Travel Recent Picks
November 2007
The title-underlined links will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.
Lost oasis : a desert adventure in search of paradise, by Robert Twigger."Last night my son wanted to appease me because of some annoyance he had caused. 'Show me your desert things,' he said, 'Show me your crystals and stones.' However tired and grumpy I might be he knew how to revive me. I unwrapped everything from its newspaper roll. The chipped flint knives, the silica glass arrowheads, the granite grinding pestle, ancient porous pottery shards I'd found in the Gilf, fossils, shells set in limestone, the jawbone of a gazelle, palm nuts so desiccated they were like stone ..." Robert Twigger's latest journey is in search of paradise: a desert adventure in the footsteps of seasoned explorers such as Theodore Almasy (the inspiration for The English Patient) who tried to locate the lost oasis of Zezura, reportedly home to hordes of treasure, flocks of birds and a lush, verdant valley." (Amazon)
Tasting Tuscany : exploring and eating off the beaten track, by Beth Elon."Beth Elon - a renowned cookery-book writer - has lived in and loved Tuscany for more than thirty years and in "Tasting Tuscany" shares with her readers a side of Tuscany that is not widely known. Beyond the better-known cities with tourists, souvenir and fast-food shops, Tuscany is made up of hundreds of small clustered hill towns set in stunning scenery with lovely churches, piazzas and rural art that is worthy of the finest city museums. Beth has included in her book suggested itineraries so that the reader can follow in her footsteps and explore a Tuscany that is off the beaten track. A central feature of the itineraries are the restaurants that Beth has discovered over the years and which will allow the reader to experience a culture of life that values natural and traditional food. "Tasting Tuscany" includes over one hundred recipes from restaurants so that even when you are back at home you can recreate the delicious and authentic food you will have enjoyed on your travels." (Amazon)
Down the Nile: alone in a fisherman’s skiff, by Rosemary Mahoney."When Rosemary Mahoney, in 1998, took a solo trip down the Nile in a seven-foot rowboat, she discovered modern Egypt for herself. As a rower, she faced crocodiles and testy river currents; as a female, she confronted deeply-held beliefs about foreign women while cautiously remaining open to genuine friendship; and, as a traveller, she experienced events that ranged from the humorous to the hair-raising - including an encounter that began as one of the most frightening of her life and ended as an edifying and chastening lesson in human nature and cultural misunderstanding. Whether she's meeting Nubians and Egyptians, or finding connections to Westerners who travelled up the Nile in earlier times - Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert among them - Mahoney's informed curiosity about the world never ceases to captivate the reader." (Amazon)
Trans-Siberian handbook, by Bryn Thomas."A comprehensive and up to date guide to a journey on the Trans Siberian Railway. Beginning with planning your journey, timetables, how to buy tickets, prices, booking and visas, route planning and what to take. There's a useful background reading list with internet resources, practical information about food and drink, money, health, and safety tips from other travellers. There are good maps with time zones marked, lovely colour photographs, historical facts, city guides and information about crossing the borders. An excellent book which should be read thoroughly before embarking on the journey then kept in your back pocket throughout." (Amazon)
A town like Paris : living and loving in the city of light, by Bryce Corbett.
"Fleeing London, in search of adventure and determined to sample some of the famed delights of the City of Light, our hero arrives in Paris with only a suitcase and a determination to have the time of his life. He launches himself into la vie parisienne, throws himself at the local female population and quickly discovers his down-home Aussie charm has no currency in France. Like the monotonous series of rejections he receives from Parisian women, our hero's attempts at assimilation are similarly rebuffed. Undeterred, he teams up with a bunch of like-minded ex-pats and the ensuing years pass in a blur of bachelor-inspired hedonism. Paris is their playground - and they discover, to their delight - it is a city with a seedy underbelly. As a detached observer who is nevertheless thrust into the daily business of getting by in France, the author is exposed to some of the more unfathomable idiosyncrasies of the French. And just when he thinks Paris has offered him all she has to give, he meets a Paris showgirl - an Australian beauty whose sequin-clad high-kicks are the toast of the Champs Elysees. Before he knows it, he is in love - and discovering that what he had come to Paris looking for was a lot closer to home than he ever imagined." (Global books)
Pedal power : great bicycle journeys, by Roy Sinclair.
"In a world where speed reigns supreme, what could be so great about travelling in the slow lane, sweating up mountains, or pedalling into near gale winds on a human-powered bicycle? In a bold attempt to combat inevitable dotage, Roy Sinclair set off to discover the world (more correctly, selected parts of it) by pedal power. In doing so, frequently accompanied by his Japanese partner, he has experienced people of different cultures and languages in a way that might otherwise have been impossible. Inspired by a former New Zealand prime minister, he set off to ride the length of Japan (the first New Zealander to do so) in an effort to have a World Peace Bell gifted to his country. A meeting with a Wanaka winemaker, whose great grandfather held an early record for the Lands End to John o'Groats journey on a penny farthing, had Roy and his partner setting off to pedal the length of Britain. And on the whim of a pub yarn, he pedalled off to a famous monastery in the French Chartreuse mountains to discover the source of a centuries-old liver-punishing liqueur. Sometimes opinionated and more often unashamedly biased, his world discovered by pedal power is one we all will want to journey through. His compelling stories of overseas bicycle rides are woven amongst those of the country he loves most - New Zealand." (Global books)
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