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  Full Tilt - Ireland to India...

  Dervla Murphy

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  When Dervla Murphy was ten, she was given a bicycle and an atlas, and within days she was secretly planning a trip to India. At the age of thirty-one, in 1963, she finally set off and this book is based on the daily diary she kept while riding through Persia, Afghanistan and over the Himalayas to Pakistan and India. A lone woman on a bicycle (with a revolver in her trouser pocket) was an almost unknown occurrence and a focus of enormous interest wherever she went. Undaunted by snow in alarming quantities, and using her .25 pistol on starving wolves in Bulgaria and to scare lecherous Kurds in Persia, her resourcefulness and the blind eye she turned to personal danger and extreme discomfort were remarkable.

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  Gondola

  Donna Leon

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  Of all the trademarks of Venice-- and there are many, from the gilded Basilica of San Marco to the melancholy Bridge of Sighs-- none is more ubiquitous than the gondola. The internationally acclaimed "American with the Venetian heart," Donna Leon, tells its fascinating story (The Washington Post). First used in medieval Venice as a deftly maneuverable getaway boat, the gondola evolved over the centuries into a floating pleasure palace, bedecked in silk, that facilitated the romantic escapades of the Venetian elite. Today, the gondola wears black-- a gleaming, elegant hue, and is manned by robust gondolieri in black-and-white-striped shirts and straw hats. A tourist favorite, the gondola has never ceased to be a part of authentic Venice. Each boat' s 280 pieces are carefully fashioned in a maestro' s workshop-- though Leon also recounts a tale of an American friend who attempted to make a gondola all on his own. The feat took five years and countless do-overs. But the gondola is a work of art well worth the labor. And once its arched prow pushes off from the dock, the single Venetian at its oar just might break out in a barcarole, a popular Italian boat song. The best of these songs, as timeless as the allure of the gondola itself, are compiled into an accompanying CD.

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  American Scenery Vol 1

  Nathaniel Parker Willis

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  Although the focus of this book is the engravings depicting scenic sites of 19th century America, each is accompanied by a short description of the site and location. These vignettes give us rare glimpses of scenic locations as they appeared in 1840. All sites are in the eastern part of the United States, especially New England and New York. This is Volume One of a two-volume set. (Summary by Larry Wilson)

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  Japan Is Very Wonderful - The...

  Pearl Howie

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  Japan was the beginning of something extraordinary.  Much of who I was on that trip has disappeared.  Relationships, business, home, beliefs have all gone or changed radically.  But Japan was not my trip, this was the escape of a lifetime for a client.I discovered that amazing things don’t just happen when you follow your dreams, they also happen when you help others follow theirs.My guidebooks have always been “an escape in a box” a tour you can follow and do yourself – this one is eight nights in some of the most beautiful places (and hotels) in the world.  (It also helps if you eat fish and aren’t scared to get naked in front of others.)

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  Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths...

  Sarah Quail

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  More than five hundred years of British true crime stories—from mutinies and murders to duels and executions.   This collection of historical true crime tales includes more than twenty notorious episodes that range from medieval times to the modern era, and offers a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind.   Set in the vicinity of Portsmouth, England, these intriguing and shocking cases cover an extraordinary variety of misdeeds, some motivated by brutal impulse or despair, others by malice. Most involve ill-fated individuals who are only known to us because they were caught up in crime, but more famous episodes appear as well, such as the murder of the Duke of Buckingham and the disappearance of the Cold War frogman Buster Crabb.  Includes illustrations

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  Lost British Forts of Long Island

  David M Griffin

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  Author David M. Griffin uncovers the lost history and harrowing stories of Long Island's British forts.When the Revolutionary War broke out and New York City had fallen in 1776, the forces of the king of Great Britain developed a network of forts along the length of Long Island to defend the New York area and create a front to Patriot forces across the Sound in Connecticut. Fort Franklin on Lloyd's Neck became a refugee camp for Loyalists and saw frequent rebel attacks. In Huntington, a sacred burial ground was desecrated, and Fort Golgotha was erected in its place, using tombstones as baking hearths. In Setauket along the northern shore, the Presbyterian church was commandeered and made the central fortified structure of the town.

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