It has been quite a month.

• 19 people won a total of 22 books or DVDs in the “daily” drawings.
• 14 people started e-mail subscriptions to A Traveler’s Library.
• 2 people won Grand Prize Packages–And HERE THEY ARE:

January Grand Prize Winners

1.  Shawshank Redemption Package: Connie Ong, who blogs thoughtfully about her life at Unbirthday Escapades, is a movie fan and we hope she’ll get to take advantage of the free tour of the Ohio Reformatory where the movie Shawshank Redemption was filmed.

We thank the Mansfield, Ohio Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for providing a coffee mug, the tour tickets, and a movie poster. A Traveler’s Library added a carry bag (that was a gift from Mansfield) and a t-shirt that we bought while on a press tour sponsored by Mansfield.

2. A Pair of OKAb Shoes: Cathy Sweeney, who blogs about travel at her photo-filled blog Traveling With Sweeney, is picking a pair of these terrific shoes, that are just right for travel.

We thank the OKA b shoe company for their generous contribution of a pair of shoes of the winners choice.  You can see their wide selection at the OKA b web site.

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Destinations: Milan, New York City and Brittany in France

Book: P.O. Box Love: A Novel of Letters (originally 2009, but NEW in English– February 2012) by Paola Calvetti

I reviewed this delicious new romance in e-book format, and as I read P.O. Box Love, I used the bookmark function on my Sony reader to mark favorite passages (there were so many!) and to make a list of people for whom I want to buy the book (there were so many!) If you get the impression that I am recommending this gem to lovers of travel and lovers of literature, you have guessed correctly

The Belle Ile Love Nest

If you have ever been tempted to look up an old girlfriend or boyfriend, you will sympathize with Frederico. If you have doubts about revealing yourself to someone from your past, you’ll understand Emma. Did you ever have the urge to open a bookstore? You’ll love Dreams & Desires, Emma’s bookstore in Milan that specializes in romance. Paola Calvetti, the Italian author, agreed to answer some questions for readers of A Traveler’s Library, and in my first question, I get at one of the reasons this book stands apart. P.O. Box Love blows apart the assumption that romance ends at 35 or so.

A Traveler’s Library:  How did the protagonists’ age change your task as a romance writer? 

Menhir Jean, Belle Ile, Brittany

PC: The way I found Belle Île was really strange and… tied to the destiny of the book. I was in Concarneau; it was a cloudy afternoon and I was visiting its historical monuments, having a cup of tea and wandering in the alleyways. I happened to enter an ancient bookstore run by an old bookseller selling second-hand books. I asked him “do you have any books about Breton legends or rather a love legend?” “Of course”, he answered, the great story of Jean and Jeanne!”

There are literary quotations in abundance throughout P.O. Box Love. Emma ironically quotes Virginia Woolf,” how very little natural gift words have for being useful.” A sign on the wall of the store says “The only advice you can give someone about reading is not to accept any advice…” But we asked advice anyhow– for books that inspire travel.   Paola echoed the beliefs of A Traveler’s Library.

Indeed the book is a love poem to the United States, particularly since Frederico is an Italian temporarily living in New York City during September 2001 and the book deals with the shock and horror of 9-11-01. Frederico (and the author) love the Morgan Library in New York and we are treated to the history of Morgan and the architectural challenges of adapting an historic building.

A love story told in letters sounds as though it would be a simple affair, but P.O. Box Love is enriched with  literature,  architecture, the beauty of three countries, the interplay of interesting characters, including a mother and her teenage son, and the invasion of the Internet into previously hidebound practices of publishing. All these factors contribute to a winner of a book. I welcomed Frederico and Emma into my life and was sorry to say goodbye.

Follow Paola on Facebook.

Disclaimer: Links to the book on Amazon are affiliate links, meaning that anything you buy when you use the link will help support A Traveler’s Library, and we thank you very much.  The photographs here are all the property of Paola Calvetti and should not be reused without express permission.

Today’s prize, the LAST January birthday present, a copy of P.O. Box Love, goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets (using @pen4hire) or mentions Vera Marie Badertscher on Google+ (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Wednesday, February 1, 3:00 a.m. MST. This is your last chance, also, to enter for the Grand Prize drawing.  

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Destination: Sicily

Book: The Honoured Society: The Sicilian Mafia Observed, by Norman Lewis (Original-1964 with postscript added in 1984; reviewed edition 2003.)

If you were playing word-association, Sicily-Mafia might be your first reaction.  The Honoured Society  seems to me to be a perfect addition to a library of travel literature– if you read it along with Seeking Sicily– to understand that region of Italy. You will find many of the same themes in the two books.

Norman Lewis is best known as an outstanding travel writer. (See my review of Naples ’44). But his first wife was Swiss-Sicilian, and her father, an exile from Sicily, belonged to the Mafia. Thus began Lewis’ interest in the honoured society. His book benefits from personal experience and meticulous research in addition to Lewis’ skills as a wordsmith. Think how much he enhances the following paragraph, which could have been a dry list of facts.

“In this world one occasionally stumbles upon a place which, in the physical presence, and the atmosphere it distills, manages somehow to match its reputation for sinister happenings.  Such a town is Corleone.  A Total of 153 murders took place between 1944 and 1948 alone.” (This in a town of 18,000.)

Like John Keahey, in Seeking Sicily, Lewis traces the characteristics of Sicilian history back through its many conquerors.

Like Keahey, Lewis says, “Sicily is not Italy.”  He goes on, “nor–with the exception of the spas, the palms, and the mimosas of its eastern seaboard–is it even recognizably a Mediterranean country.”

Although the Mafia’s first appearance may not be clearly marked in a timeline of history, there is no question that the Spanish Inquisition, while Sicily sat under the thumb of Spain, played a large part. Since the Inquisition not only punished, but confiscated property, the aristocrats enthusiastically joined the Inquisition, both to enrich themselves and to protect their property. For 300 years, in the 15th-18th centuries, property was taken in this way.  The Mafia became the protector of the poor by the only avenue open to them–vendetta.

Part of the delight of reading Lewis lies in his ability to make amazing and detailed connections. He traces the fatalism and vendettas of the Sicilian culture back to African tribal rituals and to the desert tribes of Arab lands. Remember the horse’s head at the beginning of  The Godfather? African tribal rituals included depositing of a beheaded dog or sheep on an enemies doorstep.

“Without realizing it, they have killed each other as far back as anybody can remember, and still kill each other, not so much out of bloodthirsty sentiment, but from economic necessity.  There has never been enough to go around, so the vendetta becomes a device for keeping down the population.”

The Mafia’s survival has depended upon an agility in adapting to economic circumstances.  In the early days, serious money could be made in manufacturing phony religious relics and selling the seats in church and devotional candles. But land was the real base of operations.Feudal systems survived in Sicily long after the Middle Ages died in the rest of Europe. The land-holding aristocracy utilized the Mafia as protectors of the land and enforcers and later to ensure votes for conservative politicians. A rupture developed when the land-holders decide it is in their best interest to support Mussolini who set out to destroy the Mafia.

New allies popped up with World War II. Because the Mafia were anti-Mussolini, the United States army enlisted them to help defeat the Italians. Imported American gangster Lucky Luciano was given authority, and the brotherhood’s business practices turned to controlling the black market  (with American support) and, after the war, to Luciano’s favorite business–heroin. The traditional Mafia leaders in Italy would not support his other business–prostitution. That was not honourable in their eyes.

I was amazed to learn that after the war when Sicily struggled with the question of their relationship to a newly independent Italy, the Mafia leaders favored becoming the 49th state of the United States. (Hawaii and Alaska had not yet joined the U. S.)

The Mafia power through alliances that had lasted for centuries began to crack in the 1960′s and the postscripts to the book describe the rather pessimistic scene in the early 1980′s.  Today, according to John Keahey, in Seeking Sicily,  the Mafia has been reduced from a powerful organization that dominates Sicily to more or less independent outlaws, no longer supported by church, state and journalists. However, a website called Mafia Today recently ran an article stating that the Sicilian Mafia is the most successful business in Italy today in the face of economic disaster for  legitimate business. It seems it will never end. At least the Mafia wars no longer threaten travelers and it is once more safe to book your travel to Sicily.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our week in Sicily.  If you’d like to read some contemporary travel experiences on the island, check Hecktic Travels blog for their series on Sicily; Travel Solo for top things to do in Sicily and Joe’s Trippin’ about Southern Sicily.

More reading on Sicily:

 I Siciliana by Adrian Cole–travels with the Mafia in Sicily.

The same author writes about Norman Lewis in Italy and Spain in Tender Beginner: A Twentieth Century Witness. He says of Lewis’ relationship to Sicily:

“…a life-long attachment to the island, its people and its problems, and in the tradition of the greatest of writers, what is left after the descriptions and the anecdotes and the details is a sense not just of place, but more importantly of the human relationships which underwrite the whole endeavor of being a traveler, and dependent on the generosity of strangers. “

Is Mafia the first thing YOU think of when you hear Sicily? Would it concern you enough that you might not travel to Sicily?

Disclaimers: The links to Amazon make it easier for you to purchase books, however because A Traveler’s Library is an affiliate of Amazon, we earn a few cents for every purchase–even though it does not cost you any more.  All Pictures here come from Flickr with Creative Commons license. Click on picture to learn more.

CONTEST OVER! The Giveaway prize today goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+. It is a copy of On the Road to Babadag: Travels in the Other Europe by Andzej Stasiuk, a stylish travel book about middle Europe.  (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Monday, January 30, 3:00 a.m. MST. This is your next to last chance to win. See complete rules here.)

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The Governor's Palace, Palermo, Sicily

Movie: The Leopard (1963), Starring Bert Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon

John Keahey,the author of Seeking Sicily, calls the book, The Leopard, (not to be confused with Jo Nesbo’s latest mystery by the same name) a blockbuster and essential reading to understand Sicily. Although I’d like to read the book (1956) some day, I cheated and watched the movie, made in 1963.

You see, I’ll watch just about any movie with Burt Lancaster  (1913-1994). I love the way he moves. I love his sense of power and the feeling you get that he has a secret. From his sexy days on the beach with Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity, to his  dramatic role in Come Back Little Sheba , to his old man role on the boardwalk of Atlantic City , he was a gem of a movie star. This article lists the incredible Lancaster films, in case you’ve missed them. And, getting back to the subject at hand–Lancaster plays the Prince who represents the sinking aristocrat based on the book author’s own grandfather.

I also ordered up The Leopard  from Netflix because of Keahey’s recommendation of The Leopard and because I love movies that convey the history of a place I want to visit. I love movies with beautiful scenery and an authentic portrayal of a culture. And from what I read, it appears that the movie is fairly true to the book. The book relates the story of the mid-1800′s in Sicily, a time of upheaval for the aristocracy, who had been loyal to the Bourbon royalty. However, the movement for a united Italy headed by Garibaldi appealed to them until they decided they would be better off under an Italian King than a democratic Italy, and went with the first King of a United Italy.

The settings are grand–palaces on ancestral estates in Southwest Sicily. And the narrow hilly streets of the towns are appealing, but I could not help feeling that movie was almost too true to the original New York Times travel article, I realized just how good a guide to Sicily the movie actually is.

I could not help feeling that the movie stuck too close to the book. Most of the film moves along at a stately pace, but the last 40 minutes takes place at a ball where all is character development, and nothing moves the plot forward. My feeling is not shared by a lot of eminent critics and you can read what Roger Ebert had to say about The Leopard in 2003.

The political tugs and pulls on the Prince and the buffoonish Mayor (although not made clear in the movie, he’s a Mafia member, and a fairly typical one according to the author we discuss on Friday) definitely are fascinating. You will come away from this book, or the movie understanding a good deal more about the historic politics of Sicily than you knew before.

In the conversation most representative of the Sicilian character, the Prince is asked to run for the Senate in the newly unified Italy. He refuses, explaining that

“Too many things have been done without Sicilians being consulted for you to be able now–to ask a member of the old governing class to help develop things and carry them through...” Sicilians, he says, only want to sleep.  “…they will always hate anyone who tries to wake them, even in order to bring the most wonderful gifts; and I must say, between ourselves, I have  strong doubts whether the new Kingdom will have many gifts for us in its luggage.”

Yes, despite the fact that it may seem a bit slow for the modern audience, the film is still gorgeous and enticing to the traveler to Sicily. I’d say add it to your traveler’s library, unless you’d rather read the book.

Have you been to Sicily?  Did you get a feeling of the complexity of their history?

The Giveaway prize today goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+. It is a copy of Lights, Camera, Travel, a Lonely Planet collection of essays by people in the movie industry about places where they filmed. It is an interesting and varied collection. The “varied” is why I have not reviewed it. I prefer books all about one destination. (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Thursday Jan.26, 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.)

Disclaimer: The photo at the top comes from Flickr and is used under Creative Commons license. Please click on the photo to learn more about the photographer. The movie trailer comes from You Tube.

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Castle of Erice, Sicily, Photograph by John Keahey

Sicily Week at A Traveler’s Library

Destination: Sicily

Book: Seeking Sicily (NEW November 2011) by John Keahey

John Keahey‘s effort to understand Sicily starts with a book, (But of course!) and continues with repeated travels and extended stays in Sicily. His wander lust, he tells us, was born even earlier, in a Carnegie Library. Clearly we are going to like this guy!

He says in Seeking Sicily, that he wanted to read native Sicilian writers, and started with Giovanni Vergas’ Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories, which descries rural life in 19th century Sicily. Luigi Pirandello, writing in the 19th and 20th century, added more understanding.

Photo by John Keahey

Then came the most important Sicilian writer, Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989). The main base of Keahey’s operations and home of his favorite literary key to Sicily is Racalmuto.  This small town was birthplace and home base for Sciascia. Like many western Sicilians, Sciascia had Arab root. He once told a journalist that his family name was originally XaXa, “an Arab word meaning a soft material or netting.” Keahey visits the Fondazione Leonardo Sciascia, Sciascia’s grave, and his country home.

Keahey thinks Sciascia was a cynic until Sciascia scholar (and the author’s grand daughter) corrects him. “Oh, no, no, no,” she says with finality. “He was skeptical! Cynical has another meaning in Italian. To say someone is cynical is to say he has no principles!”

Sciascia, who frequently went against the popular trends of the day, says in one of his books, “Skepticism isn’t an acceptance of defeat,” but a margin of safety, of elasticity.”

And what does this have to do with Sicily? Plenty, it turns out. I helps explain the rise of the Mafia, the resistance to thinking of themselves as Italian, the surprising influence of the Arabs and why Sicily is painted as “irrational.”

Keahey explains the sculpture on the street of Racalmuto (pictured above) by saying,  ”Sciascia, in bronze, ‘walking’ along Racalmuto’s main street, a regular practice of his. He always had a cigarette in his right hand, but the sculptor removed it ‘to protect the eyes of young children who may bump into it.’

From his reading and his travels, Keahey provides us with important clues to Sicilian personality and culture.

1. Sicily has almost never experienced self-rule, being the target of Carthagenians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Spainards, French, and Italians.
2. As residents of a perpetual colony, the people turned inward, trusting only family–not authority.
3. Sicilians are not Italians. The author says, “Sicilians might be viewed in America and elsewhere as ‘Italians,’ but in their hearts and souls they are Sicilians.”
4. The people of Sicily perceive their location as north of Africa rather than south of Italy.
5. The original power of the Mafia grew out of close association with the authorities, and their more recent power came most notably from the Americans after the Allied invasion of World War II. (And we’ll be talking more about the Mafia this coming Friday. Their story is told by a famous travel writer.)

Seeking Sicily starts in Palermo at the ruins of  Palazzo Lampedusa, palatial home of  yet another author, Guiseppi di Lampedusa (1897- ). Travel note: the palazzo was bombed in World War II and after standing in ruins for many years, is currently under partial restoration. Lampedusa’s novel The Leopard is characterized as “a must read for anyone who wants insight into Sicilians and how they became who they are, separate both culturally and emotionally from the rest of Italy.”  (Stay tuned. On Wednesday this week we’ll talk about the 196 3 movie, The Leopard, starring Bert Lancaster.)

Painted Cart, Photo by John Keahey

But fear not, this book is not all academic analysis and literary review.As we accompany the author of Seeking Sicily, he experiences the grinding heat of summer, the joys of natural landscape and ancient ruins, and the rought-edged gray look of Palermo (suggesting a Norman heritage rather than a Roman one).  He meets one of the few remaining cart painters, who decorates two-wheeled carts with vividly colored scenes, as seen above. Of this picture, he says, “A chance encounter with the real thing, on a Sunday morning drive, in the area of Partinico along SS113, perhaps 20 kilometers southwest of Palermo.”

Keahey even devotes a chapter to food and recipes.

In each place we learn more about Sicilian culture. In addition to the books and authors mentioned in the text, the author provides a lengthy biography and a detailed index, making it easy to find everything in you want to know about Sicily.

Perhaps I’m an easy sell, because I’ve always been fascinated by Sicily–particularly by the outstanding Greek ruins–but this book has me definitely yearning to book passage sooner rather than later.

Although I have never been to Sicily, I did go to Italy. If you’re looking for reading other than Sicily, I listed these suggestions for Italian reading a while back. The Browser.com interviewed one of “my ” Italian authors, Tim Parks, who picks Italian novels, one of which is Sicilian.

You have four chances to win a copy of Seeking Sicily (which was given to me by the publisher). Be sure to check the rules, and remember that if you already have a subscription, you need to tell me in the comments that you want that extra entry every day for your reward. You have from now until 3:00 a.m. MST Wednesday, January 25 to enter today’s contest.

Disclaimers: the links to book titles are a convenient way for you to shop at Amazon. Just know that if you use them, even though they don’t cost extra, A Traveler’s Library will earn a few cents on each purchase, and we thank you! The video book trailer is the publisher’s creation and comes from You Tube. All photos used here are used with the consent of John Keahey. They are his property.

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NOTE: The Arizona State Alumni magazine wrote about Kristin Espinasse in December 2011.  You can read it here.

Destination: France

Book: Blossoming in Provence by Kristin Espinasse

You might think at first glance that a beautiful blond from Arizona who goes to Paris to study and winds up marrying an impossibly handsome Frenchman who starts a successful vineyard where they live in Provence and have two children….you might think that is pretty much a fairy tale life.

Well, yeah, but fortunately for all us dreamers, Kristin Espinasse spills all the difficulties of marrying France along with her tempting photographs of the life of Provence. Before you start hating her for her life, and because she is an accomplished writer and photographer, please read what she has written. In Blossoming in Provence, her sequel to Words in a French Life, we learn, for instance, that the impossibly handsome Frenchman doesn’t just pack light on a weekend trip, he packs in a trash bag and leaves his toothbrush at home because he can always use hers. (Now those are two tips I’ve never seen the numerous travel blog posts on packing light.)

A riot of daiseys, Giverney

And then there are the children, who have grown up in full public view as Kristin has blogged about their life for the past seven years. From correcting her French vocabulary when they were in grade school (rolled yeux. “Oh Maman!”) or they spill a mint drink all over the floor she has just cleaned for guests, and as they enter their teens, we regular readers of the French Word a Day blog begin to worry that they will soon leave home and blog.

But lest you think all she talks about are the annoyances of expat life, I must hasten to say that Kristin turns every one of her vary personal experiences into a lovely and positive  life lesson.  Not only that, but each one is a French lesson as well! As she is making sense of her life in France, we are meeting irrisistable characters like her mother (who now lives in Mexico), Jean-Marc’s family–who, trust me, are NOTHING like the French family in Le Mariage. And that is why I am breaking with the January tradition and not giving away the book I’m reviewing today. I CANNOT part with it.

Restaurant sign in Brittany

If you, as I did, once studied French, but got away from it and want to brush up a bit, freshen your vocabulary with today’s slang–you’ve come to the right place.  Blossoming in Province presents selections from the French Word a Day blog. Each includes some French expressions within the little story and a list at the end. (On the blog you can also get pronunciation help from one of her native French speaking family). So loyal are Kristin’s followers that they comment vigourously, suggesting corrections or alternatives to the words and expressions she presents. AND the blog readers helped her select and edit the entries for this book.  Which may explain why this little book strikes me as so much more worthwhile than many made-from-blog books.

Just one teeny suggestion. I would like to have a complete vocabulary list at the end of the book, as well as the list at the end of each chapter. And maybe next time (there has to be a next time) we could have a brief vocabulary of generally useful phrases to go with the specialized ones in the stories?

You don’t have to know French, or even want to learn it to enjoy this book and its mother blog, though. Want to enjoy beautiful photography of France that will have you  booking a flight? Love dogs? She rarely posts without mentioning her two beautiful goldens. Are you a writer or wanna-be writer? She shares her learning process as she becomes a writer. Or do you just like a little inspiration for finding the good things in your life and fully enjoying it?  Travel Library or not, you will thoroughly enjoy Blossoming in Province, its predecessor Words In a French Life and Kristin Espinasse’s blog, French-Word-a-Day.

Disclaimers: Kristin sent me a review copy of her latest book, but I had already bought the first book and am a subscriber to the blog, so obviously one review copy will not sway my opinion. Photos are my own, although they are not in Provence, they are in France. I excuse that fault since I have not been to Provence, and since Kristin does also used photos from other parts of the country. Links to book titles take you to Amazon, where by some sort of miracle although you spend no more, I earn a few pennies from each purchase. Thanks!

So although I’m holding back Blossoming in Province, I have to offer you SOMETHING, don’t I?  Strictly your choice if you wish to accept it.  Another terrific book for travelers is The Portuguese, A Modern History, reviewed here. If you would like to have this review copy, let me know in the comments below, or in a tweet or on Google+ or all three. Keep in mind that people who have subscribed to the blog, and told me that in a comment are winning lots of things, because they get an automatic entry every day. But you have to TELL me!

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Two weeks ago we looked at a variety of windows from the outside.

Here are views from some views from the inside of various lodgings that we particularly enjoyed.

The Dashiell Hammett Room at Union Square Hotel, San Francisco

Budapest Apartment Window with view of St. Stephen's Square

View of Chicago River and lake from Westin Hotel

View from Le Case Hotel, Le Marche region, Italy

Le Torricelle View, Le Marche region, Italy

Steinerhof Pension, Salzburg

Rome hotel street view from room

View from Adobe Grande Villas, Sedona

East Winds apartment view, St. Lucia

Night view from Warwick Hotel, NYC

These photos are this week’s contribution to Travel Photo Thursday.  You can see travel photos from around the world by going to Budget Traveler’s Sandbox. Next week some windows (and maybe some doors) from Venice, Italy.

The Giveaway prize today goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+. It is a copy of Running Away To Home, Jennifer Wilson’s account of her family’s return to her ancestral village in Croatia. I reviewed Running Away to Home here. (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Friday 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.)

What is the best view you have ever had from a hotel room?  And by the way, I have not yet posted the BEST view I had from a hotel room. That would have been in Greece, hanging right out over the water on the west coast of the Peloponnese, or perhaps in Switzerland looking across Lake Lucerne, or maybe that one that hung on the cliff in Santorini. Oh dear!! I’ll never decide. Are you more decisive than I am??

Disclaimers: Running Away To Home was provided by the publisher for review. All these photos are my property, and I will appreciate your respect for my copyright.

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Get busy with your entries because the stakes just got higher.  Besides the prizes that I am giving away each day in January, there are two grand prizes that will be given away on February 1 to someone who has entered throughout the month.

You don’t need to have Prince Charming to get your magic slippers.

Oka b Shoes

WIN A Pair of OKA b Shoes.

Your choice of their inventory.  Check out the OKA b web site for all the choices. I own two pairs and I’ve  raved about these shoes in my Ten Perfect Gifts list. They are GREAT multi-purpose shoes/slippers for travel. (And yes, they have some men’s shoes, also.)

Oka b Mini Mule

WIN A Shawshank Redemption Prize Package

Show your fandom of this powerful movie with an “official” movie fan T-shirt and a book bag with the Shawshank Redemption Trail logo.

Tell me more! How do I win??

If you commented on each new post in January, you would get 19 chances. 19 more if you tweeted @pen4hire announcements every day, 19 more if you mentioned or commented on a post by Vera Marie Badertscher at Google +. and 19 more if you subscribed on the first day of the contest, or if you were a subscriber already and told me that you wanted to be counted for an extra chance every day. First name drawn on February 1 will win the Shawshank Package and the second name drawn will win a pair of Oka b Shoes.

Now, honestly, NOBODY is going to get that many chances, but I just want you to know that you can really stuff the ballot box by entering often. It is not too late to start. Although each person is only entitled to one daily prize, the  daily winners’ names are put back in the pool for the final grand prize drawings. Please see the page cleverly titled Contest Rules for all the fine print.

Now please read Family Travel Friday and enter the contest to win two books to help on a road trip.

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Culture Travel Tuesday

by Dr. Jessie Voigts

Destination: France

Books: Several about food–read on.

Dessert Plate at Mariage Freres tea room, Paris

France. What’s the first thing you think of? If you’re anything like me, it’s all about the food. I dream of luscious cheeses, mouthwatering chocolates, special meals, and of course ANYTHING I can get at a boulangerie. Blame it on Molly Wizenberg, Alexander Lobrano, Patricia Wells, and David Lebovitz. Whenever I read books on food and France, the Proustian moment pops up (as expected).

To start this new year off well, I’d like to share my very favorite books on Food and France. Soon, I imagine that you, too, will be trying recipes, reading deep into the cold dark winter nights, and dreaming of walking through the door of your favorite chocolatier or boulangerie, tossing off your order in flawless French.

Long Ago In France: The Years in Dijon, by MFK Fisher
This started it, for me…that life-long love of France and French food. This book is both is a memoir of three years in Dijon as a postgrad student and an ode to exploring, learning, and loving food, by America’s foremost literary food writer. While still on chapter one, I ran to the store and bought a huge jar of Dijon mustard. I put it in vinaigrettes, main dishes, on sandwiches – and also, just opened it and smelled FRANCE. I still remember her descriptions of how the smell of Dijon mustard wafted through the town, and wanted it for myself. This book is, yes, still on my nightstand.

Eat Smart in France: How to decipher the menu, know the market foods, and embark on a tasting adventure, by Ronnie Heiss.
Eat Smart in France is filled with recipes (!), gorgeous photos, the history of French cuisine, tips for shopping, resources for finding ingredients, helpful phrases, a menu guide, food and flavor guide, and a reference guide to the food establishments. Want to know more? You can read our interview with author Ronnie Hess – an award-winning journalist who has lived and worked in France .

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vols. 1 & 2, by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck
Need I say more? This is THE classic — cookbooks that have inspired movies, books, blogs, and more meals than we can count. It changed the way that Americans cooked, and thought about global cuisines. I haven’t worked my way through them one recipe at a time, but have chosen the dishes I love most to prepare. If you buy one cookbook set, let it be this.

The Sweet Life in Paris, by David Lebovitz
After I read the review here on A Traveler’s Library, I had to get this book for myself (thank you, ATL!). I was not disappointed – great recipes, marvelous stories of living in France, and pure joy at reading the life of an expat foodie in Paris. Finding spices can be difficult, depending on what you’re looking for. Finding great food? Not so difficult. A glimpse into life in a tiny apartment in Paris? Both cautionary and inspiring. A great, great read. Extra Bonus: LOTS Of chocolate references and recipes.

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, by Molly Wizenberg
Not a book about food and France, per se. But the chapters that talk about food and France both inspire and get you in the kitchen. Author Wizenberg (if you haven’t been to her popular blog, Orangette yet, go there first) shares stories and recipes, including of her time in France. I love this kind of book, where you read a bit, and then delve into a recipe. Yes, I’ve made her father’s potato salad, and the dark chocolate ginger banana bread, and, well, almost all of the recipes in the book. Definitely worth a read, for more than the France sections. Want to know the backstory? We talked with Molly at Wandering Educators.

Hungry for Paris: The Ultimate Guide to the City’s 102 Best Restaurants, by Alexander Lobrano
Renowned food writer Lobrano seems to be all over the place – on tv, in the New York Times, Saveur, and a whole host of food magazines. He’s based in Paris. Need I say more? He’s your inside guide to eating well in Paris. Hungry for Paris also addresses cultural aspects of French Cuisine – including manners, mores, history, reservations, and more. Each restaurant Alec recommends is a gem – I almost had to stop reading after each entry, to think about what I’d order, and to visualize its location, chef, and menu for myself. Whether you have a large or small meal budget in Paris, a taste for classical French food or leaning toward ethnic or bistro fare, this book covers it. One key aspect of this book is that it teaches the reader about food in France in “The Happy Eater’s Almanac: How To Have a Perfect Meal in Paris.” Definitely a must-read, and a necessity for your next trip to Paris.

The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food, by Adam Gopnik
I’ll read just about anything by Adam Gopnik (love his articles in the New Yorker). He spent years in Paris, and is a true foodie. The essays in this book cover a variety of topics (to eat meat or not; how the modern restaurant started; contemporary French cuisine; history; culture), but it is his paean to food and family, of eating together, of the pleasures of the table (wherever that table may be) that has drawn me in.

And a kids book (because it is never too young to start either cooking or traveling)…

Crepes by Suzette, by Monica Wellington
Monica Wellington is a beloved children’s book author and illustrator. Yes, we’ve read all of her books. But this one, it is something special. Crepes by Suzette follows a crepe maker throughout her day, moving around Paris and making crepes for her customers. You’ll see your favorite Paris landmarks, of course. Wellington is truly creative, though, and works in pictorial references to great works of art. It’s fun, simple to read, teaches about a place and art, and also inspires young chefs. The crepe recipe in the book is a classic – and is the first recipe that our daughter (then 3) ever made. She’s gone on to master many other recipes (and been featured in a cookbook), but this is her very favorite.

Thanks, Jessie. For anyone who is worried about eating cheaply in Paris, check out my e-book, Ten Places to Eat Cheap(er) in Paris. 

Today’s prize to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+ is a copy of Parisian Postcards, (not reviewed) a collection of travel essays and travel tips written by Dr. Loui Franke, an American who worked and lived in France. (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Wednesday, January 11, 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.) 

Disclaimer: Parisian Postcards was supplied by the author. Book cover links that take you to Amazon enable you to shop and although you spend no more, A Traveler’s Library earns a few cents with everything you buy.The photo at the top is Ken’s property. Please do not copy without express permission. Thank you.

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Music Monday

by Kerry Dexter

Destination: Scotland

Music: Acquaintance, by Jim Malcolm (Beltane Records)

There’s a statue of him in Canberra and a town named after him in Oregon, his words have inspired writers in India and musicians in Russia, and every year at the end of January, people across the world gather to remember the birth and life of this poet. More than two centuries after his time, his work is widely known by those who love poetry and Scotland, and those who don’t know a thing about either. This is Scotland’s national bard, poet and songwriter Robert Burns.

Robert Burns Statue

 Jim Malcolm is a Scot, too, and a musician, from Highland Perthshire. He’s been honored  for both his writing and his singing. Still, given Burns’ prolific output (he wrote or revised more than three hundred songs and poems) and his well-known presence in all thing Scottish, it’s a challenge for any musician from Scotland to find an approach and choose a program of songs that adds his or her own stamp to the ploughman poet’s work. It’s a challenge Malcolm meets well in his album Acquaintance.

His approach is conversational and low-key (this is the man who has been called the James Taylor of Scotland, after all), with at times a dash of humor and at times an honoring of the poet’s lyrical side. Malcolm opens the collection with Rantin’ Rovin’ Robin, a lively piece that’s a bit of a Burns autobiography. Another side of Burns, the political one which included belief in the value and equality of all, comes out in A Man’s a Man for A’ That. You can almost laugh along with the farmer’s wife and  see him dancing in  The Ploughman. Jim Malcolm and Robert Burns both show their senses of humor in The Shepherd’s Wife, as well.

Malcolm’s own wife, Susie, who is a very fine singer in her own right, joins in for a duet on that one. Westin Winds is a lyrical vignette of the Scottish landscape, and Malcolm’s own song, Killikrankie, stands in good company alongside the writings of Robert Burns.

Whether you are recalling a trip to Scotland or dreaming of one, Jim Malcolm’s album makes a fine traveling companion. If you’re still  a bit foggy on just who Robert Burns was and why his name sounds familiar — the album is called Acquaintance, and the closing song on it is Auld Lang Syne.

You might like to read about two other great contemporary takes on Robert Burns music, one by Eddi Reader and the other by Emily Smith and Jamie McClennan. You might also like to see Jim and Susie Malcolm singing his own song Fields of Angus.

As a policy of A Traveler’s Library, we tell you about affiliate links. The links included here may make it possible for you to listen to excerpts of the music, and the ones to Amazon in this post are affiliate links. If you buy anything through the affiliate links in this post, you will be supporting the site Music Road. Thank you. The  photographs are by Kerry Dexter and are copyrighted. Thank you for respecting this.

In keeping with Kerry’s celebration of the New Year and it’s famous bard, the giveaway book today is a British comic novel about Christmas, Comfort & Joy by India Knight. (England is as close to Scotland as I could get, sorry!). Today’s prize goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+ before the deadline. See the review of Comfort and Joy here. (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Tuesday, January 10, 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete contest rules here.)

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