June Newsletter from Wide World Books & Maps

June is such a wonderful month. The weather is getting warmer but it's not hot yet. Flowers are blooming without having to be watered every day. School is almost out. Remember what a great feeling that was? The Front Table is in the midst of its seasonal transformation from winter serious to summer fun and that means your reading choices are wider than ever.

The new biography of Roger Tory Peterson, Birdwatcher, by Elizabeth Rosenthal caught my eye first. I've recently started watching birds myself and I'll be traveling to Peterson's hometown of Jamestown, New York this summer. Seems like a good reason to learn more about the man who introduced millions of Americans to the joys of bird watching. Rosenthal's detailed portrait follows Peterson from his days as a rather poor student who would much rather be outdoors, through his development as an artist and teacher to the man who ended up winning every award available in his field. With much of her material drawn from interviews with Peterson's family, friends and colleagues, Rosenthal's book is a warm and intimate look at the life of a man who did so much to encourage the preservation of nature and wildlife in our country. ($29.95)

Tony Horwitz has a new book out this month which is always cause for celebration among travel literature enthusiasts. A Voyage Long and Strange begins with Horwitz visiting Plymouth Rock and realizing that his knowledge of American history between Columbus' landing and the arrival of the Pilgrims is rather sketchy. Being the gung-ho, throw-himself-into-the-fray writer that he is, Horwitz decides to retrace the steps of some of the early American explorers like Cabeza de Vaca and DeSoto as well as a few names even good history students might not recognize. Eventually, after meeting some fascinating people, traveling through the Southwest, Newfoundland and Florida, and having numerous hilarious adventures, he works his way back to Plymouth, concluding that the American people are not about to give up their cherished myths about our country's founding. This is definitely the fun way to learn American history. ($27.50)

Another author who knows how to tell a absorbing historical tale, Simon Winchester, journeys to China for his latest book, The Man Who Loved China. Winchester recounts the eccentric life of Joseph Needham, a Cambridge professor who, though married, becomes involved with a Chinese student and, through her, becomes obsessed first with Chinese language and then the culture and history of the Middle Kingdom. In 1943, while the Japanese are still in possession of large parts of the country, he travels to "free" China and begins a study of Chinese science and inventions. He discovers proof that the Chinese were the first to use gunpowder, wheelbarrows and smallpox vaccinations among dozens of other things (the list of inventions in the appendix of Winchester's book runs to ten pages) and begins writing his history of the subject that will eventually expand to 24 volumes. Winchester is clearly fascinated with his subject, admiring Needham's immense breadth of interest and impatience with convention. If you're planning some pre-Olympics China reading, put this one on your list. ($27.95)

Cathedral by the Sea

If you're ready to jump into your summer reading and you have a taste for epic historical fiction, Cathedral of the Sea by Spanish author Ildefonso Falcones may be just what you've been looking for. (I'd choose it for the author's name alone!) Set in medieval Barcelona, this international bestseller tells the story of Arnau Estanyol, son of a runaway peasant who finds employment and a new life helping to build the great cathedral, Santa Maria del Mar. Against the dramatic background of the construction we witness the testing of the bonds of brotherhood, class conflict in the decline of the feudal age, forbidden love between Christian and Jew, the ravages of the plague and the terrors of the Inquisition. Epic, indeed. If you loved Rutherford's Sarum and Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, don't miss this one. ($26.95)

Her faithful readers will be happy to know that Marlena de Blasi has found love in Italy again. After three books describing her own happy romance, she has turned to someone else's love life in That Summer in Sicily. Early in her marriage to Francesco, she was offered an assignment to write about the remote mountain areas of Sicily. As the couple makes their way through silent, unfriendly villages, someone finally directs them to Villa Donnafugata where she is welcomed by Tosca Brozzi and hears the amazing story of her life. As a child, Tosca was traded to a feudal prince, eventually became his mistress and, after he defied the local Mafia and "disappeared", she inherited his property. As usual, de Blasi makes the most of the passion and romance of Tosca's story, with her own zest for life-particularly for Italian life-adding that certain something that always charms her many fans. ($24.00)

Aroudn the World in 80 Rounds

And finally, we can't have a June Front Table without at least one book about golf. Father's Day is coming up on the 15th, you know. This year, Seattle author and former stand-up comic David Wood brings us Around the World in 80 Rounds. Sitting in his Lake Washington-front condo, Wood idly started researching extreme golf courses: most northerly, southerly, highest. Next thing you know, he's sold everything he owns including the condo, keeping only his golf clubs, to set off for a year of playing all those courses he found on the internet. See how computers can get you in trouble? From the West Seattle Municipal course to the Ushuaia golf course in Tierra del Fuego and on to Norway, Nepal and New Zealand, Wood lives a golfer's dream traveling 60,000 miles and playing eighty golf courses. And he's very funny about it. If your dad likes to laugh, golf and travel, this is his book. ($25.95)

I'm out of space and I haven't even mentioned several fine literary novels, a couple of funny books about France, Timm's favorite new hardcover (ok, it's How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone), a book about the train to Tibet...so many books, so little time!