Heaven is alone time. I'm done with the holidays and have just returned to my wireless fixated, blogging, house-hopping, eat, sleep, and brush-my-hair-whenever-I-want ways. Only now I'm going to look a tad bit cooler doing it because my cousins took me shopping and attempted to hone my eye for an outfit.
But I promised you travel books, so here we go. This is what’s on my radar as of the last ten minutes.
William Fiennes will be speaking about “how he went through a ‘life-changing experience’ while travelling in Honduras with Oxfam.” St Cross College, St Giles, Oxford, on Wednesday, (Dec. 1, 2004) at 7pm. Fiennes is the author of The Snow Geese. (Note: the cover looks different on each diff website I find it) Fiennes has contributed to Granta, The London Review of Books, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, and The Times Literary Supplement. He lives in Oxford, England. The Snow Geese is his first book.
A Sense of Place got on “Road Reads” in The Washington Post“. I like the way they do Rants and Raves. Here’s what the reviewer, Jerry V. Haines, had for ASOP.
RANT: This book could be bad for marriages, as several writers insist that the travel writer must travel solo. Says Jonathan Raban, “Coupledom is the enemy of travel.”
RAVE: Encouraging words from Pico Iyer: “The more things go wrong, the better the stories we will bring back.”
A New Zealand website is calling Made in Morocco, by Julie le Clerc and John Bougen, “a tour de force.” Two things about this review caught my eye. One, it was a different kind of author event.
“The book was launched last week via a Culinary Liaison hosted by The Press, and those attending expected the format as before: some good wine and nice food, a few words from the author, an opportunity to buy a signed copy of the book, and a bit of socialising with like-minded folk.
What really happened was a slide show (think sound and light and high-tech effects rather than a sheet on the wall showing distant figures) that dwelt so lusciously and lovingly on the tastes and landscapes of Morocco, the evening may well have sent readers Morocco bound.”
And two, they are predicting Moroccan food to become a really big hit.
“According to those who pick trends and follow fashions, Moroccan food is poised to take over where Thai food began some 10 years ago. If that is true, food writers like Le Clerc are paving the way for greater understanding. The ingredients are familiar.
Did you see Jamie Jensen’s article,“As you travel this holiday, relish the nation’s blessings,” in USA Today? You’ll remember Jamie from his travel guide book, Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways.