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  Mountaineering Holiday - An...

  Frank Smythe

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  In Mountaineering Holiday, Frank Smythe records 'an outstanding Alpine climbing season' - his 1939 summer holiday. Writing in his typically engaging style of keen observation, entertaining anecdote and remarkable knack for description, Smythe takes the reader with him on his trip into the Alps. Arriving unfit and out of practice, he gets stuck behind slower climbers and spends rainy days confined to the valleys before making an impressive number of successful ascents and historic climbs: Mont Tondu, the Aiguille de Bionnassay, the Brenva Face - and an ascent of the Innominata Ridge of Mont Blanc.
  There is a wonderful sense of familiarity about the book. Smythes's experiences and emotions are instantly recognisable by the modern climber, evoking memories of other trips and mountain days. And his examination of our need for mountains and wild places reaches conclusions that strike a chord with everybody who enjoys the great outdoors.
  Yet this is the 1930s. Mountaineering equipment and technique are in their infancy. Attitudes within climbing are markedly different to those of today and the first ascents of many major routes are still to be claimed. Europe is on the brink of war and fearful of the future. The book's final climb is made with four young Germans - mere days before World War II …

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  Brazilian Adventure

  Peter Fleming

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  It began with an advertisement in The Times: 'Leaving England June, to explore rivers Central Brazil, if possible ascertain fate Colonel Fawcett; abundance game, big and small; exceptional fishing; room two more guns.' Colonel Fawcett and his son Jack had embarked on a journey in 1925 in search of a supposed lost city in the Amazon and were never seen again. This expedition was too much of a temptation for Peter Fleming, a young journalist with energy and an appetite for adventure. The journey, which begins in a
  reckless spirit of can-do frivolity, slowly darkens into something very personal and deeply testing 'for which Rider Haggard might have written the plot and Conrad designed the scenery.' Fleming recounts it in brilliant prose, leavening the danger with humour and honesty.

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  Sea and Sardinia

  D. H. Lawrence

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  Sea and Sardinia 
    
  by D.H.Lawrence 
    
  Narrated by Phil Benson 
    
  At the end of World War 1, D. H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda (‘the queen bee’), exiled themselves from England and set up home in Sicily. On the spur of the moment, Lawrence proposed a short trip to Sardinia. Setting off before dawn, they embarked on a whirlwind tour, by train to Palermo, ferry to Cagliari, and by train and bus to Terranova, returning to Rome by ferry. Back in Sicily Lawrence wrote Sea and Sardinia, one of the great travel journals of the twentieth century, in six weeks and entirely from memory. Alternately enthusiastic and grumpy, but always effusive, Lawrence’s journal sparkles with observations of the day-to-day detail of travel and characters encountered on the way 
    
  Production Copyright 2020 Voices of Today.

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  Wright Sites - A Guide to Frank...

  Conservancy Frank Lloyd Wright...

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  A comprehensive guide to Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings open to the public—with travel itineraries and information on seventy-four sites. Frank Lloyd Wright’s groundbreaking designs, innovative construction techniques, and inviting interiors continue to astound and inspire generations of architects and design aficionados. Covering all the publicly accessible sites across the United States—plus four in Japan—Wright Sites describes the design ideas and history behind each building.  The volume also includes suggested destination itineraries for Wright road trips, a list of archives, and a selected bibliography. This revised edition features twenty sites newly opened to the public, up to date descriptions and access information, and new color photographs of each site.  The introduction is written by Jack Quinan, a founding member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and author of Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House.

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  A Louisiana Christmas - Heritage...

  Carol Stubbs, Nancy Rust

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  The holidays in Louisiana feature a stunning array of festivities and events. Good food, music, and camaraderie abound. This volume takes readers on a statewide tour of les fêtes de Noël and provides recipes and activities for the whole family. From the lighting of the bonfire at Oak Alley Plantation to Natchitoches’s Festival of Lights, experience the living culture that the Pelican State has to offer. After a tour of the local entertainment, gather up friends and family and enjoy some of the delicious appetizers, sweet and savory breads, entrées, and desserts included in this beautifully photographed collection.  Separated into geographical sections, this book takes readers on a tour of traditions and happenings in Cajun Country, Sportsman’s Paradise, the Crossroads, Plantation Country, and Greater New Orleans. Contact information is included, along with a description of each festivity. Featured are photographs of the exquisite Hanley-Gueno Neapolitan Presepio Nativity figures, crafted in the eighteenth century. More than one hundred fifty recipes cover every course for every get-together. Family-friendly crafts and activities will keep adults and children celebrating the season all winter long.

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  Edinburgh Days - Or Doing What I...

  Sam Pickering

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  Tales of meandering walks through Scotland’s capital by an essayist known for “often hilarious, sometimes poignant, takes on life” (The New York Times).   After a forty-year absence from the city, Sam Pickering—author, literary scholar, and inspiration for the lead character in Dead Poets Society—came to the University of Edinburgh on a fellowship in 2004. Edinburgh Days maps the transition from his life in Connecticut, defined by family, academic appointments, and the recognition of neighbors and avid acolytes, to a temporary existence on foreign soil that is at once unsettlingly isolating and curiously liberating. Part travelogue, part psychological self-study, it’s a walking tour of the Scottish capital as well as through the labyrinth of Pickering’s swerving moods and memories—and a look at what befalls the curious mind of an intellectual removed from the relations and responsibilities that otherwise delineate his days.   His daily explorations include Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Castle Rock, the Museum of Childhood, the National Gallery, the Writers’ Museum, the Museum of the People, the Huntly House, the John Knox House, the Royal Botanic Garden, and the Edinburgh Zoo, as well as neighborhood pubs, antique stores, and bookshops. Between his ambling tours, he revisits the works of writers renowned and obscure, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel Smiles, John Buchan, Tobias Wolff, Russell Hoban, Patrick White, Hilaire Belloc, and Van Wyck Brooks. But it is not so much his erudition as his fascination with minutiae that infuses these essays with dynamic descriptions, quirky observations, and jesting interludes that bring the historic city to life.   “As he travels the damp, cobalt-gray streets of the great northern city, we rummage with him in old shops, follow him through gardens and graveyards, and see oft-visited monuments and museums through his fresh eyes . . . prose that glistens with natural details and an unapologetic delight in the foibles of humankind at its most genuine. We are fortunate to have Pickering as our tour guide.” —Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me

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