Globe Corner Blogs

Fun at the Beach

Weather-wise, it was perfect in Boston this weekend. Everyone seemed to be in a fantastic mood, people broke out their summer clothes, neighbors were sitting on their stoops, invitations to barbecues were popping up, and people were seriously starting to plan trips to the beach. Thanks to the weather forecast, I now know that the sun will disappear soon – most likely on my next day off from work – but that shouldn’t stop me or anyone from planning their next beach adventure. One must be prepared to take advantage of every weather-permitting opportunity. My godson Andy, who is featured in the photo, is always ready and willing to head to the closest beach. All he needs is his hat, shorts, sunscreen, adult supervision and he is ready to go. All the adult supervisors need to know is where to go. Continue Reading »

Crawfish Boil--photo by Angie Henderson

After years of visiting our son/chef in New Orleans, we finally were initiated into the ultimate southern Louisiana spring ritual of the backyard Crawfish Boil.

In the rest of the country, the onset of warm weather prompts folks to light their grills and invite friends and family over for a backyard “barbecue” or “cookout” depending on the region.  In New Orleans, early April means its time to fire up a 60 quart pot of water, dump untold mixtures of Cajun spices into it and simmer it until suitably fiery.

While superficially bearing a vague resemblance to a New England Clam Bake (it’s outdoors, messy, and involves copious amounts of beer and shellfish), a Louisiana Crawfish Boil is far more exotic in its ingredients and flavors.

The discussion of a Crawfish Boil’s technique, spices and ingredients invokes passionate debate (and more beer) during the preparations.  When a group of friends assembles around a backyard grill in Boston, the heated talk revolves around sports (professional) and politics.  In New Orleans, folks get animated when talking about what they ate last night, what they are going to eat in a few minutes, and which musicians they’re planning to hear later (much later) that evening.

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The Author Eats Skyr Unaware of the Lurking Camera on a Bus Somewhere in Iceland

Iceland is often described as a magical place. And for the average tourist there – as opposed to the average banker these days – I would have to agree with that assessment. The ethereal landscape particularly lends itself to Lord of the Rings-type fantasies. Waterfalls spill down the green hills into valleys of pastel wildflowers and hot springs. Snow-capped volcanoes, seething sulfur pits, and the occasional fjord pop up every now and then. Don’t be ashamed if you envision yourself sporting chain mail and downing flagons of mead after a hard day of discovering North America and slaying dragons. It seems like one could make quite a living offering Viking reenactments or selling Merlin costumes. And apparently they do. Continue Reading »

Yemen--by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

This past Monday evening I attended a Harvard-sponsored forum, moderated by acclaimed British travel writer and diplomat Rory Stewart. He is the author of Prince of the Marshes, about his year as a provincial governor in southern Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003, and The Places In Between, which chronicles Stewart’s walk across Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban regime. Stewart is currently a professor at the JFK School of Government here in Cambridge and was eager to moderate a talk given by an author he had long admired but never met: Tim Mackintosh-Smith, a Thomas Cook Travel Award-winning author (for his travelogue Yemen-The Unknown Arabia). Mackintosh-Smith spoke about his long obsession with the 14th century Islamic scholar and world traveler Ibn Battutah and how the author’s unique views of the Middle East have been informed by the last quarter-century he has spent living in the Yemeni capital of Sa’na.

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Olaus Magnus' Scandinavia 1539

The other day I was wasting a lot of time playing on Facebook and I got sucked into one of those stupid-yet-addictive quizzes that are popping up everywhere. They have one for everything imaginable and I saw that one of my friends had completed the “What is your true inner nationality” quiz. Naturally I had to take the quiz as well. Turns out my true inner nationality is “Swedish.” Hummm… never thought I was particularly Swedish. Even though I am proud of my Norwegian-German from Russia via Ukraine roots, I think that my inner-nationality is American. However, I have been told I have the soul of a Romanian by a Romanian, that I must be Croatian because I like red wine with fish, that I look really Bosnian, and that I was Icelandic by a sober Icelander. I would like to think that my inner nationality might be a New Zealander (I like the accent) or Canadian (I would like to live in Vancouver), but I never considered Swedish. It never crossed my mind.

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More Chinglish--by Oliver Lutz Radtke

Stop everything. This is important. Very important. In fact, you may want to be sitting down. I don’t want to exaggerate, but the word “life-changing” may very well apply. Deep breaths. Okay, ready?

A new edition of Chinglish – appropriately titled More Chinglish – has just arrived. I know. Now, you may be thinking, “Does this mean that the old one is not available anymore?” Good question. I can hear the panic in your voice, but, dear Reader, you don’t need to worry. Chinglish was the number one best-selling book of 2008 for our store; it’s not going anywhere. Oliver Lutz Radtke’s new book More Chinglish has a place on our display table next to the original, some might say classic, Chinglish. More Chinglish was in the store for mere minutes before it started eliciting giggles and guffaws from browsers. And the staff have already made a dent in our inventory numbers. Continue Reading »

Where To Go When --by Joseph Rosendo

At least one customer a week asks, “Isn’t it difficult to work in a place like this? Don’t you just want to go everywhere?” The answer, invariably: “Yes.”

I think it’s fair to say that all of us have a nearly constant and always ferocious case of the travel bug. The fierce desire to be on the move, exploring new lands is a definite occupational hazard of working at the Globe Corner. The bug can strike at any time. The sudden urge to run away to Italy for a month comes on while chatting to a customer about the architecture of Venice. Gondolas, wine, a brief but passionate affair with someone who looks not unlike Furio from “The Sopranos”!

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Sari, Mehndi, & Bangles! -- photo by Nicole

In India, everything is beautiful. Well, okay. Not everything.  But the women are gorgeous. Stunning. In fact, I noticed this even before I got to the subcontinent. While sitting on the plane and waiting to take off, anxiously anticipating the twenty-something hour flight from San Francisco to Bangalore, it was hard not to notice that the airline attendants — all women — could pass for models. It was also hard not to notice my dirty, holey cargo pants and extra baggy, don’t-harass-me shirt in comparison to their sleek pencil skirts and perfectly coiffed hair.

It was a theme that would be repeated during my stay in India. I even heard local women in Bangalore complain about the appearance of backpackers one day. “They come from all these rich countries and they are always dressing the same. They look so dirty and smelly…” Well, I could only assume they weren’t talking about me. But I decided then that I was going to ditch my unisex travel uniform of khaki pants and boring black top. I was going to dress like the beautiful Indian women I saw everyday: like the South Indian housewives who pinned jasmine flowers in their hair and dripped with gold and jewels for only a trip to the neighborhood market; like the professionals who floated through offices in silk salwar kameez; like the college students who sauntered through the high-end shops on MG Road in designer jeans.  In short, I decided to look like a lady instead of another “dirty” backpacker.  I decided to buy a sari.

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Harvard Square Store

The Globe Corner Bookstore now has an official page on Facebook.  Now you – yes you! – can become a fan of the bookstore on the ubiquitous social networking site.  “What does becoming a fan do for me?” you might be wondering.  Well, besides making you look especially hip to all of your Facebook friends (some of whom may actually use the word “hip”), you’ll also find updates about any upcoming events like our May 7th author event for Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of the Mona Lisa.

You’ll also get regular status updates posted by the staff letting you know what’s going on in our Harvard Square store and info on promotions – like which locations are discounted for our Destination of the Month sale.  April’s Destination of the Month is India, making everything about India 15% off online and in the store.  But if you were a fan of The Globe Corner Bookstore on Facebook, you’d already know that…

Sea of Glory --by Nathaniel Philbrick

I know it is not the most “sophisticated’ way to evaluate a book, but if the book is so engrossing that I miss my stop on the subway…I consider it to be really good. Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick is one of those books. I am only halfway through the book, but it caused me to do some exploring of my own this morning as I totally missed my subway stop and ended up in a part of Boston I have never been to before.

Philbrick tells the story of the voyage of the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838 – 1842 led by Charles Wilkes; an exploration of the Pacific Ocean. Growing up on the Pacific Ocean, one would think that I would have heard of or possibly learned about this historic feat. But I really don’t recall ever hearing about Charles Wilkes, and I lived in a town where all the schools were named after Pacific Northwest explorers. (I went to McLaughlin.) In this book, Philbrick explains why the U.S. Exploring Expedition–who mapped nearly all of the Pacific Ocean, named Antarctica, and collected a sizable collection of exotic specimens that became the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution–is basically unknown. Just don’t pick it up if you have any pressing engagements.