For Some of Us, the Only Summer Travel We Get To Do is Between the Pages

Summer usually means vacation for most people.  The country becomes electrified with tourists, festivals, concerts, and events.  Although everyone else seems to be succumbing to their wanderlust, some of us are stuck at home in the heat with our responsibilities and frustrations.

Well for those people without the time or the funds for a luxurious resort stay or a self exploring adventure with nothing but a backpack, here are a few of my favorite books that can instantly transport you into another time, place, or state of mind.

How to Deal by Sarah Dessen (YA)
     
How to Deal is one of those books that has really stuck with me since my teens.  Actually How to Deal is two books that have stuck with me.  This movie tie in version is two Dessen novels, Someone Like You and That Summer, that have been mashed together to make a screenplay.  The book versions, however, are still separate and in the original form that Dessen intended.  It is a great bargain and saves a ton of space in your purse, backpack, luggage, or whatever you will be carrying this summer.  This is not the only reason why I recommend these books for summer; I do it because they both show the importance of friendship through life's hardships, curveballs, and blessings.  Halley and Scarlett are the two main characters.  Along with learning to drive and dealing with boy problems, they are faced with sex, pregnancy, family, divorce, death,
deception, trust, and change.  The one thing helps carry these girls through all of this alive and intact is friendship.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Children's Fiction)
     
What better vacation spot than inside a child's imagination?  Jess and Leslie are not
likely to become friends, but they soon become inseparable.  As their friendship grows
and strengthens, so does the Imaginary land of Terabithia.

 My fifth grade teacher read this out loud to our class and I have never been the same. 
This very well may be THE book that taught me to love reading.  This was the first book
that I remember totally being immersed into.  Every afternoon, my classmates and I would leave our desks, climb a rope swing, and fly across the bridge to Terabithia.  I still love this book and hope that someone else is out there reading to kids today.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Adult Fiction)
       
Like Water for Chocolate is a magical and scrumptious depiction of Mexico and its
traditions. Tita is the youngest daughter in her family.  Because of her birth order, she is expected to dedicate her entire life to the care of her mostly ungrateful mother.  Of
course, fate has other ideas for tradition.  Tita falls in love.  Since she is forbidden to marry, her true love is passed off to her elder sister.  With this heartbreak, the story really begins.  Everything that Tita feels begins to come out of her cooking.  As her food is consumed, so are her family members.  They are soon al taken over in one way or another by the magic of the food.  This book is far too intricate to do any justice in a summary, but it is perfect for foodies, romantics, cynics, the heartbroken, the madly in love, and the imaginative.

Perfume by Patrick Suskind (Adult Fiction)

Not your typical beach read.  There is nothing bright and sunny about this read.  However, if you are in the mood to escape to the dark and disgruntled streets of 18th Century Paris, then this is the book for you.Jean- Baptiste is born with a superhuman sense of smell.  He can smell a pleasurable note on the other side of Paris.  As you can imagine, that might not be something that would be desirable in an overpopulated city at a time when bathing was rare and sickness was rampant.  For Jean-Baptiste, this was indeed a curse.  That is until he stumbled across a perfumery.  This is where he finds his true gift, and his true obsession.  Finding the perfect smell and distilling it into a perfume.  The dark and distorted part of this novel is what he discovers to be the ingredient in this perfume. . .
 
Yes, it is about a serial killer.  Yes, there is mutilation.  Yes, it is a bit graphic.  I assure you, it is so beautifully written, you will hardly notice.  The sensory imagery in this novel is some of the best I have ever read.  I smelled my way through it.

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury (Adult Fiction)      
     
I don"t even know where to begin with this one.  No other book has so epitomized summer
like Dandelion Wine.  Bradbury somehow found a way to put the innocence of childhood, the excitement of summer, the imagination of youth, and the naiveté of wonderment all into a
book.  Some of the lines in this novel are so well written, I wanted to climb onto the roof and scream them to the world.  This is truly fantastic writing, but very different from any other Bradbury you may have read.  If you only read one book that I ever recommend, please let this be the one.

--Miki