A Summer Reading Road Trip

For many of us, summer is synonymous with vacation. But even if you’re not taking a trip this year, you can still travel—by reading! Follow along as we unpack our Reading Road Trip, highlighting books that will allow you to travel across the country without leaving your house.

Starting Point: Aiken, South Carolina

Join us in Aiken, South Carolina, as Avery Stafford joins her father, Senator Wells Stafford, for a public appearance at a local nursing home. A chance encounter with an elderly woman during the event sets in a motion events that will lead to stunning admissions and a truth no one could have imagined. Enjoy the past-and-present storyline of Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours. 

Stop 1: Driftwood, Alabama

Driftwood, Alabama, is fictional, but we’ve selected Daphne, Alabama, as its approximate location, some 489 miles away from Aiken, South Carolina. There, we’ll stop in at Magpie’s the local coffee shop as a mysterious letter draws Ava to a small town she’s never heard of. As Ava’s life intersects with the lives of community members from Maggie and her dad, Dez, to Sam and his adorable dachshund, Norman, we’ll begin to unravel the mystery, learning that while the past can haunt our future, it doesn’t have to if we deal with it. Encounter a little magic with us in Heather Weber’s At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities. 

Stop 2: Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Let’s hop in the car for a full day of driving to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Last year’s blockbuster Oppenheimer brought attention to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the city’s role in developing the atomic bomb. Denise Kiernan’s nonfiction book, The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, helps to explain the role women played in the Manhattan project. We’re anxious to dig in this one and learn more about this aspect of history. 

Stop 3: Doniphan, Missouri

After a stop in Tennessee, it’s time to head west toward Missouri. There, we’ll meet Adair Colley and her family in Southeast Missouri as they struggle with the ramifications of the Civil War, which comes to their doorstep despite their avowed neutrality. When Adair’s father is arrested, she and her sisters set out to follow his captors, setting off a chain of events that lead to her arrest and, eventually, a harrowing journey home. Explore Southeast Missouri and the Ozarks with us in Paulette Jiles’ Enemy Women.

Stop 4: Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma

We’ll head south into Arkansas as we head toward our next destination: the Choctaw Nation. In Lisa Wingate’s latest novel, Shelterwood, we meet Olive Augusta Radley and her sister Nessa in 1909 as they flee after discovering their stepfather’s ill intentions for the Choctaw girls staying in their home. We’ll also see how their story intersects with that of Ranger Valerie Boren-Odell at Horsethief Trail National Park. As she deals with a missing teenager hiker, she begins to discover the secrets of the land and the history of the land itself. Don’t miss Lisa Wingate’s Shelterwood. 

Stop 5: Osage County, OK

We’ll keep heading west on our reading road trip across the U.S., headed for Osage County, Oklahoma, just a little over three hours north of the Choctaw Nation. We’ll arrive in Osage County in the 1920s, when the members of the Osage Nation were among the richest people in the U.S., thanks to the discovery of oil on their land. As members of the Osage Nation begin to mysteriously die—shot, poisoned, victims of bombings—we’ll join with investigators as they seek to uncover what’s really happening, all while getting an inside look at the beginning of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. David Grann’s meticulously reported book, Flowers of the Killer Moon, was recently turned into a movie, but the real-life story will keep you up late at night as you seek to unravel the mystery.

Stop 6: Denver, Colorado

Our next stop is a solid drive, clocking in at more than nine hours and ending in the high plains of Colorado near Denver in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado. That’s where we’ll meet a whole cast of characters, from a high school teacher struggling to raise his sons after his wife leaves to two bachelor brothers and Victoria, a pregnant teenager and others. Somehow, inexplicably, this cast of characters become a family, deeply invested in one another’s lives and bound by shared struggle, tenacity, grief and above it all, love, in Ken Haruf’s National Book Award Finalist, Plainsong.

Stop 7: Clifton, Idaho

Our next step takes us further west and a bit north to Clifton, Idaho, where Tara Westover grew up. The daughter of survivalist Mormon parents, Westover recounted her experience in her memoir, Educated, detailing how she eventually learns enough to be admitted to college, eventually earning a doctorate and setting in motion a journey of discovery and growth. 

Last Stop: Los Angeles, California

We’ll roll into sunny LA to complete our cross-country reading road trip. There, we’ll watch as the lives of Emma Walker, a wannabe screenwriter, intersects with that of Charlie Yates, a famous screenwriter. With Katherine Center’s trademark humor, The Rom-Commers is a sweet story (a Hallmark movie in book form) that will also leave you laughing out loud. Don’t miss Katherine Center’s most recent release, The Rom-Commers. 

What books would you add? What are you reading (and loving) this summer? Share your suggestions in the comments!

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