Globe Corner Blogs

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.

3. Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia, by Tom Bissell. In 1996 Tom Bissell went to Uzbekistan with the Peace Corps, one of the first Corps volunteers to go to the Central and West Asian republics, only to be airlifted home a few months later when he went a little bit crazy living in an isolated Uzbek village. Five years later, in the summer before 9/11, he returned to the region ostensibly to explore the disappearance of the Aral Sea, once one of the worlds great freshwater seas, now a polluted, shrinking puddle surrounded by man-made desert. Approaching the ghosts of his own past and those of the region’s torturous history, Bissell is funny, emphatic and informative without ever being overly dramatic or boring. He recently came out with a new book (The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam) detailing his return to Vietnam with his ex-marine father that I’m really psyched for, so stay tuned.

4. Another Day of Life, by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Ok, so if you’ve been paying attention to this blog then you know by now that I have a man-crush on Kapuscinki and if you want to know why, read this slim book. His first-hand account of the chaos, confusion and factional fighting in Angola — following Portugal‘s sudden decision to withdraw from all of its colonies in 1975 — showcases some the clearest, tightest prose ever written in the travel genre and marks him as a literary giant. Although he makes his support of the socialist, race-neutral MPLA rebels clear, Kapuscinki is careful to see beyond labels and stereotypes to the people beneath on all sides. One of my favorite books of all time. Read it!

5/6. In A Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson. (We have a tie!) Want to laugh at a middle-aged, rather unathletic man, doing silly things for no good reason? Well, here you go. Sunburned Country is about the oldest, driest, strangest, most poison-filled place on earth: Australia. Walk in the Woods is Bryson’s attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail in his 40s with a man he hasn’t seen in 20 years and didn’t much like to begin with. Both are good beach reads, and will be sure to give you plenty of funny factoids you can use to out-geek all your friends.

Read more: Africa, Appalachian Trail, Australia/Oceania, Author Crush, Book Reviews, British Isles, Central Asia, Will's Top Six


Will is a politics junkie, the only native born Bostonian on the staff (do not ask him for directions if you are driving, his guess is as good as yours), a rabid Boston sports fan who hearts Kevin Garnett in a totally non-creepy way, a terrible surfer, a bon vivant, and a burrito connoisseur. He dreams of the beach at Punta Uva and is often hit by Lisa for ill-advised remarks about her hair.

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