. While they journey to find the one safe haven left for kids like them—East River—they must evade their determined pursuers, including an organization that will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. But as they get closer to grasping the things they’ve dreamed of, Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.””

 

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, by John Callahan and David Kelly

I read my first book John Callahan many years ago. He totally upended any societal expectation that a disabled guy would be polite, quiet, or respectful in his cartoons that were surprising, sometimes rude, occasionally disturbing,  and always funny! Enjoy his books, then go see the story behind the books.

“In 1972, at the age of 21, John Callahan was involved in a car crash that severed his spine and made him a quadriplegic. A heavy drinker since the age of 12 (alcohol had played a role in his crash), the accident could have been the beginning of a downward spiral. Instead, it sparked a personal transformation. After extensive physical therapy, he was eventually able to grasp a pen in his right hand and make rudimentary drawings. By 1978, Callahan had sworn off drinking for good, and begun to draw cartoons.

Over the next three decades, until his death in 2010, Callahan would become one of the nation’s most beloved—and at times polarizing—cartoonists. His work, which shows off a wacky and sometimes warped sense of humor, pokes fun at social conventions and pushes boundaries. One cartoon features Christ at the cross with a thought bubble reading “T.G.I.F.” In another, three sheriffs on horseback approach an empty wheelchair in the desert. “Don’t worry,” one sheriff says to another, “He won’t get far on foot.”

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot recounts Callahan’s life story, from the harrowing to the hilarious. Featuring more than 60 of Callahan’s cartoons, it’s a compelling look at art, addiction, disability, and fame.”

Welcome to our Book Bouquet series! Here we take some time to look at a collection of books, all grouped by a theme. You can use these ideas to add books to your own To Be Read pile; or use them as a foundation to build a book display in your library.

Do you have book themes you enjoy? Send them in to us, and we will make a Book Bouquet of them to share with everyone!

Have you tuned into our book group podcast: Reading With Libraries? We have tons of great book suggestions, material on recommending books across all kinds of genres, beverages matching the genre theme, and some super-fun Guest Hosts. Join us!

 

I love to watch the Tour de France!!

If you have never watched pro cycling, this is a three-week long race. Nearly 200 riders start the race, and not all of them make it to the last day in Paris. They cover over 2,000 miles on their bikes in this time. This is a team sport, with different teams aiming at different goals, all working to help individual riders in achieving goals.

• At the end of the race the yellow jersey is awarded to the rider who has the fastest time to Paris. (Sometimes this is a few minutes of difference to 2nd or 3rd place; sometimes it is a couple of seconds!)
• The green jersey is given to the rider who gets the most points, generally earned by sprinting in the stages where that is possible.
• The polka dot jersey is called the King of the Mountains, and is worn by the rider who earned points by getting to the top of the mountain climbs first. (They ride their bikes all over the Pyrenees and the Alps!)
• The white jersey goes to the rider under the age of 26 who finishes the fastest.

Lots of skills required on the team, so everyone has a role to play. There is a lot of strategy, and working to exploit the weaknesses of other riders and other teams. It’s like watching a chess game, that takes three weeks to play!

What books could we add to our bouquet? You could take this is a few different directions, so let your own imagination go wild!

(Links go to Amazon, and the book descriptions are from there!)

French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, by Tim Moore “French Revolutions gives us a hilariously unforgettable account of Moore’s attempt to conquer the Tour de France. “Conquer” may not be quite the right word. He cheats when he can, pops the occasional hayfever pill for an ephedrine rush (a fine old Tour tradition), sips cheap wine from his water bottle, and occasionally weeps on the phone to his wife. But along the way he gives readers an account of the race’s colorful history and greatest heroes: Eddy Merckx, Greg Lemond, Lance Armstrong, and even Firmin Lambot, aka the “Lucky Belgian,” who won the race at the age of 36. Fans of the Tour de France will learn why the yellow jersey is yellow, and how cyclists learned to save precious seconds (a race that lasts for three weeks is all about split seconds) by relieving themselves en route. And if that isn’t enough, his account of a rural France tarting itself up for its moment in the spotlight leaves popular quaint descriptions of small towns in Provence in the proverbial dust. If you either love or hate the French, or both, you’ll want to travel along with Time Moore.”

 

Pro Cycling on $10 a Day: From Fat Kid to Euro Pro, by Phil Gaimon “Presented here as a guide–and a warning–to aspiring racers who dream of joining the professional racing circus, Phil’s adventures in road rash serve as a hilarious and cautionary tale of frustrating team directors and broken promises. Phil’s education in the ways of the peloton, his discouraging negotiations for a better contract, his endless miles crisscrossing America in pursuit of race wins, and his conviction that somewhere just around the corner lies the ticket to the big time fuel this tale of hope and ambition from one of cycling’s best story-tellers.

Pro Cycling on $10 a Day chronicles the racer’s daily lot of blood-soaked bandages, sleazy motels, cheap food, and overflowing toilets. But it also celebrates the true beauty of the sport and the worth of the journey, proving in the end that even among the narrow ranks of world-class professional cycling, there will always be room for a hard-working outsider.”

 

Lanterne Rouge: The Last Man in the Tour de France, by Max Leonard “Froome, Wiggins, Mercks―we know the winners of the Tour de France, but Lanterne Rouge tells the forgotten, often inspirational and occasionally absurd stories of the last-placed rider. We learn of stage winners and former yellow jerseys who tasted life at the other end of the bunch; the breakaway leader who stopped for a bottle of wine and then took a wrong turn; the doper whose drug cocktail accidentally slowed him down and the rider who was recognized as the most combative despite finishing at the back.

Max Leonard flips the Tour de France on its head and examines what these stories tell us about ourselves, the 99% who don’t win the trophy, and forces us to re-examine the meaning of success, failure and the very nature of sport.”

In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist, by Pete Jordan “Pete Jordan, author of the wildly popular Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States, is back with a memoir that tells the story of his love affair with Amsterdam, the city of bikes, all the while unfolding an unknown history of the city’s cycling, from the craze of the 1890s, through the Nazi occupation, to the bike-centric culture adored by the world today

Pete never planned to stay long in Amsterdam, just a semester. But he quickly falls in love with the city and soon his wife, Amy Joy, joins him. Together they explore every inch of their new home on two wheels, their rides a respite from the struggles that come with starting a new life in a new country. ”

 

Eat, Sleep, Ride: How I Braved Bears, Badlands, and Big Breakfasts in My Quest to Cycle the Tour Divide, by Paul Howard “For Paul Howard, who has ridden the entire Tour de France route during the race itself—setting off at 4 am each day to avoid being caught by the pros—riding a small mountain bike race should hold no fear. Still, this isn’t just any mountain bike race. This is the Tour Divide.

Running from Banff in Canada to the Mexican border, the Tour Divide is more than 2,700 miles—500 miles longer than the Tour de France. Its route through the heart of the Rocky Mountains involves more than 200,000 feet of ascent—the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest seven times.

The other problem is that Howard has never owned a mountain bike—and how will training on the South Downs in southern England prepare him for sleeping rough in the Rockies?

Undaunted, Howard swaps the smooth tarmac roads of France for the mud, snow, and ice of the Tour Divide, fending off grizzly bears, mountain lions, and moose. Buzzing roadside fans are replaced by buzzing mosquitoes. Battling bad weather, drinking whiskey with a cowboy, and singing karaoke with the locals, Howard’s journey turned into more than just a race — it became the adventure of a lifetime.”

 

Faster: The Obsession, Science and Luck Behind the World’s Fastest Cyclists, by Michael Hutchinson “

For professional cyclists, going faster and winning are, of course, closely related. Yet surprisingly, for many, a desire to go faster is much more important than a desire to win. Someone who wants to go faster will work at the details and take small steps rather than focusing on winning. Winning just happens when you do everything right – it’s the doing everything right that’s hard. And that’s what fascinates and obsesses Michael Hutchinson.

With his usual deadpan delivery and an awareness that it’s all mildly preposterous, Hutchinson looks at the things that make you faster – training, nutrition, the right psychology – and explains how they work, and how what we know about them changes all the time. He looks at the things that make you slower, and why, and how attempts to avoid them can result in serious athletes gradually painting themselves into the most peculiar life-style corners.”

 

 Wheel Fever: How Wisconsin Became a Great Bicycling State, by Jesse J. Gant “On rails-to-trails bike paths, city streets, and winding country roads, the bicycle seems ubiquitous in the Badger State. Yet there’s a complex and fascinating history behind the popularity of biking in Wisconsin—one that until now has never been told. Meticulously researched through periodicals and newspapers, Wheel Fever traces the story of Wisconsin’s first “bicycling boom,” from the velocipede craze of 1869 through the “wheel fever” of the 1890s. It was during this crucial period that the sport Wisconsinites know and adore first took shape. From the start it has been defined by a rich and often impassioned debate over who should be allowed to ride, where they could ride, and even what they could wear.  “