On The Road Again

"On the Road Again", is autobiographical novel, based on an actual road trip conducted in 1989, where two lifelong friends, (Yuri and the author) traveled from Europe to India, via bus, across war-torn Iran and Afghanistan. The book contains 30 episodes (chapters), which could be read independently as vignettes, but combined they present a novel. These chapters do not follow chronological order; the last story is actually the first. The protagonists encounter some hard-to-believe situations in the world most dangerous places. They traveled with Mujahideens, from Zahedan to Quetta, latter being the epicenter of today's Taliban. They roamed through Iran during the Iraq-Iran war, and under watchful eye of Iranian Republican Guard. However, the novel is not only about the risky places and dangerous adventures. Much of it is focused on the final destination, Indian province of Goa. A Hippy paradise that once was. A place that does not exists any more, a place now reduced to hotel chains and mass tourism. But a place-in-time, that is well preserved by this novel. This novel is also about love and friendship and about one, long gone, green eye geisha.

In On the Road Again, William Wyckoff explores Montana’s changing physical and cultural landscape by pairing photographs taken by state highway engineers in the 1920s and 1930s with photographs taken at the same sites today. The older photographs, preserved in the archives of the Montana Historical Society, were intended to document the expenditure of federal highway funds. Because it is nearly impossible to photograph a road without also photographing the landscape through which that road passes, these images contain a wealth of information about the state’s environment during the early decades of the twentieth century. To highlight landscape changes -- and continuities -- over more than eighty years, Wyckoff chose fifty-eight documented locations and traveled to each to photograph the exact same view. The pairs of old and new photos and accompanying interpretive essays presented here tell a vivid story of physical, cultural, and economic change. Wyckoff has grouped his selections to cover a fairly even mix of views from the eastern and western parts of the state, including a wide assortment of land use settings and rural and urban landscapes. The photo pairs are organized in thirteen “visual themes,” such as forested areas, open spaces, and sacred spaces, which parallel landscape change across the entire American West. A close, thoughtful look at these photographs reveals how crops, fences, trees, and houses shape the everyday landscape, both in the first quarter of the twentieth century and in the present. The photographs offer an intimate view into Montana, into how Montana has changed in the past eighty years and how it may continue to change in the twenty-first century. This is a book that will captivate readers who have, or hope to have, a tie to the Montana countryside, whether as resident or visitor. Regional and agricultural historians, geographers and geologists, and rural and urban planners will all find it fascinating.

Each week, Wayne Rostad and his CBC-TV crew visit small towns, remote regions, or tiny communities right across Canada, seeking out rare characters or striking stories of spirit, individuality, pathos, or humour. Drawing together each show of On the Road Again is Rostad himself, as he takes obvious delight in the people he meets and forges their stories into songs. The result is a portrait of the country and its people rarely seen on national television. Now Wayne Rostad has collected more than two dozen stories of people and places from On the Road Again, and recounts them in his own engaging way, along with behind-the-scenes glimpses of the making of the show. Among the many people featured are: Haddon Strong of Chamberlains, Newfoundland, connoisseur and salesman of iceberg ice; Jim and Gail Henry, millionaire garbage-dump operators in the Queen Charlotte Islands; bug-eater Jim Thompson of High River, Alberta; and single parent Louise Brisset of St. Anselme, Quebec, who has given fourteen handicapped children a home. Filled with Rostad’s great storytelling, On the Road Again will be a delightful souvenir for fans his ever-popular show.

Music and Tourism is the first book to comprehensively examine the links between travel and music. It combines contemporary and historical analysis of the economic and social impact of music tourism, with discussions of the cultural politics of authenticity and identity. Music tourism evokes nostalgia and meaning, and celebrates both heritage and hedonism. It is a product of commercialisation that can create community, but that also often demands artistic compromise. Diverse case studies, from the USA and UK to Australia, Jamaica and Vanuatu, illustrate the global extent of music tourism, its contradictions and pleasures.

In the sequel to Travels With My Family, the family is on the road again -- this time to spend a year in a tiny village in southern France. They experiences the spring migration of sheep up to the mountain pastures, the annual running of the bulls (in which Charlie's father is trapped in a phone booth by a raging bull), and other adventures large and small. Most of all, though, Charlie and his little brother, Max, grow fond of their new neighbors -- the man who steals ducks from the local river, the neighbor's dog who sleeps right in the middle of the street and their new friends Rachid and Ahmed, who teach them how to play soccer in the village square.

Following his bestselling memoir, It’s a Long Story, Willie Nelson now delivers his most intimate thoughts and stories in Willie Nelson's Letters to America. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller! From his opening letter “Dear America” to his “Dear Willie” epilogue, Willie digs deep into his heart and soul--and his music catalog--to lift us up in difficult times, and to remind us of the endless promise and continuous obligations of all Americans--to themselves, to one another, and to their nation. In a series of letters straight from the heart, Willie sends his thanks and his thoughts to: Americans past, present, and future, his closest family members, andhis parents, sister, and children, his other family members his guitar “Trigger”, his hero Gene Autry, the US founding fathers, his personal heroes, from our founding fathers to the leaders of future generations and to young songwriters as well as leaders of our future generations. Willie’s letters are rounded out with the moving lyrics to some of his most famous and insightful songs, including “Let Me Be a Man,” “Family Bible,” “Summer of Roses,” “Me and Paul,” “A Horse called Music,” “Healing Hands of Time,” and “Yesterday's Wine.”

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). • From the bestselling author of The Passenger A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.