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Armchair Travel April 2018
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| Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape by Barry LopezWhat it is: an evocative, expansive, and keenly observed tour of the Arctic that discusses topics like the landscape, wildlife, indigenous people, history, explorers, and the author's multifaceted experiences there.
Award buzz: Originally published in 1986, the bestselling Arctic Dreams won the National Book Award for author Barry Lopez, a writer and field biologist who spent years in the Canadian north. |
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| On Trails: An Exploration by Robert MoorWhat it's about: While 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.
Why you might like it: 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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Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard
What it's about: Complemented by an updated author biography and a history of the book's publication, a handsome edition of the winner of the Pulitzer Prize leads readers on a distinctively American meditation on nature and the human spirit.
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A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
What it's about: American travel writer Bill Bryson, who'd been living in England for years, set out to hike the Appalachian Trail with an old friend. The two out-of-shape 40-somethings thought they'd walk the entire 2,100 miles to Maine before winter -- but reality soon hit. Nature descriptions and a history of the storied trail combine with the pair's amusing experiences and their encounters with other hikers.
The movie: In 2015, Robert Redford and Nick Nolte dramatized the duo's nature adventure on the big screen.
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The Oregon Trail: An American Journey
by Rinker Buck
What it's about: Road trip, old-school style! Though the Oregon Trail fell out of favor with travelers after the transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869, it's still possible to travel the trail from Missouri to Oregon (though some parts are now paved roads). Over 100 years after the last known crossing, journalist Rinker Buck, his brother, and his brother's Jack Russell terrier set out in a covered wagon pulled by mules. Along with riveting details about their four-month, 2,000-mile trip (Terrible thunderstorms! Broken wagon wheels! Helpful strangers!), Buck describes the rich history of the trail and the pioneers who made the journey before him.
Reviewers love this book -- Kirkus Reviews calls it "frankly hilarious, historically elucidating, emotionally touching, and deeply informative."
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The rural life
by Verlyn Klinkenborg
What it's about: The author of Making Hay and The Last First Time celebrates the rural life, its pleasures and hardships, and the beauty of the American landscape in a series of reflections corresponding to the months of the year.
About the author: Verlyn Klinkenborg comes form a family of Iowa farmers. He is a member of the editorial board of The New York Times and has written for The New Yorker, Mother Jones, and Harper's. He lives on a small farm in upstate New York.
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Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
What it's about: In this "unsentimental memoir" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), recently divorced 26-year-old Cheryl Strayed sets out on the 1,100-mile Pacific Coast Trail (PCT), walking solo from California, through Oregon, and on to Washington State. Strayed, a completely inexperienced hiker, had plenty of baggage with her, and we're not just talking about her too-heavy backpack. Though the book is centered around her time on the trail and her dealings with snakes, bears, and blisters, sections of Wild discuss the troubles that sent Strayed (back)packing, including her mother's death, the end of her marriage, and her own reckless behaviors.
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And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East
by Richard Engel
What it's about: Not long out of Stanford, Richard Engel headed to the Middle East in 1996 to work as a journalist. Now NBC's chief foreign correspondent, he draws on nearly two decades in the area to share insights into the region's past and present as he blends reportage with his personal experiences in Jerusalem, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and other places. He's dodged bullets and been kidnapped while covering stories about area leaders, the Arab Spring, many wars, regional terrorism, and the experiences of regular people caught in the crossfire.
Why you might enjoy this book: Anyone interested in a fast-paced, intelligent account of what the Middle East is like right now should read this book.
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Are you famous? : touring America with Alaska's fiddling poet
by Ken Waldman
What it's about: Ken Waldman's stories of his life as a travelling musician and poet.
About the author: He is the author of six poetry collections and has released seven CDs. This, his first book of prose, is part memoir, part travel notes, and part artist how-to.
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Mountain time : a western memoir
by Jane Candia Coleman
What it's about: Finalist for the Willa Cather Award, Mountain Time is a wonderful hybrid: part memoir, part personal essay, and part documentary of the places and people of the West that have inspired Jane Candia Coleman's award-winning stories. It has something for everyone-nature, history, a poetic evocation of the land-while, running through it all, is the story of a woman's gradual awakening to new possibilities, and to the realization of her strength.
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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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