Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

Get ready for the sweetest and most delectable road trip of all time. Laurie has just landed her dream job with a woman she has always admired, well-known British baker Pamela Lambert-Leigh.  As a travel specialist, Laurie is up for anything but this job may be the hardest of all.  Along with Pamela’s mother and sullen teenage daughter, Laurie and Pamela are setting out in a London bus to travel the East Coast of the United States.  Their mission is to bring classic British baking to the US and bring American goodies back home.  But as the women travel the country, family secrets and past heartbreak come to the surface.  Will the English tea shop make it to its final destination, and will romance pop up along the way? The Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones is a mouth-watering tour of the United States combined with the fun and love of a chick lit novel.  Whether you’re a baker or a snacker, you’ll find true enjoyment in this book. Lately i...

A young Nigerian writer living in New York City returns to Lagos with a unique perspective of the city of his youth.  Here, he is able to see it through the eyes of both a foreigner and a local.  As he reconnects with friends and family, he explores the history and present-day of his country, the beauty and corruption of his city while revealing pieces of himself. Every Day is for the Thief  by Teju Cole is an incredible story, a beautiful travelogue that straddles the line between fiction and non-fiction.  Accompanied by incredible photos taken by the author himself, this book will transport you to the heart of Nigeria, making you feel like you know the country even if you have never been there before. This isn’t your typical novel in that there is a lot of plot nor is there much to the character (who in fact remains unnamed throughout the book.)  Rather it is one’s journey that the reader is invited along for.  And because of this, the size of ...

Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days  set the imaginations of people running when it was published was in 1873.  At the time, world travel was opening up to everyone and one can only imagine the dreams this book inspired.  Many wondered if the fictional adventures of Phileas Fogg could actually be done. And so in 1889 a young female reporter for the World  newspaper named Nellie Bly set out to break Fogg's record.  She left New York on a steamship heading east, a nation following her every move in the newspaper.  But on the same day that Bly left, so did another young woman, this time on a train heading west.  Elizabeth Bisland was a young journalist for The Cosmopolitan  magazine and they wanted to send their own person on this adventure, making it a race for the history books. Eighty Days: Nelly Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World  by Matthew Goodman is a fascinating book about the real life Aroun...

As her fortieth birthday nears, travel writer Laura Fraser faces the fact that her life didn't turn out exactly like she thought it would.  Divorced and childless, she found the love she yearned for in a Frenchman she met in Italy, one who would forever be in her life but never be hers.  This affair did one thing though, it re-ignited her passion for travel. In All Over The Map , Fraser shares how she decided to take hold of her life and her independence at forty and take off travelling the world on assignment and on holiday.  As she travels to places like Argentina, Naples, Paris, Mexico, Peru, Samoa and Rwanda she comes to terms with the fact that for her single life may be scary but it is something that she can face on her own terms. This book is a combination of travel book and personal memoir and strong on both points.  As you travel the world with Fraser, you are able to soak up the culture and discover these places right along with her.  Anyon...