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Looking Back Mississippi: Towns and Places
by Forrest Lamar CooperFor the past three decades, historian and archivist Forrest Lamar Cooper has written a regular column for Mississippi Magazine about unusual, fascinating aspects of the state's history, culture, products, and people. Whether describing the Jubilee Beverage Company of Jackson, the origins of the Mississippi State Fair, a Mississippi veteran who fought at Iwo Jima, or Biloxi's Riviera Hotel, Cooper's “Looking Back” columns are thoroughly researched and written with verve and clarity. Looking Back Mississippi: Towns and Places collects thirty-nine of Cooper's best essays on the various cities, towns, dwellings, parks, and institutions of historical resonance. Covering all corners of the state, from the mid-1800s to the 1930s, the volume offers an engaging, convivial alternative history of Mississippi, one that emphasizes the obscure and small-scale over the big picture. Each short essay is accompanied by photographic and illustrative postcards from Cooper's private collection. These postcards and other memorabilia give delightful visual clarity to Cooper's historical accounts of towns as far north as Hernando and as coastal as Pass Christian, from the Delta to the Pine Belt. Cooper focuses on Mississippi places, and the people and events that made them famous. Much of the architecture and even the terrain—as with the Gulf Coast's once legendary orange groves—has disappeared, making Cooper's postcards invaluable resources for understanding and visualizing what no longer exists. Looking Back Mississippi provides a treasure trove of history and insight into long-vanished corners of the state.
Looking For Adventure
by Steve BackshallHow do you become an explorer? It's a question every child has asked. And, Steve Backshall was no different. But after a rainy-day visit to an exhibition of artefacts from Papua New Guinea, it was a question that began to obsess the seven-year old Backshall. Due to this childhood interest, the vast, untamed wildness of Papua New Guinea was where Backshall forged his unlikely path. From crushing lows of early failures to the extraordinary highs of the BBC's Lost Land of the Volcano expedition, it was this dark island which gave Backshall his opportunity. Full of incredible wildlife, extraordinary wilderness, jungles, cannibals, pitfalls, triumph, danger and excitement, Looking for Adventure is the irresistible, inspiring story of a little boy who let his heart rule his head.
Looking for Adventure
by Steve BackshallA Childhood Dream. A Lost Land. The Journey of a Lifetime.How do you become an explorer? It's a question every child has asked. And, Steve Backshall was no different. But after a rainy-day visit to an exhibition of artefacts from Papua New Guinea, it was a question that began to obsess the seven-year old Backshall. Due to this childhood interest, the vast, untamed wildness of Papua New Guinea was where Backshall forged his unlikely path. From crushing lows of early failures to the extraordinary highs of the BBC's Lost Land of the Volcano expedition, it was this dark island which gave Backshall his opportunity. Full of incredible wildlife, extraordinary wilderness, jungles, cannibals, pitfalls, triumph, danger and excitement, Looking for Adventure is the irresistible, inspiring story of a little boy who let his heart rule his head.
Looking for Alaska
by Peter JenkinsMore than twenty years ago, a disillusioned college graduate named Peter Jenkins set out with his dog Cooper to look for himself and his nation. His memoir of what he found, A Walk Across America, captured the hearts of millions of Americans.Now, Peter is a bit older, married with a family, and his journeys are different than they were. Perhaps he is looking for adventure, perhaps inspiration, perhaps new communities, perhaps unspoiled land. Certainly, he found all of this and more in Alaska, America's last wilderness.Looking for Alaska is Peter's account of eighteen months spent traveling over twenty thousand miles in tiny bush planes, on snow machines and snowshoes, in fishing boats and kayaks, on the Alaska Marine Highway and the Haul Road, searching for what defines Alaska. Hearing the amazing stories of many real Alaskans--from Barrow to Craig, Seward to Deering, and everywhere in between--Peter gets to know this place in the way that only he can. His resulting portrait is a rare and unforgettable depiction of a dangerous and beautiful land and all the people that call it home. He also took his wife and eight-year-old daughter with him, settling into a "home base" in Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, coming and going from there, and hosting the rest of their family for extended visits. The way his family lived, how they made Alaska their home and even participated in Peter's explorations, is as much a part of this story as Peter's own travels.All in all, Jenkins delivers a warm, funny, awe-inspiring, and memorable diary of discovery-both of this place that captures all of our imaginations, and of himself, all over again.
Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike, Second Edition
by Michael Aaron Rockland Angus Kress GillespieA twelve-lane behemoth cutting through the least scenic parts of the Garden State, the New Jersey Turnpike may lack the romantic allure of highways like Route 66, but it might just be a more accurate symbol of American life, representing the nation at both its best and its worst. When Angus Gillespie and Michael Rockland wrote Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1989, they simply wanted to express their fascination with a road that many commuters regarded with annoyance or indifference. Little did they expect that it would be hailed as a classic, listed by the state library alongside works by Whitman and Fitzgerald as one of the ten best books ever written about New Jersey or by a New Jerseyan. Now Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike is back in a special updated and expanded edition, examining how this great American motorway has changed over the past thirty-five years. You’ll learn how the turnpike has become an icon inspiring singers and poets. And you’ll meet the many people it has affected, including the homeowners displaced by its construction, the highway patrol and toll-takers who work on it, and the drivers who speed down its lanes every day.
Looking for Class
by Bruce FeilerAn irresistible, entertaining peek into the privileged realm of Wordsworth and Wodehouse, Chelsea Clinton and Hugh Grant, Looking for Class offers a hilarious account of one man's year at Oxford and Cambridge -- the garden parties and formal balls, the high-minded debates and drinking Olympics. From rowing in an exclusive regatta to learning lessons in love from a Rhodes Scholar, Bruce Feiler's enlightening, eye-popping adventure will forever change your view of the British upper class, a world romanticized but rarely seen.
Looking for Lovedu
by Ann JonesThe acclaimed adventure writer Ann Jones tells the story of her overland journey, with the British photographer Kevin Muggleton, from one end of Africa to the other. Their purpose: to reach the southernmost tip of the continent and find the Lovedu people, a legendary tribe guided by the "feminine" principles of compromise, tolerance, generosity, and peace. A tribe that was known for its use of skillful diplomacy instead of warfare, and was ruled by a wise and powerful magician, a great rainmaking queen--the inspiration for H. Rider Haggard's novel She.Together Jones and Muggleton set out from England in a 1980 powder-blue army surplus Series III Land Rover. They hurry through France and Spain to Gibraltar and board an intercontinental ferry to North Africa. In Morocco they work a scam to circumvent government red tape, and travel on toward the first great challenge of the journey: the Sahara, where, despite dire warnings, they set out alone, through roadless shifting dunes, across the great apricot-colored expanse of desert.Jones tells how they ferry across the river into Senegal and come upon the Île de Saint-Louis, the first French settlement in West Africa. She describes how they beat their way through trackless bush to Bamako, the capital of Mali, on the Niger River, as their vehicle begins to disintegrate, and how they speed southward through once-prosperous Côte d'Ivoire and pause to visit the full-scale replica of Rome's Saint Peter's Basilica, built by the then-president of Côte d'Ivoire at a cost of 360 million of his own dollars. In Ghana they explore a fort from which slaves were shipped to the New World. They hurry through Togo and Benin to Nigeria, where they are harassed by omnipresent soldiers in the uneasy aftermath of the execution of the author Ken Saro-Wiwa and other political dissidents. In Cameroon they meet the fon of Chobe and his chief female minister, Ya Wende, and visit the twenty-four wives of the fon of Nkwem.As they continue the journey they battle malaria, try to reform two would-be robbers, sing Christmas carols with American missionaries, confront extornionist and dangerous Mobutu men, and come near collapse on Zaire's impassable muddy "roads." Finally, they pause to recuperate in a posh hotel, whose luxuries spell the end of their expedition together--the author rejecting modern comforts, her companion yearning for more.Ann Jones writes of how she travels on in search of the Lovedu people: through Tanzania and Malawi and the Tete Corridor of Mozambique to the ruins of the once-magnificent city of Great Zimbabwe. She writes of crossing the Limpopo River into South Africa, where her long journey culminates in an audience with Modjadji V, Queen of the Lovedu.Her book is an irrestistible roller-coaster ride through Africa--crowded with obstacles, beauty, maddening corruption, and marvelous people.From the Hardcover edition.
Looking for Marco Polo
by Alan ArmstrongNewbery Honor-winning author Alan Armstrong's latest book! Eleven-year-old Mark's anthropologist father has disappeared in the Gobi desert while tracing Marco Polo's ancient route from Venice to China. His mother decides they must go to Venice to petition the agency that sent Mark's father to send out a search party. Anxious about his father and upset about spending Christmas away from home, Mark gets a bad asthma attack in the middle of the night. That's when Doc Hornaday, an old friend of Mark's father, makes a house call, along with a massive black Tibetan mastiff called Boss. To distract Mark from his wheezing and to pass the long Venetian night, the Doc starts to spin for Mark the tale of Marco Polo. Doc describes Marco's travels and the boy finds himself falling under the spell of the story that has transfixed the world for centuries. Marco's journey bolsters Mark's courage and whets his appetite for risk and adventure, and for exposure to life in all its immense and fascinating variety. From the Hardcover edition.
Looking for a Ship
by John McpheeThis is an extraordinary tale of life on the high seas aboard one of the last American merchant ships, the S. S. Stella Lykes, on a forty-two-day journey from Charleston down the Pacific coast of South America. With his usual interest in everything and everybody, John McPhee tells a wide-ranging story of the U.S. Merchant Marine, the ships that are a part of it, and the people who work the ships, the history and geology of the places he sees, sea tales, pirates, and the amazing variety of products that are carried by freighters.
Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland's Elves Can Save the Earth
by Nancy Marie BrownIn exploring how Icelanders interact with nature—and their idea that elves live among us—Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it.Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art—from ancient times to today—Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline can be defined, in the Icelandic perception, by its own sort of elf. Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland&’s Otherworld—in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island&’s heart on horseback—Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we look at and find value in nature. It reveals how the words we use and the stories we tell shape the world we see. It argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve—or destroy it. Scientists name our time the Anthropocene: the Human Age. Climate change will lead to the mass extinction of numerous animal species unless we humans change our course. Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves— and you should, too.
Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan
by Alan BoothA VIBRANT, MEDITATIVE WALK IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL OF JAPAN Traveling by foot through mountains and villages, Alan Booth found a Japan far removed from the stereotypes familiar to Westerners. Whether retracing the footsteps of ancient warriors or detailing the encroachments of suburban sprawl, he unerringly finds the telling detail, the unexpected transformation, the everyday drama that brings this remote world to life on the page. Looking for the Lost is full of personalities, from friendly gangsters to mischievous children to the author himself, an expatriate who found in Japan both his true home and dogged exile. Wry, witty, sometimes angry, always eloquent, Booth is a uniquely perceptive guide. Looking for the Lost is a technicolor journey into the heart of a nation. Perhaps even more significant, it is the self-portrait of one man, Alan Booth, exquisitely painted in the twilight of his own life.
Looptail: How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business
by Bruce TipLooptail is Bruce Poon Tip's extraordinary first-person account of his entrepreneurial instincts to start and develop G Adventures, the highly successful international travel adventure company - and along the way he reveals his unusual management secrets that not only keep his employees fully engaged and energized but also keep his customers extremely happy.His unique appraoch has worked in marvellous ways. Poon Tip has created an entirely new and refreshing approach to management. For example, there is no CEO at G Adventures - instead, every employee is a CEO, empowered to make instantaneous decisions to help clients on the spot. But while there's no CEO, there is a company Mayor, who take the pulse of corporate morale. There's no HR department - but there is a Talent Agency and company Culture Club.It hasn't always been easy to try to balance his desire for a socially responsible company along with the desire to generate profits. But thanks to Poon Tip's vision, G Adventures has floruished and has done its best to maintain its looptail approach. In short, it's been an extraordinary ride, and in many ways G Adventures is at the vanguard of what modern-day companies are beginning to look like.
Looptail: How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business
by Bruce TipLooptail is Bruce Poon Tip's extraordinary first-person account of his entrepreneurial instincts to start and develop G Adventures, the highly successful international travel adventure company - and along the way he reveals his unusual management secrets that not only keep his employees fully engaged and energized but also keep his customers extremely happy.His unique appraoch has worked in marvellous ways. Poon Tip has created an entirely new and refreshing approach to management. For example, there is no CEO at G Adventures - instead, every employee is a CEO, empowered to make instantaneous decisions to help clients on the spot. But while there's no CEO, there is a company Mayor, who take the pulse of corporate morale. There's no HR department - but there is a Talent Agency and company Culture Club.It hasn't always been easy to try to balance his desire for a socially responsible company along with the desire to generate profits. But thanks to Poon Tip's vision, G Adventures has floruished and has done its best to maintain its looptail approach. In short, it's been an extraordinary ride, and in many ways G Adventures is at the vanguard of what modern-day companies are beginning to look like.
Lopez Island
by Lopez Island Historical Society and Museum Susan Lehne FergusonThe story of Lopez Island is a story of community. Skilled, brave, generous people like Sampson Chadwick, Mother Brown, Captain Barlow, and Amelia Davis carved a spirited, nurturing community out of seaside wilderness. Homesteaders cleared forests, built farms, grew food, and raised large families, surviving then thriving together. The hamlets of Port Stanley, Richardson, and Lopez emerged, creating hubs with stores, post offices, and schools as well as thriving fishing, canning, and shipping industries. The community fostered education, music, writing, dances, chivarees, baseball, quilting, a birthday club, and grand Fourth of July celebrations. Living self-reliant lives while helping friends, neighbors, and newcomers, Lopezians created a unique community character that abides today.
Lorain (Images of America)
by The Black River Historical SocietyThe City of Lorain was incorporated in 1874 by the town council. It was named after the county, which had been named by Heman Ely, who thought the area looked very much like the Province of Lorraine in France. Lorainâ TMs location next to Lake Erie and theearly arrival of the B&O Railroad in 1871 made thecity a hotbed for industry. The Hayden Brass Worksbuilt a large plant on Elyria Avenue. Captain Thew, aship captain on the lakes, developed an improved gearsystem for a steam shovel, and that started the Lorain Thew Shovel Co., which became known worldwide.Lorain grew tremendously in the 1890s. Constructionof the Johnson Steel Rail Company started in 1894, and in just ten years, the population of the City of Lorain tripled. In 1894, the American Stove Works built a plant in Lorain, where they made heaters and furnaces. Three years later, the American Shipbuilding Company built a yard and launched hundreds of ships before it closed in 1984. Lorain, Ohio, certainly did its part during World War II; many men went into service, and Lorain produced its own share of heroes. The shipyard was also put to work by the government to build the USS Lorain, a frigate.
Lord of All the Dead: A Nonfiction Novel
by Javier Cercas"A remarkable act of personal history: brave, revelatory and unflinchingly honest" WILLIAM BOYD"There is no-one writing in English like this: engaged humanity achieving a hard-won wisdom" DAVID MILLS, The TimesLord of All the Dead is a courageous journey into Javier Cercas' family history and that of a country collapsing from a fratricidal war. The author revisits Ibahernando, his parents' village in southern Spain, to research the life of Manuel Mena. This ancestor, dearly loved by Cercas' mother, died in combat at the age of nineteen during the battle of the Ebro, the bloodiest episode in Spain's history. Who was Manuel Mena? A fascist hero whose memory is an embarrassment to the author, or a young idealist who happened to fight on the wrong side? And how should we judge him, as grandchildren and great-grandchildren of that generation, interpreting history from our supposed omniscience and the misleadingperspective of a present full of automatic answers, that fails to consider the particularities of each personal and family drama?Wartime epics, heroism and death are some of the underlying themes of this unclassifiable novel that combines road trips, personal confessions, war stories and historical scholarship, finally becoming an incomparable tribute to the author's mother and the incurable scars of an entire generation.
Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire
by Jason Goodwin“An elegantly written, thoroughly entertaining work of popular history” examining the Ottoman Empire and its legacy (Kirkus Reviews).For six hundred years, the Ottoman Empire swelled and declined. Islamic, martial, civilized, and tolerant, it advanced in three centuries from the dusty foothills of Anatolia to rule on the Danube and the Nile. At its height, Indian rajahs and the kings of France beseeched the empire’s aid. In its last three hundred years the empire seemed ready to collapse, a prodigy of survival and decay. In this striking evocation of the empire’s power, Jason Goodwin explores how the Ottomans rose and how, against all odds, they lingered on. In doing so, he also offers a long look back at the origins of problems that plague present-day Kosovars and Serbs.Praise for Lords of the Horizons“Jason Goodwin’s deftly written and beguiling history of the Ottoman Empire is particularly pertinent today, when the cauldron of ancient hatred once more boils over, but his prose would be welcome at any time.” —The Boston Globe“A work of dazzling beauty . . . the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing.” —The New York Times Book Review
Lorraine Kelly's Scotland
by Lorraine KellyFrom childhood family day trips to Loch Lomond, to her days as TVam’s roving correspondent, Lorraine Kelly has covered the length and breadth of Scotland. But certain special places tug at her heartstrings and lure her back time and time again. Travelling to the highlands and islands and all her favourite places in between, this is Lorraine’s personal journey around her beautiful and beguiling country. Each and every stop gives rise to fascinating stories and memories along the way, from her adopted home of Dundee to the wild and remote islands of St Kilda. She revisits childhood haunts in Glasgow, indulges in a spot of whisky-tasting on the island of Islay and reveals what led her to once arrive in Edinburgh pushing a pram and wearing a pair of rollerskates. She rediscovers the joys of the natural wilderness in the Highlands, visits a dramatic Viking fire festival in Shetland and recalls the week she and her family spent hunting the Loch Ness monster . . . Beautifully illustrated with stunning original photographs, Lorraine Kelly’s Scotland is a celebration of a gloriously diverse country with a deep and rich heritage, told with all Lorraine’s characteristic warmth and humour.
Los Alamos Valley
by R. Lawson GambleLos Alamos is a small town on its way to big things. It is a growing tourist destination yet retains its pastoral charm. The history of the Los Alamos Valley can be viewed as a microcosm of the history of California, for it contains within its span Chumash Indians, mission neophytes and horse herds, Spanish land grants, cattle ranches, vaqueros, bandits, oil bonanzas, a narrow-gauge railroad, fertile soil for bountiful crops, vast vineyards, tourism, and even an element of Hollywood. Its location on the Central Coast of California means sunny skies, cool evenings, and cool, damp breezes. The character and resilience of the Los Alamos Valley inhabitants, however, is the real story. Theirs is a history of intermingling cultures and races, a steadfast preservation of traditions, and a pioneer streak of stubborn perseverance in the face of natural and economic adversity. The images in this book were gathered as the result of a community effort.
Los Angeles
by A. M. HomesWhether in history books or on the silver screen, the Los Angeles landscape has long served as an ever-shifting backdrop against which countless American anxieties and aspirations play out. New York-based novelist and short-story writer A. M. Homes distills the elusive, quixotic splendor of this most beguiling of great American cities. She checks us into the famed hotel Chateau Marmont and uses life at this iconic landmark as a multifaceted prism through which to view and experience Los Angeles culture, past and present. Built in the 1920s, the Chateau Marmont is where the famous and infamous have always come to stay - for a few days or months at a time - and sometimes, to die.
Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games, The (Images of Sports)
by Barry A. SandersThe Games of the XXIII Olympiad, Los Angeles 1984, reimagined the Olympic Games and reinvigorated a troubled Olympic movement. Its innovations included the following: a nationwide torch relay that yielded millions for children's charities; an arts festival that surpassed any prior efforts; the first Opening Ceremony featuring a professional theatrical extravaganza; new sports disciplines, such as distance races for women, windsurfing, synchronized swimming, heptathlon, and rhythmic gymnastics; an army of volunteers; vast increases in sponsorship and television revenue while avoiding commercialization and keeping expenses low using existing facilities; and a financial surplus of over $232 million, which has endowed sports for youngsters in the Los Angeles area to this day--all through a privately financed organizing committee without government contributions.
Los Angeles Like a Local: By the People Who Call It Home (Local Travel Guide)
by Sarah Bennett DK Eyewitness Ryan Gajewski Anita Little Eva RecinosKeen to explore a different side of Los Angeles? Like a Local is the book for you.This isn&’t your ordinary travel guide. You won&’t find Disneyland or the Hollywood Hills in these pages, because that&’s not where Angelenos hang out. Instead, you&’ll meet the locals at quirky museums, Mexican food trucks and hidden speakeasies– and that&’s where this book takes you. Turn the pages to discover: The small businesses and community strongholds that add character to this vibrant city, recommended by true locals.6 themed walking tours dedicated to specific experiences such as flea markets and movie theatres.A beautiful gift book for anyone seeking to explore Los Angeles. Helpful &‘what3word&’ addresses, so you can pinpoint all the listed sights.Compiled by four proud locals, this stylish travel guide is packed with Los Angeles&’ best experiences and hidden spots, handily categorized to suit your mood and needs.Whether you&’re a restless Angeleno on the hunt for a new hangout, or a visitor keen to discover a side you won&’t find in traditional guidebooks, Los Angeles Like A Local will give you all the inspiration you need. About Like A Local:These giftable and collectible guides from DK Eyewitness are compiled exclusively by locals. Whether they&’re born-and-bred or moved to study and never looked back, our experts shine a light on what it means to be a local: pride for their city, community spirit and local expertise. Like a Local will inspire readers to celebrate the secret as well as the iconic – just like the locals who call the city home. Looking for another guide to Los Angeles? Explore further with our DK Eyewitness or Top 10 guides to California.
Los Angeles Like a Local: By the People Who Call it Home (Local Travel Guide)
by DK TravelHave authentic experiences and see the cities through the eyes of the locals with Like a Local This isn’t your ordinary travel guide. Beyond the glitz and glamour that defines Los Angeles, you'll find indie art galleries, tasty taco trucks and community-run farmers' markets – and that’s where this book takes you. Turn the pages to discover:The small businesses and community strongholds that add character to this vibrant city, recommended by true locals6 themed walking tours dedicated to specific experiences such as vintage shopping and cyclingA beautiful gift book for anyone seeking to explore Los AngelesHelpful what3word addresses, so you can pinpoint all the listed sightsA thoughtfully updated second edition, including new places to visitCompiled by four proud locals, and revised and updated for 2025, this stylish travel guide is packed with Los Angeles's best experiences and secret spots, handily categorized to suit your mood and needs.Whether you’re a restless Angeleno on the hunt for a new hangout, or a visitor keen to discover a side you won’t find in traditional guidebooks, Los Angeles Like A Local will give you all the inspiration you need.About Like A Local:These giftable and collectable guides from DK are compiled exclusively by locals. Whether they’re born-and-bred or moved to study and never looked back, our experts shine a light on what it means to be a local: pride for their city, community spirit and local expertise. Like a Local will inspire readers to celebrate the secret as well as the iconic – just like the locals who call the city home.Looking for another guide to Los Angeles? Explore further with our DK Eyewitness or Top 10 guides to Los Angeles and California.
Los Angeles Noir (Akashic Noir #0)
by Denise HamiltonLos Angeles Noir brings you tales of crime and passion and betrayal from some of the most innovative and celebrated writers working today.—A Los Angeles Times best seller, Book Sense Notable Pick, and SCIBA Book Award WinnerAkashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.Brand-new stories by: Michael Connelly, Janet Fitch, Susan Straight, Héctor Tobar, Patt Morrison, Emory Holmes II, Robert Ferrigno, Gary Phillips, Christopher Rice, Naomi Hirahara, Jim Pascoe, Neal Pollack, Scott Phillips, Diana Wagman, Lienna Silver, Brian Ascalon Roley, and Denise Hamilton.From the introduction by Denise Hamilton:“Los Angeles is the birthplace of all things noir . . . Maybe it’s the seductive blur of artifice and reality, the possibility of shucking off the past like last year’s frock and reinventing yourself beyond your wildest dreams. Maybe it’s the desperation that descends when the dream goes sour, the duplicity that lurks behind the beauty, the rot of the jungle flowers, the riptides off the sugar sand beaches that carry off the unwary. Writers like James Cain, Dorothy B. Hughes, Nathanael West, Chester Himes, and Raymond Chandler understood both the hope and the horror that Los Angeles inspires, and they harnessed this duality to create their masterpieces . . .With Los Angeles Noir, we’ve brought you the ethos of Chandler and Cain filtered through a contemporary lens, showcasing some of the most innovative and celebrated writers working today. Open these pages and you’ll embark on a literary travelogue that stretches from the mountains through the hardscrabble flats to the barrios and middle-class suburbs, the mansions of the wealthy, and the shores of the Pacific Ocean where we finally run out of continent. The breadth of talent on display is as exciting and diverse as the city itself.“
Los Angeles Street Food: A History from Tamaleros to Taco Trucks (American Palate)
by Farley ElliottA history and guidebook for locals and visitors who want to explore the flavorful delights of the nation’s street food capital—includes photos!Los Angeles is the uncontested street food champion of the United States, and it isn’t even a fair fight. Millions of hungry locals and tourists take to the streets to eat tacos, down bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and indulge in the latest offerings from a fleet of gourmet food trucks and vendors. Dating back to the late nineteenth century when tamale men first hawked their fare from pushcarts and wagons, street food is now a billion-dollar industry in L.A.—and it isn’t going anywhere! So hit the streets and dig in with local food writer Farley Elliott, who tackles the sometimes-dicey subject of street food and serves up all there is to know about the greasy, cheesy, spicy, and everything in between.