Review: All Good Things

This book chronicles the author's move from Paris to French Polynesia When her husband is transferred to Tahiti, the couple moved to the island of Mo'orea, a real-world tropical paradise. Much of the culture shock that Turnbull experiences is the sort that one might expect: life is more colorful, time is looser. Turnbull's descriptions are vivid, and I learned a great deal about French Polynesia. Many islands comprise the country, and Turnbull travels quite a bit, exploring the various island groups. I found myself looking at maps and researching the places she visited on the internet, to see photos of the places she described. Some of the Polynesian islands are exceedingly remote- essentially skinny coral rings surrounding large lagoons. The geography is fascinating, and throughout the book I thought quite a bit about what it must be like to live on a small island, out in the middle of the ocean, so far away from large land masses.

Turnbull's time in Polynesia is heavily shaped by her desire to have children and her difficulties conceiving. Even before her move the author had been undergoing fertility treatments. Living on a island blooming with life and color and approaching her fortieth birthday, the desire to conceive looms large.

Location is everything in this book. While it covers three different places (Paris, Polynesia, and Australia), the most interesting parts were most definitely those on the islands. By the time the family had moved to Australia, I found myself getting somewhat bored. The descriptions of Tahiti and the surrounding islands are delightful. That's the reason to read this book.

Sarah Turnbull, All Good Things: From Paris to Tahiti, Life and Longing (Gotham, 2013) ISBN: 1592408680 

Review: Pyongyang

This is an odd book. It brings together the graphic novel and North Korean austerity. Canadian animator Guy Delisle spent time in North Korea, which has apparently become the new favored source for cheap animation labor. In this book Delisle captures the absurdities of life in Pyongyang, more through pictures than through words. Only one floor of Delisle's massive hotel has electricity, there's bizarre and uninspired food, and minimal recreation activities. Delisle brings a copy of 1984 with him, and North Korea is certainly an Orwellian society.

I think I would have found this book more effective if I didn't really know anything about North Korea. There's nothing really surprising here. I enjoyed Delisle's drawings, but I felt like there was too much drawing and not enough narrative. I think I'd have preferred an art exhibit to a book. Ultimately the book lacks depth, and the illustrations don't make up for what the writing lacks.

Guy Delisle, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (Drawn and Quarterly, 2007) ISBN: 1897299214 

Review: Hidden Carolinas

Here we have a new edition of Catherine O'Neal's Hidden Carolinas, one of Ulysses Press' Hidden travel series. Moving from western Carolina east, and then south, this book covers both North and South Carolina. This is a comprehensive travel guide, in that it covers lodging, attractions, restaurants, shopping, driving routes: a bit of everything that might concern the traveler. That said, the book focuses heavily on attractions. Indeed, this is a guide that is unapologetic about uneven coverage. There is more on North Carolina than South Carolina, and far more on the western portion of NC than the eastern. Unsurprisingly, I found the section on western NC to be the strongest. The guide also has a clear focus on outdoor activities, in keeping, on assumes, with the 'hidden' theme. The 'hidden' theme means coverage of essentially, what one might expect- hidden gems and attractions that don't draw huge crowds. These listings are included with more popular attractions. Clearly, this is a smart move, as most people are not looking to buy multiple travel guides for a particular region. Thus, coverage in this guide is good, though it clearly weighted towards certain things. The one thing that might keep me from buying this guide is the fact that it's printed on newsprint-like paper, in black, white, and green. There are approximately fifteen pages of photos at the beginning of the book, but in travel books I prefer photos throughout, in the chapters that describe the places in question. Overall, this is a solid travel guide. I'm not sure that much distinguishes it from other guides, but it gets the job done.

This book was received through Mini Book Expo for Bloggers. Thanks to Ulysses Press.

Catherine O'Neal, Hidden Carolinas (Ulysses, 2008) ISBN: 1569756384

Review: After the Dance

Carnival is one of the defining events of the Haitian year, and nowhere is it celebrated with more verve than in the seaside town of Jacmel. The Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat never had the opportunity to attend carnival. Thus, as an adult, she returns to Haiti, to Jacmel, to experience what she missed in childhood. This book is an account of Danticat's trip back. This is a travel essay, but at the same time, it's so much more. After the dance is a travel narrative, a memoir, and a history, of Haiti and of the carnival. A beautifully-written homage to the carnival, the book spins out in multiple directions, telling stories, and full of descriptive imagery. This is quite a short book, and given all of the things the book tries to do, it doesn't do any of them completely. Instead, we get snatches and tidbits of histories and memories, and the book is a pleasure to read. Danticat uses Carnival and its activities as metaphors to discuss larger events and issues in her own and Haiti's past and present. This is a book one should read to get a taste of Haiti. It's not necessarily comprehensive, but it paints a brilliant picture.

Edwidge Danticat, After the Dance: A Walk through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti (Crown, 2002) ISBN: 0609609084

Review: The Lost Continent

Bill Bryson created a name for himself as a travel writer with Notes from a Small Island, his tale of road travel around England. In The Lost Continent Bryson does the same for the United States as he did for England. Notes from a Small Island: part humor, part travelogue, narrates Bryson's road trip across the United States and back again. Reminiscing about the automobile vacations of his youth, Bryson gets in his car and drives in search of small-town America. Bryson's trip lacks strict itinerary, and with frequent stops in small towns across the country, it is certainly a meandering trip. The narrative is written in classic Bryson style, with frequent diversions to explain the origin of many of life's oddities, and with constant sideline commentary. As is usually the case with Bryson, the narrative is illuminating, amusing, and shows Bryson's sense of adventure. It was a pleasure to read. Yes, Bryson is frequently critical, but it's important to note that he's an equal-opportunity offender. Wherever he goes he brings his decidedly sarcastic wit, but he also balances criticism with admiration. This is not a book with a weighty message about humanity or morality, but it is a fun read to pick up and put down at leisure. The ability to dive in and out is one of the beautiful things about this book; one can enjoy it and put it aside at will, and it takes little time to become reengaged in Bryson's prose.

Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (Harper Perennial, 1990) ISBN: 0060920084

Review: Wife in the North

I was lucky enough to get this book from Librarything's early reviewer program, and I'm thrilled I did. This book is journalist Judith O'Reilly's account of her family's move from London to the Northumberland countryside. A devoted city girl, O'Reilly is married to a Northumberland man who dreams of going back, so she decided to grant his wish; she agreed to move north for two years. But for O'Reilly life in the north is hardly a dream. She misses her London life, lacks close friends in her new home, and finds that everything, from her neighbors's dress to local pastimes is a world apart from what she knew in London. Culture-shocked, O'Reilly begins writing a blog about her experiences. Those blog entries comprise this book. I'd never read a book comprised of blog entries, but I found that the format worked surprisingly well. Blog entries give the reader a sense that he or she is jumping into the middle of someone else's life, much more so than just about any other format could. And the reader does get a sense of the ins and outs of O'Reilly's life. We read about her relationship with her husband, her son's troubles at school, and O'Reilly's deepest fears about being a good parent. Lest this sound like too much of a downer, I assure you it is not. O'Reilly is humorous, and she's willing to bare her soul on her blog in a pleasantly self-deprecating fashion. Her story is interesting, and I couldn't wait to get to the end to see what they would decide to do at the end of two years (she won't tell you until the epilogue!) Ultimately, this book combines some of the best features of the memoir and the travel narrative, as O'Reilly clearly approaches Northumberland as an outsider, and it's interesting to see how she interprets her experience through the lens of place. The book offers an intimate picture of a family and a marriage, and shows the ways in which people define home. When I got to the epilogue the final decision was what I had anticipated, and it's interesting that O'Reilly's words illustrate the direction the family is headed, even if she could not see so at the time she was writing the blog. Overall, a very enjoyable read.

Judith O'Reilly, Wife in the North, (Public Affairs, 2008) ISBN: 158648639X

There is such a thing as too much travel...

Apparently there is such a thing as too much travel. I have been on the road or hosting visitors on and off since mid-May. That's pretty much two solid months of travel and such. Right now I'm in Boston on a research trip. Now, to be fair, I love Boston. I grew up in it's suburbs, so it's my "home city." I love the architecture, I love the shopping, I love the libraries and colleges, and I even love the accent. Whenever I'm in Boston I feel a certain energy that I don't feel anywhere else. Usually, there are few other places I want to be. I appreciate Boston even more now that I have spent the past ten years living in other places-- places much more rural, and places with vastly different cultures, weather, and local quirks. All of that said, and as much as I love it here, right now what I really want is to be back in my house in Washington, with my bed, my books, my furniture, and my normal day-to-day life. I have, after all, traveled to Boston three times in the past two months, for a family function, a conference, and now a research trip. I'm feeling a bit disconnected.



So, today I'll be reviewing a book that deals heavily with themes of disconnection, Clare Morrall's Astonishing Splashes of Colour.




This book tells the story of a woman on the verge of nervous breakdown, precipitated by a recent miscarriage that has left her unable to have children. The main character, Kitty, proceeds to do all sorts of irresponsible things, and it quickly becomes evident that her life is hurtling towards tragedy at warp speed. In the background of all of this is Kitty's disintegrating career, an unusually distant relationship with her husband, and an unusual ability to see and feel colors with great intensity. While I found the book interesting, Kitty was not an entirely sympathetic character. All too frequently, all the reader can do is cringe at Kitty's activities, as they are so obviously misguided, and she is so clearly in need of help. It's difficult to discuss the plot in more detail, as it would definitely give away too much that the reader will want to discover while working through the book. This book presents an imaginative plot, and was an enjoyable read, in spite of the issues raised above.

Clare Morrall, Astonishing Splashes of Colour (Harper Perennial, 2005) ISBN: 0060734469

Vacation!

This summer I am hosting a number of visitors up here in the wild woods of the Pacific Northwest. Visitors are always a bit of work, but they also mean that I get some extended vacation time: at least that's what I'm telling myself. In honor of that vacation, today I'm going to highlight a travel book. I'm not travelling this vacation, so I'll leave it to the books to take me there. I've chosen Jan Morris's A Writer's House in Wales. Morris is a renowned travel writer, and in this book she writes about her home with a travel writer's hand.

I really had no idea what I was going to get out of this book, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Being something of an Anglophile, I know far less about the rest of the UK. I've spend very little time there (though I used to live on the English side of the Welsh border), and much of it remains a mystery to me. This little volume did a nice job of giving a snapshot of the Welsh countryside. This book has no real narrative or plot. It is, as it sounds, a writer musing about her house in Wales, looking at how it fits in to Welsh history and into the countryside that surrounds it. The reader gets a good dose of Welsh culture. This is not the sort of book that can be read in one sitting. I read a few pages every night, and though the volume is short, it took me awhile to finish. Though the author is writing about her home, this is very much travel writing, in that it allows the reader to escape to a totally different place, and experience part of that world. For me, this was a rambling, amusing, and pleasant way to pass some time.

Jan Morris, A Writer's House in Wales (National Geographic, 2002) ISBN: 0792265238

Summer...Maybe?

Summer came to northwest Washington this year much as one might expect- with a cold, gray day. But today we were treated to one of those glorious summer days when you wake up thrilled by the sunshine, light dances off the waters of the bay, and you finally start to understand why it is that people live here. Today, June 24, was actually the first day this year that I was able to wear a short-sleeved shirt without a jacket. The weather report suggested that it might even reach 90 at the end of this week, which would THRILL me. So, in honor of the glorious day we're having, I'll be focusing on some stuff that reminds me of summer.

Today's Book:

Frommer's London from $85 a Day by Harriot Lane Fox



I've chosen a London travel guide for today's book because London is just about my favorite place to be in the summer. During graduate school I was lucky enough to spend a number of summers there on research trips. I've celebrated more of my adults birthdays in London than in any other place. I adore London. London love may have to become a future feature of this blog. And London in the summer is especially fine. London has a fantastic series of parks that are wonderful to explore on a summer evening.

But enough musing, and without further adieu, on to the review:

This was my first London travel guide, the one I bought when I had never before been to the UK, when I knew very little of London, and when I was on a student budget. It's been an exceedingly valuable resource ever since I purchased it in 2000. London is notoriously expensive, but this guide manages to seek out restaurants and hotels that don't break the bank. I especially appreciated the specific section on restaurants which are open until the wee hours- essential when arriving late and fighting jet lag. London being a large city of distinct neighborhoods, this guide is organized by neighborhood, and discusses specific hotels and restaurants within each neighborhood.

This book has many virtues, but by far its best section, in my opinion, is the section on sightseeing and entertainment bargains. London has many fine museums which charge no admission. Its churches offer a wealth of affordable, sometimes free, concerts. This guide doesn't just explain which well-known sights can be enjoyed at a low cost, it also introduced me to a whole range of sights and events I didn't know existed.

I've been to London a number of times since my first trip, but I still reach for this guide. A very valuable resource. London has always been an expensive city, and with the poor exchange rate it has become even more so. This is not the most recent edition of the Frommer's guide. In 2003 they published a new edition where the price had gone up to $90 a day. In 2005 the newer still edition was at $95/day. I'm trying to ride out the current poor exchange rate in hopes that the dollar will rise in value sometime in the future, and it will be more economical for me to plan a trip back. Part of me desperately wants to try and go back in September, but I just don't think I can swing it.



Today's Smelly Thing

Yankee Candle Tarts in Mango Peach Salsa

I bought this tart during my last trip to a Yankee Candle store. As there aren't any here in Bellingham, I'm pretty much restricted to when I'm back east. I love Yankee Candles. I generally prefer the large glass jar candles, the housewarmers, to the tarts and votives, as they're so much more potent, but given that everything now gets carted back across the country in a suitcase, the housewarmers are pretty much restricted to what I can find at Ross and TJ Maxx. But the tarts are nice enough, so for the summer theme tonight I chose Mango Peach Salsa. Yankee describes the scent as follows:

Sweet and zesty ... juicy mangoes and peaches livened with citrus, ginger
flowers and pink pepper

What I'm smelling is a smooth peach and mango scent, but I'm really not getting the salsa. I don't smell any spicy notes: nothing cilantro-y or anything like that. It worked nicely with my summer theme, as there's nothing that screams summer to me like ripe peaches. I looooove peaches. I love summer fruits generally so much better than winter ones. When I was poor in graduate school applesauce was one of my winter fruits. Ick. But to get back to the point, I think this scent is really more mango-peach than mango peach salsa, but I suspect salsa sells better. I've become rather disenchanted with Yankee's pricing lately. The tarts are now nearly $2 each, and some of the car air fresheners have gone up to $4 (from $2). That's crazy. Needless to say, I buy far fewer of these things than I used to.

I've been having a heck of a time sleeping this week, and given that it is now 2:20 am, I should just post this and get on with it.