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Armchair Travel December 2016
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| In the Land of Giants: A Journey Through the Dark Ages by Max AdamsCombining travelogue and history with his thoughts on the way the past and present connect, archaeologist Max Adams shines a bright light on both the British dark ages and current times. In In the Land of Giants , which is based on ten walks Adams took over 18 months, he explores Britain's (and, to a lesser extent, Ireland's) early medieval past, providing narratives about his adventures as he camped, visited with locals, explored paths through hills and fields, and saw the remnants of forts, crypts, churches, causeways, memorials, and more. If you enjoy this fascinating book and want another amble in Britain, pick up Simon Armitage's Walking Home: A Poet's Journey. |
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Black Square : Adventures in Post-soviet Ukraine
by Sophie Pinkham
An expert in Slavic culture and literature describes the flourishing youth culture in the tragically corrupt Ukraine after the fall of the USSR. Sophie Pinkham describes a movement whose members bore witness to protesters shot on Kiev¡s main square and Crimea annexed by Russia.
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The Red Rooster cookbook : the story of food and hustle in Harlem
by Marcus Samuelsson
The superstar chef and owner of Red Rooster Harlem, Ginny¡s Supper Club and Street Bird offers Southern comfort food and other multicultural recipes including Brown Butter Biscuits, Killer Collards, Donuts With Sweet Potato Cream, Ethiopian Spice-crusted Lamb and Chinese Steamed Bass.
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Kingdoms in the Air : Dispatches from the Far Away
by Bob Shacochis
A collection of travel and adventure essays from a National Book Award-winning writer and former war journalist describes his experiences surfing, his obsession with fishing dorado in the rivers of South America and the time he went bushwhacking in Mozambique.
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Focus on: The Middle East
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| Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East by Gerard RussellThough Islam is the most common religion practiced in the Middle East, there are dozens of others that most Westerners know very little about. In this enlightening book, a curious former British diplomat who lived in the area for over a decade provides an accessible introduction to many of the minor religions that have survived for hundreds of years but are now in danger of becoming extinct. Traveling around the Middle East, Gerard Russell learns about and meets Yazidis, Zoroastrians, Copts, Druze, Samaritans, Kalasha, Mandaeans, Manicheans, and others, and engagingly shares what he learns with readers. "Fascinating and gracefully written," says Library Journal. |
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| House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony ShadidWhen two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Anthony Shadid visited the abandoned house his great-grandfather had built in southern Lebanon, he decided to restore the nearly 100-year-old two-story abode. In his great-grandfather's day, Christians (like his relatives) and Muslims resided peacefully together -- but for years, the town had been affected by often-violent conflicts, including 18 years of Israeli occupation. In this thoughtful, evocative memoir, he explores renovation projects, identity, family, war, change, and the meaning of home. Just before the 2012 publication of this National Book Award finalist, the amazingly talented Shadid died from an asthma attack while reporting in Syria. |
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There Was and There Was Not: A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey...
by Meline Toumani
One hundred years ago Ottoman Turks began systematically killing one million or so Armenians. Many modern Turks say this never happened, while many modern Armenians want official recognition that it did. Needless to say, the two groups don't get along. Meline Toumani, an Armenian American raised in New Jersey who was taught to hate the Turks, examines the legacy of the genocide of 1915 by spending four years in Istanbul -- a place she once thought she'd never set foot. Excellently blending memoir, travelogue, history, and reportage, this nuanced portrait of Turkey examines what she discovered there and how it transformed her.
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Black flags : the rise of ISIS
by Joby Warrick
When he succeeded his father in 1999, King Abdullah of Jordan released a batch of political prisoners in the hopes of smoothing his transition to power. Little did he know that among those released was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a man who would go on to become a terrorist mastermind who would help give rise to an Islamist movement bent on dominating the Middle East. Although Zarqawi was eliminated in a 2006 airstrike, his movement endured. It was first called al-Qaeda in Iraq, then renamed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. As the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, ISIS seized its chance to pursue Zarqawi's dream of a sweeping, ultra-conservative Islamic caliphate. Drawing on unique access to CIA and Jordanian sources, Joby Warrick weaves together heart-pounding, moment-by-moment operational details with overarching historical perspectives to reveal the long trajectory of today's most dangerous Islamic extremist threat.
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Farewell Kabul : from Afghanistan to a more dangerous world
by Christina Lamb
The co-author of the best-selling I Am Malala examines how the might of NATO, with 48 countries and 140,000 troops on the ground, has yet to defeat the group of religious students and farmers known as the Taliban and its allies in Afghanistan.
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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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