Literary Armchair Traveler: Beach Reads!

Stephen King, apparently, doesn't think "real people" should tackle the classics as their beach reads.   I, as you probably could surmise, can't really get behind anything mindless (life is too short to read poorly-written books!!!) BUT I can absolutely get psyched about these set-at-the-beach books:

1. Demon Fish:  Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks by Juliet Eilperin 
I read 2/3 of this book last summer.  Fascinating peek into the shark fin industry and its huge impact on the environment.
2. The Sex Lives of Cannibals:  Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
Hilarious.  One of my FAVORITE travel-based memoirs.  
3. The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson
Lots of rum.  And debauchery.  On the beach.
4. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Frida Kahlo. Diego Rivera. Leon Trotsky. Politics.  Painting.  And some swimming.

Literary Armchair Traveler: India

Due to my lack of, ahem, disposable income, most of my traveling is of the armchair persuasion.  This week's Literary Armchair Traveling destination is somewhere on my travel bucket list:  India!

A few favorites from my personal library:

1.  Serious Men by Manu Joseph
"Ayyan Mani, a member of India's lowest caste and resident of the slums of Mubmai, discovers an illicit romance between his married boss and a married female researcher at the institute where he works."  (courtesy of the Strand website)


2.  Gandhi: An Autobiography
"Gandhi recounts his life, describing the development of his nonviolent political protest movement and discussing his religious beliefs."   (courtesy of the Strand website)


3.  The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (LOVED this book!)
"Winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2006. This 'magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness' examines identity, displacement and the indissoluble bonds of family. Ms. Desai's second novel is set in a remote corner of India against a backdrop of growing Nepalese unrest, and in the streets of Manhattan, where illegal immigrants try to make a living while eluding authorities. The book is a consummate, impassioned undertaking of a simmering contemporary issue with worldwide implications: the enormous anxiety of being a foreigner."  (courtesy of the Strand website)


4.  Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald
"A popular Australian radio correspondent humorously recounts her reluctant relocation to New Delhi, India, where a dangerous illness propelled her to explore the region's culture and spirituality in order to discover its virtues as well as a greater understanding about life and death."   (courtesy of the Strand website)


5.  Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta
"Mehta, a native of Bombay, provides a true insider's portrait of Bombay and its people, approaching the city from unexpected angles: the criminal underground of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs; the life of a bar dancer and her involvement with the fantastic, hierarchical world of Bollywood; and, the stories of countless people who come from the villages in search of a better life but end up living on the sidewalks."  (courtesy of the Strand website)

Literary Armchair Traveling: Parisian Reads

Due to my lack of, ahem, disposable income, most of my traveling is of the armchair persuasion.  This week's Literary Armchair Traveling destination is one place I've actually been:  Paris, France. 

1.  Stuff Parisians Like by Olivier Magny

"A wine connoisseur, teacher and Parisian explains how to fit in and be truly cool in the City of Lights including walking with a folded copy of the newspaper Le Monde under your arm and always ordering a San Pellegrino." (courtesy of the Strand website)

2. The Most Beautiful Walk In The World by John Baxter

"In this breathtaking guided tour of the most beautiful walks through Paris, including the favorite walking routes of the many acclaimed artists and writers who have called this magical city home, the author recalls his many encounters and adventures in the City of Lights." (courtesy of the Strand website)

3. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

"The much anticipated new translation of the novel that 'redefined the novel as an art form.' It was only seven years ago that Lydia Davis produced an award-winning, rapturously reviewed new translation of Marcel Proust's Swann's Way. Here, in this landmark publication of MADAME BOVARY, she gives new life to the novel's Flaubertian nuances and particulars, as originally intended, without compromising this first masterpiece of realist fiction." (courtesy of the Strand website)

4.  The Last Nude by Ellis Avery

"A stunning story of love, sexual obsession, treachery, and tragedy, about an artist and her most famous muse in Paris between the world wars...Inspired by real events in [Tamara] de Lempicka's history, The Last Nude is a tour de force of historical imagination. Ellis Avery gives the reader a tantalizing window into a lost Paris, an age already vanishing as the inexorable forces of history close in on two tangled lives. Spellbinding and provocative, this is a novel about genius and craft, love and desire, regret and, most of all, hope that can transcend time and circumstance." (courtesy of Amazon.com)