Photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci

Winter always makes me think about vacation time. And, vacations at our house always focus around books. Here’s a list of my top MUST see places in 2012.

Misty of Chincoteague  by Marguerite Henry – Chincoteague Island: I’ve owned several copies of this book in my life. I read them until the pages fall out. My entire horse-loving childhood was spent either imagining I was at Pony Penning Day (the day each year when Chincoteague firemen round up the wild ponies on nearby Assateague Island by swimming them across the channel), or pretending I was a wild horse. Chincoteague became more than just an island with nearby wild ponies when Marguerite Henry penned the award-winning historical fiction book about a family who loved the ponies. The beautiful salty shores have called to me for years. It’s time to put my feet on that shore.

Somewhere In Time  by Richard Matheson – The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island: Supernatural love stories are something all teen girls love. Somewhere in Time was the Twilight of my generation. The book was amazing and the movie brought it to life even more. Handsome Christopher Reeve, a playwright, set out to go back in time to find the woman who gave him a precious watch. It all takes place at the exceedingly romantic Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. As an adult, I can still read the book and get swept away in the feelings I remember as a teen. It’s time to experience the romance of Mackinac Island.

The Mending Wall  by Robert Frost - Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire: I can’t forget the poetry on my bookshelf. Reading Frost’s poem, The Mending Wall, has been done in classes, in workshops and even from the comfort of my armchair. The poem entrances me and the metaphors serve as a platform from which I judge all metaphors in literature. The bar is set high. I recently learned the actual wall exists in New Hampshire at Frost Farm. I need to go there and put my hand on those stones.

My Ántonia  by Willa Cather – Red Cloud, Nebraska: As a girl of the prairie, I loved reading Willa Cather’s works. I was fortunate enough to get to study My Ántonia deeper through a program with the National Endowment for the Humanities called The Big Read. Delving into Cather’s life and writings was pure pleasure for me. Her home in Red Cloud, Nebraska, isn’t far from the Road Trips for Readers home base. “Meeting” her in person is high on my priority list. Visitors to Red Cloud can tour her home, the town she writes about and the countryside she examines like no other plains writer.

To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee – Monroeville, Alabama: The top-most classic of American literature, To Kill a Mockingbird, was written by Monroeville resident and recluse, Harper Lee. She grew up there with her literary pal, Truman Capote. Together, their adventures and some southern history combined to create the book I would take on a desert island if I could only bring one book. I’d love to tour their town and see where Scout, Dill, Jem and Boo were born. (Want to learn more? Check out: Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee and Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird)