Summer ​at Shell Cottage

Dante Alighieri - Inferno
Describing ​Dante's descent into Hell midway through his life with Virgil as a guide, Inferno depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of seven deadly sins. As he descends through nine concentric circles of increasingly agonising torture, Dante encounters doomed souls including the pagan Aeneas, the liar Odysseus, the suicide Cleopatra, and his own political enemies, damned for their deceit. Led by leering demons, the poet must ultimately journey with Virgil to the deepest level of all. For it is only by encountering Satan, in the heart of Hell, that he can truly understand the tragedy of sin.

Maliha Masood - Zaatar ​Days, Henna Nights
After ​years of working behind a desk, Seattle dotcommer, Maliha Masood, left it all behind to travel the world on a one-way ticket. Six months into backpacking around Europe, Maliha headed to the Mideast and found herself an apartment in Cairo. Compelled to explore her Islamic roots as well as satisfy her wanderlust, she embarked upon a year-long, overland journey, taking to the streets of Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Istanbul, and countless detours in between. With a relentless curiosity and knack for misadventures, Maliha befriends an eccentric cast of characters, revealing the stories beyond the headlines. Meet Jordanian college students enamored with Hollywood, have a cup of tea with an Egyptian doorman turned philosopher, learn to dance with a Syrian cross-dressing couple, go for a run with a Kurdish poet, convene with Sufi mystics. Part travel memoir, part cultural commentary, Zaatar Days, Henna Nights is a warm and witty look at the contemporary Arab/Muslim world, busting stereotypes and questioning faith and identity when East meets West.

Mark Twain - The ​Adventures of Tom Sawyer / The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
With ​an Introduction and Notes by Stuart Hutchinson, University of Kent at Canterbury. Tom Sawyer, a shrewd and adventurous boy, is as much at home in the respectable world of his Aunt Polly as in the self-reliant and parentless world of his friend Huck Finn. The two enjoy a series of adventures, accidentally witnessing a murder, establishing the innocence of the man wrongly accused, as well as being hunted by Injun Joe, the true murderer, eventually escaping and finding the treasure that Joe had buried. Huckleberry Finn recounts the further adventures of Huck, who runs away from a drunken and brutal father, and meets up with the escaped slave Jim. They float down the Mississippi on a raft, participating in the lives of the characters they meet, witnessing corruption, moral decay and intellectual impoverishment. Sharing so much in background and character, these two stories, the best of Twain, indisputably belong together in one volume. Though originally written as adventure stories for young people, the vivid writing provides a profound commentary on provincial American life in the mid-nineteenth century and the institution of slavery.

Tove Jansson - The ​Summer Book
On ​an island in the Gulf of Finland, a small girl and her grandmother, with seventy years between them, argue, dream, and explore together their island and others of memory and anticipation.

Bill Bryson - Notes ​from a Small Island
"After ​nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson took the decision to move back to the States for a while, to let his kids experience life in another country, to give his wife the chance to shop until 10 p.m. seven nights a week, and, most of all, because he had read 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, and it was thus clear to him that his people needed him. But before leaving his much- loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of the nation's public face and private parts( as it were), and to analyze what precisely it was he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite, a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy, place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey, Shellow Bowells, people who said 'Mustn't grumble', and so on..." 'Not a book that should be read in public, for fear of emitting loud snorts' The Times

José Saramago - Journey ​to Portugal
From ​the misty mountains of the north to the southern seascape of the Algarve, the travels of Nobel laureate José Saramago are a passionate rediscovery of his own land. Setting off in his veteran motor car, Saramago wants to travel _to_ Portugal, as well as through it: by making it his destination the acclaimed writer hopes to take stock of his native land as it hovers on the edge of the modern world. He is no typical guide - he avoids the "sights" in favour of a remote Romanesque church, a cobweb-ridden chapel, the local and the domestic - but, with his deep fount of memory and erudite knowledge, each encounter evoking the span of Portugal's history, he is anyone's idea of a delightful travelling companion.

James Joyce - Ulysses ​(angol)
Ulysses ​has been labelled dirty, blasphemous and unreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge John M. Woolsey declared it an emetic book – although he found it not quite obscene enough to disallow its importation into the United States – and Virginia Woolf was moved to decry James Joyce’s ‘cloacal obsession’. None of these descriptions, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in its own way) suspenseful. And despite the exegetical industry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses is also a compulsively readable book. Even the verbal vaudeville of he final chapters can be navigated with relative ease, as long as you’re willing to be buffeted, tickled, challenged and (occasionally) vexed by Joyce’s astonishing command of the English language.

Burton Anderson - Wine ​Atlas of Italy - And Traveller's Guide to the Vineyards
This ​is the first book to comprehensively gazetteer every wine district in Italy, from Sicily to the Alps. Each major Italian wine zone is mapped in detail with explanations of where all the best wines come from, how they are made and by whom. The estates and vineyards of top producers are indicated as are the elements of soil and climate that determine quality. The maps are complemented by beautiful, specially-commissioned photographs which introduce the reader to the ravishing landscapes of Italy.

John Gimlette - At ​the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig
A ​wildly humorous account of the author's travels across Paraguay–South America's darkly fabled, little-known “island surrounded by land.” Rarely visited by tourists and barely touched by global village sprawl, Paraguay remains a mystery to outsiders. Think of this small nation and your mind is likely to jump to Nazis, dictators, and soccer. Now, John Gimlette’s eye-opening book–equal parts travelogue, history, and unorthodox travel guide–breaches the boundaries of this isolated land,” and illuminates a little-understood place and its people. It is a wonderfully animated telling of Paraguay's story: of cannibals, Jesuits, and sixteenth-century Anabaptists; of Victorian Australian socialists and talented smugglers; of dictators and their mad mistresses; bloody wars and Utopian settlements; and of lives transplanted from Japan, Britain, Poland, Russia, Germany, Ireland, Korea, and the United States. The author travels from the insular cities and towns of the east, along ghostly trails through the countryside, to reach the Gran Chaco of the west: the “green hell” covering almost two-thirds of the country, where 4 percent of the population coexists–more or very-much-less peacefully–with a vast array of exotic wildlife that includes jaguars, prehistoric lungfish, and their more recently evolved distant cousins, the great fighting river fish. Gimlette visits with Mennonites and the indigenas, arms dealers and real-estate tycoons, shopkeepers, government bureaucrats and, of course, Nazis. Filled with bizarre incident, fascinating anecdote, and richly evocative detail, At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig is a brilliant description of a country of eccentricity and contradiction, of beguilingly individualistic men and women, and of unexpected and extraordinary beauty. It is a vivid, often riotous, always fascinating, journey.

Pete McCarthy - McCarthy's ​Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland
_Never ​Pass a Bar That Has Your Name On It,_ says the eight rule of travel; a very rewarding rule if your name is McCarthy and you're wandering through the west of Ireland. As he meanders from Cork to Donegal, Pete encounters many McCarthy's bars in which he explores his confused Irish-Anglo identity with colorful, friendly, and funny people, before pleading to be let out at four o'clock in the morning. Written by someone who is both insider and outsider, MCCARTHY'S BAR is a vivid and affectionate portrait of a rapidly changing country.

Tim Moore - The ​Grand Tour
The ​finishing touch to a man of leisure's education was a trip through Europe. No Englishman or American could consider himself truly cultivated until he has visited the continent's capitals, and, while sowing his wild oats, glanced accidentally at a cultural institution or two. The tradition of the Grand Tour was started in 1608 by an intrepid but down-at-the-heels English courtier named Thomas Coryate, who walked across Europe, miraculously managed to return home in one piece, and wrote a book about his bawdy misadventures. With The Grand Tour, Tim Moore proves not only that he is Coryate's worthy successor but one of the finest and funniest travel writers working today. Armed with a well-thumbed reprint of Coryate's book, Moore donned a purple plush suit and set off in a second-hand and highly temperamental Rolls-Royce through France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. Like Coryate, Moore possesses an astonishing ability to land himself in humiliating predicaments. His account of his hilariously memorable misadventures on Venice's canals on one fateful afternoon is by itself worth the price of admission. Moore brings new life to the Old World and in the process sends readers into paroxysms of laugher and delight.

Barbara Olszanska - Tadeusz Olszański - Budapest
The ​DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Budapest will lead you straight to the best attractions Budapest has to offer. The guide includes unique cutaways, floorplans and reconstructions of the city's stunning architecture, plus 3D aerial views of the key districts to explore on foot. You'll find detailed listings of the best hotels, restaurants, bars and shops for all budgets in this fully updated and expanded guide, plus insider tips on everything from where to find the best markets and nightspots to great attractions for children. The uniquely visual DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Budapest also includes in-depth coverage of all the unforgettable sights and comes complete with a free pull-out city map, clearly marked with sights from the guidebook and an easy-to-use street index. The map has detailed street views of all the key areas, plus there are transport maps and information on how to get around the city, and there's even a chart showing the distances between major sights for walkers. The DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Budapest shows you what others only tell you.

Jane Struthers - Royal ​Palaces of Britain
A ​visually stunning tour of Britain's best loved, least known and most infamous palaces, castles and other royal residences. Indulge your senses in the sumptuous interior of Buckingham Palace, explore the tranquil retreat of Sandringham House, and discover the dark past of the notorious Tower of London and the haunted rooms of Glamis Castle. Features 31 homes of the monarchy and aristocracy, from 1034 to the present day, richly illustrated with over 130 exquisite photograph. The stories of the palaces, and the roles they played in the lives of the British monarchs who lived in them, are explored in depth and described in engaging detail. At-a-glance information panels highlight areas of special interest for visitors to the royal residences.

J. A. Redmerski - The ​Edge of Never
Twenty-year-old ​Camryn Bennett had always been one to think out-of-the-box, who knew by the time she was sixteen that she wanted something more in life than following the same repetitive patterns and growing old with the same repetitive life story. She wanted to see the world and fall in love and not be grounded to the predictable. Well, she did fall in love and had plans to check the other things off The List with Ian, but after she gave up her virginity to him, he died in a tragic car accident and Camryn was never the same. Shortly after, her parents divorced, her older brother went to jail, her new boyfriend cheated on her and she had had enough. Determined not to dwell on the negative and push forward with her life, Camryn is set to move in with her best friend and plans to start a new job rather than living off her family’s money, but after an unexpected night at the hottest club in downtown North Carolina, she makes the ultimate decision to leave the only life she’s ever known, far behind. With a purse, a cell phone and a small bag with a few necessities, Camryn, with absolutely no direction or purpose boards a Greyhound bus alone and sets out to find herself. But what she finds is a guy named Andrew Parrish, someone not so very different from her and who harbors his own dark secrets. But Camryn swore never to let down her walls again. She promised herself that she would never get too close even to a friend, especially after what her best friend did after the night at the club. And she vowed never to fall in love. But with Andrew, Camryn finds herself doing a lot of things she never thought she’d do. He shows her what it’s really like to live out-of-the-box and to give in to her deepest, darkest desires. On their sporadic road-trip he becomes the center of her exciting and daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But will Andrew’s dark secrets push them inseparably together, or tear them completely apart?

Mark Lawson - The ​Battle for Room Service: Journeys to All the Safe Places
Beginning ​in Timaru, reputedly the most activity-challenged place in New Zealand, Lawson travels through Australia and Canada, where he learns to be especially wary of anyplace named after Queen Victoria or her close relatives. After dropping in on Normal, Illinois and Dead Horse, Alaska - place names in the quiet world are sometimes disarmingly honest - he travels through soothing Switzerland, Milton Keynes, and Belgium, before the journey's end in EuroDisney, Expo '92 and Centrer Parcs: territories of Somewhere, the new tourist continent where, in a reversal of the usual rules of travel, countries come to you.

Iain Sinclair - London ​Orbital
Encircling ​London like a noose, the M25 is a road to nowhere, but when Iain Sinclair sets out to walk this asphalt loop – keeping within the ‘acoustic footprints’ – he is determined to find out where the journey will lead him. Stumbling upon converted asylums, industrial and retail parks, ring-fenced government institutions and lost villages, Sinclair discovers a Britain of the fringes, a landscape consumed by developers. London Orbital charts this extraordinary trek and round trip of the soul, revealing the country as you’ve never seen it before.

Bonnie Jo Campbell - Once ​Upon a River
Bonnie ​Jo Campbell has created an unforgettable heroine in sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, a beauty whose unflinching gaze and uncanny ability with a rifle have not made her life any easier. After the violent death of her father, in which she is complicit, Margo takes to the Stark River in her boat, with only a few supplies and a biography of Annie Oakley, in search of her vanished mother. But the river, Margo's childhood paradise, is a dangerous place for a young woman traveling alone, and she must be strong to survive, using her knowledge of the natural world and her ability to look unsparingly into the hearts of those around her. Her river odyssey through rural Michigan becomes a defining journey, one that leads her beyond self-preservation and to the decision of what price she is willing to pay for her choices.

Julia Gregson - East ​of the Sun
Autumn ​1928. The _Kaiser-i-Hind_ is en route to Bombay. In Cabin D38, Viva Hollowat, an inexperienced chaperone, is worried she's made a terrible mistake. Her advert in _The Lady_ has resulted in three unsettling charges to be escorted to India. Rose, a beautiful, dangerously naive English girl, is about to be married to the cavalry officer she has met only a handful of times. Victoria, the bridesmaid, is determined to lose her virginity on the journey before finding a husband of her own in India. And overshadowing all three of them, the malevolent presence of Guy Glover, a strange and disturbed schoolboy. Three potential Memsahibs with a myriad of reasons for leaving England, bu the cargo of hopes and secrets they carry has done little to prepare them for what lies ahead. From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites to the poverty of the orphans on Tamarind Street, _East of the Sun_ is everything a historical novel should be: alive with glorious detail, fascinating characters and masterful storytelling.

Eiichiro Oda - One ​Piece 18.
The ​Straw Hats at long last reach Alabasta! But their stay is cut short when Luffy attracts too much attention from the Navy. They're not the only ones interested in Luffy--someone from his past has been waiting for him too! Meanwhile, the Baroque Works' agents are summoned together when their leader, the dastardly Mr. Zero, aka Sir Crocodile, learns that Luffy is still alive and orders his immediate extermination!

Mark Twain - Roughing ​It
Mark ​Twain's semi-autobiographical travel memoir, "Roughing It" was written between 1870-1871 and subsequently published in 1872. Billed as a prequel to "Innocents Abroad," in which Twain details his travels aboard a pleasure cruise, "Roughing It" documents Twain's early days in the old wild west between the years 1861-1867.