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THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: DMANISI (GEORGIA), NATIONAL PARKS
- 1. New and Noteworthy: National Parks
- 2. Mysteries & Thrillers: To the Beach!
- 3. A Favorite Spot: Ian Tattersall's Caucasus
- 4. Guidebooks: Eyewitness Family
- 5. Earth Day 2012: Books for Teens
Dear Traveler,
In this newsletter we celebrate National Parks Week, April 21-29, and Earth Day, which was on Sunday. If you can get going, like, tomorrow, all the national parks are free until the 29th. But they are all certainly worth the price of admission!
Thinking of a road trip this summer? We've chosen the Five Best Great American Road Trip books (and, no, On the Road didn't make the cut). Agree or disagree with us? You can let us know on Facebook. And many thanks to those of you who nominated your favorite cities last month (copies of The Cities Book are in the mail to lucky winners). The entry on Ouagadougou is a gem but, hey, this month we've got Dmanisi — and Narsarsuaq. Happy reading!
Daniel Kaizer and Darrel Schoeling
www.longitudebooks.com
800-342-2164
1. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: NATIONAL PARKSHave a look at our National Parks Essential Reading Guide for these new handy planning guides and more. |
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The Most Scenic Drives in America (USA467, $35.00)Going for a drive, as the authors so fittingly point out in this stunning and judiciously crafted compendium of 120 road trips, is the most American of pastimes. They miss the road from Anchorage to McCarthy and Wrangell St. Elias (Darrel's odyssey last summer) but from Acadia to the Hudson Valley, Yellowstone, Natchez and Red Rocky Country, this dazzling guide offers plenty. With detailed, in-depth descriptions, vivid, full-color maps and enticing photographs. An evocative quote from naturalist John Muir, one of the earliest campaigners for California's redwoods and a champion of the national parks system, is included in the four-page, 220-mile write up on the famous Pacific Coast Highway. Other routes are less well known, such as a drive through the horse country of rural Kentucky, which leads you to the world's longest cave and past the childhood home of Abraham Lincoln. A newly revised, updated edition. |
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The Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges (USA372, $18.95)David Scott includes not only grand, one-of-a-kind historic lodges but also inns, cabins and campgrounds in this comprehensive directory. Organized A-to-Z, with an overview of each park and two or three pages on each of the places to stay, this revised seventh edition, for the first time, has color maps and photographs. |
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Trains of Discovery, Railroads and the Legacy of the National Parks (USW56, $24.95)An advisor to Ken Burns on National Parks, America's Best Idea, one-time Seattle mayoral candidate and all-around advocate for open space, Al Runte has revised his classic tribute to the golden age of railroads and national parks to now include protected and historic sites East of the Mississippi, from the Hudson River Valley to Harpers Ferry, Gettysburg and Shenandoah. With hundreds of colorful period advertisements, posters and memorabilia of Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon and Denali and other great places across the nation. |
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Fodor's the Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West (USW503, $24.99)This neat, comprehensive guide to the outdoor beauty of the West contains driving tour suggestions and a three-chapter introduction to the history, wildlife, geology and best bits of the featured parks. More sober in its presentation than the likes of Lonely Planet, the Fodor's guide is great on detail, offering illustrated explainers in the Yellowstone entry, for example, on the science behind hot springs and geysers and great color photos, many taken by members of the Fodor's web world. From Did You Know? To Scenic Stops, Where to Eat and Stay and even Good Reads, this just released guide has depth. |
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Lonely Planet Discover USA's Best National Parks (USA465, $24.99)Danny Parmelee (contributor to USA's Best Trips and the Lonely Planet national park guides) took the lead in the creation of this jam-packed, all-color, best-of guide to 11 parks. The top 15 must-do experiences at the start — which includes sunset in the Grand Canyon and wildflower season on Mount Rainier — will whet the appetite to get back out on the road. Lonely Planet also publishes guides to Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion & Bryce and, across the border to our north, Banff, Jasper & Glacier National Parks. |
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National Parks, A Family Guide to America's Parks, Monuments and Landmarks (USA472, $19.95)With 350 color photographs, period posters and illustrations, this irresistible kid's guide by Erin McHugh include a double-page teaser on many parks and monuments across this land. With a fold-out commemorative quarter collector. |
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Michelin North America Road Atlas (USA155, $19.99)Hey, even with a GPS and Smart Phone, you need a good atlas. This indispensable spiral-bound beauty by Michelin is organized geographically, not alphabetically, so you can turn the page and continue on your merry way! 10th edition. |
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U.S. Scenic Drives Map (USA108, $7.95)Great for planning your next cross-country odyssey, this fold-up overview of the United States — at a birds-eye scale of 1:8,000,000 — highlights scenic drives, parks and reserves. |
2. NEW &NOTEWORTHY: MYSTERIES AND THRILLERSYou'll want to pack at least one or two of these page-turners for the beach or roadside motel, each memorably set someplace interesting. |
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The Troubled Man (SWE63, $15.00)Last in the wildly popular series by Henning Mankell, now in paper. Brooding detective Kurt Wallander (star of The Dogs of Riga) may be in over his head investigating the disappearance of his daughter's father-in-law to be, a former Swedish naval officer, in this darkly atmospheric whodunit set in and around Stockholm. Though Kenneth Branagh stars in the award-winning BBC series (there's a new installment in the works), Wallander is as Swedish as they come, rather the antithesis of James Bond — vulnerable, lonely, feeling his age. But a crack detective all the same. |
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An Evil Eye (TKY240, $15.00)Back from Venice, investigator Yashim is drawn into the mysterious and dangerous intrigues of the sultan's seraglio at Topkapi Palace In the fourth novel of Edgar Award-winning author Jason Goodwin's internationally-acclaimed Ottoman Empire Series. Just out in paper, you can read more about the book, and get Goodwin's recommendations for visiting Topkapi and some ideas for where to have lunch while in Istanbul, on the Longitude Blog. |
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Beastly Things (ITA301, $25.00)Comissario di Polizia of the city of Venice, Guido Brunetti has lost none of his wry humor, love of food and family or impatience with police headquarters in this 21st novel in the Donna Leon oeuvre. After the body of an animal rights activist is fished out of a canal, Comissario Brunetti, his bosses at the Venice Questera and his family, naturally enough, are caught up in the pleasures and perils of eating meat. If you are trying to catch up, book number 20, Drawing Conclusions, is just out in paper. |
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The Trinity Six (GBR995, $14.99)Liked Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy? Try this latest by Charles Cumming (Spy by Nature, Typhoon), who again delivers a slyly plausible blend of history and politics. Sam Gaddis, an English academic researching Cold War-era espionage, uncovers a sixth member of the notorious Cambridge spy ring, unwittingly and unforgettably entangling himself in a dangerous plot involving the MI-6 and the highest levels of the Russian government. |
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Smilla's Sense of Snow (DMK03, $17.00)Could it really have been all that long ago that Peter Hoeg's gripping second novel made such a splash? Set in Denmark and Greenland and aboard a secret ship, this page-turner, out in a 20th anniversary edition, includes an excellent portrait of modern day Copenhagen. Beneath its spooky surface, the novel wrestles with racism and the tangled relations between Denmark and Greenland. The discerning editors at Picador (Hello Stephen Morrison, if you are reading, and congratulations on the new job!) have also brought No One thinks of Greenland (ARC149, $15.00) back in a simple print-on-demand edition. Author John Grisemeer, in this enthralling historical novel, uses Blue West One, an army base built by the U.S. during WWII in |
South Greenland, and its hospital as the inspiration for an inventive tale of Lieutenant Woolwrap and secret goings-on during the Korean War. The Narsarsuaq base and airfield (called Qangattarsa in the novel) reverted to the Danes in 1959. Today it's the main airfield and a center of tourism in the region, noted for its hiking and Norse history. And while we are at it: Jane Smiley's
3. A FAVORITE SPOT: DMANISI, GEORGIA
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Masters of the Planet, The Search for Our Human Origins (ATP32, $26.00)With characteristic charm and wit, paleoanthropologist, popular author and study leader Ian Tattersall spins tales of the saga of the evolution of our species and the "long trek from ancient ape to modern human." |
Kindly contributed by Ian Tattersall, author of 
"It's amazing how so many of the sites that have yielded important human fossils occur in glorious landscapes. But my candidate for the most spectacularly sited hominid locality of all has to be the ruined town of Dmanisi, tucked away into an obscure corner of southwest Georgia, a couple of hours' drive southwest of the republic's capital of Tbilisi. High on a black volcanic bluff that rears above two converging rivers, and dominating an endless panorama of verdant, rolling countryside, in medieval times Dmanisi was an important staging post along the ancient Silk Road network that ran from China to Turkey and Persia. But its historical importance was overshadowed two decades ago by the discovery there of ancient human fossils that were dated to an incredible 1.8 million years ago
— making them the very earliest known emigres from the African continent in which humankind was born! Today a small site museum protects the rocks from which beautifully preserved fossils continue to emerge, making this hauntingly beautiful place the centerpiece of any visit to the Caucasus, where wine was born, and history is everywhere."
4. GUIDEBOOKS: EYEWITNESS FAMILY TRAVEL
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5. EARTH DAY 2012: BOOKS, ESPECIALLY FOR TEENS
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Never Cry Wolf (BST34, $12.99)Farley Mowat's laugh-out-loud account of wolf research and government folly, is just one of a string of books set on the barren lands of northern Manitoba. Perfect for teens, it is as irreverent as it is moving. Younger kids might like Owls in the Family (BRD18, $5.50), The hilarious adventures of Billy, his friend Bruce and two newly adopted great horned owls, Wol and Weeps, set in Saskatchewan prairie. We're partial to The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (NFL02, $5.99), maybe his funniest book and a great salty tale of sailing around Newfoundland. Partial to Atlantic Canada, Mowat and his wife Claire have a summer home in Cape Breton, set on 200 acre peninsula outside the still charming village of River Bourgeois. Not surprisingly, the land will eventually go to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust. |
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The Monkey Wrench Gang (USW644, $14.99)The irascible Edward Abbey made his name already in 1968 with the publication of Desert Solitaire (DES02, $14.95), one of the great books on the desert (and still read aloud at campfires throughout the Southwest). Often neglected is this outrageous novel of four irate eco-rebels, who join forces to wage war on the strip-miners, clear-cutters, and other misguided capitalists threatening to destroy the wilderness. Love him or hate him, there's no one like Abbey to start a conversation. |
Earth Day, here are three classics that may just appeal to the teenager in your life! As cantankerous and bearded as ever,|
Please send suggestions, comments, kudos and complaints to darrel@longitudebooks.com. We like to hear from our customers!
Longitude, Recommended Reading for Travelers |
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