LiteraryTraveler.net

Happy Sunday to my frequent readers, if you are looking for a weekend getaway this upcoming Easter, I have come across some great deals for the whole family.

Feel like going to the state’s capital and joining in on the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House? This practice has occurred since 1878 during the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes. After a law passed prohibiting children from egg rolling on Capitol grounds, President Hayes accepted children to carry on the tradition at the White House. Today the tradition also includes a visit from the Easter Bunny and storytelling. This momentous tradition continues to bring 100’s of children and families together. Flights from Atlanta are as low as $139.

Is Washington, D.C. not far enough for a weekend getaway and Easter celebration? How about enjoying your chocolates from the Easter bunny while sipping on a little sangria in Spain? Flights to the Port of Spain are as low as $339.

Spain celebrates Easter through street processions. The processions are organized and occur every evening from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. They consist of music and people carrying statues of saints or biblical scenes on platforms where onlookers and participants can mourn these saints. On Easter Sunday, they celebrate with feasts, light and color, church bells can be heard throughout the day, a sense of rejoicing spreads throughout the country. You will be likely to capture and participate in these processions and the rejoicing at the Port of Spain. If you are unfamiliar with the Port of Spain and want to buff up on a little history, I recommend reading The Loss of Eldorado by V.S. Naipaul. Phillip Cartelli puts together a great summary of his own adventures to the Port of Spain.

How about a cheap flight to New York City where you can participate in the enormous Easter egg hunt in Central park or walk around with a crazy hat or bonnet on 5^th avenue? Flights are less than $150. New York City offers a variety of celebration from the traditional hunts to an annual parade.

After the kids or yourself have finished searching for those colorful eggs, how about a little author education. John Steinbeck, author of The Grapes of Wrath lived in NYC more than half of his life. Walk the streets a bit and try to understand his own words, “New York is the world with every vice and blemish and beauty and there’s privacy thrown in. What more could you ask?” Explore New York City with an open, nonjudgmental, fresh eye. Feel the central park air, see the sun creeping around the skyscrapers, experience New York City.

I hope these travel deals will land you in a great spot this upcoming Easter.

And a few words of advice:

I was watching the Rachel Ray show the other morning and she had a special guest informing viewers of the skyrocketing prices of flights, as well as the hidden fees that airlines are incorporating. For instance, luggage, food and picking your seats in advance will all cost you extra money.

If you are traveling with friends or family, it will cost you an additional amount to pick your seats so you are all sitting together. Currently, AirTran charges $20 just to sit in an exit row, each way! Aisle, middle and window seats all cost anywhere from 5-15 dollars, depending on the airline. Baggage fees are anywhere from 10-25 dollars, depending on the airline. Looking for a small meal on your voyage? I hope you have a credit card or cash, because a bag of pretzels containing approximately 10 small pretzels probably won’t satisfy your appetite.

Don’t get discouraged with all these fees; you just have to be prepared. Weigh your luggage, book together and eat a big meal before you even get to the airport. Traveling is an amazing experience; don’t let the fees get you down.

Happy Easter. Keep exploring.

Every Friday, the staff at Literary Traveler gathers up the relevant book news from around the web, bringing it together in a handy post for book lovers to peruse.  Enjoy!

• In her piece on the immensely talented American author Shirley Jackson, Joan Schenkar introduces her subject as “Stanley’s wife,” which is, unfortunately, how she was seen for much of her life.  However, as Schenkar shows, Jackson was so much more than simply a wife – she was self-professed witch, a master of manipulation, and a true artist with words.  For more insights into Jackson and the literary culture of Bennington, Vermont, check out Shenkar’s piece in it’s entirety here.
• Harry Potter fans will flock to the new ride at University Studios in Orlando, Florida.  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will open on June 18th and feature a virtual trip through the magical world of Hogwarts, including a stop at Ollivander’s Wand Shop and an interactive Quidditch match.  Sign me up.
• Rest in peace Ai, award-winning poet and all-around admirable woman.  Born Florence Anthony, she changed her name to the Japanese word for love before receiving the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975 and the National Book Award for her poetry collection “Vice.”  Take a moment to mourn the literary loss and read her poetry here.
• Books can take us many places, but one of my favorite places to explore through the written word is only a few steps away: My own kitchen.  There is something truly magical about a novel that can not only transport you in space and time, but also tickle your tastebuds.  With this in mind, let’s try to recall our favorite culinary moments (mine from the children’s book series Redwall) with this article from the Guardian on food and fiction.
• Have you been following March Madness?  No?  Well for those of us more interested in the Food Court than the basketball court, here is a fun way to participate:  Book tournaments.
• And finally, Tim O’Brien appeared at Barnes & Noble earlier this week to discuss The Things They Carried on the twentieth anniversary of its publication.  An audio recording of the interview, in which O’Brien discusses storytelling, his most famous work, and the tragic legacy of Vietnam,  is available online.

We recently covered one aspect of 1960s society with our article on counter-culture and the influence of writer and merry prankster Ken Kesey.  This week we turn to AMC’s hit television show Mad Men to help illustrate another, more mainstream, side of the American coin.

A friend of mine once described  Mad Men as being about “nothing more than a bunch of white men drinking, smoking, and sleeping around.”  While this may appear true to a casual viewer – and certainly, much has been made of these less savory aspects of the series – Mad Men is about so much more than the characters’ vices.  It is at once an exploration of our culture of consumerism, a study of the lives of several representative characters, and a portrait of the rapid changes that shook America throughout the 1960s.

In our newest feature article, Paul Millward takes a look at advertising culture and the significance of the American dream, a phrase that has become so common that it has almost lost all meaning.  But with a little help from Mad Men and Millward, it becomes possible to see how advertising appeals to the same portion of the human psyche that is willing to invest in something like the American dream.  Consumer culture is only one type of wish fulfillment, yet it represents our near constant need to always seek out something more, something greater, something forever beyond our grasp.

If you’re anything like me, there is no such thing as too much Mad Men.  However, even a veteran watcher like myself can appreciate a new, fresh take on the much-discussed show, which is why I suggest you take a moment this week and read Millward’s ode to Don Draper, New York, and the dream merchants of the 1960s with his piece Mad Men: Creating a Perfect World on the Avenue of Dreams.

Happy Sunday! I hope you all had a chance to take some time to explore the depths of your surroundings this past week either through a book, a week long vacation or through a beloved hobby. I am optimistic that you took some time for yourself and stepped back from the ‘hustle and bustle’ the tasks of everyday life often consume us with.

I have been spending my Sunday afternoon with a cup of tea, my yorkshire terrier by my side and a blanket thrown over my shoulders searching for trips of interest. I hope you enjoy what I have found.

Still feel like celebrating your Irish roots even though Saint Patrick’s Day has come and gone? Well, I did some research and found some great travel deals to Ireland, the land of the Irish! Lets be honest, do the Irish ever really stop celebrating?

Stay in Ireland for 6 nights at 4-star hotels with a rental car to explore as you please.

Check out the historic castles, the beautiful hillsides that Ireland is so famous for, hit up the Guinness Brewery in Dublin or even the Jameson Distillery. Spend 2 nights in Dublin, 2 nights in Mayo and 2 nights in Limerick.

This is a great trip and way to explore the extent of your heritage. “You’ve got to go there, to know there,” said Zora Neale Hurston referring to Ireland’s famous poet, William Butler Yeats.

As we embrace the conclusion of winter and spring temperatures begin to creep into our days, how is that I still wake up to snowflakes hitting my window when the previous day was 60 degrees? If you are still currently attending college, or are caught up in your 9-5 days… it is okay to need a break, a break from the fickle temperatures and a break from the pasty white person that stares at you in a mirror.

Depending on where your departure city is, flights to Florida are as low as 49 dollars! Take a trip to Key West, Florida where you can embrace your relaxation and solitude and if you are a fan of Ernest Hemingway take a tour of his home at 907 Whitehead Street. Either way, this great price on a round-trip flight will assure you a nice base tan, a week of work-free, sun-shining days. Enjoy.

As I searched for travel deals, I came across a deal to visit my hometown: Burlington VT. Although I mentioned earlier that the weather has been fickle, you have the chance to pick your weekend getaway. I have lived in Vermont most of my life, excluding my college years spent in Boston, MA. Burlington is truly a beautiful, charismatic, enticing town. I suggest this weekend getaway to everyone that is considering a New England trip.

I highly recommend (if the weather co-insides) taking a walk along our waterfront bike path where the views of Lake Champlain are breathtaking. I run and bike on this path multiple times a week and often find myself being thankful for the blessings that I have. It is a beautiful place to reflect, read and write.

There are a few local authors that will be appearing at the Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, VT. (About 10 minutes from Burlington) If your trip correlates to these authors publicly speaking, I advise checking them out. Local authors scheduled to make an appearance: Carrie Jones, March 24^th. Eugenie Doyle, March 28^th. Chris Bohjalian, April 1^st. Jeffery Hollender, April 15^th. Plus much more.

Continue exploring and continue traveling, it will allow you to breathe easier.

After I finished Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids, I put my hand over my heart and wept. After that, I ordered a dress-form and a swath of gold leather online, dumped all my paints, pencils, brushes and duck cloth onto the floor, called my grandma, and downed a glass of chocolate milk.  My erratic behavior somewhat resembles Smith’s lifestyle in New York City in the 60s, process of creation and collaboration with artists passing in and out of the Chelsea Hotel, and travel-induced writing style. Smith’s Romantic, serious phrasing, reminiscent of the French poetry she obsessed over, would seem contrary to her rock and roll vibe if she weren’t so sweet natured.  Instead, it comes off strong and declarative, a sharp anchor in a world of excess.

As Patti Smith is a voice on behalf of our environment and human rights, her warm words peal apart the most sensitive passages of her life so we can observe the moist-letters and slimy rocks of our own. My desire to create since reading Just kids is springier and takes greater form, because my fascination with beauty is shared.

Smith’s friendship with Mapplethorpe was saturated with sad comforts and colors. Before he died, Smith promised Mapplethorpe she would write their story.  The friendships they shared with New York artists helped produce art and joy where dirt and disease once was. Smith is an incredibly believable character–she travels and grows, sours and butterflies in a categorically common way. She quickly harps on regular frustrations like her day job, then graciously extends her hand when we can’t believe her luck. Mapplethorpe was on her arm throughout it all.

While reading, I kept a list of names, ideas or art work I wanted to remember:

Robert Mapplethorpe
Godard
Brian Jones
Midnight Cowboy
Williams Burroughs (Lee Burroughs)
Anthology of American Folk Music
Crazy Horse
Anna Kavan
Virgil Thomas
Arthur C. Clark
Oscar Wilde
Dylan Thomas
Thomas Wolfe–”You Can’t Go Home Again…”
The Golden Bough
Tim Bukley
Ossie Clark, designer
Wages of Fear (film)
Banny Fields
Water and eucalyptus leave for floors
Of Human Bondage
Jackie Curtis
Ray Roussel, Locus Solus
Gautier Michaux
Thomas de Quincey
Gregory Corso
Bobby Neuwirth–Don’t Look Back, “Bring It All Back Home,” Dylan
Patty Waters
Clifton Chenier
Albert Ayler
Blonde on Blonde
Genet
Arthur Rimbaud

Traveling can be fun and easy for business or pleasure, but in this economy, tenacious travelers must do a little digging if they want to get the most for their dollar. I am here weekly to keep the unstoppable seekers up-to-date with the best, get the most, money-saving travel deals.

James Bond and I have become great friends. I have just embarked upon a quest of watching the famous movies after being cursed by a friend because I had not seen them. Not only do I have questions about Dr. No and Pierce Brosnan vs Sean Connery, but, when did this movie phenomenon begin and who was the master creator of James Bond? Ian Fleming wrote his first novel in 1953, Casino Royale, this book introduced Mr. James Bond. Mr. Fleming resided at 22 Ebury Street in London, England and for those as interested in this master creator as I have become, I have found some great travel deals and tours to and from London:

If you are looking for the ultimate trip, and would like to continue exploring, I found a package that offers tours of Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Cavalry Museum, the Tower of London, the Crown Jewels and much more. All tours include lunch!

The “Total London Experience”

As I plan trips around the world an attribute that I look for while choosing a destination is architecture. I am a stickler for an amazing façade, beautiful colors and intricate craftsmanship and Bangkok has it all. Bangkok’s architecture offers creative organization and originality in every structure, such as The Grand Palace or The Oriental, “it’s surroundings creep into my consciousness, comforting my body and mind.”

If you are interested in exploring the charm and elegance of Bangkok, I have found some great travel deals. Round trip tickets as low as $1094, including tax and fuel surcharge. Book before May 31^st!

However, if this is not enough and you want to see more of Thailand, there is a great deal on special passes that entitle you to travel to three cities for only 209.00 USD.

Always dreamed of going on a trip where everything was planned; flights and hotels were booked, dinners were reserved and you could see as much as possible? Well I have found the perfect opportunity for you:

Visit Istanbul, Canakkale, Kusadasi, Pamukkale, Antalya and Cappadocia in 15 days with a guided bi-lingual tour guide. This package includes a round trip to flight to Turkey with a major airline, a bi-lingual tour guide, 13 nights of accommodations, breakfast and 11 dinners, admission to all sites and private deluxe motor coach. Amazing deal! Book before March 26^th and save $400 per couple.

This is an exquisite opportunity to see Turkey and to explore the depths of the hills, maybe you may be caught up in your own déjà vu much like Inka Plegsa-Quischotte experienced while capturing the sun’s shadows on ancient buildings.

Stay tuned… more to come next week. Safe travels.

Every Friday, the staff at Literary Traveler will gather up the relevant book news from around the web, bringing it together in a handy post for book lovers to peruse.  Enjoy!

• The American Book Review asked several university professors to contribute some nominees to their list of America’s 40 Worst Books.  Some of their choices are – in our humble opinion – debatable.  They’ve included a personal favorite of mine, The Great Gatsby, on the grounds that it is “smug.”  Also on the list: Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road and Cormac McCarthy’s All The Pretty Horses.
• On this day, in 1948, Jack Kerouac turned 26.  He wrote in his journal:  “Guess what?! – on my birthday today, wrote 4500-words(!) – scribbling away till six-thirty in the morning next day. A real way to celebrate another coming of age. And am I coming of age?”  Check out Barnes and Nobel Review for more reflections.
• Dave Eggers, novelist and founder of McSweeney’s, is also blowing out the candles on his birthday cake today.  Help him celebrate (in spirit, if not in person) by checking out  this fascinating interview with Eggers about his new book, Zeitoun.
• Is it possible to become a famous poet simply through social networking?  That’s the argument Jim Behrle made the other day when speaking to a crowd at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project.  “Self promotion is the only kind of promotion left,” he said.
• Ebooks are a little scary to many of us bibliophiles, but they may be the greenest way to access academic books and other frequently-updated texts. However, the case for the e-reader is a little more complicated than it might initially seem.
• And finally, congratulations to author Gail Haveren, translator Dayla Bilu, and everyone at Melville House.  Haveren’s novel The Confessions of Noa Weber was just awarded the 2010 Translated Book Award For Fiction.

More than any other decade, the 1960’s have come to represent an almost mythical time in American history.  Perhaps this is why we return to them, again and again, in books, movies, and song.  The nostalgia for this bygone era is thick and long lasting, lingering into generations of young adults and children who were born too late to experience the magic.

Raised by two former hippies, I have been hearing stories about this amazing decade since I was old enough to teeter around in my mother’s worn fringed boots.   Upon entering my teenage years, I discovered Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test and through it, Ken Kesey and his band of merry pranksters.  One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was the next logical step in my counter-cultural education.  Fortunately, Kesey’s sensitive and nuanced portrayal of those that society deemed unfit ages well, and felt just as relevant to a child of the baby boomers as it did to the original generation of free-thinkers.

Kesey was in many ways the quintessential hippy, and Cuckoo’s Nest can be read as a manifesto of the anti-establishment creed.  It is fitting, then, that in our newest feature article, writer Paul Millward takes a trip to the place where it all began, the city that has come to embody a certain ideal of the counter-culture experience: San Francisco.

Like many before him, Millward views his visit to Haight-Ashbury as kind of a pilgrimage, a journey to discover some lost time and place.  Join Millward in rediscovering Kesey’s legacy by reading our newest feature: Flower Children of the 60′s & Ken Kesey, Father of LSD and Hippies.

But even while tripping through Millward’s piece, don’t forget about the other, more mainstream side of 1960’s culture, featuring the literary wordsmiths of the hit television series Mad Men.  Take a look: Mad Men: Creating a Perfect World on the Avenue of Dreams.

Every Friday, starting this week, the staff at Literary Traveler will gather up the relevant book news from around the web, bringing it together in a handy post for book lovers to peruse.  Enjoy!

• Will the iPad change the very way we read?  It certainly seems possible.  Penguin and Apple have teamed up to create interactive “books” with audio, video, and streaming content.  The first offering: Vampire Academy.
• Speaking of vampires, Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has published his second book: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.   According to the LA Times, it’s actually pretty good.
• Congratulations are in order for Abdo Khal, winner of this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his novel She Throws Sparks as Big as Castles.
• Here’s something to keep in mind for your next visit to Boston: literary-minded diners are welcome at the Boston Public Library, where you can “dine with Shakespeare, Aristotle and Dante.”
• Sally Wolff-King, professor of Southern literature from Emory University, talks to PBS about one of Faulkner’s most important sources of inspiration – the 1,800 page antebellum diary of plantation owner Francis Terry Leek.
• Reminder: Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” comes out today. But before you buy tickets, read up on the making of the movie, and the history of the books, with this interesting article from the New York Times.

It seems that March is monastery month here at Literary Traveler.  With the weather starting to warm ever so slightly, there is a breath of spring in the air, which has always felt more like renewal to me than any January 1^st resolution.

But with renewal also comes return, and that is exactly what William Caverlee does in our newest feature article.  Caverlee writes about a trip he took almost thirty years ago to the Gethsemani Trappist monastery near the aptly named Bardstown, Kentucky.  He samples life at the monastery, and finds himself a little closer to understanding the works of Thomas Merton.

Merton spent much of his life traveling, searching for a place that felt right.  On December 13^th, 1941, Merton was accepted into the monastery as a postulant.  It is here that Merton wrote his autobiography at the age of 31.  The Seven Storey Mountain went on to become one of the most important Christian books of the century, a fact that Caverlee does not dwell upon.  The strongest memory Caverlee imparts centers around the friendly monks and the incongruousness of an old-world institution dropped into modern America.  Yet this is the beauty of our unique culture: the comfortable mixture of old traditions, kept alive by the faithful, and the seductive pull of technology and progress.

Join us in marveling at the wonderful strangeness of the American landscape and reveling in the continual process of return and renewal by checking out Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain at the Abbey of Gethsemani.

Often our greatest epiphanies occur at the most mundane moments.  Like Archimedes and his tub, we tend to stumble into truth with our vision blurred and arms outstretched.  However, there are men who dedicate their lives to the discovery and unveiling of holy and sacred truths.

Hermann Hesse was one of those men.  His writing reveals an interest not only in fiction, but also in the deeper philosophical questions that have haunted us since Plato summarized our shadowy limitations.

This month, author Steven Hermans takes a walk through Hesse’s past, following his trail to the city of Maulbronn, Germany.  He journeys to the ruins of the monastery where Hesse spent several years studying before he fell into a deep depression.  It was a special place for Hesse, and through his wanderings, it becomes a significant place for Hermans as well.  Particularly once he comes upon the fountain.

It is here Hermans learns something crucial about his own multifaceted nature; he not simply a poet, a monk, or a musician, but like Hesse, he is a man on a quest for truth.  Although it may seem strange to read so much into an object of stone and water, I, too, can remember a time when the very bricks of a church seemed to speak out in kinship.  While the little, unobtrusive chapel on the Hudson did not have the same advantage of age as the Maulbronn fountain, the quiet air seemed imbued with a purity, a sense of balance and peace.  It was as though it had been built just for that one moment of perfect clarity.

But before we get lost in reflection, take a moment to follow Hermans to the edge of the Black Forest by checking out our newest feature article – Hermann Hesse’s Glass Bead Game: The Fountain of Inspiration - in its entirety.