Perfect books for inspiring wanderlust, while on vacation or at home.
Compelling books on travel inspire readers to not only learn about destinations and cultures across the globe, but also, lock in that bucket list trip they’ve been dreaming about. As most travelers can attest, exploring a new locale keeps the brain sharp, curiosities peaked, and humanity intact. Much may be gleaned through reading the memoirs, poems, and true tales of adventurers; seeing beautiful photography; and following writers down the rabbit hole, through verdant valleys, and up and over mountain peaks.
Travel books help bibliophiles escape into a newfangled world, feeding the flames of inquisitiveness. Here are the best gifts for bookish travelers.
An Outdoor Lovers Guidebook
Illustrated by Sarah Kaizar. Contributions by A. Scott Meiser.
In the new book, Rare Air: Endangered Birds, Bats, Butterflies & Bees, by Sarah Kaizar and A. Scott Meisser, readers will have the opportunity to learn about the delicate and complicated relationships between wildlife and environmental health. Award-winning artist, Kaizar features more than 60 endangered species through her enchanting art while Meiser writes story-driven natural histories, utilizing interviews with biologists.
At the end, you’ll be inspired to care for and protect these delicate winged creatures and spread the word to other birders, nature watchers, and pollinator protectors.
Italy in the Summer
Villeggiatura: Italian Summer Vacation, Assouline; By Cesare Cunaccia
Every coffee table should have a few beautiful books that are easy to flip through and enthuse a love of travel. Villeggiatura: Italian Summer Vacation draws the eye like no other. This large multi-hued hardback book from Assouline and Belmond, a luxury hospitality brand, includes not only stunning photography, but also, creative words by Cesare Cunaccia, a writer, lecturer, curator, journalist, former editor at Vogue Italia, and the antiques consultant for Architectural Digest Italy.
Readers can dream about Venice, Portofino, Florence, Tuscany, Ravello, and Sicily, stoking wanderlust as each page is turned.
A Travel Memoir for the Ages
Call You When I Land, By Nikki Vargas
If you’re the type of traveler who loves to read while on a plane headed somewhere new, then make sure you pack Call You When I Land in your carry-on luggage. This new page turner, written by the talented Nikki Vargas, grips you right from the start when you learn that she no longer wants to get married to her fiancé while solo hiking in Argentina. Readers are taken on a whirlwind of a journey through Borneo, India, Africa, Colombia, and New York City as they follow this compelling misadventure meets triumph tale.
For many, navigating your twenties is often fraught with challenges, which is why it’s easy to identify and relate to Vargas’ personal experiences in this dynamic memoir. You won’t be able to put this one down!
Mountain Travel Meets Design
Mountain House: Studies in Elevated Design By Nina Freudenberger
Don your most comfy pair of thick socks, wrap yourself in a chunky blanket, and have a cup of tea nearby. Mountain House: Studies in Elevated Design is best flipped through slowly when you’re reposeful in your hygge-inspired home.
Interior designer, Nina Freudenberger and photographer, Christopher Mottalini take readers on a mountain journey around the globe in this newly published book from Clarkson Potter. See more than 20 inviting homes, located in 12 different countries, across five continents. You’ll learn about not only the interiors of these homes, but also, the collection of creatives—artists, architects, chefs, writers, designers—occupying the spaces.
Climber Contemplations
A Fine Line: Searching for Balance Among Mountains, By Graham Zimmerman
A Fine Line: Searching for Balance Among Mountains, is Graham Zimmerman’s debut book about the very real cost of mountaineering, environmentally and socially.
Readers will learn about the outdoor adventures of an acclaimed alpinist, one who has made first ascents on mountains across the planet, sometimes ending in great losses as well as first-hand awareness of impending climate change. Zimmerman challenges adventure culture, which is often built on privilege and risky summit choices and inspires readers to enjoy the outdoors responsibly.
Adventures of Black Women and Nonbinary Explorers
Been Outside: Adventures of Black Women, Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming People in Nature. … [+] Foreword by Carolyn Finney. Edited by Shaz Zamore and Amber Wendler.
Been Outside is a must-read for all nature lovers who are interested in themes surrounding identity, lineage, and conservation in wild landscapes. Essays and poems written by Black women and nonbinary scientists set the stage for self-reflection, acceptance, learning, and paying it forward.
It’s not easy to pave the way in the outdoors and these smart writers do an excellent job at telling compelling stories. Bring this book on your next adventure—you won’t regret it.
A Nature Field Guide
Knowing the Trees: Discover the Forest from Seed to Snag, By Ken Keffer
With handsome illustrations by artist and scientist, Emily Walker, and educational descriptions by naturalist and environmental educator, Ken Keffer, Knowing the Trees: Discover the Forest from Seed to Snag is an informative hardback book that should be at every nature lovers bedside or campsite.
As you flip through the sections, you’ll discover information about cones and seeds; trunks and rings; branches and the canopy; forest ecology and more. Curious about forest bathing or what’s so great about beavers? All that is in this new release too.
Big, Beautiful, and Blue
Byron Bay, Assouline; By Shannon Fricke
For a traveler’s home, you can’t go wrong with titles from Assouline, especially the hefty stunner, Byron Bay. This travel book is made for imaginative people, surfers, explorers, beachgoers, sand lovers, and freethinkers. Engaging photography from multiple creatives, and words written by Shannon Fricke, tell a story of adventure.
The quote from Jono Fleming on the back cover says it all, “One of the best things about Byron Bay is that when you get there, you’re on holiday…but you still feel at home.”.
A Wild World
Return of the Bison: A Story of Survival, Restoration, and a Wilder World; By Roger Di Silvestro
Bison have captivated not only Americans, but also, wilderness advocates and writers from around the world. Author and naturalist Roger L. Di Silvestro’s Return of the Bison: A Story of Survival, Restoration, and a Wilder World, is an engaging book about conservation and the American West as told through the lenses of bison history, Indigenous peoples connections, and the challenges of safely increasing the bison population.
If you have travel plans that include Alaska, Canada, Mexico, or many states throughout the U.S., then you’ll want to educate yourself with this book.
