Holly Tucker

Books: Recommendations by Holly Tucker

Whenever I interview an author, I ask for his or her favorite books to influence travel.  Here are suggestions from Holly Tucker, author of Blood Work for books about India to add to the travel library.

She said, “I’m fascinated anything to do with India.”

“My interest in India probably has more to do with the fact that my best friend grew up in Mumbai.  Her birthday is November 1 and mine is November 3, the same year. I still marvel at how two little girls could have been born nearly half a planet away and still became such close friends.  I’ve had a chance to travel twice to India with her family.  The second time was for a wedding in Bangalore. Books, both fiction and nonfiction, help me understand more about what I experienced there and, always, make me hopeful that there will be a third trip…if not more!”

The most recent books for travelers to India that she has read are

Dreaming in Hindi by Catherine Russell Rich

The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa (which is an amazing, but devastating read)

and Jumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake.

Read an interview with Holly Tucker about her book , Blood Work: A Tale of Medince and Murder in the Scientific Revolution.

Here at A Traveler’s Library, we have discussed many other books set in India.

The Writerly Life by R.K.Narayan, ed. by S. Krishnan

Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

6 Favorites of Shelley Seale, plus her own The Weight of Silence

City of Djinns by William Dalrymple

Do you have other books about India that you would add to the list for travel libraries?

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Book Cover

Destination: Italy

Book: 100 Places In Italy Every Woman Should Go, by Susan Van Allen (NEW 2010)

Traveler’s Tales, the publisher, offered me this book and I do love Italy, and Indie Travel Podcast said they would like a review, so I read it–I mean really read it, because it was so well written and packed with such good tips about Italy. And bonus points to the author for including suggestions for books in every section PLUS interviews with four women who have written about Italy. And get this! Susan Van Allen’s new travel adventure guide, 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, is now available as an iPhone app from the iTunes app store for $5.99.

After I read 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, I really wanted to talk to the author, so I checked and Susan Van Allen graciously agreed to a phone interview.

Susan Van Allen

Me: I recently wrote about Old Calabria by Norman Douglas. Have you been there?

Susan: I love Calabria. I took a cooking class there. It is very full of baroque architecture. It is famous for hot red peppers.

Me: What has changed since 1976 when you first visited Italy?

Susan: The first thing that comes to mind is cellphones. They are crazy about communicating  and it is so much easier to get a cell phone than to get one installed.  I remember friends of mine used to say I’ve moved and it will be about three months until I have a phone.

The flirting style has become more refined. Before guys would pinch and grab you. That doesn’t happen now.

Italy used to be on sale. [very cheap for travelers] Now they are adding 20 or 30% taxes.

There are now a lot of Bed and Breakfast places, especially in cities. Particularly in Rome. It’s great for those of us beyond the hostel years.  The rural version are the agriturismo places.

Me: And what has NOT changed?

Susan: Italy is generally very welcoming to all travelers.  Friends will tell me, “I felt like I came home.”

Me: Do you have another book in the works? Maybe places you had to leave out of this one?

Susan: I have a couple of follow ups in mind. I would like to write about food in each of the twenty regions of Italy. “Hungry for Italy.”  I would take a cooking class in each region to master a regional specialty.  Food is so important–like a backstage pass to the Italian soul.

The other one I would love to do would be “Madonna Mia” I would write about Madonna sites that did not fit in the book.  [100 Places starts with a long section dedicated to Madonna art and places tied to the Madonna, which Susan equates to the earlier Venus in importance to Romans/Italians]

Me: What books about Italy, besides yours, belong in a traveler’s library?

[HERE IT COMES: THE BOOKS]

Susan:  The writers I interviewed have written books about Italy.  I wanted to get other women in the conversation.

I talked to Francis Mayes [Under the Tuscan Sun].

Erica Jong won me over with a quote I used in the book. “Venice is ever the fragile labyrinth at the edge of the sea and it reminds us how brief and perilous the journeys of our lives are, perhaps that is why we love it so.”  I learned so much about the Jewish ghetto of Venice in her book, Shylock’s Daughter .

Mary Taylor Simetti’s On Persephone’s Island is a mix of mythology and her personal experiences in Italy.

Marcella Hazen, from Venice, writes about Italian regional cooking in her cookbooks [and a book about her called Amarcord: Marcella Remembers.]

I also read the revised edition of Italy for the Gourmet Traveler by Frederick Plotkin, published originally in 1996 and this past June and new revised edition came out. I take out pages that I need because I don’t want to pack the whole thing. [It is a big book] So I have about three copies around the house.

Italy: Instructions for Use A practical book for travelers.

The Italians by Luigi Barzini  written in 1965. It is a great history. He was born in Italy and lived in America. He defines the Italian character, “Men run the country, but women run the men.”

We thank you so much, Susan Van Allen for your delightful book and for giving us a list of books about Italy to add to a traveler’s library. To learn more about the book, 100 Places, read my review at Indie Travel Podcast.

What is the biggest attraction for you in Italy? And remember your comments are still eligible to win in the Bastille Day contest.

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France on Friday

A Piano in need of repair.

Book: The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier by Thad Carhart

This small book introduces Paris and Parisians through Thad Carhart’s fascination with pianos.  Early on, he says in a Q and A in the back of the paperback edition I read, that he had learned, “it’s almost impossible to gain access to the private, nontouristy side of things without a personal introduction, and here was a whole world I virtually stumbled into.  “

From his first inquiries at the mysterious shop with piano tuning instruments in the front, and pianos being carted in and out, he learns that you need to know somebody to get in certain doors. Particularly, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. His love of music and pianos eventually opens doors to the piano shop, to owning a piano, to piano lessons, and finally into the Italian factory of Paolo Fazioli, who has the reputation of making the best pianos in the world.

An excellent writer, he is able to convey the finest distinctions between the shapes and particularly the sounds of the myriad pianos that the shop’s owner, Luc repairs, falls in love with, and sells.

The writing of this book resembles the lessons of a musician.  Any pianist preparing a piece of music works on that piece of music for hours and days and weeks, and repeats the same phrases over and over, but always with a slightly different touch, rhythm, accent.  In the same manner, Carhart talks about piano after piano after piano. A lesser writer would put us to sleep with repetition.  Carhart finds new ways to express the descriptions  so that it is always interesting and evocative.

His love of pianos comes close to obsession. From the time he was a boy, he “collected” pianos, the way other boys collect signatures on baseballs, or shiny rocks. While most people travel to look at the scenery, or the people, or perhaps the art, little Thad, and later his adult self, never saw a piano that did not make him curious.  He would sneak across the restaurant, or into the hotel ballroom, to look under the covers and discover the make. If possible, he would play a few notes.

His fascination is contagious, and by the time he gets to the more arcane descriptions of music and of the physiology of a piano toward the end of the book, the reader has been thoroughly hooked and follows along gladly.

But the book is always as much about Parisians as it is about pianos.  An American writer finds he has to rein in his American tendency to blurt out questions and rush acquaintanceship. Eventually he shares his life with a small group of people who gather around a piano and share a baguette and a bottle of wine at the end of the day.

I have seen this book mentioned several places, and I believe a reader first recommended it here. If it was you, thank you. While not a travel book, this is a fine read for travelers to France.

Are you a pianist? Do you lust after a grand piano? What brand? Have you ever heard of the Fazioli piano?

The Giveaway prize today stays with our Road Trip theme. American Fugue by Alexis Stamatis rolls across America with a mystery/thriller that may or may not be the creation of the Greek author who is the threatened main character. See my discussion of American Fugue here. And review the contest rules here.

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

Book: A Crowded Heart by Nicholas Papandreou

Temple of Hephaestus, Athens

Anyone who is tuned in to Greek politics in the past fifty years, has heard the name Papandreou.  Son Nicholas, who started as an economist, left the “family business” to become a writer and share his short stories and poetry with the world.  His novel, [amazonify]0312186851::text::::A Crowded Heart[/amazonify] (1996) tells the story of a family dominant in Greek politics, but it is, the book title assures us, A Novel.

Papandreou’s love for Greece and his mixed feelings about the family dynasty as portrayed here certainly make for “a crowded heart.” A small boy sees and observes much in the small details of life.

When he was only eight years old, he was assigned to go to a small village and become the godfather at a baptism, because hundreds of requests flew in Make a comment or from political supporters and his father could not fill all the requests himself. When the boy is expected to make a speech he recalls his beloved grandmother telling him a story about his grandfather.

“I’m jealous of you politicians,” a poet once told my grandfather, “because you meet so many people.”

“I’m jealous of you poets,” my grandfather replied, “because you meet so many uncontrollable passions.”

The writer in the Papandreou family, Nicholas, in his novel’s opening lines show the poetic touch that makes you want to travel to Greece.

“To describe Greece I would share with you a tomato on the sandy beaches of Skopellos, open a sea urchin with my penknife and serve you the scarlet eggs inside while the salt stetches the skin on our backs…I would dry you a starfish and hang it on your wall so you could smell the salty Aegean in your room, and ask you to breathe in the aroma of osier, broom and ginger root.”

Reading that makes images of Greece flood into my mind from my five visits there and roused the yearning I always have to go back again.

His depiction of the devotion of the Greek people to their socialist heroes  in A Crowded Heart, and the loving relationship he has with his grandparents and sister make it very hard to believe this is a novel rather than a memoir. At any rate, this book, even if it is not strictly memoir, or strictly travel literature, paints a detailed, beautiful, and culturally educational portrait of modern Greece.

Does a novelist ever escape from being a memoirist on some level?

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Wintry Icicles. Photo courtesy of A House Called Nut

Destination: Finland

Book: A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

Finnish Winter Retreat

Guest Author Michele Simeone

If you’re tired of hearing about summer, how does a good dose of Finnish winter sound?

It was during my second year in Finland that my friend surprised me with a copy of [amazonify]0954899520::text:::: A Winter Book [/amazonify]. With one bitterly cold winter under my belt, I was now less worried about basic survival and more concerned with keeping cabin fever at bay during the long, dark months ahead. No matter how many winter sports a person picks up, I’d discovered, the extremity of the Finnish winter means spending a lot of time indoors. Thank goodness for books, piles and piles of books.

Finland. Ice in Winter. Photograph courtesy of A House Called Nut

A Winter Book (2006) is the first collection of Tove Jansson’s short fiction for adults to appear in English translation in almost forty years. Jansson, probably Finland’s best-known queer figure, is so overwhelmingly famous for authoring the Moomintroll series, that her contributions as a visual artist and writer of adult fiction have frequently gone unmentioned. But the popular reception of her novel The Summer Book (originally published in 1972 and reprinted in English in 2003) sparked a renewed interest in Jansson’s adult prose.

In addition to previously published stories and a selection of black and white photography, this latest compilation includes the piece “Correspondence,” appearing for the first time in English translation. This spare, poignant story is based on the actual letters exchanged by an elderly Jansson and a young Japanese fan. Tokyo resident Tamiko first writes to Jansson hoping to learn how to write stories, and a friendship soon buds. Tamiko’s letters reveal—we are not privy to Jansson’s side of the exchange—a great intimacy and understanding that defies cultural difference, age, and a vast geographic divide. In one letter, Tamiko writes:

How many lonely islands are there in Finland?

Can anyone live there who wants to?

I want to live on an island.

I love lonely islands and I love flowers and snow.

But I can’t write how they are.

Together, the stories collected in A Winter Book form a moving, but wholly unsentimental meditation on aging and youth. Unlike The Summer Book, not all the stories are confined to one season; here, winter takes on the more symbolic meaning of age. The first two parts of the collection are made up of stories told from the perspective of a child, while the third part takes an enormous leap into old age. Most of the pieces are semi-autobiographical and portray real people and events from Jansson’s life.

Tove Jansson’s success in making a family of plump, white trolls the symbol of a nation must be proof of her great mastery as a storyteller. Her adult fiction, though less known, is no exception. Whether you’re lying on the beach, or escaping the cold like I was, A Winter Book will transport you to Jansson’s universe—funny, sad, and always wise.

Michele says: I’m a freelance writer and award-winning literary translator. Since moving with my husband to our friend’s lakeside eco-cottage, I’ve written A House Called Nut about our pursuit of a simpler, greener life in the Finnish countryside.

Michele, thanks once again for sharing a look at Finland with A Traveler’s Library. Your blog, A House Called Nut is another wonderful virtual trip to Finland. What an interesting life you lead.

I am curious to know if anybody here has read those Moomin books? I read that they are the best selling book in America by a Finnish author, but I had never heard of them. Multi-talented author, huh? And in case you missed it, Michele discussed Tove’s Summer Book here earlier.

More reading on Scandinavia: Books, Movies and Plays about Sweden, A PBS Movie set in Sweden

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Meadow at The House Called Nut, Photo courtesy of a House Called Nut.

Destination: Finland

Book: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

A Journey into the Finnish Summer

by guest author, Michele Simeon

Swedish-speaking Finnish writer Tove Jansson has been called the “laureate of small things” for her astounding ability to capture beauty, darkness, and meaning in deceptively simple details. Jansson’s novel The Summer Book follows an elderly woman and her granddaughter, Sophia, over the course of many summer stays on a remote, Finnish island. Time seems almost suspended in the eternal light of the Nordic summer, and the two protagonists, one at the beginning of life, one at the end, retreat into their shared world of magic, mischief, quarrels, and adventure.

Summer Midnight in Finland, Photograph courtesy of A House Called Nut.

The Summer Book entered my life at just the right moment: my husband and I were in the middle of uprooting our lives in a move from London to Helsinki. Trapped somewhere between happy anticipation and heartbreak, I let Jansson’s evocative descriptions carry me far from the urban jungle to a tiny island in Finland’s Pellinge archipelago.

The authenticity of the novel’s setting shines through and is, perhaps, due in some part to its basis in the actual island and cottage where Jansson and her extended family passed their summers. Such annual migration from town to country is customary in Finland, where places of business and work collectively shut their doors for the month of July.

Although our suitcases weren’t quite destined for a small island in the Gulf of Finland, the measured rhythm of life, embracement of simplicity, and return to nature that the novel portrays are all qualities customarily associated with the Finnish summer. Each of The Summer Book’s twenty-two chapters could be accessed as a self-contained short story, at the heart of which lies a deep communion with nature. From the powerful effect of geographic isolation to the sweet sensation of diving into the sea, Sophia and her grandmother’s interaction with their island natural surroundings permeate the novel:

“Do you know what it feels like when you dive?”

“Of course I do,” her grandmother said. “You let go of everything and get ready and just dive. You can feel the seaweed against your legs. It’s brown, and the water’s clear, lighter towards the top, with lots of bubbles. And you glide. You hold your breath and glide and turn and come up, let yourself rise and breathe out. And then you float. Just float.”

When I first read The Summer Book (because I have read it three times in four years), I had no idea that I’d eventually find myself living in the Finnish countryside in a modest home not unlike Jansson’s beloved summer cottage. Like Sophia, I wish for storms when the weather has been too fine for too long, and I have special parts of this plot of land with special names to accompany them. And now, at the height of summer, I lose track of time in the abiding northern light, and marvel that this once distant, foreign land has become my home too.

Michele says: I’m a freelance writer and award-winning literary translator. Since moving with my husband to our friend’s lakeside eco-cottage, I’ve written A House Called Nut about our pursuit of a simpler, greener life in the Finnish countryside.

Michele, thank you so much for introducing us to this enticing book about Finland. And lucky Library, Michele will return in three days with another book by Tove Jansson!I have always felt that life in Scandinavia is influenced by the seasons in a way that people from a more moderate climate cannot understand. How about you, reader? Have you lived in a place where the seasons dominated everyone’s lives?

Note that photographs are the property of A House Called Nut. All rights reserved.

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Shelly Seale

Destination: India

Shelley: I loved Three Cups of Tea! I read it toward the end of finishing my book. Very inspirational.

For nonfiction books to help a person prepare for traveling to India, there are two totally different ones I would recommend. The first is called Wanderlust and Lipstick, by my writer friend Beth Whitman in Seattle. She’s an India travel fanatic and very talented writer, and her book is an exceptional guide for women traveling to India.

The second is called Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald. This was passed around during my first trip to India, and it’s a memoir of an Australian woman who visits India once as a college student, vowing never to return (the classical tourist hate reaction) – only to move there with her boyfriend some years later. It’s a really hilarious account of how the country takes non-Indians and makes them Indian. It has a way of making you fall in love with it.

As far as fiction goes, I want to read Shantaram although I haven’t yet. On this last trip there I read The Splendor of Silence, set during World War II, and it was beautiful. But my all-time favorite novel set in India is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Set in Kerala, perhaps my favorite place in India, and tells the story of a brother and sister growing up, and the family secrets that won’t let them go. Lyrical, spellbinding, haunting and simply amazing.

Note: Holy Cow stirred up quite a bit of controversy, particularly among Parsis, but also some other Indians who felt it was insensitive. I like the review written by a Lehigh professor. If you visit there, be sure to read the comments.

Do you have comments on any of these five books? I hope you will join the conversation, but at least be sure to add a sixth book– Shelley Seale’s The Weight of Silence, to your traveler’s reading list.

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Faulkner Typewriter, taken by G. J. Charlet III

Destination: New Orleans

Book: New Orleans Sketches by William Faulkner

As I indicated in an earlier post, William Faulkner did not spend a great deal of time in New Orleans. He was a young  writer switching from poetry to fiction writing when he took an apartment in what is now Faulkner House Books. He wrote short pieces that the New Orleans Times-Picayune published, back in the day when newspapers printed literature as well as news. Those pieces have been gathered in the book called New Orleans Sketches.

Faulkner made $4 a piece for the sketches he sold to the Times-Picayune, but earned much more in the practice of development of description and characters.

Any afficiando of Faulkner’s work will enjoy seeing his beginnings. On the other hand, if his complexity has flummoxed you as a reader, you may find enjoyment in these simpler pieces.

At any rate, you will see an interesting picture of New Orleans circa 1925.

Are you a Faulkner fan or does he mystify you? Let us know.

Don’t miss our other articles about New Orleans: 

Surviving in New Orleans

Literary Hotel

Classic New Orleans Restaurant

Book Lover’s NOLA

Book Stores

Faulkner and Williams

Writers from Faulkner to Ford

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