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     Volume 4 Issue 65 | September 30, 2005 |


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Books

Travel Bestseller

Theatre of Fish
John Gimlette
Knopf Publishing Group; September 2005

John Gimlette's journey across this awesome and often brutal eastern extreme of the Americas broadly mirrors that of Dr. Eliot Curwen, his great-grandfather, in 1893. Curwen spent the summer there as a doctor, and was witness to some of the most beautiful ice and cruellest poverty in the British Empire. Using his great-grandfather's extraordinarily frank journal, John Gimlette revisits the places the doctor encountered and along the way explores his own links with this brutal land. At the heart of the book, however, are the present-day inhabitants of these shores. Descended from last-hope Irishmen, outlaws, navy deserters and fishermen from Jersey and Dorset, these 'outporters' are a warm, salty, witty and exuberant breed.



Fodor's Hawaii 2005
Fodor's Travel Publications Incorporated; August 2004

Hit the beach and snorkel amid the coral reefs of a sunken volcanic crater, take a road trip past lava deserts and steaming craters, belly up to a 180-foot seafood buffet in Waikiki, or hit the links on the slopes of Mt. OlomanaFodor's Hawaii 2005 covers all these experiences and more! From the Big Island to Maui, our local writers have traveled throughout Paradise, to find the best hotels, restaurants, attractions and activities to prepare you for a journey of stunning variety. Before you leave for Hawaii, be sure to pack your Fodor's guide to ensure you don't miss a thing.


The Devil's Picnic
Taras Grescoe
Bloomsbury USA; September 2005

From Norwegian moonshine to the pentobarbital sodium sipped by suicide tourists in Switzerlandand, in between, baby eels killed by an infusion of tobacco, a garlicky Spanish stew of bull's testicles, tea laced with cocaine, and malodorous French cheese Taras Grescoe has written a travelogue of forbidden indulgences. As Grescoe crisscrosses the globe in pursuit of his quarry, he delves into questions of regional culture and repressive legislationfrom the clandestine absinthe distillation in an obscure Swiss valley to the banning of poppy seed biscuits in Singapore and launches into a philosophical investigation of what's truly bizarre: how something as fundamental as the plants and foods we consume could be so vilified and demonised. An investigation into what thrills us, what terrifies us, and what would make us travel ten thousand miles and evade the local authorities, The Devil's Picnic is a delicious and compelling expedition into the heart of vice and desire.

Compiled by: Sanyat Sattar

 

 

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