January TravelKIT: City vs. Countryside

January TravelKIT: City vs Countryside


This has been a tougher theme than I’d hoped! Country was easier than City to find ones that I would include. Because of that, some of my City suggestions are more history about those cities. Hopefully others will have some suggestions, as well.

I’ve only read a few of these, so I can’t guarantee how good they’ll be!

Here are some City suggestions:
- Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City / Anna Quindlen
- A Walking Tour of the Shambles / Neil Gaiman (a fictional area of Chicago)
- London, New York, or Paris / Edward Rutherfurd
- Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880-1950 / Robert M. Fogelson
- Victorian Cities / Asa Briggs

There are plenty of travel guides for specific cities, of course, although I’m not sure how many one would be compelled to read through! There are picture books and children’s books...

And some Country suggestions:
- A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America Along the Appalachian Trail / Bill Bryson
- Hitching Rides with Buddha / Will Ferguson (aka “Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan”)
- Round Ireland with a Fridge / Tony Hawks
- Journey through Britain / John Hillaby
- Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa / Marcello Di Cinto (ok, this is not well-known, nor do I know if it’s still available, but it’s one I read maybe 15ish years ago, as he’s a local author to me)

Covers both city and country:
- Round Trip / Ann Jonas

And, please do update the wiki with what you read this month:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Travelkit#January:_City_vs._Countryside

As long as my library has it, I'm planning for the one mentioned above that covers both:
- Round Trip / Ann Jonas

I think Country Driving might fit both. I read it a long time ago but I think it has country and city points that Peter Hessler visits.

I think that many of Hessler's works would work here and also some will work for journalism if someone wants a 2 fer.
Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West

I'm planning on reading Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London for this one.

I'm tentatively planning to read a novel, Cold Comfort Farm, for this month. It's about a London-bred young woman who moves in with family in the country.

>5 katiekrug: Great idea! I love Cold Comfort Farm and have had it on my reread pile for ages. I may have to borrow your idea!
Along that line, The Darling Buds of May would also fit.

I have been looking at a few of the 'leaving city life to live in the country' books - there are plenty of those around!

I haven't decided what to read yet. I own a few that fit both categories, but I'll make a decision at some point.

I might want to read a Hamish McBeth novel. He is a country sort of cop and always seems to be crossing swords with the upper crust. I like the settings in Scotland too, and have not read one for awhile.

I happen to have Round Ireland with a Fridge sitting on the shelf, so that works for me.

Finally found a book for this, Wearing Paper Dresses by Anna Brinsden. It is an Australian about a city girl in the 1950s who marries a farmer, but can't seem to fit in. Another one that would fit is The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham, which I loved!

I've finished Round Ireland with a Fridge and gave it 3 stars. For me, the highlights of the book were the Irish people, who were so friendly and helpful to the author. The disappointment was from expecting a book written by a comedian to be funny, but the author never got more than slightly amusing for me.

touchstones aren't working.

Just finished Wearing Paper Dresses by Anne Brinsden.

It is about Elise, a city girl who marries a farmer and moves to the Mallee in the Australian country. If you are looking for a book that delivers the Australian country sense of place, this is for you. The author evokes the brutal but beautiful nature of the Australian Mallee perfectly.
I have written a longer review on my thread, but I gave this book four and a half stars. Loved it!

Round Trip / Ann Jonas
3 stars

This is a creative picture book where someone is going on a trip… leaving from their town, driving through the country into the city… then turning around and driving home again. The creative part is that half-way through, once they leave the city, the reader turns the book upside down to follow along to head home. The photos work in both “directions”.

It is creative. It reminded me of “Mirror Mirror” the poetry book of “reverso” poems – read one way, then you can read from the bottom up and it’s kind of the opposite story of reading it “down”. I guess this one should really get the credit, though, as it was published in 1983! The pictures were a bit more artsy than I like, though of course, they had to be drawn in such a way that they would work right-side-up, and again, upside-down. Overall, I’m rating this ok.

I read Mrs. Jeffries Forges Ahead which is a Victorian mystery, set mainly in London. Some key parts of the book are also set at a country house, and some important clues come from both locations.

In L. M. Montgomery's Jane of Lantern Hill, which I read this week, the contrast between urban Toronto and rural Prince Edward Island is a major plot point.

Having looked through my TBR, I think Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities would be a good one. It's fiction, and I understand that all the cities described are really Venice.

I finished Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Beautiful imagery, but not much happens and it took me a while to get through this 165-page book.

I originally wanted to use this for actual travel between a city and the country. I think I saw that someone else used it for someone moving from one to the other? That's what this one is. It certainly does give a comparison!

Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl / Susan McCorkindale
3.5 stars

The author, her husband and two sons (7 and 14-years, I think) were living in New Jersey and Susan was working in New York City when they decided to move to a farm in rural Virginia. Susan had to give up a very high paying job, though she wasn’t enjoying it anyway, for her husband’s dream of being a farmer.

It was meant to be funny, and parts were humourous, but not a lot was laugh-out-loud funny for me. Despite the title, the author really didn’t do any farming (at least not as reported in the book); her husband did it all. She did a lot of shopping, when she got into nearby towns and cities. I’m not into fashion at all, so any brand names she threw out there, I just assumed were shoe brands, as shoes seemed to be her favourite shopping/fashion item. Some of the acronyms, I wasn’t sure about.

Despite my comments so far, I did enjoy the book, overall. It did make me realize that although I grew up in a small town (farming community, but not on a farm), it would be hard – even for me, the homebody and nonshopper – to move back. Not for the same reasons, but other shopping items might be tricky to come by (products not tested on animals, for instance).

I'm using Le jour d'avant for this KIT as it tells of a mining tragedy in a small mining town in the North of France. There's more to it, but the author is very good at evoking the life in such places.