When I travel, I always find time to get a bit of reading time in. Car trips, flights, and relaxing by a pool or on a beach afford ample time to read fantastic books. Here is my High Springs and Key Largo Florida Travel Reading List. And because I’m participating in the 2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge, this reading list includes which books fulfill particular categories of the reading challenge.

Books Finished:

Beautiful Exiles by Meg Waite Clayton

After seeing that at least part of this book was set in Key West, I had to save it to read on a trip to the Keys. The novel is a fictional telling of the story of Ernest Hemingway’s third wife Martha Gellhorn. I previously read The Paris Wife about Hemingway’s first wife Hadley, so I felt like this picked up the story of his life to some extent. And after reading both, I can’t fathom what women saw in Hemingway. He seemed to me to be a drunk pig, who happens to be a fantastic writer. But I can’t understand why anyone would have wanted to live with him and suffer him. In any event, the book is told from the perspective of Martha, who was a journalist and author in her own right. It made me want to read some of her works to get a better perspective on her as a person, and not simply as one of Hemingway’s wives. The book is well-written, and does a good job of portraying the spiral of the couple’s tumultuous relationship.

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

2018 PopSugar Challenge: a book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym

Is there anyone who doesn’t know that Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling at this point? If so, now you do. I loved the Harry Potter series, and wanted to see what Rowling/Galbraith did with books gear toward adults. This novel fits squarely within the detective mystery genre. It was a solid entry with clues placed throughout, but which you don’t pick up on until the detective outlines them all together at the end. It reminded me of a grittier version of Agatha Christie.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Set in the South before the Civil War, this book follows the lives of a white girl and a black girl who grow up together but lead very different lives. The white girl grows up to be abolitionist Sarah Grimke, and the novel is based on her true life. I really liked this book, and do recommend it. And if you want more by the same author, I also recommend The Secret Life of Bees.

 

Books Abandoned:

None.