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Nights in Katmandu, by Pico Iyer
An
eye opening account of the "new" Far East, where western
culture continues to make inroads. Iyer's sharp eye for painting
pictures of seemingly "distant" places shines as usual.
Cuba and The Night, by Pico Iyer
This
is a truly remarkable book for the person who enjoys traveling to
"distant" cultures, moving beyond the beaches and museums.
Mr. Iyer was a foreign correspondent for Time and is a travel book
writer. This is his first novel.
Cuba,
for most Americans, is a country we know much about politically:
the Spanish-American War, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis,
etc. We know little of it's people, largely due to the isolation
Castro and our own government have imposed on the Cuban way of life.
Cuba
and The Night is about love and mistrust between an American photojournalist
and a young Cuban woman. The book is fictional. The characters and
their environment are so vividly described that Cuba becomes a place
we seem to have visited regularly in dreams.
My
Old Man and The Sea, by David Hays & Daniel Hays
Many
adventure travel authors plan dangerous trips because they know
their brushes with death will sell books. The authors of this book,
a New York Times best seller, seem to have thought of the book as
an afterthought to their trip. It is an account of a father and
son who sail 17,000 miles around Cape Horn in a 25 foot boat. The
pair are adventurers whose goals are tackled with a lack of showmanship
that belies our ideas about fantastical explorers.
Maiden
Voyage, by Tanya Aebi
At
18, Ms. Aebi's father offered her a challenge: he would pay for
a college education or a 26 foot sail boat. The catch with the latter
was she must circumnavigate the planet by herself.
Even seasoned travelers have but a vague idea of the wanderers that
move by sea and ocean. Her feat is remarkable, but so too is the
understanding she imparts about the cruising culture. A cruising
life is not just for the rich anymore.
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