Great new book recommendations for our World Travelers this Fall
Join us as we discover captivating stories, savor mouthwatering flavors, and indulge in cinematic journeys that transport us beyond borders. Open a book and let the World Traveler within you soar to new heights of imagination and understanding.
December new releases
The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder
by Douglas Preston - David Grann
What's it like to be the first to enter an Egyptian burial chamber that's been sealed for thousands of years? Where might a blocked doorway or newly excavated corridor lead? And what might this stupendous tomb reveal about the most powerful pharaoh in Egyptian history?
From the jungles of Honduras to macabre archaeological sites in the American Southwest, Douglas Preston's journalistic explorations have taken him across the globe. He broke the story of an extraordinary mass grave of animals killed by the asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, he explored what lay hidden in the booby-trapped Money Pit on Oak Island, and he roamed the haunted hills of Italy in search of the Monster of Florence. When he hasn't been co-authoring bestselling thrillers featuring FBI Agent Pendergast, Preston has been writing about some of the world's strangest and most dramatic mysteries.
The Lost Tomb brings together an astonishing and compelling collection of true stories about buried treasure, enigmatic murders, lost tombs, bizarre crimes, and other fascinating tales of the past and present.
Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival
by Omid Scobie
Endgame, the explosive book from longtime royal journalist Omid Scobie and author of the international blockbuster Finding Freedom, is a penetrating investigation into the current state of the British monarchy--an unpopular king, a power-hungry heir to the throne, a queen willing to go to dangerous lengths to preserve her image, and a prince forced to start a new life after being betrayed by his own family.
Queen Elizabeth II's death ruptured the already-fractured foundations of the House of Windsor--and dismantled the protective shield around it. With an institution long plagued by antiquated ideas around race, class and money, the monarchy and those who prop it up are now exposed and at odds with a rapidly modernizing world. Relying on his vast experience as a royal reporter and over a decade of conversations and interviews with current and former Palace staff, trusted friends of the royals and even the family members themselves, Scobie pulls back the curtain on an institution in turmoil to show what the monarchy must change in order to survive.
This is the monarchy's endgame. Do they have what it takes to save it?
What Really Happens in Vegas: True Stories of the People Who Make Vegas, Vegas
by James Patterson - Mark Seal
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas--until now. James Patterson shows the real Vegas in a dazzling journey through "lively tales of those who labor and dream in Sin City" (Kirkus).
In What Really Happens in Vegas, full of surprises for both newcomers and Las Vegas regulars, James Patterson and Vanity Fair contributing editor Mark Seal transport readers from the thrill of adrenaline-fueled vice to the glitter of A-list celebrity and entertainment.
Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel
by Shahnaz Habib
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals of Excellence
This witty personal and cultural history of travel from the perspective of a Third World-raised woman of color, Airplane Mode, asks: what does it mean to be a joyous traveler when we live in the ruins of colonialism, capitalism and climate change?
The conditions of travel have long been dictated by the color of passports and the color of skin.
The color of one's skin and passport have long dictated the conditions of travel. For Shahnaz Habib, travel and travel writing have always been complicated pleasures. Habib threads the history of travel with her personal story as a child on family vacations in India, an adult curious about the world, and an immigrant for whom roundtrips are an annual fact of life. Tracing the power dynamics that underlie tourism, this insightful debut parses who gets to travel, and who gets to write about the experience.
November NEW RELEASES
How to Build a Boat
by Elaine Feeney
Jamie O'Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of certain objects, books with dust jackets, rivers, cats, and Edgar Allan Poe. At age thirteen, there are two things he wants most in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother, Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind, these things are intimately linked, and at his new school, despite the daily barrage of bullies and cathedral bells, he meets two teachers who might be able to help him, though each struggles against inertias of their own.
The Core of an Onion: Peeling the Rarest Common Food--Featuring More Than 100 Historical Recipes
by Mark Kurlansky
As Julia Child once said, "It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions."
Historically, she's been right-and not just in the kitchen. Flourishing in just about every climate and culture around the world, onions have provided the essential basis not only for sautés, stews, and sauces, but for medicines, metaphors, and folklore. Now they're Kurlansky's most flavorful infatuation yet as he sets out to explore how and why the crop reigns from Italy to India and everywhere in between.
October NEW RELEASES
Roman Stories
by Jhumpa Lahiri - Jhumpa Lahiri - Todd Portnowitz
The first short story collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and master of the form since her number one New York Times best seller Unaccustomed Earth - Rome--metropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multi-faceted and metaphysical--is the protagonist, not the setting, of these nine stories
These are splendid, searching stories, written in Jhumpa Lahiri's adopted language of Italian and seamlessly translated by the author and by Knopf editor Todd Portnowitz. Stories steeped in the moods of Italian master Alberto Moravia and guided, in the concluding tale, by the ineluctable ghost of Dante Alighieri, whose words lead the protagonist toward a new way of life.
Wanderlust: Extraordinary People, Quirky Places, and Curious Cuisine
by Karen Gershowitz
Karen Gershowitz is officially a travel addict--one with more than ninety countries under her belt. In these engaging stories, she brings readers along as her companions as she explores, laughs, and marvels at the richness of other cultures. Whether she's picking through the worst meal ever in the wilds of Tanzania, eating a transcendent strudel in Vienna, meeting the locals in an isolated opal mining hamlet in Australia's outback, or learning to make noodles in a Chinese village, she invites you to share in her experiences.
Whatever kind of traveler you are, novice or experienced, or even if you prefer sitting in your armchair, these stories will transport you deep into other ways of living in the world--and, hopefully, inspire you to set out on your own journeys!
Wilderness: The Most Sensational Natural Places on Earth
by Penny Watson
Wilderness is a fresh and inviting coffee table book featuring 40 of the most sensational wilderness destinations on planet Earth, both the far-reaching and those that exist within reach of human populations. It will be a source of travel inspiration, and a reminder to protect what is still ours. The word 'wilderness' itself conjures images constantly looping on our social media feeds: towering forests, sparkling streams, the sun's shadow falling across a desert dune, polar bear cubs walking across a tundra. The fact that our popular culture constantly draws us to these elusive destinations says much about their place in our psyche. In times of inner turmoil or outer chaos they are escape rooms. When we want adventure, they are freedom calls to strap on the walking shoes or backpack.
When we seek quietude, inner peace or renewal, they ignite a dormant instinct. A yearning to be among nature. Our increasing urban lives have made this call to the wild louder and stronger. And as the population emerges from a modern-age global catastrophe, a new reality dawns: a truth-telling that says the planet's greatest commodity is not its iron ore or petroleum. It's our wilderness that needs to be protected, the pockets of the planet where, by definition, we humans have been mostly absent.