Gift
Suggestions for
TRAVELERS
(armchair or otherwise)
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BRYSON, Bill.
The
Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America. I'm particularly fond of this one
because Bryson devotes half a page to a town next door to where I grew up:
"It's a college town, with a decidedly sleepy air. You feel at first as
if you should be wearing slippers and a bathrobe." (p. 134)
CHRISTIE MALLOWAN, Agatha. Come,
Tell Me How You Live. The mystery-writer's charming account of her
expeditions to the Near East with her archeologist husband.
GINGOLD, A., and H. Rogan. The
New Ultra Cool Parents Guide to All of New York. Subtitled "Excursions and activities in
and around our city that your children will love and you won't think are too
bad either," this guide lists all sorts of places you might not think of
visiting, e.g., the original Pooh stuffed animals in a New York Public
Library branch in midtown Manhattan, the tic-tac-toe playing chicken,
glass-making, the Staten Island Children's Museum and R.H. Tugs. It's nearly
as useful for grown-ups as for children, with directions, contact information,
and recommendations of nearby restaurants.
GINGOLD, Alfred, and Helen Rogan.
Brooklyn's
Best: Sightseeing, Shopping, Eating and Happy Wandering in the Borough of
Kings. I've lived here nearly 20 years and wasn't familiar with even half
these places.
GOLD, Herbert. Haiti:
Best Nightmare on Earth: A Life in Haiti. Somewhat meandering and now
and then repetitious, but good for getting a feel for the country to 1990.
HORWITZ, Tony.
Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia. Horwitz, a freelance journalist
with a thoroughly Western outlook, traveled to the Middle East in the 1990s
and produced an informative, well written, and lively set of essays on Yemen,
Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Libya, the Sudan and Lebanon. Focusing on culture,
he nevertheless displays an unusual ability to select details that illuminate
politics and economics.
HORWITZ, Tony. Confederates
in the Attic: Dispatches from the
Unfinished Civil War. A ten-state tour from Gettysburg to Vicksburg, and
Charleston to Tennessee, looking at Civil War sites and Southerners' devotion
to the Lost Cause. Horwitz is not only witty but, as in Baghdad without a
Map, picks details that make his stories come alive.
HORWITZ, Tony. One
for the Road: An Outback Adventure. Horwitz travels 7,000 miles
across the Australian outback.
HUNT, Christopher. Waiting
for Fidel. Hunt traveled across Cuba talking with anyone who was
willing about Fidel, jobs, food, clothing, transportation, etc. He constantly
juxtaposes socialist propaganda, painted all over Cuba and mouthed by some of
those he met, with the typical Cuban's struggle just to survive--which often
includes prostitution, black-market trading, theft. By the end of the book
it's quite clear that Castro and his socialist policies are to blame for
Cuba's horrendous condition, but most of the argument for that position is
made by the concretes Hunt presents, rather than by explicit
political-philosophic commentary. I can't remember when I've seen this
technique done so well - it's very easy to let the reader get lost in the
concretes.
HUNTFORD, Roland. The
Last Place on Earth. Gripping account of the race between Amundsen
and Scott to reach the South Pole.
IYER, Pico. Falling
Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World. I don't like Iyer's style as much as that of
some other travel writers, but he visits some interesting places: North
Korea, Argentina, Cuba, Iceland, Bhutan, Vietnam, Paraguay, Australia.
KAPLAN, Robert D. Balkan
Ghosts: A Journey Through History. History of the Balkans since the early 20th century. It's not
great journalism (it doesn't identify fundamentals and it doesn't even cover
the subject in a systematic manner), but it is what *New York Times* reviewers
are fond of calling "evocative": there are some vivid and memorable
descriptions that will give you a sense of what the Balkans are like, and
make current events in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, etc. easier to comprehend.
MAYLE, Peter. A
Year in Provence. Mayle, an Englishman who moved to the south of
France, describes the first year there. Others in the series:
Encore
Provence and
Toujours
Provence.
MAYLE, Peter. Acquired
Tastes. Chapters on hand-made shoes, stretch limos, custom tailors,
truffles, cashmere, caviar, antiques, servants, cigars, private jets,
Christmas tipping … The man's so persuasive that reading the book may cost
you a couple thousand dollars.
MAYLE, Peter. French
Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew. Mayle on escargots, Chateau
Lafite-Rothschild, the most pungent cheese in France, black truffles, and
more. Mouth-watering.
MILLER, Judith. God
Has Ninety-Nine Names: Reporting from a Militant Middle East. The chapter on Iran (pp.
429-464) is the best brief summary I've seen yet of recent events there, and includes
some historical background, especially on the development of Shi'ite Muslims.
Miller, a correspondent for the New York Times who has written some good
articles on terrorism (available on the *New York Times* website).
MOWAT, Farley. The
Boat Who Wouldn't Float. A wryly funny book if you know anything
about sailing; takes place on a small, ornery boat off the coasts of
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
O'ROURKE, P.J. Holidays
in Hell. P.J.'s acerbic comments on Lebanon, Seoul, Panama, Warsaw,
the Philippines, El Salvador, South Africa, Nicaragua, Mexico, Jerusalem,
Harvard, Disney World, the 1987 Reagan-Gorbachev Summit, and the America's
Cup.
PLATT, Polly. French
or Foe?: Getting the Most Out of Visiting, Living and Working in France. Why don't they smile
at us? Perceptive comments on French "rudeness," and on sense of
space, shopping, education, business protocol, etc. Fascinating and well
written, and correct as far as my knowledge goes.
PLATT, Polly. Savoir-Flair.
Tips on airports, hotels, bathrooms, speaking French, transportation, dogs,
information-gathering, customer service, shopping, dining, rural living.
ROGERS, Jim. Investment
Biker: Around the World With Jim
Rogers. Ideal for armchair travelers, economists and motorcycle fanatics;
written by a predominantly capitalist occasional commentator on CNBC. In
1990-92 Rogers and his girlfriend traveled on motorcycles from Anchorage,
Alaska to Cape Horn at the tip of South America, from Great Britain to Japan,
and from Algiers to Capetown in South Africa, with a side trip to Australia
and New Zealand. Rogers gives specific, fundamental details about the
economic workings of the countries he visited, which makes up for occasional
flaws in interpretation. (Someone should explain to him just why collectivism
and tribalism are not and never will be good things - he doesn't state this
explicitly, but he occasionally assumes it.)
TRILLIN, Calvin. Travels
With Alice. Trillin's travels with his wife and daughters in Sicily,
the South of France, Spain, the West Indies, and elsewhere; hilarious
comments on people and cuisine.
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