Yolo County Library
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Armchair TravelFebruary 2015
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"The books were the background of my little world, and seeing them carted away by friends and relatives was like watching someone dismantle the sky." ~ from Lev Golinkin's A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka
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New and Recently Released!
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| A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir by Lev GolinkinIn 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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| Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble by Marilyn JohnsonIf Indiana Jones is the only archaeologist you know, prepare to be enlightened -- and to have a good time. Like bestselling author Mary Roach, Marilyn Johnson writes astute, entertaining books about intriguing subcultures. In Lives in Ruins, she takes on archaeology, a field many of us have just a surface understanding of. Traveling to diverse locales, including the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, Peru's Machu Picchu, and the Mediterranean, Johnson attends field-training school, goes to numerous field sites (including an underwater one), talks with dozens of people (including many contemporary archaeologists), and shares what she's unearthed in this "delectable" (Salon) book. |
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Imperial dreams : tracking the imperial woodpecker through the wild Sierra Madre
by Tim Gallagher
The respected naturalist and editor-in-chief of Living Bird recounts his dangerous quest to locate the believed-extinct Imperial Woodpecker in Sierra Madre, offering insight into the region's history and current subjectivity to violent drug cartels while describing the increasingly dangerous elements he encountered.
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Naked and marooned : one man, one island
by Ed Stafford
Determined to beat his Guinness World Record for walking the length of the Amazon River, a retired British Army captain and adventurer maroons himself on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific for 60 days with no food, water or clothing where he pushes himself to the outer limits to survive. By the author of Walking the Amazon. Original. 50,000 first printing.
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Books You May Have Missed
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| Wish You Happy Forever: What China's Orphans Taught Me About... by Jenny BowenWhat could a Hollywood screenwriter/independent filmmaker who spoke no Mandarin possibly do to help China's thousands of orphans? Plenty, as it turned out. In 1997, Jenny Bowen and her husband had adopted a two-year-old Chinese daughter; sick and emotionally distant at first, the girl was the picture of health and happiness a year later. Seeing what love and attention did for her own child, Bowen immediately set out to transform China's entire orphanage system by starting the Half the Sky Foundation -- and she's succeeded. Detailing her perseverance and unwavering commitment to her cause, this emotional book, like Conor Grennan's Little Princes, shows that one person can make a difference in the lives of children, even if they live halfway around the world. |
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Life Is a Wheel: Love, Death, Etc., and a Bike Ride Across America
by Bruce Weber
After turning 57, entertaining author Bruce Weber decided to bike the United States from coast to coast...again. Having already made the journey back in 1993 when he was 39, he set out for the second time in 2011. Based on the author's popular New York Times series about his adventure, Life Is a Wheel chronicles Weber's ups and downs, both literal and figurative, as he discusses the physical path he is traveling as well as his thoughts and emotions about life. Anyone approaching late-middle age will certainly appreciate Weber's insights, and fans of Bill Bryson's books will appreciate Weber's witty way with words.
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| Indonesia Etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation by Elizabeth PisaniThough many people know little about it, Indonesia is actually the fourth most populous country on Earth (only China, India, and the United States have more citizens). It’s also incredibly diverse: more than 360 ethnic groups speaking 719 languages live across 13,466 distinct islands. To paint a loving portrait of this varied land and its hospitable people, including soldiers, nurses, priests, and farmers, genial author Elizabeth Pisani visited as many out-of-the-way places she could, traveling mostly by boats and rickety buses. The result is this delightful travelogue, which, in a review for the Wall Street Journal, bestselling author Simon Winchester calls "one of the very best travel books I have read." |
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The broken road : from the Iron Gates to Mount Athos
by Patrick Leigh Fermor, Colin Thubron, Artemis Cooper, Patrick Leigh Fermor and Patrick Leigh Fermor
A prize-winning biographer pieces together the unfinished manuscript of the last leg of the trip taken by Patrick Leigh Fermor as he traveled on foot across Europe in 1933, completing the trilogy that began with A Time of Gifts.
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| The Nile: A Journey Downriver Through Egypt's Past and Present by Toby WilkinsonRenowned Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson uses his travels in and around the Nile River to vividly describe Egypt's long history. The river has played a central and necessary role in Egyptian life for millennia, creating land fit for agriculture as well as moving goods and people. In following its path from Aswan to Cairo, Wilkinson shares fascinating histories and details about ancient life, historical peoples and their gods, and much more. And in addition to illuminating the past, he discusses contemporary Egypt, including the start of the Arab Spring in Cairo. This rich, engaging narrative will captivate anyone interested in the Nile or in understanding Egypt. |
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| A Window on Eternity: A Biologist's Walk Through Gorongosa National Park by Edward O. Wilson; photographs by Piotr NaskreckiJoining forces with nature photographer Piotr Naskrecki, biologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Edward O. Wilson takes readers on a lavishly illustrated tour of Mozambique's 1,500 square mile Gorongosa National Park, documenting the region's natural history as well as the devastation wrought by a 16-year civil war that destroyed much of the park's biodiversity -- including 90 percent of its megafauna. Wilson also describes Gorongosa's gradual rebirth, a collaborative effort between scientists and philanthropists whose goal to restore the area to its former glory proceeds at a slow but steady pace. For a moving, yet ultimately hopeful story of conservation against the backdrop of one of the world's most beautiful and valuable ecological treasures, don't miss A Window on Eternity. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Yolo County Library
226 Buckeye St. Woodland, California 95695 530-666-8005
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