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LONGITUDE NEWSFor Customers, Friends and Partners of Longitude |
THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: SUMMER READING
- New and Noteworthy: Amazon, Italy, Barcelona
- New in Paper: Galapagos, Stealing Athena
- Featured Destination: Cuba
- Fodor's: Now in Full Color
- Kids' Books: Blueberries for Sal is Back!
Dear Traveler,
What with June graduations, and the pending pleasure of sun and sand, we're featuring a selection of summer reading, including three remarkable tales of coming-of-age (a Chinese boy from Urumchi, a genius cartographer from a Montana ranch and a young Italian woman, fifth generation, from Basilicata). We're also including Cuba, subject of the latest travel book by gallivanting grandmother Dervla Murphy, and much in the news.
To celebrate Fodor's, recently blossomed into full-color, magazine style guides, we'll include a bright orange tote with any purchase of a Fodor's guide.
Happy summer!
Daniel Kaizer and Darrel Schoeling
longitudebooks.com
800-342-2164
1. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: BASILICATA, BRAZILIAN AMAZON, URUMCHIWe've figured it out, our Summer Reading list, an eclectic mix of travel, biography and (mostly) fiction. |
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Been Here a Thousand Years (ITA24, $24.00)Mariolina Venezia deftly weaves the tumultuous recent history of Italy with the saga of five generations of the complicated, headstrong Falcone family. Drawing on the tales of her grandmother and the traditions of Grottole, she captures the rhythm of life in an ancient Basilicata hill town, one hundred kilometers from the coastline of Puglia. |
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Fordlandia, The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City (AMZ118, $27.50)Journalist and professor of history Greg Grandini captures in meticulous detail the folly and arrogance of Henry Ford's impossible idea of, not just a rubber plantation, but also golf and square dances and utopia in the Brazilian Amazon. The book portrays the man (richest in the world in his day), the town and, particularly, the allure of the forest. |
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The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet (USA374, $27.95)This brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel by Reif Larsen turns 12-year-old genius map-maker T.S. Spivet's attempts to understand the ways of the world into a road novel like no other. Festooned with diagrams, maps, drawings and rather remarkable marginalia, the book traces the journey of Spivet from his home on a Montana ranch to the halls of the Smithsonian Institution (to collect an award). Larsen thanks "Lois Hetland, my seventh grade teacher, for teaching me (almost) everything I know." Not surprising, given how this first novel captures the exhilaration of adolescence. |
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English (CHN549, $24.95)Drawing on his boyhood in Urumchi, Wang Gang shows life in Xianjiang -- and the transporting power of language -- through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy and a friendship with his English teacher from Shanghai. A runaway besteller in China. |
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The Angel's Game (SPN377, $26.95)This intricately plotted gothic thriller -- a prequel of sorts to Carlos Ruiz Zafon's blockbuster The Shadow of the Wind (SPN298, $16.00) -- follows a young writer, in love and obsessed with books, who is drawn into a gripping adventure. Apart from the pleasures of character and plot, the book is an ode to 1920s Barcelona. |
2. NOW IN PAPER: ATHENS, GALAPAGOS, LOST IN CHINA, CLASSICSHow could we resist Beowulf on the Beach? The idea is as inspired as the title; great literature can be fun! Many more new & noteworthy books in paper, including many Best of 2008, are included on our Summer Reading. |
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Stealing Athena (GRE385, $15.00)The dazzling New Acropolis Museum, which opens on June 20, very pointedly does not include the original Elgin Marbles, after 207 years still in the British Museum. Traversing millennia, Karen Essex (Leonardo's Swan). illuminates the story of the frieze through the lives of two women in this latest historical novel: Mary Niset, wife of the Earl of Elgin, powerful British Ambassador to Constantinople; and that of Aspasia of Miletus, consort to Pericles, leader of Athens. |
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The Reavers (GBR755, $14.95)After 12 gloriously scandalous, hilarious Flashman novels, the incomparable George MacDonald Fraser gives us a sidesplitting tale of derring-do from the borderlands of 17th-century Scotland in his last book. |
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Galapagos, Through Writer's Eyes (GPS89, $27.95)John Hickman draws on original accounts by Galapagos whalers, gentleman pirates, fitful castaways, settlers and scientists, including Ambrose Crowley, Herman Melville, Charles Darwin and William Beebe, in this colorful human history of the archipelago. |
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Lost on Planet China (CHN496, $14.95)Lost on Planet China finds the irrepressible J. Maarten Troost dodging deadly drivers in Shanghai; eating Yak in Tibet; deciphering restaurant menus (with local favorites such as Cattle Penis with Garlic); visiting with Chairman Mao (still dead, very orange); and hiking (with 80,000 other people) up Tai Shan, China's most revered mountain. He's not just funny; he's also a first-rate guide to modern China. |
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Beowulf on the Beach, What to Love and What to Skip in Literature's 50 Greatest Hits (GEN501, $15.00)Yes, Ulysses is a funny book and Odysseus was a hero. Jack Murnighan reveals how to enjoy great literature in this entertaining, irreverent guide to 50 wide-ranging works from Homer and Proust to Beloved and the Bible. |
3. FEATURED DESTINATION: CUBANew & noteworthy additions to Essential Reading for Cuba, including the latest by unstoppable Dervla Murphy. |
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The Island That Dared, Journeys in Cuba (CBA115, $39.95)Dervla Murphy traipses off to Cuba in this latest adventure, daughter Rachel and three granddaughters (The Trio) in tow. Sea and sand are included on the itinerary but, being Dervla Murphy, she goes everywhere and talks to everybody (she can't help herself) and, intrigued, returns on her own for another two months. She may be in her 70s but our favorite Irish grandmother is as curious, open-minded and astute as ever, weaving her travels and a recent history of Cuba into an engaging, sympathetic portrait. |
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Telex from Cuba (CBA111, $16.00)Rachel Kushner re-imagines the world of her mother, who grew up in the American enclave in Cuba's Oriente Province, in this astonishingly wise, ambitious and riveting first novel, set during the heady years leading to Castro's revolution. Nominated for the National Book Award. |
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Havana, History and Architecture of a Romantic City (CBA46, $85.00)Back in a sumptuous new edition from the art publisher Monacelli, this magnificently illustrated, oversized history and tribute by Maria Luisa Lobo Montalvo documents the growth of Havana from Spanish colony to independence in 480 stunning color photos. |
4. NEW GUIDEBOOKS: FODOR'S, IN FULL COLORThanks to the enterprising Rose of Random House, we're pleased to include a fold-up tote (while supplied last) with your order of any Fodor's title. Color is deployed on every page of the Full-Color Guides, which now feature eye-popping topographic maps, well-placed color highlights, pleasing pictures throughout and new front-of-the-book attractions. |
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Fodor's Complete African Safari Planner (AFR217, $27.95)This inviting, well-organized guide focuses on must-see attractions, lodges and camps in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa & Tanzania. With excellent advice on planning and packing, maps and photos. |
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Fodor's Essential Italy: Rome, Florence, Venice & the Top Spots In Between (ITA77, $19.95)Covering the highlights of an Italian vacation in colorful detail. The series also includes Florence, Tuscany & Umbria (ITL836, $19.95), Rome (ITL950, $18.95) and all of Italy (ITL668, $24.95) |
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Fodor's New York City (NYC188, $18.95)This practical, frequently revised guide in the popular series joins the full-color squad. With a pullout map. |
5. KIDS' BOOKS: ROBERT MCCLOSKEYWhat would summer be without Robert McCloskey? We're relieved to see Blueberries for Sal and all the talented illustrator's other tales available. |
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Blueberries for Sal (USE211, $17.99)A timeless children's classic of Maine in the summer, winningly illustrated by the great Robert McCloskey. Sal and her mother go blueberry picking but find they must share their berries with a mother bear and her cub. |
Longitude, Recommended Reading for Travelers
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info@longitudebooks.com
800-342-2164