Hija de la fortuna
Isabel Allende
A Chilean woman searches for her lover in the goldfields of 1840s California. Arriving as a stowaway, Eliza finances her search with various jobs, including playing the piano in a brothel
Read Time: ~7 hr
Made in America
by Bill Bryson (1996)
About this book
Bill Bryson turns away from the highways and byways of middle America, so hilariously depicted in his bestselling The Lost Continent, for a fast, exhilarating ride along the Route 66 of American language and popular culture. In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologizes his native land - explaining how a dusty desert hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up - as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame.
Setting / LocationCalifornia
Story EraModern Era
Protagonist / CoreMade in America Lead Character
Readers who enjoyed this also loved
In the land of Solomon and Sheba
Mimi LaFollette Summerskill
"This is the fascinating story of an American family and their adventures set in the Semien mountains, the 8,000 feet highlands of northern Ethiopia. Dr. John Summerskill, the author's spouse, had been president of San Francisco State University during the student upheavals of the late 60s. He had a major run-in with then Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, about the handling of the student demonstrations. The Ford Foundation found the perfect candidate in Dr. Summerskill to be an advisor and administrator to the newly founded Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Following the career trail of her husband, the author and her family moved into one of the great homes of Addis Ababa, situated on three acres of eucalyptus trees and lawns. There were lion cages but no lions; a mammoth aviary, but no birds. And the house had no furniture, but what a house, with round stone towers at each corner. Here, the thrilling adventures of an American family in Ethiopia begins. Taking two of their five children, Wendy and Robert, "kicking and screaming," the Summerskills began their odyssey in Ethiopia, a country with the oldest civilization in Africa. Two of the Summerskill's older children who came to visit were on a plane that was hijacked to Aden, Yemen. In this book, you will explore each of the thirteen provinces of Ethiopia with the author and her family, as they camp near remote lakes as far south as Kenya. The author tells in vivid detail of life in Ethiopia during the final years of Emperor Haile Selassie's reign. The bustling marketplace of the capital, Addis Ababa; learning to prepare spicy Ethiopian food; a close look at the last Ethiopian Emperor; radical student activism in Haile Selassie I University; the historical sites of Ethiopia such as Lalibela, Harar and Gondar; all these and more come alive in the author's recollection of her sojourn in Ethiopia"--Page 4 of cover.
Great Plains
Ian Frazier
With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains. A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull?s cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde, to the scene of the murders chronicled in Truman Capote?s In Cold Blood. It is an expedition that reveals the heart of the American West.
The partly cloudy patriot
Sarah Vowell
"In The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty bumpy roads of her own life. In this collection of personal stories Vowell ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot?"--BOOK JACKET.