May Newsletter from Wide World Books & Maps

Perusing the Front Table this month I realized something. It's almost summer. May is my last chance to do some of that reading I was promising myself I'd get to all winter before sunny days-hopefully-return; reading about the environment, history, maybe a biography or something that can help me understand the world a little better. Fortunately, the Front Table stands ready to provide me with a great selection of books that will fulfill my reading goals and be entertaining as well.

I think I'll begin with William Bernstein's latest work, A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World. Reading about the history of business should meet my goals. Fortunately, Bernstein, a financial theorist frequently quoted in the Wall Street Journal, treats this history as a spellbinding saga of adventurous men crossing dangerous lands and oceans to attain fabulous wealth. Starting with primitive bartering strategies in ancient Mesopotamia, through amazing journeys on the Silk Road and the rise the of great colonial trading companies, the author shows us how ever expanding markets have brought us to our modern economy where we think nothing of eating grapes from Chile and wearing shoes from China. I think I'll keep this one in mind for Father's Day gift giving as well. ($30.00)

All that international trade gets me thinking of the ecological consequences, so I'll turn next to Planetwalker by John Francis. John was a young man living a carefree "hippy" existence in San Francisco in 1971 when a massive oil spill off the coast of California changed his life. Unable to stop thinking about the devastation, he decided to stop riding in motorized vehicles which led to walking pilgrimages around the country. When he realized that he was doing more talking than listening, he added a vow of silence that lasted for 17 years. Along the way, he earned advanced degrees in environmental studies and became a respected activist. This is his very personal memoir of what he was thinking and experiencing during all those years of walking silence. His stories make us much more aware of the places in our own lives when we should be listening to what's happening around us and acting to improve it. ($26.00)

Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong also focuses on the destructive consequences of human behavior. This novel was a sensation when it was first published in China and is now being translated and published around the world. The main character is one of the young volunteers sent during the Cultural Revolution to rural areas of the country, in this case to Mongolia. There he learns of the traditional lifestyle of the Mongolian people and their close relationship with the environment, especially the Mongolian wolf. As Han Chinese-the dominant ethnic group in China-move into the country, the wolves are exterminated, upsetting the balance between people and nature with disastrous consequences for both. Given the recent media attention to Tibet and the issues with other minority peoples in China, this is a timely examination of the potential consequences of China's economic juggernaut. ($26.95)

I've been considering adding a few days in Paris to upcoming trip to Spain so I picked up Gregor Dallas' latest, Metro Stop Paris, with the intention of improving my knowledge of French history. Dallas, a Londoner who has lived in Paris for many years, uses twelve major Metro stops to tell the history of the City of Light. The author clearly has an amazing breadth of knowledge with flowing stories of musicians, museums, politicians, sewers and much more, each sparked by the sights near those Metro stops. The style reminds me of a particularly good story teller sitting at your dinner table rattling off amazing tales of people he's known and places he has visited. This is another one of those small, intelligent, charming books that this publisher, Walker, does so well. ($24.99)

At first glance Passion on the Vine by Sergio Esposito doesn't seem to fit my serious reading category. Esposito was born in Italy and moved to America as a small child. This is the story of his passion for the wine of his homeland and how he made it his life's work, working as a salesman, a sommelier, and as an importer. As the author describes his trips to Italy, connecting with the people and the culture, I came to realize that I was learning a lot. Esposito's encyclopedic knowledge of Italian wines and passion for their flavors makes it easy to learn the ins and outs of Barolos and Vernaccias . The story of founding his company in partnership with Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich is a great education in the business aspects of the wine world. And his travels around Italy searching for the best products of Friuli or Campagna may take you some place you never knew about. ($24.95) For those of you who prefer your wines with a French accent, try La Vie en Rosé by Jamie Iver in which he hilariously and in defiance of French tradition tries to convince Frenchmen to drink his favorite pale pink wine year round. ($24.95)

Finally, I'll turn to a book that doesn't really fit the category at all, Alexander McCall Smith's ninth book in the Ladies No.1 Detective Agency series, The Miracle at Speedy Motors. While you could make the argument that reading this series teaches you something about the beautiful setting, Botswana, or about another culture, the real point is to enjoy the warmth of the storytelling and the simple pleasures of life as lived by our heroine, Mma. Ramotswe. In this installment she's trying to find the family of a client without knowing any of their names or even whether they're alive. Her assistant, Grace, is worried about her new bed, and her husband, the estimable J.L.B. Matekoni may have fallen under the sway of a disreputable doctor. If you're ready to start your vacation reading, this may be the best place to begin. ($22.95)