| Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage by Brian CastnerCombining history with travelogue, acclaimed writer Brian Castner engagingly describes his 1,124 mile-canoe trip across Canada, following in the wake of Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie, who, in 1789, set out to find the fabled Northwest Passage.
Is it for you? Yes, if you like books with a thoughtful guide who combines fascinating history and modern-day adventure. |
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Our towns : a 100,000-mile journey into the heart of America
by James M Fallows
"A unique, revelatory portrait of small-town America: the activities, changes, and events that shape this mostly unseen part of our national landscape, and the issues and concerns that matter to the ordinary Americans who make these towns their home."
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Time pieces : a Dublin memoir
by John Banville
The 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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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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Tampa Bay in history : a guide
by Rodney P Carlisle
This guide to sites in the Tampa Bay Region, presents the sites in historical/chronological order: from pre-Columbian Native American cultures, through Spanish exploration, American settlement, Seminole Wars, the Civil War, growth with railroads, cigars, and sponges, through the Spanish American War and major developments of the 20th and early 21st centuries.
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| The Monk of Mokha by Dave EggersMokhtar Alkhanshali, who grew up in San Francisco's notorious Tenderloin district, lived with his grandparents in Yemen for a while as a teen, and then moved back to the U.S. and made a career in his twenties importing Yemeni coffee. Then, a 2015 civil war left Mokhtar stranded in Yemen, trying to get home via any path he could.
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| Dressed Up for a Riot: Misadventures in Putin's Moscow by Michael IdovA witty, pop culture-infused look at modern Russia. Recounting his experiences as editor-in-chief of Russian GQ from 2012-2014 and as a successful screenwriter, American Michael Idov also describes moving his young family to Moscow, hanging with the media and cultural elite, and watching freedoms fade under Putin.
Idov grew up in a Jewish family in Soviet Latvia until age 16, giving him a unique and insightful perspective.
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| The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light by Paul BogardAn engaging, eye-opening look at the importance of night-time darkness. Author Paul Bogard travels the world -- Paris, Walden Pond, Quebec, various national parks across the globe, and other locations -- exploring varying degrees of darkness and light pollution and how that affects what people see (or don't see) in the night sky.
Did you know? The brightest beam of light on Earth is at the top of the Luxor pyramid in Las Vegas. |
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Journeys Through Paradise : Pioneering Naturalists in the Southeast
by Gail Fishman
Following the original steps of pioneering naturalists, Gail Fishman profiles thirteen men who explored North America's southeastern wilderness between 1715 and the 1940s, including John James Audubon, Mark Catesby, john and William Bartram, John Muir, and Alvan Wentworth Chapman. The book is also Fishman's personal travelogue as she experiences the landscape through their eyes and describes the changes that have occurred along the region's trails and streams.
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| On Trails: An Exploration by Robert MoorWhile thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, journalist Robert Moor pondered the history and purpose of trails, planting the seed for this fascinating, elegantly written examination of why we walk where we do.
Letting his curiosity lead him around the world (from Maine to Morocco and beyond), Moor talks to historians, Native Americans, scientists, and others while quoting everyone from Wendell Berry to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Fans of Robert Macfarlane will especially enjoy this wide-ranging (literarily and figuratively) debut. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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