Top 5 Female Reads In April
1. In Trouble Again: A Journey Between Orinoco and the Amazon by Redmond O'Hanlon
This is the personal story of Mr Redmond O’Hanlon and his canoe trek to meet the Yanomami tribe in the Venezuelan Amazon.
His four month trip to meet a tribe that are reputably the most violent people on earth, is beautifully documented in a style that will undoubtedly make you anxious about the outcome.
Join O’Hanlon for a once in a lifetime trip through the rainforest that separates the Orinoco and the Amazon. If you’re not a fan of piranhas, jaguars and insects then maybe this isn’t for you but if you want a read that’s a little bit special and breaks the mould, then be sure to grab yourself a copy.
In Trouble Again: A Journey Between Orinoco and the Amazon by Redmond O'Hanlon is published by Vintage Books USA (paperback $13.95). It is also available through amazon.com and all good booksellers.
2. Hotel Honolulu by Paul Theroux
Someone summed this book up quite effectively in one simple sentence: “Eighty rooms nibbled by rats - and a new manager learning how to fill the holes in his life.”
This is the Hotel Honolulu where anything goes and where holiday makers come to hide away from their everyday identities.
The book is deliciously dark, full of the usual throes of life and it comes with a little extra pinch of spice. Life, death, love, betrayal, misery and tourism are combined to create a book that is harder to put down than a chocolate éclair covered in superglue.
It’s also a surprisingly good guide to the area and you can follow all the characters as they play, cheat and revel in the tourist hotspots.
Theroux knows these characters inside out and you’re bound to recognise someone you know in his beautifully descriptive characterizations.
Hotel Honolulu by Paul Theroux is published by Houghton Mifflin and Mariner Books (paperback £7.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
3. The Rough Guide to . . .
Wherever you go you can guarantee that there will be a Rough Guide about your destination, brimming over with useful facts and tips about the best tours and top eateries.
The selection I bring you this month is a warm up of sorts for the St Christopher’s focus on Amsterdam in May.
Up first we have The Rough to Amsterdam. As someone who’s never been to this stunning city, I found this guide to be an indispensable accessory for planning my first trip. Beyond the front cover you’ll find a comprehensive guide to the coffee shop laden lanes, the best routes in from various locations around the world and how to walk, bus, cycle and canal boat your way around the city.
Thanks to this well written, easy read I’m now set to visit the Houseboat Museum opposite Prinsengracht 296, make the most of the walkway at the Hortus Botanical Gardens and take advantage of the Molen van Sloten windmill.
The Rough Guide to Amsterdam by Martin Dunford and Phil Lee with additional contributions by Karoline Densley and Malijn Matt is published by Rough Guides (paperback: £11.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
Another equally useful title when you are visiting Holland is Rough Guide DIRECTIONS, Amsterdam.
Complete with fold out maps and a great summary of what to see and where to be seen, this pocket size guide is perfect for the traveller who wants to get straight in there, get to the good stuff and cut out the clogs and tulips.
My favourite section had to be Musical Amsterdam. Melkweg: “The prime venue for inventive and original performance arts”. This might just be featured in the Music Mashup for May.
You’ll find another particularly useful section on page 147. The Essentials covers everything from getting around to drugs and then some.
Rough Guide DIRECTIONS, Amsterdam, by Martin Dunford, Phil Lee and Karoline Densley is published by Rough Guides (paperback: £6.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
4. The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W. E. Bowman
This is a classic, written in a style that is pretty hard to get your hands on these days. The Ascent of Rum Doodle was first released to the masses in 1956 but now it’s back with a new introduction by Mr Bill Bryson.
Dr. Bryson points out how this read is silly, enjoyable and sustained and I’m not one to argue. This humour in this book is still fresh after more than 50 years and the pictures are enough to reduce even the most conservative reader to fits and giggles.
Join the central character Binder as he climbs this 40,000-and-a-half-foot mountain and gets himself into all sort of mischievous trouble. At the very least, this is an inspiration to take a comic trip to somewhere that you have yet to explore.
Read this and take a trip to the Himalayas, have a laugh and avoid the real life bind of frost bite and rock slides.
The Ascent of Rum Doodle, by W. E. Bowman is published by Random House (paperback: £7.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
A True Story of Bravery, Insanity, and the Race to Discover Australia's Wild Frontier by Sarah MurgaThis is the story of the Burke and Wills expedition that began in Melbourne during August, 1860.
Quite comically, Robert O'Hara Burke was an Irish police officer who was notorious for getting lost in his own neighborhood. William Wills was an infamous note-taker and the force behind the documentation of the 5,000-mile journey.
Murgatroyd brings their journey into the forefront of your imagination and transports you to grasslands, swamps and encounters with the hospitable Aborigines.
There’s a poignant undertone to this story after the original expedition splits into three groups and only Burke and Wills make it to the northernmost point.
If this had been on my history syllabus at university, Australia 101 would have been much more entertaining.
If you have a flair for history or you just want to lose yourself in the kind of expedition that just doesn’t happen anymore, then this is the book for you.
The Dig Tree - A True Story of Bravery, Insanity, and the Race to Discover Australia's Wild Frontier by Sarah Murgatroyd is published by Bloomsbury (paperback: £7.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
