bookshelf

THE WONDER TRAIL

Name: THE WONDER TRAIL
Author: Steve Hely
ISBN: 978-0-525-95501-6

TRUE STORIES FROM LOS ANGELES TO THE END OF THE WORLD

by Steve Hely ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 14, 2016

A disappointing book considering the ambitious journey that was undertaken and the potential for engaging a wide range of...

bookshelf

The author’s travels from Los Angeles to Patagonia.

In this disjointed mashup of travel writing, travel guide, history, and comic memoir, Hely (How I Became a Famous Novelist, 2009, etc.), who has written for 30 Rock, The Office, and the Late Show with David Letterman, chronicles his rushed journey through parts of Mexico and Central and South America on his way down to Patagonia. The author claims his motivation for this adventure was his insatiable hunger for travel. “Every chance I got I went someplace interesting,” he writes. “Cuba, Vietnam, India, Dubai, Texas. None of it fixed whatever wanderlust or curiosity monster was eating me….Now I couldn’t stop thinking about going south to the bottom of the map.” This is an odd, choppy book, and though readers may not doubt the truthfulness of the information, the narrative is a jumble of anecdotes, random facts (“a Panamex ship can carry fifty-something thousand tons of cargo, it can be 965 feet long and 106 feet wide”), brief history lessons, and quick-fire accounts of Hely’s stops in Central and South America. In his brief, episodic chapters (all 102 of them), some less than a page long, the author tries hard to extract every comic or ironic detail that surfaced throughout his journey, but the humor often misses the mark. Though vivid commentary occasionally shines through—the chapters on the Galápagos Islands are particularly insightful—there’s very little connective tissue between chapters. Hely provides a generous list of travel-related titles to consult prior to embarking on such a trip as well as a short appendix of his favorite travel books by female writers; readers may want to skip directly to this final section.

A disappointing book considering the ambitious journey that was undertaken and the potential for engaging a wide range of curious armchair travelers.

Pub Date: June 14, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-525-95501-6

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: April 5, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST
by Steve Hely

- BOOK REVIEW
THE RIDICULOUS RACE
by Steve Hely & Vali Chandrasekaran

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.