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"Zach goes directly to the map section. He always goes there. I have never seen him go anyplace else in a bookstore." ~ from Buzz Bissinger's Father's Day
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New and Recently Released!
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The book of wanderings : a mother-daughter pilgrimage
by Kimberly Meyer
Traces how a once-bohemian dreamer and her college-student daughter shared a summer retracing the pilgrimage of a Dominican friar from Venice through the Middle East to strengthen their bond and confront personal demons.
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The world between two covers : reading the globe
by Ann Morgan
A woman embarks on a year-long quest to read a book from each of the world's 196 nations, discussing the limitations of censorship- and propaganda-ruled countries and her trouble obtaining a copy of the first Qatari novel ever translated into English.
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Focus on: Fathers and Sons
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| The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam by Tom BissellTom Bissell, a travel and fiction writer (God Lives in St. Petersburg), eloquently describes his trip to Vietnam with his father, John, some 40 years after the elder Bissell served -- and almost died -- as a U.S. Marine in the Vietnam War. In 2005, they explored the now peaceful country and reflected on how the war affected them both as well as how decades-old events still reverberate throughout the lives of thousands of soldiers and their families; in John's case, besides bad memories and the death of friends, the war contributed to his alcoholism and divorce. Bissell brings modern Vietnam to life in this heartfelt and engaging memoir/history, which also looks at the war's continuing influence in America. |
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| Father's Day: Across America with an Unusual Dad and His Extraordinary Son by Buzz BissingerIn Father's Day, Buzz Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights) relates the joys and frustrations of traveling with his son Zach, who has mental challenges resulting from brain damage at birth (his twin brother, born three minutes earlier, suffered no ill effects). Now in his mid-20s, Zach works as a grocery bagger and has distinct intellectual limits (he reads, but doesn't always comprehend) as well as talents (his memory is amazing). Wishing he could relate to his son better, Buzz takes a father-son road trip with him (though no one except Buzz thinks it's a good idea). Not only describing the things they saw and did along the way, the book also offers Buzz's reflections on what he learned about himself -- and how he gained some insight into Zach as a distinct personality. "Gorgeous and brutally honest," says The New York Times. |
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| When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter GodwinArmchair travelers interested in visiting Africa will be fascinated by journalist Peter Godwin's memoir of life in his troubled homeland. Godwin, who returned to Zimbabwe when his father suffered a heart attack, watched his father's health decline as the country descended into social and political turmoil under the leadership of dictator Robert Mugabe in the late 1990s. Godwin's parents refused to leave their adopted land even as the danger to white landowners grew, and he learned that their dedication stemmed from a family secret, one which they finally shared with him. This well-written story is a compelling read and an intriguing look at adult sons and elderly fathers. |
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| My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past by Ariel SabarWhen his own first child was born, Los Angeles-raised journalist Ariel Sabar slowly began to better understand his father, Yona, with whom he had always clashed, and so he decided to explore his father's remarkable roots. Yona, a UCLA professor, was born into an enclave of Aramaic-speaking Kurdish Jews who were forced from their homes in the mountains of northern Iraq and moved to Israel in the 1950s. In 2005, Ariel visited Israel and Iraq in order to learn more about and reconnect with his family's ancestral past. While this National Book Critics Circle Award-winner isn't a standard travelogue, it is a "graceful and resonant" (The New York Times Book Review) memoir that fans of Jewish or Iraqi history will particularly enjoy. |
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