Atlas of Lost Cities: A Travel Guide to Abandoned and Forsaken Destinations

Atlas of Lost Cities: A Travel Guide to Abandoned and Forsaken Destinations by Aude de Tocqueville (2014, 144 pages)

I love the idea of this book: traveling around the world, exploring the abandoned cities on every continent. For each city, ranging in geography and time period, they provide a brief summary of its history and demise.
Unfortunately it failed to live up to its potential. Clearly Euro-centric with what could be racist undertones (putting "modern" in quotation marks when describing a "'modern' village" in India, which under every definition of the word was modern except for the fact it's not white or European; describing a city as "dating from India's pre-historic era" despite not actually being pre-historic, just precolonial), and straight up incorrect information in parts (maps were wrong, incorrect word translations, etc). There were no photos, only graphics. Which can fit a cohesive theme, but they would describe beautiful scenery and buildings that left me wanting more.
For a book described as a travel guide, it doesn't actually provide any travel guidance. Very little (if any) information on how to get to it or accessibility, if guides are necessary or recommended, or even just a rating on how desirable a destination it is.
I think for those interested in abandoned cities, this could be a good starting point but in my opinion, get your research from a different source. 

 

⭐⭐ 

Impossible City: Paris in the 21st Century

Impossible City by Simon Kuper (2024) 258 pp

Part memoir, part travelogue and part history, Impossible City takes the reader through an introduction to contemporary Paris and follows the author as he eventually becomes a French citizen. Kuper is a journalist for the Financial Times and the writing is brisk, but the organization is scattershot, perhaps appropriate for one of the world’s most complex cities. A reluctant emigre, Kuper uses detailed personal anecdotes to illustrate the unique character of 21^st Century Paris and his place in the metropolis. This is a dense book – a series of vignettes on various aspects of Paris including transportation, terrorism, politicians, culture and of course food.

Around the World in 80 Books

 

Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch 412 pp.

Created as a kind of antidote to the Covid lockdown, the chair of Harvard's Comparative Literature Department evokes the travels of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by selecting 80 books by a wide variety of authors. The books have settings that roughly follow Fogg's itinerary. Damrosch also pairs books with similar themes, settings, or authors. I read 13 of the 80, some for pleasure, others as school assignments. A couple have been summer Big Book Challenge titles including last summer's Tale of Genji and this summer's Things Fall Apart. While most of the titles can be classified as "great literature", I was excited to find a Donna Leon title from one of my favorite series in the list. While I don't expect to read the entire list, there are a number that are already in my TBR books and I will be adding a few of Damrosch's suggested titles. If you can get past the often dry, professorial tone to the book, it's an interesting read. The audiobook was read by the author.

Once Upon a Camel

Once Upon a Camel by Kathi Appelt  336 pp.

This is a charming middle grade story about a camel living in the state of Texas. Zada believes she is the last camel brought over by the U.S. Cavalry to transport supplies. Zada had been one a Pasha's racing camels in Turkey when they were approached with an offer to buy camels to send to the U.S. Zada and her best camel friend Asiye are loaded on a boat with other camels for the long ocean voyage. They became a caravan that hauled supplies back and forth across Texas. After being separated from the herd Zada lives as a wild camel, making friends with various animals, while avoiding others (scorpions, snakes,...). He befriends a family of kestrels and when a huge sandstorm causes the parents to get lost, Zada carries the two babies on her head while searching for the missing adult kestrels. To keep the babies occupied on their journey Zada tells them stories about her previous life while the mischievous baby birds sound just like human kids with their "Are we there yet?" type questions. Appelt (The One and Only Ivan) writes wonderful books with animals as the main characters, making their conversations sound believable. This was one of my Treehouse Book Club selections.

Secret St. Louis

 Secret St. Louis: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, by David Baugher, 202 pgs.

Did you know that the original plans for HWY 170 included cutting through Brentwood and Webster Groves to connect to HWY 44? Or that that you can visit a nudist colony in Lonedell, Missouri? This book is a fun romp through some well-known and unique spots in the city with some unusual characteristics or history. Each chapter is only a page or two and simply highlights what makes a special area so strange and worthy of a second look. Some things you probably already know are here (the giant catsup bottle in Collinsville, the WWII tank in Bangert Park, etc), but readers might also be suprised to learn that the original, start-up location of KSHE 95 was a suburban home in Crestwood, or that the Cathedral Basilica in the Central West End is sometimes referred to as "the Rome of the West." Lots of fun stuff here and after a quick read-through, you'll wonder what else St. Louis has been hiding. 

Happyish

Happyish by Jeanette Escudero (2022) 245 pages

Alex Martinez was ready to mark the completion of a year since her unexpected, unwanted divorce when her neurologist told her that her headaches were caused by a brain tumor. Probably not cancerous, but still a big deal, because it needed to be removed soon, and it would require her to have a support system, in addition to lots of therapy and healing time.

This health news converged with her poorly received presentation to her longtime bosses at an auto parts company, which was vying to have its products sold in PriceMart stores. Her bosses told her to take some time off, and her reaction ‒ not knowing if that might have meant she was fired ‒ was to decide to travel to places that her younger sister wanted to see, before she died of leukemia many years before. And not to tell her two mothers about the tumor. Alex starts out at the Grand Canyon, then goes to Costa Rica, then to Puerto Rico.

The book covers Alex's journey, both in space and time and relationships. There's something about her that made it hard for me to relate to her exactly, but watching her live through it all felt authentic.

Wandering through Life

 Wandering through Life: A Memoir by Donna Leon 193 pp.

This memoir by the author of the Commissario Brunetti mysteries seems like talking to an old friend. Written as a series of vignettes about different periods of her life Leon covers a wide range of her life. Part one covers her early life from her childhood in New Jersey, summers on her grandfather's farm, selling produce, developing a love of opera, and heading to college. The second part tells of her experiences as a teacher of English in Iran (just prior to and during the Shah's downfall, then teaching college in China, and finally Saudi Arabia before finally settling in Italy. Venice is her love and the place where Brunetti solves crimes. Leon has also written travel books and books on music including her favorite composer, G.F. Handel. Now 80 years old, Leon lives in Switzerland for most of the year but returns to Venice frequently. Her 32nd Brunetti mystery was published this year and she's said nothing about stopping.

You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams

You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams: My Life in Stories and Pictures by Alan Cumming  272 pp.

This book by actor/author Alan Cumming is not as autobiographical as his previous books Not My Father's Son and Baggage. Instead it is a series of episodes in Cummings' life which connect to the photos, mostly taken by him over many years. The photos are not gallery quality, in fact most are very amateurish. It is the stories that go with them that give them a sort of charm. The title comes from an encounter with Oprah Winfrey at an award ceremony and was directed to a friend of Cummings. The audiobook was read by the author. If you are wondering how I could see the photos from an audiobook, Audible includes a .pdf. 

Less Is Lost

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer (2022) 257 pages

Learning about Greer's newest book was like coming across a friend I had never expected to see again! Arthur Less's mentor and longtime former lover, Robert Brownburn has died. The twist is that although Brownburn seems to have given to Less the one bedroom bungalow in San Francisco that he and Less lived in, Less learns that he must pay for a decade's worth of back rent within a month, or he loses the bungalow forever. 

Thus starts off our quirky hero Less on a frenetic search for enough cash ‒ tasks which include bringing an author to an-out-town onstage event to interview him, being part of a prize committee, and traveling in the South with a troupe who has made a play out of one of Less's own books.

Meanwhile, Less's lover, Freddy, is in Maine, teaching (and later hibernating on an island), trying to make sense of his and Less's lives. We also learn more about Less's family history, his relationships with his mother, sister and mostly absentee father. And about other people named Arthur Less.

I recommend that one read the first book, Less, before reading this one, just to appreciate it all the more. Enjoyed this tremendously, and expect to reread soon, to pull out even more of the rich tidbits packaged inside so well.

Oh William!

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (2021) 240 pages

I've enjoyed reading books with the character Lucy Barton, in spite of reading them out of order. In this novel, Lucy is in her late sixties and widowed. We learn much about her life, but not so much that I don't thirst for more. She speaks in a conversational style, offering slivers about many parts of her life: her early years, living in poverty with non-nurturing parents; her college scholarship, which was her passport out of poverty; her first and second marriages; her daughters.

William, the man of the book's title, was her first husband, a driven man, a parasitologist who had taught microbiology for many years. She and he had remained on cordial terms since their divorce, occasionally even using old pet names for each other. Sometime after Lucy's beloved second husband died, William asked Lucy to go a trip with him to Maine to learn more about his mother, and in particular, about a half sister he learned that he had. William first seemed to disbelieve that he'd really had a sister, a girl that his mother purportedly had abandoned when she left her first husband, but now he wants to know all about the woman, even though he's not sure he wants to meet her. Lucy goes along to support him.

Strout's characters are strong, yet vulnerable. And very believable. I first read Anything Is Possible and now Oh William. Next up: the first, My Name Is Lucy Barton. 

Displacement: a travelogue

 

Displacement: a travelogue / Lucy Knisley, 156 pgs.

Despite being in their 90's with lots of health issues, the author's grandparents want to take one last cruise.  She decides to make this possible by joining them and here is her memoir of the trip.  There are many events that make this sound like the worst idea ever but also some triumphs that make it worthwhile.  Interspersed with excerpts from her grandfather's memoir of his WWII involvement, you get a bigger picture of who her grandparents are and why this cruise is important.  The drawings are beautiful and evoke the sea and scenes around them.

An age of license

 

An age of license: a travelogue / Lucy Kinsley, 198 pgs.

The author has a fantastic opportunity to take a European trip that is mostly paid for as a book tour.  Side trips with friends and family round out the tour, including exploring a relationship with a Nordic dude.  The drawings are fantastic and the meandering trip is well documented.  Enjoyable on several levels.

Tokyo travel sketchbook

Toko travel sketchbook: Kawaii culture, Wabi sabi design, female samurais and other obsessions / Amaia Arrazola, 192 pgs.

Arrazola had a month long artist-in-residency stint in Tokyo where she was tasked with creating a drawing every day.  This book is an expanded version of her work completed on the trip, adding more drawings, commentary and some photos. She casts an artist eye on the culture and digs into some topics that aren't significant in the way of history or importance but are the types of things you really want to know. Fun from start to finish.

Turbulence

Turbulence / David Szalay, read by Gabra Zackman, 145 pgs.

Twelve short vignettes that tell a story of a person who has traveled for a variety of reasons.  They interact with each other, mostly tangentially so the thread that connects them is thin.  The characters circle the globe while we briefly circle their situations.  I thought this was brilliant and Gabra Zackman perfectly embodies everyone featured here.

On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein

On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius by Charlie Harmon  259 pp.

With all the alcohol and drug use in this book it could almost be titled "Fear and Loathing on the Classical Music Circuit". Charlie Harmon took over as Maestro Leonard Bernstein's personal assistant, charged with keeping his day to day life running while touring around the world and making sure the Maestro finished writing his opera "A Quiet Place". Harmon had been at loose ends about what to do with his musical career when this job fell in his lap. However, most of his duties at the start were more logistical than musical; booking flights and hotels, packing mountains of luggage, getting Bernstein to his appointments, and providing for his needs. Soon he was also a music copyist and travelling music librarian for the various tours. The biggest challenge was the hard drinking, chain smoking, Dexedrine dependent, sexually promiscuous Bernstein himself. Sleep "schedules" were chaotic and the work was often thankless. By the time he resigned as assistant Harmon was overworked, depressed, suicidal, and constantly at odds with Bernstein's producer and business manager. On his death bed Bernstein requested that Harmon "take care of his music" which he went on spend endless hours cataloging. This is an unwhitewashed look at a complex genius.

Census

Census / Jesse Ball, read by Chris Andrew Ciulla, 250 pages

An interesting book that features a father-son relationship, the adult son has Down syndrome and the father is coming close to death.  Who will take care of his son, an adult child who has brought so much joy to him?  He takes a job as a census taker for a shadowy governmental agency and leaves town with his son to travel north to collect data and see the countryside.  This trip frames experiences between the two and other people they meet along the way.  Family history is woven into the story through people they meet and memories.  This is a beautifully told story that really revolves around the father and son. 

Less

Less by Andrew Sean Greer (2017) 261 pages

As with anyone that I've just met, it takes a little while for Arthur Less, a 49-year-old white gay guy, a bit of a second-tier writer, to grow on me. He's having a midlife crisis partly because of his upcoming 50th birthday and partly because Freddy, his lover for the past nine years, is going to be married to another guy very soon. Less is invited to the wedding, but rather than just declining the invitation, he ends up accepting every other invitation he can find to take him away from home in San Francisco for many weeks: These invitations include teaching a class in Germany, going on a writing retreat in India, doing a series of tastings for a magazine article in Japan, etc., seven stops in total, all in order to save face and to distract himself.

The writing tone seems just a tad clinical at first, but as Less follows his travel itinerary, the understated humor of the very strange situations that he finds himself in grows progressively funnier. I especially enjoyed the translations of the German which Less speaks while he's in Berlin. (Arthur has been insisting he's fluent in German, but we find otherwise!)

The conversations that Less has with others are often thought-provoking meaning-of-life-and-love kind of philosophies which differ widely. One mystery: the narrator. Little crumbs thrown out from time to time show that the narrator personally knows Less. Who is it??

America for beginners

America for beginners / Leah Franqui, read by Soneela Nankini, 310 pgs.

A widow from India is traveling to America to discover what happened to her son.  He came here to study but then discovered he was gay.  When he came out to his parents, they were not supportive. Additional stories include the guide hired to take the widow on her trip and a companion hired to make sure she isn't traveling alone with her male guide.  This was a fun read that touched on some serious topics.  The audio was well done by Soneela Nankini.

Mr Gandy's Grand Tour

Mr Gandy's Grand Tour by Alan Titchmarsh, 313 pages

Thanks to downsizing at his office, Timothy Gandy has found himself retired at 55. He's reluctantly preparing himself for settling into years of being told what odd jobs to do by his forceful wife, Isobel, when she suddenly dies of a heart attack. While he's understandably distraught at her death, Timothy also realizes he now has an opportunity to make his own decisions about his life. To kick it off, he leaves on a meandering Grand Tour of the European cities he's always wanted to visit: Paris, Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome, and Venice. As Timothy discovers these new places, he also discovers himself and creates connections that would never have been formed had he settled down into his dotage (which is what his obnoxious son and insufferable daughter-in-law wanted).

This was a lovely light read, and it was nice to see how Timothy and his relationship to others evolved. An excellent choice for summer travels.

The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho  167 pp.

I read this many years ago and this time listened to the audiobook version read by Jeremy Irons. This brief story is about a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago who sets out on a journey to visit the Pyramids where a recurring dream told him he would find treasure. On the way he gains and loses fortunes, falls in love, faces the dangers of warring tribes, meets a king and an alchemist, and learns his treasure is back where he started from. Santiago's journey is about listening to your heart. Irons does a good job of presenting the story. I found it interesting that in a few parts he sounded quite a bit like Neil Gaiman.