Armchair Travel Staff Picks (9/29/25)

If you’re dreaming of transporting to another place or time, be sure to immerse yourself in these atmospheric reads!

AMANDA’S PICK: THE SEA CAPTAIN’S WIFE: A TRUE STORY OF MUTINY, LOVE, AND ADVENTURE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD BY TILAR J. MAZZEO

Who wants a boring cruise when you can go on a heart-pounding high seas adventure?!  This is the story of Mary Ann Patten and her captain husband Joshua in 1856. When Joshua fell gravely ill off the coast of Patagonia, the newly pregnant Mary Ann faced a perilous choice: relinquish command to a dangerous first mate or defy convention and navigate their ship around Cape Horn amidst a deadly storm. Set against the backdrop of the California Gold Rush, this book finally gives Mary Ann Patten her due and recognizes her as the first female captain to navigate the Southern Ocean, and includes brand new archival research from nineteenth century women’s maritime journals, as well as the author’s experiences from her own expedition to Antarctica in search of Mary Ann’s route. Thrilling, harrowing, and heroic, THE SEA CAPTAIN’S WIFE is a fresh combination of overlooked women’s history and swashbuckling Antarctic adventure.

EMILY’S PICK: MURDER WILL OUT BY JENNIFER K. BREEDLOVE

The setting of this book is Little North Island, off the coast of Maine. It’s so picturesque it could be a postcard. The perfect place to spend the summer. Sounds lovely, right? Once upon a time, it was for Willow Stone. She cherishes her memories of childhood summers on the island with her godmother Sue, but she hasn’t heard from Sue in over fifteen years. When Sue’s death brings Willow back to the island—and the sprawling mansion Sue inherited—Willow starts to question whether Sue’s death was really an accident and can’t help but wonder if someone on the island murdered Sue to claim the house for their own. This debut is the winner of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award, and will transport you to the charming and suspenseful fictional island. The setting truly comes alive on the page and will be perfect reading for those dreary winter days that will be here before we know it. 

MARGO’S PICK: THE LOST BOOK OF ELIZABETH BARTON BY JENNIFER N. BROWN

How about a jump back in time to 16th century England? After a historian discovers the only surviving manuscript of the prophecies of a 16th century nun, Elizabeth Barton, she is thrust into academic fame, gaining a spot at an elite research conference in a crumbling English manor. But when the retreat turns into a murder mystery, she must untangle centuries of secrets and legends, all while navigating the dangerous, competitive world of academia, and trying to figure out who to trust among her colleagues. Alternating between the present-day and Reformation-era England, THE LOST BOOK OF ELIZABETH BARTON is suspenseful and atmospheric. It will be perfect for Tudor enthusiasts like me, readers of dark academia or historical fiction, and fans of Maggie O’Farrell, Phillipa Gregory, and Hilary Mantel.

HALLIE’S PICK: SAOIRSE BY CHARLEEN HURTUBISE

On the windswept cliffs of Donegal, where the sea crashes against stone and the past seems like something the ocean could swallow, a woman begins again. After fleeing a traumatic past in Michigan she has remade herself as a celebrated painter and devoted mother known as Saoirse. But Saoirse’s life is built on a lie. No one in the tight-knit Irish community knows the identity she’s stolen or the darkness she left behind in America. And when her artwork attracts national attention after a Dublin exhibition, her sudden fame threatens to expose everything she’s worked so hard to bury.  This is a story with a gorgeous setting. The Irish coast comes to life in this book, and the mix of emotion, trauma, and love in Saoirse’s journey makes it a powerful and moving read.