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Armchair Travel February 2019
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| This is Cuba: An American Journalist Under Castro's Shadow by David AriostoWhat happened: In 2009, photojournalist David Ariosto headed to Cuba, where he worked for nearly two years, confronted by the harsh realities of daily life in Fidel Castro's country. He also returned many times afterwards to cover Castro's death, sonic attacks, political transitions, and more.
What it is: a clear-eyed, eloquent mix of memoir and history.
Read this next: Sarah Rainsford's Our Woman in Havana or Mark Kurlansky's Havana. |
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| The Last Whalers: Three Years in the Far Pacific With a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing... by Doug Bock ClarkWhat it is: An eye-opening, lyrical account of Doug Bock Clark's immersive visits over many years to a remote Indonesian island. There, many indigenous Lamaleran live as they have for centuries, but their traditional way of life is threatened as the modern world encroaches.
Want a taste? "As the six impromptu crews chased after the white spouts contrasting against the dark waves and stormy sky, they sang."
Did you know? Aboriginal subsistence hunts are allowed by the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. |
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| Sicilian Splendors: Discovering the Secret Places That Speak to the Heart by John KeaheyWhat it is: a charming, evocative look at Sicily by astute travel writer John Keahey, who immersed himself in the food, history, and culture of the island, enjoying quaint villages and friendly people.
Reviewers say: "a wondrously joyous account of travel as it should be" (Publishers Weekly); "a must-read for everyone interested in Sicily and Mediterranean Europe" (Booklist). |
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| Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious by Seth KugelWhat it's about: Travel writer Seth Kugel encourages travelers to stop relying too heavily on technology and the travel industry and embrace discovery; he also shares amusing stories of memorable moments and misadventures of his own as well as offering budgeting tips, calculating travel risks, and exploring why we travel.
About the author: Kugel wrote The New York Times’ incredibly popular Frugal Traveler column for six years and now hosts two YouTube channels, Amigo Gringo and Globally Curious. |
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Focus on: Entertaining Essays
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All over the place : adventures in travel, true love, and petty theft
by Geraldine DeRuiter
A popular travel blogger—who has no sense of direction, near-constant motion sickness and a fear of pigeons—chronicles the riotously funny, and heartfelt, five-year period that kicked off when she got laid off from a job she loved and took off to travel the world, during which she discovered love, numerous places to call home and herself. 20,000 first printing.
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And the monkey learned nothing : dispatches from a life in transit
by Tom Lutz
"Tom Lutz is on a mission to visit every country on earth. And the Monkey Learned Nothing contains reports from fifty of them, most describing personal encounters in rarely visited spots, anecdotes from way off the beaten path. Traveling without an itinerary and without a goal, Lutz explores the Iranian love of poetry, the occupying Chinese army in Tibet, the amputee beggars in Cambodia, the hill tribes on Vietnam's Chinese border, the sociopathic monkeys of Bali, the dangerous fishermen and conmen of southern India, the salt flats of Uyumi in Peru, and floating hotels in French Guiana, introduces you to an Uzbeki prodigy in the market of Samarkand, an Azeri rental car clerk in Baku, guestworkers in Dubai, a military contractor in Jordan, and musical groups in Mozambique. With an eye out for both the sublime and the ridiculous, Lutz falls, regularly, into the instant intimacy of the road with random strangers"
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Figures in a Landscape: People & Places; Essays, 2001-2016
by Paul Theroux
What it is: a reflective, wide-ranging collection of bestselling writer Paul Theroux's recent pieces about places he's visited (Ecuador, Hawaii, Zimbabwe, Alabama, etc.) as well as essays about interesting people, including celebrities and authors (Oliver Sacks, Robin Williams, Elizabeth Taylor, Joseph Conrad, Henry David Thoreau, and more).
Is it for you? Yes, if you like erudite travel articles mixed with refreshing profiles of a variety of people.
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Sixty degrees north : around the world in search of home
by Malachy Tallack
A man explores the 60th parallel, traveling both east and west of his home in Shetland, describing the landscapes, communities and wilderness he encounters along the way through Finland, Sweden, Norway, Greenland and the southern coast of Alaska.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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