The partly cloudy patriot

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Bill Bryson

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.

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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.

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John Hutnyk

An extraordinary study of the politics of representation, The Rumour of Calcutta explores the discursive construction of a 'city of intensities'. John Hutnyk analyses representations of Calcutta in a wide variety of discourses: in the gossip and traveller-lore of backpackers and volunteer charity workers; in writing - from classic literature to travel guides; in cinema, photography and maps. Throughout, the focus is on the technologies of representation which frame experiences of Calcutta, particularly Calcutta as decay. Hutnyk shows how specific practices and technologies - of tourism, representation and experience - intricately combine to reinforce and replicate the conditions of contemporary cultural and economic inequality. A provocative and original reading of both Heidegger and Marx, the book also draws upon writers as diverse as Spivak, Trinh, Jameson, Clifford, Virilio, Bataille, Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari. As such it is essential reading for students and scholars in cultural studies, anthropology, development, urban studies and sociology.

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Ted Kooser

"Ted Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the Bohemian Alps of southeastern Nebraska. Like many other people in this rural area, he has what he calls "wolf vision"--He sees every change in the landscape around him. Nothing is too big or too small for his attention. Memories of his grandmother's cooking are juxtaposed with reflections about the old-fashioned outhouse on his property." "In the end, what makes life meaningful for Kooser are the ways in which his neighbors care for one another and how an afternoon walking with an old dog, or baking a pie, or decorating the house for Christmas can summon memories of his Iowa childhood. This writer is a seer in the truest sense of the word, discovering the extraordinary within the ordinary, the deep beneath the shallow, the abiding wisdom in the pithy Bohemian proverbs that are woven into his essays. And when casting his eye on social progress, Kooser reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view. At stake are communities, as well as families, our health, and arguably our very souls."--Jacket.