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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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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. In this unflinchingly honest memoir, Jed narrates the adventure that started it all: the people and places he encountered on his way to the bottom of the world, and the internal journey that prompted it. As he traverses cities, mountains, and inner boundaries, Jenkins grapples with the questions of what it means to be an adult, his struggle to reconcile his sexual identity with his conservative Christian upbringing, and his belief in travel as a way to "wake us up" to life back home.
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| Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are by John KaagWhat it is: a combination of an accessible introduction to Friedrich Nietzsche and a contemplative travel memoir that traces John Kaag's travels following Nietzsche's footsteps in the Swiss Alps, both at age 19 and then 17 years later with his family in tow.
Want a taste? "At nineteen, on the summit of Corvatsch, I had no idea how dull the world could sometimes be." |
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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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Love and Marriage...and Travel
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| When in French: Love in a Second Language by Lauren CollinsWhat happened: Lauren Collins, an American New Yorker writer living in London, fell in love and married a Frenchman, moving to Geneva, Switzerland to be with him.
What it is: a funny, full-bodied, and romantic chronicle of her amusing adventures in a new land and her attempts to communicate in a new tongue.
Reviewers say: This is "a thoughtful, beautifully written meditation on the art of language and intimacy" (The New York Times). |
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| Ruthless River: Love & Survival by Raft on the Amazon's Relentless Madre de Dios by Holly FitzGeraldWhat happened: A dream honeymoon traveling around the world turned into a nightmare for Holly FitzGerald and her new husband when their plane crashed in a South American jungle in 1973. They survived, and retrofitted a raft in order to float down the Madre de Dios river to civilization, but a storm put them off course, stalling them in swampy, piranha-infested waters.
Why you might like it: Peppered with hard-won insights about life and love, this harrowing survival tale is unputdownable. |
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| Eve of a Hundred Midnights: The Star-Crossed Love Story of Two World War II... by Bill LascherWhat it is: a swiftly paced dual biography inspired by the writings and photographs of American journalists Mel and Annalee Jacoby.
What happened: The couple married shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor and worked in China until just before the Japanese invasion (getting out in the nick of time), then moved from location to location chronicling the events of World War II.
Read it for: a timeless love story full of danger as well as fascinating depictions of the Pacific theater during the war. |
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A thousand days in Venice : an unexpected romance
by Marlena De Blasi
Fernando first sees Marlena across the Piazza San Marco and falls in love from afar. When he sees her again in a Venice café a year later, he knows it is fate. He knows little English; she, a divorced American chef traveling through Italy, speaks only food-based Italian. Marlena thought she was done with romantic love, incapable of intimacy. Yet within months of their first meeting, she has quit her job, sold her house in St. Louis, kissed her two grown sons good-bye, and moved to Venice to marry “the stranger,” as she calls Fernando. This deliciously satisfying memoir is filled with the foods and flavors of Italy and peppered with culinary observations and recipes. But the main course here is an enchanting true story about a woman who falls in love with both a man and a city, and finally finds the home she didn’t even know she was missing.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Newmarket Public Library 438 Park Ave. Newmarket, Ontario L3Y1W1 905-953-5110www.newmarketpl.ca |
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