Category: literaryguides

  • Read Your Way Through Accra

    Bus stations. Traffic stops. Beaches. There’s no telling where you’ll find the next story in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Peace Adzo Medie shares some of her favorites.

  • Read Your Way Through Madrid

    Like many who call Madrid home, Elena Medel was born elsewhere, but forged her identity in the Spanish capital. Here, she recommends books about this city that “refuses to be reduced to an ideal.”

  • Read Your Way Around Los Angeles

    Héctor Tobar is a son of Los Angeles, a city of “perpetual cultural mixing.” Here, he guides readers through the books and writers that cut through the city’s layers.

  • Read Your Way Through Kerala

    A strip of lush land at the tip of India where spices grow wild, Kerala has long drawn the gaze of outsiders. Here’s Abraham Verghese’s guide to its literature, which nods at these influences but is very much its own.

  • Read Your Way Through Miami

    The New York Times – Travel:

    To love Miami is to accept that it is a city in flux. Jonathan Escoffery, one of its writers, recommends books that help pin the Florida metropolis down.

  • Read Your Way Through São Paulo

    The New York Times – Travel:

    Brazil’s ultra urban megacity overwhelms the landscape and the imagination. Paulo Scott recommends books that peel back its layers.

  • Read Your Way Through Boston

    The New York Times – Travel:

    Paul Theroux, the quintessential travel writer, has also enshrined his Massachusetts roots in his writing. Here are his recommendations for those who come to visit.

  • Read Your Way Through Tokyo

    The New York Times – Travel:

    Hiromi Kawakami, one of Japan’s most popular contemporary novelists, travels with books that help her immerse herself in her destination. Here, she suggests reading for those coming to her hometown, Tokyo.

  • Read Your Way Through Edinburgh

    The New York Times – Travel:

    Edinburgh calls to readers, its pearl-grey skies urging them to curl up with a book. Maggie O’Farrell, the author of “Hamnet,” suggests reading that best reflects her city.

  • Read Your Way Through Kingston, Jamaica

    The New York Times – Travel:

    “No one sound speaks for all” Jamaicans, the novelist Marlon James says. Here are the books he recommends for readers who want to see the island’s many facets.

  • Read Your Way Through Tangier

    The New York Times – Travel:

    Tangier’s many facets have long inspired writers. Here, the Moroccan-born novelist Laila Lalami introduces readers to the books and writers that, to her, best capture the city.

  • Read Your Way Through Dublin

    The New York Times – Travel:

    Virtuosity and creativity with language are “everyone’s birthright” in the Irish capital, says Tana French, an award-winning mystery writer who has made it her home.