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Open Books Challenge 2025: Book Set During or About a Vacation
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Updated December 31, 2024
RPL Staff
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Summers at the Saint
Andrews, Mary Kay
Paper Book
"Andrews perfectly balances the second chance-romance with the twisty mystery against a beachy backdrop that will please any armchair traveler." --Publishers Weekly "A fun, heart-warming, and intriguing summer read. For readers who'd enjoy a blend of friendships (old and new),...
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Hemlock Island
Armstrong, Kelley
Paper Book
A standalone horror novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong. Laney Kilpatrick has been renting her vacation home to strangers. The invasion of privacy gives her panic attacks, but it's the only way she can keep her beloved Hemlock Island, the...
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The power couple
Berenson, Alex
Paper Book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author and Edgar Award winner Alex Berenson comes a supercharged thriller about marriage and the dangerous secrets spouses keep. Rebecca and Brian Unsworth appear to have it all. A nice house in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Two well...
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The Penderwicks The Penderwicks Series, Book 1
Birdsall, Jeanne.
Paper Book
With over one million copies sold, this series of modern classics about the charming Penderwick family from National Book Award winner andnbsp;New York Timesnbsp;bestseller Jeanne Birdsall is perfect for fans of Noel Streatfeild and Edward Eager. This summer the Penderwick...
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World travel : an irreverent guide
Bourdain, Anthony
Paper Book
A guide to some of the world's most fascinating places, as seen and experienced by writer, television host, and relentlessly curious traveler Anthony Bourdain Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York...
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A Walk in the Woods Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Bryson, Bill.
Ebook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The classic chronicle of a "terribly misguided and terribly funny" (The Washington Post) hike of the Appalachian Trail, from the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body  ...
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Kismet : a novel
Chalsen, Becky
Audiobook
A New York Public Library Summer Staff Pick "A wedding, a birthday, a holiday weekend. What could really go wrong? Kismet dishes up everything a reader could possibly crave: family drama, long-held secrets, and the 'what ifs' that can sometimes haunt even the most loving...
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Death on the Nile : a Hercule Poirot mystery
Christie, Agatha
Paper Book
Linnet Doyle is young, beautiful, and rich. She's the girl who has everything—including the man her best friend loves. Linnet and her new husband take a cruise on the Nile, where they meet the brilliant detective Hercule Poirot. It should be an idyllic trip, yet Poirot has a vague, uneasy...
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A walk in the park : the true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paper Book
Two friends, zero preparation, one dream. From the author of the beloved bestseller The Emerald Mile, a rollicking and poignant account of the epic misadventure of a 750-mile odyssey, on foot, through the heart of America's most magnificent national park and the grandest wilderness on...
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The breakup vacation
Gracia, Anna
Paper Book
It's the summer before senior year of college, and Grace is about to make the worst decision of her life in this "sexy, sun-drenched cocktail of chaotic good fun and heartfelt hilarity" (Sarah Kuhn, author of the Heroine Complex series) that captures the messiness of your early twenties, while...
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Airplane mode : an irreverent history of travel
Habib, Shahnaz
Paper Book
Winner of the New American Voices Award Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals of Excellence This witty personal and cultural history of travel from the perspective of a Third World-raised woman of color, Airplane Mode, asks: what does it mean to be a joyous traveler...
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Winter in paradise : a novel
Hilderbrand, Elin
Paper Book
A husband's secret life, a wife's new beginning: escape to the Caribbean with #1 New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand. Irene Steele shares her idyllic life in a beautiful Iowa City Victorian house with a husband who loves her to sky-writing, sentimental...
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Displacement
Hughes, Kiku
Paper Book
A teenager is pulled back in time to witness her grandmother's experiences in World War II-era Japanese internment camps in Displacement, a historical graphic novel from Kiku Hughes. Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the...
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The spare man
Kowal, Mary Robinette
Paper Book
Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high-society in this stylish SF mystery, The Spare Man. A 2023 Hugo Award Finalist!A 2022 Locus...
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We were liars
Lockhart, E.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Don't miss the #1 New York Times bestselling prequel, Family of Liars. A beautiful and distinguished family.
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Salt water taffy, the seaside adventures of Jack & Benny. Vol. 2, A Climb up Mt. Barnabas
Loux, Matthew.
Paper Book
Eleven-year-old Jack Putnam and his eight-year-old brother Benny are beingdragged against their will on a summer-long vacation with their family. And notto somewhere cool like Disney World, but to a little port town in Maine namedChowder Bay, far away from anyplace fun. But what promises to...
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Every time I go on vacation, someone dies
Mack, Catherine
Paper Book
A USA Today Bestseller #1 Toronto Star Bestseller in Canadian FictionA Globe and Mail Bestseller in Canadian Fiction A Vancouver Sun Bestseller in New Releases An Indie Next List Pick (May 2024) An...
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The catch me if you can : one woman's journey to every country in the world
Nabongo, Jessica
Paper Book
In this inspiring travelogue, celebrated traveler and photographer Jessica Nabongo―the first Black woman on record to visit all 195 countries in the world―shares her journey around the globe with fascinating stories of adventure, culture, travel musts, and human connections. ...
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The little Italian hotel
Patrick, Phaedra
Paper Book
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The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel
Pratchett, Terry
Paper Book
"A master of laugh-out-loud fiction . . . Pratchett has created an alternate universe full of trolls, dwarfs, wizards, and other fantasy elements, and he uses that universe to reflect our own culture with entertaining and gloriously funny results. . . . Nothing short of magical." --Chicago...
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You Shouldn't Have Come Here
Rose, Jeneva.
Ebook
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The Caliph's house
Shah, Tahir.
Paper Book
In the tradition ofA Year in ProvenceandUnder the Tuscan Sun, acclaimed English travel writer Tahir Shah shares a highly entertaining account of making an exotic dream come true. By turns hilarious and harrowing, here is the story of his family’s move from the gray skies of...
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Cabin fever : the harrowing journey of a cruise ship at the dawn of a pandemic
Smith, Michael (Journalist)
Paper Book
The true story of the Holland America cruise ship Zaandam, which set sail with a deadly and little-understood stowaway--COVID-19--days before the world shut down in March 2020. This riveting narrative thriller takes readers behind the scenes with passengers and crew who were...
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This one summer
Tamaki, Mariko
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller A 2015 Caldecott Honor Book A 2015 Michael L. Printz Honor Book An Eisner Award Winner Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always...
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French braid
Tyler, Anne
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Spool of Blue Thread--a funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family's foibles, from a boyfriend with a red Chevy in the 1950s up to a longed-for reunion with a grandchild...
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The Woman in Cabin 10
Ware, Ruth.
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF IN A DARK, DARK WOOD Featured in TheSkimm An Entertainment Weekly "Summer Must List" Pick A New York Post "Summer Must-Read" Pick ...
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The yellow house mystery
Warner, Gertrude Chandler
Paper Book
Years ago, a man disappeared from the yellow house on Surprise Island. Why? The Aldens have found a clue to the mystery! Adapted from Gertrude Chandler Warner's story of the same name, this early reader allows children to start reading with a Boxcar Children classic.
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Zero stars do not recommend : a novel
Wassmer, M J
Paper Book
"Worst Vacation Ever--Five Stars, Would Recommend." -- Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House White Lotus meets Kevin Wilson in this whip-smart social satire about a man who finds himself trapped on an island resort after the sun explodes, and...
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The geography of bliss : one grump's search for the happiest places in the world
Weiner, Eric
Paper Book
Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of un-unhappiness.
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The summer place : a novel
Weiner, Jennifer
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of That Summer comes another heartfelt and unputdownable novel of family, secrets, and the ties that bind. When her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter announces her...
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Never vacation with your ex
Wibberley, Emily
Paper Book
The Summer I Turned Pretty meets People We Meet on Vacation in a YA second chance romance where the rules for getting over an ex turn out to be more complicated than they seem. Seventeen-year-old volleyball star Kaylee Jordan lives a life of player rankings,...
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