Well, we have now passed an important, and unpleasant, anniversary: we’re more than a year into pandemic-altered life. COVID-19, of course, has been going on for well over a year already. But it was March 13 (a Friday, appropriately) that life flipped upside down for most of us. Kids were sent home from school and in many cases – including mine – are still learning virtually. Loved ones have been unable to hug one another, work lives are dramatically different, the incidentals of daily life have been completely altered. And travel has been off the table for a long time now.

I’ve written about this before – and I don’t want to seem insensible of my blessings. I am fortunate that everyone in my family is healthy, and my husband and I both have jobs that allow us to work from home, so we’re still employed. And we have the resources available to keep our kids home from school until we make the decision, as a family, that it is safe to send them back – knowing in the meantime that they are getting a high quality education from caring teachers over their little laptops. But there are big and little things that contribute to mental health, too. I miss studio classes at Radiance Yoga and barre3; browsing the shelves at the library; even going to the grocery store (I enjoy cooking, and I like browsing the produce displays and spice racks for inspiration). And I really miss travel. I miss taking in new scenes, tasting different foods, the exhilaration and adventure of the new and untried. Traveling has always been a part of my identity, and something that brought me joy and enriched my life – and we did none in 2020. Steve and I are planning a major bucket-list trip for early 2022, and will probably try to take a family trip over the summer, too. Until then, I’m left scratching the adventure travel itch with… what else? Books.

One of my favorite books of 2020 was Roald Dahl’s memoir, Going Solo. It’s actually the second part of a two-volume memoir, but totally works as a stand-alone. (I didn’t read the first volume, Boy. Reading about Dahl’s school years and the real-life horribles that inspired such characters as Miss Trunchbull or Augustus Gloop didn’t appeal.) Going Solo opens as a young Roald Dahl is departing England for Dar-es-Salaam and his very first job, with Shell Oil. He stays with Shell until World War II breaks out, then leaves his job to join the Royal Air Force. While the first half of the book, in which Dahl and his compatriots bump along rural African roads on calls for Shell, was my favorite (especially the opening chapter and the “Simba” chapter), there’s no shortage of adventure and travel throughout the book.

Another 2020 read, The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery collects letters and photographs capturing Agatha Christie‘s publicity tour for the British Empire Exhibition in 1922. Christie had just published her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and between a burgeoning writing career and a young daughter at home, she was worried that she’d never have the chance to travel again – or at least, not when she was young enough to enjoy it. So when her then-husband Archie Christie became attached to the British Empire Exhibition (he was in charge of finances – seems like a big job!) the couple was invited to take part in a world tour to promote the project. Christie jumped at the opportunity, which took her to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Hawaii, Canada, and more. The letters she sent home and the photographs she captured – compiled in a gorgeous hardcover edition by her grandson Mathew Prichard – make it clear: she had the time of her life. For bang-for-your-armchair-travel-buck, it’s hard to beat The Grand Tour.

Years ago – long before 2020, that miserable year – I read Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World, by Matthew Goodman. I should revisit it, because my memories of the book are hazy, although I do recall really enjoying it and finding the story captivating. Bly and Bisland – two intrepid journalists – both embark on a trip around the world, leaving on the same day but heading on different routes. The initial idea is to beat fictional Phileas Fogg, who embarked on a global circumnavigation in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days – but the project soon turns into a race against each other. Would Bly come in under eighty days? Would Bisland? Who would finish first? I should definitely revisit this one, because I can’t even recall who “wins” the race; I do remember my impression being that having convinced their respective employers to let them off work and fund a round-the-world adventure tour, both women were winners in my book.

What books are scratching your travel itch right now?