Flying off the Shelves Of A Traveler's Library in July

It is my pleasure to bring the readers of Wandering Educators news from A Traveler's Library during the second week of each month.

FIRST, though, let me recommend that if you would like to WIN a Book, I'm giving away FIVE at A Traveler's Library. You have until midnight August 14, to leave a note telling me what book you would like to win.  The five books were revealed last week, and you can find their names and all of the rules at A Traveler's Library.

Meanwhile, back to business, two new books and two books from Finland captured the honors of most read at A Traveler's Library during July.

If you are a regular reader of Wandering Educators, you saw an interview with author David Farley who wrote the book with an intriguing title, An Irreverent Curiosity, and the equally intriguing subtitle, In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town. I am not committing that unforgivable sin of revealing a secret when I tell you that the town is Calcata, Italy, and the object in question is the foreskin of Christ.

This book educates the history buff, guides the traveler and amuses everyone as it follows the path of history major-turned travel writer David Farley from New York City to Calcata with stops in Rome, the Vatican and other Italian locations. He has an obsession with church relics and cannot resist trying to get at the back story of why this particular relic disappeared from the small church in Calcata. Along the way we learn why hippies and New Agers have replaced the traditional population.

Because Farley has spent a lot of time in Italy and reads constantly, I devoted a second post to his recommendations of books for travelers to Italy.He has some great suggestions. Both the original interview and his book suggestions proved very popular.

From an ancient mountaintop in Italy to a cottage on a lake in Finland, I turned to an American married to a British citizen who blogs from Finland to recommend some reading material for travelers to that country. Michele Simeone's blog, A House Called Nut, tells the story of a place not dissimilar, she says, from the island home described in Summer Book a novel by Tove Jansson.  Readers loved Simeone's review of Summer Book and returned two days later to read her review of Winter Book, a collection of short stories by  Jansson. Between the two books, travelers to Finland get not only a picture of the landscape and the seasons, but the philosophy of the culture. Jansson gains her enormous fame in Finland from
cartoons and graphic novels. These two books, only recently published in
English, have made people realize how multi-talented she is.

I highly recommend Michele Simeone's blog, also, for its excellent writing, and its appeal to those who would like to find eco-friendly ways to live.

The second new book we found exciting to read in July, East of the Sun, recreates the era of India just as the British Empire begins to crumble.The book enticed me with thoroughly likeable characters--three very different young women from England at the center of the action. The three set out for India as part of what was called "The Fishing Fleet" for women on fishing expeditions for husbands.With so many eligible young men in the military or civil service of England assigned to India, and so few young women who would make suitable mates, whole boatloads of hopefuls set sail for a new and sometimes shockingly different way of life.

Author Julia Gregson paints a realistic and detailed picture of life in India in the period, pulling no punches. She relied on diaries and interviews with women who actually were part of the fishing fleet in addition to standard research and personal visits to all the sites mentioned in the book. The result
humanizes a part of history that too often is glossed over in a few sentences,
and produces a page turner of a book for curious travelers.

In August, we are as usual hopping around the globe, landing wherever a good book or good movie takes us. Hope you'll join the parade of good reads and good watching. And don't forget to enter the contest. Only a few more days left.

Vera Marie Badertscher is the Travelers Library Editor for Wandering Educators. You can find her at http://atravelerslibrary.com/