front cover of Getting Away from It All
Getting Away from It All
Vacations and Identity
Karen Stein
Temple University Press, 2019

Vacations are a delimited period during which social rules and responsibilities are eased, removed, or shifted, and people have increased autonomy over what they choose to do. Recent trends in the travel industry emphasize the appeal of vacations for voluntary identity changes—when bankers can become bikers for a week or when “Momcations” allow mothers to leave their families behind. But how do our vacations allow us to shape our identity?

Getting Away from It All is a study of individuality and flexibility and the intersection of self-definition and social constraint. Karen Stein interviews vacationers about their travels and down time, focusing on “identity transitions.” She shows how objects, settings, temporal environments and social interactions limit or facilitate identity shifts, and how we arrange our vacations to achieve the shifts we desire. Stein also looks at the behavior, values, attitudes, and worldview of individuals to illuminate how people engage in either identity work or identity play.

Vacations say a lot about individuals. They signal class and economic standing and reveal aspirations and goals. Getting Away from It All insists that vacations are about more than just taking time off to relax and rejuvenate—they are about having some time to work on the person one wants to be.

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front cover of Grace Above All
Grace Above All
Jane St. Anthony
University of Minnesota Press, 2015

Thirteen-year-old Grace is not looking forward to her summer vacation. She’ll have to fend for herself and take care of her siblings while her mom smokes the day away in the back bedroom of the cabin. But when an unexpected companion shows up in the middle of a crisis, she gains hope that maybe the summer won’t be a disaster after all. In Grace Above All, readers will experience a young summer romance and join Grace in gaining a newfound appreciation of family.


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