Other books that might interest you

• 

  111 Places in New Orleans that...

  Michael Murphy, Sally Asher

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Birthplace of Jazz, home to the world famous Mardi Gras, champion of voo-doo and vampires, purveyors of its own distinctive Creole and Cajun cuisines, New Orleans, once owned by France, then Spain, then France again, has a rich history that blends the unconventional with the orthodox to create a cultural collision unlike that found in ny other city. This insiders' guide to New Orleans is shaped by portraits of the less obvious, hidden treasures rarely seen by the 10 million tourists who visit "The Big Easy” each year. From architecture that housed early jazz musicians and powerful madams; to bars that offer shot-and-a-haircut specials; to emblematic local eateries like Hansen's Sno Bliz and Killer Po'boys; to the best places to buy a chartreuse-colored beehive wig, Civil War cavalry saber, or some swamp-grass gris gris, 111 Places in New Orleans will ensure that you experience the musical, spiritual, historical, edible, and quite often sinful side of America's Most Interesting City. As noted musician and NOLA native Allen Toussaint once said, "To get to New Orleans, you don't pass through anywhere else.”

  Show book

• 

  The Ascent of Denali

  Hudson Stuck

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Ascent of Denali (1918) by Hudson Stuck recounts the 1913 expedition that first conquered Mt. McKinley. Stuck recruited Harry Karstens, a respected guide, to join his expedition. Other members were Walter Harper and Robert G. Tatum, both 21, and two student volunteers from the mission school, John Fredson, and Esaias George. Fredson, then 14, acted as their base camp manager, hunting caribou and Dall sheep to keep them supplied with food.  "The tent-pole was used for a moment as a flagstaff while Tatum hoisted a little United States flag he had patiently and skillfully constructed in our camps below out of two silk handkerchiefs and the cover of a sewing-bag. The pole was put to its permanent use. It had already been carved with a suitable inscription, and now a transverse piece, already prepared and fitted, was lashed securely to it and it was planted on one of the little snow turrets of the summit—the sign of our redemption, high above North America."

  Show book

• 

  Whatever You Do Don't Run - True...

  Peter Allison

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Whatever You Do, Don't Run is a hilarious collection of true tales from top -safari guide Peter Allison. In a place where the wrong behavior could get you eaten, Allison has survived face-to-face encounters with big cats, angry -elephants, and the world's most unpredictable animals-herds of untamed tourists and foolhardy guides whose outrageous antics sometimes make them even more dangerous than a pride of hungry lions!Join Allison as he faces down charging lions-twice; searches for a drunk, half-naked tourist who happens to be a member of the British royal family; drives a Land Rover full of tourists into a lagoon full of hippos; and adopts the most -vicious animal in Africa as his "pet." Full of lively humor and a genuine love and respect for Botswana and its rich wildlife, Whatever You Do, Don't Run takes you to where the wild things are and introduces you to a place where every day is a new adventure!

  Show book

• 

  The Count of Monte Cristo

  Alexandre Dumas

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas completed in 1844. It is one of the author's more popular works, along with The Three Musketeers.The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815–1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. It begins on the day that Napoleon left his first island of exile, Elba, beginning the Hundred Days period when Napoleon returned to power. The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an adventure story centrally concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness. It centers on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune, and sets about exacting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment.Before he can marry his fiancée Mercédès, Edmond Dantès, a nineteen-year-old Frenchman, and first mate of the Pharaon, is falsely accused of treason, arrested, and imprisoned without trial in the Château d'If, a grim island fortress off Marseille. A fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, correctly deduces that his jealous rival Fernand Mondego, envious crewmate Danglars, and double-dealing magistrate De Villefort turned him in. Faria inspires his escape and guides him to a fortune in treasure. As the powerful and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo (Italy), Dantès arrives from the Orient to enter the fashionable Parisian world of the 1830s and avenge himself on the men who conspired to destroy him.The book is considered a literary classic today. According to Lucy Sante, "The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature, as inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood

  Show book

• 

  American Notes

  Charles Dickens

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In 1842, Charles Dickens visited America. His reception was somewhat colder than that which usually greeted him – already a successful author in both Britain and the U.S. This lack of enthusiasm from the Americans was partly due to his criticism of the pirating of English books in that country and partly due to his outspoken distaste for the custom of slavery in the southern states.  
  He wrote in the preface to American Notes, "Prejudiced I am not, and never have been, otherwise than in favour of the United States. I have many friends in America. I feel a grateful interest in the country. I hope and believe it will successfully work out a problem of the highest importance in the whole human race. To represent me as viewing America with ill nature, coldness or animosity is merely to do a very foolish thing, which is always a very easy one!"  
  Despite this placatory tone, one American reviewer spoke thus of American Notes: "The most trashy... the most contemptible... the essence of balderdash, reduced to the last drop of silliness and inanity."  
  Listen to the journals and judge for yourself.

  Show book

• 

  The Living Goddess - A journey...

  Isabella Tree

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In a small medieval palace on Kathmandu's Durbar Square lives Nepal's famous Living Goddess -a child as young as three who is chosen from a caste of Buddhist goldsmiths to watch over the country and protect its people. To Nepalis she is the embodiment of Devi (the universal goddess) and for centuries their Hindu kings have sought her blessing to legitimize their rule. Legends swirl about her, for the facts are shrouded in secrecy and closely guarded by dynasties of priests and caretakers. How come a Buddhist girl is worshipped by autocratic Hindu rulers? Are the initiation rituals as macabre as they are rumoured to be? And what fate awaits the Living Goddesses when they attain puberty and are dismissed from their role? Weaving together myth, religious belief, modern history and court gossip, Isabella Tree takes us on a compelling and fascinating journey to the esoteric, hidden heart of Nepal. Through her unprecedented access to the many layers of Nepalese society, she is able to put the country's troubled modern history in the context of the complex spiritual beliefs and practices that inform the role of the little girl at its centre. Deeply felt, emotionally engaged and written after over a decade of travel and research, The Living Goddess is a compassionate and illuminating enquiry into this reclusive Himalayan country -a revelation.

  Show book