National Geographic directions

The author explores the ancient island of Sicily, considering the various cultural legacies--Greek, Roman, Arab, and Norman--that have shaped the island's colorful culture and history.

Anna Quindlen first visited London from a chair in her suburban Philadelphia home--in one of her beloved childhood mystery novels. She has been back to London countless times since, through the pages of books and in person, and now, in Imagined London, she takes her own readers on a tour of this greatest of literary cities.While New York, Paris, and Dublin are also vividly portrayed in fiction, it is London, Quindlen argues, that has always been the star, both because of the primacy of English literature and the specificity of city descriptions. She bases her view of the city on her own detailed literary map, tracking the footsteps of her favorite characters: the places where Evelyn Waugh's bright young things danced until dawn, or where Lydia Bennett eloped with the dastardly Wickham.In Imagined London, Quindlen walks through the city, moving within blocks from the great books of the 19th century to the detective novels of the 20th to the new modernist tradition of the 21st. With wit and charm, Imagined London gives this splendid city its full due in the landscape of the literary imagination.Praise for Imagined London:"Shows just how much a reading experience can enrich a physical journey." --New York Times Book Review"An elegant new work of nonfiction... People will be inspired by this book." --Ann Curry, Today"An affectionate, richly allusive tribute to the city." --Kirkus Reviews

Looks at the history of the Paris neighborhood of St.-Germain and its many notable inhabitants and haunts.

Howard Norman shares a unique look at the place that shaped his fiction - a raw landscape brimming with eccentric characters and bizarre situations.

For more than twenty years Louise Erdrich has dazzled readers with the intricately wrought, deeply poetic novels which have won her a place among today's finest writers. Her nonfiction is equally eloquent, and this lovely memoir offers a vivid glimpse of the landscape, the people, and the long tradition of storytelling that give her work its magical, elemental force. In a small boat like those her Native American ancestors have used for countless generations, she travels to Ojibwe home ground, the islands of Lake of the Woods in southern Ontario. Her only companions are her new baby and the baby's father, an Ojibwe spiritual leader, on a pilgrimage to the sacred rock paintings their people have venerated for centuries as mystical "teaching and dream guides," and where even today Ojibwe leave offerings of tobacco in token of their power. With these paintings as backdrop, Erdrich summons to life the Ojibwe's spirits and songs, their language and sorrows, and the tales that are in their blood, echoing through her own family's very contemporary American lives and shaping her vision of the wider world. Thoughtful, moving, and wonderfully well observed, her meditation evokes ancient wisdom, modern ways, and the universal human concerns we all share. "This book is a treasure and a delight."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

The author describes Trefan Morys, her country house in Wales, and looks at Welsh culture, history, and symbols.