Travel writing Books

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shortlisted for the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award, College Art Association""An Art Newspaper Top Art Book of the Year""This beautiful book . . . details the artist’s journeys over 50 years, from trips to Morocco in 1968 and Guatemala in 2018. . . . It is as close as a mass-produced art tome gets to an artist’s book—a covetable object in its own right."---Ben Luke, The Art Newspaper"Determined to expand awareness about this much overlooked Black artist, Betye Saar . . . extends the previous scope of insight into her practice beyond her assemblages; the book includes color reproductions of half a dozen notebooks from her decades of world travel."---Patrick James Dunagan, Rain Taxi Review of Books"Full-colour throughout, this fabulous volume—as close as commercial publishing gets to an artist’s book—explores the importance of travel for the African American sculptor Betye Saar. Interweaving the explanatory text and images of Saar’s assemblages (found material combined with the artist’s own drawings and paintings) are full-page facsimiles of her fascinating travel journals."---Jacqueline Riding, The Art Newspaper

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsHistory of ideasJEAN BLOCH et al., Enlightenment uncertainties: moral, pedagogical and scientific debates of eighteenth-century FranceANGELICA GOODDEN, Scrutinising the body: anatomy and propriety in eighteenth-century FranceJULIE PEAKMAN, Bodily anxieties in Enlightenment sex literatureJEAN BLOCH, Mid-century ambivalence: Mme Le Prince de Beaumont and Madeleine de Puisieux on the education of girlsKATHERINE ASTBURY, Marmontel and Baculard d'Arnaud's (im)moral talesJOHN DUNKLEY, Berquin's L'Ami des enfants and L'Ami des adolescents: innocence into experienceTravel writingKEES VAN STRIEN (ed.), JOSEPH BANKS, 'Journal of a tour in Holland', 1773History of the bookRAYMOND BIRN, Book censorship in eighteenth-century France and Rousseau's responseEnlightenment and antiquityELENI FILIPPAKI, La Mettrie on Descartes, Seneca and the Happy lifeREED BENHAMOU, Casting the antique: behind the scenes at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture

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Book SynopsisThis elegant and theoretically informed book, illustrated with forty-five photographs, explores the cultural significance of six exhibitions or new museum installations, all opening in Paris between mid-1937 and early 1938: the commercially oriented...Trade ReviewA critical perspective which is both specifically original and consistent with recent studies of Universal Exhibitions and of the strategic design of the modern Museum.... Even those not entirely comfortable with the ramifications of the 'unseen gods' figured in the displays of the 1930s will learn much from the detailed analysis of those representations and their intersecting semiotics and ideologies.... It is not merely its 45 fascinating archival photographs which leave one with the sense of the 'visual command'... which the author himself brings to his subject. To look at 1937 through his eyes, and then across to Eiffel's negating panoptic tower, is to ensure that the view from the Trocadero will never be quite the same again. * Journal of European Studies *In his thought-provoking and ambitious new book, James D. Herbert offers a penetrating analysis of... the 1937 Exposition internationale des arts et techniques and five contemporaneous museum installations and exhibitions that either complemented it or parodied it.... The strength of Herbert's study is... to demonstrate how, taken together, the exhibitions in fact presented a surprisingly cohesive and complementary series of images.... In its diligent research and thoughtful exposition across disparate fields, Paris 1937 is a substantial contribution to the burgeoning field of modern exhibition history. Herbert's book should have an impact not just on the critical examination of installations but more broadly on how we discuss the complex relationship between images in the public sphere and the formation of identity. -- Adam Jolles * Modernism/modernity *Herbert has... placed his historical narrative within a poststructuralist synthesis of his own devising that is... brilliant.... Read as a historical narrative that presents valuable insights in somewhat unexpected ways, it is enormously satisfying and deserves attention. -- Jerry Cullum * Art in America *

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Book SynopsisJules Pretty explores life and change in a dozen environments and cultures across the world, taking us on a series of remarkable journeys to show that there are many different ways to live in cooperation with nature.Trade Review[Pretty] describes an astonishing diversity of human experience in which our species has learned to live well with, rather than against, nature and often each other. -- Andrew Simms * The Guardian *Jules Pretty traveled the world to find places where people live and work in concert with the land. In this book, he shares his story of these travels and the people he met along the way to emphasize the utter importance of caring for what we have before we have it no more.... He shares these stories to honor them and to educate us. -- REH * Wildlife Activist *The key to a long term sustainable future is an appeal to a loving care of beauty and the vibrant communities it gives rise to, rather than either the instilling of fear of catastrophe or utilitarian calculation. It is, finally, this recurring testimony that makes the book not only a thoughtful exploration of the lives of others, genuinely other, tracking different paths to the mainstream, but a tracing of the patterns of what it might mean to love a place and be at home in it. The homes themselves are all strikingly different but bound by being places that first and foremost are genuinely listened to—its possibilities and the stories it can give rise to. -- Nicholas Colloff * Network Review *Pretty (environment and society, Univ. of Essex; The Earth Only Endures) provides the reader with a verbal feast for the senses while detailing his experiences in a variety of landscapes, from the steppes of Russia to the farmland of Ohio's Amish country. The author reveals the ways in which many people around the globe continue to live in harmony with the land despite the unavoidable encroachment of modern technology and values. In what could be considered either a strength of the book or a weakness, Pretty stays away from divisive political statements regarding environmentalism, though he does advocate for governments to allow the indigenous peoples of their land to live with minimal intervention. This work is no political rallying cry; rather it is a celebration of the beauty and culture of "extreme" landscapes and slower lifestyles the world over. VERDICT Readers who delight in detailed travel writing will relish Pretty's masterly descriptions of deserts, swamps, and mountains, as well as the daily activities of those who live in these environments. * Library Journal *Table of Contents1. Seacoast: Ngai Tahu, Aotearoa (New Zealand) 2. Mountain: Huangshan, China 3. Desert Coast: Murujuga (Burrup), Australia 4. Steppe: Tuva, Russia 5. Snow: Karelia, Finland 6. Swamp: Okavango, Botswana 7. Marsh-Farm: East Anglia, England 8. Coast: Antrim Glens, Northern Ireland 9. Snow: Nitassinan, Labrador, Canada 10. Farm-City: Amish Country, Ohio, United States 11. Swamp: Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana, United States 12. Desert: Timbisha (Death Valley), California, United States Coda: Dreaming of the Day AfterNotes Bibliography Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisSurveying exotic travel writing in Europe from late antiquity to the age of discover, The Witness and the Other World illustrates the fundamental human desire to change places, if only in the imagination. Mary B. Campbell looks at works by pilgrims...Trade ReviewCampbell has provided a valuable service, not only in attempting to map such distant and difficult terrain but also in drawing attention to its variety, interest, and worth, while at the same time producing a lively and readable book. * Speculum *The author follows the path of the travel-writer through twelve centuries. Attitudes and expectations are analyzed from the days when the 'other world' was assumed to be really 'other' and the 'witness' was prepared to encounter all manner of grotesque creatures.... Pleasure as well as profit may be derived from reading this book, not once but twice. * Geographic Journal *

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Book SynopsisWhy does a particular landscape move us? What is it that attaches us to a particular place? From Where We Stand is an eloquent exploration of the connections we have with places—and the loss to us if there are no such connections.Trade ReviewIn the literature of place, Deborah Tall’s book stands out for its delicacy, range of learning, and refreshing frankness.""—Phillip Lopate""A worthy contribution to the growing field of landscape studies. . . . Like Thoreau, who claimed to have travelled much in Concord, the author of From Where We Stand has travelled much—widely and deeply—in the Finger Lakes.""—New York History""There has been a spate of books nominally about finding a sense of place but more accurately described as quests for community, or for home. . . . The best of the lot is Tall’s book about putting down roots in Geneva, New York.""—Utne Reader

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Book SynopsisChronicling their own travels in Scandinavia, charting the geography of medieval history and fiction, the authors negotiate the complex territory where past and present meet, and where the landscapes of "Beowulf" are brought to life.Table of ContentsPart 1 Mapping "Beowulf"; reinventing Beowulf's voyage to Denmark; travelling home with Beowulf. Part 2 Geography in the reader; place in question; Iceland and Icelanders; places in question; selves in place; places in translation and the metonymy of terrain. Part 3 The sage of the saga "The road to Drangey"; where's Grettir?

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction, Part I. Romantic Journeys to the Orient, 1. Discovering His Inner Turk: Hans Christian Andersen’s Commodification of the Exotic, 2. The Hyphenated Woman: Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann’s Juggling Categories of Gender, Nation, and Ethnicity, 3. The Ironic Traveler: Danger and Identity in Knut Hamsun’s Oriental Travelogues, Part II. Modern Primitive Travel, 4. Savage Science: Johannes V. Jensen in the Malay Jungle, 5. Humor, Gender, and Nationality: Issak Dinesen’s Encounter with Africa, 6. The Traveler and the Tourist: Axel Jensen’s Desperate Frolic in the Sahara, Part III. Late and Postmodern Travel, 7. From the Personal to the Universal–and Back: Carsten Jensen Around the World, 8. Futile Journeys: Parody, Postmodernism, and Postnationalism in Erlend Loe’s Traveling, Conclusion, Notes, Bibliography, Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface Vicolo Forni Permesso di Soggiorno A Page Boy in Pavarotti's Restaurant Sleeping with Nuns Il Cappuccino Lord Arnold and the Knight Terror and Courtesy at the Esselunga Supermercato Foiling the Cheese Thieves Mold Makes a Good Salami Great "The Poor Meatball!" Rats in the Canals, Peacocks in the Piazza The Bicycle Thief Treachery and Treason amid the Subcommittee of Vespa Paint Norman the Conqueror Eat Your Hat, Cowboy A Night at the Opera Four, Five, Sex . . . Lessons from Guido Arrangiati! A Risky Subject Casino or Casinò? Commie Pigs? Never Trust a Thin Cook Angry Noodles Walking over Death Super Pig Trotter Reggio's Blockheads and Bologna's Baloney The Secret World of the Balsamic Vinegar Elite Pet Pigs Buon Natale! Sunny Italy The Hot Springs of Ischia Naples at New Year's San Geminiano and the Festival of Fog Soccer Season Truffles and Cotecchino Porn and Puritans La Tivù Politics, Italian Style The Art of Eating Eating Venus's Navel Back to High School La Ferrari Touch Your Balls for Luck! Why Would You Ever Leave? Parli Italiano? Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisContains sixteen contemporary accounts by travelers who reached Alabama along what was known as the 'Old Federal Road'. This title deals with the rather remarkable array of impediments that faced travelers in Alabama in its first decades as a state. It describes the road, the inns, the travelling companions, and the few and raw communities.

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Book SynopsisOffers a detailed guide to the most beautiful natural destinations in Alabama. From the rocky outcrops of the Appalachian plateaus to the sugar-white beaches of the Gulf Coast's Orange Beach and Dauphin Island, Alabama offers a wealth of remarkable sites to explore by car or canoe, bicycle or motorcycle, or on foot.Trade Review“Exploring Wild Alabama goes beyond the classic guidebook for seeing many of the natural wonders our great state has to offer. It represents the culmination of extensive field research and exploration that brings the knowledge of natural sciences and history to the general public. The work is exceptionally well-written and includes detailed descriptions of the geology, geography, flora, and fauna of each location, as well as various activities to enjoy. I look forward to seeing this book on the shelves of bookstores, gift shops, and outdoor stores throughout Alabama.” —Randy Mecredy, former director of the Alabama Museum of Natural History""Exploring Wild Alabama is a much needed resource. The authors have done a superlative job of describing and depicting the physiographic and ecological diversity of Alabama. To my knowledge, this is the first book to provide a statewide guide to actual places for the reader to visit. The writing is accessible to a general readership without being simplistic. I can't wait to have it on my own bookshelf!"" —Mark A. Bailey, coauthor of Turtles of Alabama

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Book SynopsisBy turns candid, witty, and poignant, 36 Views of Mount Fuji is an American professor's much-praised memoir about her experiences of Japan and the Japanese.Trade Review“A delightful read, offering insight not only into Japan but into the adventure of living in a foreign culture anywhere in the world.”—Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing a Life“Beautifully written. . . . I did not want to put it down.”—Susan Allen Toth, author of Blooming: A Small-Town Girlhood“Brilliant, wise, and witty . . . as enjoyable a read as Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provençe.”—Louise DeSalvo, author of Vertigo: A Memoir“Davidson is inquisitive and careful: observations serve as prompts for thoughtful appraisals of her native US, and stereotypes of Japan are questioned. . . . It’s when Japan is clearly in focus – especially when revealed through the author’s experiences and conversations with locals – that the narrative is most engaging.” -- Laura Crawford * Lonely Planet *“Davidson’s memoir, shimmering with poetic insights and poignant observations, stands out from the rest. . . . [A] compelling read for anyone considering a trip to Japan—or who has recently returned from one.” -- Corrie Pikul * Bust *“Intelligent, sympathetic . . . and quick-witted.” -- Elizabeth Ward * Washington Post Book World *“Luminous . . . Nuanced and passionate, [Davidson’s] book achieves what many travel writers can only aspire to: the sense of being both inside and outside of a culture at the same time.” * Booklist *“No one could have tried harder to fathom Japanese culture [than Davidson]. The result is a series of illuminations not unlike the sudden break in the clouds that finally lets her glimpse Mount Fuji from the window of a bullet train.” -- Francine Prose * New York Times Book Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Preface xiii 1. Seeing and Being Seen 1 2. Foreigners 9 3. After School 21 4. From the Best Families 37 5. Typical Japanese Women 49 6. Night Moves 69 7. Sacred Places 83 8. Accident 105 9. Going Home 123 10. Sea of Japan, Oki, 1987 139 11. Tatami Room in Cedar Grove 155 12. Festival of the Dead 169 13. Photo Album: The Fourth Journey 185 14. The Practice House 205 15. House Guest 217 16. Climbing the Mountain 227 Afterword (2005) 233 Acknowledgments to the First Edition 241 Acknowledgments to the Second Edition 243 Glossary of Japanese Words and Expressions 245 A Note on Japanese Names ix

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Book SynopsisBy turns candid, witty, and poignant, 36 Views of Mount Fuji is an American professor's much-praised memoir about her experiences of Japan and the Japanese.Trade Review“A delightful read, offering insight not only into Japan but into the adventure of living in a foreign culture anywhere in the world.”—Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing a Life“Beautifully written. . . . I did not want to put it down.”—Susan Allen Toth, author of Blooming: A Small-Town Girlhood“Brilliant, wise, and witty . . . as enjoyable a read as Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provençe.”—Louise DeSalvo, author of Vertigo: A Memoir“Davidson is inquisitive and careful: observations serve as prompts for thoughtful appraisals of her native US, and stereotypes of Japan are questioned. . . . It’s when Japan is clearly in focus – especially when revealed through the author’s experiences and conversations with locals – that the narrative is most engaging.” -- Laura Crawford * Lonely Planet *“Davidson’s memoir, shimmering with poetic insights and poignant observations, stands out from the rest. . . . [A] compelling read for anyone considering a trip to Japan—or who has recently returned from one.” -- Corrie Pikul * Bust *“Intelligent, sympathetic . . . and quick-witted.” -- Elizabeth Ward * Washington Post Book World *“Luminous . . . Nuanced and passionate, [Davidson’s] book achieves what many travel writers can only aspire to: the sense of being both inside and outside of a culture at the same time.” * Booklist *“No one could have tried harder to fathom Japanese culture [than Davidson]. The result is a series of illuminations not unlike the sudden break in the clouds that finally lets her glimpse Mount Fuji from the window of a bullet train.” -- Francine Prose * New York Times Book Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Preface xiii 1. Seeing and Being Seen 1 2. Foreigners 9 3. After School 21 4. From the Best Families 37 5. Typical Japanese Women 49 6. Night Moves 69 7. Sacred Places 83 8. Accident 105 9. Going Home 123 10. Sea of Japan, Oki, 1987 139 11. Tatami Room in Cedar Grove 155 12. Festival of the Dead 169 13. Photo Album: The Fourth Journey 185 14. The Practice House 205 15. House Guest 217 16. Climbing the Mountain 227 Afterword (2005) 233 Acknowledgments to the First Edition 241 Acknowledgments to the Second Edition 243 Glossary of Japanese Words and Expressions 245 A Note on Japanese Names ix

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Book SynopsisPart memoir, part travelogue, A Matter of Rats is the acclaimed writer Amitava Kumar's account of Patna, one of the world's oldest cities, the capital of India's poorest province, and the author and Vassar professor's home town.Trade Review"An intimate and whimsical book, but one that truly shines when the author turns his gaze to the ordinary people who still live in Patna . . . skillfully evoking the circumstances of chaos, filth and absurdity in which even the city’s middle-class professionals are forced to live." -- Sonia Faleiro * New York Times Book Review *“This new look at an ancient city transports readers on a fun journey. Lovers of travel writing, Indian history, and fans of literature will greatly enjoy this short book. . . .” -- Melissa Aho * Library Journal *"Pound for pound, Amitava Kumar is one of the best nonfiction writers of his generation. . . . No one in India writes a more fine-grained and quietly evocative prose. . . . In his marvelous new work A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna, Kumar puts a stethoscope to his hometown and takes a reading of its heart." -- Siddharth Chowdhury * Time Out Delhi *“There's much more to Patna than rats, of course, and Kumar touches on its ancient glory and later role in the East India Company's opium trade. He also writes eloquently about writing itself, and the meaning of place.” -- Nina Shengold * Chronogram *“E. B. White composed Here Is New York, his fraught love letter to Manhattan, during a heat wave in the summer of 1948. Sixty-four years later, the book served as a ‘secret talisman’ for Amitava Kumar, who carried it with him into the heat and humidity of his hometown, Patna, in India, as he wrote A Matter of Rats, an equally cleareyed ode to a similarly implausible place.” -- Maud Newton * New York Times Magazine *"Kumar is alert to the signs of life coming from sometimes unanticipated directions. . . . This refusal of pessimism is one of the refreshing elements of Kumar’s writing. While there is always plenty of bad news in Patna, he insists on the presence of joy — an emotion that, rare as it is, 'is as real as suffering' — even in surprising places. He poignantly describes incidents of everyday compassion and of the sacrifices of teachers, doctors, and activists. Each crisis or injustice, it seems, has sparked its own rebels, some noisy, others quiet." -- David Boyk * Los Angeles Review of Books *“This book has something for everyone – historical tales, reflection on current India, guidance on writing and as a map for someone planning to visit Patna." -- Rajdeep Pakanati * Contemporary South Asia *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. The Place of Place xi 1. The Rat's Guide 1 2. Pataliputra 15 3. Patna in the Hole 29 4. Leftover Patna 45 5. Other Patnas 63 6. Emperor of This World 73 7. Emotional Atyachaar 85 Epilogue. Place of Birth/Place of Death 103 Notes 109 Index 113

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA superior travel book....Bermuda (or at least Mark Twain's Bermuda) became distinct and detailed to me for the first time....Twainians will want to read it and will talk up its virtues."" - Louis Budd, author of Mark Twain: Social Philosopher

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Book SynopsisThrough the author's travels, Try to Get Lost explores the quest for place that compels and defines us: the things we carry, how politics infuse geography, media's depictions of an idea of home, the reverberations of the word “hotel”, and the ceaseless discovery generated by encounters with self and others on familiar and foreign ground.Trade ReviewTry to Get Lost is a bold, engaging disquisition on the perils and promises of travel: both cranky and wise, worldly and cultivated, humorous and rueful, its every sentence sparkles. All in all, it is thoroughly entertaining, a sophisticated pleasure." - Phillip Lopate, author of A Mother's Tale"Joan Frank animates her loving and irreverent essays with a vital, unspoken question: How do the human tendencies to idealize, project, rank, divide, and dismiss get in the way of reading the world with accuracy, with complexity? Try to Get Lost is an ongoing act of awe that gives itself permission to roll its eyes now and then. It's necessary. It's brilliant." - Paul Lisicky, author of The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship"Filled with wit, soul, and insight, each of the essays in this radiant collection offers not only a layered and revelatory portrait of the places that enchant and haunt Frank - from Paris to Florence to her hometown of Phoenix with its many ghosts - but also a profound meditation on the possibility of discovery, the inevitability of loss, and the power of both to unmake and remake us." - Jessie Chaffee, author of Florence in Ecstasy: A Novel“Philosophical, sophisticated literary forays that are a pleasure to dwell in.”—Kirkus, starred review“Frank’s rich, imagery-driven prose lends immediacy to her observations. This is a perfect book for readers to take on their travels, even if they’re only going as far as the armchair.”—Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisEgeria, who was most probably a Spanish nun, visited the Holy Land only fifty years after the death of Constantine, making her work the earliest surviving account of the area.Table of ContentsEgeria, the traveller; Early references to Egeria; Early Christian pilgrimage; Aelia Capitolina; The Bordeaux Pilgrim; Egeria's route; Table of Dates; Clergy and people; Liturgy.

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Book SynopsisA camera makes enemies; a sketchbook, friends. Firm in this belief, Irwin Allan Sealy carried to China just his pen and a book of blank pages. When the literary conference that took him there ended and his fellow writers returned to India, Sealy stayed on to travel the railroads of the north in search of a town reminiscent of his Himalayan hometown and a man who might resemble himself. Sign language, good will, and plain luck see him through, but in a northern mining town known for its ancient Buddhist cave sculptures, Sealy finally comes to the conclusion that his other was unreachable, his hometown was one of a kind, and his only hope was a pen, allowing him to record his memories, sketches, and adventures along the way. Sealy is known for both his fiction and his travelogue, From Yukon to Yukatan: a Western Journey. This facsimile edition of The China Sketchbook, however, adds a special dimension to a travel narrative the sketches and scribbles give readers a more immediate and unre

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Book SynopsisIn 1996 the author left the relative stability of the United States for the chaos of post-Soviet Russia, and stayed. In this book, each chapter is an episode - spanning from several hours to several days - of his journeys to the far North, Moscow, the Ural Mountains, the Solovetsky Islands, and a southern stretch of the Volga River.Trade ReviewOften very frank (this is a PG-13 read at least) and open, With Light Steam is a personal and engaging look at a side of Russian life that few westerners can claim entry to or experience in.... MacWilliams is a refreshingly self-deprecating, easy-going traveler and a superb storyteller. This is a book not to be missed. * Russian Life *This book is introspective American travel writing at its best. A genre-defying mosaic of memoir, historical research and a reflection on time and place, With Light Steam is easily in a league with Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier for spectacular American travel writing on Russia. * Newcity Lit *

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Book SynopsisThis volume introduces two of the earliest writings about Vietnam to appear in the English language. The reports come from narrators with different interests who are viewing different parts of Vietnam at an early stage of European involvement in the...

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Book SynopsisPart memoir, part travelogue, The Enjoy Agenda takes readers from Rick Bailey's one-stoplight town in Michigan farm country to Stratford, England, to the French Concession in Shanghai, the Adriatic coast of Italy, and to a small village in the Republic of San Marino.Trade Review“Rick Bailey re-creates for us what Virginia Woolf calls moments of being, those bright bursts of beauty, loss, communion, and bewilderment that constitute a life. I defy you to read one of these deliciously addictive essays without gulping down the entire book.”—Eileen Pollack, author of The Only Woman in the Room“Rick Bailey’s essays overflow with warmth, humor, truth. . . . The Enjoy Agenda offers keen observations, nuggets of wisdom, stories of the heart.”—Christine Rhein, poet and the author of Wild Flight“It’s not often I read a book of essays and fall in love with the writer and the characters in his life. But that’s what happened reading Richard Bailey’s The Enjoy Agenda. . . . It is a lovely antidote to the despair and chaos in today’s world.”—David James, author of My Torn Dance Card “Full of food and music, longing, and curiosity, The Enjoy Agenda is a collection of brief illuminations where each essay arrives like a good friend with a story to tell. With generosity and sincerity, Rick Bailey is a writer who wants to share the world with you, and his book is one of discoveries, small marvels, and celebrations.”—Matthew Olzmann, author of Contradictions in Design“Knowledgeable, funny, and utterly curious, Bailey comes off as everyone’s favorite uncle, who returns from far-flung reaches to share wise tales and good wine. And though this book teems with quirky asides, curious tangents, and plenty of self-deprecating humor, what comes through strongest is a decades-long romance that is worthy of study and emulation.”—Joey Franklin, author of My Wife Wants You to Know I’m Happily Married“Clearing out the parental home, finding the best gelato in an Italian village, using photos to purchase (sans language) a screwdriver in Shanghai: Rick Bailey’s reminiscences are enhanced by research, literary references, and the simple pleasure he takes in the world around us. This is engaging, thoughtful work.”—Terry Blackhawk, Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellow “Hooray for miscellany, for odds and ends gathered between covers, designed to charm and surprise! Rick Bailey launches right into his quirky thoughts on myriad subjects (music, art, food, travel, health, language, etc.) and doesn’t let up for the duration of this wonderfully original, unpredictable book. The Enjoy Agenda subtly and insistently suggests that life is a gift to be enjoyed, a goal the book itself fulfills for readers.”—Patrick Madden, author of Quotidiana and Sublime PhysickTable of Contents1. Inner Music 2. Shorty 3. Bridge 4. Call It a Dance 5. Tilt 6. Bring Your Horn 7. Mindful, Bodyful 8. Tied 9. The Birds and the Beatles 10. Cookies and What? 11. GelatiAmo 12. Beheading 13. Idaho 14. Good Bad 15. Critters 16. iSmell 17. Alarm 18. Up a Creak 19. At Least It’s Not Terrible 20. Wreckage 21. About Your Stuff 22. Try a Little BLT 23. And Then You Eat It 24. Buddy, Can You Spare a Mao? 25. The Dope with the Camera 26. ATM, Wontons, Lizard 27. Fang Xin 28. The Fifteenth Floor 29. Chalant 30. Just Call 31. Say What? 32. Cowboys and Vespers 33. Planticide Now 34. The Cheese of Forgiveness 35. Please, After You 36. When Bacco Smiles 37. Have I Got a Ragu for You 38. Bite Down 39. Difficult Worm 40. The Enjoy Agenda

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Book SynopsisIn Borderline CitizenRobin Hemley wrestles with what it means to be a citizen of the world, taking readers on a singular journey through the hinterlands of national identity. As a polygamist of place, Hemley celebrates Guy Fawkes Day in the contested Falkland Islands; Canada Day and the Fourth of July in the tiny U.S. exclave of Point Roberts, Washington; Russian Federation Day in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad; Handover Day among protesters in Hong Kong; and India Day along the most complicated border in the world. Forgoing the exotic descriptions of faraway lands common in traditional travel writing, Borderline Citizen upends the genre with darkly humorous and deeply compassionate glimpses into the lives of exiles, nationalists, refugees, and others. Hemley’s superbly rendered narratives detail these individuals, including a Chinese billionaire who could live anywhere but has chosen to situate his ornate mansion in the middle of his impoverished anTrade Review"Engaging bits about intriguing lands, all in service of trying to 'understand the complexities of the world.'"—Kirkus Reviews"A thought-provoking work that troubles the complexities of nationhood."—Wendy Hinman, Foreword Reviews"Borderline Citizen makes not only for interesting historical reading, but an absorbing vantage on our contemporary crises of belonging."—Justin Tyler Clark, Los Angeles Review of Books“Robin Hemley explodes the very idea of nationhood and in so doing redefines it, offering a more thoughtful and humane notion of how to be a citizen of our world today. These ‘dispatches’ are travel writing at its best, where the writer delves into the intimacies of foreign places, seeing beyond their exotic surfaces, in search of a global humanity. Brilliantly comic, darkly but poignantly introspective, Borderline Citizen should be required reading for the twenty-first century and beyond.”—Xu Xi, author of This Fish is Fowl: Essays of Being“Robin Hemley begins Borderline Citizen with the observation that ‘as travelers, we see surfaces first. It’s easy to exoticize, to misinterpret, nearly impossible to see something except through our own lenses.’ He then goes on to show how a thoughtful, perceptive, and open-hearted traveler can overcome all those limitations. In vividly rendered essays, Hemley takes us to some of history’s oddest bits of territory, showing how human lives are shaped (and often distorted) by arbitrary political boundaries. With superb storytelling, he explores the meanings of nationalism, sovereignty, citizenship, and the loyalties of the human heart.”—Corey Flintoff, former NPR foreign correspondent“In these days of ultranationalism comes a surprising antidote in Robin Hemley’s cabinet of curiosities, Borderline Citizen, his account of his journeys to the ‘bits and bobs’ of national territories stranded by accidents of geography, history, and stubbornness. Hemley is a delightful guide, but there are serious questions for him to explore here as well—and lessons for all the mainlands and mother countries about the meaning and price of national identity. Quite possibly the most original travel book published in years.”—Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family and This Brilliant Darkness“Robin Hemley has traveled to more countries than just about anyone I know, and along the way he’s collected vital observations on the tragic absurdity of nationalism and the implicit violence of a world crisscrossed with borders. I think of him in the company of Pankaj Mishra, Pico Iyer, Bruce Chatwin, and John Berger—writers whose transnational souls challenge the idea of a single place of origin.”—Jess Row, author of White Flights and Your Face in Mine“This is a book of daring travel and quiet observation. Borderline Citizen challenges common constructs of national borders, patriotism, and citizenship to shed an urgent light on the exile’s predicament. With a sharp wit guided by empathy, Hemley has written a necessary and entirely unique book about what it really means to belong in a divided world.”—Jennifer Percy, journalist and author of Demon Camp“Robin Hemley is a born traveler, and in Borderline Citizen he visits exclaves, enclaves, and places in between to explore what loyalty to and love of a country mean. In Havana and Hong Kong, Kaliningrad and the Falkland Islands, he poses questions about identity, a complicated subject for many in the twenty-first century, and what he learns along the way is by turns illuminating and amazing. Thus a journey to an artificial rain forest in Nebraska inspires a meditation on authenticity, which reveals that in these uncertain times there is no better guide to the challenges we face than Robin Hemley.”—Christopher Merrill, author of Self-Portrait with Dogwood“Few writers have traveled as voraciously as Robin Hemley, and none with his special blend of curiosity, heart, and wit. His latest collection interrogates the idea of nationhood by spotlighting a wide spectrum of citizens—from an Afghan refugee to a Chinese billionaire—to prove that personhood is all that matters in the end. At a time when nationalism is resurging around the globe, Hemley bolsters the spirit with this vibrant read.”—Stephanie Elizondo Griest, author of All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. BorderlandsTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Prologue: The Traveler in the Twenty-First Century Walled Citizens No One Will See Me Again Forever The Great Land Swap Don’t Be Too Difficult Close Calls with a Potentially Violent Felon in Cuba They Have Forgotten Many Things Mr. Chen’s Mountain To the Rainforest Room Present Celebrating Russian Federation Day with Immanuel Kant Field Notes for the Graveyard Enthusiast Survivor Stories Independence Days

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Book SynopsisPart memoir, part travelogue, Get Thee to a Bakery explores both humorous and harrowing aspects of growing older and making sense of social, technological, and environmental change. Trade Review"[Get Thee to a Bakery] is a masterclass in how to make art out of the quotidian."—Rachel Rueckert, Fourth Genre"Rick Bailey's essay collection is rich and refreshing, fun and jubilant, and an overall joy to read."—Stephanie Nesja, Colorado Review"I wanted to hang out with Bailey's essays longer than I was afforded. In them, I felt comfort, inspiration, joy."—Jody Gerbig, Brevity"Whether you love to people watch, enjoy virtual travelling, enjoy a spot of humour, or are simply looking for a great read, this is the book for you."—Susan Keefe, Midwest Book Review"If Seinfeld was the show about nothing, this collection might be the book about everything."—alkratz.com“Rick Bailey has a deft comic touch. He can make even a flooding basement or a power outage fascinating and hilarious. The world is a more interesting and far funnier place when seen through his eyes.”—Sharon Harrigan, author of Half“Rick Bailey writes with a rare blend of intelligence and whimsy. Few essayists convey such joy in being alive. Bailey’s prose is sharp and the essays in Get Thee to a Bakery are as accessible as they are profound.”—Cal Freeman, author of Fight Songs“Rick Bailey is an epicurean globetrotter, whisking us on a wholly satisfying culinary tour with equal measures of humor and heart. These short meditations on food, wine, music, place, and language are deliciously entertaining, a pleasure on the reading palate.”—Dorene O’Brien, author of What It Might Feel Like to HopeTable of Contents1. Get Thee to a Bakery 2. This Body Offers to Carry Us 3. A Minor Memory 4. Con te partirò 5. On Wine Tasting and the Limits of Winespeak 6. Learning to Like It 7. You’re Not Going to Eat That, Are You? 8. Clean Up Your Act 9. Alien Pleasures 10. Ecumenical Meat Loaf 11. Good Eggs 12. Bombolone, Venus, Boar 13. Speak to Me 14. Do the Work 15. Take the Money 16. Listen to Teresa 17. Anyone Who Had a Heart 18. Drop It 19. Teeth First 20. Back to Comanche 21. Smitty 22. Still Alive 23. Badass 24. Stand Up 25. Waterful 26. We’re Melting 27. Monsters 28. Fit But 29. Quit It 30. A Suite, a Swim, a Fish 31. Me and Velociraptor and Forrest Gump 32. Rock Me 33. Faces in the Stone 34. Where We Are Was Once a Sea 35. But Why Florida? 36. Coffee Ma’am 37. In Search of 38. The Efficacy of Loud 39. Yoga, Space, and Bragadin’s Skin 40. Don’t Wait 41. Third Eye Seeing 42. This American Smile

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Book SynopsisThe Bolsheviks took power in Russia 1917 armed with an ideology centered on the power of the worker. From the beginning, however, Soviet leaders also realized the need for rest and leisure within the new proletarian society and over subsequent decades struggled to reconcile the concept of leisure with the doctrine of communism, addressing such fundamental concerns as what the purpose of leisure should be in a workers'' state and how socialist vacations should differ from those enjoyed by the capitalist bourgeoisie.In Club Red, Diane P. Koenker offers a sweeping and insightful history of Soviet vacationing and tourism from the Revolution through perestroika. She shows that from the outset, the regime insisted that the value of tourism and vacation time was strictly utilitarian. Throughout the 1920s and ''30s, the emphasis was on providing the workers access to the repair shops of the nation''s sanatoria or to the invigorating journeys by foot, bicycle, skis, or horseback that Trade ReviewClub Red, Diane Koenker's excellent new book on Soviet vacation travel, adds to a countercurrent that has gathered force in the past few years. Viewed from the perspective of vacations—or, in other recent works, of automobiles, moviegoing, television, or circuses—the divisions between the NEP, Stalin, and especially Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev periods often seem less sharp than we had previously imagined. Without ignoring repression, works in this vein elucidate aspects of normal Soviet life that previous scholarship had tended to obscure. -- Julie Hessler * The Journal of Modern History *In the early years of the Soviet era, vigorous outdoor activity held sway as a restorative and as a repudiation of the pleasure-filled, hotel-bound vacations favored in the West. Gradually, the regime made room for health sanatoriums and vacation travel, although still guided by 'scientifically planned and purposeful activities.' Ironically, these changes began in 1927, on the eve of Stalin's brutal collectivization of agriculture and first five-year plans. Koenker, with discriminating thoroughness, traces the evolution of Soviet vacationing from that point through the mid-1980s.... This is well-told history, a portrait of life in the Soviet Union that will be recognizable to those who lived it. -- Robert Legvold * Foreign Affairs *This solidly researched history of tourism concerns rest and recreation for the masses as well as outings by more privileged groups.... The book should interest historians and social scientists of the Soviet Unionas well as specialists of tourism elsewhere since she compares Soviet programs with Western tourism. -- Jeffery Brookes * The Journal of Interdisciplinary History *While adding a fresh perspective to the already rather extensive literature on Stalinist consumption, Koenker's work breaks substantial new ground in this account of late socialism and its reforms of consumption and consumerism, on which only a tiny number of archive-based studies yet exist. It also lays a foundation for scholars to investigate this important aspect of the Soviet experience from other perspectives and using other methodologies, including oral history... this ambitious, wide-ranging but still remarkably rigorous study will be of relevance and value to scholars of every period of Soviet history. -- Polly Jones * Slavic Review *Prodigiously researched and expertly written by a pioneering scholar of Soviet tourism, Club Red expands the analytical frameworks of Koenker’s earlier work, particularly her 2006 volume co-edited with Anne E. Gorsuch, Turizm: The Russian and East European Tourist under Capitalism and Socialism. -- Olga Mesropova and Thomas Waldemer * Slavic and East European Journal *[Readers] will be rewarded by seeing Soviet society from a unique and valuable vantage point. Koenker is to be commended for bringing this story to light and to life. * The American Historical Review *Koenker's extremely well researched and well-written book traces the two kinds of vacations (health resorts and tourism) through time and demonstrates how the Soviet state sought to construct a unique socialist leisure regime to benefit the proletariat.... This book will be of great interest to specialists in Soviet history and in the history of travel and tourism. * History *Club Red already provides readers with so much. It does an excellent job describing and analyzing the changing institutional leadership of and cultural and social meanings associated with spa and rest home vacations.... It provides important insights into the contradictions and tensions in the Soviet vacation system. It effectively situates vacations in the "socialist" consumer culture that began to emerge in the 1930s and burgeoned in the 1960s, as well as in the broader Soviet experiment. This extremely well-researched and fascinating book will be of value to many scholars, particularly those interested in consumer culture, vacations and tourism, and the Soviet Union. * Business History Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Vacations, Tourism, and the Paradoxes of Soviet Culture1. Mending the Human Motor2. Proletarian Tourism: The Best Form of Rest3. The Proletarian Tourist in the 1930s: Seeking the Good Life on the Road4. Restoring Vacations after the War5. From Treatment to Vacation: The Post-Stalin Consumer Regime6. Post-Proletarian Tourism: The New Soviet Person Takes to the Road7. The Modernization of Soviet TourismConclusion: Soviet Vacations and the Modern WorldBibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book ventures into the world beyond Lampedusa: the crisis belt that stretches from Kashmir across Pakistan and Afghanistan to the Arab world and beyond, to the borders and coasts of Europe. Celebrated author Navid Kermani reports from a region which is our immediate neighbour, despite all too often being depicted as remote and distant from our daily concerns. Kermani has visited the places where no CNN transmitter truck is parked and yet smouldering fires threaten world peace. In his widely praised, wonderfully agile and careful prose, he reports on NATO's war in Afghanistan and the underside of globalization in India, on the civil war in Syria and the struggle of Shiites and Kurds against the 'Islamic State' in Iraq. He was the only Western reporter present at the suppression of the mass protests in Tehran, travelled with Sufis through Pakistan, talked with Grand Ayatollah Sistani in Najaf, and observed the disastrous Mediterranean refugee route in Lampedusa. Kermani's gripping reports allow us to understand a world in turmoil, to share the suspense and the suffering of the people in it. As if by magic, he brings individual lives and situations to life so vividly that complex and seemingly distant problems of world politics suddenly appear crystal clear. Our world too lies beyond Lampedusa.Trade Review"Those who want to see the day-to-day lives of human beings in the crisis regions of the Middle East - lives that don't make the news - should read Navid Kermani's sensitive reporting. Reports you won't soon forget."—Deutschland-Radio "Kermani's well-researched and sensitive book reveals how violence is born. It also reminds us that far away victims and perpetrators have one thing in common: they're human beings, just like us."—Süddeutsche Zeitung "Intense, colourful, emotional, subjective."—Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung "Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in Germany today."—The New York Review of Books "After reading this book, one puts it down glad to have been both touched and taught"—Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag "Kermani's style is nuanced and kindly, poetic and philosophical, he zooms in and out of perspectives like a novelist and is drawn to irresolvable tensions like a conceptual artist... State of Emergency is a humane and timely reminder that there is no one Islam, no one set of Islamic views, values and beliefs, just as there is no one Western creed."—GeographicalTable of ContentsEditorial Note Cairo, December 2006 Paradise in a State of EmergencyKashmir, October 2007 Houseboat 1 In the City Houseboat 2 Politicians 1-4 Night Houseboat 3 The Shrine Houseboat 4 In the Countryside Houseboat 5 The Mother Houseboat 6 Ahad Baba In Kashmir, Far Away from Kashmir LandlessBetween Agra and Delhi, September 2007 Lumpenproletariat in Formation Why Complain? They Want Land Expulsion as Industrial Development Policy The Sky and the Ground Ram Paydiri Doesn’t Understand The LaboratoryGujarat, October 2007 An Idol On the Rubbish Tip Into the Centre Social Praxis India’s Future Where Even the Atheists Pray The Pit A Visit to the SufisPakistan, February 2012 Rhythm of God War Against Themselves The Lovers' Tomb O Papa, Protect Me In the Mansion District The Poor People's Peace Quiet, Cleanliness and Order The Feast The Cosmic Order Bleak NormalityAfghanistan I, December 2006 People Don’t Change Much Really Crazy Two British Commanders Humanitarian Mission In Kabul Where Is the Progress? Master Tamim The New Motorway American Headquarters Visit to the Passport Office Cola in the Dark The Limits of ReportingAfghanistan II, September 11, 2011 Cemetery 1 Walls in Front of Walls Northward Mazar-e Sharif The Best Place in Town In the Countryside In the Panjshir Valley In the South Peace Conference Tribal Leaders 1 Kandahar Tribal Leaders 2 The Limits of Reporting Cemetery 2 The UprisingTehran, June 2009 Chance Companions Arrival Wednesday Thursday Friday Back to Saturday Sunday Early Monday When You See the Black FlagsIraq, September 2014 I. Najaf: In the Heart of the Shia Ubiquity of Death A Dangerous Topic A Different Shia With Swordlike Index Finger Grand Ayatollah Sistani's Message II. Baghdad: The Future Is Past A Thirty Years' War and More A Hookah with Goethe and Hölderlin Fog of Melancholy Right Out of Ali Baba The Last Christian A Warrior III. Kurdistan: The War for Our World Too Literally Overnight What For? To the Front The General The Entrance to HellSyria, September 2012 The Centre and the Margins Artists of the Revolution Two Views Outsourcing Terror The Feast of St Elian At the Tomb of Ibn Arabi Thinking without Gradations The Intensive Care Unit Those Who Can Read, Let Them Read We Too Love LifePalestine, April 2005 In Search of Palestine Without Hope The Wall Against Empathy My Capitulation They Are Human Beings Life as What It IsLampedusa, September 2008 Sunday Outing Ghosts Midnight The Previous Mayor The Camp The New Mayor Night Again With or Without ApprovalCairo, October 2012

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Book SynopsisThis book ventures into the world beyond Lampedusa: the crisis belt that stretches from Kashmir across Pakistan and Afghanistan to the Arab world and beyond, to the borders and coasts of Europe. Celebrated author Navid Kermani reports from a region which is our immediate neighbour, despite all too often being depicted as remote and distant from our daily concerns. Kermani has visited the places where no CNN transmitter truck is parked and yet smouldering fires threaten world peace. In his widely praised, wonderfully agile and careful prose, he reports on NATO's war in Afghanistan and the underside of globalization in India, on the civil war in Syria and the struggle of Shiites and Kurds against the 'Islamic State' in Iraq. He was the only Western reporter present at the suppression of the mass protests in Tehran, travelled with Sufis through Pakistan, talked with Grand Ayatollah Sistani in Najaf, and observed the disastrous Mediterranean refugee route in Lampedusa. Kermani's gripping reports allow us to understand a world in turmoil, to share the suspense and the suffering of the people in it. As if by magic, he brings individual lives and situations to life so vividly that complex and seemingly distant problems of world politics suddenly appear crystal clear. Our world too lies beyond Lampedusa.Trade Review"Those who want to see the day-to-day lives of human beings in the crisis regions of the Middle East - lives that don't make the news - should read Navid Kermani's sensitive reporting. Reports you won't soon forget."—Deutschland-Radio "Kermani's well-researched and sensitive book reveals how violence is born. It also reminds us that far away victims and perpetrators have one thing in common: they're human beings, just like us."—Süddeutsche Zeitung "Intense, colourful, emotional, subjective."—Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung "Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in Germany today."—The New York Review of Books "After reading this book, one puts it down glad to have been both touched and taught"—Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag "Kermani's style is nuanced and kindly, poetic and philosophical, he zooms in and out of perspectives like a novelist and is drawn to irresolvable tensions like a conceptual artist... State of Emergency is a humane and timely reminder that there is no one Islam, no one set of Islamic views, values and beliefs, just as there is no one Western creed."—GeographicalTable of ContentsEditorial Note Cairo, December 2006 Paradise in a State of EmergencyKashmir, October 2007 Houseboat 1 In the City Houseboat 2 Politicians 1-4 Night Houseboat 3 The Shrine Houseboat 4 In the Countryside Houseboat 5 The Mother Houseboat 6 Ahad Baba In Kashmir, Far Away from Kashmir LandlessBetween Agra and Delhi, September 2007 Lumpenproletariat in Formation Why Complain? They Want Land Expulsion as Industrial Development Policy The Sky and the Ground Ram Paydiri Doesn’t Understand The LaboratoryGujarat, October 2007 An Idol On the Rubbish Tip Into the Centre Social Praxis India’s Future Where Even the Atheists Pray The Pit A Visit to the SufisPakistan, February 2012 Rhythm of God War Against Themselves The Lovers' Tomb O Papa, Protect Me In the Mansion District The Poor People's Peace Quiet, Cleanliness and Order The Feast The Cosmic Order Bleak NormalityAfghanistan I, December 2006 People Don’t Change Much Really Crazy Two British Commanders Humanitarian Mission In Kabul Where Is the Progress? Master Tamim The New Motorway American Headquarters Visit to the Passport Office Cola in the Dark The Limits of ReportingAfghanistan II, September 11, 2011 Cemetery 1 Walls in Front of Walls Northward Mazar-e Sharif The Best Place in Town In the Countryside In the Panjshir Valley In the South Peace Conference Tribal Leaders 1 Kandahar Tribal Leaders 2 The Limits of Reporting Cemetery 2 The UprisingTehran, June 2009 Chance Companions Arrival Wednesday Thursday Friday Back to Saturday Sunday Early Monday When You See the Black FlagsIraq, September 2014 I. Najaf: In the Heart of the Shia Ubiquity of Death A Dangerous Topic A Different Shia With Swordlike Index Finger Grand Ayatollah Sistani's Message II. Baghdad: The Future Is Past A Thirty Years' War and More A Hookah with Goethe and Hölderlin Fog of Melancholy Right Out of Ali Baba The Last Christian A Warrior III. Kurdistan: The War for Our World Too Literally Overnight What For? To the Front The General The Entrance to HellSyria, September 2012 The Centre and the Margins Artists of the Revolution Two Views Outsourcing Terror The Feast of St Elian At the Tomb of Ibn Arabi Thinking without Gradations The Intensive Care Unit Those Who Can Read, Let Them Read We Too Love LifePalestine, April 2005 In Search of Palestine Without Hope The Wall Against Empathy My Capitulation They Are Human Beings Life as What It IsLampedusa, September 2008 Sunday Outing Ghosts Midnight The Previous Mayor The Camp The New Mayor Night Again With or Without ApprovalCairo, October 2012

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Book SynopsisIn these essays, poet Naomi Shihab Nye travels the world at an observant pace, talking to strangers and introducing readers to an endearing assemblage of eccentric neighbours, Filipina faith healers, dry-cleaning proprietors, and other quirky characters.

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Book SynopsisDuring the nineteenth century, American travelers began to “discover” southern Appalachia and to define it within mainstream American culture. As a result, American periodicals—from national publications such as Harper’s and The Atlantic Monthly to smaller circulation magazines such as DeBow’s and The Lakeside Monthly—published a great deal about the region, which encompasses parts of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Eighteen articles, culled from this body of literature—including work by Rebecca Harding Davis, W. E. B. DuBois, and Constance Fenimore Woolson—make up this volume. Some passages now read as environmental elegy: descriptions of old-growth forests long since cut, waterfalls now dammed, vistas now hidden behind pollution on high ridges. A variety of genres present a historic view of the region, as well as providing insight into the construction of travel writing in the nineteenth century. For readers interested in the history and culture of the region, these articles offer a glimpse of the social, economic, and political forces that shaped the region as we now know it. They describe economic and domestic practices in the 1800s; show how the image of the “mountaineer”—a distinct, white, southern Appalachian archetype—emerged in the national consciousness; and detail the development of the region during a crucial period.The volume contains helpful glosses and explanatory notes, while maps aid twenty-first-century travelers in following nineteenth-century travel routes. In addition, the book is beautifully illustrated with many woodblock engravings.Contributors: George Cooke, Charles Lanman, Oliver Bell Bunce, Julian Ralph, Bradford Torrey, David Hunter Strother, Constance Fenimore Woolson, Rebecca Harding Davis, Charles Dudley Warner, William Wallace Harney, Louise Coffin Jones, James Lane Allen, Lee Meriwether, Margaret Johann, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jehu Lewis, George Dimmock, Frank O. CarpenterKevin O’Donnell is associate professor of English at East Tennessee State University and is director of that school’s writing-across-the-curriculum program. Helen Hollingsworth is professor emerita of English at East Tennessee State University. She has contributed articles to Appalachia Inside Out: Conflict and Change, and The Highlands Bulletin.

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Book SynopsisIn 1997 Gary Younge explored the American South by retracing the route of the original Freedom Riders of the 1960s. His road trip was a remarkable socio-cultural adventure for an outsider. He was British, journalistically curious, and black. As he traveled by Greyhound bus through the former Confederate states, he experienced an awakening. He felt culturally tied to this strange yet familiar place. Though a Briton by birth and the child of emigrants from Barbados, he felt culturally alien in his native land. In Dixie, however, he met African Americans whose racial distinctiveness was similar to his own. To local blacks he looked like a brother, while sounding intriguingly foreign. As he assessed their political rise in the South, he noted too how African American tradition seemed static and unchanged. It was a refreshing whiff of ""home."" Awakened to his own identity as a black in a predominantly white society and absorbed by a sense of southern myth and racial history, he produced this account, a blend of travel writing, historical research, wit, and social commentary. His probing examination of the Southland gives fresh perspective on race relations in America. Originally published in England, No Place Like Home is ""more than a piece of travel writing,"" praised the London Evening Standard, ""[but] a compelling exploration of racial identity and the problems of growing up clever, black, and angry in small-town Stevenage. . . . Younge is a fine journalist--thoroughgoing, clear-minded, and meticulous, and he writes in a measured, lucid prose. . . . Next, please take a trip around the UK, Gary Younge, and write about it. Your country needs you."" Gary Younge is a columnist and feature writer for the London Guardian. In this post he has written extensively from the United States, South Africa, and Europe. In 1996 he worked at the Washington Post as recipient of a Laurence Stern Fellowship.

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Book SynopsisAward-winning author Sharon Hudgins takes readers on a personal adventure through the Asian side of Russia - from the ""high-rise villages"" of Vladivostok and Irkutsk to Lake Baikal and the Trans-Siberian Railroad route. Join her as a guest confronted with exotic dishes at Christmas parties, New Year's banquets, Easter dinners, and Siberian festivals - and discover what daily life is really like on Russia's ""other side.Trade ReviewSharon Hudgins has written a vivid and engrossing book about a part of the world that's both geographically and ethnically complex. She's done much to make the unfamiliar familiar. - Larry McMurtry; ""Rare is the person who can step into the wonderland of Siberia and capture the culture and spirit of its people. Sharon Hudgins has done that and more. This is a warm, considered, and completely engaging work from start to finish... a window into the soul of Siberia."" - James Cramer, President & CEO, World Learning; ""... an animated examination of grim, grimy, and unpredictably gracious ordinary life in the extraordinary place she calls Absurdistan."" - Alfred Friendly, Jr., coauthor, Ecocide in the USSR, and former Newsweek Moscow Bureau Chief

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Book SynopsisIn the hot summer of 2004, David Leff floated away from the routine of daily life just as Henry David Thoreau and his brother had done in their own small boat in 1839. Fortified with Thoreau's observations as revealed in ""A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"", Leff brought his own concept of mindful deep travel to these same New England waterways. His first-person narrative uses his ecological way of looking, of going deep rather than far, to show that our outward journeys are inseparable from our inward ones. How we see depends on where we are in our lives and with whom we travel. Leff chose his companions wisely. In consecutive journeys his neighbor and friend Alan, a veteran city planner; his son Josh, an energetic eleven-year-old; and his sweetheart Pamela, a compassionate professional caregiver, added their perspectives to Leff's own experiences as a government official in natural resources policy. Not so much sight seeing as sight seeking, together they explored a geography of the imagination as well as the rich natural and human histories of the rivers and their communities. The heightened awareness of deep travel demands that we immerse ourselves fully in places and realize that they exist in time as well as space. Its mindfulness enriches the experience and makes the voyager worthy of the journey. Leff's intriguing, contemplative deep travel along these historic rivers presents a methodology for exploration that will enrich any trip.Trade ReviewIn the wake of Thoreau, Leff paddles acutely, scrying the traces of the past in the natural and human complexity of the riverine present: an original book of long-term value. - JOHN STILGOE, Harvard University

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Book SynopsisTom Lutz is on a mission to visit every country on earth. And the Monkey Learned Nothing contains reports from fifty of them, most describing personal encounters in rarely visited spots, anecdotes from way off the beaten path. Traveling without an itinerary and without a goal, Lutz explores the Iranian love of poetry, the occupying Chinese army in Tibet, the amputee beggars in Cambodia, the hill tribes on Vietnam’s Chinese border, the sociopathic monkeys of Bali, the dangerous fishermen and conmen of southern India, the salt flats of Uyumi in Peru, and floating hotels in French Guiana, introduces you to an Uzbeki prodigy in the market of Samarkand, an Azeri rental car clerk in Baku, guest workers in Dubai, a military contractor in Jordan, cucuruchos in Guatemala, a Pentecostal preacher in rural El Salvador, a playboy in Nicaragua, employment agents in Singapore specializing in Tamil workers, prostitutes in Colombia and the Dominican Republic, international bankers in Belarus, a teacher in Havana, border guards in Botswana, tango dancers in Argentina, a cook in Suriname, a juvenile thief in Uruguay, voters in Guyana, doctors in Tanzania and Lesotho, scary poker players in Moscow, reed dancers in Swaziland, young camel herders in Tunisia, Romanian missionaries in Macedonia, and musical groups in Mozambique. With an eye out for both the sublime and the ridiculous, Lutz falls, regularly, into the instant intimacy of the road with random strangers.

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Book SynopsisNow updated with a new predface that examines dramatic changes in his favourite hiking and camping area, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, this classic adventure chronicle, which first appeared in 1996, launched the outdoor writing career of Johnny Molloy. The author of over sixty invaluable hiking, camping, and paddling guides to natural destinations all over the country, Molloy has turned irresistible enthusiasm for the great outdoors, evident in this book, into a profound career, dedicated to honouring and celebrating our greatest wild places—and helping others enjoy them as much as he has. In fourteen lively personal essays, Johnny Molloy describes the adventures by which he came of age as a backpacker. Born a “flatlander” in Memphis, he first visited the Smokies while attending the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in the 1980s. Initially, he treated the park as a personal playground—a place to cut loose, break rules, and act irresponsibly. After many hiking excursions, however, he gained a more profound appreciation of the mountains, becoming an avid park volunteer intent on the protection and improvement of the area. He grew, as he puts it, both as an outdoor adventurer and as a human being. Interwoven throughout these pieces is a wealth of Smoky Mountains lore and history along with dozens of tips for novice backpackers. Molloy’s stories encompass backpacking during all four seasons as well as accounts of solo hiking, off-trail hiking, and whitewater canoeing. Whether describing the hazards of crossing a stream in winter or what to do—and not to do—when one encounters a bear or a rattlesnake, Molloy writes with an infectious enthusiasm that will delight any lover of the outdoors.

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Book SynopsisDuring the Jim Crow era, African American travellers faced the prospects of violence, harassment, and the denial of services, especially as they made their way throughout the American South. Those who journeyed outside the United States found not only a political and social context that was markedly different from America's, but in their international mobility, they also discovered new ways of identifying themselves in relation to others. In this book, Gary Totten examines the global travel narratives of a diverse set of African American writers, including Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, Matthew Henson, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Zora Neale Hurston. While these writers deal with issues of identity in relation to a reimagined sense of self -- in a way that we might expect to find in travel narratives -- they also push against the constraints and conventions of the genre, reconsidering discourses of tourism, ethnography, and exploration. This book not only offers new insights about African American writers and mobility, it also charts the ideological distinctions and divergent agendas within this group of writers. Totten demonstrates how these travellers and their writings challenged dominant ideologies about African American experience, expression, and identity in a period of escalating racial violence. By setting these texts in their historical context and within the genre of travel writing, Totten presents a nuanced understanding of both popular and recovered work of the period.

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Book SynopsisLawrence Ferlinghetti—legendary poet and best-selling author—collects here his travel journals. Traversing the latter half of the twentieth century to the present, Writing Across the Landscape positions Ferlinghetti as a major voice whose personal writings are now added to the fabric of twentieth-century literary history. The volume gives glimpses of figures like William Burroughs in London, Ezra Pound in Italy and Fidel Castro at the dawn of the Revolution. Readers will journey to Mexico, Morocco, Paris and Rome, as well as to post-Stalinist Russia on a harrowing journey on the Trans-Siberian Express. Embedded with new poems and Ferlinghetti’s pyrotechnic prose, Writing Across the Landscape evokes the people, places and political movements that have shaped our time.Trade Review"Ferlinghetti move[s] through the decades...in the grip of managed melancholy; a detached and watchful sympathy for the world and its follies." -- Iain Sinclair - London Review of Books

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Book SynopsisLawrence Ferlinghetti—legendary poet and best-selling author—collects here his travel journals. Traversing the latter half of the twentieth century to the present, Writing Across the Landscape positions Ferlinghetti as a major voice whose personal writings are now added to the fabric of twentieth-century literary history. The volume gives glimpses of figures like William Burroughs in London, Ezra Pound in Italy and Fidel Castro at the dawn of the Revolution. Readers will journey to Mexico, Morocco, Paris and Rome, as well as to post-Stalinist Russia on a harrowing journey on the Trans-Siberian Express. Embedded with new poems and Ferlinghetti’s pyrotechnic prose, Writing Across the Landscape evokes the people, places and political movements that have shaped our time.Trade Review"Ferlinghetti move[s] through the decades...in the grip of managed melancholy; a detached and watchful sympathy for the world and its follies." -- Iain Sinclair - London Review of Books

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Book SynopsisHaving captivated millions during his tenure as The New York Times’s “Frugal Traveler”, Seth Kugel is one of our most internationally beloved travel writers. With the initial publication of Rediscovering Travel, he took the corporate modern travel industry to task, determined to reignite an age-old sense of adventure that has virtually been vanquished by the spontaneity-obliterating likes of Google Maps, TripAdvisor and Starwood points. Now in travel-friendly paperback, this “funny, inspiring and well-crafted” companion (Associated Press) reveals how to make the most of new apps and other digital technologies without being shackled to them. Writing for the tight-belted tourists and the first-class flyer, the eager student and the comfort-seeking retiree, Kugel shows all readers “not only where to look, but how” (Samantha Brown) and promises that we too can rediscover the joy of discovery.

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Book SynopsisA Short History of Charleston-a lively chronicle of the South's most renowned and charming city-has been hailed by critics, historians, and especially Charlestonians as authoritative, witty, and entertaining. Beginning with the founding of colonial Charles Town and ending three hundred and fifty years later in the present day, Robert Rosen's fast-paced narrative takes the reader on a journey through the city's complicated history as a port to English settlers, a bloodstained battlefield, and a picturesque vacation mecca. Packed with anecdotes and enlivened by passages from diaries and letters, A Short History of Charleston recounts in vivid detail the port city's development from an outpost of the British Empire to a bustling, modern city.This revised and expanded edition includes a new final chapter on the decades since Joseph Riley was first elected mayor in 1975 through its rapid development in geographic size, population, and cultural importance. Rosen contemplates both the city's triumphs and its challenges, allowing readers to consider how Charleston's past has shaped its present and will continue to shape its future.Trade ReviewSprightly and entertaining Robert Rosen has captured the flavor and flair of Charleston as few writers have been able to do. Rosen is alert to the ironies and idiosyncrasies of his native city, and he writes of personalities and events with an easy, knowing hand, neither boastfully nor regretfully.

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Book SynopsisGoing It Aloneis the story of Tim Hauserman's conflict between wanting to be alone in the wilderness, and finding himself with deep feelings of fear and loneliness once he's gets there. Sure, he revels in the quiet of a dense forest, the soft lines of the shoreline of a shimmering mountain lake and the stark gray beauty of granite peaks, but he also gets the heebie jeebies in the face of a trail with a steep drop off or the sound of a bear crunching sticks next to his tent.After day hiking for years, he decided he wanted to stay in the wilderness when the sun set and be there again for its rising. So he set out on a series of backpack trips by himself. Solo takes the reader along as Tim hikes on the John Muir Trail through rainstorms and challenging climbs while facing stoves that don't work and lonely nights in the tent. Next, he heads out from his driveway onto a 14 day thru-hike of the Tahoe Rim Trail. Despite writing the guidebook to the TRT, he only truly discovers the trail when he thru-hikes it by himself. Finally, he travels to Minnesota to face bugs, drought, and sometimes non-existent trails on a section of the Superior Hiking Trail that he seems to have all to himself.The story combines self-deprecating humor, Stupid Tim Tricks and delightful descriptions of the natural surroundings. While some might call the wilderness the middle of nowhere, or nothingness, Tim believes it is everything. While his love for nature remains undaunted, he also discovers that he has overly high expectations for his capabilities and that just wishing loneliness away doesn't work. He eventually discovers that his long walks in the woods are less about hiking, than about learning how he wants to live his life.Table of Contents Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: What Was I Thinking? 1. Howling at the Half Moon 2. What the Q? 3. Six Days on the John Muir Trail 4. The Tahoe Rim Trail 5. The Superior Hiking Trail...Solo Hiking, Minnesota Style 6. Finding Peace at Fontanillis Epilogue Works Cited About the Author

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Book SynopsisAn engaging account of women’s travels in the early modern period. This book showcases three Frenchwomen who ventured far from home at a time when such traveling was rare. In 1639, Marie de l’Incarnation embarked for New France where she founded the first Ursuline monastery in present-day Canada. In 1750, Madame du Boccage set out at the age of forty on her first “grand tour.” She visited England, the Netherlands, and Italy where she experienced firsthand the intellectual liberty offered there to educated women. As the Reign of Terror gripped France, the Marquise de la Tour du Pin fled to America with her husband and their two young children, where they ran a farm from 1794 to 1796. The writings these women left behind detailing their respective journeys abroad represent significant contributions to early modern travel literature. This book makes available to anglophone readers three texts that are rich in both historical and literary terms. Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction The Other Voice Marie Guyart de l’Incarnation (1599–1672) Anne Marie Fiquet Du Boccage (1710–1802) Henriette-Lucie Dillon, Marquise de La Tour du Pin (1770–1853) Experiencing Otherness It will be there that I find bliss . . . Let us step outside our homeland, there will be a new being . . . The happiest moment of my existence . . . The Journey Narrative: Forms and Content The Missionary Letter The Familiar Letter The Autobiographical Memoir: A Hybrid Form Travel Writing and Gender as a Field of Investigation and a Source for Teaching Note on the Translations Travel NarrativesMarie de l’Incarnation, Correspondence Madame Du Boccage, Letters on England, Holland, and Italy Madame de La Tour du Pin, Journal of a Fifty-Year-Old Woman Appendix 1: Cécile de Sainte-Croix, The Story of Her Crossing and Arrival in Quebec (September 2, 1639) Appendix 2: Glossary of Places Appendix 3: Table of Currencies and Values Appendix 4: Chronology Bibliography Index of Names Thematic Index

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Book SynopsisCelebrated playwright, author and screenwriter Louis Nowra loves King Cross. A long-time resident, he makes us reimagine the most infamous and misunderstood place in Australia, a magnet for bohemianism, cosmopolitanism and organised crime. In a wildly energetic book that walks the streets, sits in bars, chats with the locals, and spends time in clubs and apartments where you wish the walls could talk, Nowra traverses the history and the future of his beloved neighbourhood. He burrows beneath the sensationalist Underbelly ‘sex and sin’ narrative, revealing stories and a cast of characters – some household names, others little-known – that not even a writer could conjure up. Kings Cross is a no-holds barred place where backpackers, prostitutes, strippers, chefs, mad men, poets, beggars, booksellers, doctors, gangsters, sailors, musicians, drug traffickers, eccentrics, judges and artists live side by side. Part flâneur, part historian and part eyewitness, Louis Nowra is the best possible guide to a place that is both real and a state of mind.

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