I approached the Front Table this month thinking I’d see the beginnings of the summer blockbuster publishing blast: a Maeve Binchy, a Carol Higgins Clark, maybe even a new Dan Brown. Instead I found a selection of interesting non-fiction and two intriguing novels by first-time authors. And all of them would make great “pre-trip” reading for your summer travels.
Planning to take advantage of the improved exchange rates with a trip to France this summer? Eiffel’s Tower by Jill Jonnes offers not only the back story on the construction of Paris’ iconic landmark but a social history of the era that produced it. Built as the centerpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair, the tower was an engineering marvel, the tallest structure in the world although the design was immediately reviled by a society on the brink of the modernist revolution. The fair was a showcase of all that was new with art represented by still controversial impressionists like Gaugin and Whistler and technology on display with Thomas Edison’s phonograph as well as Otis’ elevators in the tower itself. Jonnet’s prose is full of the same vibrant energy that typified the fair and the time. This is a wonderful way to learn about the Belle Epoque France that still so influences French identity. ($27.95)
If your European travels will take you further south, take a ride with Matthew Fort in Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons: Travels in Sicily on a Vespa. These days a well-known food writer for Britain’s The Guardian, Fort originally traveled through Sicily with his brother in 1973. Considerably older now and hopefully wiser, he decided to retrace some of his steps and take some new ones, seeing the changes thirty odd years makes in a place we often think of as unchanging. The glorious food of the island was a central theme of both journeys, and we are treated to entertaining explorations into the relative merits of the sausages of rival villages and the million varieties of honey-sweetened pastries. Fortunately, he also includes recipes. As in his previous book, Eating up Italy, Fort captures our Italian fantasy trip with sunshine, history, a hip little Vespa scooter and fantastic food. ($24.95)
Hungary doesn’t seem the obvious choice for a first novel setting by a Brooklyn-born, Atlanta resident but Marc Fitten’s move to Eastern Europe as a twenty-something student has given him wonderful material for Valeria’s Last Stand. Set in a small village so far off the beaten path that World War II passed it by unnoticed, the novel centers on the late life romance between the spinster Valeria, a feisty character who thrives on her neighbor’s scorn while growing the area’s most perfect vegetables, and the widowed potter. As one would expect in a small town, the intimate relations of long-time neighbors add complications to the romance but love wins over all. Fitten uses the ancient traditions of the folk tale to tell his story, giving it a ring of authenticity, bringing in the iconic characters one would expect to meet in such a village. This is a sweet, funny, earthy look at a culture that deserves the attention. ($24.00)
Anyone traveling to Turkey or the Middle East or Central Asia or even Indonesia should consider reading Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary. Most of us raised in the Western educational system got only the most glancing view of the history of the great Islamic empires, often in a slightly disparaging way. Ansary’s book begins with Mohammed and his immediate successors, moves on to the concept of caliphates (quick, define caliphate for me) and then tells of the Moguls, the Selcuks, and other great Islamic civilizations that many Americans know very little about. He also explains how little most of those societies knew or cared about European history and how that has lead to much of our current situation of mutual misunderstanding and disrespect. Written in simple, readable language, this quick overview of Islamic history gives us a fuller understanding of our world. ($26.95)
For those of you who would prefer not to be tied to any particular spot on the planet, there’s another eat your way around the world book on the Front Table this month. What makes this one worth reading? Well, Simon Majumdar is part of that new phenomenon, the blogger turned published author. His new book, Eat My Globe, grew out of the blog he and his brother write that mostly reviews London restaurants. As Majumdar explains in the prologue, his entire family are foodies of the most extreme kind and his personal mantra is “go everywhere, eat everything.” Sounds good to me. With support from the bloggo-verse, the author did just that, he went everywhere he could think of and ate whatever was most typical, most highly recommended or just plain weird enough to be interesting. Chapters are short, breezy, funny, and completely food centered. I admit, I’ve already made notes of the restaurants he visited in Buenos Aires. ($26.00)
And finally, my favorite of the bunch, the cross country road trip as whimsically presented in another first novel, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen. Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet (I’m already sold just from the name) is a precocious twelve-year-old living on a ranch in Montana with his scientist mother and cowboy father. He obsessively chronicles everything in his life in “maps,” drawings that depict everything from the layout of his bedroom to the path of a working dung beetle, many of which are presented in the margins with T.S.’s explanatory notes. Awarded a prize by the Smithsonian, he hops a freight train and heads to Washington D.C.to collect it, a trip that inspires deep philosophizing on the nature of man, travel, destiny and the world. This is an inventive and entertaining novel with a charming main character. I’d take this one over a new Dan Brown any time. ($27.95)
Enjoy the start of the sunny months!
Eileen Nielsen’s new book, Buying a Piece of Paris, is aimed at a niche reading market that includes many of our customers. Since business took them frequently to France from their home in Australia, Nielsen and her husband decided to invest in a small pied-a-terre in the City of Light. Setting out to fulfill her dream of becoming a true Parisian even though her French still requires frequent use of her trusty phrasebook, Nielsen enters a world of snobby real estate agents and decrepit walk-ups. We follow breathlessly–partly from anticipation and partly from laughter–as she learns the peculiarities of buying property in France such as rooms vs. meters, when and how to make an offer, and how to not gasp at astronomic prices for tiny spaces. We know quite a few of our customers will find this not just an entertaining piece of travel literature but also a how-to guide for their own Parisian dream. ($24.95)
The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson is not going to appeal to you speedsters out there but those of us who embrace the experience of exploration by foot (I’ve been walking three miles a day for the last year) will be fascinated. Nicholson weaves personal experience together with historical accounts and literary references while considering such topics as the perfect walk, photowalking, walking firsts like the poles or the moon, even walking as performance art. I’m pleased that the author spends so much thought on urban walking-my favorite form-instead of just trekking through deserts and mountains. If you prefer not to let your Jimmy Chus ever touch pavement, this is probably not your cup of tea. For the slow travelers of Wide World, though, this is lovely stroll. ($24.95)
I knew Napoleon was young when he was conquering the world but I admit that I had forgotten that he was only 28 when he embarked on his famous campaign in Egypt. Our customers who love a well-written, in depth examination of military history with side excursions into science, linguistics, religion and biography will be happy to learn much more than that tidbit from Napoleon in Egypt by Paul Strathern. The author tells the story of Napoleon’s determination to liberate Egypt from its Muslim Mameluke overlords, the battles fought in extremes of heat and dust, and a native insurgency that destroyed the Emperor’s declared victory. Anyone remember a saying about people who don’t know history being doomed to something? Strathern, a British academic and an award-winning author, writes in a lively style that brings the successes and failures of this epic campaign vividly to life. ($30.00)
Even people who love many forms of music and drama may find the esoteric world of Chinese opera difficult to understand. Fortunately, Bi Feiyu, a rising star in Chinese literature and film, has written The Moon Opera, a short novel being described by reviewers as a “piercing gem” and a “tiny, perfect novel.” In the first chapter we learn the back story of the title opera: condemned as counter revolutionary when first written, its performance in 1979 was marred when the starring actress, Xiao Yanqiu, attacked and disfigured her understudy with boiling water. Twenty years later a wealthy industrialist offers to bankroll a revival but only if Xiao is again offered the lead. Now the aging actress must deal with her own demons as well as a young and beautiful rival as she attempts to create great art on stage. With precise and poetic language the author draws a compelling portrait of the mix of drama, jealousy, ambition and tradition that inhabits the world Beijing opera. ($18.00)
With the huge successes of Indian and Indian-American authors in the last decade or so, this niche market has gone mainstream. Indu Sundaresan has been part of this success with bestselling novels like The Twentieth Wife. Born and raised in India and now a Seattle resident, her latest collection of stories, In the Convent of Little Flowers, focuses on a favorite theme of this genre, the clash between old values and new lives. She strives for a shocking honesty in her descriptions of child widows about to be burned on a funeral pyre and the brutal abuse of an older couple by their son in stories that show that neither the old nor the new ways can claim moral superiority. With complex characters and a true understanding of the forces at work in society changing at light speed, her stories offer portraits of people struggling to maintain balance in the modern world. ($22.00)
Our customers at Wide World have always been wonderful at supporting one special group of writers: our local authors. The Front Table offers you a chance to do that again with a new novelist (and Holly’s friend and co-author) Erica Bauermeister. Her book, The School of Essential Ingredients, has received great reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and hopefully will shortly make the “word of mouth” hotlist. The story is set in a cooking class. Each week a diverse group of characters gathers at Lillian’s restaurant to learn from her thirty years of cooking experience. As they work their way through various succulent recipes, they also learn to use their own tastes, memories and experiences to create something wonderful both in the kitchen and in their lives. Erica will present at the store this Tuesday evening (February 3). We encourage you to come discover a wonderful new book and support your local literary community. ($24.95)
Only three of our bestsellers were novels, four if you count the graphic variety. You chose books about food, a couple of biographies, sociological studies, humorous essays, and some traditional travel literature titles. Two of the bestsellers weren’t even new, Gibson’s 
We were thrilled that long-time friend of the store, Bob Birkby’s latest book 
China was your favorite country this year-maybe it was the effect of this summer’s Olympics. Simon Winchester’s book 
a cautionary tale of man’s destructive potential set in Mongolia made the May edition. You all found 
studying at Sichuan’s premier cooking school, she was able to break away from the expectations of friends and family and find her true self. Her fluent Chinese enables her to delve much deeper into Chinese culture than most travel writers and her understanding of the connections between food and cultural identity adds new dimensions to the usual stories of the curious things Chinese people eat. And there are recipes.
You also favored books about really long journeys. It was no surprise to find Paul Theroux’s 
The book tells the story of his ten year effort through three expeditions to retrace the steps of the famous traveler. His ten meter sailboat nearly foundered off the coast of Turkey, he trekked through the high mountain regions of Pakistan, and he finally succeeded after years of struggle with Chinese bureaucracy in becoming the first foreigner to enter China through the closed Western border. It’s a truly epic journey that Rutstein documents in words, pictures and even film on the DVD included with the book.
We had a couple of around-the-world titles on the list with Eric Weiner’s study of happiness in many lands, 
charts, graphs and statistics, Florida analyses the effect of place on careers and lifestyles. He looks into the reasons people say influence their decisions to move from place to place and then tells us the truth about why we really do what we do. In the final chapter he offers a ten-step decision making manual to help us make informed decisions about where to live in order to achieve our life goals. And the appendices offer pages of rankings of cities and regions in various categories to assist in that decision making.
You showed England some love, making a novel and an affectionate look at British foibles bestsellers in 2008. 
Lyall’s essays about her new life in London after moving there from New York in the ’90s, 
We’ll round out the list with a couple of bestselling staff picks. Timm has been handselling his favorite novel, 
Anglophiles and other fans of literary non-fiction get to rejoice over Peter Ackroyd’s latest, 
Some readers will find ‘exciting’ a serious understatement in reference to Chilean author Roberto Bola�o’s posthumously published masterwork, 
Ooh, look, Jon Fasman has a new book out, 
If you’re one of the many people who can’t get enough of “I moved to France” stories, try Mark Greenside’s 
Daniel Everett’s new book, 
