New at the Library

The Arctic is demanding global attention. It is warming, melting, and thawing in a manner that threatens fundamental state-change. For communities that call the Arctic 'home' this is unwelcome. A warming Arctic brings with it the spectre of costly disruption and interference in indigenous lives and communal welfare. For others, the disappearance of sea ice makes the Arctic appear more accessible and less remote. This also brings with it dangers such as the prospect of a new era of great power rivalries involving China, Russia, and the United States.

North American atlas contains maps of every U.S. state and Canadian province, an overview map of Mexico, and detailed inset maps of over 350 cities and 20 U.S. national parks. Road construction and conditions contact information for every state conveniently located above the maps. Contains mileage chart showing distances between 90 North American cities and national parks along with a driving times map." --Amazon.com

Reviewed: TLS 10 Sept. 2021 p. 7; PW 19 July 2021 p. 205; LR Sept. 2021 p. 37.
Description: The Amur River is almost unknown. Yet it is the tenth longest river in the world, rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific. For 1,100 miles it forms the tense border between Russia and China. Simmering with the memory of land-grabs and unequal treaties, this is the most densely fortified frontier on earth. In his eightieth year, Colin Thubron takes a dramatic journey from the Amur’s secret source to its giant mouth, covering almost 3,000 miles. Harassed by injury and by arrest from the local police, he makes his way along both the Russian and Chinese shores, starting out by Mongolian horse, then hitchhiking, sailing on poacher’s sloops or traveling the Trans-Siberian Express. Having revived his Russian and Mandarin, he talks to everyone he meets, from Chinese traders to Russian fishermen, from monks to indigenous peoples. By the time he reaches the river’s desolate end, where Russia’s nineteenth-century imperial dream petered out, a whole, pivotal world has come alive. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 28 Feb. 2022 p. 56.
Description: Markus Rex recounts the monumental Arctic expedition he captained for one year in this gripping and authoritative book. A groundbreaking step towards understanding the climate crisis, the MOSAiC expedition–launched in 2019 by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research–was the first of its kind, journeying deep into the epicenter of climate change, the Arctic, to seek hard-to-find and potentially world-changing scientific data. Rex begins with life aboard the Polarstern, a powerful icebreaker ship that is frozen into fragile ice and carried across the Arctic by the Transpolar Drift. Away from the rest of the world, the team prepares for life under brutal conditions, constructing “cities” and “towns” on the ice where they will study the Arctic ecosystem, its atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and more. A terrifying feat that had never been attempted before, the team of hundreds of scientists perform their research during terrifying storms, cracking ice floes, frost-bite, and even quarantines as Covid-19 sweeps the globe. But there are heartwarming moments, too, as Markus Rex describes Christmas parties on the ice and polar bears playing with scientific equipment like puppies. … And he explores answers to the pressing questions facing the Arctic today: How will climate change impact this precious ecosystem–and therefore the rest of the world? What is the best way to protect the Arctic? (publ.)

A photographic voyage of the Mississippi River as it winds its way through the nation. Covering the 10 river states from the headwaters in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico, with a focus on Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, this book features the river in its many phases from the variant blue to the muddy brown or the reddish glow around sunsets and sunrises. Start your journey of discovery through these beautiful vistas of America's River, through the lens and pens of Dr. Abdul Sinno of Dubuque, Iowa and sons Rafic and Omar. It's the perfect gift for any occasion!

From the smallest of towns to Dubuque and other metropolitan cities and in a variety of seasons - summer to winter and cloudy to clear, the Sinno family share their love of the Mighty River and the life and beauty of the region that surrounds it. What you or I see as an "average" everyday scene, the Sinnos simply reveal its magnificence. The scenic descriptions and panorama images are profound and unforgettable. --Amazon.com

Reviewed: PW 18 Jan. 2021 p. 64.
Description: What was it like to travel while Black under Jim Crow? Mia Bay brings this dramatic history to life. With gripping stories and a close eye on the rail, bus, and airline operators who implemented segregation, she shows why access to unrestricted mobility has been central to the Black freedom struggle since Reconstruction and remains so today.

Reviewed: LR Dec 2021/Jan 2022 p. 44.
Description: Fringing the Black Sea is a diverse array of countries, some centuries old and others emerging only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Jens Mühling travels through this region, telling the stories of people he meets along the way in order to paint a picture of the mix of cultures found here and to understand the present against a history stretching back to the arrival of Ancient Greek settlers and beyond. A fluent Russian speaker with a knack for gaining the trust of those he meets, Mühling brings together a cast of characters as diverse as the stories he hears, all of whom are willing to tell him their complex, contradictory, and often fantastical tales full of grief and legend. He meets descendants of the so-called Pontic Greeks, whom Stalin deported to Central Asia and who have now returned; Circassians who fled to Syria a century ago and whose great-great-grandchildren have returned to Abkhazia; and members of ethnic minorities like the Georgian Mingrelians or Bulgarian Muslims, expelled to Turkey in the summer of 1989. Mühling captures the region’s uneasy alliance of tradition and modernity and the diverse humanity of those who live there. (publ.)

Reviewed: LJ Aug 2019 p. 118.
Description: The costliest hurricanes in U.S. history have all occurred in the past two decades–but who bears the financial brunt of these monster storms? It is no accident that five of the most destructive hurricanes in the last hundred years have made landfall since 2005: Katrina ($161 billion), Ike ($40 billion), Sandy ($71 billion), Harvey ($125 billion), and Maria ($90 billion). And with more property than ever in harm’s way, the seas rising, and the planet and its oceans warming dangerously, it won’t be long before we see a $250 billion storm. Why? Because Americans have built $3 trillion worth of property in some of the riskiest places on earth: barrier islands and coastal floodplains prone to hurricanes and epic floods. And they have been encouraged to do so by what Gilbert M. Gaul reveals to be a confounding array of federal subsidies, tax breaks, low-interest loans, disaster recovery grants, and government flood insurance programs that shift risk at the beach from private investors to public taxpayers, radically distorting common notions of risk and responsibility. Consider: In 1955, taxpayers covered just 5 percent of the cost of rebuilding after hurricanes. They now pay for 70 percent–sometimes more. These federal incentives, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gaul argues, have resulted in one of the worst planning failures in American history, with the cost to taxpayers now reaching unsustainable levels. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 15 Jan. 2021 p. 19.
Description: What does it feel like to move through a world designed to limit and exclude you? What are the joys and pains of holidays for people of colour, when guidebooks are never written with them in mind? How are black lives today impacted by the othering legacy of colonial cultures and policies? What can travel tell us about our sense of self, of home, of belonging and identity? Why has the world order become hostile to human mobility, as old as humanity itself, when more people are on the move than ever? Nanjala Nyabola is constantly exploring the world, working with migrants and confronting complex realities challenging common assumptions–both hers and others’. From Nepal to Botswana, Sicily to Haiti, New York to Nairobi, her sharp, humane essays ask tough questions and offer surprising, deeply shocking and sometimes funny answers. It is time we saw the world through her eyes. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 18 Nov. 2019 p. 65; NYT/BR 1 Mar. 2020 p. 13.
Description: The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford’s assembly line. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Gretchen Sorin recovers a forgotten history of black motorists, and recounts their creation of a parallel, unseen world of travel guides, black only hotels, and informal communications networks that kept black drivers safe. At the heart of this story is Victor and Alma Green’s famous Green Book, begun in 1936, which made possible that most basic American right, the family vacation, and encouraged a new method of resisting oppression. Enlivened by Sorin’s personal history, this book opens an entirely new view onto the African American experience, and shows why travel was so central to the Civil Rights movement. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 1 Nov. 2019 p. 29.
Description: Over the course of a year, leading historian and nature writer David Gange kayaked the weather-ravaged coasts of Atlantic Britain and Ireland from north to south: every cove, sound, inlet, island. The idea was to travel slowly and close to the water: in touch with both the natural world and the histories of communities on Atlantic coastlines. The story of his journey is one of staggering adventure, range and beauty. For too long, Gange argues, the significance of coasts has been underestimated, and the potential of small boats as tools to make sense of these histories rarely explored. This book seeks to put that imbalance right. Paddling alone in sun and storms, among dozens of whales and countless seabirds, Gange and his kayak travelled through a Shetland summer, Scottish winter and Irish spring before reaching Wales and Cornwall. Sitting low in the water, as did millions in eras when coasts were the main arteries of trade and communication, Gange describes, in captivating prose and loving detail, the experiences of kayaking, coastal living and historical discovery. Drawing on the archives of islands and coastal towns, as well as their vast poetic literatures in many languages, he shows that the neglected histories of these stunning regions are of real importance in understanding both the past and future of the whole archipelago. It is a history of Britain and Ireland like no other. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 11 Oct. 2019 p. 28.
Description: Throughout history, intrepid men and women have related their experiences and perceptions of the world's great cities to bring them alive to those at home. The thirty-eight cities covered in this entertaining antholo-gy of travellers’ tales are spread over six continents, ranging from Beijing to Berlin, Cairo to Chicago, Lhasa to London, St Petersburg to Sydney and Rio to Rome. This volume features commentators across the millennia, including the great travellers of ancient times, such as Strabo and Pausanias; those who undertook extensive journeys in the medieval world, not least Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta; courageous women such as Isabella Bird and Freya Stark; and enterprising writers and journalists including Mark Twain and Norman Lewis. We see the world's great cities through the eyes of traders, explorers, soldiers, diplomats, pilgrims and tourists; the experiences of emperors and monarchs sit alongside those of revolutionaries and artists, but also those of ordinary people who found themselves in remarkable situations, like the medieval Chinese abbot who was shown round the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris by the King of France himself. Some of the writers seek to provide a straightforward, accurate description of all they have seen, while others concentrate on their subjective experiences of the city and encounters with the inhabitants. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling historian Peter Furtado, each account provides both a vivid portrait of a distant place and time and an insight into those who journeyed there. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYT/BR 1 Mar. 2020 p. 13.
Description: The first book to explore the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, a travel guide for black motorists. Published from 1936 to 1966, the Green Book was hailed as the “black travel guide to America.” At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African-Americans to travel because black travelers couldn’t eat, sleep, or buy gas at most white-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that were safe for black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem. It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and Overground Railroad celebrates the stories of those who put their names in the book and stood up against segregation. It shows the history of the Green Book, how we arrived at our present historical moment, and how far we still have to go when it comes to race relations in America. (publ.)

Description: Many people have a love of maps. But what lies behind the process of map-making? How have cartographers through the centuries developed their craft and established a language of maps which helps them to better represent our world and users to understand it? This book tells the story of how widely accepted mapping conventions originated and evolved - from map orientation, projections, typography and scale, to the use of colour, map symbols, ways of representing relief and the treatment of boundaries and place names. It charts the fascinating story of how conventions have changed in response to new technologies and ever-changing mapping re-quirements, how symbols can be a matter of life or death, why universal acceptance of conventions can be difficult to achieve and how new mapping conventions are developing to meet the needs of modern cartography. (publ.)

Description: What is Venice worth? To whom does this urban treasure belong? This eloquent book by the internationally renowned art historian Salvatore Settis urgently poses these questions, igniting a new debate about the Pearl of the Adriatic and cultural patrimony at large. Venetians are increasingly abandoning their hometown–there’s now only one resident for every 140 visitors–and Venice’s fragile fate has become emblematic of the future of historic cities everywhere as it capitulates to tourists and those who profit from them. Settis argues that “hit-and-run” visitors are turning landmark urban settings into shopping malls and theme parks. He warns that Western civilization’s prime achievements face impending ruin from mass tour-ism and global cultural homogenization. This is a passionate plea to secure Venice’s future, written with consummate authority, wide-ranging erudition and élan. (publ.)

Reviewed: NPR (11/22/2015)
Description: This is a personal journey down one of Asia’s great rivers that reveals the region’s essential history and culture. The world’s ninth largest river, the Amur serves as a large part of the border between Russia and China. As a crossroads for the great empires of Asia, this area offers journalist Dominic Ziegler a lens with which to examine the societies at Europe’s only borderland with east Asia. He follows a journey from the river’s top to bottom, and weaves the history, ecology and peoples to show a region obsessed with the past–and to show how this region holds a key to the complex and critical relationship between Russia and China today. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 23 Feb. 2018 p. 30; Spectator 4 Feb. 2017; Astene Bulletin 71 Spring 2017.
Description: There are many books on exploration but remarkably few on desert exploration. Moreover, some of the great desert explorers of the last three hundred years are now very little remembered or appreciated in comparison, say, with those who ventured to the poles, climbed Everest, or sought the source of the Nile. Yet, crossing unknown deserts is no less challenging. This volume finally brings these Great Desert Explorers into the limelight, with short, illustrated biographies of around 60 of the most interesting, intrepid and important explorers of the world’s greatest deserts. There is also a brief introduction to each desert region. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 22/29 Dec. 2017 p. 39
Description: So, hello! Welcome! Honestly, you look surprisingly relaxed. That’s great to see. Have a seat on the left side of the cockpit–that’s the captain’s seat. Yes, that’s right, you’re now the captain, and yes, that’s the runway down there. Fasten your seatbelt, order yourself a cup of tea, and let’s get cracking. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 23 Mar. 2018 p. 28
Description: We are celebrating a hundred years since independence this year how would you like to travel on a government icebreaker? A message from the Finnish embassy launches Horatio Clare on a voyage around an extraordinary country and an unearthly place, the frozen Bay of Bothnia, just short of the Arctic circle. Traveling with the crew of Icebreaker Otso, Horatio, whose last adventure saw him embedded on Maersk container vessels for the bestseller Down to the Sea in Ships, discovers stories of Finland, of her mariners and of ice. Finland is an enigmatic place, famous for its educational miracle, healthcare and gender equality as well as Nokia, Angry Birds, saunas, questionable cuisine and deep taciturnity. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 18 Sept. 2017 p. 76.
Description: From Wounded Knee to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and from the Upper Big Branch mine disaster to the Trail of Tears, Marked, Unmarked, Remembered presents photographs of significant sites from US history, posing unsettling questions about the contested memory of traumatic episodes from the nation's past. (publ.)

Reviewed: NPR (10/26/2015)
Description: Explores the inspiration for A.A. Milne’s fictional Hundred Acre Wood, South-East England's Ashdown Forest, and how it influenced the author’s famous works. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 6 January 2017 p. 28; LR Dec./Jan. 2016/2017 p. 34

Reviewed: PW 12 Feb. 2018 p. 73; LJ 1 Apr. 2018 p. 88.
Description: The book focuses on some of the most prominent sites of mass murder in Europe, and then expands outward to more recent memorial museums. Reynolds provides a historically-informed account of the different forces that have shaped Holocaust tourism since 1945, including Cold War politics, the sudden emergence of the “memory boom” beginning in the 1980s, and the awareness that eyewitnesses to the Holocaust are passing away. Based on his on-site explorations, the contributions from researchers in Holocaust studies and tourism studies, and the observations of tourists themselves, this book reveals how tourism is an important part of efforts to understand and remember the Holocaust, an event that continues to challenge ideals about humanity and our capacity to learn from the past. (publ.)

Reviewed: NPR (2/21/2018)
Description: Presents advice on traveling to different countries of the world as a way of increasing our understanding of different cultures and political systems, and appreciating the interconnectedness within the global community. In his third edition, the author considers the new political reality of Brexit, Refugees, Erdogan, and Trump, as well as populism, nativism, terrorism, and climate change and explains why travel has never been more relevant. (publ.)

Reviewed: NPR 23 Feb. 2017 ("This Trip Through The Alps Is A Little Bit Bumpy"); TLS 28 July 2017 p. 32.
Description: For centuries the Alps have seen the march of armies, the flow of pilgrims and Crusaders, the feats of mountaineers and the dreams of engineers–and some 14 million people live among their peaks today. In The Alps, Stephen O’Shea takes readers up and down these majestic mountains, journeying through their 500-mile arc across France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. Along the way, he explores the reality behind Hannibal and his elephants’ famous crossing in 218 BCE; he reveals how the Alps have profoundly influenced culture from Frankenstein to Heidi to The Sound of Music; and he visits the spot where Arthur Conan Doyle staged Sherlock Holmes’s death scene, the bloody site of the Italians’ retreat in World War I, and Hitler’s notorious vacation house, the Eagle’s Nest.

Reviewed: TLS 6 Jan. 2017 p. 29

Reviewed: WSJ 12-20 Nov. 2016 p. C8

Reviewed: TLS 5 May 2017 p. 9
Description: Ethiopia has long attracted the attentions of eccentric adventurers, Jesuit explorers, foolish would-be conquerors, as well as saints and sinners in equal measure ...and the keen interest of writers of all stripes. What you have here is quite literally the best bits from whole libraries of past travel accounts, hand-picked by Yves-Marie Stranger, a long time Ethiopia resident, trilingual interpreter and writer. (publ.)

Description: Two Arabic Travel Books combines two exceptional exemplars of Arabic travel writing, penned in the same era (10th Cent.) but chronicling wildly divergent experiences. Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes on the lands and peoples of the Indian Ocean, from the Somali headlands to China and Korea. The early centuries of the Abbasid era witnessed a substantial network of maritime trade--the real-life background to the Sindbad tales. (publ.)

Reviewed: WSJ 18-19 March 2017 p. C6