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In 1832, three years before Alexis de Tocqueville published Democracy in America, the English novelist Frances Trollope released Domestic Manners of the Americans, an eye-opening record of her travels in the young republic. Expecting a utopia of "justice and liberty for all," she is shocked to discover the contradictions at the heart of the American character. Funny and fearless, Trollope's biting critique became an international sensation. Yet, as...
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This early work by G. K. Chesterton was originally published in 1922. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London in 1874. He studied at the Slade School of Art, and upon graduating began to work as a freelance journalist. Over the course of his life, his literary output was incredibly diverse and highly prolific, ranging from philosophy and ontology to art criticism and detective fiction. However, he is probably best-remembered for his Christian...
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This memoir of buying and transforming an abandoned olive farm.
Presented with an opportunity to purchase a ten-acre property near Cannes, actress Carol Drinkwater and her film-producer fiancé, Michel, decide to take the plunge. It will take all their savings just for the down payment, but the beauty of the surrounding countryside and the promise of a new adventure seem worth the risk.
As they work to clear the weeds and rehabilitate the abandoned...
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2020.
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"Siberia's story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies, and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos--grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble, Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great,...
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Stories provide the connective tissue of the South. The intrepid Pamela Petro drives from the Carolinas to the Appalachians to the Atlantic seaboard, from Virginias valleys to Louisiana's swamps to meet the mesmerizing guardians of its history: the storytellers, who often double as local, or national, treasures. A gifted listener, Petro records how stories originate as well as how they are passed down. She paints vivid portraits of the tellers while...
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"When Samantha is given a second chance at love at the age of 40, she moves to southwestern France, thinking she's prepared for her new role in life as an instant American wife and stepmom. It turns out, though, that making a French family takes more than just good intentions and a quick lesson in croissant baking. Even while suffering from culture shock and struggling to parent her 10-year-old stepson and 13-year-old stepdaughter in a culture drastically...
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Though best known as a novelist, James also wrote non-fiction, including this controversial 1907 account of his 1905-06 American tour. By 1905 he had lived in England for twenty-five years, and it is as a returning expatriate that James views the country of his birth-and finds much to criticize in its embrace of crass materialism.
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"As a boy, Stephen Bodio was always fascinated with nature-and when he saw an image in National Geographic of a Kazakh nomad, dressed in a long coat and fur hat and holding a huge eagle on his fist, his life was forever changed. When Mongolia finally became independent in 1990, Bodio knew that his childhood wish to see the eagle hunters was soon to become a reality. In Eagle Dreams, he recounts his trip to Mongolia, where he spent months with the...
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Through an exploration of her country home in Wales, acclaimed travel writer Jan Morris discovers the heart of her fascinating country and what it means to be Welsh. Trefan Morys, Morris's home between the sea and mountains of the remote northwest corner of Wales, is the 18th-century stable block of her former family house nearby. Surrounding it are the fields and outbuildings, the mud, sheep, and cattle of a working Welsh farm.
She regards this modest...
11) The songlines
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International Bestseller: The famed travel writer and author of In Patagonia traverses Australia, exploring Aboriginal culture and song-and humanity's origins. Long ago, the creators wandered Australia and sang the landscape into being, naming every rock, tree, and watering hole in the great desert. Those songs were passed down to the Aboriginals, and for centuries they have served not only as a shared heritage but as a living map. Sing the right...
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"What happens when you swap the nine-to-five for two wheels and a journey of a lifetime? Terrified of the prospect of a life spent behind a desk, without challenge or excitement, Leon takes off to cross America on an overloaded bicycle packed with everything but common sense. Over five months and 6000 miles, he cycled from New York to Seattle and then on to the Mexican border, facing tornadoes, swollen river crossings, wild roaming buffalo and one...
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From the incomparable John Baxter, award-winning author of the bestselling The Most Beautiful Walk in the World, a sumptuous and definitive portrait of Paris through the seasons, highlighting the unique tastes, sights, and changing personality of the city in spring, summer, fall, and winter.
When the common people of France revolted in 1789, one of the first ways they chose to correct the excesses of the monarchy and the church was to rename the...
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The true story of a foreign woman who has been, for 30 years, the housewife, custodian and chatelaine of a 350-year-old farmhouse in rural Japan. This astonishing book traces a circular path, from the basic physical details of life in the house and village, through relationships with family, neighbors and the natural and supernatural entities with whom the family shares the house. Rebecca Otowa then focuses on her inner life, touching on some of the...
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"In Couchsurfing in Iran, award-winning author Stephan Orth spends sixty-two days on the road in this mysterious Islamic republic to provide a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at life in one of the world's most closed societies. Through the unsurpassed hospitality of twenty-two hosts, he skips the guidebooks and tourist attractions and travels from Persian carpet to bed to cot, covering more than 8,400 kilometers to recount 'this world's hidden doings.'...
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Get to know the inhabitants of a tiny Japanese island--and their unusual stories and secrets--through this fascinating, intimate collection of portraits. When American journalist Amy Chavez moved to the tiny island of Shiraishi (population 430), she rented a house from an elderly woman named Eiko, who left many of her most cherished possessions in the house--including a portrait of Emperor Hirohito and a family altar bearing the spirit tablet of her...
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Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler's best reportage-a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work.
Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing...
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Discover the city of temples, video games, manga, and cosplay with this graphic Tokyo travel guide! Tokyo is an astonishing world unto itself-a city for lovers of Japanese culture, fashion and great food that mixes the best of old and new. In Cool Tokyo Guide, Abby Denson, author of the popular Cool Japan Guide, turns her focus to Tokyo's exciting streets and a little bit beyond. Abby, her husband Matt, friend Yuuko and sidekick Kitty Sweet Tooth...
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When Scott Carpenter moves from Minnesota to Paris, little does he suspect the dramas that await: scheming neighbors, police denunciations, surly demonstrators, cooking disasters, medical mishaps-not to mention all those lectures about cheese! It turns out that nothing in the City of Light can be taken for granted, where even trips to the grocery store lead to adventure. In French Like Moi, Carpenter guides us through the merry labyrinth of the everyday,...
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