Travel Writing

We'll meet next at the Homewood Library in April, but a conflict with the Alabama Library Association Convention in Point Clear makes it necessary to change the date to Wednesday, April 15th at 9am, still at the Homewood Library.  See you there!

Today we met at the Five Points West Library and I would like to add my profuse thanks and appreciation for the warm hospitality and delicious nibbles!  We discussed travel writing and what a journey it was!  Near, far, fictional and real life adventures were all represented. 

In attendance:

Holley, Emmet O'Neal
Mary Anne, BPL Southern History
Michelle, Irondale
Cristi, Fultondale
Grace, Fultondale
Samuel, Five Points West
Mondretta, Leeds
Richard, Central Fiction
Maura, Trussville

The Iron Road: An Illustrated History of the Railroad by Christian Wolmar
(powells) Written by Christian Wolmar, author of the critically acclaimed The Great Railroad Revolution, The Iron Road is a richly illustrated account of the rise of the rails across the world.

From the historic moment in September 1830 when the first train ran between Liverpool and Manchester, to the high speed trains bulleting across Asia and Europe, The Iron Road: An Illustrated History of the Railroad looks at how railroads have changed the world.

Photographs, maps, paintings, and illustrations bring events and locations to life, adding a unique visual quality to the stories of great invention, feats of mind-boggling engineering, groundbreaking changes in trade and commerce, and tales of adventurers, visionaries, and rogues. The Iron Road is the third title in DK's successful illustrated histories format, which combines text-rich narratives with beautiful visual design.
Mondretta, Leeds

GENERAL DISCUSSION:   Images from a 19th century transcontinental railroad travel guide expounding the virtues of train travel to the west!

GENERAL DISCUSSION: A participant mentioned a great, recently published map book on order for the library system, Great Maps: TheWorld’s Masterpieces Explored and Explained by Jerry Brotton
(amazon) From Ptolemy's world map to the Hereford's Mappa Mundi, through Mercator's map of the world to the latest maps of the Moon and Google Earth, Great Maps provides a fascinating overview of cartography through the ages. Revealing the stories behind 55 historical maps by analyzing graphic close-ups, Great Maps also profiles key cartographers and explorers to look why each map was commissioned, who it was for and how they influenced navigation, propaganda, power, art, and politics.

Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America by John Waters
John Waters decides to hitchhike from his home in Baltimore, MD to his home in San Francisco, CA.  Alone.  Thus begins the Pope of Trash’s epic, hilarious, irreverent, mocking, definitely not for the faint-of-heart trip across America via the thumb.  Those expecting to jump right in to the absurdity will not be disappointed, but nor will they get the real story.  Waters begins his book with several short stories detailing the best possible scenarios he could imagine, followed by the worst humanity has to offer.  And trust me, Waters KNOWS how to imagine the worst.  After that, you come to the real journey, which was quite a bit more heartwarming than I would have imagined possible.  The good, the bad, and the ugly (real and imagined) of our country are all on display here and only the foolhardy would imagine there’s no truth to any of it. If it were a movie, it would be Rated R for graphic nudity, graphic language, graphic sexuality, graphic violence, outrageously rude humor, copious drug references…hmmm, maybe a few other things I can’t recall right now.  But for those up to the challenge, it’s also Rated F for FUN!
Holley, Emmet O’Neal

GENERAL DISCUSSION: Richard has also reviewed Carsick on the Birmingham Public Library’s blog at http://bplolinenews.blogspot.com/2014/10/book-review-carsick.html.

Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs MostAmericans Won’t Do by Gabriel Thompson
This story is not a travelogue detailing exotic locales or award-winning food.  It’s not technically a travelogue at all but it does detail a journey that I found both sobering and fascinating.  Award-winning journalist Gabriel Thompson spends one year working alongside America’s invisible poor (American citizens and immigrants alike) to get a real picture of what their lives may be like.  It’s an eye-opening cross-section of the country, from the blazing lettuce fields of Arizona to the industrial chicken slaughterhouses of rural Alabama to the hazards of bicycle deliveries on the frantic streets of Manhattan. Thompson does provide a glimpse into the shadowed recesses of forgotten America, but he also shines a light into the role that setting plays for these hardworking people.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal

The Road to Canterbury: A Modern Pilgrimage by Shirley du Boulay
(amazon) This work is a personal account of Shirley du Boulay's journey along the Pilgrim's Way, which runs from Winchester to Canterbury. She walked the 120 miles in ten days, and a chapter is devoted to each of the days. A further four chapters introduce the theme of pilgrimage, the route itself, the object of this particular route (the shrine of Thomas Becket) and its history, and the preparation. Shirley draws many parallels between inner and outer journeys, and contrasts the modern "home counties" with the countryside of the middle ages.
Mary Anne, BPL Southern History

Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins
(powells) A bibliophile's pilgrimage to where book lovers go when they die:  Hay-on-Wye.

Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside-to move, in fact, to the little cobblestone village of Hay-on-Wye, the 'Town of Books' that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants-and forty bookstores. Antiquarian bookstores, no less.

Hay's newest citizens accordingly take up residence in a sixteenth-century apartment over a bookstore, meeting the village's large population of misfits and bibliomaniacs by working for world-class eccentric Richard Booth-the self-declared King of Hay, owner of the local castle, and proprietor of the world's largest and most chaotic used book warren. A useless clerk, Paul delights in shifting dusty stacks of books around and sifting them for ancient gems like Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable, Confessions of an Author's Wife, and I Was Hitler's Maid. He also duly fulfills his new duty as a citizen by simultaneously applying to be a Peer in the House of Lords and attempting to buy Sixpence House, a beautiful and neglected old tumbledown pub for sale in the town's center.

Taking readers into a secluded sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the creation of his own book, Sixpence House becomes a meditation on what books means to us, and how their meaning can still resonate long after they have been abandoned by their public. Even as he's writing, the knowledge of where his work will eventually end up-rubbing bindings with the rest of the books that time forgot-is a curious kind of comfort.
Mary Anne, BPL Southern History

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
(powells) National Bestseller • Longlisted For the Man Booker Prize • Named One of the Best Books of the Year By The Washington Post

Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning a letter arrives, addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl, from a woman he hasn’t heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye. But before Harold mails off a quick reply, a chance encounter convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. In his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold Fry embarks on an urgent quest. Determined to walk six hundred miles to the hospice, Harold believes that as long as he walks, Queenie will live. A novel of charm, humor, and profound insight into the thoughts and feelings we all bury deep within our hearts, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry introduces Rachel Joyce as a wise — and utterly irresistible — storyteller.
Michelle, Irondale

My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
(powells) Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is a voracious reader. Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion, reading has been Conroy’s portal to the world, both to the farthest corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South. He has for years kept notebooks in which he records words and expressions, over time creating a vast reservoir of playful turns of phrase, dazzling flashes of description, and snippets of delightful sound, all just for his love of language. But for Conroy reading is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an exaggeration to claim that reading has saved his life, and if not his life then surely his sanity.

In My Reading Life, Conroy revisits a life of reading through an array of wonderful and often surprising anecdotes: sharing the pleasures of the local library’s vast cache with his mother when he was a boy, recounting his decades-long relationship with the English teacher who pointed him onto the path of letters, and describing a profoundly influential period he spent in Paris, as well as reflecting on other pivotal people, places, and experiences. His story is a moving and personal one, guided by wisdom and an undeniable honesty. Anyone who not only enjoys the pleasures of reading but also believes in the power of books to shape a life will find here the greatest defense of that credo.
Michelle, Irondale

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (DVD)
(rottentomatoes) The usually menacing British actor Terence Stamp does a complete turnaround as Bernadette, an aging transsexual who tours the backwaters of Australia with her stage partners, Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and Adam/Felicia (Guy Pearce). Their act, well-known in Sydney, involves wearing lots of makeup and gowns and lip-synching to records, but Bernadette is getting a bit tired of it all and is also haunted by the bizarre death of an old loved one. Nevertheless, when Mitzi and Felicia get an offer to perform in the remote town of Alice Springs at a casino, Bernadette decides to tag along. 

The threesome ventures into the outback with Priscilla, a lavender-colored school bus that doubles as dressing room and home on the road. Along the way, the act encounters any number of strange characters, as well as incidents of homophobia, while Bernadette becomes increasingly concerned about the path her life has taken. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
Samuel, Five Points West

Sean & David’s Long Drive by Sean Condon
(powells) Sean Condon is young, urban and connoisseur of wax. He can't drive, and he doesn't really travel well. So when Sean and his friend David set out to explore Australia in a duck-egg blue 1966 Ford Falcon, the result is a decidedly offbeat look at life on the road. Over 14,000 death-defying kilometers, our heroes check out the re-runs on TV, get fabulously drunk, listen to Neil Young and wonder why they ever left home. Sean and David's Long Drive mixes sharp insight with deadpan humor and outright lies. Crank it up and read it out loud.
Samuel, Five Points West

My ‘Dam Life: Three Years in Holland by Sean Condon
(powells) In Sean & David's Long Drive he careered around Australia with his laconic pal David in a retro Ford Falcon. In Drive Thru America he and David cruised the States in a very uncool Chrysler Neon.

Now Australian humorist Sean Condon is married and living in Amsterdam - jobless, homeless, careless and Dave-less. In My 'Dam Life he casts a witty, watchful and wonderfully self-deprecating eye over his expat experience of laziness and leisure, dreams and destiny in the Venice of the North.

With his uncanny ability to seek out the absurd in everyday life, Sean finds plenty of targets in a city of hemp and high culture, canals and bicycles, idiosyncratic plumbing and internationally unrenowned cuisine. My 'Dam Life strikes a hilarious chord with anyone who has followed their dream of starting a new life abroad.
Samuel, Five Points West

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, narrated by Rob Inglis (audiobook)
(amazon) The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien's three-volume epic, is set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth - home to many strange beings, and most notably hobbits, a peace-loving "little people," cheerful and shy. Since its original British publication in 1954-55, the saga has entranced readers of all ages. It is at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale. Critic Michael Straight has hailed it as one of the "very few works of genius in recent literature." Middle-earth is a world receptive to poets, scholars, children, and all other people of good will. Donald Barr has described it as "a scrubbed morning world, and a ringing nightmare world...especially sunlit, and shadowed by perils very fundamental, of a peculiarly uncompounded darkness." The story of ths world is one of high and heroic adventure. Barr compared it to Beowulf, C.S. Lewis to Orlando Furioso, W.H. Auden to The Thirty-nine Steps. In fact the saga is sui generis - a triumph of imagination which springs to life within its own framework and on its own terms.  (recordedbooks) Rob Inglis has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare and Royal Court Theatre companies. He has played such roles as the Ghost and Claudius in Hamlet and Mr. Bumble in Oliver. He regularly tours Europe and the U.S. with his repertoire of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Tolkien, Dickens, Orwell, and Stevenson dramatizations. AudioFile praises his narrations: “His rich sound and grave manner would make a grocery list sound like a collection of rare treasure.
Samuel, Five Points West

Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang
(powells) Eddie Huang is the thirty-year-old proprietor of Baohaus — the hot East Village hangout where foodies, stoners, and students come to stuff their faces with delicious Taiwanese street food late into the night — and one of the food world’s brightest and most controversial young stars. But before he created the perfect home for himself in a small patch of downtown New York, Eddie wandered the American wilderness looking for a place to call his own.

Eddie grew up in theme-park America, on a could-be-anywhere cul-de-sac in suburban Orlando, raised by a wild family of FOB (“fresh off the boat”) hustlers and hysterics from Taiwan. While his father improbably launched a series of successful seafood and steak restaurants, Eddie burned his way through American culture, defying every “model minority” stereotype along the way. He obsessed over football, fought the all-American boys who called him a chink, partied like a gremlin, sold drugs with his crew, and idolized Tupac. His anchor through it all was food — from making Southern ribs with the Haitian cooks in his dad’s restaurant to preparing traditional meals in his mother’s kitchen to haunting the midnight markets of Taipei when he was shipped off to the homeland. After misadventures as an unlikely lawyer, street fashion renegade, and stand-up comic, Eddie finally threw everything he loved -- past and present, family and food--into his own restaurant, bringing together a legacy stretching back to China and the shards of global culture he’d melded into his own identity.

Funny, raw, and moving, and told in an irrepressibly alive and original voice, Fresh Off the Boat recasts the immigrant’s story for the twenty-first century. It’s a story of food, family, and the forging of a new notion of what it means to be American.
Samuel, Five Points West

American Interior by Gruff Rhys
American Interior is a multimedia travelogue, presented in book, movie, music, and app formats.  One review describes it as "blurring boundaries between songwriting, literature, film making, and computer entertainment."

In 2012, Gruff Rhys of the Welsh pop-rock band Super Furry Animals set out to retrace the journey of his distant ancestor, John Evans.  Evans came to America from Wales in 1792 on a quest to find a legendary Welsh-speaking Indian tribe, rumored to be living in the Great Plains. During his travels, Evans mapped the Missouri River (his work later utilized by Lewis & Clark); defected to the Spanish for a time, changing his name to Don Juan Evans; contracted malaria, causing him to suffer hallucinations; and was captured by the French, who thought he was a spy. He was also involved in political and trade concerns between the Spanish and British.

Accompanied by a puppet version of his ancestor, Gruff Rhys embarked on an "investigative concert tour" beginning in Baltimore and continuing through Philadelphia, Pittsburg, St. Louis, North Dakota, and down the Mississippi River basin to New Orleans.  This fascinating project explores history, myth, cultural identity, adventure, and the American landscape.
Maura, Trussville

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

Soon after the new millennium began, the grand old man of British travel writing traveled the Silk Road from China to Lebanon. The road, which has been called the medieval Internet, linked East and West for hundreds of years, transforming both in myriad ways. Thubron demonstrates how, and more importantly, why that plays out today (or doesn’t). He has the vocabulary of a poet and a healthy skepticism, providing a wealth of insight and startling detail.  Notions of East is East and West is West get exploded time and again. This book will make you less parochial, no matter how much you may think you know. 

Richard, Central Fiction

Heirs to the Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into theDisappearing Religions of the Middle East by Gerard Russell
Richard reviewed this book in full on the Birmingham Public Library’s blog at http://bplolinenews.blogspot.com/2015/02/book-review-heirs-to-forgotten-kingdoms.html

Don't Look Behind You: A Safari Guide's Encounters with Ravenous Lions, Stampeding Elephants, and Lovesick Rhinos by Peter Allison
While not the first book I'd hand to a patron who was planning a safari trip, it's an entertaining look at what a safari guide is really thinking when the tourists think everything is so safe and controlled.  It details his 10 year career as a safari guide, occasional camp manager, and perennially bad driver. The author's self-deprecating style doesn't instill confidence in the safari industry, but he does have some great stories to relate about his interesting life.
Kelly, Springville Road

Where have YOU armchair traveled?

Travel Writing/True Crime

Attendance:

Holley W. – Emmet O’Neal

Richard G. – Central Fiction

Jonathan N. – Avondale

Elizabeth S. – JCLC

Maura D. – Trussville

Today, Systems Librarian extraordinaire Elizabeth S. visited to share with us some of the exciting features of Sierra, the upgrade to our Millennium system coming later this fall.

Our next meeting will be on August 14, 2013 at 9am at the Emmet O’Neal Library.  The topic of discussion will be fantasy…graphic novels are also welcome!  This morning we had a dual discussion of true crime and travel writing.

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

A travelogue/comedy hybrid that is classic Sedaris: sardonic, biting, and profoundly funny for the thick skinned.  Not for the faint of heart as Sedaris skewers many social conventions.  I listened to the audio narrated by Sedaris himself and I demand that no one other than Sedaris EVER narrate his audiobooks…a truly stellar performance!

Holley, Emmet O’Neal

The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean by Philip Caputo
This book is not scheduled for publication until July 16, 2013 (Henry Holt and Co, 9780805094466, $28.00) but I have been enchanted with it ever since I first read the review.  Here is the book description from Amazon: 

One of America’s most respected writers takes an epic journey across America, Airstream in tow, and asks everyday Americans what unites and divides a country as endlessly diverse as it is large.

Standing on a wind-scoured island off the Alaskan coast, Philip Caputo marveled that its Inupiat Eskimo schoolchildren pledge allegiance to the same flag as the children of Cuban immigrants in Key West, six thousand miles away. And a question began to take shape: How does the United States, peopled by every race on earth, remain united? Caputo resolved that one day he’d drive from the nation’s southernmost point to the northernmost point reachable by road, talking to everyday Americans about their lives and asking how they would answer his question.

So it was that in 2011, in an America more divided than in living memory, Caputo, his wife, and their two English setters made their way in a truck and classic trailer (hereafter known as “Fred” and “Ethel”) from Key West, Florida, to Deadhorse, Alaska, covering 16,000 miles. He spoke to everyone from a West Virginia couple saving souls to a Native American shaman and taco entrepreneur. What he found is a story that will entertain and inspire readers as much as it informs them about the state of today’s United States, the glue that holds us all together, and the conflicts that could cause us to pull apart.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal

Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America by Bill Geist
Talking about Philip Caputo’s new book made me remember how much I enjoyed this little gem several years ago.  You may remember author Bill Geist as a celebrated roving correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning.  In Way Off the Road, we follow Geist as he takes a rollicking look at some small-town Americans and their offbeat ways of life.  One of the small towns Mr. Geist visits is Scottsboro, Alabama for a stop at the Unclaimed Baggage Center!
Holley, Emmet O’Neal

A Death in Italy: The Definitive Account of the Amanda Knox Case by John Follain
Jon, Avondale

Portrait of a Monster: Joran van der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery by Lisa Pulitzer and Cole Thompson
Jon, Avondale

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
Jon, Avondale

Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of by Harold Schechter
Jon, Avondale

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
Erik Larson—author of #1 bestseller In the Garden of Beasts—intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction. (Amazon)

The Outside Man: A Novel by Richard North Patterson (A fictionalized account of the 1977 murder of Mountain Brook resident Virginia Simpson--more info here and here.)
The outside man is society lawyer Adam Shaw. A northerner in a southern town jealous of its secrets, he finds the dead body of his best friend's wealthy wife -- and his friend is missing.

In a world where wealthy people will stop at nothing to maintain a genteel image, Shaw must gamble his career, his marriage, and his very life in a passionate quest for the real murderer -- and learn the shocking truth about his own past and future. (Amazon)  

Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America by Sharon Davies

It was among the most notorious criminal cases of its day. On August 11, 1921, in Birmingham, Alabama, a Methodist minister named Edwin Stephenson shot and killed a Catholic priest, James Coyle, in broad daylight and in front of numerous witnesses. The killer's motive?  The priest had married Stephenson's eighteen-year-old daughter Ruth to Pedro Gussman, a Puerto Rican migrant and practicing Catholic.

Sharon Davies's Rising Road resurrects the murder of Father Coyle and the trial of his killer. As Davies reveals with novelistic richness, Stephenson's crime laid bare the most potent bigotries of the age: a hatred not only of blacks, but of Catholics and "foreigners" as well. In one of the case's most unexpected turns, the minister hired future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to lead his defense. Though regarded later in life as a civil rights champion, in 1921 Black was just months away from donning the robes of the Ku Klux Klan, the secret order that financed Stephenson's defense. Entering a plea of temporary insanity, Black defended the minister on claims that the Catholics had robbed Ruth away from her true Protestant faith, and that her Puerto Rican husband was actually black.

Placing the story in social and historical context, Davies brings this heinous crime and its aftermath back to life, in a brilliant and engrossing examination of the wages of prejudice and a trial that shook the nation at the height of Jim Crow. (Amazon)

Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil by Tony Wheeler
In an age of plastic knives on planes, Tony Wheeler can make the extraordinary claim of having visited all the rogue countries currently on newsreaders' lips. Bad Lands is a witty first-hand account of his travels through some of the most repressive and dangerous regimes in the world: Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. Taking into account each country's attitude to human rights, terrorism and foreign policy, he asks 'what makes a country truly evil?' and 'how bad is really bad?' - all the while engaging with a colorful cast of locals and hapless tour guides, ruminating on history and debunking popular myths. Written by the founder of Lonely Planet, this fascinating account of life in these closed-off countries will appeal to anyone with an interest in the state of the world today. (Amazon)

Wicked North Alabama by Jacquelyn Procter Reeves
Thoughts of Alabama invite images of Confederate jasmine and fertile cotton fields, sweet iced tea and southern hospitality. But even in paradise, evil sometimes creeps in. Some of the stories captured within the pages of this book are well known to the good folks of North Alabama; others are less familiar. The scandals of Lincoln's brother- in-law, the reign of terror created by Huntsville's Southwest Molester, the Decatur man who buried his wife's dismembered body under the fishpond and the beautiful Black Widow of Hazel Green- all of these stories and more are well researched and masterfully written by Huntsville author Jacquelyn Procter Reeves. True-crime fans will appreciate this treasury of stories spanning nearly two hundred years of North Alabama history. (Amazon)

The Birmingham Horrors by William Stanley Hoole (Weld article here)
Being a complete and accurate account of Richard R. Hawes's murder of his wife, Emma, and daughters, May and Irene in Birmingham, Alabama, on December 3-4, 1888

The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari by Paul Theroux
Following the success of the acclaimed Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and The Great Railway Bazaar, The Last Train to Zona Verde is an ode to the last African journey of the world's most celebrated travel writer.

“Happy again, back in the kingdom of light,” writes Paul Theroux as he sets out on a new journey through the continent he knows and loves best. Theroux first came to Africa as a twenty-two-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, and the pull of the vast land never left him. Now he returns, after fifty years on the road, to explore the little-traveled territory of western Africa and to take stock both of the place and of himself.

His odyssey takes him northward from Cape Town, through South Africa and Namibia, then on into Angola, wishing to head farther still until he reaches the end of the line. Journeying alone through the greenest continent, Theroux encounters a world increasingly removed from both the itineraries of tourists and the hopes of postcolonial independence movements. Leaving the Cape Town townships, traversing the Namibian bush, passing the browsing cattle of the great sunbaked heartland of the savanna, Theroux crosses “the Red Line” into a different Africa: “the improvised, slapped-together Africa of tumbled fences and cooking fires, of mud and thatch,” of heat and poverty, and of roadblocks, mobs, and anarchy. After 2,500 arduous miles, he comes to the end of his journey in more ways than one, a decision he chronicles with typically unsparing honesty in a chapter called “What Am I Doing Here?”

Vivid, witty, and beautifully evocative, The Last Train to Zona Verde is a fitting final African adventure from the writer whose gimlet eye and effortless prose have brought the world to generations of readers. (Amazon)

The Dark Side of Disney: Utterly Unauthorized Tips, Tricks, and Scams for Your WDW Vacation by Leonard Kinsey
Maura, Trussville

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
It’s the late 1990s in the Russian Far East. An Amur tiger has turned the tables and is hunting people. Usually, it’s the other way round, but that’s rare, as hunters know to stay away from tigers. But someone has upset the code of the taiga and angered a tiger, an animal known for its capacity for revenge upon any creature that does it harm. Who’s guilty here? The tiger? Or a person? And how can you tell? John Vaillant marshals the facts well, and creates such a detailed portrait of this exotic back of beyond you feel you are there with the frightened people as well as the tiger.
Richard, BPL Central - Fiction

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

Richard’s book about killer tigers reminded the group of The Maneaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures by John Henry Patterson AND the movie adapted from those adventures, The Ghost and the Darkness.
When the British government undertook the construction of the Uganda Railway through East Africa in 1898, harsh criticism from the press, tremendous amounts of money spent, and rebelliousness of the workers turned out to be the least of the government’s worries. Their biggest obstacle came in the form of two ravenous lions with a taste for human flesh, terrorizing the 35,000 laborers building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River.

 After killing more than one hundred-thirty people over the course of nine months, the lions completely halted construction, as the workers were too afraid to continue. Colonel John Henry Patterson, the chief engineer overseeing the project, then took matters into his own hands. An inexperienced hunter at the time, but a courageous and clever man, he took on the beasts and single-handedly brought an end to their nine-month reign of terror.

Patterson’s true account of his gripping and terrifying adventures confronting the lions and overseeing the project termed “The Lunatic Line,” while tackling countless other obstacles, is a must for anyone looking for a thrilling read. With over 100 original photos of the East African lands, native tribes, and wild animals, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is a true hunting classic. (Amazon)

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell -- widely hailed for her inimitable stories on public radio's This American Life -- ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot?

Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration.

The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary. (Amazon)

We also talked about expose-type books from members of various service industries:

Free For All: Oddballs,Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don BorchertNot long ago, the public library was a place for the bookish, the eggheaded, and the studious—often seeking refuge from a loud, irrational, crude, outside world.  Today, libraries have become free-for-all entertainment complexes filled with rowdy teens, deviants, drugs, and even sex toys. Lockdowns and chaperones are often necessary.

What happened?

Don Borchert was a short-order cook, door-to-door salesman, telemarketer, and Christmas-tree-chopper before landing a job in a California library. He never could have predicted his encounters with the colorful kooks, touching adolescents, threatening bullies, and tricksters who fill the pages of this hilarious memoir.

In Free for All, Borchert offers readers a ringside seat for the unlikely spectacle of mayhem and absurdity that is business as usual at the public library. You’ll see cops bust drug dealers who’ve set up shop in the men’s restroom, witness a burka-wearing employee suffer a curse-ridden nervous breakdown, and meet a lonely, neglected kid who grew up in the library and still sends postcards to his surrogate parents—the librarians.  In fact, from the first page of this comic debut to the last, you’ll learn everything about the world of the modern-day library that you never expected. (Amazon)

The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne
An inspiring story of how a Mormon kid with Tourette’s found salvation in books and weight-lifting

Josh Hanagarne couldn’t be invisible if he tried. Although he wouldn’t officially be diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome until his freshman year of high school, Josh was six years old and onstage in a school Thanksgiving play when he first began exhibiting symptoms. By the time he was twenty, the young Mormon had reached his towering adult height of 6’7” when—while serving on a mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints—his Tourette’s tics escalated to nightmarish levels.

Determined to conquer his affliction, Josh underwent everything from quack remedies to lethargy-inducing drug regimes to Botox injections that paralyzed his vocal cords and left him voiceless for three years. Undeterred, Josh persevered to marry and earn a degree in Library Science. At last, an eccentric, autistic strongman—and former Air Force Tech Sergeant and guard at an Iraqi prison—taught Josh how to “throttle” his tics into submission through strength-training.

Today, Josh is a librarian in the main branch of Salt Lake City’s public library and founder of a popular blog about books and weight lifting—and the proud father of four-year-old Max, who has already started to show his own symptoms of Tourette’s.

The World’s Strongest Librarian illuminates the mysteries of this little-understood disorder, as well as the very different worlds of strongman training and modern libraries. With humor and candor, this unlikely hero traces his journey to overcome his disability— and navigate his wavering Mormon faith—to find love and create a life worth living.

Heads in Beds:  A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky
In the tradition of Kitchen Confidential and Waiter Rant, a rollicking, eye-opening, fantastically indiscreet memoir of a life spent (and misspent) in the hotel industry.

Jacob Tomsky never intended to go into the hotel business. As a new college graduate, armed only with a philosophy degree and a singular lack of career direction, he became a valet parker for a large luxury hotel in New Orleans. Yet, rising fast through the ranks, he ended up working in “hospitality” for more than a decade, doing everything from supervising the housekeeping department to manning the front desk at an upscale Manhattan hotel. He’s checked you in, checked you out, separated your white panties from the white bed sheets, parked your car, tasted your room-service meals, cleaned your toilet, denied you a late checkout, given you a wake-up call, eaten M&Ms out of your minibar, laughed at your jokes, and taken your money. In Heads in Beds he pulls back the curtain to expose the crazy and compelling reality of a multi-billion-dollar industry we think we know.

Heads in Beds is a funny, authentic, and irreverent chronicle of the highs and lows of hotel life, told by a keenly observant insider who’s seen it all. Prepare to be amused, shocked, and amazed as he spills the unwritten code of the bellhops, the antics that go on in the valet parking garage, the housekeeping department’s dirty little secrets—not to mention the shameless activities of the guests, who are rarely on their best behavior. Prepare to be moved, too, by his candor about what it’s like to toil in a highly demanding service industry at the luxury level, where people expect to get what they pay for (and often a whole lot more). Employees are poorly paid and frequently abused by coworkers and guests alike, and maintaining a semblance of sanity is a daily challenge.

Along his journey Tomsky also reveals the secrets of the industry, offering easy ways to get what you need from your hotel without any hassle. This book (and a timely proffered twenty-dollar bill) will help you score late checkouts and upgrades, get free stuff galore, and make that pay-per-view charge magically disappear. Thanks to him you’ll know how to get the very best service from any business that makes its money from putting heads in beds. Or, at the very least, you will keep the bellmen from taking your luggage into the camera-free back office and bashing it against the wall repeatedly. (Amazon)

Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet by Heather PooleReal-life flight attendant Heather Poole has written a charming and funny insider’s account of life and work in the not-always-friendly skies. Cruising Attitude is a Coffee, Tea, or Me? for the 21st century, as the author parlays her fifteen years of flight experience into a delightful account of crazy airline passengers and crew drama, of overcrowded crashpads in “Crew Gardens” Queens and finding love at 35,000 feet. The popular author of “Galley Gossip,” a weekly column for AOL’s award-winning travel website Gadling.com, Poole not only shares great stories, but also explains the ins and outs of flying, as seen from the flight attendant’s jump seat. (Amazon)

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip—Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by Steve DublanicaAccording to The Waiter, 80 percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining 20 percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths.

Eye-opening, outrageous, and unabashed—replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogant misbehavior, and unseen tidbits of human grace in the most unlikely places—Waiter Rant presents the server's unique point of view, revealing surefire secrets to getting good service, proper tipping etiquette, and ways to ensure that your waiter won't spit on your food. (Amazon)

Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress by Debra Ginsberg
A veteran waitress dishes up a spicy and robust account of life as it really exists behind kitchen doors.

Part memoir, part social commentary, part guide to how to behave when dining out, Debra Ginsberg's book takes readers on her twentyyear journey as a waitress at a soap-operatic Italian restaurant, an exclusive five-star dining club, the dingiest of diners, and more. While chronicling her evolution as a writer, Ginsberg takes a behind-the-scenes look at restaurant life-revealing that yes, when pushed, a server will spit in food, and, no, that's not really decaf you're getting-and how most people in this business are in a constant state of waiting to do something else. (Amazon)

Travel Writing

Our next meeting is February 8, 2012 to discuss debut novels. I absolutely LOVE reading authors' first books, seeing where it all began. If you want to peruse a list of great debut novels, Google is a great place to start! Also, a recent issue of Booklist (Nov 1? Nov 15?) spotlighted debut novels.

April Wallace, director of the Pinson Library and faithful RA Roundtable member, is also in charge of the Project Read program. We need suggestions and recommendations for books for the program so comment here at the blog with any likely candidates.

On to the list!

The Journey North: One Woman's Story of Hiking the Appalachian Trail by Adrienne Hall
There are numerous books about thru/section hiking the AT. I would recommend these types of books to anyone interested in outdoor/hiking activities. The JCLC has a lots of AT books (a keyword search for "appalachian trail" resulted in 70 items) which include "how-to, "autobiographical, and fictional accounts of trail life on the AT.

Hall's book is an easy enjoyable read but lacks depth about the social interactions with other hikers and "trail angels" that are a huge part of hiking the AT. This is presumably because she started the AT almost 2 months before the bulk of hikers begin the AT, in hopes of avoiding "the crowds." She suffered through horrible weather (again, a reason to *wait* before starting the AT) and seemed to have a miserable and challenging time for the most part. But there were bright spots in Hall's writing, and while I would not recommend this book to someone who had not hiked on the AT, I would quickly recommend it to someone looking for an AT fix, because they will recognize and remember the AT easily through Hall's writing. Hall also drifted from personal narrative to somewhat boring accounts of historical, environmental, and legal issues related to the trail. I often skimmed these sections as I'd either read them before, or they were outdated (Hall's trip was in 1996) and felt like "old news." Plus, who wants to read 4 pages about salamanders? I don't. But for AT fanatics these type of books are still desirable, despite their flaws, because they allow us to revisit the AT (the good and the bad, the exciting and the boring) from the relative safety and warmth of our own comfy homes.
Gina, Gardendale

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Michelle, Irondale

The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America by Eric Idle
Mondretta, Leeds

Drives of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Spectacular Trips by National Geographic
Mondretta, Leeds

How to Eat a Small Country: A Family's Pursuit of Happiness, One Meal at a Time by Amy Finley
Amy Finley felt like she'd gotten it all after winning the top spot on the third season of The Next Food Network Star, but her husband sure didn't think so. Unhappy with a laundry list of new obligations Amy had to fulfill, he mentions the big "D" word. Amy examines her life, her successes, and her choice between family and fame becomes clear. Amy, her husband, and their two small children move back to his home country of France for some bonding, soul searching, and (maybe) a healing of their marriage. Finley's descriptions of the tiny French towns and decadent food are wondrous. The stories are honest and she doesn't hide the fights, petty comebacks, and occasional cold shoulders that accompany her marital disagreements. This book will make you believe in the power of family, even dysfunctional ones...or maybe especially dysfunctional ones :-)
Holley, Emmet O'Neal

Best American Travel Writing
Jon, Avondale

Travel is a Political Act by Rick Steves
Jon, Avondale

Volunteer Vacations
Jon, Avondale

God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre by Richard Grant
Jon, Avondale

Places in Between by Rory Stewart
Jon, Avondale

Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer by Chuck Thompson
Jon, Avondale

Tony Wheeler's Bad Lands
Jon, Avondale

Lunatic Express: Discovering the World Via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman
Jon, Avondale

Off the Beaten Path: Alabama
Leigh, North Birmingham

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner
Former NPR foreign correspondent and professed grumpy person Eric Weiner takes on happiness on it's own turf. He travels far and wide seeking out the documented happiest places on earth and tries to get to the bottom of why they feel so cheerful. Funny, insightful, sobering, and utterly enchanting.
Holley, Emmet O'Neal

Holidays in Hell: In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World's Worst Places and Asks, "What's Funny About This?" by P.J. O'Rourke
Travelogues of beautiful vacation spots littered the field in 1988. P. J. O’Rourke decided to write a few tips for sojourning in some of the less-desirable points on the globe, such as Beirut during the war, Seoul during a contentious political election (riots are contentious, right?), Christmas in El Salvador, and along the U.S./Mexican border. Of the many books I’ve read, this is, hands down, the funniest, and the one I place lovingly in the hands of any patron who wants humor. From “A Ramble Through Lebanon”:

“Bassboat.” “Bizport.” “Passboot.” “Pisspot.” It’s the one English word every Lebanese understands and no Lebanese can say. The first, deepest and most enduring impression from a visit to Lebanon is an endless series of faces, with gun barrels, poking through the car window and mispronouncing your travel documents.”

“…Lebanon is notably free of tour groups and Nikon-toting Japanese. The beaches, though shell-pocked and occasionally mined, are not crowded. Ruins of historical interest abound, in fact, block most streets….”

“ Spaghetteria is a favorite with the foreign press. The Italian specials are good, and there’s a spectacular view of military patrols and nighttime skirmishing along the beachfront. Sit near the window if you feel lucky….”

If you are curious about third world war zones in the 1980’s, and what it was like to have an embedded holiday, you’ll enjoy this book. It also proves that some things haven’t changed a bit! Readers’ Advisory: Among the Euro-Weenies is definitely NOT Politically Correct!
Kelly, Springville Road

Digging for the Truth: One Man’s Epic Adventure Exploring the World’s Greatest Archeological Mysteries By Josh Bernstein
910.4 BernJ 2006 Audio (Unabridged)
Read by William Dufris
Josh Bernstein is the host of the series Digging for the Truth on the History Channel. This book is a combination of biography and travel; it first chronicles how he grew up loving camping trips, wilderness experiences, and all things outdoors and then recounts his adventures and mishaps as host of his popular television series. Armchair travelers will welcome the chance to explore locales such as Easter Island and Machu Picchu from the comfort of their own homes, which will seem twice as comfortable after hearing of Bernstein’s run-ins with diseases, questionable food, and venomous or parasitic wildlife. However, none of these things can quell Bernstein’s enthusiasm for his travels and archaeological investigations. I enjoyed Dufris’ reading on the audio version, but other readers interested in this topic might want to check out the text version as well for the photographs. Digging for the Truth will bring out the Indiana Jones in you.
Mary Anne, Southern History

Don’t Go There! The Travel Detective’s Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World
By Peter Greenberg
910.4 GreeP 2009
We all hope our vacations will be flawless excursions that help us relax and leave us with fond memories. We can hope, but our dream vacations can turn into nightmares because of filthy hotels, incompetent airlines, disease-ridden cruise ships, and destinations where you stand a better than average chance of being murdered for your shoes. Greenberg, who is the travel writer for the Today show, tries to help the reader escape some of these tourist traps by listing his picks on such topics as “Worse Hotels: Paging Norman Bates”
“Worst Cruises: Ships of Fools” and “Highways of Death:God’s Not Your Copilot.” Everyone who has traveled extensively is bound to have war stories, but you could literally wind up in a war zone in “Dangerous Destinations: You’d Better Pack More Than Samsonite.” One of Greenberg’s most hair-raising accounts is of the tourist who discovered a dead body under the bed in his hotel room. Through most of this book I was torn between dismay and hilarity and while I resolved never to visit some of these locations and hotels, I thought a lot of his advice would have to be taken as a cautionary text and it would be up to me to do more research on my own if I were thinking of traveling to some of his “Dangerous Destinations”---one of which is Birmingham, Alabama. Still, Greenberg’s book could be an excellent starting point for where not to take a vacation.
Mary Anne, Southern History

A Night to Remember
By Walter Lord
910.4 LordW
Any top ten list of nightmare cruises would have to include the disastrous voyage of the RMS Titanic, the passenger liner that stuck an iceberg and sank early in the morning of April 15th, 1912, sending over 1500 people to their deaths in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Most readers would not think of Walter Lord’s account of the catastrophe as travel writing in the generally accepted sense, but with what amounts almost to reverence for precise detail, Lord delivers a well-paced and moving chronicle of the ship’s last hours and gives the modern reader a real sense of what it meant to travel in the great age of luxury cruise ships. Lord interviewed many Titanic survivors while working on the book and so is able to provide numerous personal touches that illumine the tragedy and horror of the sinking with courage and dignity. Lord makes few overt attempts to manipulate the reader’s emotions, but his calm recital of the facts always leaves me in tears as the survivors in the too-few lifeboats are rescued by the RMS Carpathia and the distraught women of the Titanic protest against being pestered with too many questions: “Go away, we have just seen our husbands drown.” Considered by some Titanic buffs to be the definitive account of the sinking, Lord’s account was made into a film into 1958. With the 100th anniversary of the sinking fast approaching, many travel companies are offering commemorative cruises in memory of the doomed liner and the disaster victims, but a reader who has just finished A Night to Remember would probably choose to stay home---and immediately start reading the book again. Highly recommended.
Mary Anne, Southern History

What is YOUR favorite travel book?  Also, any suggestions for a Project Read selection in the spring?
Holley