Concept: Write a letter to a stranger. Maybe you caught their name, maybe they will forever be a mystery but essentially a person who passed by your life only fleetingly. Yet they haunt you, you've never forgotten them. What would that letter say?
Product: This book!
An innovative memoir that explores concepts of home, the passage of time, and the power of movement, imagination, and family.
Mesmerizing. Strange. Glorious.
I have to thank fellow bookseller Nicole for introducing me to this stunning book. The technical skill left me astonished. I wanted a bench, as though in a museum, to sit and quietly take in each page of black-and-white pen-and-ink line drawings. Van den Ende's debut is a wordless story of a small paper boat's epic journey across a vast and fathomless ocean. It teems with myriad flora and fauna that reside somewhere between fairy tale and reality. It intrigues. It beguiles. An elegant testament to solitude, strength, and bravery.
Did you know, whilst on a train platform before he could fall to his death, John Wilkes Booth's brother saved Abraham Lincoln's son's life? It's interesting tidbits like this that you can pull out at parties or impress your friends with that you'll find in this book. Vowell, a history nerd at heart, travels to locations around the US immortalized by bloodshed, uncovering more about the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. And with her sharp wit and wisecracking humor, it makes you feel like you're being taught a history lesson but by the cool, hip teacher.
This is the kind of gentle and lyrical ecotone I wish I could write, and one that everyone on planet Earth should definitely read! The essays on Fireflies and the Southern Cassowary were my personal favorites, but each animal and anecdote left me with something new: A deep nostalgia for my own mud-caked and grass-coated childhood; An urge to protect the places and creatures that help us find such solace, and to defend the people denied that comfort because of prejudice; A plethora of Did-you-know's to break out in random conversations and a heightened appreciation for bright colors--the brighter the better! Without a doubt, I will be returning to this collection for the humor, hope, and understanding elicited by Nezhukumatathil's experiences, but also for Fumi Nakamura's original art (which I honestly want to have printed on my walls)!
Take an unforgettable trip to the historic city of Hav! Watch the exciting roof-race! Explore the caves of the mysterious Kretevs! Marvel at the secret rites of the Cathars! Morris evokes a place so rich and fascinating that you'll wish you were there!
Like a Romantic Larry David, Geoff Dyer travels from Tahiti to the Arctic Circle, meeting humiliation and disappointment on his quest for the Sublime.
