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Armchair Travel February 2020
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| Wild Life: Dispatches From a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs by Keena RobertsWhat it's about: Keena Robert's funny, tender coming-of-age story vividly details life in two different worlds: wildlife research camps in Kenya and Botswana, where her primatologist parents worked part of the year, and an elite prep school in Philadelphia, where Keena struggled to fit in.
Chapters include: The First Three Times I Almost Died; High School Water Hole; There Are No Doctors Here; Goodbye, Narnia.
For fans of: the delightful Cathedral of the Wild by Boyd Varty, who grew up on a South African game preserve; Alexandra Fuller's moving Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood. |
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Infused : adventures in tea
by Henrietta Lovell
What it is: a blend of travel writing, memoir, recipes and stunning photography, takes readers along on a quest around the world from the Shire Highlands of Malawi, across the foothills of the Himalayas, and to hidden gardens in the Wuyi-Shan. We are invited to discover these remarkable places, introducing us to the individual growers and household name chefs that reveal the true pleasures of tea.
About the author: The “Rare Tea Lady,” is on a mission to revolutionize the way we drink tea by replacing industrially produced teabags with the highest quality tea leaves.
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| Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the... by Sara WheelerWhat it is: an informative, lighthearted, and personal look at both contemporary Russia and some of the country's most famous writers.
What happened: Veteran British travel writer Sara Wheeler spent two years traveling in Russia, skipping hotels for homestays, learning the language and cooking traditions, and focusing on the country's Golden Age writers, like Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Dostoyevsky.
Read this next: Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia, Elif Batuman's The Possessed, or Rachel Polonsky Molotov's Magic Lantern. |
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| Around the World in 60 seconds: The Nas Daily Journey -- 1,000 Days. 64 Countries... by Nuseir (Nas) Yassin with Bruce KlugerWhat it is: an inspiring, beautifully photographed book by dynamic, personable video blogger Nuseir "Nas" Yassin about his multi-year, 64-country adventure, focusing on what he's learned along the way.
Author buzz: Yassin is a Palestinian-Israeli Harvard grad who left his Manhattan tech job to start Nas Daily, a hugely popular series of 1,000 one-minute travel videos shot all over the world. |
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Books You May Have Missed
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| Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony HorwitzWhat it's about: Going from West Virginia to Texas via car, barge, mule, and more, Confederates in the Attic author Tony Horwitz traveled through a sharply divided U.S. in 2016 to retrace the eye-opening 1850s journey of reporter (and future landscape architect) Frederick Law Olmstead.
About the author: A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Horwitz died in 2019 at the age of 60. He is survived by two sons and his wife, novelist Geraldine Brooks, who won a Pulitzer Prize herself in 2006 for March. |
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| Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country by Pam HoustonWhat it is: an evocative, lyrical essay collection that discusses life at a 120-acre Colorado Rockies homestead as well as the author's abusive childhood, self discovery, and many travels.
Reviewers say: "Always impressive, Houston is in striking form here" (Booklist); "profound and inspiring" (Kirkus Reviews).
For fans of: Cheryl Strayed's Wild, Terry Tempest Williams’ The Hour of Land, or Dean Kuipers' The Deer Camp. |
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We were rich and we didn't know it : a memoir of my Irish boyhood
by Tom Phelan
What it is: It was a time before rural electrification, the telephone, and indoor plumbing; a time when the main modes of travel were bicycle and animal cart; a time when small farmers struggled to survive.
Reviewers say: "a captivating portrait of a bygone time." (Kirkus starred review)
About the author: "Tom Phelan, was born and raised in County Laois in the Irish midlands, spent his formative years working with his wise and demanding father as he sought to wrest a livelihood from their farm.
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Algeria is beautiful like America
by Olivia Burton
What it is: a graphic nonfiction that explores the rich heritage and tumultuous modern history of Algeria and its connections to Europe.
What happened: Olivia had always heard stories about Algeria from her maternal grandmother, a Black Foot (a “Pied-Noir,” the French term for Christian and Jewish settlers of French Algeria who emigrated to France after the Algerian War of Independence). After her grandmother’s death, Olivia found some of her grandmother’s journals and letters describing her homeland. Now, ten years later, she resolves to travel to Algeria and experience the country for herself.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Anne Arundel County Public Library 5 Harry S. Truman Pkwy. Annapolis, Maryland 21401 410-222-7371https://www.aacpl.net |
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