Review: Beauty and Chaos: Essays on Tokyo Life by Michael Pronko ★★★★★
Beauty and Chaos: Essays on Tokyo Life (also subtitled as Slices and Morsels of Tokyo Life; full title 僕、トーキョーの味方です in Japanese) is a collection of writings by Michael Pronko on his experiences of the past 15 years living and working in Tokyo, originally published in Newsweek Japan, collected together here.
Born in Kansas City, and traveling across the world to places like Beijing, Pronko sets his view on Tokyo with the eyes of a writer well-traveled, but with an American-raised core to his ideas, his once-fresh eyes, and his general outlook.
These aspects are important in the consideration of […]
Mongolia Monologues is Joanne Nussbaum’s travelogue memoir about her time as a Peace Corp volunteer in Mongolia at the age of 53, following the death of her daughter. She wanted to work in sub-Saharan Africa, but instead was sent to Mongolia to work in youth community development. The book is a comprehensive overview of the whole trip – from applying as a volunteer, to the ins and outs of Mongolian culture, to the Peace Corps process, and the wisdom learned along the way. The memoir is told with good humor and optimism, even when things get tough.
Imagine if Da Vinci were alive today – would he tweet his ideas and discoveries? Writer and veteran geologist Ann C. Pizzorusso explores Italy with Da Vinci, an accomplished geologist and polymath as her guide, as if he were here today as a Bill Gates/Stephen Hawking figure, using all current technology, including Twitter, to share his mind with the world.
Peter Dunkley was going to become a lawyer when he fell in love and gave it all up – and then gave all that up – for a life of travel and adventure, starting in Bombay in the 1950s.
