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Armchair Travel December 2018
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| We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time by José Andrés with Richard WolffeWhat happened: Four days after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, acclaimed Spanish American chef José Andrés went to there to feed the hungry, fighting red tape and a broken system to do so.
Why you should read it: It offers a moving, eye-opening look at a part of the United States that's often forgotten and a portrait of a tourist destination in crisis.
Author buzz: Andrés is a James Beard Award winner, a Michelin-starred chef, and founder of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit fighting hunger. |
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City of light : the transformation of Paris
by Rupert Christiansen
"In 1853 the French emperor Louis Napoleon inaugurated a vast and ambitious program of public works, directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine. Haussmann's renovation of Paris would transform the old medieval city of squalid slums and disease-ridden alleyways into a "City of Light" characterized by wide boulevards, apartment blocks, parks, squares and public monuments, new railway stations and department stores, and a new system of public sanitation. City of Light charts this fifteen-year project of urban renewal which-despite the interruptions of war, revolution, corruption, and bankruptcy-set a template for nineteenth and early twentieth-century urban planning and created the enduring landscape of modern Paris now so famous aroundthe globe. A lively and engaging read, City of Light is a book for anyone who wants to know how Paris became Paris"
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The white darkness
by David Grann
The #1 New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon traces the South Pole expedition of a decorated British special forces officer, an admirer and descendant of Ernest Shackleton's expedition, who in 2015 risked his life to walk across Antarctica alone.
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To Shake the Sleeping Self : A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life With No Regret
by Jedidiah Jenkins
On the eve of turning thirty, terrified of being funneled into a life he didn't choose, Jedidiah Jenkins quit his dream job and spent the next sixteen months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. He chronicled the trip on Instagram, where his photos and profound reflections on life soon attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and got him featured by National Geographic and The Paris Review.
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Arctic Adventure & Exploration |
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The Stowaway : A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica
by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
What it is: The spectacular, true story of a scrappy teenager from New York’s Lower East Side who stowed away on the Roaring Twenties’ most remarkable feat of science and daring: an expedition to Antarctica.
What it's about: The night before the expedition’s flagship set off, Billy Gawronski—a mischievous, first-generation New York City high schooler desperate to escape a dreary future in the family upholstery business—jumped into the Hudson River and snuck aboard.
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The ice balloon : S.A. Andrée and the heroic age of arctic exploration
by Alec Wilkinson
Documents the dramatic 1897 flight of a visionary Swedish explorer who attempted to discover the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon, placing his story against a backdrop of period exploration and scientific discovery while describing the formidable environmental conditions that challenged his efforts.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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