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: New York City

Book: Lonely Planet’s Not-For-Parents Series:New York City: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know 

Review by Jennifer Close

Central Park, Broadway shows, and the Museum of Modern Art are just a few reasons that New York City has been on my list of places to visit for as long as I can remember. In all of our travels, somehow The Big Apple was always just out of reach. It was too expensive, too far from where we would be, not enough time, and just about any other reason you can think of. Now that we have children, New York City is still at the top of my travel list but I plan on adding Dylan’s Candy Bar, FAO Schwartz, the Brooklyn Bridge, and a Yankees game to that list.

Sometime this year, we will be making a trip up to visit my sister and it is only another 7 hours or so north to New York City so I have been leaving little hints for my husband. I love a glossy guidebook and have purchased a few about NYC to leave on various tables around the house. I have also blatantly stated that I am currently saving our pennies to add a couple of days in NYC to our itinerary. My husband isn’t necessarily buying it so I decided that I needed to step it up a notch. It is time to enlist the help of my kids.

Enter the Not-For-Parents series by Lonely Planet.

Loving the Book

The Not-For-Parents series includes books about New York City, London, Paris and Rome titled Everything You Ever Wanted to Know. When the book arrived, I left it on the coffee table and my five-year-old daughter found it as soon as she walked in the house. The brightly decorated cover grabbed her attention right away. She asked me to read a few things to her, but for the most part she flipped through the pages for a good thirty minutes on her own. The pages are covered with great illustrations and photographs.

My son is an avid reader so it didn’t surprise me when he spent time flipping through the illustrated pages and reading the interesting facts. He was most interested in What Lurks Beneath where the reader learns more about the sewer system and whether or not alligators really live there! I like that the book covers all different aspects of New York City. Read about Sesame Street, animals that live in the city, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty. There are pages about Ground Zero and New York’s Finest. Learn some secrets about Grand Central Station and how people checked in at Ellis Island. There is a lot of history thrown in but in a way that makes the reader want more. Even though I have been researching a visit to NYC for years, I learned a few new things myself!

Inside Everything You Wanted to Know About New York

This isn’t your typical guidebook. It doesn’t list locations, cost or hours of operation but that is okay because it is meant for children and your children will be with you on the trip, right? You can navigate and plan out when you should visit while your kids help guide the decisions about which attractions to choose. This book is meant to help get your kids ready and excited for their visit.

After reading Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about New York City, both of my children have quite an opinion of what they want to see if (when?!?) we visit New York City. They are begging dad for a visit.

My plan just might work after all!

Jennifer says: I received a review copy of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about New York City. As always, my opinions are my own with no outside influences.

Vera says: Lonely Planet is running some holiday specials right now, including buy two books, get the third free; and free shipping for purchases of $40 or more. So although we provide you with links to Amazon,(which earns a few cents for an Amazon affiliate, but costs you no more) you might want to do a little comparison shopping over at Lonely Planet. And while you’re there, look at the book I recommended as part of Ten Perfect Gifts for Travelers Who Read, the new Lonely Planet Great Journeys.

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Destination: New York City, Italy

A GUEST POST by Casey Barber

Note: Today a knowledgeable food writer tells us about a new memoir by a chef who is also a writer who travels through kitchens of New York, France, Greece, Turkey and Italy. Good for traveler’s to New York or those who want to know more about Italian cooking.

Even if you’ve never set foot in New York City restaurant, Prune, Gabrielle Hamilton‘s effortlessly charming and minuscule place on East 1st Street in Manhattan, the kind of place for which the adjective “jewel-box” was created–even if you’ve never sucked down a gin martini at its zinc bar or let a few drops of anchovy butter drip from a grilled head-on prawn onto the brown kraft-papered wobbly table, Hamilton will feed you a meaty tale via her memoir, Blood, Bones & Butter. It’s a journey through her physical worlds—the lamb feasts and cool Pennsylvania streams of her childhood, the not-yet-gentrified downtown alleys of Manhattan, the uneasy family trips to Italy, where years of tradition weigh a bit too heavy on a woman still wrestling with the idea of marriage —but also through the mind of someone who is fated to cook.

Even as Hamilton finishes a graduate program in writing, her side job as catering prep cook creeps ever closer back to the forefront of her duties until she comes to the alarming realization:

“I could wake up and tackle [kitchen prep] in a way that I would never be able to wake up and take a crack at certain literary pursuits, like, for example, illuminating the fog surrounding the human condition.”

She asks the question those of us who find ourselves baking cakes in 90˚ heat at midnight– who routinely end up with mountains of plates, bowls, beater blades, and skillets from yet another culinary experiment, wrestle with: “Did I have something in me other than dishwasher?” Don’t fret if for you, unlike me, the answer to that is no. Keep reading  Blood, Bones & Butter and slowly savor the meal in front of you while the rest of us do the dishes.

Hamilton recounts her bohemian childhood in New Hope, Pennsylvania, which abruptly ended when her adored French mother, from whom she learned to cook and who gave Hamilton the nickname “Prune” (French for “plum”), abruptly leaves the family for rural Vermont and all kids and parents scatter like marbles across the globe.

Gabrielle Hamilton © Melissa Hamilton

As an adult, Hamilton creates the restaurant Prune to “harness a hundred pivotal experiences relating to food—including hunger and worry—and translate those experiences into actual plates of food.” For anyone who’s ever arrived hungry, tired, thirsty, and even bedraggled by travel and the woes of the day, Hamilton serves up plates and atmosphere that epitomize the warm and unquestioning hospitality of simply good dishes.

In Prune’s first year of business, in walks a stubborn Italian, who—as Hamilton says—was first seduced by the food and the “insouciant female energy” of Prune and, in a The Kids Are All Right-style twist, ended up seducing Hamilton away from her girlfriend for marriage and kids. But like the Negronis she and husband Michele drank in the early days of their affair (and the description of which made this reviewer reach anew for the Campari  bottle, so enticing is their call), Hamilton’s marriage immediately finds itself in a balancing act between bitter and sweet.

She struggles with her increasing isolation from her husband while falling deeply in love with his family: namely, his Italian grandmother, Alda. Alda’s culinary gifts are the type of Italian grandmotherly talents that seem so exquisitely rustic that they must be fictional, but which anyone who’s eaten great Italian cooking knows to be no exaggeration. So what if she stores food unrefrigerated in the cupboards of the family’s villa in Puglia? She and Hamilton, who speaks very little Italian, “talk” through cooking, wordlessly sharing and tag-teaming ingredients.

With each successive trip to visit her Italian in-laws, Hamilton’s desire to become familial and to please the clan with perfect dinner party, recapturing the expansive, welcoming lamb feasts of her youth and the “salty, sweet, starchy, brothy, crispy” simplicity of meals at Prune, becomes all-encompassing. Hamilton’s search to quell her hunger and find satisfaction drives the heart of Blood, Bones & Butter. Whether she’s looking for the perfect ratio of meat to butter in a simple prosciutto sandwich or searching for a family with arms outstretched to welcome her “since my own family evaporated, years ago,” Hamilton’s story unlocks a deeply abiding yearning. Her well-written story comes from that same place, from a cook’s desire to share and please others in very basic terms. And like the best chefs and storytellers, she always leaves you wanting just a bit more.

Casey Barber

Casey Barber is the editor of the online magazine Good. Food. Stories.  and a freelance food writer/recipe developer who has written for ReadyMade, Time Out New York, and other print and online publications. Prune is one of her top five favorite restaurants in New York City.

Thanks, Casey for introducing us to this fascinating memoir about food from different cultures and the life of a chef. Readers, be sure to check out Good. Food. Stories. for some of the best food writing you’ll see anywhere.

The book title is linked to Amazon for your convenience. If you click through to Amazon and purchase anything at all, I get a few cents which helps support A Traveler’s Library. Thanks.

Do you have a favorite chef’s memoir? What makes it special?

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1. A Capitol Fourth, The Mall, Washington D.C.

What’s Special? You’re kidding, right? It is THE place to be–the seat of government, with an all-American entertainment program featuring John Philip Sousa marches and thousands of red, white and blue clad celebrants gathered on the grassy lawn in the middle of all those imposing marble buildings. Right there where the laws are made and administered and judged. And watching fireworks arc over the Washington Monument would give any patriot a thrill.

Although I’ve never been in Washington in person for July 4th, we never miss watching this celebration on PBS. The people in the audience can be as much fun as the show on stage. Jimmy Smits and Steve Martin headline this year.

2. Charles River,  Boston

Boston Fireworks on the Charles River

What’s Special? Mostly the magnificent Boston Pops Orchestra, but also the serene setting by the historic Charles River. The music is a tad classier, and so is the crowd, compared to Washington D.C., but it is still a heck of a show.

Now in its 38th year, Boston presents the famous Boston Pops orchestra on July 3 and July 4 and fireworks over the Charles River on the Fourth. For a real thrill, see the Boston July 4th show from the Charles River. I’ll be stopping over in Boston briefly in August, and loved our visit there a couple of years ago.

3. Macy’s Fireworks Celebration, Hudson River, New York City

New York City Fireworks on the Hudson River

Setting off fireworks from barges on the Hudson River is a long time tradition in New York City, perhaps remembering the fireworks of revolutionary battles with the British fought in this area. Back then New York City was a rural village with cobblestone streets, and you can still see the cobblestones on the very southern tip of Manhattan in front of the Fraunces  Tavern where George Washington gave his farewell address to the troops.  In 1976, the bi-centennial of the Declaration of Independence, one of the grandest celebrations in the land took place here, and the tradition continues.

Fireworks have been cut from a lot of city budgets, but Macy’s, who in the past have been firmly associated with Thanksgiving, because of the Thanksgiving parade, now own July 4th in NYC as well. Thank you Macy’s for one of the best events in New York, a city I love to visit.

4. Navy Pier, Chicago

What’s Special: Well, to tell the truth, I love Chicago, but the city is not funding any big fireworks shows this summer. Instead, people can trot on out to Navy Pier and see there usual 15 minute show. When I say usual–they do this fireworks display every night during the summer. It is a crowd pleaser, there will be live music, and the Pier’s  a cool place to be on a hot summer night, but it doesn’t hold a Roman candle to the extravaganzas in the other cities.

5. Big Bay
Big Bay Boom, San Diego

San Diego Fireworks on the Bay

What’s Special?San Diego has a gorgeous bay and the night views looking back toward the city or out across the lighted Coronado Bridge always take my breath away. Now add tons of exploding color being fired off from barges circling the bay–sounds incredible. View them from outdoors at Shelter Island or Seaport Village or grab a 9:00 p.m. reservation window seat at one of the hundreds of restaurants with views on the bay. Yum!

(If budgetary woes weren’t enough to slow down the fireworks shows, in California a judge questioned whether San Diego’s fireworks are environmentally safe. Only in California!The  latest ruling allows the big show to go forward in San Diego, so you can safely book your trip.)

Can you afford to get out of town for the long weekend?

Air fare just keeps going up-up-up and away as gas prices stay stratospheric, but CheapO Air lists special deals to four of these five cities. As you do your trip planning, check out the CheapOAir July 4th  flight/hotel combos for New York, San Diego, Boston and Chicago.

Finally, my favorite provider of travel bargains, Travel Zoo, sends a weekly newsletter with their bargains and on June 17 they listed a BUNCH of July 4th bargains.  If you don’t subscribe to Travel Zoo, do.

Don’t dispair if you can’t get out of town, the D.C. Capitol Fourth will be covered on Public Television, and you can curl up with one of the books we have recommended in the past.

True to their name, CheapOAir did NOT pay me to include this generous mention of them in this post. However, I will give them credit. Those are their fireworks photos above. The video comes from the folks at the Capitol Fourth, though. Travel Zoo and Peter Greenberg were mentioned without incentive, too. I just happen to like them.

Where will you be on July 4th? Do you have any special family traditions?

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Destination: United States East Coast Intracoastal Waterway

Book: Gib’s Odyssey: A Tale of Faith and Hope on the Intracoastal Waterway (NEW: May, 2011) by Walter G. Bradley

Since I have never owned a boat, I don’t generally go looking for the equivalent of a road trip by boat. Therefore, I am not familiar with all the routes that obsess people who own those “Holes in the water you throw money into” as William Buckley described his passion for sail boats. Therefore, Gib’s Odyssey acquainted me with a United States trip that I knew absolutely nothing about.

A helpful map at the beginning of the book shows the route from Key West to New York City that Gib Peters followed in his 29-foot motor boat, Ka-Ching. Author Walter G. Bradley explains the history of the Intracoastal Waterway early in the book.  From Colonial times, sailors looked for routes hugging the coast, protected from the Atlantic by barrier islands. Although an inland water route from Boston to Georgia was proposed in 1808, it was attacked piecemeal in the following 150 years. During World War II, the need for protected routes up the East coast became essential and the entire route got more attention.

Gib Peter's boat, Ka-Ching

The Ka-Ching, twenty years old, needed a lot of work, but Gib Peters always enjoyed a challenge. And as the book reveals, he was endlessly creative. He had to be, because this was not just an ordinary travel adveture. He undertook this epic voyage as a challenge to ALS, Lou Gehrigs’ disease, a relentless killer.

Among other skills, Gib was a writer, and his e-mails to friends and family, some of which became columns in the Key West Citizen newspaper, enliven what could be a depressing story of decline. The man’s sense of humor never failed–even when his voice failed him, first his arms and then his legs lost strength, and his two “deckhands”, kittens he adopted for the voyage caused him annoyance and concern–he reported every bit of the trip with self-deprecating laughs.

You learn at the beginning of the book about his diagnosis and reaction to the nearly sure fate of a person with this relentless disease. You also know that he does not survive to write the book, because it is authored by his physician, Walter G. Bradley. And despite my general avoidance of the self-discovery memoirs of people with fatal diseases (sorry, but I’m just being honest–I duck when the going gets rough), I enjoyed nearly everything about this travel book.

Because it IS a travel book. It lets us know mile by mile what it is like to travel up the Intracoastal Waterway. It had me searching for companies that do the trip as a cruise (see below)–seeing as how I would never in a thousand years be as resourceful as Gib at fixing all the little things that can go wrong aboard a boat.  However, if you are the sort to travel in your own boat,  you can find plenty of help and Intracoastal Waterway maps on line. It had me looking at the map and thinking about the southern states I have missed on my quest to visit all 50 states.

And yes, it had me thinking of the larger voyage he wrote about–his long-long thoughts about life and death.

Trip Planning:

Since I have not been on an ICW cruise myself, the following are not recommendations, just a sampling of the variety of possibilities. Numerous companies offer short versions of cruises–even one or two days anywhere from the Chesapeake Bay area to bits of the Southern coastline. I was interested in what the longest possible tours were and how much they would cost.

A charter yacht for four people from Florida Keys to the Chesapeake Bay. Sixteen days, $16,000 for the whole experience, including breakfast and lunch. Aboard The Tireless. (There’s also an eight-day option.)

15 Days Jacksonville FL to Rhode Island or vice versa on a 100-passenger ship.  Blount Small Ship Adventures. (Shorter trips also available). Starts at $4,589 per person.

This book was sent to me by the publisher so that I would review it. The photo of Ka Ching above comes from the Miami Herald web page, and you can click on it to read their review. I have included links to Amazon for your convenience, and keep in mind that if you follow any link and buy anything at all, A Traveler’s Library gets a few cents, and you get our gratitude.

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Destination: New York City, New York

Book: Charming Billy (1998) by Alice McDermott

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.  Naturally, Music Road will have some great Irish music for our road trip today.

This passage is from an NPR NewsHour interview just after Alice McDermott won the National Book Award for Charming Billy. McDermott said:

Being Irish-American, myself, Irish-American material is readily at hand to me. I know Irish-American people. I know what their homes look like. I know what they have for dinner. I know how they turn a phrase. And so since it was readily available, it saves me lots of research time, and I can spend the time instead trying to develop the things that I think are important in fiction, and that is the inner life of the characters.

The story of [amazonify]B000O5LGA::text::::Charming Billy[/amazonify] starts at the wake in the Bronx for Billy Lynch and spirals backward through time with the stories of family members and friends.  Although the story goes back to the early 20th century, the narrator, child of a World War II veteran who is Billy’s best friend, carries us into the twenty-first century.

Dialogue is uncanny, as McDermott  uses the ritual clichés people pronounce, like “its unbelievable still” or “it’s a terrible thing, Father” about the death. People talk about the differences between Protestants and Catholics (Protestants use the lord’s first name) and the coarseness of Midwesterners (because they’re around farm animals.)

McDermott’s sentences  feel just right. “The narrow house was a gallery of Billy’s life that evening–how could anyone help but think it?”

These lines play out against extraordinary observation of ordinary details. One widow marries a second time because the husband-to-be owns a house.  By marrying him, she has the luxury of being able to set up her ironing board and leave it up, instead of sharing space in a crowded apartment basement. She now has the luxury of closets to hang clothes in.

Irish lace doily

Doilies on the tables, the framed cross-stitched Prayer of St. Francis,  the cement steps out front or the peeling paint on wooden steps or the marble steps of slightly more prosperous homes all denote Irish-American life in the Bronx.

Dialogue rolls poetically, echoing earlier thoughts, as when Marie, wife to the alcoholic Billy and daughter to an alcoholic father repeats her fatalistic, “It doesn’t make a difference.”

These are people who never stray far from the teachings of the church, their thinking framed by nuns and priests even when they question whether religion is merely fairy tales. And if those illusions help get them through life, then what other illusions do individuals depend on? Finally, we are asked to consider whether truth is important at all?

McDermott has written a small miracle of a book.  I felt that I had attended Billy’s wake myself, met the reliable Dennis, plain Marie, Eva and Mary, the girls from Ireland who worked as nursemaids. I vividly saw a part of New York City that is new to me, since, like most visitors, I stick to Manhattan.

McDermott has published six novels–the latest, After This, in 2008. She sticks strictly to the Irish American families, for reasons explained in the interview referenced above.

As for our Great American Road Trip, I confess to a slight cop-out when it comes to New York state. In my mind, New York City practically constitutes a separate state, so on St. Patrick’s Day I chose to feature a book for the Irish there. Next week, we’ll return to New York State, to the city of Buffalo. (Click on the photo of the Irish lace doily to learn more about the photographer)

Read about Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day,HERE: Music for the Traveler to Ireland, Blasket Islands, DuMaurier book, and McCarthy’s Bar.

ELSEWHERE:

Listening to music in an Irish pub

Irish music and landscape

Win a sterling silver shamrock

A family vacation in Southern Ireland Part I

A Family vacation in Ireland Part II

Have you visited other boroughs of New York, other than Manhattan? What took you there?

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Last year I talked about my favorite romantic city, romantic book and poetry, hotel, restaurant, etc. in this post. Please take a look because I have not changed my mind. And read on for two East Coast suggestions for this Valentine’s Day (if you can get there through the snow).

Happy Valentine’s Day

Unfairly, last year, I told you about a hotel experience that you cannot have because it does not exist any more.  But you CAN go to the Kimpton Hotel in Boston, Nine Zero.

A toast

Are you ready for this? The package is called “Rub the One You’re With.” It includes a one-night stay, a massage lesson for the two of you by a masseuse, champagne, take-home package of lavender and lemon oils, salts and candles, and for the practical in you–free overnight parking. $414 for a View Room in Boston on the night I checked, but the rates vary by date and city. (If the web site does not show availability when you want to go, call the 800 number.)

Since I stayed at the Nine Zero, I can tell you that if you are not satisfied with the contents of your overnight bag–or you just decide to go on the spur of the moment sans luggage, there are hangers in the closet with sexy little nothings, and lovely robes and slippers–all available for you to buy.

Actually most Kimpton hotels offer these packages, but I have stayed at the Nine Zero and can vouch for the fact it is special. Please check the Kimpton site to see where all the hotels are located and for all the fine print that accompanies the offer.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Like most writers, my mail box gets clogged with promotional pieces around holidays.  Here’s a P.R. release that caught my eye, and I just wish I were going to be in New York City on Valentine’s weekend, to take advantage of this good deal. (Are you reading this, Ken?) I’m presenting the press release, pretty much the way it came to me.

Take a Trip on the Love Bus: Gray Line New York’s Valentine’s Day Deal

New York Greyhound Bus Tour

Tired of the same old teddy bears and chocolates as gifts on Valentine’s Day?  Treat your special someone to one of the most stunning and romantic treasures you might have overlooked: a star-filled, skyline-topped late night ride throughout New York City – a quintessential New York City moment on a double decker bus.

Gray Line New York is offering a special Valentine’s Day bus tour where customers will receive a $25 Gift Card from Restaurant.com to use at one of NYC’s choice restaurants such as 5 Ninth or Circle Rouge with the purchase of two Gray Line New York’s world famous Night Tours tickets*.

This special Valentine’s Day promotion must be purchased online only.Tickets can be redeemed at the Gray Line Visitors Center located at 777 8^th Avenue (between 47^th & 48^th Streets) prior to the tour.

Night Tour tickets cost $39 per adult; departure times and locations of tours are as follows: 6:00 pm, 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm from 777 8th Avenue and 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm from Times Square.

*Tours are valid for travel only on Friday, 2/12, Saturday, 2/13 and Sunday, 2/14. The Gift Card has no cash value, and may not be substituted for another item or tour.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

What are you hoping for on Valentine’s Day? Or do you wish it would just go away? Where would you like to go? What would you like to read?

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Travel Tuesday: NYC

Warwick Night View

Destination: Manhattan

Hotel: The Warwick

William Randolph Hearst, the Donald Trump of his day, made money in the early twentieth century as a media king and a property developer. He collected glamorous friends and stirred up equal parts of envy and admiration. In 1927, Hearst spotted property on the Upper West Side of New York that had not been touched by the building spree that had transformed the Upper East Side. He bought several lots a few blocks south of Central Park where he and Florence Ziegfield built a Ziegfield theater. Across the street he constructed a luxurious apartment hotel to accommodate his Hollywood pals and business partners who needed a convenient pied a terre in the city. His hotel, the Warwick, boasted unobstructed views of Central Park and the Hudson River. One whole floor was reserved for his mistress/sweetheart Marion Davies.

Sax in the Park

You can’t rent a whole floor, but if you are lucky, you may snag one of the suites with a balcony hanging over 54th Street or 6^th Avenue at the Warwick. For twelve years Cary Grant’s movie studio reserved an apartment for his trips to New York. A balcony wrapping around his corner living room on a high floor could have starred in a movie itself. To get a look at his suite, and other features, go to their virtual tour feature.

Over 78 years the Warwick Hotel has seen plenty of brash newcomers come along, blocking its views and dwarfing its 36 stories. But the location still can’t be beat.

Most New York hotel rooms tend to favor thin people who can squeeze between a bed and a TV set. Not so at the Warwick. High ceilings and tall windows make even the smallest double-bed rooms light and airy as well as extraordinarily large. On the other hand, the lobby is small but posh. The Beatles liked the Warwick for just that reason—mobs of fans could not lay in wait for them at the bottom of the elevator.

Sir Walter Raleigh Landing at Virginia

Across the lobby from the bar, a restaurant lined with murals pays tribute to Sir Walter Raleigh. Although museums would like to acquire the murals, the owners believe they belong right where they are. Pre-eminent American illustrator Dean Cornwell painted them in 1937 and 1938. At some point a tiff developed over the amount of money being paid for the paintings, and the artist got even in a novel way. He added a number of obscenities to the paintings that would have insulted even Hearst’s freewheeling friends. Hence for forty years draperies hid the worst of the artist’s revenge (note the Indian mooning the viewer in the inset picture).

Uncovered and unburdened of layers of cigar smoke, the murals now shine in the  Murals on 54 restaurant. Diners can amuse themselves by trying to spot how many ways the artist had the last word—or in this case brush stroke—in the argument. A Native American bends over with his very bare bottom pointed at the viewer. These small obscenities are woven into the complex and well done painting in such a way that it takes a moment for the reality to sink in. But never fear, the waiters at Murals will be delighted to point out the details.

In a world of gimmicks and plain vanilla chains, the historic Warwick provides a grown-up’s hotel and restaurant art with a sense of humor. Thank you Mr. Hearst and Warwick International.

*This originally was written about five years ago, so please forgive anything that may have changed. The hotel did give me a slight reduction in price and upgraded me to a suite at that time. But I have to be honest– I totally loved that hotel and heartily recommend it, even at full price.

The top two photographs were taken by Vera Marie Badertscher, all rights reserved. The Sir Walter Raleigh Picture is from a Warwick site, and you can click on the image to see more pictures of the Raleigh murals.

Do you have a favorite hotel in NYC? Share. Tell us why you love it.

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Everyone who has entered the daily drawing has a chance at one of four grand prizes. The second:A Book cover and light like the one in the Passport With Purpose raffle. (Giveaway January 25–3 extra chances if you subscribe to A Traveler’s Library by e-mail.)

Algonquin Hotel, NYC

Destination: New York City

Book: A Journey Into Dorothy Parker’s New York

This is another in that wonderful series of travel books based on literature and arts that we have talked about with Flaubert’s Normandy, Walking Boston, and the A Journey Into the Transcendentalists ‘ New England.

I learned a lot about Dorothy Parker by reading [amazonify]0976670607::text:::: Dorothy Parker’s New York [/amazonify] by Keven C. Fitzpatrick. The Dorothy Parker portrait of New York has seeped into the bones of everyone. Skeptical, witty, cynical, smart, fashion conscious and status obssessed–it is hard to know whether Dorothy Parker accurately reflected New York City, or created our image of New York City.

I already knew that travelers following her trail should visit the Alqonquin Hotel (now a literary landmark) where the famous and witty writers known as the Round Table hung out.  I didn’t know that she lived most of her life in Manhattan, within walking distance of Central Park. I didn’t know that she moved a lot, and many, many of the buildings she lived in or worked in are still there.

Her witticisms fill pages of  books or web sites devoted to quotations. A born writer, she wrote theater reviews for Vogue magazine when when she was twenty-five years old and earned her reputation as the sassiest voice in New York.

Her forte was short stories, poems, articles. What a great twitterer she would have been. The building where she worked for Conde Nast still stands at 19-25 45th Street, although the company later moved.  You can even sleep at the Algonquin, but hopefully you will not be quite as bleary and alcohol-fuled, or as busy with the affairs that kept Parker bed-hopping. The take-no-prisoners wit came from an emotionally fragile soul whose life in retrospect looks anything but cheerful.

Parker’s early stories abounded in satire and sharp portraits of the society she grew up in. However in her later years, she turned to writing more serious pieces. Her interests in life became less frivolous, as well.

That is why her ashes and memorial plaque are in Baltimore instead of in NYC where she spent her life.  A passionate supporter of civil rights, she left her estate (the rights to all her works) to Martin Luther King. When he was assassinated ten months later, the estate reverted to the NAACP, whose headquarters are in Baltimore.

This book, which is packed with very good maps and pictures,  would be a good guide to New York, and to the free-wheeling age of the twenties, even for those not interested in Dorothy Parker.

Have you read Dorothy Parker? Have you stayed at the Algonquin? Tell us about your experiences. (And don’t forget to sign up for e-mail delivery of A Traveler’s Library–for a few more days it gets you three chances on the Grand Prizes, as well as all these juicy travel and book and movie tidbits at least four days a week.)

Today’s prize in the Great Big Travel Literature Giveaway, written for children, can please every age group in the family. If the World Were a Village by Shelagh Armstrong, brings all those pesky geography statistics into an understandable form by reducing them to a village of 100 people. For instance, 21 people speak Chinese, 33 are Christians, 76 have electricity. Leave a comment anywhere on the blog, or see the rules for how to enter with Twitter.

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Reading quotes like this, “My main advice to a first-time traveler would be to read something from, or at least set in, the place they’re going.” and “The books that are most compelling to me have always been books that transport me to another place or time…”, it is all I can do to stay chained to my computer chair instead of flying directly to JFK.  But before going to Manhattan, according to DelVecchio, I need to read…” Bartleby the Scrivener and Washington Square, which are both set in the 19th century of course, and Three Bedrooms in Manhattan, a Simonen book from the 1940s that has a very Hopperesque feel to it. Enemies, A Love Story is another great book, also set in the ’40s.”

And besides, I can, if I don’t mind skipping the tactile and olfactory  joys of a bookstore, shop at Idlewild on line.

I encourage you to stray away from A Traveler’s Library and read the interview with Del Vecchio. The Book Slut’s introduction reveals that she is one of us, also. “My preferred way of learning about any subject is through reading literature,” she says.

Thanks goodness for places like Idlewild Books.  Here are a few more bookstores for travel literature:

• Get Lost Books , San Francisco
• Globe Corner, Cambridge MA
• The Complete Traveller, Antiquarian Bookseller, NYC

Do you know of another wonderful store that understands that travelers need more than guidebooks and maps?  Please share.

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.