The best books about trains

Rydr is on her way from California to Chicago via rail, to meet a relative who will take care of her now that her grandmother no longer can. What I love most about this book—aside from the fact that it takes place on the California Zephyr, one of my very favorite train rides in the world—is that Rydr’s experience is so influenced by the strangers she meets on the train. That’s why I love train travel so much: you never know who you’re going to meet. And you almost always end up sharing a meal and a story with someone you would never have met otherwise. 

The all-time classic train mystery! I love a good mystery, and a train is the perfect setting for it. You’re stuck in a tin tube with a bunch of strangers, after all. What could go wrong? I re-read this novel while riding an overnight train from the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India back down to Delhi. It feels dated, of course, but the intrigue holds up, and I especially love how the setting of the train itself is the most important character in the book. (Fun fact: This book plays a key role in Welcome Back, Maple Mehta-Cohen, my recent middle-grade novel.)

I loved this series as a kid. I didn’t have any siblings close to my age, so I was a fan of “big family” novels, stories where groups of siblings go on adventures, solve mysteries, get into trouble, and generally enjoy life together. In the Boxcar Children, the four Alden kids make a home for themselves in an abandoned railroad car in the woods. The adventures abound from there.

Yes, this is a guidebook. Why do I love it so much? It’s the next best thing to actually riding a train. My bucket list of dream train rides is very long, and with two young kids, a couple of jobs, and currently an ongoing global pandemic, it’ll probably take me a while to get to all of them. Until then, I can immerse myself in the photos and descriptions in this book. 

I read Monisha Rajesh’s earlier travel memoir, Around India in 80 Trains, while planning my own train journey in India. In this one, she circumvents the entire globe (technically more than once in terms of mileage). It’s the kind of book I wish I’d written myself because I would love to do a train journey like this! I love Rajesh’s descriptions of the places she passes through and the people she meets along the way, and of course, how it changes her to see the world through this lens.