Globetrotting Summer Reads for World Traveler Reader Types
Books That Take You Around the World—No Passport Required
If you read to explore new places, cultures, and perspectives, you're a World Traveler Reader. At Bookfinity, we connect you with stories that span continents and cultures—fiction and nonfiction that open your mind and take you somewhere new.
This summer, let books be your boarding pass. Whether you're in the mood for a sweeping international drama, a translated gem, or an unforgettable journey through food, history, or identity, these global reads promise rich settings and powerful storytelling that will transport you far beyond your beach chair.
August new Releases
Clodia of Rome: Champion of the Republic
by Douglas Boin
One of Rome's most powerful women, Clodia has been maligned over two thousand years as a promiscuous, husband-murdering harlot--thanks to her starring role in one of Cicero's most famous speeches in the Forum. But Cicero was lying, in defense of his own property and interests. Like so many women libeled or erased from history, Clodia had a life that was much more interesting, complex, and nuanced than the corrupted version passed down through generations
Drawing on neglected sources and deep, empathetic study of Roman lives, classicist Douglas Boin reconstructs Clodia's eventful passage through her politically divided and tumultuous times, from her privileged childhood to her picking up a family baton of egalitarian activism. A widow and single mother, Clodia had a charisma and power that rivaled her male contemporaries and struck fear into the heart of Rome's political elite. That is, until a sensational murder trial, rife with corruption and told here in riveting detail, brought about her fall from grace. For generations of women who came after her--including a young Cleopatra, who might have met a disgraced Clodia when she first came to Rome--Clodia's story would loom as a cautionary tale about the hostilities women would face when they challenged the world of men.
Freed from the caricature that Cicero painted of her, Clodia serves as a reminder of countless women whose stories have been erased from the historical record. In a Rome whose citizens were engaged in heated debates on imperialism, immigration, and enfranchisement, amidst rising anxieties about women's role in society, Clodia was an icon--one worth remembering today.
Parallel Lives: A Love Story from a Lost Continent
by Iain Pears
Best-selling novelist and art historian Iain Pears enchants readers with the real-life romance between Larissa Salmina, a Russian art curator, and Francis Haskell, a British art historian. His fabulous book brings into sharp focus the strange world of the Soviet Union, and the even stranger world of a certain variety of the English elite. It seeks to show how leaving the Soviet Union was a sacrifice for her and how it was the English man, not the Russian woman, who was set free because of their meeting.
Larissa was born in northern Russia, the daughter of a Soviet army officer from a noble family who survived the siege of Leningrad by eating cats' tails and being evacuated over the ice. Francis was the grandson of an Iraqi Jew, forever feeling out of place in his adopted country of England. Parallel Lives is the story of how these two star-crossed lovers met, instantly understand each other, and were prepared to risk heartbreak, and in her case, retribution, to be together.
Escaping Leningrad, teenage Larissa lived in the Urals surrounded by Spanish revolutionaries, and after the war rose to become the youngest commissar in the Soviet Union and keeper of Italian drawings at the Hermitage. She took the Russian contribution to the Venice Biennale in 1962 and lost it on the journey. She briefly absconded with her supervisor's corpse, developed a useful sideline in forgery, and stole ("I didn't steal it. I liberated it") a Matisse from the Italian government. Francis was a distinguished art historian, comfortably at home in King's College Cambridge. But he was lonely, self-doubting, and had all but abandoned hope of falling in love. Larissa swept away all the years of anguish in one meal.
Iain Pears, who was neighbors with Larissa and Francis in Oxford, knew both his principal characters well. In telling Larissa and Francis's love story, he is also capturing the Europe of a bygone era: a world of dancers, exiles, and the occasional spy, of artists, aristocrats, and academics. It is a tale of a world we have lost.
The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West
by Paul Andrew Hutton
From the author of The Apache Wars, the true story of the American West, revealing how American ambition clashed with the realities of violence and exploitation
The epic of the American West became a tale of progress, redemption, and glorious conquest that came to shape the identity of a new nation. Over time a darker story emerged--one of ghastly violence and environmental spoliation that stained this identity.
The Undiscovered Country strips away the layers of myth to reveal the true story of this first epoch of American history. From the forests of Pennsylvania and Kentucky to the snow-crested California Sierras, and from the harsh deserts of the Southwest to the buffalo range of the Great Plains, Paul Andrew Hutton masterfully chronicles a story that defined America and its people. From Braddock's 1755 defeat to the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, he unfolds a grand narrative steeped in romantic impulses and tragic consequences.
Hutton uses seven main protagonists--Daniel Boone, Red Eagle, Davy Crockett, Mangas Coloradas, Kit Carson, Sitting Bull, and William "Buffalo Bill" Cody--as the biographical threads by which to weave a tapestry across seven generations, revealing a story of heroic conquest and dark tragedy, of sacrifice and greed, and of man-made wonders and environmental ruin.
The American frontier movement has proven eternally fascinating around the world--the subject of countless books, paintings, poems, television shows, and films. The Undiscovered Country reveals the truth behind America's great creation myth.
The Afghans: Three Lives Through War, Love, and Revolt
by Åsne Seierstad
"An astonishing feat of writing and reporting and one of the finest books written on Afghanistan in a generation."--Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Amity and Prosperity
From the internationally bestselling author of The Bookseller of Kabul, an expansive, deeply felt portrait of Afghanistan, examining the human cost of wars fought, lost, and won.
From Soviet occupation to the rise of the Taliban, from the outbreak of the War on Terror to its disastrous fallout, The Afghans is an extraordinary journey told over the course of three lives. Since she was a girl, Jamila fought tirelessly for her education. At 25, strengthened by the Quran and supported by the flow of international aid that accompanied U.S. invasion, she set off on a campaign to lead Afghanistan to a better future. Meanwhile, teenager Bashir joined the Taliban, eager to kill infidels in a holy war he would one day lead. In their crosshairs, Ariana grew up with hopes of becoming a lawyer-only to have them dashed in 2021 as the U.S. military pulled out and the Taliban retook Kabul, shuttered schools, and wiped the country clean of Western influence.
Taking us through the Taliban's first year in power, The Afghans is an essential contribution to the American reckoning with our longest war and a profound work of empathy for three people shaped by a ruinous battle for the soul of their nation.
Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History
by Moudhy Al-Rashid
Thousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time.
What they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity, like the earliest depiction of a wheel and the first approximation of pi. But they also capture breathtakingly intimate, raw, and relatable moments, like a dog's paw prints as it accidentally stepped into fresh clay, or the imprint of a child's teeth.
In Between Two Rivers, historian Dr. Moudhy Al-Rashid reveals what these ancient people chose to record about their lives, allowing us to brush hands with them millennia later. We find a lullaby to soothe a baby, instructions for exorcising a ghost, countless receipts for beer, and the messy writing of preschoolers. We meet an enslaved person negotiating their freedom, an astronomer tracing the movement of the planets, a princess who may have created the world's first museum, and a working mother struggling with "the juggle" in 1900 BCE.
Millennia ago, Mesopotamians saw the world's first cities, the first writing system, early seeds of agriculture, and groundbreaking developments in medicine and astronomy. With breathtaking intimacy and grace, Al-Rashid brings their lives--with all their anxieties, aspirations, and intimacies--vividly close to our own.
july new releases
A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile
by Aatish Taseer
A blend of travelog and memoir spanning from Turkey to Mexico, exploring Aatish Taseer's uniquely blended identity and asking: Why do certain cities become epicenters of great historical shifts and sites of unpredictable communities?
In 2019, the government of Prime Minister Narenda Modi revoked Aatish Taseer's Indian citizenship, thereby exiling him from the country where he grew up and lived for thirty years. This loss, both practical and spiritual, sent him on a journey of revisiting the places that formed his identity, and asking broader questions about the complex forces that make a culture and a nationality, in the process.
The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon
by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
CBS Sunday Morning Summer Book Report Pick - New York Times "Books to Read in July" - A Barnes & Noble Best Book of July - A BookBub Beach Read Pick
The riveting and cinematic story of a partnership that would change the world forever
In 1928, a young social worker and hobby pilot named Amelia Earhart arrived in the office of George Putnam, heir to the Putnam & Sons throne and hitmaker, on the hunt for the right woman for a secret flying mission across the Atlantic. A partnership--professional and soon otherwise--was born.
Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-Creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations
by Sam Kean
New York Times's 10 Books our Readers Are Most Excited About New York Times's 21 Nonfiction Books Coming This Summer Boston Globe's Best Books of Summer 2025 A Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book
Whether it's the mighty pyramids of Egypt or the majestic temples of Mexico, we have a good idea of what the past looked like. But what about our other senses: The tang of Roman fish sauce and the springy crust of Egyptian sourdough? The boom of medieval cannons and the clash of Viking swords? The frenzied plays of an Aztec ballgame...and the chilling reality that the losers might also lose their lives?
History often neglects the tastes, textures, sounds, and smells that were an intimate part of our ancestors' lives, but a new generation of researchers is resurrecting those hidden details, pioneering an exciting new discipline called experimental archaeology.
Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
by Scott Ellsworth
From the author of The Ground Breaking, longlisted for the National Book Award, comes a riveting saga of the last year of the Civil War--and a revealing new account of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Told with a page-turning pace, New York Times bestselling author and historian Scott Ellsworth has written the most compelling new book about the Civil War in years. Focusing on the last, desperate months of the war, when the outcome was far from certain, Midnight on the Potomac is a story of titanic battles, political upheaval, and the long-forgotten Confederate terror war against the loyal citizens of the North. Taking us behind the scenes in the White House, along the battlefronts in Virginia, and into the conspiracies of spies and secret agents, Lincoln walks these pages, as do Grant and Sherman. But so do common soldiers, runaway slaves, and an unknown but intrepid female war correspondent named Lois Adams. Rarely, if ever, has a book about the Civil War featured such a rich and diverse cast of characters.
June New Releases
Peace Is a Shy Thing: The Life and Art of Tim O'Brien
by Alex Vernon
The first literary biography of Tim O'Brien, the preeminent American writer of the war in Vietnam and one of the best writers of his generation, drawing on never-before-seen materials and original interviews.
"Vietnam made me a writer." --Tim O'Brien
Featuring over one hundred interviews with family, friends, peers, and others--not to mention countless exchanges with Tim O'Brien himself--Peace is a Shy Thing provides a nearly day-by-day, gripping account of O'Brien's thirteen months as an infantryman in Vietnam and gives equal diligence to reconstructing O'Brien's writing process.
Home Inside the Globe: Embracing Our Human Family
by Gail Straub
A memoir taking you to far-flung places across the globe and the inner realms of the soul
"Home Inside the Globe takes its place beside some of the best travel memoirs, but it stands on its own as a new kind of reading experience. Gail Straub's writing is infused with the pace of a poet and the grace of a mystic."
--Elizabeth Lesser, cofounder of Omega Institute and author of Broken Open
The River's Daughter
by Bridget Crocker
A vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors, by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.
After Bridget Crocker's parents' volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming. Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River with a stepfather she loved, a new baby brother, and the river as her companion--until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle, becoming someone Bridget barely recognized. The one constant in her life--the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself--was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she'd found her calling.
The Place of Tides
by James Rebanks
"The Place of Tides feels like, not only a modern classic, but one we very much need right now." -George Saunders
From perhaps the preeminent nature writer of our time and the acclaimed author of Pastoral Song and The Shepherd's Life, a magical work of nonfiction in which James Rebanks reflects on a life-changing summer spent on a remote island off the coast of Norway, where his only companion was an old woman who practiced the ancient tradition of collecting eiderdown from birds that nest on this remarkable landscape each year.
We are all in need of lights to follow.
One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich but had long been in decline.
Kitchens of Hope: Immigrants Share Stories of Resilience and Recipes from Home
by Linda S Svitak - Christin Jaye Eaton - Lee Svitak Dean - Loan Huynh - Tom Wallace - Lee Svitak Dean
Culinary journeys from around the globe: recipes and stories from immigrants to the United States
Immigrants carry more than hope as they cross oceans and traverse continents to come to the United States. They hold tightly to stories and recipes, remembrances of what they left behind. Kitchens of Hope brings together these memories from contributors who hail from more than thirty countries, offering a glimpse into their kitchens and insight into their lives. This book is a celebration of people and cuisines from around the world, infused with the aromas of epazote and cardamom, the tang of fish sauce, the heat of chile peppers, and the bite of mustard greens.
The World at First Light: A New History of the Renaissance
by Bernd Roeck - Patrick Baker
A magisterial history of the Renaissance and the birth of the modern world
The cultural epoch we know as the Renaissance emerged at a certain time and in a certain place. Why then and not earlier? Why there and not elsewhere? In The World at First Light, historian Bernd Roeck explores the cultural and historical preconditions that enabled the European Renaissance. Roeck shows that the rediscovery of ancient knowledge, including the science of the medieval Arab world, played a critical role in shaping the beginnings of Western modernity.
Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation
by Irina Borogan - Andrei Soldatov
Two of Russia's most prominent investigative journalists tell the "gripping" (Foreign Policy) story of how the hopes of their generation of optimistic Russians in the 1990s was replaced by autocracy, fear, and betrayal
Our Dear Friends in Moscow tells the story of a group of young Russians, part of an idealistic generation who came of age in Moscow at the end of the twentieth century, just as the communist era imploded and a future full of potential, and uncertainty, stood in front of them. Initially, the group seized and enjoyed the freedoms of the new era, but quickly the notion that Russia was destined to join the West, and Europe, in a new partnership began to fade.