A good book is always a great travel companion. Whether you plan to laze by the beach or on a train ride from one destination to another, these books will make you laugh, cry, learn about life or be an inspiration in your travels.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince is a children’s book published in 1943 and is the most translated book in the French language. Written by French aristocrat, writer, poet and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. The book also features beautiful watercolour illustrations by the author.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
This popular memoir tells the story of a woman in her early thirties who takes on a life-changing journey through three different countries: Italy, India, and Indonesia. Follow Elizabeth as she eats her way through Italy, meditate in an ashram in India and fall in love in the Island Of The Gods, Bali. This book is about the journey in search of what the author truly wants out of life.
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Life of Pi is a fantasy novel about Pi who survives 227 days after a shipwreck. Stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a tiger named Richard Parker as his companion, Life of Pi is a story that explores the issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. Adrift in the ocean in search of land or someone to rescue him, Pi encounters various wonders such as a floating island inhabited by thousands of meerkats and an encounter with a whale.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is arguably Alboms’ best-selling novel, spending 95 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. It is a book about one’s purpose in life, and starts with war veteran Eddie, now a maintenance man at an amusement park, who dies trying to save the life of a little girl falling off a ferris wheel. Eddie wakes up in the afterlife, but soon realises that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden but a place where his time on earth is explained by five people who have impacted his life the most.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
In The Joy Luck Club, Tan tells the story of four families who make their way to San Francisco from China. It is told from the point of view of the mothers and the daughters, who are first generation Americans. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan’s masterful exploration of the oft-times painful but deep connection between mothers and daughters will have you immersed in its narrative from start to finish.
