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APRIL 2008 =============================== THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: EARTH DAY 1. New and Noteworthy: McCall Smith, Mathiessen, Banks 2. Earth Day: American Earth, Cape Cod, Sea Around Us 3. Guidebooks: Love Delhi, Exploring Kyoto 4. Field Work: New Guinea, Amazon, Congo, Antarctica 5. Kids' Books: Face to Face with Animals Dear Traveler, This Earth Day we’ve got Bill McKibben’s expertly excerpted anthology of American environmental writing since Thoreau along with a group of lively new reports from the frontlines of ecological research. We include young Kate Jackson on herpetological adventures in Africa, ornithologist Bruce Beehler’s memoir of his time exploring an earthly paradise in the mountains of Papua, Indonesia, Paul Colinvaux’s masterful summary of a long career, literally, in the mud and geologist Bill Green’s lyrical portrait of Antarctica’s dry valleys. For budding environmentalists, we recommend National Geographic’s Face to Face with Animals for kids ages 4 to 8. All the best, Daniel Kaizer and Darrel Schoeling http://www.longitudebooks.com 800-342-2164 1. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: GOOD READING =============================== The Miracle at Speedy Motors (BOT31, $22.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/72648/r/LN/mcms.html Ever exuberant, extraordinarily productive Alexander McCall Smith once again channels the life and world view of a certain Precious Ramotswe in this latest installment in his endlessly pleasurable No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Our sensible, redbush tea-drinking heroine helps a woman find her relatives, enjoys the company of her sweet-hearted husband (proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors) and gets mixed up in the lives of her neighbors. Not much action for a murder mystery but McCall Smith wittily conjures the society, folklore and daily life of bygone Gaberone. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (BOT27, $12.95), eighth in the series, is now in paper. The movie of the series, with singer Jill Scott in the lead role and Dream girl Anika Noni Rose playing Grace Makutsi, premiered to great fanfare in Gaberone on April 8. Directed by Anthony Minghella, who died suddenly last month in London, the movie’s fate in the U.S. is uncertain. Twenty Chickens for a Saddle, An African Childhood (SAF203, $24.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/72202/r/LN/mcms.html Left to roam the bush and haphazardly schooled by her free- spirited mother, Robyn Scot writes with warmth and candor of her unconventional upbringing in Botswana in this affecting memoir. She tells about her grandpa Ivor, personal pilot of the first President of Botswana, of her physician father’s work, her unfortunate pets, equally feral siblings, neighbors and many adventures. Set in the 1990s, her memoir shows too the devastation of AIDS in Africa. This wonderful book is a clear-eyed companion to the charming McCall Smith (who helpfully provides a blurb). Shadow Country (FLA72, $40.00) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/73093/r/LN/mcms.html Peter Matthiessen reworks his famous tale of the larger- than-life Florida pioneer, compulsive liar and murderer Edgar J. Watson in this retelling of his classic trilogy: Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man’s River and Bone by Bone. He’s tightened up the story, shortening it to just one epic book –- a family saga redolent of the scrub and swamp of the Everglades. Shot to death in Chokoloskee, Florida by an outraged group of citizens, E.J. Watson ran a sugar cane plantation in the Ten Thousand Islands of southwest Florida during the lawless years of the early 20th century. A Modern Library edition. The Reserve (NYS69, $24.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/72790/r/LN/mcms.html Not all is well at Tamarack Reserve in Russell Banks’ absorbing tale of class, politics, family and lunacy. Set in the Adirondacks in the 1930s, this novel is loosely based on the life of noted illustrator, womanizer and independent-thinker Rockwell Kent. The Spanish Civil War and Hindenberg also intrude on the cozy familiarity of the startlingly beautiful summer retreat. 2. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: EARTH DAY =============================== American Earth (NAT139, $40.00) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/72196/r/LN/mcms.html Bill McKibben edits this authoritative collection of the best and most significant writing on the environment since Thoreau. It’s all here in one fat volume by Library of America -- the essays of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and John Burroughs; Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring alongside Annie Dillard, John McPhee, Terry Tempest Williams, Edward Abbey and David Quammen. With 80 pages of photographs, many in full color. The Audubon Reader (BRD59, $27.50) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/72926/r/LN/mcms.html Audubon biographer Richard Rhodes edits this handsome Everyman’s Library edition of key journal excerpts, letters and published works by the great American painter and conservation pioneer. Best known for his watercolor portraits (a sample of 16 color plates from Birds of America is included), Audubon wrote presciently about the now-extinct passenger pigeon and Carolina parakeet, his journeys with Native Americans and other frontier travel. Cape Cod (USE436, $35.00) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/73056/r/LN/mcms.html Scot Miller's stunning color photographs accompany this new illustrated edition of Thoreau's enduring classic account of the seascapes, culture and nature of Cape Cod, published in collaboration with The Walden Woods Project. Miller also contributes the photographs for the 150th anniversary edition of Walden (GEN183, $28.12), priced at half a cent less than Walden spent building his cabin. The Sea Around Us (OCE05, $49.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/750/r/LN/mcms.html An illustrated commemorative edition of Rachel Carson's influential, hugely popular paean to the sea and the interconnectedness of nature, featuring 130 color photographs. Carl Safina provides the forward. 3. NEW & NOTEWORTHY GUIDEBOOKS: LOVE DELHI, EXPLORING KYOTO =============================== Expats Fiona Caufield and Judith Clancy celebrate their favorite places -- Fiona from her base in Bangalore with her Love Travel guides, and Judith with a new edition of her much loved guide to the temples, gardens, ateliers and workshops of Kyoto, where she has lived since 1970. Love Delhi (IDA403, $40.00) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/72999/r/LN/mcms.html Packaged in an audacious and very fashionable satchel of locally woven fuschia silk, this affectionate guide captures the soul of Delhi, pointing with authority to neighborhoods, shops, markets, restaurants and attractions. With chapters on escapes to Jaipur, Varanasi, Agra, Ranthambhore, Amritsar and Rishikesh. Produced by the dynamic Bangalore-based Fiona Caufield and friends, this is the third Love Travel guide, which also includes Bangalore (IDA359, $40.00) and Mumbai (IDA389, $40.00). Here is an excerpt from Love Delhi, describing Barber Baju Lal: “Located on a shady corner beside Chelmsford Club, opposite the Press Club of India, BBL has been a barber for the past 45 years and followed his father into the profession. He looks after famous politicians, journalists and taxi drivers. The infrastructure is basic: a wooden chair, a mirror against a tree and a small table for his tools. A haircut and a shave will only be about Rs20; and if unsure about what style you want, take a look at the Bollywood style board! A Dehli institution.” Exploring Kyoto (JPN26, $16.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/2553/r/LN/mcms.html Judith Clancy’s indispensable compact guide to exploring the neighborhoods, gardens and sanctuaries of Kyoto on foot is back in a new, revised edition. It includes 30 walking tours of both famous and little-known treasures, detailed maps and a section of color photographs. It’s a good companion to Old Kyoto (JPN24, $22.00), Diane Durston’s equally personable compact guide to carefully chosen shops, restaurants, markets and inns, many tiny and hidden away in out-of-the-way streets or neighborhoods. 4. FIELDWORK: AMAZON, ANTARCTIC, CONGO, NEW GUINEA =============================== These four engaging new memoirs are all in the spirit of George Schaller -- a hero who has published a string of popular accounts over a long career, including The Last Panda, The Serengeti Lion and The Year of the Gorilla. Lost Worlds, Adventures in the Tropical Rainforest (NAT145, $28.00) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/73052/r/LN/mcms.html Ever heard of a Golden-mantled Tree-Kangaroo? Bruce Beehler writes with easy grace of his many expeditions to little- visited regions of tropical India, Panama, Madagascar and the Ivory Coast in this lively account. He concludes with a chapter on a spectacularly successful 2005 expedition to the isolated Foja Mountains of western New Guinea -- “as close to the Garden of Eden as you are going to find on Earth.” It’s a region “with no villages, no litter, no logged-over or garden areas, no roads, no walking tracks, no hunting, not even any sounds of civilization except for a once a week passenger jet flying overhead.” Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo (CAF40, $27.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/73043/r/LN/mcms.html It’s not just anyone who can enjoy trudging through forested swampland in search of reptiles and amphibians (naturally, many are venomous). Kate Jackson is the sort of young professor you’d like to have had in college. You can, for example, watch a clip of a king snake regurgitating a corn snake on her web site. She writes with positive glee of the many frustrations, absurd challenges and thrill of her work in the Congo in this action-packed memoir. Amazon Expeditions, My Quest for the Ice-Age Equator (AMZ113, $32.50) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/73097/r/LN/mcms.html Distinguished ecologist Paul Colinvaux (Why Big Fierce Animals are Rare) looks at one of the knotty questions of modern ecology -- the mind-boggling biodiversity of the tropics –- in this absorbing memoir. It’s not just a detailed recap of his many expeditions to the Galapagos, highland Ecuador and the Amazon over a long career, it’s also a terrific example of how science actually works. Colinvaux has spent decades literally in the mud (he takes cores of ice-age lakes to reconstruct past environments) and to what end? He may not be St. George but he slays long-held notions of ecology unsupported by evidence. Water, Ice and Stone, Science and Memory on the Antarctic Lakes (ANT42, $15.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/2640/r/LN/mcms.html A new edition of geologist Bill Green’s lyrical memoir of life and work in the 1,000-square-mile McMurdo Dry Valleys. Winner of the John Burroughs Medal in Nature Writing. 5. KIDS' BOOKS: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S FACE TO FACE =============================== Face to Face With Animals http://www.longitudebooks.com/bin/find?d=50164&r=LN Every young scientist begins someplace. These stunningly illustrated books by National Geographic introduce youngsters to animals and the excitement of work in the field. Whales and Wolves will join the series in May. Face to Face With Frogs (NAT140, $16.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/72680/r/LN/mcms.html It’s spring and the peepers are chirping. You’re two inches away from a poison dart frog. You’re lying on the rainforest floor as she hops toward you, utterly fearless. This deadly terribilis frog has nothing to fear; your fear is that any accidental contact with your skin could mean death! Let Mark W. Moffett, winner of the 2006 Lowell Thomas Medal for Exploration, show you around the diverse world of frogs. Get the expert view on our amphibian friends, from metamorphosis to diet, from habitat to distinctive features; and learn why we urgently need to foster a healthier planet for these sensitive creatures. Face to Face With Lions (BST115, $16.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/72681/r/LN/mcms.html You look straight ahead. You try to breathe normally. You can smell the scent of the huge cat that is staring back. You are a cameraman. He is the King of Beasts. Your only thought is "I hope he has already eaten today." Let National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert bring you closer to the power and majesty of the regal African lion. With fewer than 25,000 wild lions now left on Earth, the award-winning filmmakers and naturalists make a passionate plea to readers to take an active role in securing a future for these creatures. Face to Face With Polar Bears (ARC198, $16.95) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/70734/r/LN/mcms.html Photographer Norbert Rosing (World of the Polar Bear) takes you to his favorite haunts in Churchill, home of the greatest concentration of polar bears on Earth, in this illustrated adventure for ages 4-8.


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