Reading List

How old is she, Lane?

Hi Lane, If you go to the "Tours" tab at the top of this page, on each of Rick's Tours there is a suggested reading list all of which are really good. Also on the Graffiti Wall there's a topic under Planning & Packing, "Recommended Novels for your Travels" which is also great.
Hope this helps!

She's 19. And thanks for the suggestions!

Lane,

I'm wondering like Gio about your daughter's age. You could pick something by Kafka for Prague or Johanna Spyri's "Heidi" for Switzerland - depending on whether children or adult literature is appropriate.

I read books by Swiss author Martin Suter when we went to Switzerland. A few titles are available in English, not easy to find but very well worth the search. Psychological thrillers with depth, suspense, great writing AND very easy/quick reads.

In Italy I read Robert Harris "Pompeii".

If you want to read a true classic about Berlin it might be "Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Alfred Döblin.

For Prague: Milan Kundera would be a great author to try.

For Barcelona - "The Shadow of the Wind"

Venice--Donna Leon's books. Also, while it's not a novel, Berendt's book City of Falling Angels reads like one.

Berlin--Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr, Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton. Kerr's book is three stories that are set in WW II and also take in Vienna and Munich.

Pam

For Prague, try anything by Arnost Lustig. He's a living legend there and a Holocaust survivor. He's written a lot of Holocaust-related literature that's truly moving. Of course, Kundera and Kafka are also great choices.

A YEAR IN PROVENCE.
The old classic HEIDI.

In advance of my "Best of Europe" tour, I read Bill Bryson's "Neither Here nor There," Tatiana de Rosnay's "Sarah's Key," and Douglas Preston's "The Monster of Florence." Each offered a very different perspective on the places and cultures I will be visiting. "Sarah's Key" was particularly compelling. I also enjoyed Rick Steves' "Postcards from Europe."

Great idea! Some of these are non-fiction, but they gave me a really great feel for what I would be looking at (e.g., Sistine Chapel). You might also start a movie list - it's fun to see where you're going (and then watch movies when you get back and say "Hey, I was there!").

For general reading that covers some of these areas, try "Innocents Abroad" by Mark Twain. Amazing how timely a book written in the late 1800s can be in today's time.

Florence/Tuscany
Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King
Under the Tuscan Sun - Frances Mayes

Rome -
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

Venice -
ditto Donna Leon mysteries

Amsterdam -
Vermeer's hat : the seventeenth century and the dawn of the global world by Timothy Brook

Agree with Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There," and would add "La Bella Figura: Field Guide to the Italian Mind" by Beppe Severgnini (funny, witty, not too heavy), "Night" by Elie Wiesel (on the Holocaust, powerful, moving, and definitely heavy), and "Ghosts of Spain" by Giles Tremlett, the best book on Spain I've ever read, combining history, culture, politics, food, music, art, the past and the present into a fascinating portrait. Another work related to Florence that's very nice is "Brunelleschi's Dome: How A Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture," by Ross King. FYI: these are all works of non-fiction, but read like a good novel. PS: Thought of another on Spain she might enjoy: Polly Evans' "It's Not About the Tapas," a travel journal of a young girl's bike tour across Spain.

And here's another one--The Drifters by Michener. Then again, maybe that one's for you. ; )

for Amsterdam/Haarlem: if you're planning to visit Anne Frank's house and Corrie ten Boom's house, then Diary of a Young Girl and The Hiding Place will make both places more meaningful.

Michener...."Spain."

I always enjoy reading and re-reading Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance."

:)

For Krakow/Auschwitz have her read something by Elie Wiesel (such as "Night")(non-fiction) and "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak (fiction, I believe). Although these are both very easy reads, they are very well written. Of course the Diary of Anne Frank is also a good choice in this area.

A good site about novels set in Italy.

http://italian-mysteries.com/

I'd include Maria Von Trapp's autobiography "The Trapp Family Singers". It is an excellent read and gives you a good idea about Bavaria and other areas (the old Yuogoslavia coast, Vienna...)as well as a perspective of WWII. I also agree about Heidi, Diary of Anne Frank and The Hiding Place. What about some of Dan Brown's books for Rome and Paris?

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! It looks like we have quite the list to make our way through as we await our departure.

Cheers!
Lane

Hi Lane,

What a great idea! Great recommendations from everyone. Just a couple more suggestions:

Hemingway's Sun Also Rises for Madrid/general region of Castille

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr -- not a novel, but written by a novelist, and it's extremely poetic. Just a beautiful book about an American scholar's year in Rome with his wife and infant twins.

Check out the Lonely Planet guides. One thing I like about them is they have lists of books, movies, etc. about the region. (At least they do in the book about Southern Italy).

It is not a novel, but it is fun to read and look at : the cartoon book about Asterix in Switzerland. It was translated from French to English. First published in approximately the year 1970, or earlier.
It is in a series of books about fictious people from a village in France, during the ancient Roman occupation.

"Tender is the Night" by Scott Fitzgerald for southern France--a simply wonderful book made into a so-so movie.

I found Tim Parks books: "Italian Neighbors" and "A Season with Verona" to be excellent in understanding the Italian culture, particularly Northern Italy.

It's not fiction, but George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia is great writing and a terrific read.