Books at the Printer
Two recent books, Mousejunkies! and Writing Away, have already gone back to the printer, along with a new book from our Solas House imprint: You Unstuck by Libby Gill. Mousejunkies! is Bill Burke's hymn to maximizing any trip to Walt Disney World; Writing Away! is Lavinia Spalding's manifesto about travel and journal-keeping, and You Unstuck is Libby Gill's unique and inspiring toolbox for lifting yourself out of any rut you might have fallen into.

4 TT Books Honored
Three TT books won awards announced at BEA in June and one was an honorable mention. Cruise Confidential won the Gold award for Humor in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, and The Best Travel Writing 2008 won a Bronze in Travel Essays. Marco Polo Didn't Go There was noted as an Honorable Mention. Cruise also won the Gold for Humor in the Benjamin Franklin Awards, and A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean took the Bronze in Travel.

Mousejunkies! in Boston Herald
Bill Burke and Mousejunkies!, his new book on Walt Disney World, got an excellent profile in the Boston Herald. Check it out.

Solas Awards Winners and Two New Books!
The Travelers' Tales editors announced the winners of the third annual Solas Awards for Best Travel Story of the Year on Feb. 28. Find all the results and read the winning stories at BestTravelWriting.com. The Grand Prize Winner, "The Bamenda Syndrome" by David Torrey Peters, is this week's Editors' Choice lower on our home page. We've just published two new books in conjunction with the awards: The Best Travel Writing 2009 and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2009. Look for copies at all good bookstores both offline and on.

Marco Polo in Washington Post
In his Dec. 28 "Road Reads" review in The Washington Post, Jerry V. Haines calls the target audience for Marco Polo Didn't Go There "people who like to look under the hood of a good book." He got it exactly right, as author Rolf Potts reveals in his insightful endnotes to each chapter how he put together each story, why he approached it the way he did, what he left out and why. Haines says of Potts, he's "the kind of guy you wish the pubs had more of: well traveled, generous with funny stories, eager to listen to yours." All of which makes the book well worth reading. Read the review, get more info about the book.

Cruise Confidential Honorable Mention in New England Book Festival
Cruise Confidential by Brian David Bruns was noted as an honorable mention entry in the 2008 New England Book Festival, an annual award honoring the best books for the holiday season. Cruise was one of seven books chosen after the grand prize winner and runner up.

Great Reviews for Rolf Potts and Marco Polo Didn't Go There
Rolf Potts and his book, Marco Polo Didn't Go There, are all over the press these days. Rory MacLean reviewed the book in The Guardian, Outside Online did a Q&A with him, and the San Jose Mercury-News ran an interview and a series of Rolf's tips. Check them all out.

Two TT Books Win Lowell Thomas Awards
TT books took the top two awards for Best Travel Book in the prestigious 2008 Lowell Thomas Awards. Editors Nesreen Khashan and Jim Bowman won the Gold with Encounters with the Middle East, and editor Susan Fox Rogers took the Silver for Antarctica: Life on the Ice. The Lowell Thomas Awards are sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation and judged by members of the Missouri School of Journalism faculty.

For Encounters with the Middle East the judges said: "There is no better way to 'encounter the Middle East' than to join a group of talented, sincere writers on their journeys. They will break stereotypes and open readers’ minds with their compassionate, respectful stories of ordinary people. These stories will make you cry as you enter the Church of the Nativity, laugh as you join a woman searching for a toilet on a long bus ride in Turkey and smile as you break Ramadan fast on a ferry crossing the Red Sea.

About Antarctica: Life on the Ice, they said: Each story is a unique adventure in this well-edited collection of Antarctica tales. There is the tale of a harrowing search for a friend in a whiteout and hurricane-force snowstorm as well as a goofy story of the day it rained chickens at McMurdo. The best part is that these are not written by travelers looking for adventure but by the people who live in this most remote spot.

Here's a complete list of winners and judges' comments.

Greece Photo Essays: Delphi, Palamidi Fortress, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Athenian Agora and Archaeological Museum
TT cofounder and O'Reilly Media owner and CEO Tim O'Reilly took a break from his busy schedule to wander around Greece. He filed photos essays with TT (and put one on Flickr) documenting his trip. The first recounts his visit to Delphi, second his thoughts from the Palamidi Fortress in Nafplio, third shows him storming Mycenae, fourth documents his exploration of Epidaurus, and in the fifth he visits the Athenian Agora and the Archaeological Museum.

Thoughts on Writing and Magnificence
TT Editor-at-Large Sean O'Reilly asks a compelling question, and has some equally compelling thoughts about magnificence in his essay, Do Editors Read—and If Not, Why Not?

Family Hike Saved by Birds
TT Executive Editor Larry Habegger's essay about taking his young daughters on their first mountain backpacking trip appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle Travel Section on Labor Day weekend. Read it here, or see it with photos on his blog. He also made his way to Seattle via Amtrak this summer.

New High-Speed Train Connecting Barcelona-Madrid
Lucy McCauley, editor of TT's Best Women's Travel Writing series, filed a story about the AVE high-speed train between Barcelona and Madrid. Read it on The Flying Carpet.

Cruise Confidential in USA Today
Cruise Confidential is starting to pick up steam. USA TODAY travel editor Chris Gray takes a look at it on The Cruise Log blog.

Rotten Person Reviewed on Gather.com
Gather.com has a new review of A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean. It's hilarious—both the book and review, actually. Check it out.

100 Places Wins Latino Book Award
Stephanie Elizondo Griest's 100 Places Every Woman Should Go won the award for Best Travel Book (English) in the 10th Annual International Latino Book Awards announced May 29 at Book Expo America (BEA) in Los Angeles. Check out a sample chapter to find out why.

Manhattan's Bryant Park is the place to be
June 5, 2008: Several years ago I discovered Bryant Park just off Times Square and made a point of visiting whenever I was in New York. One visit I got caught in quite a thunderstorm. And just today I saw this story in The New York Times about the park being threatened by its success. Get there early and stake out your territory!
Posted by Larry Habegger