| See You Again in Pyongyang: A Journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea by Travis JeppesenWhat it is: an intriguing look at North Korea by writer and artist Travis Jeppesen, who was the first American allowed to study there, taking part in a month-long language program. Commenting on history, art, tourist attractions, popular culture, the constant surveillance, and more, Jeppesen provides a new look at this headline-making, closed-off land.
Try this next: journalist Suki Kim's Without You, There Is No Us (about her short stint teaching the sons of the country's elite), or a North Korean defector memoir, like Hyeonseo Lee's The Girl with Seven Names. |
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| My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections on Then and Now by Peter MayleWhat it is: the final charming travelogue by beloved British purveyor of Provençal life Peter Mayle, who died earlier this year.
For fans of: Provence, Peter Mayle's earlier atmospheric books, "ex-pats in foreign lands" stories, and travelogues overflowing with cafes and mouthwatering meals.
Try this next: David McAninch's Duck Season, about his family's year in Gascony, or if you like mystery novels, grab Martin Walker's evocative Bruno, Chief of Police novels, set in a French village. |
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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into the area's history (finding thieves, cattle, King Arthur, and more), met local people, and discovered intriguing historical documents and maps.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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| Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North by Adam WeymouthWhat it is: Adam Weymouth's lyrical look at his four-month, 2,000 mile trip down the Yukon River via canoe, following the path of migrating king salmon. As he traveled across Canada and Alaska, he visited indigenous peoples and river communities, met Alaskan reality TV stars, learned about salmon, and pondered people's relationships with nature.
For fans of: Brian Castner's Disappointment River or Mark Adams' Tip of the Iceberg. |
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Danger music
by Eddie Ayres
From the former ABC Classic FM classicist comes a remarkable story about the power of music and courage to be one's self. Eddie Ayres has a lifetime of musical experience - from learning the viola as a child in England and playing with the Hong Kong Philharmonic for many years, to learning the cello in his thirties and landing in Australia to present an extremely successful ABC Classic FM morning radio show. But all of this time Eddie was Emma Ayres. In 2014 Emma was spiralling into a deep depression, driven by anguish about her gender. She quit the radio, travelled, and decided on a surprising path to salvation - teaching music in a war zone. Emma applied for a position at Dr Sarmast's renowned Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul, teaching cello to orphans and street kids. In Danger Music, Eddie takes us through the bombing and chaos of Kabul, into the lives of the Afghan children who are transported by Bach, Abba, Beethoven and their own exhilarating Afghan music. Book Annotation
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| Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar NafisiAzar Nafisi 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. 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. |
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| River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter HesslerPeace 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. He 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). |
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Not quite paradise : an American sojourn in Sri Lanka by Adele Marie Barker'Anyone going to Sri Lanka should consider Adele Barker's Not Quite Paradise essential reading. Even travelers headed to other parts of the globe—or those going no farther than their own living room—will find this story of an American woman thoughtfully wending her way through the complexities of another country's culture and history fascinating.' —Kristin Ohlson, author of Stalking the Divine and co-author of Kabul Beauty School
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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