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

• An interesting piece from the Jewish Review of Books asks the question: Why are there so few Jewish fantasy authors?  It’s something I’ve never considered, but considering the Christian allegories in Narnia and the like, it’s certainly worth thinking about.  Michael Weingrad argues, “we should begin by acknowledging that the conventional trappings of fantasy, with their feudal atmosphere and rootedness in rural Europe, are not especially welcoming to Jews, who were too often at the wrong end of the medieval sword.”  More thoughts on the relationship between religion and the fantasty world at The Second Pass.
• Independent publisher Melville House has announced their intention to host an award ceremony for the best and worst book trailers. Book trailers, for those of you who don’t know, are short videos created to promote upcoming books.  Categories include “Best Big Budget Book Trailer,” “Best Cameo in a Book Trailer,” and hilariously, “Least Likely to Actually Sell the Book.”
• One possible contender for the Melville House awards?  Actor Zach Galifianakis, who appeared in the trailer for John Wray’s Lowboy. Galifianakis and Wray humorously switched places in this short video, with the actor portraying the writer and the writer playing a far more chipper Zach.
• In 2006, Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat, Pray, Love became an instant hit, a bestseller, and a defining entry in the travel writing-cum-memoir canon.  As you’ve probably heard, the story of Gilbert’s self discovery is being made into a feature film, starring (who else?) America’s sweetheart Julia Roberts.  Roberts talks to the New York Times about the film, which left her “exhausted when it was all done.”  But “I loved every second of it,” she added.
• And finally, start this weekend off right by listening to a bit of poetry. Singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant has done something interesting with her newest album, Leave Your Sleep.  Merchant has taken her favorite poems from childhood and set them to music in such a way that both adults and children can enjoy the resulting lullabies.  She chose works by famous poets (like Robert Graves, E.E. Cummings and even  one from Mother Goose) mixed in with those of lesser-known writers, including Charles Carryl and Lydia Huntley Sigourney.

Greece, located in southeast Europe and surrounded by the Aegean, Ionian, and Mediterranean Sea was the site of the first Olympic games in 776 BC, and today is the locality of debt, crisis, stress and anxiety.

Greece’s current economic crisis has them asking for a $61 billion bail out from the IMF due to their government finance troubles, consisting of unaccounted funds and inadequate documentation. Although their squandering has put a dark shadow over Europe and other euro users, it gives travelers the opportunity to travel cheap. Because of this debt, Greece is inadvertently lowering their prices to attract tourists in hopes to regain some financial stability.

With this said, I have found an affordable and enchanting deal to not only help out this beautiful country, but to explore the allure of a newfound land.

Europe Destinations is offering an eight-night trip including airfare and hotel accommodations in Athens, Mykonos, Paros and Santorini. With this trip you will have the opportunity to explore the largest city in Greece and stay on three of Greece’s islands.

I recommend trying a few of Greece’s famous dishes; the classic Greek salad, and fasolada, a bean soup known as “the national food of the Greeks.” If you are a habitual cooker and enjoy the flavors that herbs add to a dish, thyme, oregano, and olive oil are extremely prominent in the Greek cuisine. Greeks frequently use olive oil because it is easy to obtain due to their olive trees that stretch across the region.

Although Greece has encountered a time of hardship and financial uncertainty, it should not manipulate or sway your desire to explore a land of antiquity. Greece was the land of the Olympics, drama, philosophy, the Greek Gods, and the infamous Odysseus, consider this trip and everything Greece still has to offer

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

• Today is a day of great literary importance: April 23rd is not only the generally accepted date of William Shakespeare’s birth, it is also the day both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died.  Because of the historical significance, UNESCO has declared today “World Book and Copyright Day.”  Celebrate this as you best see fit.
• One possible way: check out Tony Tanner’s Prefaces to Shakespeare. Or, better yet, read one of our many pieces on Shakespeare and travel.  Here is my personal favorite: An Indian Epiphany at Stratford-upon-Avon.
• If that is too highbrow for a Friday, you might be interested in Salon‘s piece on crime fiction and comic books. Or, as some of us like to call them “graphic novels.”
• And while we’re on the topic of illustrated books, it can be fun to remember our favorite books for childhood (or our children’s favorite books!).  American author George Saunders reviews Kashtanka by Anton Chekhov. He writes: “Kashtanka is, it seems to me, the most accurately drawn dog in literature.”
• Attention aspiring poets: The Small Press Distribution Bad Poetry contest ends today! Categories for bad poems hilariously include “worst poem titled ‘Unicorns In Fog’” and “worst poem in the form of a Facebook status update.”
• The Guardian published a fascinating piece on the celebrity-chief memoir. This new genre may just produce my Beach Read Of Choice for this summer.
• And finally, those of you in the Boston area may do well to check out Off The Shelf‘s guide to Boston area author readings. Have a wonderful weekend!

Spring has sprung, and with it, my wanderlust has returned.  Not satisfied with the budding beauty of the Cambridge spring, I have begun to look abroad for inspiration.  Itching for summer, I wonder what the air feels like in Greece, Turkey, or Morocco.  I realize I’m impatient, but all the subtle greenery makes me crave is the heat of summer and the rush of hot air.

There is something about natural beauty that seems to always ask for more – more heat, more greatness, more overpowering beauty.  The Romantics wrote of the sublime – the overwhelming appreciation of a natural phenomenon, tinged with awe and fear.  This is the experience many of us seek through travel, although we do not always find something so humbling.

Our newest feature article, by freelance writer Vanessa H. Larson, takes us to Cirali, a small town in Mediterranean Turkey.   Larson is seeking the Chimera, a self-replenishing burning rock that has spawned many myths and inspired countless writers.  However, Larson is interested in one novelist in particular: Nazli Eray.  In 1983, Eray published Orpheus, a surrealistic retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.  Larson walks through the August night to rock formation, searching for a place to locate Eray, and in the process, she rediscovers her own sense of awe and wonderment.

I, too, have recently found myself staring at rocks, looking for answers.  Just last weekend I visited Purgatory Chasm in Sutton, Massachusetts, for the first time.  Reading about the Chimera, I am reminded of this incredible natural formation – the violent, rocky gash that opens out of the earth.  While I can’t offer forth any great epiphany, I can say this: whether you are able to travel far, or only have the time for a local jaunt, there is always the opportunity to be wowed by nature.

Join us this week in celebrating the intersections between mythology and landscape (and wishing for summer’s heat) by reading The Chimera, A Mystical Journey of Nazli Eray’s Orpheus.

Labor Day parade in Madrid, Spain

Labor Day, otherwise known as Dia de Trabajo in Spain is an annual national holiday  to “celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers.”

It originates from the labor union movement in Canada around 1872, though celebrated as a federal holiday in Spain on May 1st.

To commemorate this day, the Spanish close stores and government buildings to participate in parades and protests against large corporations.

Why not experience Labor Day the “Spanish way” this year?  Make a trip out of it this upcoming May. 

Travelzoo is offering a great deal on a 6-night stay in Barcelona.  Besides participating in the Labor Day festivities, I recommend checking out the Pablo Picasso Museum and the popular Las Ramblas Street.  Remember to be mindful of those ladrones or pick-pockets.

After voicing your own opinions of large corporations or marching in a parade, how about taking a train ride to Madrid, the capital of Spain?

Madrid, the largest city in Spain, offers a great variety of museums and art galleries to fill your days with endless history facts and beautiful artwork. I suggest checking out Euro Railways for train tickets to Madrid from Barcelona. Travel time can range from 3 to 9 hours.

You can get a sleeper cart and travel by night, but watch out for prices.  They increase as you decrease your travel time and reserve seats.

I found a great hotel deal at the Ada Palace.  Stay for 3 nights for 412 Euros, approximately 556.03 United States Dollars (USD). The interior looks beautiful and they offer a continental breakfast.

While traveling around Madrid, I suggest walking through the botanical gardens (close to your hotel), visiting the Royal Palace and The Real Madrid Museum, which offers an amazing display of every cup Real Madrid (Madrid’s Fútbol team) has won. If you are a fan of soccer, or football (as those Europeans say), I would highly recommend this museum.

And whatever you do, don’t forget to sip on a glass of Spain’s amazing champagne sangria.

I hope everyone had a great Easter and that you were able to celebrate it in the way that pleases you the most. I am posting this weeks edition of ‘Travel Deals to Satisfy your Wandering Mind’ early because I am traveling to San Francisco tomorrow morning. This trip is purely pleasure and will consist of hiking, visiting many vineyards, and exploring the city of steep rolling hills. The weather looks promising and it should be an adventurous, relaxing mini-vacation.

I have found a few travel deals this week that I feel may satisfy your passion for traveling far from home.

Have you ever dreamed of going to Asia? I found a deal through Travelzoo where you can go for as cheap as $990!

I have never traveled to Hong Kong, let alone Asia, but along with a million other places, it is on my list to explore. I don’t know if it is the lack of knowing or understanding their culture, their amazing advancement in today’s technology, or the ‘city life’ they have to offer, but I am drawn to it and want to learn more. I advise you to put Hong Kong on your list of places to go. If the language barrier scares you, pick up a Rosetta stone for Chinese. If the city scares you, then maybe it is not your place to go. But I can promise you multiple things, it will offer you a great culture experience, a step out of your own comfort zone and an opportunity to learn a bit more about yourself, what’s so bad about that?

Still want to research and examine more about this playground we call the world? Well, how about a trip to Egypt? I found another great deal, but instead of walking around and finding places to go yourself, the cruise ship you will be sailing on will take you to the pyramids of Egypt and you will cruise on the Nile River!

I recently went on a cruise to the Caribbean and have previously been on one to Alaska. These deals not only offer all food accommodations and sleeping, but there are always great events, shows, live music and 24 hour service on the cruise ship. This is a great way to travel if you want a mix of ultimate relaxation and exploration.

I recommend bringing a few books if you enjoy reading on vacation and what better way to embrace your Egyptian experience then by reading a book by an Egyptian native, André Aciman? He has written a few books, but the one I highly suggest is Out of Egypt: A Memoir.

This memoir introduces us to not only André, but also the people that shaped his life and helped him become who he is now, an author living in Manhattan, NY. Looking for a lighter read? How about The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This book is a light read but will keep you on your toes and turning the page.

Have a great week, keep traveling, dreaming and planning. Embrace the moment.

We’ve entered an era where much of our correspondence occurs over e-mail and cellphones; we are not without words, but our words are generally without object.  The things we write to one and other are disembodied, floating on screens, written with light rather than ink.  While the modern methods of communication have allowed for some wonderful things – our thoughts have never been able to travel so freely, and so quickly, across oceans and continents – I still occasionally mourn the loss of the most old-fashioned form of transmission: the letter.

A handwritten letter is a truly beautiful thing.  It bares the mark of the writer in a way that no text message ever possibly can.  It also contains a permanence, a strength of sorts, that allows us to feel as though the abstract concepts put into writing are real, tangible and forever ours.

Perhaps this can help explain why the Portuguese have not given up their fascination with Mariana Alcoforado, a nun who supposedly conducted a passionate, clandestine affair with a French soldier, which she documented in a series of letters.  The letters show the arching trajectory of her love, from passion to eventual heartbreak.  However, some literary historians doubt the veracity of the romantic tale, and suspect that Mariana was not the true author of the moving documents.

Looking for the truth, writer Andrea Calabretta journeys to Portugal.  She visits Beja, the city where Mariana supposedly spent her days pining for her faithless soldier, to learn a little something about the mystery of the nun.  Join Calabretta in her search by checking out Literary Traveler’s newest feature article, Letters of a Portuguese Nun: A Literary Mystery in Beja.  You might learn a little something about literature – or at the very least, be inspired to put pen to paper and create something truly lasting.

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

• Let’s start off with the biggest story of the week: the iPad.  Now that it’s here, what can it do for us?  Well, according to the reviewers at Salon, it offers a “serene” reading experience, perfect for getting lost in a text.  And although the iBooks store is rather anemic right now, Amazon is offering an app to download Kindle books to the iPad, which might just be the best of both worlds.
• And for even more on e-readers, check out the series of essays on the new medium over at Critical Mass.   “I prefer paper for everything,” writes columnist Martha Cornog.
• Also trendy: Vampires.  It seems that the blood-suckers aren’t going away any time soon, so educate yourself on the “ethical” breed of domesticated monsters with Emily Colette Wilkinson’s fascinating take on our modern vampire romance.  If that whets your appetite for blood, The Guardian has a few great book recommendations for horror fans.
• Margaret Atwood is on Twitter!  And she is very appreciative of her followers, who have sent her “many interesting items pertaining to artificially-grown pig flesh, unusual slugs, and the like.”  She also includes one of the most flattering descriptions of Twitter we’ve ever read: “It’s something like having fairies at the bottom of your garden.”
• Preeminent Twain scholar Laura Skandera Trombley appeared yesterday on the Leonard Lopate Show to talk about Mark Twain’s “other woman,” Isabel Lyon. “Twain in effect made her his substitute wife,” she explains.  Trombley also suggests that Lyon always hoped Twain would marry her, but she was happy to work for “the most famous man in the world.”
• And finally, take a moment to ponder the tragedy of so-called “lost literature.” There are many great pieces that time – and the general reading public – forgot, including the works of Ukrainian writer Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky and Russian author Danill Kharms.   Perhaps it’s time to celebrate some of our favorite, lesser-known authors before it is too late.

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!

• Short story writers, get your pens ready (or laptops, as the case may be) for NPR’s “Three Minute Fiction Contest.”  They’re looking for pieces of original prose including the words plant, button, trick, and fly.  Submissions will be judged by Ann Patchett, and are due by April 11th.
• Good news for independent bookstores: Obama is a fan!  Our president made a surprise stop at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City this week to pick up a couple of children’s books for his daughters.  And the LA Times even has a video!
• In case you hadn’t heard, April is Poetry Month.  Take a moment to honor the occasion by stepping outside your normal reading zone and trying out poets from around the world.  I plan to start by reading the works of Yehuda Amichai, one of my new favorite writers and Israel’s greatest modern poet.
• You have to respect horror author Joe Hill for his recent success, especially considering his legacy.  Hill, whose real name is Joseph Hillstrom King, didn’t want to write under the shadow of his father.  “I felt there was a danger – real danger – in coming out as the son of Stephen King if I couldn’t sell it under the pen name, if it wasn’t good enough,” Hill explained.  Judge for yourself by picking up a copy of his second novel, Horns.
• Can science be used to explain literature?  Some literary theorists believe so.  University English departments are increasingly turning to the “hard” sciences to better understand the way we read, write, and think.  Interested in the intersection?  The New York Times has it covered.
• And finally, wear your love of books on your sleeve with these wonderful literary t-shirts.  You can purchase my personal favorite  here.

Mid-March was the beginning of a false-Spring in Boston, Massachusetts. The sunshine was warm and the breezes didn’t bite, but when the sun went down the trees shook, the yards flooded, and the streets reflected Winter-cold light. Following the worst of the storm, poet Gary Snyder came out from California to warm our hearts.

As the recipient of the 10th Annual Robert Creeley Award, Snyder graciously accepted an emotional introduction by Creeley’s widow, Penelope. He slowly laid his hands flat on the podium, and I immediately felt let down by the bright fluorescence of the high school auditorium and Snyder’s small stature. But when he began to read, my heart soared: he was a mountain.

Snyder read some of Creeley’s poems and even granted his interpretation of one. Snyder reading his own work was extraordinary to witness, as the genuine hippies around me rocked their heads in an odd caustic yet welcome remembrance. No one needed much prodding to laugh or relish Snyder’s words, but he offered plenty; loose rocks of inflection and emphasis made slip the truly funny, evocative moments. But the tender chuckle that emitted from Snyder’s shoulders was so spirited, the forced-nature of old jokes quickly eased and then came to a stop altogether when Snyder finished the hour reading with his latest poetics.

He interrupted his own poems to share anecdotes about a temple in Japan and a novice monk. He talked about haiku, and that he doesn’t write them. Structure like that he supposed, isn’t built into the American poet. An important contribution to New American Poetry, Snyder’s work often sounds like traditional Native American storytelling strung with psychedelic Zen chimes.

Snyder grew up on the West Coast on farm land, and learned how to appreciate nuances in nature. He expanded upon experience by reading about Eastern culture. In his twenties, he lived in Japan, traveling throughout South-East Asia to study, to fall-in-love and to ‘Listen to the Wind,’ as his dharma name denotes. By the time he moved back to California, he had built a foundation for artists, philosophers and politicians to climb from.

It’s clear Buddhism and his environmental philosophy prepared Snyder for the “here and now.” In this place, if only for an hour, busy people sit and listen to stories of trees and rivers, animals and mountains, beards and braids. As Snyder wrote in the poem “Civilization,” though, “Those are the people who do complicated things.”

Celebrating this Easter traveling and spending time with my family, I hope you do the same.

Stay tuned for travel deals next week.

Reading our newest feature article, on Henry Miller’s Paris, I couldn’t help but feel that it had been written just for me.  I am sitting on my roof as I write this, soaking in the early spring sun.  Today the streets of Cambridge are rife with sandals, shorts, and other vestiges of summer, donned a little early out of optimistic excitement.

I think we get this way every spring – something about the hard winter wakens a desire for debauchery in all of us, no matter how slight.  Miller, with his graphic awareness of the human body, speaks to this new-found sensuality, a desire to eat, drink, and above all, be merry.  We have not yet reached the balmy days of June (which, I have been told, is named after the goddess of marriage because it is so perfect for weddings), but we certainly can dream.

However, one of the most distinguishing features of the dream is the surreal mixture of beauty and fear.  Like most major metropolises, Paris is a city of contradictions.  But Paris is set apart, distinguished by its uncanny beauty and history of decadence.  At the time he wrote Tropic of Cancer, Miller was, like many other great intellectuals, an American in Paris.  He was an expatriate, and as such, able to see the city for what it was, warts and all.  His Paris is not one of blossoms and romance and impressionist painting, but rather the earthly delights so powerfully captured by Hieronymus Bosch.  Yet as unsavory as this may seem at times, there is a powerful sense that Miller is truly alive in his works.

Writer William Caverlee drives home this point in our newest piece, in which he recalls two separate trips to France: one, taken in the 1970s when he was a young man, in love with Miller’s profanities and audacity, and a far more recent voyage.  Through his wanderings, Caverlee comes to see that there are several different ways of looking at Paris – and more than one way of reading Miller.  Cities, like books, are different the second time around, and not always in a good way.

But as for Miller, he’ll always have Paris.  Take a moment out of your busy spring cleaning schedule to read Henry Miller in Paris, the Mean Streets of the Tropic of Cancer and visit the so-called City of Light.