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Armchair Travel February 2017
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Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders
by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton
The world is full of the strange and curious that few know about. Well, until now. The co-founders of the collaborative website Atlas Obscura (plus one of its editors) offer a tour of 700 of the world's most unique and amazing places and things (including glowworm caves in New Zealand and a baby-jumping festival in Spain). Using short entries highlighting natural wonders, weird and magical structures, and mind-boggling events from around the globe (even Antarctica!), Atlas Obscura looks like a guide book -- but because many of the wonders aren't open to the public or are difficult to get to, and interesting bits of history and facts are included, armchair travelers should enjoy dipping into these wonder-full pages.
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| The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas PrestonThough he's probably better known as the co-author of the suspenseful Pendergast novels, Douglas Preston also writes thrilling nonfiction. In his latest real-life adventure tale, he gives us a high-octane account of his travels in Honduras' Mosquitia area, where he's part of a team looking for evidence of the fabled Ciudad Blanca (The White City) aka The Lost City of the Monkey God -- but the group has to deal with unfriendly soldiers, parasites, jaguars, snakes, insects, and more. Fans of David Grann's Lost City of Z will surely want to check out Preston's compelling latest; those who'd like more on Mosquitia can pick up William Carlsen's fascinating Jungle of Stone, where he traces the footsteps of two 19th-century explorers, who were the first Euro-Americans to find evidence of the sophisticated Mayan civilization. |
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| The Marches: A Borderland Journey between England and Scotland by Rory StewartInsightful, lyrical author Rory Stewart has written about Iraq (Prince of Marshes) and Afghanistan (The Places In Between), but his latest journey is more intimate: it's the landscape of his homeland, on the border between England and Scotland, along Hadrian's Wall, and he's walking it with his 89-year-old Scottish father. Touching on his own familial history as well as the plants, animals, conflicts, people (from Romans to modern-day locals), and more that have shaped this stunning area, Stewart, who's also a Member of Parliament, provides a thoughtful book. For another richly detailed (though more wide-ranging) walk about Great Britain that engagingly mixes history and travel, pick up Max Adams' recent In the Land of Giants. |
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Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World...
by Richard Zacks
When aging Mark Twain set out to travel the world in 1895 on what amounts to a comedy tour, he did so because he was broke. Desperately needing money to pay back his many creditors, he performed to English-speaking audiences in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Africa, and, his favorite stop, India. After the year-long tour was over, he spent an additional four years in Europe. Drawing on newspaper accounts, Twain's own journals and letters, and unpublished materials, historian Richard Zacks presents a fast-paced, humorous, and informative look at Twain's late-life adventures (including how he got into such dire financial straits to begin with).
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Best. State. Ever. A Florida Man Defends His Homeland
by Dave Barry
We've all seen the headlines: Florida Man [Does Something Bizarre]. Of late, the state has become a bit of a joke according to Dave Barry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist who's lived in Florida for decades, so he feels he needs to defend his adopted home. In this lighthearted examination of the Sunshine State, he travels to an assortment of typically Florida places that aren't as well known as Disney World, including Gatorland (reptiles!), Cassadaga (psychics!), and Weeki Wachee Springs (mermaids!), offering informative yet funny insights into Florida as a place of history and fun. Our headline? Proud Florida Man Writes Hilarious Book.
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| Champagne Baby: How One Parisian Learned to Love Wine -- and Life -- the American Way by Laure DugasThere are plenty of stories about Americans in Paris, but here's a delightful tale of a Parisian in America! In this charming version of the fish-out-of-water memoir, Laure Dugas -- a young French woman who has little interest in wine even though she hails from a family of winemakers -- is offered the chance to move to New York City to represent her uncle's company. She immediately accepts...even though she knows little English and little about wine. Learning as she goes, intrepid Laure gets acclimated (even working as a waitress for a month), explores Manhattan, travels across the United States for her job, misses her quintessentially French boyfriend, learns about herself, and develops a passion for the intricacies of wine. Open and enjoy -- santé! |
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| Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle by Mary J. MacLeodIn late 1969, Mary MacLeod and her family moved to a remote island in Scotland's Outer Hebrides in order to find a slower pace and a better life. Sharing her nostalgic, heartwarming memories of working as a district nurse and raising two children in a place where Gaelic was still the first language, peat fires warmed houses, and the sea was never out of sight, she transports readers to a different time and place and introduces them to people who feel like friends. Fans of James Herriot's memoirs or of the BBC's Call the Midwife series (which is itself based on nurse Jennifer Worth's London-based memoirs) should appreciate Call The Nurse (also known as The Island Nurse), MacLeod's first book, which was published when she was 80. |
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| Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo by Anjan SundaramWould you rather put your Yale mathematics degree to use working for Goldman Sachs or by following a new dream of being a journalist in a country few are interested in? Anjan Sundaram, who was born in India, chooses to go to the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo with pen in hand, but with no real job waiting. There, he has a bit of a baptism by fire when his cell phone is stolen, he has a cultural misunderstanding with the family he's renting a room from, and he encounters dangerous, disturbing situations even as he finally gets paid for his stories. In Stringer, Sundaram offers a beautifully written account of his coming of age as a journalist in one of the most troubled places in the world: "readers may be tempted to compare him to Conrad and Naipaul, but he has a strong, unique style all his own" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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