A Stopover in Venice
With its winding streets and crisscrossing canals, Venice is an island where getting lost isn't an accident; it's a pastime. So the premise of Kathyrn Walker's debut novel, A Stopover in Venice (Alfred A. Knopf, $24.95), isn't a stretch. The story opens on the protagonist, Nel, who finds herself adrift, a tag-along on her famous husband's latest musical tour. But as their train crosses Italy en route to Verona, Nel gets off ahead of schedule, heading instead toward Venice and embarking on her own solo adventure. What follows is a sonnet to Venice's rich cultural history, to the art of spontaneous travel and to the adventure that can be born from the two. It is The Da Vinci Code Light, with just as much art history and intrigue but half as much at stake. The canals of Venice speak through Walker's apt descriptions, and their message is palpable: Sometimes you have to get lost to find yourself. Turns out there's no better place to do it than on an island like Venice. -- Adrienne Egolf
Pacific Passages
Missionaries frowned on it. Hawaiian queens were chosen for their prowess at it. Gidget was famous for it. Today, it's a multibillion-dollar global industry that steers clothing trends, travel habits and the lives of everyone from its young devotees to their grandmothers. "It" is surfing, and if those claims of worldwide influence raise eyebrows, Pacific Passages: An Anthology of Surf Writing (University of Hawaii Press, $32) will wipe out old surfing stereotypes for good. Its collection of short stories clearly reveals the sport's impact through time: From ancient Polynesian myths to the birth of the Outrigger Canoe Club to the surf-crazed California coastline and beyond, literary luminaries weigh in. Herman Melville compares surfing a wave to hurrying landward "along a watery wall, like the smooth, awful verge of Niagara." Mark Twain admits that he "got the board placed right, and at the right moment too; but missed the connection myself." Legends aside, the star of this collection is the sport of surfing, and its reach will inspire both water hounds and wannabes. So will the thought of Mark Twain hanging 10. -- Eddy Patricelli
Love on the Rocks
There's something nostalgic about Love on the Rocks (Islandport Press, $15.95), a short-story collection edited by John and Kathryn Muether. Whether or not you're a seasoned visitor to Maine's Mount Desert Island, this book's ornate, antiquated language and melodramatic tales of romance make its shores seem familiar, at least in a literary sense. At the end of the 19th century, Mount Desert Island was a premier summer vacation destination for high society, and this collection -- arranged chronologically -- shows the evolution of its accommodations over the course of 30 years, from quaint guest houses to full-fledged resorts. As one character puts it, "the wilderness was a wilderness no longer. The place was swarming ... with myriads of charming girls ... in irreproachable French [clothes]." It's those charming girls on holiday from elsewhere in post-Civil War America -- and the authors' descriptions of Maine's rocky coasts and biting northeastern breezes -- that linger in the memory after reading these tales. -- Adrienne Egolf
