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Armchair Travel December 2019
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The World's Most Travelled Man : A Twenty-three-year Odyssey to and Through Every Country on the Planet
by Mike Spencer Bown
The World's Most Travelled Man is an eye-opening account of the universal human experience as seen from each corner of the changing world. Blending a romantic connection to nature through solitude and the social examination of culture, Bown fully immerses himself in each experience, however diverse, dangerous or dirty, veering way, way off the backpacker circuit to see the world through an unparalleled perspective. The World's Most Travelled Man is a journey of global proportions shared with the humility of a man who simply wants to satisfy his own curiosity and live life to the fullest.
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Summer of the horse
by Donna Kane
A deft writer, Kane takes readers on her inaugural trail ride into the stunning Muskwa-Kechika protected area, known as the “Serengeti of the North.” She rides with a pack string of horses over mountain passes, into boreal forests, along swamps and sand flats, crossing creeks and fast-flowing rivers. A novice horsewoman traversing new terrain, she is startled out of her familiar routines and must examine her assumptions of the wild, within and without, to find her place in the world. With honesty and humility, Kane reveals the folly, surprise and knowledge—of the world and of the self—that can come from setting foot in the headstrong currents of the unknown. Including striking photos of the Muskwa-Kechika and the pack string horses, the book touches on universal issues of ecological protection and individual identity. Summer of the Horse is sure to captivate readers interested in equine pursuits as well as those concerned with the ecological issues facing BC’s far north.
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Beyond the Trees : A Journey Alone Across Canada's Arctic
by Adam Shoalts
In the spring of 2017, Adam Shoalts, bestselling author and adventurer, set off on an unprecedented solo journey across North America's greatest wilderness. A place where, in our increasingly interconnected, digital world, it's still possible to wander for months without crossing a single road, or even see another human being.....But his reward is the adventure of a lifetime.
Heart-stopping, wonder-filled, and attentive to the majesty of the natural world, Beyond the Trees captures the ache for adventure that afflicts us all.Book Annotation
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| On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey by Paul TherouxWhat happened: Erudite 70-something travel writer Paul Theroux drove the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border alone, crossing over the border multiple times; he also visited Mexico City, Oaxaca, Chiapas, and other areas.
Why you should read it: Theroux saw the border situation up close, met locals, witnessed the monarch butterfly migration, visited historic locations, taught writing, and learned about drug cartels and corruption.
Read this next: Richard Grant's God's Middle Finger, about his trip through the Sierra Madres; or, for a penetrating look at both U.S. borders, try Stephanie Elizondo Griest's All the Agents and Saints. |
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Apron strings : navigating food and family in France, Italy, and China
by Jan Wong
On their journey, Jan and Sam live and cook with locals, seeing first-hand how globalization is changing food, families, and cultures. In southeast France, they move in with a family sheltering undocumented migrants. From Bernadette, the housekeeper, they learn classic French family fare such as blanquette de veau. In a hamlet in the heart of Italy’s Slow Food country, the villagers teach them without fuss or fanfare how to make authentic spaghetti alle vongole and a proper risotto with leeks. In Shanghai, they home-cook firecracker chicken and scallion pancakes with the nouveau riche and their migrant maids, who comprise one of the biggest demographic shifts in world history. Along the way, mother and son explore their sometimes-fraught relationship, uniting — and occasionally clashing — over their mutual love of cooking.
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All the agents and saints : dispatches from the U.S. borderlands
by Stephanie Elizondo Griest
"After a decade of chasing stories around the globe, intrepid travel writer Stephanie Elizondo Griest followed the magnetic pull home--only to discover that her native South Texas had been radically transformed in her absence. Ravaged by drug wars and barricaded by an eighteen-foot steel wall, her ancestral land had become the nation's foremost crossing ground for undocumented workers, many of whom perished along the way. The frequency of these tragedies seemed like a terrible coincidence, before Elizondo Griest moved to the New York / Canada borderlands. Once she began to meet Mohawks from the Akwesasne Nation, however, she recognized striking parallels to life on the southern border"-- Provided by publisher
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| Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border by Porter FoxWhat it is: a beautifully written, reflective look at the border region between the United States and Canada, which traces the area's rich history (including Native Americans' roles) and draws on three years of exploration from Maine to Washington via car, canoe, foot, and freighter.
Did you know? "Before September 11, 2001, half of the 119 border crossings between the U.S. and Canada were unguarded at night."
Read this next: For more on the U.S.-Canadian border, pick up Brian Castner's Disappointment River. |
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Lines and Shadows
by Joseph Wambaugh
Not since Joseph Wambaugh’s bestselling The Onion Field has there been a true police story as fascinating, as totally gripping as Lines and Shadows. The media hailed them as heroes. Others denounced them as lawless renegades. A squad of tough cops called the Border Crime Task Force. A commando team sent to patrol the snake-infested no-man’s-land south of San Diego. Not to apprehend the thousands of illegal aliens slipping into the U.S., but to stop the ruthless bandits who preyed on them nightly—relentlessly robbing, raping, and murdering defenseless men, women, and children.
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The Thinner Blue Line : The Life and Times of a Dedicated Customs Officer
by Barry Risk
The author was a customs officer for many years, working his way up through the hierarchy from working in the field to, at the end, management. He served in air operations, postal customs, pornography, smuggling, organized crime operations, counterterrorism, security, and guns.When he was working in the field, Risk had many odd and amusing experiences with travellers. One woman tried to smuggle a baby in a gym bag. Someone else had cocaine dissolved in a bottle of rum. Or a mother with a baby in a carriage has filled the baby’s diaper full of hash. And it goes on and on . . . Risk has a great many of these fascinating vignettes—along with the endless variety of frustrations caused by the policymakers in Ottawa.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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