Mark Kurlansky, Author Walker & Company $25 (387p) ISBN 978-0-8027-1349-0
Straddling the border of southern France and northern Spain, the land of the Basques has long been home to a people who had no country of their own but have always viewed themselves as a nation. In this marvelous work of cultural history and...
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Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury, $29 (384p) ISBN 978-1-63286-382-9
Kurlansky’s entertaining, fast-paced history of milk exhibits his usual knack for plumbing the depths of a single subject (Cod, Salt). He shares a series of anecdotes on the evolution of milk’s production and consumption, as well as on its roles in...
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Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury, $26 (224p) ISBN 978-1-63286-391-1
Warmly rendered and rich with the insights of an observer intimate with his subject, this paean to the city of Havana is as engaging as it is timely. The chapters read like a series of colorful picture postcards, each one a touchstone of Havana’s...
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Mark Kurlansky. Norton, $27.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-393-23961-4
Kurlansky (Salt: A World History) yet again tackles world history via another object often taken for granted in modern society. In straightforward, no-nonsense prose, he traces the narrative of paper—and related inventions such as writing and the...
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Mark Kurlansky. Riverheard, $16 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-59448-587-9
In these pages, Kurlansky (Salt), known for his masterful ability to weave compelling and epic world histories through the lens of a single food or commodity, turns to fiction. The tales share what the subtitle promises—animals who become characters
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Mark Kurlansky. Riverhead, $27.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-59448-722-4
In 1964, Motown, a little record label from Detroit, grew into a voice for a generation, releasing, according to Kurlansky, “60 singles, of which 70% hit the Top 100 chart and 19 were #1 hits.” Kurlansky (Salt) deftly chronicles the story of Martha...
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Mark Kurlansky. Doubleday, $25.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-385-52705-7
Although frozen foods made Birds Eye a household name, few were familiar with Clarence Birdseye (1886–1956), developer of the fast-freezing process that became a multibillion-dollar international industry. In the first biography of the eccentric...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author Addison Wesley Publishing Company $24 (0p) ISBN 978-0-201-60898-4
A half-century after the Holocaust, Paris has again become a major Jewish center, and traditional Jewish life is thriving in Antwerp and Budapest. Jewish communities in Berlin, Prague and Amsterdam, however, are struggling, and Poland is almost...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author Washington Square Press $23.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-671-03605-8
Kurlansky is best known for such quirky nonfiction surprise bestsellers as Cod and The Basque History of the World and here turns his hand for the first time to fiction--which won't make the same market splash as his earlier, offbeat offerings, but...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author Walker & Company $23 (304p) ISBN 978-0-8027-1326-1
No fish story, this is a sapient and vivid chronology of the immense impact and influence the cod fishing industry has had on the human race. The cod fish has played a major role in the economics, sustainability and diplomacy of many countries and...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author Riverhead $25.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-59448-750-7
In 1956, Ozzie (Osvaldo) Virgil played his first rookie season with the New York Giants, becoming the first Dominican baseball player to enter the major leagues in America. Over the next half a century, 471 Dominicans played in at least one major...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author , illus. by the author. Ballantine $25 (269p) ISBN 978-0-345-48727-8
Bestselling author Kurlansky (Cod
; The Big Oyster
) provides a delightful, intimate history and contemporary portrait of the quintessential northeastern coastal fishing town: Gloucester, Mass., on Cape Anne. Illustrated with his own beautifully...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author . Ballantine $23.95 (307p) ISBN 978-0-345-47638-8
Here's a chatty, free-wheeling history of New York City told from the humble perspective of the once copious, eagerly consumed, now decimated eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginicas
). Research addict Kurlansky (Cod
, etc.) starts from the...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author . Ballantine $26.95 (464p) ISBN 978-0-345-45581-9
By any measure, it was a remarkable year. Mentioning the Tet offensive, the My Lai massacre, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the Democratic convention in Chicago, and the Prague Spring and its backlash gives only the
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Mark Kurlansky, Author . Walker $28 (496p) ISBN 978-0-8027-1373-5
Only Kurlansky, winner of the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing for Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, could woo readers toward such an off-beat topic. Yet salt, Kurlansky asserts, has "shaped civilization."...
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Mark Kurlansky, read by Ed Sala. , Tantor Media, unabridged, seven CDs, 9 hrs., $34.99 ISBN 978-1-4001-1431-3
Kurlansky offers an intriguing look at the history of the Dominican Republic and the role American baseball has played in the impoverished and destitute sugar-growing town of San Pedro de Macoris. Kurlansky's approach and style make this story...
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Mark Kurlansky, illus. by Frank Stockton. Workman, $16.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-7611-5607-9
Kurlansky (The Cod's Tale) offers an urgent account of the problems that threaten the world's oceans and could result in the commercial extinction of key species of fish in the next 50 years. It's an alarming statement, underscored by the book's...
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Mark Kurlansky and Talia Kurlansky. Bloomsbury, $29 (384p) ISBN 978-1-62040-027-2
Kurlansky, the author of Cod and Salt, approached this newest project with a specific toolset: a globe and his eighth-grade daughter. Once a week he would spin the former, and, with the poke of a finger, the latter would pick a locale at random upon
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Mark Kurlansky, Author, S. D. Schindler, Illustrator, Eileen Spinelli, Author , illus. by S.D. Schindler. Putnam $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-23476-7
In this concise and informative adaptation of his book for adults, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Kurlansky traces the role that the once plentiful Atlantic cod has played in the history of North America and Europe. After...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author, Dalai Lama, Foreword by , foreword by the Dalai Lama. Modern Library $19.95 (203p) ISBN 978-0-679-64335-7
Kurlansky applies the microhistorical approach of his bestellers (Cod
; Salt
) to the loftier subject of nonviolence—which, he observes, is so "profoundly dangerous" to the powers that be that it has never existed as an idea in and of...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author, Tom Stechschulte, Read by , read by Todd Stechschulte. Random House Audio $27.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7393-2470-7
Who knew that New York City was once the oyster capital of the world, and that at one time it held half of the earth's supply, harvesting 700 million in 1880 alone? Or that oysters were not just a delicacy for aristocrats but also affordable,...
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Mark Kurlansky, Author, Richard Dreyfuss, Narrated by, Dalai Lama, Foreword by Recorded Books $29.99 (0p) ISBN 978-1-4281-1019-9
Oscar-winner Dreyfuss lends his voice to a timely subject matter. With his characteristic crystal-clear annunciation and emotionally charged delivery, Dreyfuss adds an element of energy to Kurlansky's exhaustive historical journey. Listeners of all...
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Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury, $28 (304p) ISBN 978-1-63557-307-7
Journalist Kurlansky (Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of a Common Fate) enlivens a quotidian subject in this vibrant treatise on fly-fishing. The draw of fly-fishing, Kurlansky suggests, lies in the sport’s challenging nature—it takes...
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Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury, $28 (240) ISBN 978-1-63557-593-4
Journalist Kurlansky (Big Lies) follows up his deep dives into salt, cod, and oysters with a charmingly eclectic look at the onion’s uses across history and culture. Among other topics, he investigates why the vegetable elicits tears (when cut, they
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Mark Kurlansky, illus. by Eric Zelz. Tilbury House, $22.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-88448-912-2
In this noteworthy guide to media literacy, Kurlansky (Bugs in Danger) details events occurring over the past 300 years to break down the “big lies” that permeate global history and explore how they affect the current U.S. media landscape. Positing...
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