Globe Corner Blogs

It’s commencement time in Boston/Cambridge when the lilac bushes start fading, the rhododendrons begin blooming, and the white party tents for reunions appear on the college quads. Below are a few gift ideas from our staff for the high school and college graduates…

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Lonely Planet’s The Big Trip

Your Ultimate Guide to Gap Years and Overseas Adventures

The new edition of this guide hits the shelves just in time for commencement. The one-stop guide has essential information on pre-trip planning, including health and safety, budget, tickets, packing, the latest technologies for keeping in touch, and even tips on how to choose travel companions.

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For the college grad migrating to one of the urban havens of the hip, the Not For Tourists guide series is a perfect apartment warming gift:

Boston

New York City

Brooklyn

Washington D.C.

Chicago

Seattle

San Francisco

Los Angeles

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World Heritage Sites:

A Complete Guide to 911 UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The 911 sites are found in 151 countries across the globe, and strict criteria assures that only the most spectacular and extraordinary sites make it onto the list.

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Continue Reading »

Although Boston possesses a certain serene charm during the heart of winter, I confess that after weeks of trudging through knee-high snow I was looking forward to my week-long visit to Brazil‘s sensuous urban paradise, Rio de Janeiro. While I was there, Rio’s sky was blissfully sunny with the exception of only a few brief tropical showers. The air was hot, humid, and heavy. But it was a load I was willing to bear, especially when cooling off in the waters of Rio’s many picturesque beaches.

My father, brother, and I stayed at my uncle’s apartment in Copacabana, three blocks from the beach. Copacabana is a sliver of a neighborhood wedged between Rio’s iconic hills and the vast Atlantic Ocean. Rio’s culture is largely defined by the beach. On any day of the week, a multitude of beach goers relax with family or friends, conversing over the sound of the steadily pounding waves. Streaming through the crowds, vendors sell ice-cold beer, fresh coconut water, shrimp on skewers, towels, bikinis, jewelry, and souvenirs, rhythmically shouting the name of their merchandise as they pass. The atmosphere of the beach is very laid back, and this feeling permeates the rest of the city. Continue Reading »

The intrepid GCB staff snowshoed into Harvard Square and has cleared  the sidewalks (with the assistance of the greatly appreciated Harvard Real Estate snow plow) this morning.  We are now open and will likely be open until at least 6 pm.  We’re running out of hot chocolate & peppermint schnapps.

Winthrop St, Harvard Square, 2011 Nor'easter

The Boston Globe’s Travel section featured a range of gift ideas for the traveller last Sunday:

photo by Christopher Klein, The Boston Globe

THE GLOBE CORNER BOOKSTORE
Harvard Square is New England’s international crossroads, which makes it the perfect home for this Cambridge store. Travel junkies can easily spend  hours browsing the world inside this globetrotter’s nirvana. What makes the store such a gem is its comprehensive geographic scope and diverse selection. Sure, the shelves are full of such staples as Fodor’s and Lonely Planet guidebooks, but they stand spine to spine with specialty titles covering everything from London architecture to Pakistani birds to Czech beer. You can find histories of the Panama Canal, tomes on Middle East geopolitics, and novels by Steinbeck and Joyce. Driving, hiking, or biking anywhere in the world? There are scores of road, topographic, and city maps from Alaska to the Cotswolds to Tehran. The store doesn’t just cater to jet-setters; there’s an entire section devoted to Boston. Armchair travelers will discover compelling travelogues, international cookbooks, CD courses for mastering new languages, and globes and wall maps for interior decoration. If everything inside catches your eye, why not buy it all? The owners recently put the store up for sale.  90 Mt. Auburn St., 617-497-6277, www.globecorner.com – Christopher Klein

MISSION: Pool the staff’s lunch money to secure sugary goodness from local Baking Goddess Joanne Chang’s Flour Bakery, or, Operation: Tartlette.

LOCATION: Central Square, Cambridge, MA. U.S. of A.

THREAT LEVEL: HIGH.

ACTION PLAN: Operative Lisa – code name “Snickerdoodle” – is to scour Joanne Chang’s cookbook Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe; she will determine which tartlettes to procure in order to cover the three previously agreed upon flavors: lemony, chocolaty, and anything else that looks really, really good.

Operative Will – code name “Country Ham Quiche” – is to call the bakery and find out the exact circumference of the various tartlettes in order to meet the agreed upon target: “most sugary-goodness-per-dollar.” Also, he will get exact directions to the bakery.

Operative Nastia – code name “Meringue Cloud” – is to be dispatched to the bakery to purchase the decided-upon tartlettes: LEMON LUST TART, HAZELNUT-ALMOND DACQUOISE, and HOMEMADE OREOS. She must get back to work in time to start her shift. (SOP)

MISSION STATUS: Delicious. Continue Reading »

This Wednesday, December 15th, the Globe Corner Bookstore will be celebrating a very special day! It’s the second birthday of Ulla, our official greeter and store dog, and the GCB would like to invite all of our customers (and fans of the incomparable Ulla) to come down and join in the fun. Show up at the right time and you just might be treated to the sight of our rather embarrassed staff singing “Happy Birthday” to a golden retriever wearing a large bow while she wolfs down some sort of pastry. Belly rubs will be accepted in lieu of gifts. (N.B. the last applies to Ulla, not the staff.)

As the year comes to a close, it’s time to reflect…on the best books of the year.  The New York Times has released its list of “100 Notable Books,” fiction and nonfiction chosen from all of the books reviewed this year.  Many of these chosen few happen to be travel related.  Our list also sweeps up those titles that the Times has highlighted in their Holiday Gift Issue.  Below are a few of the selections.  The list of travel related books carried in our store is available on a special page devoted to the NYT list.

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How to Read the Air, by Dinaw Mengestu

Mengestu’s own origins inform this tale of an Ethiopian-American tracing the uncertain road once taken by his parents.

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Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff

It’s dizzying to contemplate the ancient thicket of personalities and propaganda Schiff penetrates to show the Macedonian-Egyptian queen in all her ambition, audacity and formidable intelligence.

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Patrick Carrier, the president of The Globe Corner Bookstore, has announced plans to sell the 28-year-old Harvard Square landmark travel book & map specialty store due to a recent health issue. He requested that prospective buyers contact him directly for information about the sale.

Carrier explained that the health issue is likely to be very manageable over time, but is the impetus for initiation of an “exit strategy” in order to focus (for the short-term) on health rather than business issues. He has already begun to respond to inquiries and hopes that the store will thrive under new ownership.

Carrier noted that “It has been an immensely rewarding 28 years for me at The Globe Corner. It has been a privilege to work with such wonderful staff, customers, and friends in the book and publishing industry, and of course the great books and maps.” He looks forward to taking on new challenges once this health issue is resolved.

The Globe Corner Bookstore currently operates a travel book and map store in Cambridge, Massachusetts and an Internet/Web catalog, www.globecorner.com. The company was one of the pioneers of travel specialty retailing and remains dominant in this niche today.

The company is renowned internationally for an unrivaled breadth of travel reference materials: travel guides, maps, atlases, language reference products, globes and other books about geographic places (e.g., history, cooking, architecture, nature guides, photography, literature). The store and Web catalog represent a one-stop reference center for independent travellers, outdoor adventurers and nature enthusiasts, educators and students, and people who like to dream about faraway places.

In 1982, the original Globe Corner Bookstore opened in downtown Boston as one of the first travel book and map specialty stores in the United States. Today, the company operates its travel store with its iconic Art Nouveau bookcases in Harvard Square. The company’s retail store is often cited by industry observers and national media as a state-of-the-art model of specialty bookselling. The company has operated retail locations in Boston and Cambridge over the past 28 years and is a well-established brand name within the metro Boston and New England market.

Patrick Carrier can be contacted at 617-649-5700 (x25) or at pcarrier@gcb.com.

Media coverage:

Publisher’s Weekly

The Boston Phoenix

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe Travel Feature — Holiday Issue

La Bayadère is my new favorite ballet. I saw it this past weekend at the Boston Opera House and absolutely LOVED it!  La Bayadère was first performed in 1877 by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theater in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Choreographed by Marius Petipa and composed by Ludwig Minkus, La Bayadère is a romantic ballet set in ancient India.

The first act begins with temple dancers, Bayadères, celebrating the Indian Ritual of Fire. During this ceremony, the High Brahmin declares his love for the most beautiful Bayadère, Nikiya. But Nikiya rejects him and instead meets secretly with Solor. They dance and swear eternal love over the Sacred Fire. The High Brahmin sees them together and in an act of jealousy, he vows to take revenge on Solor. Continue Reading »

Other Places Travel Guide to Cape Verde

Other Places Travel Guides are a new series of guides  written by returned Peace Corp Volunteers. Not only are they written by people who lived and worked in the areas they write about, but they cover such far-flung places as Cape Verde, Benin, Micronesia and Palau and Namibia.

We were interested to find out a bit more about the new series, and we emailed a few questions to Callie Flood, author of Other Places Guide to Cape Verde, to see if we could find out a bit more. She was kind enough to respond and share some pictures. Continue Reading »