Book number 24 in the challenge has to be ‘a book set somewhere you’ll be visiting this year’.
There’s not a lot of this year left and I don’t plan on going anywhere far away or exotic before 2017 ends. However, I am planning to visit Edinburgh at least once to catch up with family and friends before the end of December.
So, let’s just go with Edinburgh – although strictly speaking it’s only an hour away by train from where I live – and visiting the city itself won’t be the main purpose. I hope that’s acceptable.
And for a book set in Edinburgh I’d have to go with any of Ian Rankin’s crime novels. Narrowing it down to one, I’d go with the one I read most recently – Rather Be the Devil.
This one, like its predecessors features the now retired, former Detective inspector, John Rebus. And although retired Rebus can’t quite give up getting involved in criminal investigations. I love that Rankin’s novels are set in the city where I was born, grew up and raised my own children. Rankin depicts a grittier more realistic version of this sometimes over-glamorised and romanticised city. Like any urban area it has its darker side. But Rankin does it with affection and he does it justice.
If the book 24 challenge had been ‘a book set somewhere you’ll be visiting next year’ then that would have been truly a visit. Next year I’ll be going to Australia. The main purpose will be to visit family, but we also plan lots of sightseeing too.
So I’ll bend the rules here a wee bit and include three of my favourite books set in Australia.
Firstly a book I read and loved when I was at high school – A Town like Alice by Nevil Shute.
Secondly, a book I read a couple of years ago – the fabulous – The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
And thirdly, a book I read very recently and reviewed here – the romantic and heart-warming Champagne for Breakfast by Maggie Christensen.
Can you come up with any books fitting category number 24? And yes, we’ll allow places you’ll be visiting in 2018.
photo of Edinburgh by Photo by George Hiles on Unsplash
Great choices! A Town Like Alice is such a classic and so good. I have the Rosie Project on my Hindle. I must read it. Yes, 2017 is almost over but we plan to go to France next year and the book(s) I would pick are The Love in Provence series by Patricia Sands, The Promise of Provence, I Promise You This and Promises to Keep. A great trilogy that makes you want to be there. https://www.goodreads.com/series/163697-love-in-provence
Enjoy your trip to France, Darlene. I don’t know the Patricia Sands trilogy but they sound perfect for getting in the mood. Thanks for commenting.
I loved The Rosie Project mainly because I could identify so much with the main character and it is good to see someone with Aspergers who has made a success of their life. I was very late to A Town Like Alice, not reading it until I was well into my sixties and then cursing myself for not reading it earlier. It is one of the cases where the hype for a book is justified.
Yes, The Rosie Project dealt very well and positively with Aspergers and with just the right amount of humour too. You perhaps read A Town Like Alice at a time of life where you’d possibly get more out of it than reading it as a teenager. Perhaps I should re-read it. Thanks for visiting and for commenting.
I was in Italy earlier this year and read The Rome Affair by Karen Swan while I was there which I thought was brilliant. Okay so I wasn’t actually in Rome but the same country counts doesn’t it?
Also love Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy and I was in Lewis this year too. He’s got a new book out next year also set in Harris and Lewis so I’m looking forward to reading that and maybe paying a return visit.
Oh I think we can allow Italy as a broad category 🙂 It’s weird I wanted to like Peter May’s books and I love crime fiction, but I just didn’t get along with them at all. Thanks so much for contributing, Joanne.
Hi Anne, this is a really thought provoking category. I have enjoyed many books because of their setting. Most recently I read An Orkney Mystery by Miranda Barnes which I bought because I thought it would be cosy crime. It isn’t in fact, but most enjoyable. Another ‘islands’ set series I’m mildly addicted to are Ann Cleeves Shetland books. I’m not currently planning trips to Orkney or Shetland, but if the chance appeared… Anne
I love Ann Cleeves Shetland books. I saw her at the Borders book festival in the summer where she did a really interesting talk on both the Shetland and the Vera books. Shetland and Orkney are both on my ‘to visit’ list. Thanks for visiting the blog and for your comments.