AND, note to winners of our January contest–the books are in the mail.

Book Cover: Atlas of Remote Islands

Destination: The Oceans

Book: The Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will (NEW in English, 2010) by Judith Schalansky

As a writer, artist, and typographer, the perfect job for Judith Schalansky, surely would be to create an Atlas. And she did just that.  An Atlas of Remote Islands wins a place in the traveler’s library as a book of beauty, ingenuity, poetry and even contains some of the statistical facts you expect from a reference book. I will treasure this book, dipping into it whenever I feel the need to flee ordinary places and ordinary books.

Her book won awards in Germany, where people sailed into book stores to buy this instructive yet fanciful look at 50 islands. She explains in her foreword that one book in just about every German household is an Atlas.  And to add to the love affair with maps, consider that she grew up in East Germany under communism, when the government banned travel, but could not stop travel of the imagination–armchair travel.

Judith Schalansky and pages from Remote Islands

Shalansky serves up one page of text and a handsome map of each of the 50 islands. Other than a few facts–location, size, governing country–she doesn’t try to tell us everything about each island, but introduces each with a story of a person who once lived, or tried to live on that island. While based on fact, these stories reside more in fantasy than reality. As Utopias, most of these islands proved to be let downs. If they were uninhabited, there was good reason–too remote, too bereft of flora and fauna, not conducive to farming, no fresh water sources. And yet, humankind must seek out islands just as they must climb mountains–because they are there.

The not-so-remote St. Lucia in the Caribbean

While you may have heard of a few of them, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) for one, most will trip you up on a geography quiz.

Go Nomad published this article which compares the book’s story to the experience of “The World’s Most Traveled Man.”

Britain’s Guardian on line, whose reviews I always love to read, says:

In her foreword, Schalansky describes the act of finger-walking a map as an “erotic gesture”. Cartophiles will know instantly what she means: not that there is a sexual frisson involved in map-reading, but that the distant longing for a landscape is usually far greater than the satisfaction gained by reaching it (eroticism’s essence being anticipation rather than consummation).

I want to thank Penguin, the publisher for providing this book for review.

If you are an island fan, you will also want to read

• Island Story (Okinawa)
• A Poet’s Story of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
• Not Quite Paradise (Sri Lanka)
• Travels to a Pacific Island (Marshall Islands)

And for Map lovers:

• It’s a Weird World
• Strange Maps
• The World and Its People

I took the photo of a St. Lucia beach was taken while I was a guest of the gorgeous East Winds Inn. The beach was right outside my apartment. Not remote, but SO island!

How about you? Share your island stories. What is the most remote or unique island you have ever visited?

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

Book: Snakes Alive by Mike Gerrard (NEW 2011)

Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, Photo by Donna Dailey

Yesterday we talked with travel writer Mike Gerrard, author of the new book of travel essays, Snakes Alive,  about his writing and his favorite countries. Here’s some more of the conversation with travel writer Mike Gerrard.

ATL: Where do you want to go that you have never been to?

MG: Cuba is top of the list. I’d love to spend some time traveling in Australia too.

ATL: Where do you want to return to?

MG: China, without a doubt. I’ve only spent three weeks there but did do a fairly adventurous trip. It’s even more fascinating than the USA, because the USA is familiar but China is really unknown and different. In many ways it was not at all like I expected. I wandered round on my own in many places, perfectly freely, no-one batted an eye-lid. It was great to talk to people directly, and find out what their lives were really like, and find out what they thought of the West. I was amused in Yangshuo, which features in the book, as I got talking to a couple of young guys, teenagers, who wanted to practice their English. One of them asked me if it was true that every house in England had a swimming pool. You realise how little they knew about the West, but only in the same way as I really knew very little about life in China. I came away with a great respect for the country. It must have made a great impression on me as one of the pieces I wrote, about Yangshuo and centered on eating a snake in a restaurant there, was the first piece of mine that ever won a travel writing award. It’s at the front of the book, which is why the book is called Snakes Alive.

Curiously, given your previous question, I chose to make the last piece in the book one of my other favorite pieces and places – about Memphis.

ATL: Books or movies you recommend for A Traveler’s Library?

MG: When I was little I used to love a TV series in the UK called Zoo Quest. The great David Attenborough, then very young, went off round the world looking for various birds and animals. My auntie bought me a copy of one of his books, Zoo Quest for a Dragon, about a trip to Komodo to see the Komodo Dragon. I know that inspired me to travel later – that exciting feeling you get when you’re little, realising that ‘gosh, there really are dragons in the world!’

John Steinbeck and Charley

When I was a teenager I discovered John Steinbeck, read everything of his I could get my hands on, including of course Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition)
.

I love Paul Theroux‘s travel books, and think he just gets better with each one. His book about China is marvelous, and Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown
was even better. But I suppose if I had to choose one of his it would be the first, The Great Railway Bazaar
. No one who likes travel could fail to be inspired by the opening, when he realises that he could get on a  train at London’s Victoria Station and end up in Vladivostock. So he sets off to do it. Marvelous!

Book Cover

Mike Gerrard has been a full-time travel writer for about twenty years, producing articles for newspapers, magazines and websites, and over thirty guidebooks. He recently published a selection of his travel pieces, Snakes Alive, which is available on Amazon as a paperback and for the Kindle.

Thanks Mike, for telling us more about your writing and travels.  Readers, I’ve read Snakes Alive, and recommend it if you want to taste a variety of places and some excellent writing.

Disclaimers: Mike provided me with the book for review. Top photo is by Donna Dailey, and you can click on the photo to learn more about her. I took the Steinbeck photo from a large wall photo at the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, California. Amazon links will earn a few cents for Mike or for me.

Which place that Mike mentioned in this interview is YOUR favorite destination?

One person who comments on this post before 6:00 a.m. MST January 24, will win a copy of the book. And remember, we want to know which Cambria Suites hotel you would like to stay in, because EVERY comment through January 31 wins a chance on a two-night stay. Rules here. Good luck!

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

Doorway in Nicaragua, photo by Donna Dailey, wife of Mike Gerrard

Destination: Everywhere

Book: Snakes Alive, by Mike Gerrard NEW 2011

I’m trying to figure out if my favorite bit is Loo With a View in York, a potty tour story, or Custard’s Last Stand, its punny title about England desserts–not Western deserts. I share Mike’s enthusiasm for Greece, so of course I liked those articles, but also learned about a country that “doesn’t exist.” The book is a veritable treasure chest.

Mike Gerrard proudly self- published Snakes Alive, a collection of his travel articles in both print and Kindle editions. Because I have admired Mike’s on-line writing and am fascinated by his life split between England and Arizona, I asked him to answer a few questions.

A Traveler’s Library: Which came first–travel or writing?

Mike Gerrard: Oh writing, definitely. I knew from the age of about eight or nine that I wanted to be a writer. I never intended to be a travel writer, even though I’ve also always loved traveling. Even when I sold my first few travel pieces I only regarded it as a very pleasurable aside from the other writing I was doing. But it just grew and grew till I decided I did want to pursue it full-time.

ATL: Rather write about home or a different place?

MG:  It’s very hard to write about somewhere you’re too familiar with. I remember going on a trip to Uzbekistan when that country was just starting to open up to visitors. [An artist in the group] was sketching absolutely everything while I was madly taking notes and jotting down impressions. We chatted one day in Samarkand – how great to be able to say something like that! – about our two different trades. He said you had to get those first impressions down, because that’s when everything is fresh and alive, and if you wait too long you no longer see with the same depth of observation. Things become too familiar.

ATL: Your favorite country?

MG: If I had to choose one I would probably now choose the USA. [Note: Mike and his wife blog about the Pacific Coast Highway.]

It used to be Greece, where I went a lot and I do still love it. [But] I’ve always loved the States – I think any kid growing up in the North of England in the 1960s as I did, an avid music fan, would love the States – but since we bought a house near Tucson several years ago, I’ve grown to love traveling in the States even more. A couple of years ago we did a big road trip, from Arizona to San Diego, then up the Pacific Coast, turn right at the Olympic Peninsula, through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming (got snowed in in Sheridan), across to Iowa to see my wife’s folks, then back down through Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico. I loved it. Not long ago we spent about a fortnight in Chicago to update a guidebook, and that was wonderful. It’s a great city. In a few weeks I’ll be making my first visit to New York, which I can’t wait to see. I think if I won the lottery I’d want us to take off and tour the USA for as long as we could manage to get away. It’s a fascinating country, and stunningly beautiful.

ATL: Last thoughts?

Book cover

I’m really interested in the new technology, self-publishing and being an independent publisher. I’m pleased to say that from the morning when I woke up with the idea for the book, when I realised I had all this material that I owned the copyright to, to the day the book was for sale in the Kindle Store, was three weeks.

Mike Gerrard

Mike Gerrard has been a full-time travel writer for about twenty years, producing articles for newspapers, magazines and websites, and over thirty guidebooks.

Tomorrow, you can see Mike’s answers to my questions about where else he would like to go, and his recommendations for books to add to your Travel Library. When you go to his web site (by clicking on his name, you’ll see the many, many guidebooks he and Donna have written.)

One person who comments on this post (or tomorrow’s) before 6:00 a.m. MST January 24, will win a copy of the book. And remember, we want to know which Cambria Suites hotel you would like to stay in, because EVERY comment through January 31 wins a chance on a two-night stay. Contest Rules. Good luck!

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

TV Show Poster

TV Show: Next Stop for Charlie: A Wild Trek Across the Globe

GUEST POST by Jane Louise Boursaw

The fact that it’s on Showtime should have been a tip-off for me, but no, I sat down to screen Next Stop For Charlie with my 13-year-old daughter. I don’t know … the description made it sound like a fun, fictional travelogue about a guy who’s chasing his cousin around the globe. Well, sort of.

In the first five minutes of Episode 3: Thailand, we had bloody testicles, drugs and more drugs, graphic language, a medicated dart in someone’s neck, a poker game gone horribly wrong, a knife fight, possible human trafficking, mean-looking guys with tattoos, and a naked woman with a strap-on. Yeah, I hit “stop” before we got five seconds into the testicles, and ended up watching the episode much later after my daughter went to bed.

Ok, so we’ve determined it’s not for kids, but does that mean it’s not wildly entertaining? You be the judge. The show is based on the Mandt Bros. 2007 indie film Next Stop For Paul, in which friends Charlie and Cliff travel to Thailand to scatter the ashes of their recently deceased friend Paul.

The story strays a bit in Next Stop for Charlie, which finds Eric (Erik Adolphson) quitting college and cavorting around the globe with an unlimited credit card. Here’s where Charlie (Neil Mandt) comes in. He’s Eric’s cousin, and he’s hired by Eric’s mom to track down his wayward cousin and bring him home.

In each episode, Charlie manages to find Eric – and lose him again – all the while immersing himself in the local culture. Each episode is named for the country visited, including Colombia, Belgium, Thailand, Japan, Philippines, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Morocco and Turkey. There ARE some great settings for travel savvy people, but the graphic sex and nudity are too distracting.  The exotic settings seem more incidental to the other stuff

The half-hour comedy is made on a shoestring budget, between $7,000 and $15,000 per episode, using only two mini HD cameras and wireless microphones, and a crew of three people – the aforementioned Neil Mandt and Erik Adolphson, along with one cameraman. Sometimes they’ll enlist a stranger off the street as an extra camera operator.

Also of note is that the show is totally improvised. The location of each episode is based on whatever cultural festivals are taking place in that particular country, and notes Mandt in a press release, “We step off the plane with no dialogue, no scenes, no idea what locations we’ll have access to in each country.” It’s also shot randomly, so scenes are created on the fly with only an evolving sense of how each will fit into the final episode.

In the Thailand episode I mentioned earlier, the crew went to jail for a day after filming inside a tiger cage. They just kept shooting and wove it all into the episode.

Will I watch it again? Probably not. Even though it’s inventive and creative, there’s a little too much drugs and sex and nudity for this girl. Maybe specializing in family entertainment has narrowed the boundaries of what I will and won’t watch, and that’s ok with me.

Next Stop For Charlie airs Thursdays at 11 p.m. ET on Showtime.

Jane Boursaw, Film Gecko reviewer

Jane Boursaw is a family entertainment writer specializing in movies, TV and celebrities. Visit her at Film Gecko and Reel Life With Jane; follow her on Twitter; become a friend on Facebook; email jboursaw@charter.net. Learn how to syndicate her family movie and TV reviews in your publication.

Well, darn! And this looks like the perfect show for travelers! Jane, thanks for your unvarnished reaction to the show. Did your daughter complain about not getting to see it?

One blogger says, “What I think would be infinitely more interesting than this 10 part series is a documentary on how the hell these people accomplished this feat and the inevitable travel mishaps they went through.” You can read his mostly favorable review at Landlopers.

Readers, have you seen Next Stop for Charlie? Do you have an alternative view? Share this post with someone you think might enjoy it.

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

Book Cover

Destination: Everywhere or the Armchair

Book: Book Lust To Go by Nancy Pearl NEW September, 2010

Nancy Pearl travels the world from her easy chair. The prototypical armchair traveler, a former librarian and bookseller who suggests books and interviews authors on radio and TV, attracts crowds of fans.

Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers,  is the third of Nancy Pearl’s books that suggest random books for people to read. This time she talks about travel literature.

When I say “random”, I mean a mix of genres, and also a mix of new and old.  She explains that she does not shy away from suggesting out of print books and is quite happy that it is now easier to get them over the Internet.

She has arranged the entries in Book Lust to Go alphabetically by title of section. The titles relate to a state, city or region, but also sometimes to an activity or type of travel. And if you are looking for books about the country of Colombia, you had better look in the index, because alphabetically it shows up as “Hail, Colombia.” She gets a bit, well, “creative” with those titles. Most of her titles at least are alliterative, so they will show up close to where you expect them, but not New Zealand, that comes under K for Kiwi.  I was relieved to be informed that unlike the review copy I was looking at, the final version of the book has an index by place name.

Readers of A Traveler’s Library should feel a companionship with Pearl, even though she says in her introduction that she herself is NOT a traveler. Rather she likes to travel in her mind with a travel book. She says, “I adore books–whether fiction or non-fiction–that give me a sense of being in another place and time.” Well I can certainly relate to that–can’t you?

It was fun to find that she admires some of the books that we have talked about here–The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Jennifer Steil (Yemen); The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim (Korea); Nine Lives by Dan Baum (New Orleans); and February by Lisa Moore (Newfoundland) caught my eye.  When you read Book Lust To Go, you probably will notice some other books we have in common. She admits that had she realized when she wrote her first, or even second Book Lust book, that a series was in the works, she might have saved up some of the travel books for this volume. I will admit I skimmed pretty quickly, because let’s face it, this is the kind of book you put in your traveler’s library to refer to. You couldn’t absorb all of that content at once!

You probably will also notice a lot of books that are your own personal favorites that she left out.  If you want to tell her about them, she gives her e-mail address in the book, and you can find her at her Nancy Pearl blog and on Facebook.

This may become my second favorite place to look for books about travel. My first favorite? The comment section of A Traveler’s Library, of course. And where do you find the perfect travel book?  Please share….

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

Book Cover and Inside Page

Destination: Cruises

Book: First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World (2009) by Gerard Piouffre

A GUEST POST by DONNA L. HULL

Sailing the Seas in First Class

If you think today’s mega-ships represent the zenith in cruising accomplishments, don’t be so sure. A look back in time will introduce you to ocean liners, exotic routes and luxury that rivals anything on today’s seas.

First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World, published by Vendome Press , does just that. The elegant book documents luxury cruising history through photographs, sketches and first-hand accounts of six famous sea routes and the ships that sailed them.
Author Gerard Piouffre sets the opulent scene with descriptions of drawing rooms, formal attire and a behavioral code that would send today’s casually dressed cruisers overboard in relief. A sepia-toned photograph of two women walking arm in arm on the deck, wearing long morning dresses topped off with extravagant hats, proves the point.

Filled with historical detail, recalls the earliest days of cruising as steam-powered ships replaced sailing vessels, eventually making traveling the seas appealing to the well-heeled traveler. Imagine sailing on the Cunard Line’s Mauritania as she races across the Atlantic to win the Blue Riband, an award for the First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World fastest Atlantic crossing by a passenger vessel.

Although the stories and historical minutiae are fascinating, it’s the photographs that capture my imagination. Viewing black and white snapshots of women lounging on the deck in 1940′s bathing attire or couples dancing to an officer playing an accordion, I feel as if I’m browsing through a well-preserved family album. Copies of menus, ship programs, luggage tags and cruise tickets add the ultimate personal touch.

Hurtegruten

If you’re a cruise fan or a history buff, reading about the Routes of Ice and Gold (the beginnings of the Hurtigruten Coastal Express and Alaska cruises) or the long journey through the Suez Canal to the Far East will have you picking up the phone to talk to your travel agent about your own sea exploration. Just don’t expect to bring 12 pieces of luggage or be greeted with a crowd throwing streamers in the air as the ship leaves the dock. That, my cruising friends, was another era that’s only available to you in First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World.

Donna L. Hull

Tucson-based writer, Donna L. Hull, has accumulated over 200 days on cruise ships. Her popular blog, My Itchy Travel Feet, The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Travel, explores the world of active travel for baby boomers. I knew that Donna was the perfect person to compare these bygone cruises with today’s cruises. Thanks so much, Donna.

The photo on the right is from Wiki Photos. The book was donated by Vendome for a review.

Are you a cruise afficiando? Do you yearn for the old 14-suitcase days with confetti send offs? Tell Donna all about your experience, or ask her opinions if you’re a novice cruiser. And if you liked this post, please share with friends by clicking on one of the buttons below.

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

Mountain Road

Destination: The Whole World

Books for the Travel Library:

The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World…Via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman (NEW March 2010)

The Routes of Man:How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today by Ted Conover (NEW February, 2010)

I can’t seem to move these days without tripping over a book that has to do with roads and road trips.  And here come two brand new books that tackle some of the roughest and most interesting roads (in the broadest sense) in the world.

Carl Hoffman‘s travel plan involves the most dangerous land, sea and air routes he can find. An Africa train lends its name to the title of the book, Lunatic Express, but the rest of the conveyances are pretty crazy, too.  I once had a travel writing teacher who said that travel writers should expose themselves to danger and then write about it in order to get the most compelling stories.  Hoffman must have heard that lecture through an amplifier.

Throughout this travel book he seems absolutely driven to destroy himself, proudly quoting newspaper articles about disastrous crashes of trains and sinking of ships, deadly robberies of buses, and airplanes that fall out of the sky.  He does have a way with description, although his road trips major in places that are dirty, humid, hot, smelly and uncomfortable–not exactly tourist attractions.  I really enjoyed reading his conversations with the fascinating people that he meets, in particular a Swiss businessman in Mombasa whose greatest accomplishment was that he never paid taxes.

“I spent three years in Uganda before coming to Kenya, and those were the best three years of my life,” he said. “In Kampala I met a woman.  It is the only time I have been in love.  She was thirty-five, from the Rwenzori mountains.  She couldn’t read or write, but she was a born trader.  She knew it deep in her blood.  And she was beautiful.  She said, ‘Give me two thousand dollars.’ I did. She traded in charcoal, and every night she arrived with a pile of Ugandan money on my table.”

In a rather-too-frequent moment of self assessment, he says “…I, too, craved adventure, even if risk and loneliness was its by-product.” I say rather too frequent, because I was somehow not convinced of these intrusions of rationality into his self-centered rush to risk. He even takes his daughter with him on a rough bus ride in South America, hoping, he says that she will understand what he does. Perhaps, I was thinking, he should stay home once in a while and find out what she does? And although he talks frequently about how he has ruined his marriage, he thanks his wife at the end of the book, for 27 years of unfailing support.
A chapter at a time, the book amuses and entertains,but as a whole book, it felt contrived. He found out how “the other half travels” but rarely actually felt danger. Excellent writing, but a flimsy frame with personal ponderings that to me seemed gratuitous.

Routes of Man (meant by author Ted Conover to be pronounced “roots” so you get the double meaning), on the other hand, sets forth a strong premise that kept me fascinated throughout. Six long chapterd of reportage are each followed by a brief discussion on the  idea of travel and related thoughts–paths, roads, speed, progress.

Conover is considering  big issues here — issues like the destruction of traditional cultures and the relationship of the military and roads (dating back to the Romans and up to the Israelis). His style includes vivid enough pictures of places* and portraits of people, but the ideas take center stage, and in a calmer voice (even when he lands in some scary places) than Hoffman’s. (Conover is no stranger to the put-yourself-in-danger school of writing, having worked as a guard at Sing-Sing among other things, to get his story.)

*Conover traveling on an iced-over river in the Himalayan:

Depending on the light and the sky, the water will be pitch-black or pellucid blue, the surface rippled by crystals of ice, a giant moving Slurpee, swirling around frozen banks and then disappearing under sheets of ice.

The subtitles reflect the fact that most such appendages are written by a marketer rather than the author, and don’t necessarily reflect the book as a whole. Lunatic Express doesn’t set out to “discover the world” but rather to “experience” the world travel as it is seen by the masses, as opposed to the privileged tourist. And as to the subtitle for Routes of Man? I give up. That’s a little of the book’s meaning–but not much.

These both make a good addition to a traveler’s library, but if you only get one, you can choose which fits you best.

Photo from Flickr through Creative Commons. Click on picture for more information about photographer.  Publishers of each book gave me a review copy–which will turn up in a Giveaway one of these days.

Do you think travel writing is more interesting when the writer has but him/herself in danger? And which of these books appeals to you more?

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

Mystery writers quite frequently can beat travel books in providing the best atmospheric descriptions of a destination. “…one of the best ways to get a glimpse of another culture is through the lens of crime fiction, the literature of the streets and dark alleys and underclass,” says the blog International Noir.

I have read two of these completely and read parts of the others. I have presented my choices here (remembering that there are two more) Oh dear! And which will win the Edgars?? Another mystery.

The Odds, book cover

#4The Odds by Kathleen George (Pittsburgh)

The Odds carries you into the minds of a group of pre-teens and teens thrown into a precarious situation. Kathleen George has a natural sense of drama, since she is a theater professor. This is an easy read, and in fact would be a good book for the young adult reader

John Hart, thriller writer

#2 (tie)The Last Child by John Hart (North Carolina)

Hart’s previous book Down River won an Edgar Award for Best Novel. He lives in North Carolina, and sets his books there. I  will be reviewing this on the Great American Road Trip (Announcing that is a spoiler of sorts).

#2 (tie)A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (South Africa)

A film maker turned mystery writer, she was born in Swaziland and lives in Australia. See Malla Nunn on YouTube talking about her book. Or see her home page at Simon & Schuster. She beautifully recreates both a time (post WWII and a place–apartheid South Africa.) An engrossing book with fascinating, complex characters.

My First Choice: Nemesis by Jø Nesbo

Nemesis Book Cover

This police procedural novel teeters on the edge of literary fiction. It delves deeply into the human pysche and motivations. First published in Norway (2002) it took a while to be translated into English (2008) and finally made it’s way to America in 2009.

Now I must try to express my enthusiasm without resorting to spoilers. Regardless of the British translation with some slang unfamiliar to Americans, the skill of this writer just pulls you through the pages. The third in a series about Detective Harry Hole, ensures he will join other icons of mystery writing as an interesting character. (books one and two are not in English yet, but #5 was published first according to International Noir ) Harry occasionally slips back into alcoholism, but it does not stop him from juggling three unrelated cases with some common themes.

You learn a lot about the weather and the daily life of various Norwegians as Harry runs about the city. You can follow his movements on the handy map in the front, and then travel to Oslo and follow in his footsteps.

A Nesbø description:

The rain showers petered out later in the day. The sun peeped out in between all the leaden grey, and then the clouds parted like curtains opening on the final act.  It would turn out to be the last hours of a blue sky before the city of Oslo pulled the grey winter duvet over its head.

Harry’s partner has the handy (for a police officer) “malady” known as fusiform gyrus. Although Harry at first thinks that means a Mac program, he learns it is the ability to remember faces. Nesbø scatters such humorous references to modern life and also to popular music through the book.

This book teaches you early on to pay attention–don’t miss anything because you may be either led down a blind alley if you are not attentive, or be given a helpful clue if you are reading carefully.

Harper published the English edition of the fourth Harry Hole book in January 2010 .  You can darn betcha that I’m getting my hands on The Devil’s Star as soon as possible. And that’s not a spoiler.

Because I am talking about so many books here, I did not link them all to Amazon, but if you are going to buy, and want the convenience, I appreciate your clicking any Amazon link on the site and buying there. Thanks!

We talked about another Scandinavian detective and two books by Finnish Tove Janssen but this is my first Norwegian book.

Do you have a favorite mystery writer who does a super job with describing a place? (Tomorrow the Great American Road Trip goes to D.C. and I talk about my favorite thriller guide to the capitol city.) Tell me your finds in mystery writers who love locale.

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

Bronte Country

Destination: The World

Books:

• Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
• Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

A GUEST POST by Shannon McKenna Schmidt, co-author of Novel Destinations.

I blame it on Jules Verne. My wanderlust began with a children’s version of his novel Around the World in 80 Days. Reading the thrilling story, with its depictions of distant ports of call, was like a siren’s song. I went along as Phileas Fogg circled the globe to win his wager, from London to India and China, and across the American frontier.

Over the years I’ve visited many places on the page, some of which I’ve since had the chance to the see in person. One of the most atmospheric is the Yorkshire moors in northern England, vividly depicted by Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights. And Paris, brought to life in Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast and Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. When it was published in 1831, Hunchback drew so many readers (including the Duchess of Orléans) to see “Victor Hugo’s cathedral” that it compelled the city to restore the rundown Notre-Dame.

Chateau de Monte Cristo

Sometimes visiting a place motivates me to seek out a book, like Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. Near Paris is one of his most imaginative creations: the Château de Monte-Cristo. On the grounds are a castle that resembles a confection made of stone, man-made grottos, a waterfall, and a stone tower he used as his office. Dumas’ “paradise on earth” is so intriguing that it made me want to read its namesake novel.

Stateside, a visit to Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, is like stepping into the pages of Little Women. Louisa May Alcott used the house as the book’s primary setting, and fans of the novel are sure to recognize things like the trunk of costumes the March sisters used to stage their plays and the parlor where Meg got married.

A well-worn book on my shelves is Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck’s memoir about his road trip exploring the U.S. with his French poodle in a pick-up truck camper (which he named Rocinante after Don Quixote’s horse). This spring I’m setting out on a Travels with Charley-style road trip, traveling the U.S. and Canada in an RV for several years with my husband and two cats.

For me, the allure of travel is too great to resist, inspired early on with a globetrotting adventure tale.

Shannon Schmidt

Shannon McKenna Schmidt is the co-author of Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West (National Geographic Books) and also blogs about literary travel. Her writing has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Continental, The Miami Herald, and other publications. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Thanks, Shannon. I appreciated this peek at your bookshelf.

Any readers who are interested in ordering any of the books mentioned,  can click on any Amazon link on my site and everything you order will help keep A Traveler’s Library in business. I suggest you start by clicking on Around the World in 80 Days (in the 1st paragraph). Also, we have talked about several of these books before, and if you click on any of those titles, you will be taken to a previous post. Don’t miss Shannon’s great web site Novel Destinations.

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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

Strange Maps Cover

Destination: The World

Book: Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities by Frank Jacobs (Pub. date 10/29/09)

My name is Vera Marie and I am addicted to maps. What is more, I do not want to be cured.

What traveler does not love to thumb through an Atlas, or twirl a globe? Come on, admit it. Somewhere in your house you have a drawer full of road maps. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I even love an old book of historic maps that show me what the boundaries of Europe and Asia looked like from the Roman era to World War II.

Frank Jacobs has cleverly played to the weakness of the mapoholic in a blog, and now a book,[amazonify]0142005258::text::::Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities[/amazonify]. Resistance is futile. You WILL either ask for this book for a Christmas present, or buy it for someone near to you so that you can surreptitiously thumb through the pages. Just do not try to use these maps to get from here to there. A travel book, it is not.

Some of the maps at the beginning of the book are of the “Where dragons be” variety. They were created back in the day when fanciful cartographers drew maps that led gullible mapoholics like Columbus and Magellan to venture beyond the known world. But most of the fanciful maps in this book go beyond geography as we know it.

The beautiful creatures of the Aleph maps that created anthropomorphic maps of European nations. Or maps of the world as someone wished it were divided, like  a 15-state USA, or divided the way it might have if the Great War turned out differently.

And what a shock to learn that when I dug in my back yard as a child and found a rubber band, my father’s explanation was wrong. He said I had dug all the way to China and found the rubber band from a Chinese pigtail. The Antipodean map shows that I would have struck salt water–not a Chinese pigtail, because none of the United States lies in a straight line through the globe to China.

But stop me before I thumb through the 229 pages of this book and 100+ images and tell you about every single one! (Disclaimer. The publishers sent me a copy of this book, making them an enabler in therapy talk.)

• Mapping out the future of A Traveler’s Library is easy–
• One and sometimes TWO Newly Published or Sneak Preview Books each week for the next few weeks.
• Thursday the first of two Truly Frightening Halloween posts.
• And  Friday–a new feature–French Fridays, starting with the NEW edition of Hemingway’s Moveable Feast. (Continuing until we run out of books about France)
• Some excellent Guest Posts will show up over the next weeks and Tuesday, November 3–a GREAT treat–No, I am not telling–you will just have to come see. (Clues: Author, debunking)
• Make it easy on yourself and subscribe so you do not miss any of the excitement.

Your turn–do you care to confess to your mapoholicism? And tell us your particular symptoms?

Print PDF

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

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