Top Five Female Reads
1. Champagne and Polar Bears: Romance in the Arctic by Marie Tièche
“Those eyes. They were the faded blue of a clear winter sky, a luminous, translucent, lacier blue. They had invited me into a strange new world of isolation and loneliness, treacherous weather, icebergs and danger. And I had accepted. What had I done? I’d only met him in the pub an hour ago and I’d just agreed to go with him on his scientific expedition to a deserted island 600 miles from the North Pole. Just the two of us.”
This is the extraordinary and true tale of Marie. After a messy marriage and an unsuccessful rebound, Marie meets Hauek in an Arctic bar. Shortly afterwards, she finds herself signed up for a year long expedition to a remote glaciated island, where her only companions are Hauek and dogs. Read this luxuriously descriptive book, find out what time in the Arctic does to you and discover how romance can blossom in the most unlikely of places.
Champagne and Polar Bears by Marie Tièche is published by Summersdale (paperback; £7.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
2. The Gringo Trail: A Darkly Comic Road Trip through South America by Mark Mann
“. . . there I was in the middle of Bogotá, coked up to my eyeballs, in a hallway holding two machetes, while some drunk Colombians argued about whether or not to blow up a bar with a live hand-grenade . . .”
If romance isn’t your thing and you’re more into fun at the expense of others, then this is your travel book. Not for the faint hearted, The Gringo Trail is an uncompromising account of drugs on the road, revolving around Melissa, her boyfriend Mark and another Mark. Join the three as they take a tumultuous trip through the history of South America and make a little of their own.
The Gringo Trail: A Darkly Comic Road Trip through South America by Mark Mann is published by Summersdale (paperback; £7.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
3. Blue Cuban Nights by Ted Ferguson
“Cuba, a country that swings to a rumba beat yet embraces Communism; home to both the Buena Vista Social Club and a repressive totalitarian regime. Cuba is a country of contradictions.”
This is a candid account of Cuba from Ted Ferguson’s point of view. This tale, refreshingly, is told from locations that aren’t on the beaten track. There’s a lot of hype about the regime of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz and how only the most daring travellers brave a holiday to this socialist republic. Ferguson however tells it how it was, how it is and how you should see this misunderstood Caribbean outpost. There’s marriage, poetry, politics and passion.
Blue Cuban Nights by Ted Ferguson is published by Summersdale (paperback; £7.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
4. Too Beautiful For You by Rod Liddle
Rod Liddle’s collection of short stories present an uncompromising look at the cold, harsh, reality of everyday life. Cheating husbands are caught out by train crashes that amputate limbs, office politics are pushed to the point of suicide and mother in laws somehow become the must have mistresses. This is not a book you would loan to your parents but the bite size, satirical snap shots of every day life are ideal for a boat, plane or train ride. I highly recommend losing yourself in the intelligent and brutal world of Rod Liddle.
Too Beautiful For You by Rod Liddle is published by Arrow Books (paperback £6.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
Editor’s Choice: 5. Truman Capote A Capote Reader
The important thing about Truman Capote is not to write him off as that guy who wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Long before and long after this novel, (and Audrey Hepburn’s big screen spin on it), Capote was one of the world’s most gifted wordsmiths.
A Capote Reader is the best way to introduce yourself to his literary style and it’s one of the best travel companions you could ever wish for. Inside you’ll find the best guide to Europe, Hollywood, Haiti and Ischia, and you’ll find them in easily digestible, informative and entertaining portions.
Capote was fortunate enough to know some of the most gifted actors, musicians, photographers and beauties of the twentieth century, so if you need a break from your real life travel buddy and you don’t object to spending an afternoon in Europe with the rich and powerful of a bygone era, why not relax with this collection?
Nowhere else will you see the world through such unrelenting eyes and nowhere else will you see it spun into such a rich tapestry of wit, insinuation and helpful hints about how to survive the best and worst citizens of all continents.
Truman Capote A Capote Reader is published by Penguin Classics (paperback; £12.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
