Perfect Storm or Antarctica

Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea

Author: Sebastian Junger

It was the storm of the century—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm."

When it struck in October, 1991, there was virtually no warning. "She's comin' on, boys, and she's comin' on strong," radioed Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrea Gail from off the coast of Nova Scotia. Soon afterward, the boat and its crew of six disappeared without a trace.

The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller, a stark and compelling journey into the dark heart of nature that leaves listeners with a breathless sense of what it feels like to be caught, helpless, in the grip of a force beyond understanding or control.

Penny Smith

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger is brilliant. I've given it to all my friends. It's got everything, drama, pathos, terror on the high seas, and then the exciting build-up to the crescendo with the 100 foot waves. — Cover Magazine

Anthony Bailey

...thrilling -- a boat ride into and (for us) out of a watery hell. -- New York Times Book Review

Philadelphia Inquirer

Takes readers into the maelstrom and shows nature's splendid and dangerous havoc at its utmost.

Boston Globe

Mesmerizing....Packs an emotional wallop.

LA Times Book Review

A wild ride that brilliantly captures the awesome power of the raging sea.

Washington Post Book World

Superb...told with authority, brio, and deep sympathy for those in peril on the sea.

Publishers Weekly

In meteorological jargon, a "perfect storm" is one unsurpassed in ferocity and duration a description that fits the so-called Halloween Gale of October 1991 in the western Atlantic. Junger, who has written for American Heritage and Outside, masterfully handles his account of that storm and its devastation. He begins with a look at the seedy town of Gloucester, Mass., which has been sliding downhill ever since the North Atlantic fishing industry declined, then focuses his attention on the captain and the five-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing vessel. He then charts the storm particularly formidable because three storms had converged from the south, the west and the north that created winds up to 100 miles an hour and waves that topped 110 feet. He reconstructs what the situation must have been aboard the ship during the final hours of its losing battle with the sea, and the moments when it went down with the loss of all hands. He recaps the courageous flight of an Air National Guard helicopter, which had to be ditched in the ocean leaving one man dead while the other four were rescued then returns to Gloucester and describes the reaction to the loss of the Andrea Gail. Even with the inclusion of technical information, this tale of the Storm of the Century is a thrilling read and seems a natural for filming.

School Library Journal

The powerfully destructive forces of nature that created the Halloween Gale of 1991 are made vivid through interviews with survivors, families, and Coast Guard rescue crews. True adventure at its best

Entertainment Weekly

Guaranteed to blow readers away...A+.

Washington Post Book World

Superb...told with authority, brio, and deep sympathy for those in peril on the sea.

Kirkus Reviews

The experience of being caught at sea in the maw of a 'perfect' storm (that is, one formed of an almost unique combination of factors), a monstrous tempest that couldn't get any worse, is spellbindingly captured by Junger. It's late October 1991, and the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat out of Gloucester, Mass., is making its way home from the Grand Banks with a crew of six, 40,000 pounds of swordfish, and a short market promising big returns. Coming to meet the boat is a hurricane off Bermuda, a cold front coming down from the Canadian Shield, and a storm brewing over the Great Lakes. Things get ugly quickly, unexpectedly. The Andrea Gail is never seen again, lost to 100-foot waves and winds topping 120 miles per hour. Junger builds his story around the vessel; he starts with biographies of the deckhands and the captain, and gives as complete an account of the boat's time at sea as he can dredge up, so readers feel an immediate stake in its fate. Since it is unknown exactly how the Andrea Gail sank, and because Junger wanted to know what it was like for the men during their last hours, he details the horrific tribulations of a sailboat caught in the storm, the rescue of the three aboard it by the Coast Guard, and the ditching of an Air National Guard helicopter after it ran out of fuel during another rescue operation. Junger's fine dramatic style is complemented by a wealth of details that flesh out the story: wave physics and water thermoclines; what it means if you see whitewater outside your porthole; where the terms mayday, ill-wind, and down East came from. Reading this gripping book is likely to make the would-be sailor feel both awed and a little frightened bynature's remorseless power.

What People Are Saying

Patrick O'Brian
One feels the absolutely enormous strength of the hurricane winds and the incredibly towering mass of the hundred-foot waves.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Georges Bank, 1896	3
	Gloucester, Mass., 1991	5
	God's Country	37
	The Flemish Cap	65
	The Barrel of the Gun	95
	Graveyard of the Atlantic	117
	The Zero-Moment Point	136
	The World of the Living	147
	Into the Abyss	166
	The Dreams of the Dead	202
	Acknowledgments	226

Go to: From the Mixed up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler or Disney Princess

Antarctica: A Guide to the Wildlife

Author: Tony Soper

Both a beautiful and practical guidebook, Bradt’s Antarctica Wildlife has remained a perennial favourite with cruise voyagers to this remarkable continent and a book suitable for natural history lovers to dip into.

This guide covers Antarctica’s major land, sea and air species. Each mammal, bird or creature has been illustrated with a fine original watercolor by Dafila Scott, with a concise but descriptive passage by high-profile natural historian, Tony Soper.  An ideal gift or souvenir for travelers on tour, it also makes a perfect armchair read and would grace a coffee table or library collection.

Wisconsin Atlas and Gazetteer or New Christian Travelers Guide to the Holy Land

Wisconsin Atlas and Gazetteer

Author: Rand McNally

DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer: Wisconsin
With an incredible wealth of detail, DeLorme's Atlas & Gazetteer® is the perfect companion for exploring the Wisconsin outdoors. Extensively indexed, full-color topographic maps provide information on everything from cities and towns to historic sites, scenic drives, trailheads, boat ramps and even prime fishing spots.

Conveniently bound in book form, the Atlas & Gazetteer® is your most comprehensive guide to Wisconsin's backcountry.

Booknews

With Wisconsin and Maryland (see F181) DeLorme has brought 23 states into its splendid collection of topographic atlases. Based on USGS quadrangles these works reduce those maps to, mostly, 1:100,000 scale (1":2.3 miles) and add campgrounds, boat ramps, fishing, trails for bikes and hikers, some of the newest-roads, indices to places--all bound in an 11"x15.5" format. Arizona (Nov.93) and Montana (Feb. 94) are next. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Go to: How Nations Grow Rich or South Western Accounting with Peachtree Complete 2005

New Christian Traveler's Guide to the Holy Land

Author: Dyer

Make the most of every moment you in the footsteps of Jesus and His disciples.   Seasoned travelers lead the way to the rich history of the Holy Land - and even tell you what to pack.    The Christian Traveler’s Guide to the Holy Land This book is essential reading for Christian traveling to Israel, Greece, or Jordan who want to get the most from their travels. Written by two veteran teachers with wide-ranging experience in the region, this informative manual explains how best to prepare yourself physically and spiritually for a trip to the lands of the Bible. It provides biblical and historical background for the most-visited sites, along with facts about some of the more obscure and intriguing locations-invaluable information you’ll never get on a tour bus.   With specific instructions on packing, safety, photography, and weather conditions, plus devotional guides to help travelers focus on God’s inspiring Word. The Christian Traveler’s Guide to the Holy Land will insure that your trip is an exciting, spiritually satisfying, and unforgettable experience.

Fodors Walt Disney World with Kids 2009 or A Walk in the Woods

Fodor's Walt Disney World with Kids 2009: With Universal Orlando and Seaworld

Author: Wiley

Entering its 20th edition, Fodor’s Walt Disney World® with Kids delivers the definitive but always-easy-to-access advice of former Disney Magazine contributing editor Kim Wright Wiley, who has logged more than 50 visits to the parks both as a keen-eyed journalist and as a parent. Every family needs her tips and insider knowledge to make the most of a trip to Walt Disney World.
Wiley not only rates attractions and rides based on their age-related suitability and "scare" factor, but also incorporates feedback from hundreds of families who, like her, have not-so-tirelessly field tested it all. Inside you'll find:
Ø Everything a family needs to choose the right hotel, including driving times to the parks from each property
Ø Full ratings as well as quick-reference charts for the most kid-pleasing rides and restaurants
Ø Must-see attraction checklists geared toward young kids as well as preteens and teens
Ø Time-saving tips, such as how to avoid crowds and lines at the park
Ø Insider's secrets and the skinny on "Hidden Mickeys"
Ø Cautionary tales and success stories from parents about their park experiences
Ø Convenient maps of Walt Disney World and Universal Studios
"Must reading for everyone planning to bring their family."–Katie Couric, NBC's Today Show

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Author: Bill Bryson

Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.

For a start there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. Despite Katz's overwhelming desire to find cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is destined to become a modern classic of travel literature.

Forbes

Very funny...Bryson's humor is winning and succinct; he has a knack for boiling down his observations to their absurd essences.

National Geo Traveler

A laugh-out-loud account.

New York Times Book Review - Dwight Garner

[Bryson is] a satirist of the first rank, one who writes (and walks) with Chaucerian brio.

National Geographic Traveler

A laugh-out-loud account....If you were to cross John Muir's writings with Dave Barry's you'd end up with A Walk in the Woods.

National Geographic Traveler

A laugh-out-loud account....If you were to cross John Muir's writings with Dave Barry's you'd end up with A Walk in the Woods.

Geographic Traveler

National

Publishers Weekly

Returning to the U.S. after 20 years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance. Bryson (The Lost Continent) carries himself in an irresistibly bewildered manner, accepting each new calamity with wonder and hilarity. He reviews the characters of the AT (as the trail is called), from a pack of incompetent Boy Scouts to a perpetually lost geezer named Chicken John. Most amusing is his cranky, crude and inestimable companion, Katz, a reformed substance abuser who once had single-handedly "become, in effect, Iowa's drug culture." The uneasy but always entertaining relationship between Bryson and Katz keeps their walk interesting, even during the flat stretches. Bryson completes the trail as planned, and he records the misadventure with insight and elegance. He is a popular author in Britain and his impeccably graceful and witty style deserves a large American audience as well.

Steve Forbes - Forbes Magazine

A delightful, insightful, irreverent, oft-funny account of the writer's attempt to trek the 2,100-plus-mile Appalachian Trail. Hiking the Appalachian Trail is incredibly hard work, with grueling terrain, frequently intemperate weather, a heavy backpack and no comforting motels and amenities at the end of the day. It combines beauty with a heaviness that Bryson convincingly conveys. His observations on the people he encountered during this unique journey read as if Charles Dickens had become a scriptwriter for Saturday Night Live. (16 Apr 2001)

School Library Journal

Leisurely walks in the Cotswolds during a 20-year sojourn in England hardly prepared Bryson for the rigors of the Appalachian Trail. Nevertheless, he and his friend Katz, both 40-something couch potatoes, set out on a cold March morning to walk the 2000-mile trail from Georgia to Maine. Overweight and out of shape, Katz jettisoned many of his provisions on the first day out. The men were adopted by Mary Ellen, a know-it-all hiker eager to share her opinions about everything. They finally eluded her, encountered some congenial hikers, and after eight days of stumbling up and down mountains in the rain and mud, came to Gatlinburg, TN. Acknowledging they would never make it the whole way, they decided to skip the rest of the Smokies and head for the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia-by car. Late that summer, for their last hike, the pair attempted to hike the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine, near the trail's end. They got separated and Bryson spent a day and night searching for his friend. When they finally were reunited, "...we decided to leave the endless trail and stop pretending we were mountain men because we weren't." This often hilarious account of the foibles of two inept adventurers is sprinkled with fascinating details of the history of the AT, its wildlife, and tales of famous and not-so-famous hikers. In his more serious moments, Bryson argues for the protection of this fragile strip of wilderness. Young Adults who enjoy the outdoors, and especially those familiar with the AT, will find this travelogue both entertaining and insightful.
-- Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA

The New York Times Book Review - Dwight Garner

[Bryson is] a satirist of the first rank, one who writes (and walks) with Chaucerian brio.

National Geographic Traveler

A laugh-out-loud account....If you were to cross John Muir's writings with Dave Barry's you'd end up with A Walk in the Woods.

Dwight Garner

Don't look to A Walk in the Woods for forced revelations about failed relationships or financial ruin or artistic insecurity. Bryson is hiking the trail because it's there, and he's great company right from the start -- a lumbering, droll, neatnik intellectual who comes off as equal parts Garrison Keillor, Michael Kinsley and (given his fondness for gross-out humor) Dave Barry. -- New York Times Book Review

Kirkus Reviews

The Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain, GA, to Mount Katahdin, ME consists of some five million steps, and Bryson (Notes from a Small Island, 1996) seems to coax a laugh, and often an unexpectedly startling insight, out of each one he traverses. It's not all yuks though it is hard not to grin idiotically through all 288 pages, for Bryson is a talented portraitist of place. He did his natural-history homework, which is to say he knows a jack-o-lantern mushroom from a hellbender salamander from a purple wartyback mussel, and can also write seriously about the devastation of chestnut blight. He laces his narrative with gobbets of trail history and local trivia, and he makes real the 'strange and palpable menace' of the dark deep woods in which he sojourns, the rough-hewn trailscape 'mostly high up on the hills, over lonely ridges and forgotten hollows that no one has ever used or coveted,' celebrating as well the 'low-level ecstasy' of finding a book left thoughtfully at a trail shelter, or a broom with which to sweep out the shelter's dross. Yet humor is where the book finds its cues—from Bryson's frequent trail companion, the obese and slothful Katz, a spacious target for Bryson's sly wit, to moments of cruel and infantile laughs, as when he picks mercilessly on the witless woman who, admittedly, ruined a couple of their days.

But for the most part the humor is bright sarcasm, flashing with drollery and intelligence, even when it's a far yodel from political sensitivity. Then Bryson will take your breath away with a trenchant critique of the irredeemably vulgar vernacular strip that characterizes many American downtowns, or of other signs of decay he encounters offthe trail (though the trail itself he comes to love). 'Walking is what we did,' Bryson states: 800-plus out of the 2,100-plus miles, and that good sliver is sheer comic travel entertainment.

What People Are Saying

Bill McKibben
Bill Bryson is an extremely funny man, the Appalachian Trail is an exceedingly magnificent place, and together they have created an exceedingly fine book.

Dwight Garner
Don't look to A Walk in the Woods for forced revelations about failed relationships or financial ruin or artistic insecurity. Bryson is hiking the trail because it's there, and he's great company right from the start -- a lumbering, droll, neatnik intellectual who comes off as equal parts Garrison Keillor, Michael Kinsley and (given his fondness for gross-out humor) Dave Barry.

Fodors Alaska 2009 or Fodors New Zealand 2009

Fodor's Alaska 2009

Author: Fodors Travel Publications Inc Staff

Fodor’s. For Choice Travel Experiences.

Fodor’s helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insightful tools you need to experience the trips you want. Although you’re at the helm, Fodor’s offers the assurance of our expertise, the guarantee of selectivity, and the choice details that truly define a destination. It’s like having a friend in Alaska!

• Your vacation never looked better. This Fodor’s full-color guide paints an unforgettable picture of Alaska with vibrant maps, vividly illustrated features, and stunning color photos.

• Updated annually, Fodor’s Alaska provides the most accurate and up-to-date information available in a guidebook.

• Fodor’s Alaska features options for a variety of budgets, interests, and tastes, so you make the choices to plan your trip of a lifetime.

• If it’s not worth your time, it’s not in this book. Fodor’s discriminating ratings, including our top tier Fodor’s Choice designations, ensure that you’ll know about the most interesting and enjoyable places in Alaska.

• Experience Alaska like a local! Fodor’s Alaska includes unique photo-features that impart the state’s culture, covering bears, whales, native crafts, Denali National Park & Preserve, the Midnight Sun, glaciers, and Alaska's Gold Rush, and much more!

• Indispensable, customized trip planning tools include “Top Reasons to Go,” “Word of Mouth” advice from other travelers, and tips to help save money, bypasslines, and avoid common travel pitfalls.

• Pullout color map and updated topographical maps of the best parks and preserves.

Visit Fodors.com for more ideas and information, travel deals, vacation planning tips, reviews and to exchange travel advice with other travelers.

Table of Contents:

About this Book ............ 7

Chapter 1: Experience Alaska ............ 8
What’s Where ............ 10
Alaska Planner ............ 12
Alaska Today ............ 14
Top Alaska Attractions ............ 16
Top Experiences ............ 18
Quintessential Alaska ............ 20
If You Like ............ 22
Great Itineraries ............ 24
Alaska’s History ............ 26
Flora & Fauna of Alaska ............ 28

Chapter 2: Sports & Wilderness Adventures ............ 43
Planning Your Adventure ............ 45
Sports, Top Regions & Tours ............ 56
Enjoying Alaska’s Wildlife ............ 79
Whale-Watching Cruises ............ 85

Chapter 3: Cruising in Alaska ............ 91
Choosing Your Cruise ............ 92
Before You Go ............ 96
Arriving & Departing ............ 99
On Board ............ 102
Going Ashore ............ 104
The Cruise Fleet ............ 106

Chapter 4: Southeast Alaska ............ 123
Welcome to Southeast Alaska ............ 124
Southeast Alaska Planner ............ 126
Ketchikan ............ 129
Around Ketchikan ............ 144
Wrangell ............ 151
Petersburg ............ 158
Sitka ............ 164
Juneau ............ 181
Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve ............ 203
Haines ............ 210
Skagway ............ 217

Chapter 5: Anchorage ............ 229
Welcome to Anchorage ............ 230
Anchorage Planner ............ 232
Exploring Anchorage ............ 234
Outdoor Activities & Guided Tours ............ 242
Whereto Eat ............ 247
Where to Stay ............ 258
Nightlife & the Arts ............ 267
Shopping ............ 273
Sports ............ 277

Chapter 6: South Central Alaska ............ 279
Welcome to South Central Alaska ............ 280
South Central Alaska Planner ............ 282
Prince William Sound ............ 285
Kenai Peninsula ............ 305
Homer ............ 327
Mat-Su Valley & Beyond ............ 341

Chapter 7: The Interior and Denali National
Park & Preserve ............ 355
Welcome to the Interior ............ 356
The Interior and Denali National Park &
Preserve Planner ............ 358
Fairbanks ............ 361
North of Fairbanks ............ 384
Denali National Park & Preserve ............ 394
Fortymile Country ............ 419
Yukon Territory ............ 425

Chapter 8: The Bush ............ 437
Welcome to The Bush ............ 438
The Bush Planner ............ 440
Southwest ............ 446
Northwest & the Arctic ............ 471

Understanding Alaska ............ 491
Fishing the Last Frontier:
In Search of Holy Water ............ 492
At a Glance ............ 494
Native Alaskans ............ 496
Alaska: A Geologic Story ............ 499
Books & Movies ............ 503

Travel Smart Alaska ............ 505

Index ............ 525

About Our Writers ............ 536


ALASKA IN FOCUS

1: Experience Alaska
Let the Journey Begin ............ 36
2: Sports & Wilderness Adventures
Keepers of the Deep: A Look at Alaska’s Whales ............ 87
4: Southeast Alaska
Made in Alaska ............ 167
Gold! Gold! Gold! ............ 219
5: Anchorage
The Glorious & Relentless Midnight Sun ............ 270
6: South Central Alaska
Alaska’s Glaciers: Notorious Landscape Architects ............ 316
7: The Interior and Denali National Park & Preserve
The High One: Mount McKinley ............ 401
8: The Bush
Welcome to Bear Country ............ 457


MAPS
Alaska ............ 10—11
Parks & Wildlife Refuges ............ 46—47
Ketchikan ............ 130
Around Ketchikan ............ 144
Wrangell ............ 152
Petersburg ............ 160
Sitka ............ 172
Juneau ............ 183
Side Trips from Juneau ............ 197
Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve ............ 204
Haines ............ 212
Skagway ............ 218
Anchorage ............ 236—237
Where to Stay & Eat in Anchorage ............ 248—249
Prince William Sound ............ 286
Kenai Peninsula ............ 306
Mat-Su Valley & Beyond ............ 342
Fairbanks ............ 362
North of Fairbanks ............ 385
Denali National Park & Preserve ............ 396—397
Forty Mile Country & the Yukon ............ 427
Dawson City ............ 429
The Southwest ............ 447
Northwest & the Arctic ............ 472

Read also Protective Security Law or Paul Kagame and Rwanda

Fodor's New Zealand 2009

Author: Fodors Travel Publications Inc Staff

Fodor’s. For Choice Travel Experiences.

Fodor’s helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insightful tools you need to experience the trips you want. Although you’re at the helm, Fodor’s offers the assurance of our expertise, the guarantee of selectivity, and the choice details that truly define a destination. It’s like having a friend in New Zealand!

·Updated annually, Fodor’s New Zealand provides the most accurate and up-to-date information available in a guidebook.

·Fodor’s New Zealand features options for a variety of budgets, interests, and tastes, so you make the choices to plan your trip of a lifetime.

·If it’s not worth your time, it’s not in this book. Fodor’s discriminating ratings, including our top tier Fodor’s Choice designations, ensure that you’ll know about the most interesting and enjoyable places in New Zealand.

·Experience New Zealand like a local! Fodor’s New Zealand includes choices for every traveler, from sunbathing and surfing to bushwalking and horseback riding, and much more!

·Indispensable, customized trip planning tools include “Top Reasons to Go,” “Word of Mouth” advice from other travelers, and tips to help save money, bypass lines, and avoid common travel pitfalls.

·Includes unique, color photos that illustrate the country's history and local activities and a full-color, pullout map of New Zealand.

Visit Fodors.com for more ideas and information, travel deals, vacation planningtips, reviews and to exchange travel advice with other travelers.

Istanbul or Frommers Irelands Best Loved Driving Tours

Istanbul: Memories and the City

Author: Orhan Pamuk

A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy–or hüzün– that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.

With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters–both Turkish and foreign–who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

The New York Times - Christopher de Bellaigue

Pamuk is not a sunny memoirist, but neither is he a sunny novelist. In this memoir of his youth, as in the six novels he has set in the city, Istanbul bears only a fleeting resemblance to the smiling and vibrant place many Westerners know from vacationing there. Pamuk's hometown is rarely consoling; it is more often troubled and malicious, its voice muffled and its colors muted by snowfalls that happen more often in the author's imagination than in real life. ''From a very young age I suspected there was more to my world than I could see,'' Pamuk writes, and so it goes. Far from a conventional appreciation of the city's natural and architectural splendors, Istanbul tells of an invisible melancholy and the way it acts on an imaginative young man, aggrieving him but pricking his creativity.

Publishers Weekly

Turkish novelist Pamuk (Snow) presents a breathtaking portrait of a city, an elegy for a dead civilization and a meditation on life's complicated intimacies. The author, born in 1952 into a rapidly fading bourgeois family in Istanbul, spins a masterful tale, moving from his fractured extended family, all living in a communal apartment building, out into the city and encompassing the entire Ottoman Empire. Pamuk sees the slow collapse of the once powerful empire hanging like a pall over the city and its citizens. Central to many Istanbul residents' character is the concept of hazan (melancholy). Istanbul's hazan, Pamuk writes, "is a way of looking at life that... is ultimately as life affirming as it is negating." His world apparently in permanent decline, Pamuk revels in the darkness and decay manifest around him. He minutely describes horrific accidents on the Bosphorus Strait and his own recurring fantasies of murder and mayhem. Throughout, Pamuk details the breakdown of his family: elders die, his parents fight and grow apart, and he must find his way in the world. This is a powerful, sometimes disturbing literary journey through the soul of a great city told by one of its great writers. 206 photos. (June 10)

Library Journal

Pamuk, whose My Name Is Red won the 2003 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, fondly remembers and capably details life growing up in the paradoxical city of Istanbul. The city, which Flaubert once predicted would be the capital of the world, is an odd mix of history and modernity, Eastern tradition and Western progress, stateliness and vulgarity. Along with the disparate cultural elements, we get Pamuk's own unique family experiences, which provide the thread of focus through a mosaic of culture, history, art, religion, and politics-elements that continue to shape the city daily in Istanbul's "greatest treasures," its grocery stores and coffeehouses. Whether describing the elegant decay of the Bosporus mansions (so named for their location on the Bosporus Strait) or explaining the wealth and danger of oil tankers and shipping routes, Pamuk paints a picture of a city where the "remains of glorious past civilizations" are everywhere "inflicting heartache" on all who live among them. Fans of Pamuk and his work will enjoy the well-written accounts of his eccentric upbringing, but others might find the multitude of reminiscences distracting. It is the city that is most intriguing. Recommend for larger public libraries, extensive travel collections, and where there is an interest in Muslim history. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/05.]-Mari Flynn, Keystone Coll., La Plume, PA

Kirkus Reviews

An eerie, subtle evocation of childhood and a melancholic, loving ode to home. Award-winning novelist Pamuk (Snow, 2004, etc.) grew up in an elite household; his childhood was both charmed and fraught. The cast of characters included his beautiful mother, his two-timing father and his grandmother, who looked like a "relaxed matron from a Renoir painting." They inhabited a culture in transition. The ancient Turkish regime had collapsed, but westernization had not quite rushed in to fill the void; people were mournful and confused, betwixt and between. Even Pamuk's family was finally claimed by "the cloud of gloom and loss that the fall of the Ottoman Empire had spread over Istanbul." His father continually flirted with bankruptcy and would sometimes vanish for days at a time. Young Orhan wanted the city to westernize, yet he wanted everything to remain the same. His memoir also delves into literature and art, discussing how outsiders like Flaubert have seen Istanbul and considering the ways in which Western configurations of the city have shaped its self-understanding. Pamuk discusses the many Western artists, like Antoine-Ignace Melling, who painted the Bosphorus. The author himself took to drawing as a child, painting the landscape and eventually graduating to portraits, among them one of a beautiful girl he would fall in love with. Later, Pamuk studied architecture, but his heart wasn't in it. "Pah," says his mother, "do you think you can earn a living just making pictures? Maybe in Europe, but not here." There it is again, the long shadow of the West. In the last pages, Pamuk turns from art and architecture to writing, making this ultimately a book about vocation. The text is augmentedby a remarkable collection of photographs, many by Ara Guler. Translator Freely also deserves kudos for rendering Pamuk's perfect Turkish adjectives in spare, startling English, from the "ghost-ridden" house to the "cold-blooded candor" of Westerners. An engrossing tale of a city-and of an author as a young man.

Frommer's Ireland's Best-Loved Driving Tours

Author: British Automobile Association

Everything You Need to See the Best of Ireland by Car!

Let Frommer's Take You To:

• Norman castles, ancient Celtic sites, and literary landmarks

• The picturesque Iveragh Peninsula and Ring of Kerry

• The lush glens and gardens of the Wicklow hills

• The quaint coastal villages of Cork

• Stretches of untouched beaches, rugged hills, and gentle green pastures in historic Ulster

• Bustling Sligo and the extraordinary Benbulben Mountain

• And much, much more!

Inside You'll Find:

• 25 distinctive, easy-to-use itineraries—all fully illustrated with beautiful full-color photos

• Recommendations on the best hotels and restaurants along each route

• Exact directions, distances, and driving times for each route

• All the sights along the way—with highlights for history buffs, nature lovers, and families traveling with kids

• Scenic side trips, special moments, and recommended walks

• Detailed, accurate full-color route-planning maps—plus a helpful atlas section

Table of Contents:

Route Map of Ireland.
About this Book.
Munster.
Tour 1: Clare.
Tour 2: River Shannon Rambles.
Tour 3: Ancient Castles & Lake Odyssey.
Tour 4: Beehive Huts & Coastal Splendours.
Tour 5: Killarney & the Ring of Kerry.
Tour 6: Kenmare & the Beara Peninsula.
Tour 7: Island City, Magic Stone.
Tour 8: Cork's Coastal Villages.
Tour 9: Unspoiled Peninsulas.
Tour 10: Rock of Cashel.
Leinster.
Tour 11: Monastic Ruins & the Midlands.
Tour 12: The Boyne Valley.
Tour 13: Dublin & Wicklow.
Tour 14: Witches, Castles & Horses.
Tour 15: By Hook or by Crooke.
Connacht.
Tour 16: Sligo & Yeats Country.
Tour 17: Boyle & the Lake Country.
Tour 18: Achill Island & County Mayo.
Tour 19: Region of Stony Beauty.
Ulster.
Tour 20: Seascapes & Mountain Passes.
Tour 21: The Causeway Coast.
Tour 22: Strangford Lough.
Tour 23: Fermanagh Lakeland.
Tour 24: The Heart of Ulster.
Tour 25: Mourne Country.
Practical Information.
Index and Acknowledgements.

Lonely Planet or Eyewitness Travel Spain

Lonely Planet: China

Author: Damian Harper

Nobody knows China like Lonely Planet. Whether you want to sip cocktails in Shanghai, trek Tibet's holy Mt Kailash or contemplate history at Xu'an's Army of Terracotta Warriors, our 11th edition will guide you through the best of this jaw-dropping destination - and reveal more of it than any other guide.

In This Guide:

All-new color chapters feature treks, iconic sights and culinary delights
Comprehensive activities coverage, including new cycling trips and unforgettable river tours
Expert trustworthy knowledge from resident and specialist authors

Eyewitness Travel Spain

Author: DK Publishing

The Eyewitness Travel Guide provides detailed, practical information and expert recommendations. It has information about Spain's country, historical, and cultural sides and includes features about food, wine, beaches and festivals. Check the Traveler's Needs section for restaurant and hotel recommendations and the Survival Guide has tips on everything from transport to using the telephone system. The Eyewitness Travel Guide helps you to get the most out of your visit Annually revised and updated

• Beautiful new full-color photos, illustrations, and maps
• Includes information on local customs, currency, medical services, and transportation
• Consistently chosen over the competition in national consumer market research