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"'You know, I had a lot of romantic notions about the jungle and this kind of finished that.'" ~ from David Grann's The Lost City of Z
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Voyager : travel writings
by Russell Banks
A revelatory collection of travel essays by the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of Cloudsplitter includes pieces on his interview with Fidel Castro in Cuba, his hippie reunion with college friends in Chapel Hill and his Edinburgh elopement with his fourth wife.
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| White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World by Geoff DyerIn Geoff Dyer's latest thought-provoking book, a small volume of travel essays, he asks big questions: who are we? why are we here? Pondering them, he journeys to a variety of disparate locales, including Beijing to visit the Forbidden City, Tahiti to learn about the artist Gauguin, Norway to see the Northern Lights (though he didn't see them), New Mexico to see the land art installation "The Lightning Field," and Los Angeles to visit philosopher Theodor Adorno's former home. Photographs enhance the witty and astute observations by the sometimes persnickety Dyer, who also addresses his recent mild stroke in the final essay of this "mesmerizing compendium" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria by Janine di GiovanniRight now, Syria isn't so much a place that people jet off to as it is a place they escape from. Even so, armchair travelers can visit via award-winning foreign correspondent Janine di Giovanni's latest book. Taking readers on an eye-opening journey to the troubled country ruled by a dictator and riven by civil war, di Giovanni describes the brutality of post-Arab Spring life here. Having been based in the Middle East for over two decades, she knows Syria and evocatively shows it to readers through the stories of everyday people, including doctors, nuns, activists, a baker, a musician, and a student. A "brilliant, necessary book" says Kirkus Reviews. |
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My Holiday in North Korea : The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth
by Wendy E. Simmons
Photographer, blogger, and world traveler Simmons has chronicled her ten-day journey through North Korea in a book that is an irresistible read. With Alice in Wonderland-like comments on the surreal experience, she guides readers through a country that is as bizarre as we might imagine. Handlers schedule Simmons down to the minute and batter her with lectures on American imperialism and Korean superiority. The deceased revered Great Leaders are still running the country from their mausoleum but have come up short on providing electricity and toilet paper to the citizens. Simmons presents a rare and fascinating look at the tourist's North Korea in a work that is humorous, appalling, and very sad.
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| Only in Naples: Lessons in Food and Famiglia from My Italian Mother-in-Law by Katherine WilsonAfter graduating from college, well-to-do Katherine Wilson left Washington, D.C. and headed to Naples, Italy for an unpaid internship at the American Consul. Though Naples was considered "dirty and dangerous" by her friends and family, she discovered that people either loved or hated the city, and she loved it. Not only did she learn to eat better (she'd been a binge eater), but she was embraced by an Italian family and their chic, well-connected matriarch, Raffaella, who taught Wilson about Neapolitan culture and how to cook delicious local foods -- and eventually lessons about marriage and motherhood when Wilson married her son. This lighthearted, charming look at Italian life includes recipes. |
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Walking the Nile
by Levison Wood
The former British paratrooper, photographer and explorer documents his nine-month, 4,000-mile journey by foot along the Nile, discussing his life-threatening natural and cultural encounters in six different nations and the loss of a colleague along the journey. TV tie-in.
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| Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World... by Richard ZacksWhen aging Mark Twain set out to travel the world in 1895 on what amounts to a comedy tour, he did so because he was broke. Desperately needing money to pay back his many creditors, he performed to English-speaking audiences in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Africa, and, his favorite stop, India. After the year-long tour was over, he spent an additional four years in Europe. Drawing on newspaper accounts, Twain's own journals and letters, and unpublished materials, historian Richard Zacks presents a fast-paced, humorous, and informative look at Twain's late-life adventures (including how he got into such dire financial straits to begin with). |
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Brazil hosts the 2016 Summer Olympic games from August 5 to August 21, and since there are several fascinating books about the country, we highlighted a few here. If you want a book about the host city, Rio de Janeiro, pick up Juliana Barbassa's excellent Dancing with the Devil in the City of God.
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| The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David GrannIn 1925, famed British explorer Percy Fawcett voyaged up the Amazon in search of a city he called "Z" and others call El Dorado. Although Fawcett was a seasoned adventurer, he and his two companions (including his 21-year-old son, Jack) were never seen again. Decades later, journalist David Grann learned about the headline-making disappearance and joined the ranks of those who've attempted to learn what happened to Fawcett -- several of whom have lost their lives in the process. An account of Grann's modern-day foray into the jungle is interwoven with details about Fawcett's adventures, which are based on the explorer's diaries, letters, and other accounts. Featuring blow-darts, giant snakes, and hostile locals, this gripping narrative reads "with all the pace and excitement of a movie thriller" (The New York Times), and, indeed, a film based on the book comes out later this year. |
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Crossing the River : a Life in Brazil
by Amy Ragsdale
Overwhelmed with her fast-paced, competitive lifestyle, Amy Ragsdale moved with her husband, writer Peter Stark, and their two teenage children from the US to a small town in northeastern Brazil, where she hoped they would learn the value of a slower life. In this culturally rich and economically poor region, Amy and her family learn to fundamentally connect with their neighbors across language and customs. In the year they spend there, Amy grows close to her new neighbors, from the men who cut sugar cane to the clinical university students, as they became the family's guides to Brazilian life. Elegantly written and vibrant in detail, Crossing the River tells a global story through a personal memoir, examining life without the trappings of modern American culture, and revealing surprising truths about identity, family, and love.
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| The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes by Scott WallaceIn order to protect the last uncontacted tribes of indigenous peoples, a group went in search of them. In 2002, National Geographic writer Scott Wallace joined the 30+ person team led by charismatic explorer Sydney Possuelo, director of Brazil's Department of Isolated Indians, and traveled deep into the Upper Amazon. Hoping to find evidence that the "People of the Arrow," a group of deft archers, were well, the middle-aged Wallace and his teammates spent three months on the harrowing journey, dealing with biting insects, deadly jaguars, and trouble among team members. |
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Some You May Have Missed!
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Dead Mountain : the untold true story of the Dyatlov Pass incident
by Donnie Eichar
The mystery of the bizarre deaths of elite Russian hikers in a 1959 tragedy on a deadly Ural mountain is the subject of Eichar’s extensive investigation. Eichar, a film director and producer, tries to make sense of the puzzling tale of the dead students from Ural Polytechnic University; he sets off to interview the hikers’ relatives, investigators, and even a lone survivor. Following the search party’s retrievals of the bodies, the questions deepen when the victims are discovered, insufficiently dressed for the frigid weather, shoeless, with violent injuries, including a horrible skull fracture, a leg torn away, and a tongue ripped out. With expert analysis of the remaining evidence, Eichar tries to answer why the hikers, seven men and two women, would go out into the bitter cold without warm clothing to meet certain death.
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In Clancy's Boots : the greatest ever round-the-world motorbike adventure
by Geoff Hill
When Geoff Hill decided to re-create Carl Stearns Clancy's 1912 around-the-world motorbike journey, he thought he had a reasonable idea of what was in store for him. Not only had roads improved in the intervening century but so had technology and communications. Instead of Clancy's 1912 Henderson Four bike, Hill rode a BMW R1200GS Adventure. Hill skillfully weaves Clancy's original observations into the text, adding his own commentary on the roads, the food, the locals, and the accommodations. Not a how-to, this book is a joyous ride around the world in which you can feel the wind in your face and the bugs in your teeth. This is for readers who enjoy travel writing with a hefty dash of humor, in the vein of Bill Bryson and Tim Cahill.
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Here, there, elsewhere : stories from the road
by William Least Heat Moon
This collection of short-form travel writing from the author of the best-selling classics Blue Highways and River Horse features his observations on Japan, England, Italy and even Long Island, New York.
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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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