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  Rising Ground - A Search for the...

  Philip Marsden

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  The travel writer and Cornwall native explores his home on a journey by foot to Land’s End in this “fascinating and hauntingly evocative” memoir (Literary Review).  A Guardian, Financial Times, Observer, and Scotsman Book of the Year   In 2010, Philip Marsden moved with his family to a rundown farmhouse in Cornwall, England. From the moment he arrived, Marsden was fascinated by the landscape and the traces of human history all around him. Wanting to experience the place more fully, he set out to walk across Cornwall, to the evocatively named Land’s End.  Rising Ground is a record of that journey, but it is also so much more: a beautifully written meditation on place, nature, and human life that encompasses history, archaeology, geography, and the love of place that suffuses us when we finally find home. Firmly in a storied tradition of English nature writing that stretches from Gilbert White to Helen MacDonald, Rising Ground reveals the ways that places and peoples have interacted over time, from standing stones to footpaths, ancient habitations to modern highways. What does it mean to truly live in a place, and what does it take to understand, and honor, those who lived and died there long before we arrived?  "A fascinating study of place and its meaning."—Observer, UK

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  Legendary Locals of El Paso

  A. Berchelmann III

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  From a small settlement along the Rio Grande to a major metropolitan area at the crossroads of three states and two nations, El Paso has grown immensely. Known as the "Sun City," the region has always attracted individuals and families from around the world who were looking to establish roots and make their mark. In the early days, pioneers such as Zach White, Anson Mills, and Joseph Magoffin helped lay a solid foundation on which the city was built. Gunfighters like John Wesley Hardin walked the streets of El Paso, while lawmen like Dallas Stoudenmire did their best to keep them off. Lining the streets of El Paso were, and still are, beautiful edifices designed by famed architect Henry Trost. El Paso's unique location, history, and culture have helped inspire many artists, writers, and musicians, such as Jim Ward, Cormac McCarthy, and Tom Lea. Take a moment and learn about some of El Paso's legendary locals.

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  From Exploitation to Friendship:...

  Doug Thompson, Robin Kobaly,...

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  As Robin Kobaly explains, "When we come back from wilderness, that's when we seem to bring our best inspirations to help humankind, and our own selves, too. If we don't have that wilderness to go to, that refuge and that wellspring, we will not be as good a people, a society, or a race."

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  The Greedy Bastard Diary -...

  Eric Idle

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  From the beloved Python and New York Times-bestselling author, an “insightful and enjoyable” memoir/travelogue from his money-grubbing tour (The AV Club). 
   
  A stunningly witty exploration of the American landscape—not to mention a brilliant comic’s mind—this diary is chock-full of everything you ever wanted to know about Eric Idle, Monty Python, the United States, and sleeping on a bus. In these pages, the sixth-nicest Python is cheeky, touching, and funny as he travels the highways and byways and takes us backstage at the Broadway smash Spamalot. 
   
  Fascinating, moving, at times even amusing, this book may dramatically improve your sex life, make you feel intelligent and charming within the first several pages, and after a few chapters, permanently eliminate all your personal or health problems. So come experience eighty days, 15,750 miles, and forty-nine cities as you never have before! 
   
  “Taking readers from Vermont to Vegas as he attempts standup for the first time, and writing with wit and honesty, Idle mixes memoir and tales from his tour bus [and] offers a Pythonesque pastiche of goofy observations as he analyzes audiences, dissects his nightly performances and recalls showbiz friendships.” —Publishers Weekly 
   
  “Idle is warm and witty . . . reminiscing about the Pythons’ glory days, meditating on the aesthetics of comedy (his philosophy of comedy is fascinating and elaborate), and recounting many odd happenings on the road.” —Booklist 
   
  “Talking about the Pythons’ casual cruelty to each other, or the difficulty of living up to a decades-old reputation, Idle is hilarious . . . his diary touches on topics as diverse as his first meeting with his wife, his long friendship with George Harrison, and his mother’s death, and his stories are both revealing and touching.” —The AV Club

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  Death-bed

  Thomas Hood

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  Thomas Hood  was an English poet, author, and humourist, best known for poems such as The Bridge of Sighs and The Song of the Shirt. Hood wrote regularly for The London Magazine, the Athenaeum, and Punch. He later published a magazine largely consisting of his own works. Hood, never robust, lapsed into invalidism by the age of 41 and died at the age of 45. William Michael Rossetti in 1903 called him "the finest English poet" between the generations of Shelley and Tennyson. - Summary by Wikipedia

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  Peaks and Lamas

  Marco Pallis

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  Peaks and Lamas is one of the classic early 20th-century accounts of travelling in the Himalayas on the borders of Tibet. It is, in its way, on a par with the more famous Mystery and Imagination in Tibet by Alexandra David-Néel (also available on Dharma Audiobooks). 
   
  It describes two journeys in the 1930s, one physically active and one more of spiritual investigation. It starts as the title suggests, as a mountaineering adventure, when a group of English climbers set out to climb unconquered peaks in the Himalayas. Marco Pallis (1895-1989), of Greek and English parentage and schooled at Harrow, was wounded at Cambrai in 1918 but took up climbing on his return. 
   
  His first expedition was in 1933 with the goal of climbing the peaks, and it dominates his account of the journey. But he became increasingly intrigued by Tibetans, the Tibetan way of life and Tibetan Buddhism. Like David-Néel, this became much more than a traveller’s interest, and in 1936 he returned with one companion, his close friend Richard Nicholson. They went first to Sikkim, (a strongly ‘Tibetan’ country though with political affiliations to India), where he met the abbot of Lachhen and learned directly the very specific ‘Vajrayana’ version of Buddhism. 
   
  Having started learning Tibetan in England, Pallis became increasingly fluent in the language, both spoken and written. Unable to obtain permission to go to Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, Pallis travelled to Ladakh instead - politically part of India but very much (as now) a Tibetan country. There he adopted the chuba, the Tibetan dress. While never losing his European identity, Pallis felt at one with Tibetan culture and religion, and his account of his time in Ladakh is one of clarity and pervasive warmth. 
   
  No uncritical idealist, he was acutely aware that lamas can vary from the saintly to highly secular. He cast a discriminating eye on the traditions of Tibetan art, in their thangkas and rupas; he noted the poverty of the people, but also their kindness. This extended noticeably towards animals, he reported, though he also acknowledged the violence that existed, as demonstrated by the necessity to have fearsome chained mastiffs to guard households. In Peaks and Lamas, he devoted chapters to explaining Vajrayana Buddhism, and though it is now one of the most prevalent forms in the West, his summary generally still holds up and even offers insights. Above all, his generous and warm personality shines through this account. And endearing details emerge. 
   
  As a former student of early music in England under the famed Professor Arnold Dolmetsch, Pallis often travelled with his viols and (on his first mountaineering journey) played viol consorts with his companions to villagers high in the Himalayas. The audiobook ends with a warning of the deleterious effect of Western culture on traditional art and values and an idealistic polemic on education. But Peaks and Lamas is a most engaging account and undeniably a classic of its kind.

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