9 Page-Turners for in your Luggage

I never travel without a good book. For longer trips I like to download ebooks, so my suitcase will be a little lighter…But I still prefer reading an actual book to get lost in! I love to read on a beach, on a flight, in my hotelroom, basically anywhere. These are my MUST READ page-turners!


1. The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón Page-Turners
Barcelona 1945: Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets–an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love. The perfect book to read when you’re visiting Barcelona! Loved it.


2. Down Under, Bill Bryson Page-Turners
A MUST read when you’re visiting Australia. Bill is a true pro in writing travel stories. His stories give you a great insight into this beautiful country and will definitely make you laugh…
“Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you. If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistable currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback.”


3. Night, Elie Wiesel Page-Turners
Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps of Buchenwald & Auschwitz. This is one of my favorite books of all time. Once you start reading you won’t be able to stop.


4. Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer Page-Turners
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man – also named Jonathan Safran Foer – sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past. Beautifully written.


5. Dan Brown Page-Turners
I have read three of his books while I was in Australia and would highly recommend reading them! High class thrillers. I promise you, you won’t be able to stop reading….My favorites are Angels & Demons and The Lost Symbol.


6. The Millenium Trilogy, Stieg Larsson Page-Turners
Murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue combine into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.


7. The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle Page-Turners
This philosophical book has changed my life. One of the hardest things we will ever learn is living in the Now, but this book will help you to understand your thinking and start the process… Very powerful!


8. Roald Dahl Page-Turners
In the Netherlands we have a book that includes 53 short stories for adults, written by Roald Dahl. I looooooove this book. I can’t find the book in English, but try to find his short stories! They are so good, touching and so funny! I grew up reading his books, like The Witches & Matilda, but I never knew about his stories for adults.


9. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini Page-Turners
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman’s love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival. After reading this book, the story will never let you go.



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