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GET AWAY!

DESIGN YOUR IDEAL TRIP, TRAVEL WITH EASE, AND RECLAIM YOUR FREEDOM

An impressive guide that will persuade readers to pack their bags.

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This comprehensive work is both a trove of practical advice and a paean to the idea of travel.

To say that Axelrod is a world traveler (he is also a photographer) is a rank understatement. He has set foot on all seven continents, most much more than once. In fact, such is his passion that an alternate subtitle for the book could be “Live To Travel, Travel To Live.” Chapter headings include “No More Excuses,” wherein he knocks down all the standard reasons for not going on a trip and addresses Covid-19; “Flight School,” in which he guides readers through the Byzantine world of air travel (reservations, frequent flyer miles, bargain hunting, the impact of Covid-19, even seating); and “Food, Fun, and Freedom,” adventures at the destination itself. He is a font of pithy pronouncements: “Build your dream trip as if you were building your dream home”; “A well planned trip…integrates into, rather than interrupts, your life”; and—on souvenirs—“Please do not be that nincompoop who comes back from Puerto Vallarta with a giant sombrero.” And who else might seize on a Tourbillon watch as a metaphor for building an itinerary—or even know that there is such a thing. Naturally, there are anecdotes from some of his trips (Bosnia, Tahiti, Greece). And even though the sojourn in Tahiti was more disaster than delight, he manages to wring some pleasant recollections out of it. Positive thinking is an ineradicable part of Axelrod’s makeup, and readers will admit that it is infectious. In a “don’t take my word for it” gambit, he deftly backs his arguments with experts in the field of travel research, a real growth industry. The copious backmatter includes pages upon pages of reference notes—the man is a bear for research. Certain chapters, like the one on air travel, can be overwhelming if readers are not familiar with app culture, arcane websites, and the credit card shuffle. On the other hand, he often summarizes dense discussions with bulleted lists, a convenience for overloaded readers, and likes to set up and then torch straw men, a sprightly way of presenting arguments.

An impressive guide that will persuade readers to pack their bags. (Acknowledgements, references, index)

Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5445-2549-5

Page Count: 286

Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing

Review Posted Online: March 9, 2022

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  • IndieBound Bestseller

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A WEALTH OF PIGEONS

A CARTOON COLLECTION

A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.

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The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.

Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.

A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.

Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Celadon Books

Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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CINEMA SPECULATION

A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

The acclaimed director displays his talents as a film critic.

Tarantino’s collection of essays about the important movies of his formative years is packed with everything needed for a powerful review: facts about the work, context about the creative decisions, and whether or not it was successful. The Oscar-winning director of classic films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs offers plenty of attitude with his thoughts on movies ranging from Animal House to Bullitt to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Big Chill. Whether you agree with his assessments or not, he provides the original reporting and insights only a veteran director would notice, and his engaging style makes it impossible to leave an essay without learning something. The concepts he smashes together in two sentences about Taxi Driver would take a semester of film theory class to unpack. Taxi Driver isn’t a “paraphrased remake” of The Searchers like Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc? is a paraphrased remake of Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby or De Palma’s Dressed To Kill is a paraphrased remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho. But it’s about as close as you can get to a paraphrased remake without actually being one. Robert De Niro’s taxi driving protagonist Travis Bickle is John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards. Like any good critic, Tarantino reveals bits of himself as he discusses the films that are important to him, recalling where he was when he first saw them and what the crowd was like. Perhaps not surprisingly, the author was raised by movie-loving parents who took him along to watch whatever they were watching, even if it included violent or sexual imagery. At the age of 8, he had seen the very adult MASH three times. Suddenly the dark humor of Kill Bill makes much more sense. With this collection, Tarantino offers well-researched love letters to his favorite movies of one of Hollywood’s most ambitious eras.

A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-06-311258-2

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022

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