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Armchair Travel August 2019
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A Beginner's Guide to Paradise: 9 Steps to Giving Up Everything...
by Alex Sheshunoff
Alex Sheshunoff was seemingly living the dream: in his mid-twenties, he lived in Manhattan with a lovely Spanish woman and worked at an Internet company he'd helped found. But after a panic attack sent him to the ER, he decided to leave it all behind, move to the South Pacific alone, and read the 100 books he was most embarrassed not to have read. In this "sincerely funny" (Kirkus Reviews) book, he shares his experiences living on a remote island, covering such topics as appropriate attire (loincloths, anyone?), monkey-diapering, building a bungalow...and falling in love.
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| A Dog Named Beautiful: A Marine, a Dog, and a Long Road Trip Home by Rob KuglerStarring: Rob Kugler, a Marine veteran and photographer, and Bella, the sweet chocolate lab who was by his side when he returned home from war and dealt with the loss of his brother, who died fighting in Iraq.
What it's about: their poignant road trip around the U.S. after Bella was diagnosed with incurable cancer, as well as Rob's thoughts about purpose and life and his memories of the military and his family.
Will I need a hanky? Probably -- but you'll have some laughs too! |
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
Children should not have to see the horrors of war, much less commit them. But as conflict rages in hot spots around the world, children are always affected, and in some heart-wrenching cases, they are actually forced to become solders who do terrible things. In this powerful, candid autobiography, Ishmael Beah, now a human rights activist, tells how he went from a mischievous 12-year-old schoolboy to a hardened 13-year-old government soldier carrying an AK-47 and fighting in the civil war that raged in Sierra Leone in the 1990s before he was rescued by UNICEF and pulled himself back from violence.
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A Space Traveler's Guide to the Solar System
by Mark Thompson
If you want to travel to a really out-of-this-world locale, why not go, well, out of this world? Though we can't hop on a rocket to Mars (yet), this inviting book by Mark Thompson, a celebrated astronomer and presenter of the BBC's Stargazing Live, lets readers imagine that they are taking a galactic tour. After flight planning, travelers will move through our solar system, exploring the sun, planets, moons and asteroid belts and learning how humans might survive, navigate, and get fuel on such a trip. Fans of The Martian (Andy Weir's novel and/or the movie version of it) who want a factual, more wide-ranging look at humans in space will find this fantastic journey entertaining and enlightening.
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| Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick... by William CarlsenWhat it's about: Author William Carlsen explored the Yucatan jungle, retracing the steps of U.S. ambassador to Central America John L. Stephens and British architect Frederick Catherwood, who, in 1839, uncovered amazing 2,000-year-old Mayan ruins that forced a rethinking of recorded history.
Don't miss: how Carlsen skillfully brings Stephens' and Catherwood's personalities to life while recounting their adventures. |
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A Wedding in Haiti
by Julia Alvarez
Years ago, popular novelist Julia Alvarez, author of How the GarcĂa Girls Lost Their Accents and owner of a coffee plantation in her native Dominican Republic, became close with a young Haitian boy working at a neighboring farm and promised to attend his wedding when he was grown. Years later, as the happy day approached, Alvarez, her American husband, and a few others took an eye-opening trip across Hispaniola to reach the young man's Haitian home. This "warm, funny, and compassionate" (Kirkus Reviews) book also documents Alvarez's return visit to Haiti after the country was hit by a devastating earthquake. Readers who'd appreciate an insider's look at Haiti can pick up Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat's memoir, After the Dance.
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| Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert KursonStarring: dedicated treasure hunters John Mattera and John Chatterton as well as legendary technology-averse hunter Tracy Bowden.
What happens: Author Robert Kurson (whose Shadow Divers also features Chatterton) compellingly traces the men's high-stakes quest to find the Golden Fleece, a sunken ship that once belonged to notorious English sea captain-turned-pirate Joseph Bannister.
For fans of: Stephan Talty's Empire of Blue Water, pirates, nautical history, and swashbuckling tales of derring-do. |
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| In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton SidesWhat it's about: the ill-fated 1879 expedition of the USS Jeannette, led by U.S. naval officer and explorer George Washington De Long, who was looking for a passage to the North Pole via the Bering Strait.
What's inside: a dramatic account -- informed by letters, diaries, expedition records, and news reports -- of what happened when the ship became trapped in pack ice for two years.
Read this next: Paul Watson's Ice Ghosts, which details the history of and contemporary search for shipwrecks from an 1845 Arctic expedition. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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BRAZORIA COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM 912 N. Velasco Angleton, Texas 77515 (979) 864-1505bcls.lib.tx.us |
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