DAVE BARRY DOES JAPAN by Dave Barry

818.5402

BAR

After a short vacation in Japan funded by his publisher, Barry wrote this very entertaining report of his findings. His encounters and sometimes clashes with Japanese culture give the comic plenty of material. Barry sometimes criticizes and often praises his host country, but always evokes a laugh. One serious and touching passage describes his visit to Hiroshima, including the memorial.

THE RELUCTANT TUSCAN by Phil Doran, 2005

945.5

DOR

Phil Doran, a tv script writer living in California, gets a telephone call from his wife Nancy, who is working on a marble sculpture in Italy. She tells him she has bought a house in Tuscany and asks that he come to see it immediately. Nancy feels that Phil is burnt out and needs to make a serious life change. Upon arrival Phil discovers that the house is a hovel without running water or electricity. Thus begins Phil's journey through the forest of Italian red tape necessary to make their home habitable. Phil has no patience with how things are done and complains bitterly and often until the day Nancy and he are involved in a car accident. He realizes he almost lost his life and vows to change.

This highly amusing memoir is fun to read as it gives a wonderful view of the drama of Italian life, families and of course, the cuisine.

CIRCLE OF SISTERS by Judith Flanders

920.72

FLA

The sisters are Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter, and Louisa Baldwin.

From their humble beginnings as daughters of a Methodist minister in mid-nineteenth century England, they are known to us today through their husbands and children. Alice was the mother of Rudyard Kipling, England's unofficial poet laureate of empire, Georgiana was married to Edward Burne-Jones, the famous Pre-Raphaelite artist, Agnes was the wife of Edward Poynter, the head of the Royal Academy of the Arts, and Louisa Baldwin was the mother of Stanley Baldwin, three-time Prime Minister of Great Britain.

A fascinating look at the daily life of women in the Victorian era as well as a glimpse of these famous lives.

GHOST TRAIN TO THE EASTERN STAR by Paul Theroux

915
THE

Theroux retraces his 1973 journey for “The Great Railway Bazaar” although he cannot revisit Iran and Afghanistan. This time around, however, he is able to visit Cambodia whose people are still scarred from the horrors of the Pol Pot regime and the new Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, many now isolated under their own home-grown dictatorships. Although Theroux may have mellowed, he is still an observant and skilled interviewer.

DOG DAYS: DISPATCHES from BEDLAM FARM by Jon Katz

636.7
KAT

Jon Katz, author of A Dog Year,has more stories to tell from his home in upstate New York,Bedlam Farm. The farm is a cross between a working farm and a hobby.
His beloved dogs are his constant companions, —especially Rosie, the border collie who runs the place. There is also Izzy, another border collie with a troubled past who is Katz’s “soulmate.” Not to mention two Labradors, Pearl and Clementine. His goal is to achieve a balance —of nature, of humans, of animals. His struggle to attain this is entertaining reading e. g., Jeanette the donkey, who arrived seemingly overweight but in reality pregnant!
Katz’s storytelling ability is charming yet he has unique views about
animal life that provide many surprises.