The adventures of Jen and Doug and a black cat named Mr. Knightley.
Movies & Books Inspired By Our Travels
Here are books and movies that we have watched, read, and listened to, as inspired by places we’ve visited since moving into the van. All the Amazon links are affiliate links.
Civil Rights
Thurgood Marshall: The Making of America by Teri Kanefield. We both really enjoyed it, and the means by which Marshall destroyed “separate but equal” was nothing short of brilliant.
Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks. We listened to this while visiting various Civil Rights sites in Montgomery, Alabama.
Mississippi Burning. It’s got a bit too much “white savior” vibe going, but Hackman and Dafoe are wonderful. It’s painful to watch, and that’s a good thing. It’s inspired by the real life story of three Civil Rights workers who were killed for trying to register Black voters near Jackson, Mississippi.
The Help. Another “white savior” film that’s at times hard to watch, but Viola Davis is so, so good in this. I had read the book by Kathryn Stockett a few years ago, and I gave it a rare (for me) 5 star rating. It’s set in Jackson, Mississippi.
Not as over-the-top as many Netflix documentaries. It lined up very well with our recent visits, especially the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig. Long (maybe a bit too long) but an incredible story nonetheless. Inspired by a visit to his parsonage house, but also so many Civil Rights sites he had a hand in.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, which created the absolutely stunning National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. There’s also a movie of the same name. Unfortunately, I found both the book and movie to be just ok, even though the story itself is one that should be told.
March: Book One by John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement.
The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson. Absolutely horrifying. We saw an exhibit in Atlanta, and have since made a point of seeing other related sites.
We Have Always Lived in the Castleby Shirley Jackson. When we were in Vermont, we listened to Jackson’s autobiographical book about living there, and I absolutely hated it. So I’d been putting off listening to some of the works she’s famous for, but finally got around to this one, and really enjoyed it, much to my surprise.
So then we listened to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, and was much less impressed by this one. I think I’m done with Jackson.
After our visit to the Fitzgerald home in Alabama, I decided to finally watch The Great Gatsby movie. It is a total over-the-top spectacle (directed by Baz Luhrmann, naturally), so it’s fun to watch regardless of acting or script. I really liked the modern music usage, but I know lots of people found it off-putting. The story is set in Long Island, New York.
The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty. We visited her home because Doug had read her Pulitzer prize winning novel.
My Dog Skip by Willie Morris. We saw an exhibit on Morris while in Jackson, Mississippi.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. Doug hated it, but we went to Faulkner’s home anyway.
Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy. We only went to the L.Q.C. Lamar House Museum because he was a chapter in Kennedy’s book (which Doug of course had read), but it felt like a bait-and-switch. We did not find that Lamar had, in fact, been a profile in courage.
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Doug had of course already read this Pulitzer Prize winning novel, but I only got around to it well after visiting Rawlings’ home in Florida. It’s a remarkable capture of rural life in the area.
The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor. We visited not one but two of her homes I tried but I couldn’t get through this. Doug, of course, could and did.
The Water Is Wide by Pat Conroy. We had visited the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, SC, and later visited Pin Point, which felt like we had stepped right into this memoir.
A Death in the Family by James Agee. It’s set in Knoxville (though it’s not at all relevant), so we listened while driving through the area. I didn’t much care for it, so was surprised to learn that Doug had previously read it and liked it enough to listen to it again.
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years by Carl Sandburg. We visited Sandburg’s home in North Carolina. Doug read this Pulitzer Prize winning book previously.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Doug is really pained by this book, but I enjoyed it. We visited a related museum outside of Atlanta.
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson. We listened to this while driving around Vermont. I hated it; Doug, of course, had previously read it and enjoyed it enough for a second read.
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. I listened to this because it was set in Vermont, though that really had nothing to do with the story. I still enjoyed it, though.
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. The book series is set in Trenton, NJ and Evanovich is from South River, NJ, so it seemed a fitting choice for NJ adventures. We didn’t think the book had aged very well. That is all.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. We visited Irving’s home and saw some sites related to his works, so naturally we gave this a listen.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series may be billed as for kids, but I really enjoyed them as an adult. I was surprised how educational they were. We have seen a few Ingalls Wilder sites on our travels.
Scott Fitzgeraldby Jeffrey Meyers. We stopped at some additional Fitzgerald sites in the Twin Cities, which pushed me to read this biography. “Hot mess” is what comes to mind. Truly.
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. We listened to this while visiting Ingalls sites in South Dakota, and driving through areas talked about, so it was very relevant and interesting. The book is equally about Laura’s daughter, Rose.
It’s been many, many years since I watched the Little House on the Prairie TV series, and as it ran for nearly 9 years, I didn’t rewatch the entire series now. The season are free on Prime, so I bounced around and watched the kids grow up. Boy, in those early episodes the kids’ dialogue is really just “Oh, Pa!!” It seems much more focused on the parents (possibly because Michael Langdon starred and produced, and also wrote many of the scripts).
Pollyanna Grows Up by Eleanor H. Porter. I had really enjoyed the first one, so decided to read the sequel, but I thought it was terrible.
I wanted to read My Cat Spit McGee by Willie Morris ever since I saw the cover, with that white belly begging to be pet. We saw an exhibit on Morris in Jackson, Mississippi, but it took me a while to get my hands on a copy. It was a fine read, but I really wanted to see pictures of Spit, and there were none beyond the cover.
After visiting Gene Stratton Porter’s home in Indiana, I read one of her novels, A Daughter of the Land. I was surprised how dark it was.
Places
For Frying Out Loud – Rehoboth Beach Diaries by Fay Jacobs. This is a series of columns that Jacobs wrote, and while there was some interesting and entertaining stuff about that area of Delaware, I mostly found Jacobs to find herself more witty than I did.
Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry. I think maybe Barry is an acquired taste, and I’ve not acquired it. There were some humorous bits, but mostly I found Barry to find himself more witty than I did.
Team Rodent : How Disney Devours the Worldby Carl Hiaasen. Though we didn’t even go to Disney (we went to Universal Studios), this was still an interesting look about how Disney came to be a “thing” and its unusual level of influence in the state of Florida.
Canada by Mike Myers. A fun book about growing up in Canada and what it means to be Canadian.
Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin. Toms River was very close to where I group up, and my dad worked at the chemical plant profiled in the book. I finally got around to reading this as we got van life under way and were in NJ much more.
We listened to John Muir’s Travels in Alaska while driving between Anchorage and Fairbanks (which includes vast stretches of wilderness and Denali National Park). While we didn’t visit the exact places that Muir did, it was still interesting to hear his descriptions of the Alaskan landscape as we were passing through.
Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up by Bob Colacello. Colacello was in Warhol’s inner circle, so it’s an inside view of the madness – but one that also has to be taken with a grain of salt.
The Joy of Art: How to Look At, Appreciate, and Talk about Art by Carolyn Schlam. I read this to try to get a better appreciation of art, given all the art museums we visit; I mostly just have a visceral “yes I like it” or “ick” reaction, and move on. This book did not really help with that at all, but I did like this quote by Wassily Kandinsky: “I applied streaks and blobs of color onto the canvas with a palette knife, and I made them sing with all the intensity I could.” I like to think of an artist working that way.
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. Y’all, this is an absolutely CRAZY story about a couple running around stealing art and then hoarding it in their bedroom upstairs in mom’s house. I mean, they stole because they could, and that’s all there is to it. So bizarre!
Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art. It’s a Netflix documentary, so it’s full of drama and longer than it needs to be, but still a crazy story that “chronicles the events of the largest art fraud in American history, when Knoedler & Company unwittingly purchased and sold fake works by famed artists.”
Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art. We’d seen the “Banksy Was Here” Exhibition in Philadelphia last year, which sent me down a rabbit hole on Bansky (don’t do it), including watching this film. Interesting to think about what is vandalism vs. art, and how he has turned it all into a multi-million dollar industry.
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland, recommended by our friend Amanda. It’s a fictionalized account of the creation of the painting, but really brought the painting to life for me. We actually went back to the Phillips Collection in D.C. to see it again.
Impressionism by Nathalia Brodskaia. We’ve visited a lot of art museums around the U.S. and I’m always on the hunt for the Impressionists. I really enjoyed this book about the movement.
Our friend Agnes recommended Loving Vincent to us, knowing how much we enjoy art. Though we’re not the biggest fans of Van Gogh’s work, we’d been to his museum in Amerstdam and read a biography in preparation, so we’re interested in Van Gogh regardless. I thought the movie was fascinating, and also enjoyed the behind the scenes movie, as well (Loving Vincent: The Impossible Dream).
I watched this through my library card, I can’t find it on Amazon (just a very expensive companion book). Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse is about an exhibit by The Royal Academy of Arts, London, and it features lots of flowers and impressionist paintings of flowers, so needless to say, I was in my glory. I loved it.
Harriet starring Cynthia Erivo. I found that it was not a compelling watch, and drama was manufactured where it didn’t exist. That being said, it’s beautifully shot, and Erivo’s singing was wonderful.
The Andersonville movie came out in 1996, and I think that’s when we each first saw it. It was more impactful than the site we visited in Georgia, to be honest.
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor. I read this horrifying book after seeing the movie.
John Ransom’s Andersonville Diary by John L. Ransom is diary kept by Ranson while a POW at Andersonville and elsewhere. It’s very well-written, and of course, horrifying. Reading it after visiting the site was powerful.
The Gettysburg movie really helped me better appreciate the visit to the battlefield.
Early American History
Lafayette by Harlow Giles Unger. Honestly, he deserves his own Lin-Manuel Miranda play a la Hamilton. The story is unbelievable.
Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller. The mystery of what happened – how could they all just disappear without a trace?! – is fascinating, but alas, this book was not.
Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Listened to in relation to our visit to Graceland. A bit of a fluff piece, to be honest.
The Elvis movie directed by Baz Luhrmann is a total spectacle with too much Tom Hanks and too few facts, but it’s still a fun romp. And Austin Butler was pretty amazing.
Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn. We listened to this while visiting Johnny Cash’s boyhood home.
Jon Bon Jovi by a360media. Bon Jovi is very Jersey, and van life finally got me to check him out a bit (but not too much).
After our visit to Johnny Cash’s boyhood home and listening to a biography, I was looking forward to this, as I’d heard good things about it. Phoenix and Witherspoon were both very good, but the plot was a snoozefest, mostly lots of Cash arguing with people. It ends when they get engaged, which honestly is where the story starts.
Purple Rain, both the movie and soundtrack are legendary! I watched the movie again after all these years, and wow, it did not hold up. It has not aged well at all, the acting was terrible, and the plot is MIA. The soundtrack, though, is still da bomb. Watched in conjunction with our visit to Paisley Park in Minnesota.
The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince is written by Prince’s first ex-wife, Mayte Garcia, who also worked with Prince professionally. Doug read it and found it a little unsettling, and I would agree with that assessment. Read in conjunction with our visit to Paisley Park in Minnesota.
Prince worked with Dan Piepenbring to start writing his life story, but it was cut short by his untimely death. The Beautiful Ones includes that work along with Piepenbring’s story around the experience. We both enjoyed this relatively short book, though there’s not much substance to it.
Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?: The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music by Mark Zwonitzer. The Carters had a huge impact on American music, and their name has come up again and again in places we’ve visited. I did feel like it was hard to keep track of who was who in this book, though – it turns out there were a lot of Carters!
8-Mile stars Eminem and Kim Basinger, and is the semi-autobiographical story of Eminem’s life in Detroit and his efforts to break into the music scene. His hit song Lose Yourself won an Academy Award for this film. I thought the film was terrible (though the song is great!).
The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw. Doug had already read it, but I did after our visit to the National D-Day Memorial. Heartbreaking.
Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky. If only we could learn something from history. An interesting read in relation to visiting Warm Springs.
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore. We’ve somehow been to more than one watch and clock museum, and this story of women getting poisoned painting the glowing numbers on watches is pretty disheartening.
We listened to Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein as we entered Wisconsin. It’s the story of what happened to Janesville, Wisconsin, when General Motors shut down its plant there.
Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line by Ben Hamper. A short book, but honestly kind of depressing to see how the workers took advantage and how much inefficiency there was. It was hard not to feel like the implosion of the auto industry was self-induced.
Nothing says “Detroit” like Jimmy Hoffa. We listened to the audiobook In Hoffa’s Shadow, written by the stepson of Hoffa’s protege, Chuckie O’Brien. It was a wild ride, but we’re still searching for Hoffa’s body.
The Dillinger Days by John Toland. We listened to this in Indiana, where Dillinger is from, and honestly, the story is so crazy it’s hard to believe. An early death for Dillinger and his cronies was the only possible outcome.
The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn. Another book related to Indiana that is near impossible to believe, on many levels. I had no idea of the good that Jones did, but it is totally overshadowed by all the crazy.
Ryan White: My Own Storyby Ryan White. Another Indiana book, this time about what it was like to be a teenager with a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS in the early days when there was a lot of fear and stigma. It’s a heartbreaking story.
The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley. I guess we’re officially birders now that we’ve made room for actual physical books on birding in the van.
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper. We both really enjoyed this book, which is mostly a memoir, but his love of birding compelled me to put it here in the “nature” section. It included lots of tips on birding, too. We both really enjoyed this book.
We spent the night in our van at a drive-in that was playing Barbie. I was excited from all the hype, but it didn’t take long before I was dropping the WTF-bomb.
Inspired by our trip to Saratoga and the horse racing museum there, we watched the Seabiscuit movie, and found it “eh”.
We went to a Bulls game in Durham. Is Bull Durham a great movie? No. (Doug says yes.) Is it a fun romp? Yes. (Doug agrees.)
The China Syndrome is not about Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, but it might as well be. Part of a rabbit hole I went down. Recommended if you’d like to do the same.
Doug suggested The Longest Day to me after our visit to the National D-Day Memorial, and I thought it was really well done.
Moulin Rouge! was co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann, so it is yet another over-the-top spectacle. I had thought the movie was based on the play we saw, but no, the play was adapted from the film. The costumes were great but I thought the plot was ludicrous.
Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery by Andrew Shaffer. Biden is from Delaware, so I read it in conjunction with a visit to Delaware. The book was terrible not very good.
Blind Faith by Joe McGinniss. This true crime story took place near where I grew up, but I didn’t get around to reading it until we started van life and spending more time in NJ. True fact: Doug studied literature with the author McGinniss at college!
Winterdance by Gary Paulsen is a book about the Iditarod, which we listened to while driving around Alaska. The book was a bit over-the-top, but the race is crazy so it was still interesting to listen to the experience of running it.
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. We listened to this novel set in Flint (about 50 northwest of Detroit) during the depression, and it’s about a young boy whose mother has died and he’s searching for his father. It sounds very depressing, but it was actually a fun listen.
