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Armchair Travel April 2021
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| Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika JaouadWhat happened: Recent college grad Suleika Jaouad moved to Paris to start a dream job -- but a leukemia diagnosis soon sent her home to the U.S., where she spent years recovering. Once cancer-free, she took a 33-state road trip with her dog, visiting friends she'd made while documenting her illness and treatment for The New York Times.
Read this next: For other moving, acclaimed books that ponder life and death and feature solo women travelers, try Maggie Downs' Braver Than You Think or Shannon Leone Fowler's Traveling with Ghosts. |
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| Winter Pasture: One Woman's Journey With China's Kazakh Herders by Li JuanWhat it is: an award-winning memoir that combines nature and travel writing; an eye-opening look at a disappearing way of life; the lyrical English-language debut of a Chinese journalist.
The starting point: Though Li Juan had trouble finding a nomadic group who'd take an unmarried 30-something Han Chinese woman with them for their winter migration, a small Kazakh family of herders agreed.
What happened: Working with the father, mother, and teen daughter, she built a home using manure, gathered snow for water, endured nights with temps below zero, and took care of camel, sheep, and cattle. |
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| Ms. Adventure: My Wild Explorations in Science, Lava, and Life by Jess PhoenixStarring: Jess Phoenix, a geologist, volcanologist, Explorers Club Fellow, and co-founder of a nonprofit that produces research and works with students in hopes of bringing more diversity to scientific fields.
What it's about: Phoenix discusses her winding path to a science career, the barriers she's faced in a male-dominated field, her eye-opening time shooting a TV segment, and her adventures in California, Hawaii, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, and New York City.
For fans of: Jill Heinerth's Into the Planet and other compelling memoirs by adventurous women; accessible books combining science and travel. |
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| We Came, We Saw, We Left: A Family Gap Year by Charles WheelanWhat it's about: In 2016, college professor Charles Wheelan, his math teacher wife, 18-year-old daughter, 16-year-old daughter, and 13-year-old son left their New Hampshire home to spend nine months visiting six continents on a budget.
What happened: They visited Colombia, Australia, the Republic of Georgia, India, and other locales while seeing amazing sights, large spiders, and not always getting along with each other.
Read this next: For other entertaining family travelogues, try Dan Kois' How to Be a Family or Bruce Kirkby's Blue Sky Kingdom. |
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| Walking With Abel: Journeys With the Nomads of the African Savannah by Anna BadkhenWhat happened: For a year, award-winning journalist Anna Badkhen traveled with a group of Fulani people, nomadic cattle herders who have traveled across the West African Savannah for generations.
What you might like it: In lyrical language, Badkhen describes how she slept on the ground, ate food cooked over dung fires, and learned about the Fulani's traditional lifestyle, which is under threat by climate change, urbanization, and Islamic militants.
Reviewers say: "The poetry in Badkhen's prose demands that readers slow down and savor her gentle, elegant story" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Walking the Amazon: 860 Days. One Step at a Time. by Ed StaffordWhat happened: Between 2008 and 2010, TV host and former British Army Captain Ed Stafford walked 4,000 miles across South America in his quest to be the first person to walk the length of the Amazon River.
Why you might like it: Crossing from the Pacific coast of Peru, through Colombia, and on to Brazil's Atlantic coast, Stafford covers hardships and dangers (boredom, jaguars, flooding), people (Indigenous tribes, walking partners), and the land (including the effects of deforestation).
For fans of: David Grann's The Lost City of Z, Sarah Marquis' Wild by Nature, or Levison Wood's books, especially Walking the Americas. |
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A walk in the woods : rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
Two out-of-shape middle-aged men set out to hike the Appalachian Trail. What could possibly go wrong? Bryson, as always, provides both humor and introspection. Published on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Appalachian Trail, a wry account by the author of The Lost Continent traces an adventurous trek past the trail's natural pleasures, human eccentrics, and offbeat comforts. Yes, there's also a movie.
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A walk through Paris
by Éric Hazan
A walker's guide to Paris, taking us through its past, present and possible futures Eric Hazan leads us by the hand in this walk from Ivry to Saint-Denis, roughly following the meridian that divides Paris into east and west, and passing such familiar landmarks as the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pompidou Centre, the Gare du Nord and Montmartre, as well as little-known alleyways and arcades. Filled with historical anecdotes, geographical observations and literary references, Hazan's walk guides us through an unknown Paris. He shows us how, through planning and modernisation, the city's revolutionary past has been erased in order to enforce a reactionary future; but by walking and observation, he shows us how we can regain our knowledge of the radical past of the city of Robespierre, the Commune, Sartre and the May '68 uprising. And by drawing on his own life story, as surgeon, publisher and social critic, Hazan vividly illustrates a radical life lived in the city of revolution.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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New Hanover County Library
201 Chestnut Street Wilmington, North Carolina 28401 910-798-6301 www.nhclibrary.org |
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