Tag Archives: travel library

In Africa Through Books, Movies and Crafts

Africa, Books, Movies, Mystery, , , , , , ,

Today I traveled to Africa. It only took a half hour to get there, since I was driving to the south in Tucson to the AfricanVillage, part of the Tucson Gem Show.  Great crafts, carvings, masks, beaded cloth, and a food booth with good African cooking.

African Village Food Booth at Tucson Gem Show
African Village Food Booth at Tucson Gem Show

I talked with a vendor who explained this mask to me. It comes from the Ivory coast, he said, and represents a bird who is a story teller.  How appropriate for A Traveler’s Library.

The Story Teller Mask
The Story Teller Mask. For more info go to http://www.africanmasks.ca/history-tradition

I mentioned in my post about geography, that I am rather clueless about Africa.  A whole continent, and what do I know?  I have seen a few movies. The Last King of Scotland.  Out of Africa with Meryl Streep. The Snows of Kilimanjaro with Ava Gardner. King Solomon’s Mine with Deborah Kerr.  I am dating myself here, so better stop.

And literature?  Well, despite the many fine books available on Africa, I do not have many in my travel library.  In my usual quest for detective stories that tell me about a country, I did read Alexander McCall Smith’s very humorous The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and The Kalahari Typing School for Men.  There are more in the series and I will probably read them, too.

But I need to find good literature by Africans, and here is a blog that is a good source. A writer from Zimbabwe, Emmanuel Sigauke, gives not only interesting posts, but links to many African sites and blogs and writers.  I am running out of excuses for my ignorance.

Photos by VMB

Secrets of the Alhambra in Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra

Books, Granada, Spain, Travel, , , , , , , , ,

Destination: Granada Spain

Book: Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving

Reflecting pool in the Alhambra
Reflecting pool in the Alhambra

 

Moonlight illuminates tile walls and stone lions that are more than 600 years old. The light peoples the walls of the Alhambra with romantic ghosts.  Washington Irving knew the evocative power of moonlight. In his book , Tales of the Alhambra, which describes time that he spent in the wonderful building that dominates Granada Spain, he weaves stories that take place in daylight shadows and others that slink through the dark.  “…clothing naked realities with the illusions of the memory and the imagination,” as he puts it.

Thanks to Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra, when we went to a bank that sells tickets to the Alhambra, Ken and I bought tickets for both the daytime tour and the evening tour.  We lined up at the appointed time for the daytime tour and wandered on cobblestone streets to graceful stone archways, past flower-bordered paths and into the endless intricacy of Moorish rooms covered in jewel-toned tiles.

In one courtyard, we came across a wedding party. The bride, a slightly-past-sell-date dark haired lady stuffed into her white gown, led the mustachioed groom toward a fountain for wedding pictures. On the rim of a reflecting pond, a pair of lovers did what lovers do, oblivious of the throngs of sightseers.  The Spanish sun glanced brightly off the fountains and turned the flowers into neon.

When we went back to the Alhambra in the evening, low lights along the paths led us into a world of shadow, where shape, not color, became the star attraction.  We saw subtle details of ceilings and arches that daylight’s bright colors distracted us from noticing.  But we also saw the possibilities. We knew suddenly why Moorish Spain held such allure for a story teller like Irving and for the Romantics of the nineteenth century.

Have you ever read a travel book by a literary figure of a bygone era that struck you as completely in tune with your travels today?  What older books do you have in your library? Please join the conversation and tell us about your books.

Stay tuned, I will soon be talking about all the myriad ways we receive our words today. (See a list of my articles on Spain, Best Books on Spain )

Exploring the Dark Corners of Venice

Books, Destinations, Italy, Mystery, Travel, Venice, , , , , ,

Destination: Venice

Gondola Traffic Jam in Venice, Italy Photo by VMB
Gondola Traffic Jam in Venice, Italy Photo by VMB

Books: Any mystery by Donna Leon

Donna Leon has made a career out of killing off many people in just one city. But with all the romance and mystery of Venice, Italy, why not?

Unlike the many writers who have plumbed the rich history of Venice, Donna Leon goes after the gritty underbelly of today’s Italy. Grubbing around in police works and political corruption she exposes plenty of things that the tourist board will not be telling you about. I gobbled the books  down like potato chips before, during and after my Italian trip.

In 2008 the yearly high tides in Venice reached exceptionally high marks, making Leon’s 1996 (reprinted in 2005)  Acqua Alta , timely all over again. Leon’s  police procedural mysteries (16 so far) about the personable family man, Commissario Brunetti, come across as a love letter to Venice. But not a love letter from a smitten teen. Her books strike me as a mature kind of love letter that says I know all your warts and I love you still.

When I went to Venice, the romantic decay all seemed just a little too seedy. And the city that once built an empire on commerce, now trades in made-in-China copies of Venetian masks. Talk about tacky souvenirs–I thought that if I saw one more pair of men’s underwear sporting a bit of David’s anatomy (that’s David by Michelangelo)—I would jump in a canal.

Leon (and Brunetti) also led me to hidden treasures of Venice, and explained the little cultural secrets that sometimes elude a tourist.I went on a Commissario Brunetti alert, recognizing street and plaza names and remembering the crime that took place in a particular canal. She also has published (with Toni Sepeda): Brunetti’s Venice: Walking With the City’s Best-Loved Detective.

You may want to start with her latest book,  The Girl of His Dreams , but once you add Leon to your travel library, I’ll bet you can’t read just one.

* NOTE: In 2018 the number of mysteries has climbed to 27 and you can also buy Brunetti’s Cookbook by Roberta Pianaro and Donna Leon. Thank goodness. I’ve been drooling over those pages in the novels where his wife whips up a wonderful dinner for the family.