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Armchair Travel December 2020
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All CMRLS Libraries will close Wednesday, December 23, 1:00 p.m., and remain closed Thursday and Friday, December 24 and 25, for the Christmas Holiday. Regular Library hours will resume on Monday, December 28. Libraries will also close Thursday and Friday, December 31 and January 1, 2021, for the New Year Holiday. Regular Library hours will resume on Monday, January 4, 2021.
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| The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi by Richard GrantWhat it is: a mix of history and travelogue that presents a fascinating portrait of Natchez, Mississippi, tracing the city's past and present and its remarkable contradictions.
Read it for: intriguing stories about locals, including a 19th-century enslaved West African prince and modern-day feuding garden club members.
Why you might like it: vibrant writing; eye-opening history; the examination of racism through the lens of one town. |
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Havana : a subtropical delirium
by Mark Kurlansky
"Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky presents an insider's view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than thirty years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, and Kurlansky'sown pen-and-ink drawings throughout, Havana celebrates the city's singular music, literature, baseball, and food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; and its extraordinary blend of cultures. Like all great cities, Havana has a rich history that informs the vibrant place it is today--from the native Taino to Columbus's landing, from Cuba's status as a U.S. protectorate to Batista's dictatorship and Castro's revolution, from Soviet presence to the welcoming of capitalist tourism. Havana is a place of extremes: a beautifully restored colonial city whose cobblestone streets pass through areas that have not been painted or repaired since the revolution. Kurlansky shows Havana through the eyes of Cuban writers, such as Alejo Carpentierand José Martí, and foreigners, including Graham Greene and Hemingway. He introduces us to Cuban baseball and its highly opinionated fans; the city's music scene, alive with the rhythm of Son; its culinary legacy. Once the only country Americans couldn't visit, Cuba is now opening to us, as is Havana, not only by plane or boat but also through Mark Kurlansky's multilayered and electrifying portrait of the long-elusive city"
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Hey Ranger! : true tales of humor & misadventure from America's national parks
by Jim Burnett
What it's about: In his thirty years with the National Park Service, Jim Burnett has seen it all: boatramp mishaps that have sent cars into the water; skunks in the outhouse and bears at the dumpser; visitors looking for the bridge over the Grand Canyon.
Author note: A veteran of thirty years as a National Park Service ranger, Jim Burnett worked at eight parks all across the United States, including Grand Canyon, Glacier, Lake Mead and Buffalo River before retiring as chief ranger at Colonial National Historical Park. Author of several articles in national periodicals, he now lives near Athens, Texas.
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The shadow of Kilimanjaro : on foot across East Africa
by Rick Ridgeway
What it is: A fascinating and deeply moving chronicle of a journey by foot across East Africa offers depictions of the vanishing animals of a rapidly vanishing world, exploring possibilities for the future and confronting the long history of colonialism.
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| Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward AbbeyThis is an eBook on CMRLS.Freading.com
What it is: a classic account, first published in 1968, of author Edward Abbey's experiences, observations, and reflections as a seasonal park ranger in 1950s Arches National Monument in Utah, including a trip by boat down Glen Canyon.
Want a taste? "The ravens cry out in husky voices, blue-black wings flapping against the golden sky."
Read this next: for a newer contemplative look at the desert, try Ben Ehrenreich's Desert Notebooks; for another lyrical look at national parks, pick up Terry Tempest Williams' The Hour of the Land. |
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Wild nature : walking Australia's south east forests
by John Blay
This is an eBook on CMRLS.Freading.com
What it is: John Blay laces up his walking boots and goes bush to explore Australia's rugged south east forests – stretching from Canberra to the coast and on to Wilsons Promontory – in a great circle from his one-time home near Bermagui.
Why you might like it: Along the way Blay asks the big questions. What do we really know about these wild forests? How did the forests come to be the way they are? What is the importance of wild nature to our civilisation?
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Central Mississippi Regional Library System
100 Tamberline Street
Brandon, Mississippi 39042
601-825-0100
http://www.cmrls.lib.ms.us
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