Publisher: Riverhead Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/30/2013
ISBN-13: 9781594488320
ISBN-10: 1594488320

In the midst of war and invasion, Turkoman weavers have created gorgeous carpets for centuries (even Marco Polo loved them). In Oqa, Afghanistan, a tiny desert village so remote that it's not on the maps of Google or the regional government, award-winning journalist Anna Badkhen traces the path of one carpet, from beginning (the purchase of yarn) to it's evolution (months of intricate weavings that reflect life and village events) to its journey to market. The resulting book provides a compelling portrait of a town where hunger is common, people believe the world is flat, and American fighter planes fly overhead. Like Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers, this elegantly written look at a group of neighbors in incredibly trying circumstances portrays fascinating people you won't soon forget.

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/16/2013
ISBN-13: 9780805094466
ISBN-10: 0805094466

What binds the people of the large and diverse United States of America together? That's what Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Caputo wondered. To find some answers, the 69-year-old set out from the southernmost point of the continental U.S., Key West, Florida, with his wife and two dogs in a truck pulling an Airstream trailer. Their destination? The northernmost point they could drive to: Deadhorse, Alaska on the Arctic Ocean. As they make their way along back roads, Caputo asks a wide variety of people his question. The result is an "always engaging and frequently reassuring" (Publishers Weekly) look at modern America that fans of previous road trip travelogues (like Jack Kerouac's On the Road, John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, and William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways) should certainly pick up.

Publisher: Counterpoint
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/14/2013
ISBN-13: 9781619021228
ISBN-10: 1619021226

Having fallen in love with Iceland at the age of 19, British novelist and college professor Sarah Moss jumps at the chance to teach there for a year. In Reykjavik, Moss, her husband, and their two young sons try to adapt to a landscape and culture very different from their own. Their challenges include not speaking the language, arriving in 2009 just as the country is dealing with a near-fatal economic meltdown, and a volcano eruption that sends ash swirling around their apartment. In her vivid descriptions and compelling stories, Moss captures the beauty and harshness of the land as well as providing thoughtful insights into the lives of the people she encounters. For another fun, family-oriented look at life in a foreign land, try by Aminta Arrington's China adventure, Home is a Roof Over a Pig.

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Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/10/2013
ISBN-13: 9780393239324
ISBN-10: 0393239322

Is touring Italy via its trains wonderful, terrible, or both? Find out in this humorous, eye-opening travelogue by English ex-pat Tim Parks, who has lived in Italy since 1981. Riding all over the country, from top to toe and many places in between, he uses Italy's trains as a lens into Italian life, past and present. Describing the memorable people he encounters (many of whom hate the train system), he offers a historical look at the railroads (he rides in cars from pre-World War II and modern high-speed ones) and thoughtfully yet entertainingly ponders Italian society at large. Having raised a family in Italy and written three previous Italian travel books (including the bestselling Italian Neighbors), Parks is an excellent and wryly insightful guide to his adopted country.

Publisher: Dutton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/30/2011
ISBN-13: 9780525952244
ISBN-10: 0525952241

Travel magazine editor Mark Adams leaves his desk behind for an adventure of his own -- even though the last time he slept in a tent was as a kid in 1978...in his backyard. In his determined effort to recreate the 1911 "discovery" of Machu Picchu by now-controversial Yale historian and explorer Hiram Bingham III, Adams spent several weeks hiking through Peru with his experienced ex-pat Australian guide and some local mule tenders. He shares fascinating facts and amusing anecdotes from his trip in this "entirely delightful book" (The Washington Post). For more on Inca history, pick up Kim MacQuarrie's well-reviewed The Last Days of the Incas.

Publisher: Penguin Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9780142437193
ISBN-10: 0142437190

Something of a modern classic in travel literature, In Patagonia, which The New York Times calls a "little masterpiece of travel, history, and adventure," was first published in 1977. The unorthodox travelogue chronicles 34-year-old British journalist Bruce Chatwin's six-month visit to the harsh, windy area at the bottom of South America belonging to both Argentina and Chile. Unlike other travel books of the time, In Patagonia mostly ignores the author (there are no details on how he gets here or there), preferring to shine a light on the colorful people inhabiting the desolate area that's so rich in stories and history. Sharing portraits of a few of them, including descendants of Welsh immigrants and a look at the Patagonian lives of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Chatwin spins entertaining yarns that have been pleasing readers for over 30 years.

Publisher: Vintage Departures
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/03/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307386120
ISBN-10: 0307386120

In this "fascinating and candid account" (Publishers Weekly), field linguist Dan Everett relates his amazing adventures living with the Pirahã people, who reside deep in the rainforests of Brazil, and learning their unique language. Everett, who started off as a Christian missionary hoping to convert the native people, first met members of the small Pirahã tribe in 1977 when he began a path that would alter both his life (Would his marriage survive? Would his faith?) and modern linguistics (Everett's findings differ from what experts such as Noam Chomsky have theorized). If you love words, we bet that this powerfully written book will speak to you.

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Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/21/2011
ISBN-13: 9780307272539
ISBN-10: 0307272532

At the top of South America, between Venezuela and Brazil, most of the citizens of three countries -- Guyana (previously British Guiana), Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana), and French Guiana -- live in coastal towns along the 900-mile shoreline. Their fellow citizens make their homes in the jungle that starts about 10 miles inland. Due to their geography, the countries are part of but somewhat separate from South America (they are also the only mainland countries on the continent that never belonged to Spain or Portugal). Recounting his travels around the Guianas, John Gimlette evocatively and entertainingly describes the land's violent history, its amazing insects (the biggest ants in the world live here!), its forbidding landscape, and the people who call it home. Humorous yet full of facts and information, Wild Coast may please J. Maarten Troost's many fans.