Category: Culture
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Author Erik Larson offers compelling acount of the start of the Civil War

Only a master storyteller like Erik Larson could turn the five tumultuous months leading up to the Civil War into “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroes at the Dawn of the Civil War” (Crown), a compelling, page-turning read, chock full of anecdotes, psychological profiles and obscure but compelling tidbits of…
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Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking

“Whatever you cook or don’t cook, this book is a trip to the islands or islas of the world.” A beauty of a book, all lively colors, and wonderful photos, Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking (Chronicle Books) takes us from island to island through the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. “The people who live…
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Mexico Kaleidoscope: Myths, Mysteries and Mystique
Oenophiles might be surprised to learn that the oldest winery anywhere in the Americas is Casa Madero, formally established as long ago as 1597, located in Parras de la Fuente, a small town in the northern state of Coahuila. “In 1549 the Spanish priests and soldiers who explored this region discovered native vines growing wild…
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Girls and Their Horses by Eliza Jane Brazier

“Horses are healing,” says Eliza Jane Brazier, author of “Girls and Their Horses” (Penguin-Random House), as she walks her horse around the arena while we talk on the phone. Brazier, who first started riding when she was five and has worked as a horse trainer, riding instructor and a head wrangler at a dude ranch,…
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Western Mexico: A Traveler’s Treasury

A travel guide for the intellectually curious, Tony Burton’s Western Mexico: A Traveler’s Treasury provides an insider’s entry to this extraordinary region of Mexico. The book, published by Sombrero Press and now in its fourth edition is less about logistics and instead focuses on the myriad of reasons–historical, ecological, cultural, and/or scenic–that make each place…
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Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance

Buy on Amazon “The Green Book was more than just a road trip guide but a way of survival. Hall hopes that its history will live on.” The road, a symbol of freedom, was fraught with dangers for Black travelers in the time when Jim Crow laws still existed. Not much is known about Victor Hugo…

