TRAVELS IN SIBERIA by Ian Frazier

Hints of travel writer Ian Frazier’s latest project showed up in a recent issue of the New Yorker magazine, when an excerpt from TRAVELS IN SIBERIA was published. Having evocatively captured the spirit of a Native American reservation and the American Great Plains in earlier work, Frazier set his sights on a much grander level—he decided to travel across Siberia. A self-confessed lover of all things Russian, Frazier travels across Siberia despite warnings to the contrary

November 10, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: 2010 Favorites, Non-fiction, Russia

ZEN AND NOW by Mark Richardson

Equal parts road trip, biography, philosophy and travelogue, ZEN AND NOW: ON THE TRAIL OF ROBERT PIRSIG AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE is an entertaining, educational and illuminating look at an American literary phenomenon and its creator.

June 19, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Non-fiction, United States

THE SELECTED WORKS OF T. S. SPIVET by Reif Larson

Twelve-year-old Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet—T.S. for short—is as quirky as his name suggests. Extraordinarily gifted, his one way of making sense of the world around him, is to map it all out. So it is that Reif Larsen’s debut,THE SELECTED WORKS OF T.S. SPIVET, has many of these maps and diagrams on the margins—a glimpse into the workings of a gifted mind. Worth mentioning are maps describing the locations of McDonalds in a Midwestern town, the many physical forces acting on a rodeo cowboy and the long list of random names picked by an IBM 1401 for the soda, Tab.

July 5, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Coming-of-Age, Contemporary, Debut Novel

STAYCATION: BOOK IDEAS

Blog entry on travel books

June 23, 2009 · Judi Clark · 6 Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Non-fiction, United States

THE NATION. GUIDE TO THE NATION by Richard Lingeman

Not too long ago, a lady called the offices of The Nation and said she was “stuck” in Abbeyville, Louisiana. “I want to move, but I want to move to somewhere where I can see a Democrat before I die,” she said. This phone call was the catalyst for The Nation. Guide to the Nation—a fun and interesting if haphazard compilation of left-leaning hot spots, organizations and businesses around the country.

May 25, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: 2009 Favorites, Humorous, Non-fiction, United States, y Award Winning Author

FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MALARIA by Eve Brown-Waite

In FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MALARIA: How A Peace Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart & A Third World Adventure Changed My Life, Ms. Brown-Waite first chronicles her life prior to joining the Peace Corps. Then she writes of her Peace Corps experience in the late 1980s, and finally she tells of her time with her husband, John, in Uganda, where he worked for CARE.

May 7, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Africa, Non-fiction, Reading Guide, World Lit