Travel Recent Picks

December 2008

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.

Divine magnetic lands : a journey in America, by Timothy O'Grady. (2008)
"In 1973, aged twenty-two, Timothy O'Grady left America for Europe. He had grown up through the time of moonshots and protest marches, new music and unprecedented economic expansion and of hopes for a new society, a new democracy and a new kind of man. For the next thirty years he lived in and wrote about Europe. As he did, the American counter-culture crashed, Ronald Reagan came and went, wars were declared and the country was attacked by air. Much of the world began to look at America in a new way, wondering what had happened to it and where it was going. Among them was Timothy O'Grady, and he decided to go back and investigate. Following in the footsteps of such Europeans as de Tocqueville, Dickens and Simone de Beauvoir, and such Americans as Henry Miller, Kerouac, Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie, he went out onto the American road, travelling over fifteen thousand miles through thirty-five states.... Using history, memoir, state-of-the-nation analysis and a novelist's skill at evoking places and people, "Divine Magnetic Lands" presents a picture of America as it evolved and how it is at the beginning of the twenty-first century." (Amazon)

Central Otago : a view from the interior, by Barrie Wills. (2008)
"In Central Otago: A View from the Interior, Barrie Wills captures the essence of this very picturesque part of New Zealand - the alps, lakes and rivers, the vineyards and orchards, historic stone cottages and old miners' huts, the snow and the sunshine. Inspired by the wide-open spaces and the history of Central Otago, he presents images, including stunning panoramas, of the land and sky and structures that make up this awe-inspiring region." (Amazon)

The Brendan voyage : across the Atlantic in a leather boat, by Tim Severin ; illustrations by Trondur Patursson. (2005)
"It has been described as the greatest epic voyage in modern Irish history. Tim Severin and his companions built a boat using only techniques and materials available in the sixth-century A.D, when St Brendan was supposed to have sailed to America. The vessel comprised forty-nine ox hides stitched together in a patchwork and stretched over a wooden frame. This leather skin was only a quarter of an inch thick. Yet Severin and his crew sailed Brendan from Brandon Creek in Dingle to Newfoundland, surviving storms and a puncture from pack ice. "The Brendan Voyage" is Tim Severin's dramatic account of their journey. This new edition of a book already translated into twenty-seven languages introduces a new generation of readers to an enduring classic. Tim Severin didn't prove St Brendan reached America, only that he could have, that it was possible. Brilliantly written, "The Brendan Voyage" conveys unforgettably the sensation of being in a small, open boat in the vastness of the North Atlantic, visited by inquisitive whales, reaching mist-shrouded landfalls, and receiving a welcome from seafaring folk wherever the crew touched land." (Amazon)

Paprika paradise : travels in the land of my almost birth, by James Jeffrey. (2007)
"His mother is an impetuous Hungarian divorcee who outflirts Zsa-Zsa Gabor. His father is a phlegmatic Englishman who makes Geoff Boycott look vivacious. In the time it takes him to buy a pair of socks, she's met, wooed and won husband number two. Growing up in Australia's whitebread heartland, James Jeffrey ponders the inconceivable: how did these disparate souls ever fall in love? And what mysterious force could keep them bound together? Could Hungary, enigmatic land of stretched vowels, smiles and stupendous disregard for calorific intake hold the answer? Jeffrey's hilarious travels in PAPRIKA PARADISE - with Dad, then Mum, not to mention his big-hearted Australian wife and two babies - are a revelation. The largely unknown jewel at the heart of Europe will surely seduce readers just as it has enchanted generations of wanderers." (Amazon)

Man in seat sixty-one : a guide to taking the train through Europe-- , by Edward Enfield. (2008)
"Mark Smith is the Man in Seat Sixty-One. Although this might make him sound like a fictional spy, he is in fact the man behind the massively popular website, which offers invaluable advice on worldwide train travel. This book is the essential guide for anyone who wishes to travel to Europe and beyond by train. Packed with insider knowledge and top tips, it offers advice on everything from the quickest routes and the cheapest fares to the best weekends away; traveling with children and changing trains; timetables and maps; essential items to travel with; and everything in between. More and more people are choosing to avoid air travel and seek alternatives, and this is the only book they need to plan those journeys." (Amazon)

A traveller in Italy, by H.V. Morton. (First published in 1964)
"The Tuscan landscape, writes H. V. Morton, "is embroidered everywhere by human living, and there is scarcely a hill, a stream, a grove of trees, without its story of God, of love or death." Morton's stories and observations of Tuscany, Lombardy, Emilia, and Veneto, whether relating to the fantastic reconstruction of the La Scala opera house or the superstitious lovers at Juliet's Tomb, make his style as engaging as the landscape and people he evokes." "This text refers to the Paperback edition. 2006" (Amazon)

Rosé en marché, by Jamie Ivey. (2008)
"Rosé en marché is the third title in the delightful 'Rosé' series by Jamie Ivey, and involves Tanya and Jamie selling rosé in French markets. They rent a flat in Saint Remy de Provence and work in the town's market as well as three or four other local markets. There is, of course, the odd flying visit from their old friend Peter Tate..... Able to rent space in any market in France, they opt for the exquisite Provencal town of Saint Remy. Rosé en marché will enchant and attract all the readers who are still in the pink from the first two 'rosé' volumes." (Amazon)

The secret life of backpackers : a bunk's-eye view of the tourist trail from Bondi to Cairns, by Barry Divola. (2008)
"A bunk-eye's view of the tourist trail from Bondi to Cairns." (Amazon)

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