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Armchair Travel August 2017
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Shark drunk : the art of catching a large shark from a tiny rubber dinghy in a big ocean through four seasons
by Morten Andreas Strøksnes
In the great depths surrounding the Lofoten islands in Norway lives the infamous Greenland shark. At twenty-six feet in length and weighing more than a ton, it is truly a beast to behold. But the shark is not just known for its size alone: its meat contains a toxin that, when consumed, has been known to make people drunk and hallucinatory. Shark Drunk is the true story of two friends, the author and the eccentric artist Hugo Aasjord, as they embark on a wild pursuit of the famed creature--from a tiny rubber boat. Together, the two men tackle existential questions, survive the world's most powerful maelstrom, and, yes, get drunk, as they attempt to understand the ocean from every possible angle, drawing on poetry, science, history, ecology, mythology, andtheir own, sometimes intoxicated, observations.
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The atlas of forgotten places
by Jenny D. Williams
Retiring to her native Germany after a long career as an aid worker, Sabine is challenged to confront painful memories when her American niece disappears while volunteering in Uganda, where a veteran of the Lord's Resistance Army is searching for her missing lover.
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The women who flew for Hitler : A True Story of Soaring Ambition and Searing Rivalry
by Clare Mulley
A dual biography of the first two women flight captains for the Nazis describes how in spite of Hitler's dictates against women in the military, Aryan poster girl Hanna Reitsch and Jewish aeronautical engineer Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenger served on opposing sides before being awarded the Iron Cross. By the award-winning author of The Woman Who Saved the Children.
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Defectors : a novel
by Joseph Kanon
"From the bestselling author of Leaving Berlin and The Good German comes a fast-paced and richly imagined novel about an American spy, the Cold War's most notorious defector, who gave up his country for the safety--and prison--of Moscow, but never lost his gift for betrayal. In 1949, Frank Weeks, fair-haired boy of the newly formed CIA, was exposed as a Communist spy and fled the country to vanish behind the Iron Curtain. Now, twelve years later, he has written his memoirs, a KGB- approved project almost certain to be an international bestseller, and has asked his brother Simon, a publisher, to come to Moscow to edit the manuscript. It's a reunion Simon both dreads and longs for. The book is sure to be filled with mischief and misinformation; Frank's motives suspect, the CIA hostile. But the chance to see Frank, his adored older brother, proves irresistible. And at first Frank is still Frank--the same charm, the same jokes, the same bond of affection that transcends ideology. Then Simon begins to glimpse another Frank, still capable of treachery, still actively working for "the service." He finds himself dragged into the middle of Frank's new scheme, caught between the KGB and the CIA in a fatal cat and mouse game that only one of the brothers is likely to survive. Defectors is the gripping story of one family torn apart by the divided loyalties of the Cold War, but it's also a revealing look at the wider community of defectors, American and British, living a twilit Moscow existence, granted privileges but never trusted, spies who have escaped one prison only to find themselves trapped in another that is even more sinister. Filled with authentic period detail and moral ambiguity, Defectors takes us to the heart of a world of secrets, where no one can be trusted and murder is just collateral damage"
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Living in Another Language
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| All Strangers Are Kin: Adventures in Arabic and the Arab World by Zora O'NeillHaving studied Arabic as a college student, personable travel and food writer Zora O'Neill decided at age 39 to revisit the language, but this time, to focus on the colloquial instead of the formal version. Visiting Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Morocco, she studied and tested out her skills, but was hindered by different areas having different dialects. Nevertheless, she engaged with people she met -- eating, visiting, and sometimes staying with them -- as she pondered the complex language and the relationship between culture and communication. |
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| When in French: Love in a Second Language by Lauren CollinsAn American in London fell in love with a Frenchman and moved to Geneva, Switzerland. Once there, she decided to learn French; not only did she want to be able to buy things on her own, but she wanted to become closer to her new husband and, when the time came, not be "a Borat of a mother." Chronicling her amusing adventures overseas and her attempts to communicate in a new tongue, talented New Yorker writer Lauren Collins serves up a funny, romantic, intelligent memoir, which provides "a thoughtful, beautifully written meditation on the art of language and intimacy" (The New York Times). |
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Portuguese Irregular Verbs
by Alexander Mccall Smith
Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld investigates the world of archaic Irishisms, takes part in a duel with his friend Professor Dr. Dr. Florianus Prinzel, and falls for a dentist fatale, in a comic novel by the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Original. 40,000 first printing.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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