| The Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta by Kushanava ChoudhuryWhat it's about: After graduating from Princeton, Kushanava Choudhury left his immigrant parents in New Jersey and returned to Calcutta, India, where'd he spent a portion of his youth, to work at the Statesman newspaper and explore the teeming, complex city.
For fans of: Eloquently combining travelogue, memoir, and history, The Epic City will be appreciated by fans of Suketu Mehta's Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. |
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| Following Fifi: My Adventures Among Wild Chimpanzees by John Crocker; foreword by Jane GoodallFeaturing: fascinating wild chimpanzees; primatologist Jane Goodall (who's justifiably famous for studying them in Gombe forest in Tanzania); and author John Crocker (who, as a premed student, spent eight months working with Goodall, observing mother chimpanzees).
What it's about: Not only does Crocker describe his 1973 visit, but also a return trip with his teenage son years later. Crocker also explains how his field work helped make him a better father and physician.
Look for: Those interested in Goodall will be interested in the recent National Geographic documentary, Jane. |
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| The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah: Fear and Love in the Modern Middle East by Adam Valen LevinsonWhat it's about: Hoping to address his post-9/11 fears, a Jewish American man armed with college Arabic skills took a job in Abu Dhabi and visited over 20 Middle-Eastern countries, including Iraq, Iran, and Egypt.
Who it's for: those who appreciate curious, funny, introspective travelers.
Further reading: Want another amusing, Arabic-centric travelogue? Try Zora O'Neill's All Strangers Are Kin. |
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An odyssey : a father, a son, and an epic
by Daniel Adam Mendelsohn
The best-selling author of The Lost presents the story of a father and son's transformative shared journey in reading in the wake of the father's late-in-life enrollment in his son's undergraduate seminar, where the two engaged in debates over how to interpret Homer's classic masterpiece.
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The Orchid Hunter : A Young Botanist's Search for Happiness
by Leif Bersweden
In the summer after leaving school, a young botanist sets out to fulfil a childhood dream to find every species of orchid native to the British Isles. He has just a few months to complete his quest no one has ever done it before within one growing season and it will require ingenuity, stamina and a large dose of luck. Like Two Owls at Eton and My Family and Other Animals, The Orchid Hunter is a charming account of a precocious adolescent's obsession with the natural world. As he battles the vagaries of the British climate in his clapped-out car, feverishly chasing each emerging bloom, Leif Bersweden takes the reader on a remarkable botanical journey.
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Sad Topographies
by Damien Rudd
Sad Topographies is an illustrated guide for the melancholic among us. Dispirited travellers rejoice as Damien Rudd journeys across continents in search of the world's most joyless place names and their fascinating etymologies. Behind each lugubrious place name exists a story, a richly interwoven narrative of mythology, history, landscape, misadventure and tragedy. From Disappointment Island in the Southern Ocean to Misery in Germany, across to Lonely Island in Russia, or, if you're feeling more intrepid, pay a visit to Mount Hopeless in Australia - all from the comfort of your armchair.
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The Hippie Trail : A History
by Sharif Gemie
This is the first history of the Hippie Trail. It records the joys and pains of budget travel to Kathmandu, India, Afghanistan and other 'points east' in the 1960s and 1970s. Written in a clear, simple style, it provides detailed analysis of the motivations and the experiences of hundreds of thousands of hippies who travelled eastwards. The book is structured around four key debates: were the travellers simply motivated by a search for drugs? Did they encounter love or sexual freedom on the road? Were they basically just tourists? Did they resemble pilgrims? It also considers how the travellers have been represented in films, novels and autobiographical accounts, and will appeal to those interested in the Trail or the 1960s counterculture, as well as students taking courses relating to the 1960s.
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| A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill BrysonWhat it's about: American travel writer Bill Bryson, who'd been living in England for years, set out to hike the Appalachian Trail with an old friend. The two out-of-shape 40-somethings thought they'd walk the entire 2,100 miles to Maine before winter -- but reality soon hit. Nature descriptions and a history of the storied trail combine with the pair's amusing experiences and their encounters with other hikers.
The movie: In 2015, Robert Redford and Nick Nolte dramatized the duo's nature adventure on the big screen. |
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Tracks : A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback
by Robyn Davidson
'I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back.' So begins Robyn Davidson's perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company. Enduring sweltering heat, fending off poisonous snakes and lecherous men, chasing her camels when they get skittish and nursing them when they are injured, Davidson emerges as an extraordinarily courageous heroine driven by a love of Australia's landscape, an empathy for its indigenous people, and a willingness to cast away the trappings of her former identity.
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| Into the Wild by Jon KrakauerWhat it's about: Bestselling author Jon Krakauer pieces together the dramatic -- and tragic -- story of Chris McCandless, an intelligent young man who embarked on a solo journey into the wilds of Alaska with no map and virtually no supplies.
The movie: Originally published in 1996, Into the Wild was adapted as a film in 2007 by Sean Penn and starred Emile Hirsch; Chris' sister, Carine McCandless, consulted on the movie and later wrote a book, The Wild Truth, about her and her brother's abusive childhood. |
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Seven years in Tibet
by Heinrich Harrer
In this vivid memoir Heinrich Harrer recounts his adventures as one of the first Europeans ever to enter Tibet. Harrer was traveling in India when the Second World War erupted. He was subsequently seized and imprisoned by British authorities. After several attempts, he escaped and crossed the rugged, frozen Himalayas, surviving by duping government officials and depending on the generosity of villagers for food and shelter.Harrer finally reached his ultimate destination-the Forbidden City of Lhasa-without money, or permission to be in Tibet. But Tibetan hospitality and his own curious appearance worked in Harrer's favour, allowing him unprecedented acceptance among the upper classes. His intelligence and European ways also intrigued the young Dalai Lama, and Harrer soon became His Holiness's tutor and trusted confidant. When the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, Harrer and the Dalai Lama fled the country together.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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