Globe Corner Blogs

A Romanian Vineyard - photo by Lisa

As soon as I retrieved my ridiculously heavy suitcase at the airport in Timişoara, Romania, my friend informed me that we had less than an hour to get ready and head to a Romanian wine tasting.

The wine tasting was being held for a Franco-Romanian university conference. Through a curious chain of events, I mysteriously wound up as a “visiting dignitary from the United States.” My friend’s father-in-law organized the conference, and so we were invited to be his guests. It is true that I was an English teacher in Romania years ago, but I am not sure how the rumor started that I was actually “important.” Due to my poor language skills, however, I just went with it and was treated to a guided tasting at a beautiful winery and one of the heartiest meals of my life. Continue Reading »

Just in time for the new school year: Now through September 15th, all wall maps are 15% off, including the stunning Raven Relief Map series. Known for their beautiful appearance, they feature a range of color tints for elevation and shaded relief, as well as town names and labeled roads and rivers. All 50 states and national U.S. maps are available. To view the full list of state and national maps, please visit our Raven Relief Maps page.

Whether you need to decorate a classroom or a dorm room (or just want an interesting map for yourself), please visit our Wall Maps section online to view our full selection. Or, visit our Harvard Square location to figure out which map you like best.

It’s official. On December 23rd, at roughly 3:30am Indian Standard Time,  I will be landing in Delhi.

Starting on the 21st of December, just one day after exams, I’ll make my way to New York City to board a flight destined for Delhi, India (by way of Doha, Qatar). After spending two days there, I’ll take the bumpy hour-long flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. There, two days of temples, ancient Gods and Goddesses, and hopefully a Sherpa or two await (these are, of course, just my wildest fantasies of Nepal, which I’m sure are also wildly inaccurate, but I have some time to find out what to expect). From there, I’ll head back to Delhi for two packed days, dedicating an entire one to Agra and the Taj Mahal. Then I’ll be off to Shanghai, spending eight days wandering the glorious city, just winding down from the Shanghai Expo, before catching a flight back to my reality, Boston, Massachusetts. Continue Reading »

A post from one of the newest in the Globe Corner Bookstore family, Sam:

We began the day just after sunrise by searching for breakfast and a much needed cup of coffee. Driving north from Northampton, we spotted the classic polished steel siding and large neon lettering of the Whately Diner, Fillin’ Station. This original eatery from the 1960s was packed with hungry patrons and was complete with working jukeboxes and a scalloped chrome back wall behind the bar. Grabbing the few remaining stools at the end of the counter, we enjoyed hot eggs and pancakes as well as the speedy service keeping our coffee cups filled. Our fellow breakfasters consisted of a diverse group of families, truckers, tourists and locals all in search of a quick meal. After our meal and a quick read of the local newspaper we headed back to the road north toward Greenfield.

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New York Pride Parade: photo by Betsy

While I always expect a little madness when I visit New York City, I did not realize, getting off the five hour bus ride from Boston to New York, that this particular Sunday was the culminating event of Gay Pride week: the Pride Parade. This alone would, under normal circumstances, have the already hot, crowded city buzzing a bit louder than usual, but the middle of the World Cup (Germany vs. England and Argentina vs. Mexico) also fell on this weekend. This meant that both admittedly rowdy crowds would be celebrating and I would be going along for the ride.

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For an author to be properly crushable, he must possess not only a pretty face, but impressive talent. Handsome hacks are not welcome on the Author Crush List. That said, Tom Rachman is pretty damn crushable.

Behind those dreamy eyes is a mind I’d love to get into. I’d like to know, for instance, how Rachman manages to slip so skillfully into the lives of eleven very different people. How does he know eleven different kinds of aspiration? Eleven different kinds of desperation? Eleven different kinds of loneliness? And how does he whip these stories into the portrait of a modern-day newsroom while also delivering the history of the paper from inception to present day? How does he write The Imperfectionists so perfectly?

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National Geographic Trails Illustrated St. John Island

A guest post by Lorie K., winner of the Funny Family Vacation Story Contest

There are two ways to experience the Caribbean: The first is to enjoy a resort vacation with Mai Tais on the beach, massages, and fabulous meals while watching the sunset; the other is the way my family decided to do it – camping during monsoon season. After getting through the embarrassment of running through Laguardia Airport on Christmas Day to catch our plane with tents, sleeping bags, and coolers wrapped with duct tape in tow, I thought the worst of going camping on St. John island was over. I had visions of snorkeling, beach combing, relaxing with my parents and sisters after a harrowing first semester at law school, and possibly meeting a cute boy… oh, the folly of dreams! Instead, I found myself sleeping on the ground in a constant puddle due to sudden rain outbursts, slathering myself with aloe to relieve the sunburn, and trying to digest food cooked over a Bunsen burner. And no cute boys would deem to approach me on the beach with my dad lurking nearby in his black knee-high socks!
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Independence Brewing's Pale Ale - photo by Llalan

As soon as I got off the plane in Austin we headed to happy hour at a local Italian restaurant, Sagra. Half-price pizzas and cheap, good beer. Tried a few local brews like an Independence pale ale. Then, the sun still being high in the sky and the heat oppressive, we napped on the couch for a few hours, the two cats curled next to us leaving splotches of fur on our sweaty skin.  Next came the pool where we experimented with synchronized swimming (it’s harder than it looks) and the day ended on the patio of the nearby Dog and Duck Pub. “And this is our life,” my friend smiled. I’m moving to Austin.

I took in a few of Austin’s best-known sites while there: we revisited Barton Springs, ate breakfast tacos, took in the State Capitol, and visited as many outdoor eating establishments as possible. One thing Austin does better than any other city I’ve ever seen is the patio. Specifically the patio bar.

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Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian - photo by Cecilia

I count 39 museums and galleries in the Washington DC’s Official Visitor’s Guide, and I read that the Smithsonian alone has 19 separate museums. It is my last day here, and I have only one afternoon to see something of this city. When I was in DC two years ago, we visited the Mall, the White House, the Natural History Museum, and walked Constitution Avenue. With the “basics” covered on this rainy afternoon, the obvious selection was a museum. I just had to choose from those 39+ options. Looking at the map in the city’s visitors guide, I discover the National Museum of American History (one of the Smithsonian’s museums), and I decide to visit when I  read that Julia Child’s kitchen and Kermit the Frog are there.

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I am generally not a big sports fan…which can be a bit of a problem living in Boston. I grew up on Pac-10 football and golf, but every four years I do catch World Cup Fever.

During the last World Cup I was spending the month of July in Sarajevo, Bosnia. I had rented a small room from my beloved “adopted” Bosnian Grandma, Tecvida. She soon began to treat me as family and not just as a traveler that she had taken in to help support her meager pension. She is a Bosnian Muslim, but explained to me that I could eat all the pork and drink all the alcohol I wanted in her house; she just asked that I please not disturb her during her prayers.

During my stay, I learned many things from her. She taught me how to cook some dishes -  including some vegetarian dishes, a lot of Bosnian vocabulary, how to properly cover my head so I could enter the non-touristy mosques, but maybe most importantly she taught me about football and the importance of the World Cup. Continue Reading »