17 Must-Read Books For Armchair Travellers

Reading the right book can be as good as a holiday (which is good news, because right now, proper holidays feel more out of reach than ever for many of us). Here are seventeen must-read book for armchair travellers, so you can take a trip without having to leave your room.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The memoir Wild follows Strayed’s 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, which she undertook after the traumatic death of her young mother in the mid-90s. Strayed sets out on this grueling trek almost entirely unprepared; she had essentially no prior hiking experience. She figured – like we all do, I think – that hiking = walking, and what’s so hard about that? She quickly realises the at-times comical dire realities of a haphazard hike through the wilderness, and yet she has no choice but to keep going anyway – as reflected in the book’s subtitle (“from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail”). Read my full review of Wild here.

You And Me On Vacation by Emily Henry

An annual summer vacation feels like a dream that’s out of reach for many of us at the moment – but Emily Henry is the current queen of escapist reads that let you live your dreams on the page. In You And Me On Vacation, Poppy and Alex are two very different souls who decide to travel together each year regardless – until one trip goes horribly wrong. After not speaking for two years, they reunite one one last vacation, a destination wedding in Palm Springs. Could this be the last chance for the people they are on holidays to make things right?

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

The protagonist of Less worries that he is the “first homosexual to ever grow old”. He finds himself suddenly single, when his long-time fuck-buddy dumps him to marry a far more eligible (and age appropriate) bachelor. Arthur Less decides that he must act. He can’t RSVP “no” to the nuptials and admit defeat, but he couldn’t possibly attend either, especially with his 50th birthday looming… so, he proceeds to accept every half-baked invitation he’s received to literary events around the world, and sends his ex his regrets, citing “unfortunate” prior engagements. Read my full review of Less here.

The One-Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

The One-Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared begins with Allan Karlsson sitting in his retirement home, contemplating the impending celebration of his one-hundredth birthday. Frustrated by the prohibition policy of the home, he decides he’ll jump out the window. From there, a fantastic adventure around the world begins, interwoven with incredible anecdotes from Allan’s long and full life. It’s like a European Forrest Gump – but better, and with more vodka. Read my full review of The One-Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared here.

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Theo and Kit were best friends, then they were lovers, then they were estranged. They broke up on the transcontinental flight to what was supposed to be their big food and wine tour of France, Italy and Spain, a research trip for the restaurant/bar they hoped to open together. When they pulled out of the tour, they couldn’t get a refund, only a credit note that had to be used within four years. Four years later, they independently decide to take the tour before their credit expires, and end up sitting together on the same tour bus. The Pairing is the story of how they repair their relationship, while sampling some of the most mouth-watering food and wine of Europe. Read my full review of The Pairing here.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

The family at the heart of Wild Dark Shore has been living on Shearwater Island for six years (a fictional location that Charlotte McConaghy based closely on the real Macquarie Island, about 1,500km south of Australia’s southernmost point). Grief over the loss of his wife drove Dominic to take his three children to the most remote location he could find, but even that wasn’t far enough to escape their ghosts. A woman, Rowan, who washes up on shore has a connection to the island, one that she’s keeping from the family – and they have their secrets, too. Read my full review of Wild Dark Shore here.

Run For The Hills by Kevin Wilson

Mad’s father ran out on her, her mother, and their family farm in Tennessee twenty years ago. She thinks there’s not much more to the story… until a man shows up at her market stall, explaining that he’s her half-brother. As Run For The Hills begins, she learns that their father had done the exact same thing to another family, and another, and another. There’s siblings all across America, and Rube wants to bring them all together to finally confront him. Mad is his first stop on the Hill sibling reunion road trip. Read my full review of Run For The Hills here.

The Fury by Alex Michaelides

A movie star invites her friends to join her on a private Greek island… and then there’s a murder. That’s basically the premise of The Fury. It’s a locked room mystery on a private island in a gorgeous location with glamourous characters. The characters find themselves trapped in the exotic locale, and cracks in the foundations of old friendships start to rupture as secrets are revealed. Read my full review of The Fury here.

The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

It’s hard not to feel envious of journalists that get plum assignments – like travel writers who get an all-expenses-paid luxury cruise across the picturesque North Sea… but your jealousy won’t last long when you read The Woman In Cabin 10. Everything on board the Aurora is going swimmingly for Lo Blacklock, until she witnesses a woman being thrown overboard – and, when she tries to raise the alarm, everyone else on board insists that the woman was never there to begin with. With all passengers officially accounted for, the ship sails on, leaving Lo the only one investigating the disappearance of the mysterious woman who (apparently) never existed.

The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World by Laura Imai Messina

Each year, thousands of people undertake a pilgrimage to a garden in the north-east of Japan, one of the areas worst affected by the 2011 tsunami. There stands a phone box, the Wind Phone, that anyone is free to use to speak to loved ones who are lost or missing. It sounds like fiction, but it’s true – though it is the basis for the novel The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World. The story unfolds around two mourners, Yui and Takeshi, as they return to the phone box, again and again and try to rebuild their lives in the wake of loss. Read my full review of The Phone Box At The Edge Of The World here.

Out Of Breath by Anna Snoekstra

Have you ever dreamed of going off the grid? Escaping somewhere beautiful, with a bunch of likeminded people, and working on yourself away from the stresses and pressures of everyday life? Out Of Breath is a novel about what happens when that dream turns into a nightmare. Even if psychological thrillers aren’t your thing, you’ll enjoy the rich descriptions of the outback setting, freediving, and the pearl trade. Read my full review of Out Of Breath here.

Island On The Edge Of The World by Deborah Rodriguez

Island On The Edge Of The World is just as bright and colourful as its cover. In this delightful story, four very different women come together to do the impossible: find a lost child, and a missing mother, in Haiti. On the teeming streets of Port-au-Prince, they encounter people from all walks of life, all doing their best to survive against all odds in a Caribbean paradise with a dark side. Read my full review of Island On The Edge Of The World here.

Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill

Five Found Dead is an intriguing meta mystery that will whisk you into the world of an Agatha Christie novel. A crime fiction writer and his sister investigate a murder that takes place on board the Orient Express. The cabin next to theirs’ is covered in blood, but there’s no body – then, the steward assigned to guard the crime scene turns up dead, too. And that’s just the beginning! As the title suggests, there are more bodies to come. It’s sharp, it’s funny, and it will keep you guessing all the way to the end. Read my full review of Five Found Dead here.

Eva Reddy’s Trip Of A Lifetime by Fiona McKenzie Kekic

When Eva Reddy’s Trip Of A Lifetime begins, Eva’s life is falling apart – she’s just turned fifty, she’s just been fired, and she’s just received a message from an anonymous friend revealing her husband’s infidelity – when she receives a phone call from a travel agent. Apparently, her aging parents have been kicked off their group tour of India, and they’ve gone missing somewhere in the bustling city of Delhi. Eva promptly books herself on a flight and heads over to India to find them – only they don’t want to be found. And so begins her scavenger hunt across the subcontinent. Read my full review of Eva Reddy’s Trip Of A Lifetime here.

The Catch by Amy Lea

When a floundering fashion influencer discovers that her all-expenses-paid vacation at a Canadian resort isn’t booked for the week she arrived, she has no choice but to take up residence at the only AirBNB available in a small fishing village nearby. Who could’ve guessed that in that ramshackle inn, she’d find the man she’d be calling her fiance just a few days later? The Catch is a wonderful escapist romance that’s both swoony and spicy. Read my full review of The Catch here.

The Breaking by Irma Gold

The Breaking will draw you into the murky world of eco-tourism. Are the white travellers who impose their righteousness on Thai elephant trainers really any better than those who pay to have their photos taken with the animals? This is the ethical tightrope Hannah must walk, one of countless lost souls who has made their way to Thailand to try and find themselves. This story will remind you that good intentions aren’t always enough, and that real problems never have easy solutions. Read my full review of The Breaking here.

Calypso by David Sedaris

Calypso is “beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumour joke” – perfect for armchair travellers, then, who don’t want to get actual sand in their shoes. The essays in this collection focus on middle-age and the changing shape of the Sedaris family, as they gather at the North Carolina beach house (named the Sea Section). David has finally realised his childhood dream of “[owning] a beach house and it would be everyone’s, as long as they followed my draconian rules and never stopped thanking me for it,”. Read my full review of Calypso here.