Taking Off — Travel Titles for Spring and Summer 2004, Sidebars

Are We There Yet?

If you thought those long car rides in the station wagon were hard, two titles on unusual vehicles are sure to impress. First, this month Pantheon publishes Cork Boat by John Pollack, a former White House speechwriter who constructed a boat of wine corks (165,321 of them, to be exact) and sailed it down Portugal's Duoro River. Editor Andrew Miller says, "It was John's infectious enthusiasm that attracted us. He has this ability to pull you in and make you root for him, and he manages to take an unlikely little story and turn it into a captivating epic and a full-throated affirmation of whimsy and adventure—something we could probably use more of these days." Lars Clausen's journey may be even more whimsical: he pedaled a unicycle through all 50 states, garnering two Guinness world records, as described in the autobiographical One Wheel—Many Spokes: USA by Unicycle (Soulscapers, dist. by IPG, Apr.) To promote the title, Clausen will ride his unicycle the length of the West Coast this summer, and on the two-year anniversary of the start of his original ride, he will meet with the 100-member unicycle club at an elementary school in Sultan, Wash.

¡Holá, Fidel!

In October 2003 both the Senate and the House of Representatives voted to ease restrictions that bar Americans from traveling to Cuba. The White House refused to consider loosening the ban, but several publishers are offering armchair travelers a chance to make the trip just the same. In February, Duke University Press will publish The Cuba Reader, the latest in its Latin American Readers series (other titles focus on Peru and Brazil, and the best seller in the series is The Mexico Reader). Senior editor Valerie Millholland says, "Much of the material has been written by Cubans, both those resident on the island and those living outside, and has never before been published in the English language. Editors Aviva Chomsky, Barry Carr and Pamela Maria Smorkaloff have tried to give a balanced perspective—something that is very important when dealing with Cuba." In Cuba Classics: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles (Interlink, Mar.), Christopher P. Baker combines photos of antique cars with text that reflects on Cuban history. Publicity director Moira Megargee says, "These are cars from the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s that have been kept running. These people aren't rich, but they're in love with these cars." From the road to the bottom of the ocean, veteran diver Bill Belleville recounts a month-long investigation of the waters around Cuba with a group of marine biologists in Deep Cuba: The Inside Story of an American Oceanographic Expedition (Univ. of Georgia Press, Apr.). "It was the only U.S. submersible research expedition in Cuban waters at that point," reports associate direct and editor-in-chief Nancy Grayson. "They looked at everything from coral reefs to a submerged volcanic mountain."

Civil Rights Remembered

The year 2004 marks the 50th anniversary of an equality milestone—the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that integrated schools. And that's just the start of a series of anniversaries of important highlights of the movement, which is generally considered to date from 1954 to 1968. To help out travelers who will inevitably be inspired to visit locales such as the national historic site of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., or the Jackie Robinson Ballpark and Monument in Daytona Beach, Fla., this month Harcourt is publishing Jim Carrier's A Traveler's Guide to the Civil Rights Movement. Kati Hesford, senior editor for the Harvest imprint of Harcourt, notes that it's unusual for the house to publish a guidebook, but the press is counting on the appeal of "heritage tourism," not to mention the appeal of incredible stories. "It's not just African-American history," says Hesford. "It's everybody's history. These are stories that it's important to tell."

Shop Till You Drop

One of artist Barbara Kruger's best-known photomontages shows a hand holding a red, credit-card size rectangle that reads "I shop therefore I am." Judging from the increase in guides devoted to shopping, the new slogan for a developing class of consumer tourists might be, "I travel, therefore I shop." In March, Cumberland House will offer The London Shopping Companion by Nicki Pendleton Wood. "Shoppers will find information regarding prices, brands, locale, business hours and much more," says publicity manager Stacie Bauerle. June will see a guide to shopping in another part of the U.K. with Mary Jean Jecklin and Kelley V. Rea's Buy the Best of Ireland (Roberts Rinehart Publishers). "The book includes traditional Irish crafts, as well as more celebrated manufacturers such as Waterford, Blarney Woollen Mills and Guinness," says editorial director Rick Rinehart. Showing a copy of the book will also earn shoppers a $10 discount on any item over $50 purchased from any of the 250 members of the North American Celtic Buyers Association. With a slightly broader outlook, in April 2004 Norton launches its Art/Shop/Eat series with six city guides. Assistant editor Morgen Van Vorst says, "We're trying to carve out a new, younger niche with the series, so the copy is peppier and much shorter than in our Blue Guides."