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Armchair Travel October 2017
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| To the New Owners: A Martha's Vineyard Memoir by Madeleine BlaisIn To the New Owners, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Madeleine Blais paints a wistful, wonderful portrait of summer vacations on Martha's Vineyard. Though Blais wasn't born to privilege, her husband was -- his father was U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's attorney general -- and it was his family's old-school vacation house (no climate control, no TV, no internet!) that the family gathered at for decades, before the beloved home was sold in 2014. Weaving memories of her visits with excerpts from the house's guest book, newspaper articles, etc., Blais highlights the quirky charm and natural beauty of the island. Celebrity watchers take note: famous faces appear, including Philip Caputo, Katherine Graham, and Carly Simon. |
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| So Happiness to Meet You: Foolishly, Blissfully Stranded in Vietnam by Karin EsterhammerAfter the 2008 recession hit, L.A. journalist Karin Esterhammer and her husband had little money and lots of debt, so they did something drastic: they moved to Vietnam with their eight-year-old son. Living in a nine-foot-wide back-alley Ho Chi Minh City house, they met welcoming neighbors who helped them...and unabashedly stared into their windows. With quick humor, keen insight into an amazing country, and introductions to lots of fun folks, this delightful book is perfect for those who like family travelogues or fish-out-of-water tales. |
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| Empire Made: My Search for an Outlaw Uncle Who Vanished in British India by Kief HillsberyIn search of answers to family questions, Kief Hillsbery spent decades traveling to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nepal. He was following in the footsteps of a distant English uncle, who'd worked as an East India Company clerk in the 1840s and then "gone native." Presented from both Hillsbery's and his uncle's perspectives (using old letters and documents to inform), Empire Made illuminates the past and the present and offers intriguing findings in this combination travelogue and history, which includes a glimpse of Victorian-era gay life. |
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| Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Kapka KassabovaBulgarian-born poet and writer Kapka Kassabova lives in Scotland, but in Border she describes return visits to Eastern Europe between 2013-2015. In the complex, magical area where Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece meet, Kassabova traveled through mountains, villages, and forests and spoke with former border guards, people who tried to escape Communist Bulgaria, villagers who live near the countries' edges, and incoming refugees fleeing Syria. Clever, lyrical, and acutely observed, this book is a fascinating examination of Eastern European borderlands. For a penetrating look at U.S. borders, seek out Stephanie Elizondo Griest's All the Agents and Saints. |
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A taste of Paris : a history of the Parisian love affair with food
by David Downie
Downie, an expat from San Francisco living in Europe and author of several travel and food books (Paris, Paris; A Passion for Paris), tells the story of France through the country's relationship with food, while also providing a contemporary guide to the world of Parisian culinary establishments. The table of contents is written in the form of a menu and the author traces his adopted city's food history from 53 BCE. He regales readers with his adventures with food and drink from the day he first arrived in Paris and addresses all aspects of French cuisine, from seeds to planting to processing to serving. We learn how food reflected the culture and the eating habits of such notables as Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Madame de Pompadour, Voltaire, Zola, Benjamin Franklin, and most of the French royalty.
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The Aleppo cookbook : celebrating the legendary cuisine of Syria
by Marlene Matar
The rich culinary heritage of Aleppo comes to life in this tribute to the Syrian city at the ancient Mediterranean crossroads. While acknowledging that war, migration, and climate change challenge modern-day Aleppo, Marlene Matar, Lebanese chef of television and cooking school fame, offers delicious ways to celebrate the diverse historical roots of Middle Eastern cooking in over 200 recipes for foundation dishes and fancier meals. This introduction to Middle Eastern cooking techniques will equally satisfy beginners or experienced fans of the regional fare. Book Annotation
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| Driving Hungry: A Delicious Journey, from Buenos Aires to New York to Berlin by Layne MoslerLayne Mosler takes the idea of catching a cab to dinner to a charming new level. After a disappointing evening in Buenos Aires, she hailed a cab and asked the driver to take her to his favorite restaurant ...where she had one of the best steaks of her life. Building on this idea, she began asking cabbies everywhere where they liked to eat. Moving to New York City, she attended taxi school and began driving a cab herself. Heading to Berlin, she continued to drive and eat -- and eventually met the cabdriver of her dreams. Not just for foodies and fans of Mosler's Taxi Gourmet blog, this honest and lively literary ride around three vibrant cities will appeal to readers who've wondered what the taxi-driving life is like. |
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Extra virginity : the sublime and scandalous world of olive oil
by Tom Mueller
For millennia, fresh olive oil has been one of life's necessities--not just as food but also as medicine, a beauty aid, and a vital element of religious rituals. But this symbol of purity has become deeply corrupt. A superbly crafted combination of cultural history and food manifesto, Extra Virginity takes us on a journey through the world of olive oil, opening our eyes to olive oil's rich past as well as to the fierce contemporary struggle between oil fraudsters of the globalized food industry and artisan producers whose oil truly deserves the name "extra virgin.".
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| The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest... by Michael PaternitiHaving once worked at Michigan's famous Zingerman's Delicatessen, Michael Paterniti never forgot a certain cave-aged sheep's milk cheese. Eventually, he traveled to Guzmán, a rural Spanish village, where he discovered that the amazing cheese said to be "made with love" was no longer being made. Charismatic, larger-than-life farmer/cheesemaker Ambrosio Molinos de las Hera tells him he was betrayed by his partner, ruining the business. Paterniti quickly becomes enmeshed in Ambrosio's world, visiting often in order to savor his stories and dig deeper; Paterniti even moves to Spain with his wife and kids for a time. Chock full of footnotes and digressive passages, this leisurely yet tasty tale will especially please those who enjoy the journey as much as the destination. |
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The cooking gene : a journey through African American culinary history in the Old South
by Michael Twitty
Sifting through stories, recipes, genetic tests and historical documents, a renowned culinary historian, in a memoir of Southern culinary tradition and food culture, traces his ancestry through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom, and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue and all Southern cuisine.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Prince George's County Memorial Library System 9601 Capital Lane Largo, Maryland 20774 301-699-3500www.pgcmls.info/ |
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