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  Lunch in Paris - A Love Story...

  Elizabeth Bard

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  In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman-and never went home again.Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak's pink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? Lunch in Paris is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs-one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothes pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé), and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese: there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart.Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare, and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success, and discovering what it truly means to be at home. In the delicious tradition of memoirs like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, this book is the perfect treat for anyone who has dreamed that lunch in Paris could change their life.

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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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  Ask a Native New Yorker -...

  Jake Dobkin

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  Ask a Native New Yorker is Jake Dobkin's essential guide to the Big Apple's culture, people, and lifestyles.As a third-generation New Yorker who was born, bred, and educated there, Jake Dobkin was such a fan of his hometown that he started Gothamist, a popular and acclaimed website with a focus on news, events, and culture in the city, and Ask a Native New Yorker became one of its most popular columns. This book version features all original writing and aims to help newbies evolve into real New Yorkers with humor and a command of the facts.In forty-eight short essays and eleven sidebars, the book offers practical information about transportation, apartment hunting, and even cultivating relationships for anyone fresh to the Big Apple. Subjects include "Why is New York the greatest city in the world?," "Where should I live?," "Where do you find peace and quiet when you feel overwhelmed?," and "Who do I have to give up my subway seat to?"Part philosophy, part anecdote collection, and part no-nonsense guide, Ask a Native New Yorker will become the default gift for transplants to New York, whether they're here for internships, college, or starting a new job.

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  Tuscany - A History

  Alistair Moffat

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  “Some of the most fascinating, intriguing and, yes, brutal episodes of the region’s past written in the fast-paced, involving style of an adventure novel” (Italy Magazine, “Book of the Week”).   With the perfect fusion of history, art, architecture, superb natural beauty, and weather—not to mention magnificent traditions of food and drink—Tuscany has cast its spell over visitors for centuries. What is it that makes this exquisite part of Italy so seductive?   To answer this question, Alistair Moffat embarks on a journey into Tuscany’s past. From the flowering of the Etruscan civilization in the seventh century BC through the rise of the powerful medieval communes of Arezzo, Lucca, Pisa, and Florence and the birth of the Renaissance, he underlines both the area’s regional uniqueness and the vital role it has played in the history of the whole of Italy. Insightful, readable, and imbued with the author’s own enthusiasm for Tuscany, this book includes a wealth of information not found in tourist guides. As the Herald raves, “If you travel to the region, you’ll want to take with you Moffat’s Tuscany: A History; and if you read the book, you’ll want to travel to the region.”   “Compelling . . . Moffat takes the reader on a delicious trip through the geography, history and culture of the region—an impressive book.” —The Sunday Telegraph   “Facts and figures are woven into a sun-drenched meditation on the character of the place and its people.” —The Scotsman

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  Lodge - An Indoorsy Tour of...

  Max Humphrey, Kathryn O’Shea-Evans

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  Max Humphrey shines a light on 10 rustic National Park lodges in all their airy, timeworn splendor. No historic photos here; the images of the architecture and interiors are as they look today, highlighting these storied places in a fresh, alluring way. A smattering of pop culture history adds extra bursts of levity throughout.

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  A Month by the Sea - Encounters...

  Dervla Murphy

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  Over the summer of 2011, Dervla Murphy spent a month in the Gaza Strip. She met liberals and Islamists, Hamas and Fatah supporters, rich and poor. Through reported conversations she creates a vivid picture of life in this coastal fragment of self-governing Palestine. Bombed and cut-off from normal contact with the rest of the world, life in Gaza is beset with structural, medical and mental health problems, yet it is also bursting with political engagement and underwritten by an intense enjoyment of family life. During her month by the sea, Dervla develops an acute eye for the way in which isolation has shaped this society. Time and again she meets men who have returned to the Strip as an act of presence. Yet the mosque is often their only daily activity, as difficulties obtaining supplies mean few opportunities for creative work. This acts as a recruiting sergeant for the Islamist Qassam brigades and a pressure cooker for the creation of domestic tyrants. In this situation, Dervla becomes a shameless supporter of women's rights -acting as agony aunt and feminist mentor by turn. The ironies of Western and Israeli attitudes to the Strip are ever present: most notably the championing of democracy yet the refusal to recognize the legitimacy of Hamas; and the way in which violent attempts to eradicate terrorism breathe life into the very monster they aspire to destroy. Even so, there is a still, small note of hope. For underlying the book is Dervla's determination to try to understand how Arab Palestinians and Israeli Jews might forge a solution and ultimately live in peace.

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