ARMCHAIR
TRAVELER: BOOKS THAT LET YOU
TRAVEL THE WORLD
(WITHOUT LEAVING
YOUR HOME)
BY MICHELLE BLANCHARD ARDILLO
ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS/ ROSTISLAV_SEDLACEK
S ometimes the ability to travel abroad is just not possible.

If health issues, budgetary concerns, work obligations
or family responsibilities are preventing you from
traveling to far away places, there’s always a second option:
Pick up a good book!
Books allow you to experience the culture, customs and
traditions of foreign lands right at home. Here are some novels
to enjoy during those quiet moments away from kids that will
sweep you away to another place, and in some cases, another
time. No need for a passport or foreign currency, just grab
your e-reader, or take a trip to your nearest public library or
bookstore. 1.

“A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW”
by Amor Towles
The current political climate aside, pre-revolutionary
Russia, with its splendid architecture and royalty, was
a place of grandeur. Towles takes the reader to the
Metropol Hotel in 1922 Moscow, post-revolution, where
the protagonist has been sentenced to house arrest. This
novel of historical fi ction, heavily reliant on actual public
fi gures and historical events, is as rich and colorful as a
Fabergé egg.

18 August 2018
washingtonFAMILY.com 2.

“THE DUCHESS OF BLOOMSBURY STREET”
by Helene Hanff
This charming, slim non-fi ction book is a travel journal
of author Hanff ’s fi rst trip to England. It was writt en
after the publication and great success of its prequel,
“84, Charing Cross Road,” which was a series of lett ers
between Hanff and British bookseller Frank Doel over
the course of twenty years about post-war London,
literature and more. A feminist well before her time,
Hanff ’s sharp prose and quick wit is a window into a
London that is long gone.