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ALWAYS ANOTHER HORIZON

Name: ALWAYS ANOTHER HORIZON
Author: Tina Olton
ISBN: 978-1-583-48473-9

A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD

by Tina Olton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 2006

Informed, informative and inspiring.

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The amazing account of one couple’s global sailing adventure.

In the early 1990s, first-time author and former financial officer Olton and her husband, Steve Salmon, quite literally decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt one of the most challenging feats known to sailors: circumnavigating the globe. Prior to their voyage, the couple’s joint passion for seafaring had been intense but avocational, with their most extended trek taking them across the Pacific for seven months. But in 1993, the two quit their jobs, sold their Berkeley home and car, packed a daughter off to college and glided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in their new 40-foot ocean-ready sailboat to embark on a journey that would take them across 45,000 miles to 61 countries and occupy nearly eight years of their middle-aged lives. Olton’s no-nonsense first-person narrative richly details the vagaries of travel, from terrifying moments strapped to the mast while freeing a sail in a storm-tossed sea to blissful island encounters with cultures and creatures completely foreign to her. â€œThis was more than a trip, or even a voyage, and God knows it was not an extended vacation, as so many well-meaning souls have said to me,” she writes. â€œIt was our way of life for eight years.” She also acknowledges (and occasionally questions) the sacrifices inherent in trading the easy domesticity they’d known for decades for the solitary life of the explorer: â€œWe knew that the voyage would either change our lives or bring us to our knees. In the nearly eight years we were constantly challenged as to which it would be.” The only element missing here is a detailed map; the one provided on the travelogue’s promotional website (alwaysanotherhorizon.com) doesn’t quite do justice to this extraordinary journey.

Informed, informative and inspiring.

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2006

ISBN: 978-1-583-48473-9

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

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

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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

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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

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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.