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Armchair Travel August 2018
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Time Pieces : A Dublin Memoir by John BanvilleThe award-winning author of the Benjamin Black series presents a vibrant, evocative memoir of his life near Dublin, a city that inspired his imagination and literary life and served as a backdrop for the dissatisfactions of adult years shaped by Dublin's cultural, political, architectural and social history.
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| The Debatable Land: The Lost World Between Scotland & England by Graham RobbWhat it's about: With bicycles in tow, Graham Robb and his wife moved to a house situated on part of the 33,000-acre area on the border of England and Scotland known as the "debatable land." Intrigued by his new region, Robb cycled around, dug into the area's history (finding thieves, cattle, King Arthur, and more), met local people, and discovered intriguing historical documents and maps.
For fans of: thoughtful, well-researched travel books, like Rory Stewart's The Marches, which also looks at the Scotland-England border region. |
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God Save Texas : A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State
by Lawrence Wright
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower explores the history, culture and politics of Texas while challenging popular stereotypes, offering insight into how the state boasts some of the highest rates of diversity, technology exports and growth as well as the lowest tax models and government regulations
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| River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter HesslerWhat it's about: Peace Corps volunteer teacher Peter Hessler arrived in the remote town of Fuling in China's Sichuan province in 1996, where he was one of two foreigners.
Why you might like it: Hessler intelligently and evocatively describes his experiences with an unfamiliar people, culture, and landscape, as well as bigger events (Hong Kong reverting to China, construction of the Three Gorges Dam, and the death of Deng Xiaoping).
Try this next: For other young Americans' experiences in China, pick up Michael Meyer's The Road to Sleeping Dragon or John Pomfret's Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China. |
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| An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel MendelsohnWhat it's about: Daniel Mendelsohn taught a course on Homer's The Odyssey at Bard College -- and his 81-year-old mathematician father took it (and didn't think Odysseus was such a hero). Afterwards, the two took a ten-day Mediterranean cruise retracing Odysseus's voyage.
Read it for: the engaging combination of memoir, travelogue, and literary guide that coalesces into a poignant look at fathers and sons.
Reviewers say: "sharply intelligent and deeply felt" (Kirkus Reviews); "a small gem of seminar-room slapstick" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar NafisiStarring: Azar Nafisi, who left Iran at 13 to study overseas and returned home with a Ph.D years later to a changing land where religious fundamentalists ruled and women now had to wear head scarves.
What it's about: Leaving college instruction in 1995, Nafisi secretly taught banned Western Literature (Lolita, The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, and more) to a group of seven young women for two years.
For fans of: classic novels, Iranian history, and thought-provoking, moving memoirs. |
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| Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy WickendenWhat it's about: In 1916, two well-to-do best friends, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, left their homes in Auburn, New York, to teach school in the remote settlement of Elkhead on the Colorado frontier.
About the author: Dorothy Wickenden is the executive editor of The New Yorker and the granddaughter of Dorothy Woodruff; she used letters, conducted interviews, and read newspaper articles to inform this fresh, fascinating fish-out-of-water tale. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Forsyth County Public Library 660 West Fifth Street Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27101 336-703-2665www.forsythlibrary.org |
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