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Very New Orleans: A Celebration of History, Culture, and Cajun Country Charm
by Diana Hollingsworth GesslerThe exquisite antebellum mansions of the Garden District. Giant oaks stretching across boulevards and back in time to before the Civil War. The decadence of Bourbon Street. The vibrant sounds of jazz, blues, and Cajun music coming from every doorway or right from the street. Lacy iron balconies that wrap around the historic buildings of the French Quarter. A leisurely meal under a canopy of wisteria. In vibrant watercolors and detailed sketches, artist Diana Gessler captures the unique charm that makes New Orleans alluring: Mardi Gras, the Cabildo, Jackson Square, the Court of the Two Sisters, St. Louis Cemetery, the Jazz Festival, the River Road Plantations, the Cajun country, sumptuous Creole cuisine, and Audubon’s Aquarium of the Americas. In fascinating detail—on everything from the making of Mardi Gras, Napolean’s death mask, the city’s inspired architectural and garden designs, and favorite author hangouts to famous New Orleanians and Aunt Sally’s Creole pralines—Very New Orleans celebrates the city, the Cajun country, the people, and our history
Very Charleston: A Celebration of History, Culture, and Lowcountry Charm
by Diana Hollingsworth GesslerCobblestone streets leading to perfectly preserved historic homes. Intricate wrought-iron gates opening to lush, fragrant gardens. A skyline of steeples and a river harbor bustling with schooners and sailboats. Charleston is one of America's most charming cities. In vibrant watercolors and detailed sketches, artist Diana Gessler captures the beauty and riches that make Charleston so unique: White Point Gardens, the Spoleto Festival, Rainbow Row, Waterfront Park, Fort Moultrie, the beaches of Sullivan's Island, sumptuous Lowcountry cuisine, and handmade sweetgrass baskets. Full of fascinating details--on everything from the art of early entertaining, the city's inspired architectural and garden designs, and George Washington's Southern tour to famous Charlestonians and the flags of Sumter--Very Charleston celebrates the city, the Lowcountry, the people, and our history. Hand-lettered and full color throughout, Very Charleston includes maps, an index, and a handy appendix of sites. With her cheerful illustrations and love for discovering little-known facts, Diana Gessler has created both an entertaining guide and an irresistible keepsake for visitors and Charlestonians alike.
Very California: Travels Through the Golden State
by Diana Hollingsworth GesslerA fisherman on the Santa Monica Pier. The vineyards of Napa Valley. Surfers in Malibu. An Indian village in Yosemite and the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset. Artist Diana Gessler captures the color and character of our third largest and most populous state. In lively watercolors, sketches, and stories, Gessler shares her adventures on the road, driving from north to south--Sonoma to San Diego and beyond. She and her husband, Paul (designated driver and food lover), stop when curiosity or hunger seizes them.With pen and brush, Gessler works on the spot, bringing to life the cities, towns, and countrysides as well as the details that make them special. A great horned owl. A local farm stand. A woman making tortillas on a sidewalk cart. A bunkhouse in the redwoods. Crab traps along the bay. Her intimate journal is filled with colorful people, beaches, flowers, architecture, animals, trails, memorable meals, and movie stars (at least the gates in front of their houses). Very California is organized by region, and each chapter opens with a map and driving route of the area. Peppered throughout are amusing tidbits about all the things that make California so very California. Diana Gessler has created a memento for tourists and an enchanting book for those who appreciate the pleasures of the West Coast.
Vertigo (Harvill Panther Ser.)
by W G SebaldPart fiction, part travelogue, the narrator of this compelling masterpiece pursues his solitary, eccentric course from England to Italy and beyond, succumbing to the vertiginous unreliability of memory itself. What could possibly connect Stendhal's unrequited love, the artistry of Pisanello, a series of murders by a clandestine organisation, a missing passport, Casanova, the suicide of a dinner companion, stale apple cake, the Great Fire of London, a story by Kafka about a doomed huntsman and a closed-down pizzeria in Verona?
Vertical Disintegration in the Corporate Hotel Industry: The End of Business as Usual (Routledge Research in Hospitality)
by Angela RoperThis book evaluates how and why vertical disintegration has occurred in the global corporate hotel industry, as it undergoes a structural transformation. It provides a unique insight into the new competitive landscape. Underpinned by academic literature, it includes first-hand accounts from the most eminent senior executives of firms in and around the industry. It provides an in-depth perspective of a modern industrial phenomenon and makes observations as to the profitable way forward for the industry. This text is an important read for those working, advising and investing in the sector as well as for students, graduates and researchers.
Vertical Disintegration in the Corporate Hotel Industry: The End of Business as Usual (Routledge Research in Hospitality)
by Angela RoperThis book evaluates how and why vertical disintegration has occurred in the global corporate hotel industry, as it undergoes a structural transformation. It provides a unique insight into the new competitive landscape. Underpinned by academic literature, it includes first-hand accounts from the most eminent senior executives of firms in and around the industry. It provides an in-depth perspective of a modern industrial phenomenon and makes observations as to the profitable way forward for the industry. This text is an important read for those working, advising and investing in the sector as well as for students, graduates and researchers.
Vernon Subutex Three
by Virginie DespentesAlthough it means leaving behind the community of disciples who have followed him on his travels and assembled at his raves and gatherings, Vernon Subutex is compelled to return to Paris to visit the dentist.Once back in the city, he learns that Charles, his old friend from his days on the Paris streets, has died and left him half of a lottery win. But when Vernon returns to his disciples with news of this windfall, it does not take long before his followers start to turn on each other, and his good fortune provokes ruptures in his once harmonious community.Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering for Aïcha and Céleste: Laurent Dopalet is determined to make them pay for their attack on him, whatever it takes and whoever gets hurt. And before long, the whole of Paris will be reeling in the wake of the terrorist atrocities of 2015 and 2016, and all the characters in this kaleidoscopic portrait of a city will be forced to a reckoning with each other.
Venture To The Interior (Virago Modern Classics)
by Sir Laurens Van Der PostSummoned to Whitehall in 1949, Laurens van der Post was told that in old British Central Africa there were two large tracts of country that London didn't really know anything about, and could he go in there on foot and take a look, please? Venture to the Interior is the account of that journey, a journey filled with adventure and discovery, flying from London across Europe and Africa, and after days in small aircraft, on foot across the mountains to the two lost worlds of central Africa.
Venice from the Ground Up (From the Ground Up #8)
by James H. McGregorVenice came to life on spongy mudflats at the edge of the habitable world. Protected in a tidal estuary from barbarian invaders and Byzantine overlords, the fishermen, salt gatherers, and traders who settled there crafted an amphibious way of life unlike anything the Roman Empire had ever known. In an astonishing feat of narrative history, James H. S. McGregor recreates this world-turned-upside-down, with its waterways rather than roads, its boats tethered alongside dwellings, and its livelihood harvested from the sea. McGregor begins with the river currents that poured into the shallow Lagoon, carving channels in its bed and depositing islands of silt. He then describes the imaginative responses of Venetians to the demands and opportunities of this harsh environment—transforming the channels into canals, reclaiming salt marshes for the construction of massive churches, erecting a thriving marketplace and stately palaces along the Grand Canal. Through McGregor’s eyes, we witness the flowering of Venice’s restless creativity in the elaborate mosaics of St. Mark’s soaring basilica, the expressive paintings in smaller neighborhood churches, and the colorful religious festivals—but also in theatrical productions, gambling casinos, and masked revelry, which reveal the city’s less pious and orderly face. McGregor tells his unique history of Venice by drawing on a crumbling, tide-threatened cityscape and a treasure-trove of art that can still be seen in place today. The narrative follows both a chronological and geographical organization, so that readers can trace the city’s evolution chapter by chapter and visitors can explore it district by district on foot and by boat.
Venice: A Literary Guide for Travellers
by Marie-José GransardVenice, 'La Serenissima, is one of the most breathtaking cities in the world. A floating labyrinth; the world's greatest museum, frozen in time; a cultural jewel, slowly sinking into the lagoon from which it rose; tourist-trap, irresistible muse. From its earliest beginings in the 7th century, Venice has been a magnetic centre of trade and culture, wealth and power and has acted as a crossroads for an array of religious pilgrims and refugees, diplomats, crusading armies and merchants. Later, its fabled beauty and reputation as a haven for freedom of expression seduced some of the most celebrated figures in history: artists such as Dürer, Bellini and Turner; writers Dickens, Byron, Kafka, Poe, Rousseau, Thomas Mann, Ruskin and Ezra Pound and composers Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Stravinsky. In this riveting guide to literary Venice, the author uncovers the city's myriad secrets, revealing how every floating palace, gilded church and bustling square is imbued with the lives and creations of those who were inspired by the city, which still echoes with their voices.
Venice: Revised Edition (Harvest Book Ser.)
by Jan MorrisOften hailed as one of the best travel books ever written, Venice is neither a guide nor a history book, but a beautifully written immersion in Venetian life and character, set against the background of the city's past. Analysing the particular temperament of Venetians, as well as its waterways, its architecture, its bridges, its tourists, its curiosities, its smells, sounds, lights and colours, there is scarcely a corner of Venice that Jan Morris has not investigated and brought vividly to life. Jan Morris first visited the city of Venice as young James Morris, during World War II. As she writes in the introduction, 'it is Venice seen through a particular pair of eyes at a particular moment - young eyes at that, responsive above all to the stimuli of youth.' Venice is an impassioned work on this magnificent but often maddening city. Jan Morris's collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Sydney, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain and Manhattan '45. Since its first publication, Venice has appeared in many editions, won the W.H. Heinemann award and become an international bestseller. 'The best book about Venice ever written' Sunday Times 'No sensible visitor should visit the place without it . . . Venice stands alone as the essential introduction, and as a work of literature in its own right.' Observer
Venice: The Lion, the City and the Water (The\margellos World Republic Of Letters Ser.)
by Cees Nooteboom"Nooteboom has achieved the impossible: to say something new about the ageless city about which everything has been said" ALBERTO MANGUELVENICE: "A dream of palaces and churches, of power and money, dominion and decline, a paradise of beauty." By the author of Roads to Santiago and Roads to BerlinWith this treasury of his time spent in Venice over a period of fifty-five years, Nooteboom makes himself the indispensable companion for all lovers of "the sailing, amphibious city", and for every new visitor.Because he is a master storyteller with an inexhaustible curiosity, and always with a suitcase of books (to which new discoveries are added), he brings vividly and poetically to life not only the tumultuous history of the Republic but along the way its doges, its villains, its heroes, its magnificent painters, its architects, its scholars, its skies, its canals and piazzas and alleyways, and on his expeditions its "bronze voices of time".Those who know and love this city and its literature will recognise Nooteboom - in Laura Watkinson's fine translation - as the dazzling heir and companion to Montaigne, Thomas Mann, Rilke, Ruskin, Proust, Brodsky, and Donna Leon. His homage to Venice is a generous introduction, learned and enchanting, and worthy of its magnificent subject."His writing is lyrical and densely textured. He is a poet of time and memory" - COLIN THUBRONTranslated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson
Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking
by Russell NormanA new cookbook from the author of POLPO: a collection of easy seasonal Italian recipes with stunning photographsRussell Norman returns to Venice - the city that inspired POLPO - to immerse himself in the authentic flavours of the Veneto and the culinary traditions of the city. His rustic kitchen - in the residential quarter of the city where washing hangs across the narrow streets and neighbours don't bother to lock their doors - provides the perfect backdrop for this adventure, and for the 130 lip-smacking, easy Italian family recipes showcasing the simple but exquisite flavours of Venice.The book also affords us a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of the city, its hidden architectural gems, its secret places, the embedded history, the colour and vitality of daily life, and the food merchants and growers who make Venice so surprisingly vibrant.'Russell Norman is among the brightest stars of the British food scene ... In Venice, he returns to the recipes of that most inspirational Italian city.' Esquire'Offers a rare insight into the beating heart of the city' iPraise for Polpo'POLPO does what a great cookbook should do: it makes you urgently want to cook and breaks new territory' Daily Telegraph'Wonderful ... the dishes are simple, with relatively few ingredients, but they're inspired' Evening Standard
Venice: A Traveller's Reader
by John Julius NorwichViews of the city of lagoons and gondolas; Henry James was passionate: 'You desire to embrace it, to caress it, to possess it...', whereas Mark Twain found St Mark's 'so ugly...Propped on its long row of thick-legged columns, its back knobbed with domes, it seems like a vast, warty bug taking a mediaeval walk.' Reactions to Venice have been, throughout the ages, astonishingly different. John Julius Norwich has produced a dazzling anthology from the writings of Byron, Goethe, Wagner, Casanova, Jan Morris, Robert Browning, and Horace Walpole, among many others. From the days of the sixth century, when lagoon-dwellers lived 'like sea-birds' in huts built on heaps of osiers, to the Venice of eighteenth-century revellers and nineteenth-century art lovers - the city's many different guises are all portrayed as its inhabitants and visitors saw them.
Venetian Navigators: The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North
by Andrea di RobilantIn the 1380s and 90s, Nicolò and Antonio Zen journeyed from Venice up the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes, fighting savage natives and, just possibly, reaching the New World a full century before Columbus. The story of their adventure travelled throughout Europe, from the workshop of the great cartographer Mercator to the court of Elizabeth I. For centuries, the brothers were international celebrities, until, in 1835, the story was denounced as a 'tissue of lies' and the Zens faded into oblivion.But was it a hoax? What if these Venetian navigators really made their incredible journey? Intrigued by the myth, Andrea di Robilant sets out to discover the truth about the Zen voyages. Following in their footsteps, his quest to solve one of Venice's most intriguing mysteries takes him on a fascinating journey of his own, from the crumbling Palazzo Zen in Venice to the Orkney Islands, Shetland, the Faroes, Iceland and even as far as an isolated monastery in Greenland. Part history, part travelogue, Venetian Navigators is a charming tale of great journeys, fine detective work and faith, against the odds.
The Venetian Game: a haunting thriller set in the heart of Italy's most secretive city
by Philip Gwynne Jones'An unputdownable thriller' Gregory Dowling'It is no surprise to find that Philip Gwynne Jones lives in Venice... art and architecture interweave into a story that builds to an almost surreal climax' Daily Mail*****A game of cross and double-cross in Venice, one of the most beautiful cities on earth.From his office on the Street of the Assassins, Nathan Sutherland enjoys a steady but unexciting life translating Italian DIY manuals. All this changes dramatically when he is offered a large sum of money to look after a small package containing an extremely valuable antique prayer book illustrated by a Venetian master. But is it a stolen masterpiece - or a brilliant fake?Unknown to Nathan, from a vast mansion on the Grand Canal twin brothers Domenico and Arcangelo Moro, motivated by nothing more than mutual hatred, have been playing out a complex game of art theft for twenty years. And now Nathan finds himself unwittingly drawn into their deadly business . . .*****Praise for Philip Gwynne Jones'Superb - always gripping, beautifully constructed and vivid' Stephen Glover'Sinister and shimmering, The Venetian Game is as haunting and darkly elegant as Venice itself' L.S. Hilton, bestselling author of Maestra'Clever and great fun' The Times'The Venetian setting is vividly described... good, fluid writing makes for easy reading' Literary Review'Un-put-downable . . . If you love Venice, you'll love this because you'll be transported there in an instant. If you've not been to Venice, read this book and then go. If you like intrigue, and a clever plot, you'll love this book' Amazon reviewer, 5**********Vengeance in Venice, the second book in Philip Gwynne Jones' sensational Venice series, is available now
The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage
by Jan MorrisFor six centuries the Republic of Venice was a maritime empire, its sovereign power extending throughout much of the eastern Mediterranean – an empire of coasts, islands and isolated fortresses by which, as Wordsworth wrote, the mercantile Venetians 'held the gorgeous east in fee'. Jan Morris reconstructs the whole of this glittering dominion in the form of a sea-voyage, travelling along the historic Venetian trade routes from Venice itself to Greece, Crete and Cyprus. It is a traveller's book, geographically arranged but wandering at will from the past to the present, evoking not only contemporary landscapes and sensations but also the characters, the emotions and the tumultuous events of the past. The first such work ever written about the Venetian ‘Stato da Mar’, it is an invaluable historical companion for visitors to Venice itself and for travellers through the lands the Doges once ruled.
Vanishing Streets: Journeys in London
by J. M. TyreeVanishing Streets reveals an American writer's twenty-year love affair with London. Beguiling and idiosyncratic, obsessive and wry, it offers an illustrated travelogue of the peripheries, retracing some of London's most curious locations. As J. M. Tyree wanders deliriously in "the world's most visited city," he rediscovers and reinvents places that have changed drastically since he was a student at Cambridge in the 1990s. Tyree stumbles into the ghosts of Alfred Hitchcock, Graham Greene, and the pioneers of the British Free Cinema Movement. He offers a new way of seeing familiar landmarks through the lens of film history, and reveals strange nooks and tiny oddities in out-of-the-way places, from a lost film by John Ford supposedly shot in Wapping to the beehives hidden in Tower Hamlets Cemetery, an area haunted by a translation error in W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz. This book blends deeply personal writing with a foreigner's observations on a world capital experiencing an unsettling moment of transition. Vanishing Streets builds into an astonishing and innovative multi-layered project combining autobiography, movie madness, and postcard-like annotations on the magical properties of a great city. Tyree argues passionately for London as a cinematic dream city of perpetual fascinations and eccentricities, bridging the past and the present as well as the real and the imaginary.
The Vanishing Present: Wisconsin's Changing Lands, Waters, and Wildlife
by Donald M. Waller Thomas P. RooneyStraddling temperate forests and grassland biomes and stretching along the coastline of two Great Lakes, Wisconsin contains tallgrass prairie and oak savanna, broadleaf and coniferous forests, wetlands, natural lakes, and rivers. But, like the rest of the world, the Badger State has been transformed by urbanization and sprawl, population growth, and land-use change. For decades, industry and environment have attempted to coexist in Wisconsin—and the dynamic tensions between economic progress and environmental protection makes the state a fascinating microcosm for studying global environmental change. The Vanishing Present brings together a distinguished set of contributors—including scientists, naturalists, and policy experts—to examine how human pressures on Wisconsin’s changing lands, waters, and wildlife have redefined the state’s ecology. Though they focus on just one state, the authors draw conclusions about changes in temperate habitats that can be applied elsewhere, and offer useful insights into future of the ecology, conservation, and sustainability of Wisconsin and beyond. A fitting tribute to the home state of Aldo Leopold and John Muir, The Vanishing Present is an accessible and timely case study of a significant ecosystem and its response to environmental change.
The Vanishing Present: Wisconsin's Changing Lands, Waters, and Wildlife
by Donald M. Waller Thomas P. RooneyStraddling temperate forests and grassland biomes and stretching along the coastline of two Great Lakes, Wisconsin contains tallgrass prairie and oak savanna, broadleaf and coniferous forests, wetlands, natural lakes, and rivers. But, like the rest of the world, the Badger State has been transformed by urbanization and sprawl, population growth, and land-use change. For decades, industry and environment have attempted to coexist in Wisconsin—and the dynamic tensions between economic progress and environmental protection makes the state a fascinating microcosm for studying global environmental change. The Vanishing Present brings together a distinguished set of contributors—including scientists, naturalists, and policy experts—to examine how human pressures on Wisconsin’s changing lands, waters, and wildlife have redefined the state’s ecology. Though they focus on just one state, the authors draw conclusions about changes in temperate habitats that can be applied elsewhere, and offer useful insights into future of the ecology, conservation, and sustainability of Wisconsin and beyond. A fitting tribute to the home state of Aldo Leopold and John Muir, The Vanishing Present is an accessible and timely case study of a significant ecosystem and its response to environmental change.
The Vanishing Present: Wisconsin's Changing Lands, Waters, and Wildlife
by Donald M. Waller Thomas P. RooneyStraddling temperate forests and grassland biomes and stretching along the coastline of two Great Lakes, Wisconsin contains tallgrass prairie and oak savanna, broadleaf and coniferous forests, wetlands, natural lakes, and rivers. But, like the rest of the world, the Badger State has been transformed by urbanization and sprawl, population growth, and land-use change. For decades, industry and environment have attempted to coexist in Wisconsin—and the dynamic tensions between economic progress and environmental protection makes the state a fascinating microcosm for studying global environmental change. The Vanishing Present brings together a distinguished set of contributors—including scientists, naturalists, and policy experts—to examine how human pressures on Wisconsin’s changing lands, waters, and wildlife have redefined the state’s ecology. Though they focus on just one state, the authors draw conclusions about changes in temperate habitats that can be applied elsewhere, and offer useful insights into future of the ecology, conservation, and sustainability of Wisconsin and beyond. A fitting tribute to the home state of Aldo Leopold and John Muir, The Vanishing Present is an accessible and timely case study of a significant ecosystem and its response to environmental change.
Vanishing Cornwall (Virago Modern Classics #132)
by Daphne Du Maurier'There was a smell in the air of tar and rope and rusted chain, a smell of tidal water. Down harbour, around the point, was the open sea. Here was the freedom I desired, long sought-for, not yet known. Freedom to write, to walk, to wander, freedom to climb hills, to pull a boat, to be alone . . . I for this, and this for me.'Daphne du Maurier lived in Cornwall for most of her life. Its rugged coastline, wild terrain and tumultuous weather inspired her imagination, and many of her works are set there, including Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman's Creek. In Vanishing Cornwall she celebrates the land she loved, exploring its legends, its history and its people, eloquently making a powerful plea for Cornwall's preservation.
Vanished Arizona, Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman
by Martha SummerhayesI have written this story of my army life at the urgent and ceaseless request of my children.
Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Luscious Substance
by Tim EcottThe story of our love affair with vanilla - the world's most versatile flavouring.The locations read like the contents of an exotic holiday brochure: Tahiti, Madagascar, Reunion, Seychelles and the Gulf Coast of Mexico - all of them inextricably linked with the story of vanilla.Vanilla is a botanical mystery - a uniquely sensual plant who's secret was unlocked by an African slave in 1841. Aristocrats, apothecaries and modern day tycoons have all chased 'The Luscious Substance' - and the wealth it brings. Endangered in the wild, vanilla is now more valuable than at any time in history - a value that places it at the centre of a secretive multimillion dollar trade for which men are being murdered.Journalist Tim Ecott has sought out vanilla's rich history and in doing so has brought to life these faraway, fascinating, misunderstood places, unravelling the complex politics around vanilla growing, curing, and selling. Confirming the promise of his debut, Neutral Buoyancy, this is travel writing of the highest order.'Fascinating, appealing and forthright. Ecott has hit the jackpot' Independent
Van Life For Dummies
by Sebastian SantabarbaraGive in to the lure of the untethered life as a van lifer Thousands of people around the world live nomadic lifestyles from the comfort of their vans or campers, free from the worries of having a permanent residence. If this growing alternative lifestyle appeals to you, Van Life For Dummies is your go-to guide for becoming a van lifer. You'll learn to customize your vehicle, adapt to life on the road, and find the peace and adventure you're seeking. This book makes the transition easy, helping you decide what parts of rooted life you need to take with you and what to leave behind. Follow the call of the open road and get started living in your van or camper Choose and customize a vehicle that meets your needs Get answers to the very important question: "where do I use the bathroom?&” Build or carry on a career while travelling Why enjoy life only on your vacation days? Take to the road and enjoy a simplified way of living. Van Life For Dummies demystifies the process and initiates you into the vibrant community of van lifers. Your adventure awaits!