Otros libros que te pueden interesar

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  The Hadj - An American's...

  Michael Wolfe

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  With this impassioned memoir, an American convert to Islam “lifts the veil on this ancient and sacred duty” of making a pilgrimage to Mecca (Publishers Weekly).   The hadj, or sacred journey, is the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are enjoined to make once in their lifetimes. One of the world’s oldest religious rites, the hadj has continued without break for fourteen centuries. It is, like most things Islamic, shrouded in mystery for Westerners. Here, Michael Wolfe, an American-born writer and recent Muslim convert, recounts his experiences on this journey.   Wolfe begins his narrative in Marrakech, Morocco. Beginning with the month-long fast of Ramadan, he immerses himself in the traditional Muslim life of Morocco. Then, in Tangier, he visits mystics and the American author Paul Bowles. From there, he journeys to Mecca, the sacred desert city in Saudi Arabia closed to all but Muslims.   Though the buildup to the Gulf War hovers in the background, the age-old rites of the hadj are what most preoccupy Wolfe. His experience profoundly strengthens his bond to the faith he has embraced as an outsider, making it personal and alive. At a time when the eyes of the world are on Islam, The Hadj offers a much-needed look at its human face.

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  The Journey of Alvar Núñez...

  Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

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  Few stories of shipwreck and survival can equal that of the 16th century Spaniard Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca who, cast ashore near present day (USA) Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1528, survived eight years of hand-to-mouth existence among the Indians of the South and Southwest, and who walked on foot across the plains to the Pacific Coast, arriving in Mexico in 1536. In 1542 he published an account of his adventures, and the present reading is based on Fanny Bandelier’s English translation of that text.Cabeza de Vaca, along with three other survivors, two Spaniards and a North African (Estévanico, a black slave) endured incredible hardships. Cabeza da Vaca was, himself, at first enslaved by the Indians, forced to dig roots with his bare hands for food. However, he soon showed powers of adaptation that allowed him to survive. He became a trader, bartering “seashells and cockles” from the coast for hides, red ochre, flint, and deer hair tassels from the inland tribes. “Trade suited me well,” he writes, “because it gave me liberty to go where I pleased.” The Indians “rejoiced greatly when seeing me and I would bring them what they needed, and those who did not know me would desire and endeavor to meet me for sake of my fame.” Cabeza de Vaca’s “fame” soon grew to include a reputation as a healer. In return for his “cures,” the Indians gave him “all that they had,” which included food, often in perilously short supply.The success of the survivors’ final overland treck in search of Spanish settlement reflected their comprehension of Indian customs and values. They were passed along from one tribe to another, accompanied by an ontourage of friendly natives. At each stop, Cabeza de Vaca saw to it that the food and presents he received were distributed to his followers by their chiefs, thus ensuring their loyalty.After eight years among the Indians, Cabeza de Vaca had a hard time adjusting to “civilization.” He writes that the Spanish governor in Mexico “received us very well, giving us what he had, for us to dress in; but for many days I could bear no clothing, nor could we sleep except on the bare floor.” His first person narrative is an exciting tale of survival “against the odds.”(Introduction by Sue Anderson)

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  Specimen Days

  Walt Whitman

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  Specimen Days is essentially the great American poet Walt Whitman's scrap book. It documents most of his life's adventures, espeically his experience serving as a nurse during the Civil War and travelling around America.

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  Magnetic North - Sea Voyage to...

  Jenna Butler

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  “Windburned, eyes closed, this: beneath the keening of bergs, a deeper thresh of glaciers calving, creaking with sun. Sound of earth, her bones, wide russet bowl of hips splaying open. From these sere flanks, her desiccating body, what a sea change is born.” 
  		 
  From the endangered Canadian boreal forest to the environmentally threatened Svalbard archipelago off the coast of Norway, Jenna Butler takes us on a sea voyage that connects continents and traces the impacts of climate change on northern lands. With a conservationist, female gaze, she questions explorer narratives and the mythic draw of the polar North. As a woman who cannot have children, she writes out the internal friction of travelling in Svalbard during the fertile height of the Arctic summer. Blending travelogue and poetic meditation on place, Jenna Butler draws readers to the beauty and power of threatened landscapes, asking why some stories in recorded history are privileged while others speak only from beneath the surface.

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  The Passenger: Brazil

  Passenger The

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  An in-depth look at Brazilian culture in the series that collects the best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from around the world. 
   
  In the second half of the twentieth century Brazil made extraordinary contributions to music, sport, architecture. From bossa nova to acrobatic soccer to the daring architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa, the country seemed to embody a new, original vision of modernity, at once fluid, agile, and complex. 
   
  Seen from abroad, the victory of the far right in the 2018 elections was a rude awakening that suddenly turned the Brazilian dream into a nightmare. For locals, however, illusions had started fading long ago, amid paralyzing corruption, environmental degradation, racial discrimination, and escalating violence. Luckily Brazilians have not lost their desire to fight, minorities are still determined to assert their rights, and, now that the glorious past is dead and buried, a desire to rebuild for the future is emerging. Today the challenge of telling the story of this extraordinary country consists in finding its enduring vitality amid the apparent melancholy. 
   
  “The Passenger readers will find none of the typical travel guide sections on where to eat or what sights to see. Consider the books, rather, more like a literary vacation.” —Publishers Weekly 
   
  “Much more than a travel guide, The Passenger is indispensable for any reader who is curious about the world.” —Il Venerdì 
   
  In this volume: Order and Progress? by Jon Lee Anderson  Funk, Pride and Prejudice by Alberto Riva  On the River, I Was King by Eliane Brum  Also: the road that dissects the Amazon; the TV tycoon who shaped Brazilian history; the neo-Pentecostal community that is winning the hearts (and wallets) of Brazilians; politicized samba dancers, idealist gangsters, and much more . . .

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  Get Lost - Seven Principles for...

  Erin Leider-Pariser

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  For nearly thirty years, Erin Leider-Pariser has designed women's adventure journeys that empower them to push their physical boundaries, bond through ancient rituals, and learn more about themselves than they ever imagined. Get Lost blends the wisdom and personal insights gleaned from these hiking, biking, and climbing trips through some of the world's most breathtaking landscapes with once-in-a-lifetime tales of dramas in the wild. For Leider-Pariser and her travelers, life is never the same after surviving a flash flood on a remote Columbian trail, getting lost in a Cambodian jungle, receiving shamanic healings in Ecuador, beholding the world from a Himalayan peak, and bonding with friends old and new through an ancient talking stick ceremony around the campfire. Through stories and anecdotes, the listener will witness how women's travel is soulful, flipped-out, hysterical fun—an absolute necessity for travel and everyday life.This inspiring volume includes Leider-Pariser's Seven Principles for Trekking Life with Grace, a set of golden rules for navigating toward your best self. Complete with advice for forming your own group travel adventures on any budget, this energizing and at times hilarious book invites women to ignite their adventurous spirit, whether through travels near or far or taking bold new steps toward their dreams.

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