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"'You know, I had a lot of romantic notions about the jungle and this kind of finished that.'" ~ from David Grann's The Lost City of Z Welcome to June`s Next Reads Newsletter
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| The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria by Janine di GiovanniRight now, Syria isn't so much a place that people jet off to as it is a place they escape from. Even so, armchair travelers can visit via award-winning foreign correspondent Janine di Giovanni's latest book. Taking readers on an eye-opening journey to the troubled country ruled by a dictator and riven by civil war, di Giovanni describes the brutality of post-Arab Spring life here. Having been based in the Middle East for over two decades, she knows Syria and evocatively shows it to readers through the stories of everyday people, including doctors, nuns, activists, a baker, a musician, and a student. A "brilliant, necessary book" says Kirkus Reviews. |
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A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir
by Lev Golinkin
In this eye-opening and affecting debut, author Lev Golinkin recounts his Jewish family's desperate flight from Soviet Ukraine in the late 1980s, when he was only nine years old. He also explores what it was like growing up as a Jew in the Soviet Union (where religion was forbidden) and discusses his personal quest, years later, to retrace his family's journey from the Soviet Union through Austria and eventually to the United States, in order to thank the strangers who helped them -- and to come to terms with his past. This "hilarious and heartbreaking" (New York Times) memoir is one that readers won't soon forget.
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| Only in Naples: Lessons in Food and Famiglia from My Italian Mother-in-Law by Katherine WilsonAfter graduating from college, well-to-do Katherine Wilson left Washington, D.C. and headed to Naples, Italy for an unpaid internship at the American Consul. Though Naples was considered "dirty and dangerous" by her friends and family, she discovered that people either loved or hated the city, and she loved it. Not only did she learn to eat better (she'd been a binge eater), but she was embraced by an Italian family and their chic, well-connected matriarch, Raffaella, who taught Wilson about Neapolitan culture and how to cook delicious local foods -- and eventually lessons about marriage and motherhood when Wilson married her son. This lighthearted, charming look at Italian life includes recipes. |
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Brazil hosts the 2016 Summer Olympic games from August 5 to August 21, and since there are several fascinating books about the Brazilian jungle, we highlighted a few here. If you want a book about the host city, Rio de Janeiro, pick up Juliana Barbassa's excellent Dancing with the Devil in the City of God.
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| Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg GrandinAutomobile manufacturer Henry Ford wanted to secure a rubber supply for tire production, so in 1928 he decided to establish his own rubber plantation with a model factory town for his workers -- in the heart of the Amazonian rain forest. Author Greg Grandin recounts the bizarre true story of Ford's high-minded, utterly wrong-headed efforts to establish small-town America in a hostile jungle environment. From his failure to consult botanists on how rubber trees should be cultivated to his mistaken expectations that indigenous Brazilians would welcome a 20th-century North American lifestyle, this compelling narrative demonstrates that Ford's visionary ambition and arrogant folly were two sides of the same coin. |
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| The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David GrannIn 1925, famed British explorer Percy Fawcett voyaged up the Amazon in search of a city he called "Z" and others call El Dorado. Although Fawcett was a seasoned adventurer, he and his two companions (including his 21-year-old son, Jack) were never seen again. Decades later, journalist David Grann learned about the headline-making disappearance and joined the ranks of those who've attempted to learn what happened to Fawcett -- several of whom have lost their lives in the process. An account of Grann's modern-day foray into the jungle is interwoven with details about Fawcett's adventures, which are based on the explorer's diaries, letters, and other accounts. Featuring blow-darts, giant snakes, and hostile locals, this gripping narrative reads "with all the pace and excitement of a movie thriller" (The New York Times), and, indeed, a film based on the book comes out later this year. |
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| Walking the Amazon: 860 Days. One Step at a Time. by Ed StaffordImagine walking 4,000 miles across South America over the course of two years. That's just what former British Army Captain Ed Stafford did between April 2008 and August 2010 in his quest to be the first person to walk the entire length of the Amazon River, from the Pacific coast of Peru, through Colombia, and on to Brazil's Atlantic coast. In this "gripping celebration of physical and mental endurance" (Kirkus Reviews), Stafford provides details about the trip's hardships and dangers (boredom, jaguars, flooding, snakes, etc.), the people he meets (armed natives, his long-term walking partner), and deforestation. Though Stafford's a more experienced outdoorsman than David Gran (The Lost City of Z) or Mark Adams (Turn Right at Machu Picchu), all three authors are appealing guides who offer a fresh look at modern South American exploration. |
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| The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes by Scott WallaceIn order to protect the last uncontacted tribes of indigenous peoples, a group went in search of them. In 2002, National Geographic writer Scott Wallace joined the 30+ person team led by charismatic explorer Sydney Possuelo, director of Brazil's Department of Isolated Indians, and traveled deep into the Upper Amazon. Hoping to find evidence that the "People of the Arrow," a group of deft archers, were well, the middle-aged Wallace and his teammates spent three months on the harrowing journey, dealing with biting insects, deadly jaguars, and trouble among team members. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Lambton County Library 787 Broadway St. Wyoming, Ontario N0N1T0 519-845-3324www.lclibrary.ca |
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