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  Venice - Pure City

  Peter Ackroyd

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  The Venetians' language and way of thinking set them aside from the rest of Italy. They are an island people, linked to the sea and to the tides rather than the land. This latest work from the incomparable Peter Ackroyd, like a magic gondola, transports its listeners to that sensual and surprising city.His account embraces facts and romance, conjuring up the atmosphere of the canals, bridges, and sunlit squares, the churches and the markets, the festivals and the flowers. He leads us through the history of the city, from the first refugees arriving in the mists of the lagoon in the fourth century to the rise of a great mercantile state and its trading empire, the wars against Napoleon, and the tourist invasions of today. Everything is here: the merchants on the Rialto and the Jews in the ghetto; the glassblowers of Murano; the carnival masks and the sad colonies of lepers; the artists-Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Tiepolo; and the ever-present undertone of Venice's shadowy corners and dead ends, of prisons and punishment, wars and sieges, scandals and seductions.Ackroyd's Venice: Pure City is a study of Venice much in the vein of his lauded London: The Biography. Like London, Venice is a fluid, writerly exploration organized around a number of themes. History and context are provided in each chapter, but Ackroyd's portrait of Venice is a particularly novelistic one, both beautiful and rapturous. We could have no better guide-enjoying Venice: Pure City is, in itself, a glorious journey to the ultimate city.

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  Bay Curious - Exploring the...

  Olivia Allen-Price

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  Curious about the San Francisco Bay Area? With explorations into unique local legends, interesting landmarks, and uncovered histories, Bay Curious is a fun, quirky guide to the secret stories of the Bay Area for visitors, newcomers, and California natives alike.Who was America's first and only Emperor? Why are there ships buried under the streets of San Francisco? Was the word "hella" really created in the East Bay? Bay Curious brings you the answers to these questions and much more through fun and fascinating deep-dives into hidden gems of Bay Area trivia, history, and culture.Based on the award-winning KQED podcast of the same name, Bay Curious brings a fresh eye to some of its most popular pieces and expands to cover stories unique to this book. With subjects ranging from Marin's redwood forests to the Winchester Mystery House, from the Black Panther Party's school program to the invention of the Mai Tai, Bay Curious gives you the entertaining and informative, weird and wonderful true stories of the San Francisco Bay Area.

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  Cycle London - 22 routes to help...

  Dominic Bliss

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  A collection of 20 rides featuring all of London's must-visit attractions. 'London is one of the world's most celebrated cities, and there's no better way to see some of the best the city has to offer than by bike. Cycle London has 20 unique routes designed to help you make the most out of this iconic city. Each ride is built around a theme, whether it's the best art galleries to see some incredible works, great markets to treat yourself to some eclectic purchases, routes that include some of the tastiest food, or rides covering many of the city's most famous and picturesque parks. There's even a ride that will take someone who only has 12 hours in the city to all the iconic attractions you will have seen in films and books. Every ride comes with a map to help you get your bearings, as well as links to detailed maps that can be downloaded to smartphones to make sure you know exactly where you're going when on the move. The routes can be adapted to suit your requirements, so if you're a keen culture vulture who wants to take in a good sample of some of the best museums in a day you can, but if you just fancy visiting just two you can pick up the route wherever you fancy. There are shorter rides for those who want to spend more time seeing the sites from the inside than the outside, as well as longer rides that mean the majority of your day will be spent taking in the city from a two-wheeled perspective. Also included are interesting asides, insider tips from the locals, and stories designed to help you make the most of your visit, as well as practical advice on what to expect from cycling on London's famous streets.

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  The Land of Little Rain

  Mary Hunter Austin

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  The Land of Little Rain is a book of sketches which portray the high desert country of southern California, where the Sierras descend into the Mojave Desert. Mary Austin finds beauty in the harsh landscape: "This is the sense of the desert hills--that there is room enough and time enough. . . The treeless spaces uncramp the soul." Her story begins with the water trails that lead toward the few life giving springs--the way marked for men by ancient Indian pictographs. Life and death play out at these springs. Rabbits fall prey to the coyote; buzzards hang heavily in the sky above. She then writes of individuals who eke out their living in this land of scarce resources--an itinerant gold prospector, a sheepherder, a blind Indian basket maker. Austin's spare prose creates unforgettable vignettes: "Choose a hill country for storms. . . I remember one night of thunderous rain made unendurably mournful by the houseless cry of a cougar whose lair, and perhaps his family, had been buried under a slide of broken boulders . . ." Anyone who sees beauty in the Southwestern deserts, or who just enjoys good nature writing, will savor The Land of Little Rain. ( Summary by Sue Anderson )

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  Forgotten Kingdom - Nine Years...

  Peter Goullart

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  On the eve of Mao's revolution, brilliant linguist Peter Goullart made himself totally at home in Likiang, capital of the all-but-forgotten Nakhi Kingdom of south west China. He unpicks the complex society, which believed simultaneously in Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Animism and Shamanism. Goullart lets us in on the love affairs and rivalries of his neighbours, his meetings with ancient dowagers and handsome warriors, as well as allowing us to catch the sound of the swift mountain streams, the coarse ribaldry of the markets and the happy laughter of the wine shops.

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  The Fresh and the Salt - The...

  Ann Lingard

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  “Beautiful, intensely visual prose, born from deep intimacy with subtle borderlands: land and sea, England and Scotland, people and environments.” —David Gange, author of The Frayed Atlantic Edge 
   
  Firths and estuaries are liminal places, where land meets sea and tides meet freshwater. Their unique ecosystems support a huge range of marine and other wildlife: human activity too is profoundly influenced by their waters and shores. 
   
  The Solway Firth—the crooked finger of water that both unites and divides Scotland and England—is a beautiful yet unpredictable place and one of the least-industrialized natural large estuaries in Europe. Its history, geology and turbulent character have long affected the way its inhabitants, both human and non-human, have learnt to live along and within its ever-changing margins. 
   
  “Lingard’s scientific knowledge of the area and its multitudinous inhabitants [is] delivered in riveting prose. This is deep and beautiful natural history writing.” —BBC Countryfile Magazine 
   
   
   
  “Like a hungry gull, Ann Lingard explores her beloved Solway shoreline for every living detail that catches her eye. In so doing she has created a portrait of this nation-cleaving water that is as broad and deep as the estuary itself.” —Mark Cocker, author of Birds & People 
   
  “A kaleidoscopic portrait of the borders of the land.” —Cumbria Life 
   
  “Lingard writes vividly about this estuary . . . an excellent point of reference for locals, visitors and for those simply intrigued by this lesser-known corner of Scotland.” —Scottish Field

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