history
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The Land Where Lemons Grow—The Story of Italy and its Citrus Fruit: Helena Attlee
Published by Penguin, 2014, 230 pages “During journeys that have taken me from the bergamot groves of Calabria, on the southern tip of the Italian peninsula, to lemon houses set against the snowy backdrop of the Alps, I found that… Continue reading
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The Border—A Journey around Russia: Erika Fatland
Translated from Norwegian by Kari DicksonPublished by Maclehose Press, 2017, 611 pages The full subtitle of this book is “A journey around Russia: through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway and… Continue reading
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South to America—A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation: Imani Perry
Published by HarperCollins, 2022, 432 pages To understand the United States, you need to understand the South, its history and its legacy. That is the premise of this book by Imani Perry, a Black scholar from Birmingham, Alabama, who has… Continue reading
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Following Nellie Bly—Her Record-Breaking Race Around the World: Rosemary J. Brown
Published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2021, 184 pages “I want to go around [the world] in eighty days or less. I think I can beat Phileas Fogg’s record. May I try it?” The idea came from Nellie Bly,… Continue reading
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How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt—A Handbook for the Lady Adventurer: Mick Conefrey
Published by ONEWorld Publications, 2011, 224 pages “Take every precaution and abandon all fear.” Mary Hall, c. 1905 Why is it, when asked to imagine an explorer, people inevitably think of a sunburned unshaven white man squinting into the sun?… Continue reading
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The Lost Pianos of Siberia: Sophy Roberts
Published by Grove Press, 2020, 448 pages “Siberia is a nightmare or a myth full of impenetrable forests and limitless plains, its murderous proportions strung with groaning oil derricks and sagging wires. Siberia is all those things, and more as… Continue reading
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Destination Heartland—A Guide to Discovering the Midwest’s Remarkable Past: Cynthia Clampitt
Published by 3 Fields Books, 2022, 272 pages “Why Midwestern history? Because I love American history, and the history of the Midwest is, to a greater extent than most people realize, a key element of that history. … [P]eople need… Continue reading
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Non-Stop Metropolis—A New York Atlas: Edited by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Shapiro
Published by University of California Press, 2016, 224 pages Rebecca Solnit is no stranger to conveying urban environments through maps (see my review of her earlier atlas on New Orleans). But how do you convey the complexity of New York? Rebecca… Continue reading
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Calabria—The Other Italy: Karen Haid
Published by Mill City Press, 2015, 280 pages Calabria is the toe in the boot of Italy. It’s the region that non-Calabrese Italians tend to look down on as crime-ridden and backward, something I found out for myself. When I… Continue reading
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Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates—A Woman’s Trek through Turkey: Üstün Bilgen-Reinart
Published by Dundurm Press, 2007, 240 pages Üstün Bilgen-Reinart is a Turkish woman, who moved to Canada to study when she was 18 and stayed on. But in the late 1990s, she moved back to Turkey to spend more time… Continue reading
Women's Travel Books 