I carried this book with me to Paris and swooned over passages almost like a Francophile would.

These books make me want to travel there immediately for my next meal.  Sun, wine, and food.

More of Mayes' lush writing about food and travel. However, used as a reference for the travel literature of each area she visits, this book is more than complementary to any guidebook or map of the region. And she introduced me to Colette.

This book evokes the landscape of New Mexico better than any other writing I know.

Because of Abbey, I loved the desert before I loved the desert.  I read this over and over.

Bill Bryson always makes me laugh, but this book also made me want to visit Australia and see the stromatolites for myself.

Ms. Fisher epitomizes food and travel literature.  Read her and then cook yourself something to eat.

Though most of us will never buy a second home in Mexico with our artist spouse, Tony Cohan seems to have captured many walks of life in Mexico during his time in San Miguel de Allende.  And he genuinely likes Mexico.

I have loved this book since I was a teenager.  And I love it even more each time I re-read with a little more life experience to my credit.  Rock Star Road Trip.

When I think of Karen Blixen, I first think of Robert Redford washing Meryl Streep's hair.   But then I think of this amazingly independent woman who loved and lost a land as big as Africa.

The Mediterranean in the off-season: euphemism for so many of life's convoluted journeys.

My latest favorite travel writing comes from the late Ellen Meloy.  I got caught up in her comparisons between California and a small town in Utah initially, and stayed for her quirky and original viewpoint on the desert southwest.

Reading this during my honeymoon on the Baja gave me a map to the peninsula without actual coordinates.  The natural history of Baja is both history and contemporaneous in this log - much like the Baja itself.

Not so much happy travel stories for tourists, but if I can't see this fictional snapshot of northern African culture after World War II, it's certainly not the incredibly gifted Paul Bowles' fault.

Done to death, but Mayes originated the perfect balance of food, travel and home stories based in the cliche of Tuscany that made you want to go there this instant.

I needed to know more about oysters and their origins, and thanks to Robb's world tour, now I do.