Books Set in Places I Haven’t Been To

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, started by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today we’re supposed to talk about “Books About/Set In Places on My Bucket List”, but I’ve been fortunate in that, because I was I the military for a while and have been able to go on a few cruises, I’ve been able to travel to a lot of different places. I’ve been able to see every continent except Asia and Antarctica (I haven’t been to Africa, but I saw it from Gibraltar last year). When it comes to travel, I’m up for going almost anywhere. My only exception is to places that I can’t wear normal clothes. If I have to wear a head scarf or clothing required because of my gender, I’m out. I am willing to wear a nice sweater and nice pants though (when I went to Europe last year I did dress up some).

So since I don’t actually have a travel bucket list, today I’ll list some books set in places I haven’t been to.

1. Into the Hollow—Lynn Vroman. There’s a lot of underrated books out there, and Into the Hollow, to me, is one of them. I’ve been thinking about rereading this book for a while now. It only has 60 ratings on Goodreads! It’s set in West Virginia, which is a state I haven’t had a chance to go to yet.

2. Project Hail Mary—Andy Weir. I just recently finished reading this book. I haven’t been to outer space yet, and probably won’t, unless space travel becomes a thing in the next decade or two. I certainly won’t travel outside of our solar system, even if that becomes the case.

I don’t think the main character ever intended to go into outer space either though. Hopefully none of us will ever be in the situation that the earth was in this story (where the sun suddenly started dimming because microorganisms were eating the sun’s energy).

3. Into Thin Air—Jon Krakauer. I’ve never been to Mount Everest (or even Asia) and it’s certainly unlikely that I’ll ever climb it either. After reading this book, I don’t even think I want to. But that’s okay. I did get the chance to virtually go there by reading this book. And that’s enough for me.

That’s one of the nice things about books though–and this week’s topic where books are virtually taking us around the world. We can experience a place without actually having to go there.

4. Flame in the Mist—Renée Ahdieh. This is technically a fantasy book but it’s kind of set in a Japan-ish place? We’re planning on going to Japan in 2029, and I’m learning Japanese for that (I’ve finally started to recognize some characters that I see in the wild!), but I haven’t been there yet. Japan is a place my husband really wants to go to–while this book, if set in real Japan, would have been set in the past, it was fun to experience this book.

5. Cleopatra—Saara El-Arifi. I’ve never been to Egypt (ancient or modern) although I think the pyramids and the history of this ancient country is fairly interesting. Found this on Goodreads while I was looking for books set in places I haven’t been to and there was a Goodreads giveaway for this one (though there was only 5 hours left on it). The description of the book was fairly vague (I hate that). But she is a fascinating historical figure.

6. The Source—James A. Michener. I haven’t had the chance to go to Israel yet, although I would like to someday. I’ve read a few Michener books, and except for Poland, they were all of places that I have been to (I read Alaska before I went there though). This book is about Israel, which has been a hotbed of conflict for centuries. The title is a little vague, but the book sounds interesting (and going to Israel would be cool, but there never seems to be a safe time to go).

7. The Good German—Joseph Kanon. I have been to Germany before, but I haven’t been to Berlin. I’d like to go someday though. I haven’t read this book, so I can’t say if it’s any good or not, but it’s set in Berlin at the end of World War II.

When I was in middle school, I started learning German. One of the textbooks we used was a little old at the time; it was written about thirty years after World War II ended. Germany at the time was still economically struggling. In one of the chapters they were talking about how they had a pay phone in their house or something like that. I often think about how difficult it was for the people at the time, and their lives continued to be difficult even a few decades later.

8. The Bear and the Nightingale—Katherine Arden. I’ve never been to Russia, although I do regularly go to a Russian meetup group. My friends were going to go to Russia a few years ago, but the Russian war started a few weeks before they were supposed to leave and the trip was cancelled so they went to Eastern Europe instead. I’d like to go to Russia someday, but right now it’s a little dangerous.

I have a friend who was in Russia when the war started, and as she was leaving the country, the police picked her up, accused her of spying, and she ended up in a Russian prison for nine months! So no, I definitely do not want to go there now. Except for in books.

9. The Women—Kristin Hannah. This book is partially set in San Diego, where I lived for a year and a half, but it is also set in Vietnam, which I’ve never been to. I mostly read the book for the Vietnam content anyway, not the San Diego part, although the part of the book set in California was nice because it provided some memories of my time living there. Vietnam isn’t really one of the top places on my list to travel to, but I believe in serendipity—if I had the opportunity to go for a week or so, I’d go. I wouldn’t go to live there or anything, but the same thing is true for nearly all the places on the list.

10. Tiananmen Square—Lai Wen. I haven’t had the chance to go to China yet, although there are some Asian cruises that go there. We haven’t decided which cruise we’ll go on in 2029, but if we don’t go on one that strictly go to Japan, we might go to one that goes to various countries in Asia, and we might have the chance to go. Although who knows what the political situation will be like three years from now. Anyway, I did read this book and it was enjoyable. It had something of a surprise ending.

So what places did you choose this week? Do you have a travel bucket list? Have you ever been to any of these places? What are some of your favorite places to travel?