|
Armchair Travel August 2020
|
|
|
|
Dirt: Adventures in Lyon, as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the... by Bill Buford Bill Buford turns his inimitable attention from Italian cuisine to the food of France. Baffled by the language, but convinced that he can master the art of French cooking - or at least get to the bottom of why it is so revered - he begins what becomes a five-year odyssey by shadowing the esteemed French chef, Michel Richard, in Washington, D.C. But when Buford (quickly) realizes that a stage in France is necessary, he goes--this time with his wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow--to Lyon, the gastronomic capital of France. Studying at Institut Bocuse, cooking at the storied, Michelin-starred Mère Brazier, enduring the endless hours and exacting "rigeur" of the kitchen, Buford becomes a man obsessed with proving himself on the line, proving that he is worthy of the gastronomic secrets he's learning, proving that French cooking actually derives from (mon dieu!) the Italian. With his signature humor, sense of adventure, and masterful ability to immerse himself, and us, in his surroundings, Bill Buford has written what is sure to be the food-lover's book of the year. | | Braver Than You Think: Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother's) Lifetime by Maggie Downs Braver Than You Think is the life-affirming story of how Downs, newly married and established in her career as a journalist, quits her job, sells her belongings, and embarks on the solo trip of a lifetime: Her mother's. Over the course of one year backpacking through seventeen countries - visiting all the places her mother, struck with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, cannot visit herself - Maggie faces some of the world's most exotic locales while confronting the slow loss of her mother and the close bond they shared. Interweaving travelogue with memories of her family, Braver Than You Think takes the reader hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, whitewater rafting down the Nile, volunteering at a monkey sanctuary in Bolivia, praying at an ashram in India, and fleeing the Arab Spring in Egypt. By embarking on a global journey, Downs embraces what it means to make every moment count - traveling around the globe and home again, losing a parent while discovering the world. | |
French Like Moi : A Midwesterner in Paris by Scott Dominic Carpenter A Midwesterner in Paris Ah, Paris! Whether you're talking last tangos, midnights in, red balloons, hunchbacks, French connections, Jean Valjean, Ratatouille, or Amélie Poulain, Paris is the place where it all goes down-and where the it has to be big and heart-stopping, something that never leaves you, that you'll always have, like the Paris of Casablanca. It's a layered pastry of romance, adventure, and elegance, coated with a glaze of chic!
But for humorist Scott Dominic Carpenter, it's mostly a tax dodge. When he moves his family to Paris, he's cutting corners, and in more ways than one. After setting up shop in the thirteenth arrondissement, the adventures begin. His apartment building proves to be a battleground over both property and propriety; the neighborhood crawls with self-appointed experts; he is mysteriously denounced to the police; the city convulses with violent demonstrations. Through it all, Carpenter keeps his eye on the central mystery of what makes the French French.
|
|
Amazon Woman : Facing Fears, Chasing Dreams, and a Quest to Kayak the World's Largest River from Source to Sea by Darcy Gaechter Part memoir, part feminist manifesto, Amazon Woman shows what incredible feats we are capable of and will encourage people, especially women, across all backgrounds and ages to find the courage and strength to live the life they've imagined. This 148-day journey began on Darcy Gaetcher's 35th birthday. She sold her successful outdoor adventure business, upsetting her partner and boyfriend of twelve years and getting them both fired in the process. The only woman who successfully kayaked the entire length of the Amazon River describes her 148-day journey tackling raging whitewater and a dynamite-filled canyon as well encountering illegal loggers, narco-traffickers, murderous Shining Path rebels and ruthless poachers of endangered species.
|
|
Driving while black : African American travel and the road to civil rights by Gretchen Sullivan Sorin How the automobile fundamentally changed African American life-the true history beyond the Best Picture-winning movie. The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford's assembly line. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Gretchen Sorin recovers a forgotten history of black motorists, and recounts their creation of a parallel, unseen world of travel guides, black only hotels, and informal communications networks that kept black drivers safe. At the heart of this story is Victor and Alma Green's famous Green Book, begun in 1936, which made possible that most basic American right, the family vacation, and encouraged a new method of resisting oppression. Enlivened by Sorin's personal history, Driving While Black opens an entirely new view onto the African American experience, and shows why travel was so central to the Civil Rights movement.
|
|
On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome, with Love and Pasta by Jen Lin-Liu What it's about: Curious about the origins of noodles, Jen Lin-Liu, a recently married Chinese American cooking instructor based in Beijing, traveled the famed Silk Road in search of answers, sampling regional dishes in the homes of generous local women in China, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, Italy, and other locations.
Don't miss: her thoughts on love and what being a wife means to her and to her hosts; the tempting recipes.
Reviewers say: a "footloose, spontaneous, and appetite-whetting journal of culinary adventure" (Kirkus Reviews). | |
I want you to know we're still here : A Post-holocaust Memoir by Esther Safran Foer Esther Safran Foer grew up in a family where history was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust was always felt but never discussed. So when Esther's mother casually mentions an astonishing revelation--that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust--Esther resolves to find the truth. Armed with only a black-and-white photo and hand-drawn map, she travels to Ukraine, determined to find the shtetl where her father hid during the war. What she finds not only reshapes her identity but gives her the long-denied opportunity to mourn the all-but-forgotten dead.
|
|
The Impossible First: From Fire to Ice -- Crossing Antarctica Alone by Colin O'Brady Prior to December 2018, no individual had ever crossed the landmass of Antarctica alone, without support and completely human powered. Yet, Colin Brady was determined to do just that, even if, ten years earlier, there was doubt that he'd ever walk again normally. From the depths of a tragic accident, he fought his way back. In a quest to unlock his potential and discover what was possible, he went on to set three mountaineering world records before turning to this historic Antarctic challenge. Honest, deeply moving, filled with moments of vulnerability and set against the backdrop of some of the most extreme environments on earth, from Mt. Everest to Antarctica. The Impossible First reveals how anyone can reject limits, overcome immense obstacles, and discover what matters most.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|