Globe Corner Blogs

Rough Guide to Brittany and Normandy

The new destination for the month of July at the store is France (15% off all titles for France!). I always think that I am “over” France, but then something always comes along to remind me why I love it so much. I think that it is precisely all the cliches about France that I love the most. I love the Eiffel Tower, going on bateaux mouches, cafes, crepes, red wine, pain au chocolat and when people mock my “bizarre” accent when I massacre the French language. I lived in a microscopic village in Brittany for a year and now I sound like a strange American-French hillbilly with really outdated slang. I have even been told by professors that my French sounds like the equivalent of what would happen if you sent a Japanese student to the Deep South for a crash course of English. This did loads for my confidence, but in the end I have chosen to think that the way I can’t pronounce my “r” is endearing.

Which brings me to one of my favorite books that deals with being an American struggling with genders of nouns while living in rural France, Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris. He makes me laugh and not feel like a linguistic failure. He also makes me really wish that he sat next to me in one of my language classes. I have a feeling he would be the best dialogue partner ever!

Arabesque Cookbook by Claudia Roden

Coming off my successful macaroni and cheese dinner (see earlier post) and another delicious pesto pasta and sausage meal, I was feeling confident as I began my latest cooking adventure. Sadly, I was quickly humbled by Claudia Roden, author of the seductively beautiful cookbook, Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. I chose a seemingly easy Turkish-inspired recipe, Chicken with Tomato Pilaf. While I must admit the tomato sauce and chicken breasts were easy to prepare, my attempt at a simple yet scrumptious Arabesque meal was foiled by my cooking of the basmati, or long-grain rice. So as not to bore you with inconsequential details, I will say only this: I began cooking the rice at 7:30 and did not put a spoonful of tomato pilaf (still slightly hard) into my mouth until 9:15…ugh. It should also be noted that the rice should actually take between 30 and 50 minutes to cook (depending on the type of rice) and that I most likely had the tomato sauce to rice ratio way off.

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Red Map of NYC

Yesterday, my day off, I was lucky enough to take a day trip to New York City. It wasn’t just for fun; on the contrary, I had the task of helping my two foreign friends.

New York City is overwhelming. It comes down on you like a hurricane, like a mighty wave of light, sound, heat, commotion and pure thrill. Its streets are like overflowing rivers and its subway system is a maze that confuses you in a snap. All of it together makes your head spin. Now, multiply the effect of it all by a thousand for two humble guys who haven’t seen anything like that in their entire lives. So, I had no other option than to turn into Ariadne for one day — to help them find their way in this labyrinth called “The City.”

Well, even Ariadne had to use a wool thread. I had a better tool in my hands — two Red Maps of New York City. I presented those to my friends and they immediately let out two sighs of relief. They obviously were not going for a lot of details, so something clear, straight to the point and with a subway map marked right over the streets perfectly served the purpose. I headed back to Boston with a light heart yesterday just because I know there is nothing better than a nice, useful, helpful map to make a brief stay even in the bustle of New York City a breeze.

The Good Beer Guide to New England by Andy Crouch

Last Friday night I traveled across the U.S. and back. I went straight from work to Delaware. Then I headed down to North Carolina, skipped across to Colorado, then California, up to Oregon, to Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, and surely a few others I’ve forgotten before finishing in Baltimore, Maryland.

Well, okay — I actually spent the evening in a cavernous underground room in Boston at the American Craft Beer Fest. (Boston is so fortunate to be the home of BeerAdvocate!) With 75 brewers and over 300 kinds of beer, I easily taste-tested my way across the country and back. The place was packed: there were beer connoisseurs of every level, but also a few gaggles of plaid-shorted boys who probably would have been satisfied with red plastic cups of Natty Lite. I wore my “Beer Geek” T-shirt just to be sure my postion was clear. But most importantly, the intense three and a half hours of beer tasting inspired me to plan a trip to each and every microbrewery and brewpub in New England. And I’ll certainly be bringing along Andy Crouch’s book that outlines the history and personality of each brewery along with recommendations for beer, food, how to get a tour, and how to take the beer with you. Hm, on second thought maybe I’ll just bring Mr. Crouch, himself, along.

Map of Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

I love being outside, whether it is on my bike, camping, hiking, or even driving around with the windows open. It is one of the greatest things in the world. However, I have found myself in certain situations where being outside can be a pretty scary thing. Some examples: you go on a hike, get lost, and do not know which way is which. Another time, you get up at night in the pitch black while camping and your flashlight doesn’t work. Or, your boat battery dies when you are nowhere near land. I know you’re thinking that I am an ill-prepared moron, but that is not always the case. You never know what is going to happen next and the great outdoors is called “great” for a reason.

There is a book I would recommend to you persons who might encounter these situations: Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass, by Harold Gatty. This dude tells you everything, and I mean everything. Within the book you will find:
1. How to navigate when lost at sea based on sea swells.
2. How to find your way when all the navigational tools die on your plane.
3. Where the sun is on a cloudy day just by looking at trees.

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Explorer's Guide Cape Cod

Most of my trips to Provincetown seem to revolve around the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum. I can usually find $5 parking nearby, it’s good for orienting myself, and I always erroneously think that a public bathroom is located in the museum.

This time, however, I spent an inordinate amount of time staring at it. One of my friends spends the summers performing there and I went down to see his show at the Gifford House. While we were enjoying cocktails on the veranda during one of his breaks he mentioned the “magic of the monument.”

Apparently if you look at the tower at just the right angle, it looks like Donald Duck. Everyone except for me seemed to see Donald’s likeness right away. Even after a few more cocktails, squinting really hard, and having numerous visiting Canadians try to point it out to me, I never saw it. I just saw a really tall tower — the tallest all-granite monument in the entire U.S. at 252 feet and 7.5 inches to be exact, according to An Explorer’s Guide to Cape Cod. Continue Reading »

While perusing the World Travel section of our store, as I so often do in the last, quiet moments of any given work day, I was pleasantly surprised when my eyes settled upon Alain de Botton’s most recent nonfiction book, The Architecture of Happiness. I was instantly brought back to the Christmas morning two years ago when I received this book from my mother. I remember reading this thoughtful and well-illustrated book for the remainder of that break, stacking it on my bookshelf, and unhappily returning to the drudgery of mandatory college reading lists. Lucky for me, the revamped, paperback edition caught my eye and I had the enjoyable experience of rereading my favorite excerpts in recent days. In one such part, de Botton directly correlates the style of architecture one favors to the lifestyle one wishes to achieve and the morals one holds. If you are suspicious of this claim, read chapter three.

At times reading like a philosophy text, at others like an art history coursebook, and still at others reading like an intimate travel diary, de Botton works through his own musings on the importance of architecture while forcing readers to reflect on the role of architecture, both good and bad, on their daily lives. Thanks to de Botton’s accessible yet intellectual narrative style, this book can serve as an introduction to architectural theory for those unfamiliar with the subject, or as a means of reinvestingating and reimagining the eternal question, as stated by de Botton himself: what makes a great building?

The Bedside Book of Birds by Graeme Gibson

I woke up at 5:30 this morning. It was unintentional and unusual for me as I am, above all else, not a morning person. It had been a long time since I had been awake then, and I had forgotten how much I actually loved that time of day. The birds have just woken up and are chattering amongst themselves. At this hour, there are yet no horns honking, no jackhammers pounding through the sidewalk — just the birds. True, when I part the curtain to feel the still-cool air and listen more carefully, I don’t hear as many birds as I did growing up in the rural Midwest. But I can still hear the robin going through that loop of complicated chirps that never seems quite the same twice. I sometimes catch the song of a cardinal flying by, bobbing along with “bird-ee, bird-ee, bird-ee.” I do miss hearing the wrens, though. Every spring back home, the male wrens would start early, preparing their nests in the bird houses, working hard to impress the ladies. When they were ready they sat on the peaks of the houses, puffed out their feathers and called out to the females. The looked like little tenors on stage at the opera: chests full, heads tilted to the sky, wings fluttering earnestly against their sides as they hit the high note. I was impressed, at least. They usually had two broods a season, so the males’ call trilled above the cicadas throughout the summer.

Trailblazer Trans-Canada Rail Guide by Melissa Graham

Since arriving in Toronto about nine months ago, I’ve been hearing about poutine. As a vegetarian, it took me some time to find a version I could try, but I’m happy to say I’ve finally had the experience. The Québécois will tell you not to eat “poot-zeen” outside of their province, but if you’re vegetarian, keep your eyes peeled in Toronto for veggie versions; if you’re not picky, just sample some at your local Canadian Burger King.

Poutine seems to be something of a national dish, the food to snack on while watching the Leafs lose, or while enjoying some curling. The key ingredient is cheese curds, and for those of you who know Wisconsin, yes, these are the same delicious nuggets that prompt rural A&W franchise managers to make their employees wear t-shirts that say “Got Curds?” Continue Reading »

Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks

In no particular order, these are some of my favorite books currently in the store:

1. Round Ireland with a Fridge, by Tony Hawks. Man gets drunk in a pub, man makes silly bet with buddy that he can hitchhike around Ireland accompanied by a mini-fridge (that’s right, a mini-fridge). Hilarity ensues, along with a bizarre and unexpected national celebrity. See the fridge surf; see the fridge blessed by nuns. Great beach read, or even anywhere else where breaking into fits of uncontrollable giggles is considered acceptable. Funnier than a drunk monkey. (Sorry PETA.)

2. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, by Alexandra Fuller. A beautifully written, challenging memoir of Fuller’s childhood in Africa in the last years of the white regime in Rhodesia and its transformation after independence into Zimbabwe. Unsparing in her examination of the racism that underlay her childhood as well as the tragedies and triumphs of her family, she shows the flawed humanity of all involved. One of the best personal narratives I’ve read in quite some time. Continue Reading »