Globe Corner Blogs

Inspired by some new dazzlingly beautiful picture books that came in recently, I have decided to take an easel and some watercolors and spend some time outside, in attempts to make art myself. The weather in Boston tends to change instantly, so both Simone and I better hurry to catch some sunlight!

T-minus 16 days and counting! If you’re anything like me, you don’t remember this holiday until the Saturday before when your Mother asks what you’ve bought your father. Of course you don’t have anything, so you do what any good daughter would do and lie to Mom, hang up quickly, and run to the card store. The only thing left there are a few of those terrible cards that suggest Fathers are walking banks for their daughters. As for a gift, you can’t get him a tie, because even if dear old Dad did wear ties, that gift became a joke years ago. My perpetual fallback: a book. And what is the dad-est of Dad books? Books with maps. (Leave the not-asking-for-directions joke for your Mom.)

Here’s a few of my favorite books of or about maps:

Cartopraphia
Maps: Finding Our Place In The World
The Agile Rabbit Book of Historical and Curious Maps
Mapping Boston (also available in paperback)
Transit Maps of the World
Atlases of all kinds!
Psycho Geography
How To Lie With Maps
Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer

I have decided to go to Laos.   

Who’s with me? 

We will see monks and buy textiles from Hmong women with toothless smiles.  Later, we will sail the Mekong and drink Beerlao.

Your very own Globe Corner Bookstore was featured in this past Sunday’s Boston Globe. If you missed it in print, read “Bookstore employees are off to see the world” online for further insight on what a fascinating bunch we are.

The first time I went to Sarajevo, I met a group of guys in a bar. After a few beers, one of them told me the following joke.

Two guys were running across Sniper’s Alley… Continue Reading »

I have always been drawn to maps.  When my family would go on long trips I would be the one holding the map, whether I was helping or not, and studying it.  My roommates always come to me for directions or to use my map collection of Boston.  I even got a job at a map store.  Needless to say, I really like maps. 

There is one book that caught my eye one day in the store that all map lovers should see,  The Agile Rabbit Book of Historical and Curious Maps. This may be the coolest book in the whole wide world, containing maps of the weirdest things. Continue Reading »

While it may be raining elsewhere in Europe, London swaggers with its flawlessly sunny weather and proves the doubtful Austrian wrong – in so many different ways! The maze of crooked streets, hidden and not-so-hidden parks and squares offers plenty of opportunities for outdoor time. Continue Reading »

My friend Katia and I were assigned to transport a robot, built by her son’s school team for the FIRST Robotics Competition, to Atlanta, Georgia. The poor thing had to travel in our packed car all the way from Richmond, Virginia to the Georgia World Congress Center, covering four states and enduring numerous bumpy highway stretches.   Continue Reading »

Smile When You’re Lying is not your average travelogue. It’s way better. Chuck Thompson reveals the not-so-glossy reality behind the travel writing and tourism industries with hilarious rants and anecdotes about his misadventures overseas and in the business back home. Below are Nicole and Llalan’s top reasons for *hearting* Chuck Thompson: Continue Reading »

We recently got in a new history of the establishment of an autonomous Kurdistan (for the fussily precise, the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq), Invisible Nation by Quil Lawrence, which I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in the region’s rapidly changing political terrain. Continue Reading »