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Armchair Travel August 2019
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| The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution by Peter HesslerWhat it is: A keenly observed look at Egypt during and after the Arab Spring through the lens of both the past and the present featuring can't-miss interactions with a wide variety of people, including a thoughtful garbage collector and a gay translator.
About the author: Between 2011-2016, The New Yorker journalist Peter Hessler lived in Egypt with his wife and young twin daughters and learned Egyptian Arabic. Hessler has also lived in China and written several acclaimed books about the country, including River Town. |
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| A Dog Named Beautiful: A Marine, a Dog, and a Long Road Trip Home by Rob KuglerStarring: Rob Kugler, a Marine veteran and photographer, and Bella, the sweet chocolate lab who was by his side when he returned home from war and dealt with the loss of his brother, who died fighting in Iraq.
What it's about: their poignant road trip around the U.S. after Bella was diagnosed with incurable cancer, as well as Rob's thoughts about purpose and life and his memories of the military and his family.
Will I need a hanky? Probably -- but you'll have some laughs too! |
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Why travel matters : a guide to the life-changing effects of travel
by Craig Storti
What it's about: Explores the profound life lessons that await anyone who wishes to learn what travel has to teach.
What you'll find inside: Craig Storti infuses his own experiences traveling the world for 30+ years with quotations, insights, reflections and commentary from famous travelers, great travel writers, historians and literary masters.
Gemstones: Storti's vast knowledge of the literature makes him an expert curator of astute gems from the likes of: St. Augustine, MarkTwain, Somerset Maugham, D. H. Lawrence, Bruce Chatwin, Aldous Huxley, and more.
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| Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick... by William CarlsenWhat it's about: Author William Carlsen explored the Yucatan jungle, retracing the steps of U.S. ambassador to Central America John L. Stephens and British architect Frederick Catherwood, who, in 1839, uncovered amazing 2,000-year-old Mayan ruins that forced a rethinking of recorded history.
Don't miss: how Carlsen skillfully brings Stephens' and Catherwood's personalities to life while recounting their adventures. |
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Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road
by Kate Harris
Starring: An Oxford-trained scientist who presents an evocative travelogue and memoir of her journey by bicycle along the Silk Road.
Why you'll love it: This book explores the nature of limits and the wildness of the self that, like our planet, can never be fully mapped. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, it celebrates our connection as humans to the natural world, and ultimately to each other--a belonging that transcends any fences or stories that may divide us.
For fans of: The Places in Between by Rory Stewart and Into the Silence by Wade Davis
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| Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon KrakauerWhat it's about: Researching the commercialization of Mt. Everest in 1996, Jon Krakauer set out with a guide and other groups to trek to the summit. When a snowstorm hit, several people died, including two of the best mountaineers in the world.
What it is: a harrowing and evocative firsthand account of the events.
Read this next: The Climb, by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt, which offers a competing viewpoint of the tragedy; or the soon-to-be-released essay collection Classic Krakauer, out in October. |
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| Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert KursonStarring: dedicated treasure hunters John Mattera and John Chatterton as well as legendary technology-averse hunter Tracy Bowden.
What happens: Author Robert Kurson (whose Shadow Divers also features Chatterton) compellingly traces the men's high-stakes quest to find the Golden Fleece, a sunken ship that once belonged to notorious English sea captain-turned-pirate Joseph Bannister.
For fans of: Stephan Talty's Empire of Blue Water, pirates, nautical history, and swashbuckling tales of derring-do. |
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| In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton SidesWhat it's about: The ill-fated 1879 expedition of the USS Jeannette, led by U.S. naval officer and explorer George Washington De Long, who was looking for a passage to the North Pole via the Bering Strait.
What's inside: A dramatic account -- informed by letters, diaries, expedition records, and news reports -- of what happened when the ship became trapped in pack ice for two years.
Read this next: Paul Watson's Ice Ghosts, which details the history of and contemporary search for shipwrecks from an 1845 Arctic expedition. |
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The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
What it's about: This brilliant novel with universal resonance tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst.
Starring: One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni's Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims.
Why you'll love it: Galloway takes an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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