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Armchair Travel February 2021
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Winter Pasture : One Woman's Journey With China's Kazakh Herders
by Li Juan
An award-winning travel memoir from China documents how the author, a girl from the Altai Mountains, joined a Kazakh family of camel, sheep and cattle herders during their winter pasture migration from the Ulungur River to the Heavenly Mountains. Illustrations.
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| Dark, Salt, Clear: The Life of a Fishing Town by Lamorna AshWhat it is: a lyrical debut describing the weeks the young author spent working with fishermen in the close-knit Cornish village of Newlyn.
What's inside: a captivating, evocative mix of memoir, travelogue, anthropology, and nature writing, plus some history, too.
For fans of: Robert Macfarlane, John Steinbeck, Raynor Winn, or Barry Lopez; books about fishing towns, such as Earl Swift's Chesapeake Requiem and Anna Badkhen's Fisherman's Blues. |
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| The Moth and the Mountain: A True Story of Love, War, and Everest by Ed CaesarWhat it's about: Despite little experience with flying or climbing, troubled Great War veteran Maurice Wilson piloted a plane from England to India in 1933, walked across Tibet, and attempted to ascend Mt. Everest solo (which ultimately proved fatal).
Why you might like it: Using letters, diary entries, and more, this well-researched portrait of a little-known adventurer includes maps and illustrations and sympathetically examines Wilson's life and ill-fated trip.
Read this next: For another gripping book about mountaineers of the past, try Scott Ellsworth's The World Beneath Their Feet. |
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| The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War by John "Chick" Donohue and J.T. MolloyThe challenge: In a New York City neighborhood bar in 1967, U.S. Marine Corps veteran-turned-merchant mariner John "Chick" Donohue agreed to sneak into Vietnam, track down local friends at war, and share beers from home.
What happened: He did it! But witnessing shocking events like the Tet offensive changed him, and his thoughts about the war.
Reviewers say: "fascinating, vividly narrated" (Publishers Weekly); "an irreverent yet thoughtful macho adventure" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Unsolaced: Along the Way to All That Is by Gretel EhrlichWhat it is: A follow-up to the acclaimed 1985 book The Solace of Open Spaces, this poetic memoir details Gretel Ehrlich's meditative observations about her ranch in Wyoming and the places she's visited, including California, Greenland, Japan, Sweden, and Zimbabwe.
What's inside: Ehrlich thoughtfully contemplates ranch life, grief and loss, animals and nature, climate change, and more.
Reviewers say: "Erlich’s memories, rendered in rich, lyrical language, make for a moving ode to a changing planet" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| How to Be a Family: The Year I Dragged My Kids Around the World to Find a New Way... by Dan KoisWhat it's about: A dad humorously details the year his stressed Northern Virginia family gave up regular life for three months each in New Zealand, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and small-town Kansas.
The family: journalist and podcast host Dan, lawyer Alia, and their daughters, 11-year-old Lyra and nine-year-old Harper.
Read this next: For a more nature-inspired family travel memoir, try Michael Lanza's Before They're Gone. |
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| A Year in Provence by Peter MayleWhat it is: a classic travelogue first published in 1989 by English writer Peter Mayle, who vividly describes his and his wife's experiences after they moved into a 200-year-old French farmhouse with a vineyard
What's inside: In chapters named after the months of the year, Mayle offers humorous and keen observations on expatriate life, locals, and the culture of Provence as well as mouthwatering descriptions of food.
Read this next: other books by Mayle; Duck Season by David McAninch; Dirt by Bill Buford; Carol Drinkwater's The Olive Farm; John Baxter's A Year in Paris; L'Appart by David Lebovitz. |
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| My Penguin Year: Life Among the Emperors by Lyndsay McCraeWhat happened: Along with the two other members of his team, award-winning photographer Lyndsay McCrae spent 337 days in Antarctica documenting a colony of emperor penguins, all while dealing with his own isolation and missing his pregnant wife back home.
Don't miss: the pages and pages of awe-inspiring color photos.
Did you know? McCrae's immersive time with the penguins came as part of his work with BBC's Dynasties nature series, which is narrated by Sir David Attenborough. |
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| The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country by Helen RussellWhat it's about: Moving to Denmark for her husband's new job with Lego, English journalist Helen Russell chronicles their first year in the country that's statistically the happiest on Earth, pondering what makes the Danish so content.
Who it's for: those who want a chatty look at life in Denmark or those who'd enjoy a lighthearted look at a British expat abroad.
Read this next: Michael Booth's The Almost Nearly Perfect People, an enjoyable travelogue covering all the Scandinavian countries. |
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