Cymru!

The travel section has a new destination of the month! It's exciting! It's wonderful! It's Wales!

The last couple of days I have been involved in a number of conversations that have gone somewhere along the lines of:

Amy: I have to write that blog post about Wales!
Bystander: Whales?
Amy: Wales.
Bystander: Why are you writing a blog post about whales?
Amy: It's destination of the month.
Bystander: ...what?
Amy: Wales...Destination of the month?
Bystander: Oh! The country!
Amy: Why would I be writing a blog post about animal-whales?

That is a question that no one could answer. Not that we have anything against whales. We are all pro-whale here.

Anyway.

Wales is a country of many things.

Pentre Ifan:

bbc.co.uk

Stunning landscapes:

Photographer: Kris Dutson

The Earliest Prose Literature in Britain:
 

And a language that is so beautiful that Tolkien based Elvish off of it.
(This very same language is also almost completely nonsensical to look at for an English speaker, I think so and I've been trying to learn it).



 And I'd probably get in trouble if I didn't mention they also have a rugby team:


Wales has such a wonderful mythological and literary history that it's no wonder that Britain's famous Hay-on-Wye Book Festival is right on the border of Wales and England.

It is a wonder why more people aren't more interested in Wales as literary and beautiful as it is. Well, this is your chance to come in and find some books about, set in, and written in Wales. There are so many more than fit on our small little display shelf so do some research learn about this little country with big literary influence.

So, take a minute out of your visit and wander over to the travel section to check out some books about Wales.

Hwyl fawr am nawr!

Travel as a Rabbit

Here's the latest and greatest happenins in the travel section!

Come scope our Destination of the Month display before it turns to October: SEATTLE

I am studying the Finnish language and just learned the sweetest idiom: "Matkustaa jäniksenä," or "to travel as a rabbit," meaning travelling for free, as a stowaway (like a bunny sneaking on a boat!). I prefer the first image the phrase brought to mind, a bunny too short to reach the Charlie Card machine so he just snuck under the turnstile and didn't pay his fare.

Anyway, everyone knows the best way to travel as a rabbit is to pack like and move fast, so do I have a grip of petite pocket guides for you! These adorable, fun-size guide books are full of off-the-beaten path trivia, must-sees and gorgeous design:

First up are the WildSam guides. Currently available for Nashville, Austin, San Francisco and Detroit, they have awesome almanacs full of local trivia, interviews with local movers and shakers, places to check out that are more funky and local haunts than tourist spots, and even a grip of pretty graph paper in the back for notetaking and scrapbooking on the fly! $18 each.

Citi x 60 guides are brand new, and available for all kinds of big-city locales: New York, Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona, Berlin and more. The idea here is that 60 local artists, business owners, writers, creatives and other influential and design-oriented share their favorite haunts, so you get a bunch of ideas for discovering a city from the people who love it the most, and seek out the most unique and vibrant offerings! Super inexpensive and pretty as well at $9.95 each.

The Hunt guides, representing cities from Austin to Singapore are beautifully designed with must-sees and local faves as well, an emphasis on shopping and amazing food make these guides a must for the urban adventurer. $16 each.

Happy travels! 

Destination of the Month: Svalbard

When I was 12 and reading The Golden Compass for the very first time, I really liked the idea of a mythical frozen land in the north inhabited by armored polar bears. It was not until many years later that I discovered that in fact Svalbard--the locale of some grisly happenings in Pullman's meisterwerk--is a real place, and I want to go to there.

It's the smack-dab middle of the year, which means on some parts of the globe it's sunny times all night which is the perfect time to go on your own epic voyage to the frozen north, which is a little less frozen, and has more hours in the day for partying with polar bears.

So I've chosen Svalbard as our destination of the month. Check out our neat display and read The Golden Compass as you sip a beer on a sunny Allston patio and immediately transport yourself, or if you have a few extra kroner in your pocket grab a Norwegian phrasebook and hop on a plane and go party all day(night), but SEND PICS.

May's Destination of the Month: National Parks

The weather's getting warm; the kids are getting out of school. It's time to be Winnebago Warriors and hit some of the most breathtaking sites in the world, lovingly preserved by your Federal government in what is probably one of the coolest, nerdiest undertakings in our history: the National Park Service.

And you've got your pick, too, because America is as geographically diverse as her citizens are ethnically. Deserts? Check. Oceans? Check. Mountains? Check. Lakes? Check. Lakes that disappear and turn into fields of wildflowers for a few months? Check that too.

So swing by throughout the month of May and scope our guidebooks, photo books, and even grab a narrative or novel or two that occupy some of the coolest spaces in our massive country.

Destination of the Month: Greece

Like lots of precocious teenagers, I too had a Nietzsche phase. I even obsessively read The Birth of Tragedy, his first one, much milder than his later tracts and ostensibly his jumping off point from philology to his own brand of philosophy. The book likes to hammer home the dichotomy between the Apollonian and the Dionysian arts - that is the "plastic" arts like sculpture and its opposite arts like music and poetry that came afterward and celebrate the more unconscious frenzied and liberated side of things. It is the opinion of your humble narrator that this dichotomy exists in all the best stories. "Beauty and the Beast." Jane Eyre. Narcissus and Goldmund. Lady Chatterley's Lover. Brothers Karamazov. And Zorba the Greek, one of my favorites of all time is no exception. (Though Zorba is from Crete and not exactly Greek I have to mention. But Aristotle is Macedonian, so I say Greek is a state of mind, man, live and let live). Zorba is a refreshing, effervescent novel, a shot of ouzo with a hint of lemon on a beautiful beach. It's a love letter to life, and to enjoying one's work and seizing the moment, and if there's anything that this long winter, now finally fading has taught us hardy New Englanders is to be like Zorba's foil Basil and run for the sun! Enjoy it while it lasts! So stop by and get inspired to see the ruins of the Delphic oracle, find true happiness in Aristotle, learn to ask for saganaki in Greek or meander your own maze sans minotaur, and let Kazantzakis be your oracle for a fantastic new adventure:

“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.” -Zorba the Greek

What's New in the Travel Section

The holidays just blew through the store in a twinkling blur! Now I have to go back to eating grown up food and not dreaming about all the maps selling out and Oprah choosing a National Geographic map as her Nobel Prize Book of the Month. And in the world of exciting maps, if you didn't already see it on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, we got some seriously cool new maps in from National Geographic, the perfect sort of thing to spend your shiny new Booksmith gift card on:

There's Shakespeare's Britain, Earth at Night, Mars(!), Antarctica (to go with the single guide book that actually exists AND is in stock!), National Parks of the USA, the Universe, and as always the classics are in stock as well. Super special stuff. Be the coolest kid on your block with a Mars map!

In other new stuff news, we now carry Wildsam travel guides. I believe we're the only bookstore on the Eastern seaboard with these beauties and they are MAGIC so come snatch 'em up before anyone else. They are beautifully designed and the perfect size to take on the go. They have a small chunk of graph paper in the back for notes and scraps to save, and the content is AMAZING. Beautiful essays from great writers, fascinating almanacs, hip hand-drawn maps of individual neighborhoods and all the things to see and do. They currently exist for Nashville, San Francisco and Austin (where they're based). Come check them out in person, my stunning photograph barely does them justice:

And finally, our Destination of the Month continues to be Brazil for a few short days. Come check out our copious books, maps and novels as you plan your southern migration and/or World Cup vacay.

Oktoberfest: OR, It Could Be Wurst

The real live Oktoberfest wraps up in Munich this week, though if you're planning on going we still have plenty of great books AND if you plan on bypassing the crowds and going to Munich after Oktoberfest, many of the biergartens will still be around, not to mention all those great breweries, so this exhaustive display in your favorite travel section can help no matter where you plan to drink your beers in October.

The original German-style Oktoberfest has been around in various incarnations since King Ludwig I married a pretty princess in Bavaria. Since then, a huge party complete with many of the beers from the regions spotlighted by breweries have washed down countless Wurst, Brezeln and Sauerkraut for locals and tourists alike always around the end of September to the middle of October. So slap on some lederhosen and get the low-down with Meet Me in Munich: A Beer Lover's Guide to Oktoberfest which breaks down the best tents, what to wear and the whys and hows of all the many Oktoberfest traditions. Also the author's name is Moses Wolf and that in and of itself justifies the price of this beautiful, photo-rich book. And as with most locations in the world, we have quite the Schmaus of more general guidebooks and maps to the region.

For many in New England, the dual signal of leaves changing colors and the proliferation of pumpkin beers signals Autumn time. What better time to hit the road, go on a road trip through the brilliant leaves, stop for a jaunt in an orchard, and to wrap up with a tour to the many magnificent New England breweries? Norman Miller's Beer Lover's New England is an exhaustive list of the best breweries, restaurants and bars in New England. So if you don't want to shell out a tiny fortune to Lufthansa, stay stateside and celebrate your own Oktoberfest, in the prettiest autumnal location in the world!

Conversely, for the armchair tourist who wants to avoid all those Mid-Atlantic leafers scoping out our trees, stay at home with this massive, beautiful World Atlas of Beer. There's a lot of history and science about beer in the beginning, and then broken up by region a rundown of the most popular beers by location. What the locals like, what the international community likes that is produced there, and at what specific temperatures to best consume a beer in a pub in Sheffield. Among many other details. There are also tons of gorgeous photographs. An incredible gift for those upcoming holidays, too, folks.

To keep track of all these beers is the Moleskine Beer Journal where you can write down all the beers you've tasted and what you thought about them BEFORE YOU FORGET. So go out there and toss one back for me! And if you've gone to Oktoberfest or are having your own, tell me all about it in the comments!

Vicarious Journeys: The Next Best Thing

My little sister just informed me that she plans to spend three weeks in Istanbul this summer. It's not that I resent the well-deserved vacation she's taking from teaching art to Kindergarten through 6th graders, but I AM  jealous. I've  added her trip to the growing list of the many coveted, vicarious journeys I will be making through my friends this summer. Sometimes it can feel like everyone is leaving the country except me. Whenever I start to feel like this--just a little too home-bound--I know it's time to turn to the next best thing: the bookshelf.

To my sister I recommended Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul. To the rest of you, I'm going to recommend armchair reading from our destination of the month shelf. And this month, we're featuring Spain. I happen to have two friends there right now. While they're traveling through Barcelona, I can read Carlos Luis Zafon's Shadow of the Wind, a mystery set in post-war Barcelona. Zafon's most recent work, Prisoner of Heaven, also set in Barcelona, was just released in paperback. Or I could pick up George Orwell's classic Homage to Catalonia, or Colm Toibin's Homage to Barcelona, which happens to be available for a limited time as a sale book on our remainder tables at Booksmith!

Aside from novels set in the country we've got books that will help you delve into the Spain's culture, past and present, books like Elizabeth Nash's Madrid: A Cultural History and Giles Tremlett's Ghosts of Spain. As Madrid correspondents for The Independent and The Guardian, respectively, Nash and Tremlett share their extensive knowledge of the country, taking their readers deep into the roots of the culture, arts, and politics of Spain. Tremlett in particular explores some of the country's scars, opening up a conversation about Spain's unexplored past.

Speaking of the ghosts of Spain, to see a few for yourself, swing by San Jose Cathedral in Madrid, a favorite spot for ghost hunters in the city, according  legend and to our Secret Madrid guide. While we've got dozens of guidebooks to Spain on our shelves, the most unique are Secret Madrid and Secret Barcelona. These guides invite you explore the cities' off-the-track sites, such as the Spy Shop in Barcelona or the unsavory specimens on display at the Museum of Forensic Anthropology in Madrid.

And finally, when you do get to travel to Spain, don't leave without stuffing our Crumpled City Barcelona map into your back pocket. Check out our new display of these fun, lightweight maps to cities around the world, in our travel aisle at Booksmith!

SAMURAI!!! Or, Destination of the Month: Japan

Has anyone made it to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see the new exhibition of Japanese armor? The MFA has been marketing the exhibit simply as "Samurai!" which I find very effective. This month, in conjunction with the museum's show and with spring's cherry blossoms, we're promoting Japan as our Destination of the Month. And I've decided to call our display shelf filled with Japanese literature, guides, maps and cookbooks: "SAMURAI!!!"

Before you make your way to the MFA--or to Japan, for that matter, swing by Booksmith and get the literature you need to guide you through the sites. If you want to read about a real life Samurai hero of feudal Japan, we've got The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi. Mushashi was a revered samurai warrior who believed mastery of the mind was as important as technique in martial arts, a teaching that he expounded in his Book of Five Rings. His influence can still be seen in books and films today and is beautifully evoked in this biography by William Scott Wilson.

We've got plenty of guides to introduce you to Japan, as well as some fun literature to guide you through some of the more nuanced aspects of Japanese culture, including To Japan with Love, a graceful guide that can help you order anything from a bento box to the kaiseki served in elegant Kyoto teahouses. With this book in your pack you can attend a sumo match, sing karoke, spin some pottery, or go on a spiritual pilgrimage to a sacred site. And you'll even know when to take off your shoes.

Whether you are a lover of manga, anime, or zen, fans of Japanese culture can feed their obsession with Hector Garcia's A Geek in Japan. This cultural guide can show you the historical roots of all things Japanese. Filled with loud graphics and images of Japanese pop culture, A Geek in Japan is perfect for both children and adults who want to better acquaint themselves with a fascinating foreign culture.

Speaking of graphics, check out the graphic novel Tokyo on Foot. Rather than exploring Tokyo through a traditional guide, Florent Chavouet presents this city through beautiful sketches and hand drawn maps. The life of Tokyo leaps of the page in colorful, idiosyncratic images of its landscape and people.

If you want to have a companion for your initial explorations in Japanese culture, Karen Pond is the perfect friend to take along. Pond's memoir Getting Genki in Japan is an illustrated narrative of an American family's misadventures as they create a life for themselves in Tokyo. She'll even help you figure out how to flush a Japanese toilet.

And finally: SAMURAI!!! We've got temporary tattoos. Don't go to Japan without one.

The Shamrock Shakes of Irish Literature

Last week, my brother-in-law, who moved to Boston last summer, asked me if the McDonalds on the East Coast served up Shamrock shakes for Saint Patrick's Day, like they did back in the Midwest. A Boston resident for over three years and a fan of--if not the fast food chain--that creamy mint green shake myself, I was ashamed to say I did not know. But I was able to tell him about Dunkin Donuts' seasonal Irish Creme donut, a sugar coated bun filled with a creme not-quite-green but a shade less yellow than your traditional Boston creme. It's nothing compared to their autumnal pumpkin donut, but as a novelty item, it's not a bad way to get yourself primed for St. Patrick's Day.

Of course, to get a true taste of Ireland, no one goes for the food. This month, we've got a range of Irish literature on display, writers who will give you a more accurate glimpse into Irish culture, landscape and cuisine--without the foul aftertaste of American fast food. We've got the classics: Yeats and Beckett and Joyce, and Flann O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds. These guys are the Shamrock Shakes of Irish literature. You'll want to pick them up again, year after year.

You've read Dubliners, but have you read Dublinesque, a new novel by Enrique Vila-Matas set in Dublin as the world of publishers, readers, and writers is losing its hold on Irish culture. The protagonist is a retired literary publisher, but the strong presence of Joyce and Beckett in this novel almost make them characters as well.

And if you're looking for non-fiction set in Ireland, pick up Robert Kanigel's On an Irish Island. Kanigel introduces the reader to the lost world of the Great Blasket, an island off the west coast of Ireland, renowned for its former communal life and preservation of the Irish language. Kanigel weaves together the island's history with the colorful life of its local residents and visiting scholars.

Any of these books would go nicely with a pint of Guinness or, if you can find one out here, a Shamrock shake. Whether you're looking for a guidebook, map, or simply some good armchair travel, we've got them, no artificial flavors added.

From Blizzards to Tropics

Today was the first day I ventured out to work after the blizzard. The first customer I found in the travel aisle was shivering in front of our wide selection of Caribbean guidebooks. I asked if she needed any help. She peered up at me from beneath a wooly hat and pleaded, "I want to go somewhere warm!"

Don't we all? That's why we're celebrating the sunny Caribbean as our Destination of the Month of February. After puzzling over how to get to Cuba for awhile, my customer determined she would go swim with the migrating whales off the coast of Belize. If, like me, your February will be spent trudging between work and home through ice and snow and sludge, our destination shelf is brimming with titles ready to transport you to the blazing heat of a sun-baked beach.

Travel alongside the erudite classic travel writer, Patrick Leigh Fermor, as he wanders among the old colonial capitals of several Caribbean Islands, including Guadeloupe, Martinique, Barbados, Trinidad, and Haiti. Fermor's first published travel narrative, Traveller's Tree, describes the culture and people inhabiting the paradisaical landscape, from steel drum bands to Voodoo practices.

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean is an engaging history book to supplement your knowledge of the Caribbean Islands and the surrounding waters, which, just after the Spanish Inquisition, were often populated with Jewish Pirates. Edward Kritzler describes the adventures of such ships as the Prophet Samuel and Queen Esther and the prospects of their fascinating crews.

Tropic Death is a collection of short stories set in Barbados, Panama, and other Caribbean landscapes that filled the childhood memories of author Eric Walrond. Although fictional, these vivid depictions of life in the tropics transport the reader into the lives of island residents living in the aftermath of colonialism.  If the Dominican Republic is your destination, Junot Diaz's short story collection, Drown, reveals the lives of residents of the villages and barrios of the DR. Both of these short story collections would make a great read for a flight to the Caribbean. And of course, for a sultry romp through Puerto Rico, all you have to do is pick up Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary and you're off to 1950s San Juan.

If you are looking not only to escape the cold, but also the city, pick up Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place, and let her take you to a ten-by-twelve mile island, her home of Anitgua. Watch the changes that came with colonialism and tourism, and learn about the lives lived out in this small place in the Caribbean.

Destination of the Month: Myanmar (Burma)

I know where you're going. Throughout these long winter months I've watched the travel shelves closely. It's not hard to discern, from the ruffled maps of South America, from the gaping holes in the Cambodia and Costa Rica shelves, where you are. Not surprisingly, this winter everyone in Boston is heading for warmer climes. You're going to the beach.

And some of you, like my parents, are headed for the quieter beaches of lesser known destinations. In their last report from the beaches of Burma, (or Myanmar--my choice in this case was purely alliterative), I received a photo of my nephew, who has spent two-thirds of his 9-month life in the country, proudly displaying his first sand castle on an almost-deserted beautiful beach. Looking at that photo, I don't blame you for going. In fact, I envy you.

That's why we're celebrating Myanmar as January's destination of the month. Of course, there are many other reasons to celebrate this country other than its beaches. To better understand the remarkable changes taking place in this developing nation, pick up some of the fascinating literature we have at Booksmith, books meant to guide you into a deeper engagement with your new surroundings.

The Lady and The Peacock, the latest biography on Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi may not be the best beach read, but it is sure to prepare you for the people you meet and give you an appreciation for the country's struggle toward democracy over the past decade. Explore deeper into the country's past, into the age of British Imperialism, with Amitav Ghosh's novel The Glass Palace and Burmese Days from George Orwell. Emma Larkin's Finding George Orwell in Burma is a great companion to his novel, as Larkin follows in the footsteps of the writer, revealing the political situation of today.

Not going to the beach this winter? You, too, can travel to Myanmar through Naomi Duguid's gorgeous cookbook Burma: Rivers of Flavor. This is much more than a cookbook. Duguid traveled extensively in Burma over the past decades, culling recipes, stories, and photographs that lead her readers into a direct engagement with this unique people and land. Interwoven with the recipes are tastefully told anecdotes of Burma's history, culture, people, and, of course, food. Filled with gorgeous color photographs, this book allows you to immerse yourself in the warm sites, stories, and sensations of Burma without even leaving your kitchen.

For those of you headed to Myanmar, a customer picking up Lonely Planet's guide to Myanmar just informed me that the Irrawaddy Literary Festival--the country's first ever English language literary festival--will be taking place this Feb 1-3, 2013 at the Inya Lake Hotel in Yangon. The festival's patron, Aung San Suu Kyi herself, will be speaking. Beaches and books, what more could you want?

Destination of the Month: Paris

I have only been to Paris in the summer. When the Champs Elysees is crowded with tourists looking for a bit of shade for relief from a relentless sun. When you decide to save yourself from the metro crowds by walking everywhere until your sandals smell so bad you throw them out rather than ruining everything in your suitcase. When you can spend long evenings watching the sky turn the stone white edifices rose from Montmartre Butte, the Sacre Couer at your back, a bottle of wine on hand, or dance the summer evenings away on the banks of the Seine.

I’ve never been to Paris in the winter, but I can imagine the lamp lit streets and bridges, the snowflakes melting softly into the Seine. And Paris is a city that is always in someways more imagined than experienced, half romance half real. This month, we’re celebrating the city of light with some lovely gift books–for the traveler who has been and wants to remember those fading summer nights, or for someone who is on their way to the sparkling snow-covered boulevards. And for the rest, there are narratives to help you imagine the trip you’ve never taken but someday will.

Flipping through Paris: An Inspiring Tour of the City’s Creative Heart is almost as good as a ticket there. JanelleMcCullough takes the traveler through eacharrondissement by way of gorgeous photographs and alluring prose. This book is coffee table and guide book in one. Looking for something more compact and practical? We have two shelves of guidebooks devoted to helping you navigate the city. Secret Paris, for example, can unlock the city and show you un-looked for corners.

Paris is a city full of stories, imagined and real. Paula Mclain has taken the well-known classic story, A Moveable Feast, and turnedHemingway’s memoir of 1920s Paris into a novel. This time, however, the women speak. The Paris Wife is told from the point of view of Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson. She narrates the well-known story: from falling in love, to meeting other members of the “Lost Generation” to the final heartbreaking betrayal.Hungry for more stories set in Paris? The NYRB has collected Mavis Gallant’s Paris Stories into one brilliant edition. This would be the perfect read for your flight to France.

And finally, the slim The Night Before Christmas in Paris makes a sweet stocking stuffer for the francophile in your life. Santa Claus is frantic because Mrs. Claus has slipped off to see the sites of Paris. Santa’s sleigh visits the Montmartre, the Left Bank, the Notre Dame, the Ritz in search of his wife. In the end, “His memories were sweet of the City of Light,” as we hope everyone’s are this holiday season, and, of course, to all a good night!

Destination of the Month: India, or "think pink"

While wandering through the Globe Corner Travel aisle at Booksmith this past week, you may have been drawn in, distracted, or blinded by a display of hot pink books. Could someone please tell me why India again and again gets classified as hot pink?

From the Wallpaper Guide and the Love Guide to Delhi, to The Three Sisters Indian Cookbook, to Siddhartha Deb's new book The Beautiful and the Damned, when it comes to India, book designers seem always to "think pink" (I spent Hurricane Sandy re-watching Funny Face).

Pink or not, if you're looking for literature to guide you into India, we've got it. Read more on our blog at globecorner.com.