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Pack Your Bags: Five Reads that Take You Somewhere New

Landmarks around Earth with planes in a sky-blue background. Text: "Pack Your Bags: Five Reads That Take You Somewhere New."

Curated by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books)


One of the most powerful things a book can do is transport you somewhere entirely new — not just to a different place, but to a different way of moving through the world. Today, we're spotlighting reviews for some books that take us outside the U.S., from the coastline of Tasmania to the streets of Cairo, from the Caribbean island of San Madrigal to the neighborhoods of Canada where immigrant families are quietly remaking their lives. Whether you're in the mood for an atmospheric mystery, a coming-of-age story, a travel memoir, or a myth-infused YA adventure, there's something here to inspire you.


Check out these reviews of five very different books, all set outside the United States.



From the review: "I could not have loved In the Key of Nira Ghani more. For me, the novel offers the perfect mixture of compelling, empathetic protagonist; gorgeous writing; and a believable contemporary plot. From the very beginning, Nira captured my heart and my head, and I read the novel in basically one sitting.


"Nira lives with her parents and her grandmother in Canada—her family escaped from Guyana in search of safety and security but had to leave without their money. As in many novels about the children of immigrants, Nira walks the line between appreciating her parents’ culture and yearning to blend in with her classmates at her new school. As the only brown girl, Nira feels both incredibly conspicuous and tragically invisible, discounted by everyone but her best friend Emily. Her one escape is her music. Though her parents have decided that she will become a doctor and therefore needs to focus only on her studies, Nira convinced them to buy her a used trumpet, which she taught herself to play via YouTube. When Nira plays, she expresses all of the love, conflict, and confusion that dominate her life." Click to read the full review.



From the review: “Deb Caletti’s One Great Lie is a stunning YA novel about gender dynamics and issues of power, perfect for consideration in the aftermath of the #metoo movement.


"Told in spare, gorgeous prose, the novel focuses on a girl who’s given her dream and then has to reckon with the fact that it’s not what she hoped it would be.


"Charlotte is a typical junior at her high school: she and her best friend, Yasmin, have big dreams—Charlotte wants to be a writer, and Yasmin wants to work for NASA—but otherwise, they have the typical concerns of high school students: the next big project that’s due, how to deal with needy boyfriends, navigating family tension. Charlotte’s dad travels a great deal, and her mom’s temper is a constant source of stress, so Charlotte and her little sister Ella support each other and escape when they can." Click to read the full review.



From the review: "“How am I supposed to keep going when there is nobody to guide me? Will I be strong enough to carry myself?” (34).


"Maggie Downs’s memoir opens with a return to Cairo. She had gone home briefly–mid-way through her year-long trip around the world–to bury her mother, a victim of Alzheimer’s disease for ten years. Now she’s back, to finish this globe-spanning tribute to her mother’s dreams.


"Downs’s trip begins on July 8, 2010, on her honeymoon with Jason in Peru. . . ." Click here to read the full review.



From the review: "One of my favorite things about Harper's work is her ability to write the setting of the story as an almost main protagonist in the story. Every book I have read of Harper's has had a strong atmospheric tone throughout the whole book. The Survivors is no different.


"Harper establishes the setting on the Tasmanian coast in the first few chapters of the book. The story is told through the eyes of Kieran Elliot, a local who has moved away and is back with his partner, Mia, and his daughter to visit his parents on the Tasmanian coast. While his family is visiting, a young woman, Bronte, who is summering in Tasmania and working at a local restaurant, is found dead on the shore. In the wake of Bronte's death, the small seaside town is reeling. In addition, her death brings memories of several deaths that occurred many years prior. Kieran and his group of friends who remained in town after these deaths are left reeling. Questions about Bronte's death and about what happened years in the past are dredged up. No one is ruled out as a suspect." Click here to read the full review.



From the review: "I’ve talked often about my love for the Rick Riordan Presents imprint on the Unabridged Podcast. Of course, I’m a fan of Riordan’s work, which I enjoyed and my boys have read and re-read, but I also so appreciate his goals with Rick Riordan Presents: on his website, he writes, “Our goal is to publish great middle grade authors from underrepresented cultures and backgrounds, to let them tell their own stories inspired by the mythology and folklore of their own heritage.”


"Daniel José Older’s Ballad & Dagger is the first YA entry in the Rick Riordan Presents catalog, and it’s a great way to kick off this collection for an expanded audience.


"Mateo Matisse is a bit of an outsider from his San Madrigal culture. This close-knit community relocated to Brooklyn after San Madrigal, an isolated island in the Caribbean, sank into the sea. Now, the three strands of his homeland—pirates, Cuban Santeros, and Sephardic Jews—work together to maintain a sense of what San Madrigal used to be." Click here to read the full review.


(A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.)


Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.


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