Globe Corner Blogs

The Pearl Jacket -ed. & trans. by Shouhua Qi

A young journalist befriends an older gentleman and his bird in “Comedy of Birds.” When the old man has been talked into freeing his favorite bird by the Old Men Bird Club that he belongs to, he bemoans the day. When it arrives, the young man comes along, envisioning a feature story. As everyone’s bird takes flight the old man’s bird drops dead from the sky. The journalist sees his story fly away.

The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories is full of short-shorts with this biting irony or crisp, cruel social criticism. However, it also shares with the readers moments of calm, tenderness, and even humor. Every story in the book can be categorized as “flash fiction,” a style popular both in China and in the US. This book’s short-shorts are about 1000 words or less. Stories this short offer the reader a juicy mouthful of one emotion, idea, or atmosphere of a time.

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Arctic Wings -edited by Stephen Brown

The Hidden Treasures Series takes flight in Volume IV. Whether an avid birder or just an appreciator of nature, these books on birds are sure to delight.

Arctic Wings is an astonishing photography book of every Arctic bird imaginable. The book is organized by type of bird, each section beginning with a short essay by an expert in that field. The essay is followed by pages and pages of amazing photos of the birds. But wait – that’s not even the best part: it comes with a CD of Arctic bird calls!

Egg and Nest, another photo book, stays true to its title. Unlike the in-the-wild photos of Arctic Wings, the pages of this book look like photos of an art installation. Delicate images that find the beauty in every egg and nest and astound the reader with their intimacy.

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NYC Wallpaper City Guide

Since Dan decided it was my turn to highlight some of the “hidden treasures” of the store, I decided to point out some of the books that get dwarfed on the shelf.

Wallpaper City Guides are small guidebooks that might be hidden in between the larger guidebooks. They are perfect companion guides for the design-conscious traveler: they include “architours” and information on shopping and urban life. The guidebooks include beautiful photographs, and if you collect them they look really cool and colorful as a stack on your bookshelf.

The Marling Menu-Master is another thin book that not only helps you translate food and menus, but also explains the complexities of the menu: terms, dishes, sauces, and even preparation methods.

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Maps of the Imagination -by Peter Turchi

Maps of the Imagination has affirmed my long-held belief that every book should have pictures. With each turn of the page, new and fascinating maps, paintings, sketches, and diagrams are revealed. In some instances they directly support author Peter Turchi’s argument; in other cases, they’re shown just to captivate the reader (it usually works).

Peter Turchi has written a completely compelling discussion of how writers are in many ways the same as traditional geographic cartographers. When asked to name a cartographer, the names Blaeu, Mercator, Lewis, Clark, or Columbus might immediately come to mind. But what about Italo Calvino, Kate Chopin, Vladamir Nabokov, or James Joyce? According to Turchi, these writers are also cartographers – just as a geographic cartographer selects (and de-deselects) information to best achieve the purpose of the map, writers select only certain parts of reality to map a fictional, yet relatable, world.

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Pike Place Market -photo by Lisa

I have many rituals I have to complete every time I return home to Seattle for a visit. I must have almond-fried chicken at any Chinese restaurant because I have never found it in Boston. I must have Ivar’s halibut and chips. I must meet up at cafes with friends and drink lots of vanilla lattes. And I absolutely have to go to my favorite place in the world: The Pike Place Market.

Pike Place Market is one of the most popular and

Crafts at the Market -photo by Lisa

iconic sights in Seattle. After having worked there for five years as a barista in one of the many cafes, I have spent lots of time wandering around. Pike Place Market is a huge maze of small shops with everything from Polish pottery to magic shops, cheap and not-so-cheapish ethnic foods, flower stalls, arts and crafts vendors, coffee shops (including the first Starbucks, which whether you like it or not, has become a pilgrimage destination), street performers, tourists, locals doing their shopping, and most importantly, fish mongers.

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The Globe Corner Bookstores will be closed from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm on Tuesday, January 20th, for the Presidential inauguration.

100 Best Ski Resorts of the World -by Gerry Wingenbach

I awoke this morning to temperatures outside of five-degrees with a windchill of six-below. This did not bode well for my walk to the bus stop sporting still-damp hair and the cute skirt I was determined to wear. Oh well: crunchy, frozen hair and chilly knees I could handle. Five is really not so bad.

Negative eleven is another story. This is what I’m hearing from reports out of Ohio. Minnesota’s negative twenty-two, on the other hand, is downright prohibitive. I’m not sure how one survives in weather where the windchill is fifty-below. I’d have to invest in a hair dryer.

In weather like this, my mind doesn’t necessarily drift to the Caribbean though, but to places where people are able to stay outside and play in the snow.

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Blaeu's Atlas Maior of 1665

Here are some of what I would call “Hidden Treasures of the Store.” If I could, I would call every single map in the store a Hidden Treasure, but I will restrain myself for your sake.  These few things that I mention are not truly hidden, but do get overlooked once in a while.  So feel free to ask about them or come check them out.

Joan Blaeu’s Atlas Maior: This is an amazing atlas of the world from 1665 which contains some of the most beautiful maps I have ever seen.  The best part is if you do not want the whole world you don’t have to get it.  There are separate atlases from 1665 of France, Germany, Italy and other locations.

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View from where MLK delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech

The Reflecting Pool was frozen over last week when I visited Washington DC, my first time back since moving away three years ago. The trees lining the center aisle of the mall were stripped of their leaves. The tourists, spouting cloudy breath in all languages, were heavily bundled against the cold. None of this was new, though: when I lived there the Washington Monument was my point of reference while walking through the city, and I had many times stood at the feet of Abraham Lincoln, trying to comprehend it all.

It’s hard to wrap your head around all the history that is behind the building of these monuments and all the history that took place around them. I stood on the tile carved to inform visitors that it was the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood to deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech. How difficult it was that bitter afternoon to stand there being bustled about by fellow tourists and imagine a steamy August day in DC, 1963.

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Hidden Treasure, Glow-in-the-dark Map of the Universe

Each day, passersby wander into our store to admire our beautiful wooden bookshelves, our selection of floor and desk globes, or our most recent acquisition, the game of Bird-Opoly. Once inside, the more resilient shopper may notice two large map drawers – ostensibly, these drawers serve only as display surfaces but they actually house some of the greatest and most unique treasures in our store.

Here is a small list of some of my favorite “hidden treasures” that aren’t in plain view but deserve to be seen and written about:

Landforms of Asia hand-drawn map by Erwin Raisz: Pen and ink reproduction map of the earth’s physical surface including mountains, plateaus, rivers, and basins. Raisz’s Landforms maps are also available for other parts of the world, including the United States, Italy, Europe, and Mexico.

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