Airplane Mode

nimbly demonstrates how 'the more we dig into the history of modern tourism, the more the pickax hits the underground cable connection with colonialism.' Jet-setters will be captivated and challenged." Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Habib s analytical tour of travel s history invites readers to engage more thoughtfully with their journeys and to consider who is and is not able to take part in these adventures." Carla Jean Whitley, BookPage

"A timely reframing of what it means to travel." Alan Moores, Booklist

"A wide-ranging, politically acute inquiry into the history of travel and tourism . . . Enlightening and entertaining." Kirkus Reviews

"This work shows that militourism, colonialism, capitalism, and climate change shape how and where people travel. With a sharp wit, the book unearths travel truths with a humorous bent that delivers several laugh out loud moments . . . Fans of travel writing, history, and travel writing itself will find this quick read a delightful, eye-opening one that fuels more insatiable wanderlust." Holly Hebert, Library Journal

"Shahnaz Habib has written a travel book like few others, weaving her strong opinions about tourism s consumerism, environmental degradation and condescension into a memoir of her own travels. Alternately jolting and insightful, Airplane Mode raises many critical questions about how and why we travel." Elizabeth Becker, author of Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism

"I read Airplane Mode while traveling for work and was thrilled to find it reignited my love for travel memoirs. In interweaving the personal and political stakes of traveling as a migrant, Habib gives us an urgently needed reimagining of the genre." Jessica J. Lee, author of Two Trees Make a Forest

"Airplane Mode is a captivating and comprehensive history of travel. Part cultural study and part personal account, it engages with the troubling legacy of colonialism and the particular experiences of brown and Black people traveling. I know of no other book like it, a thrilling read that feels like a whole education in the history of why and how bodies moved across this not-so-lonely planet." Kazim Ali, author of Northern Light

"Nuanced and thought-provoking, Airplane Mode is an exemplary piece of work that asks important questions about our current concept of 'travel writing.' Shahnaz Habib expertly blends personal anecdotes with external research to interrogate typically romanticized ideas of travel and immigration, and how our personal definitions of those subjects change depending on, amongst other factors, the passports we are born holding. I will be recommending this book to anyone I know who's ever set foot on a plane, in another country, or has dreamt of a life of 'traveling' so essentially, everybody." Pyae Moe Thet War, author of You've Changed

"Shahnaz Habib s Airplane Mode incisively explores, and exposes, the assumptions and prejudices that underpin so much of documentary and travel writing. This elegantly written, erudite collection acts not only as a much-needed corrective but as an exemplar of what the travel essay can truly accomplish." Hasanthika Sirisena, author of Dark Tourist

"A fascinating, wide-ranging and insightful travelogue that poses some of the biggest questions of all: who gets to travel and what is it that makes us so keen to travel in the first place?" Annabel Abbs, author of Windswept