Three-for-one book review on Perceptive Travel

March 1st, 2010 | By Joshua | No Comments »

In this month’s Perceptive Travel book review, I take a look at three new titles: Chuck Thompson’s follow–up to Smile When You’re Lying, a bizarre collection by Andrew Zimmern, and an epic, long–gone journey written to a lost son by Bill Raney. I laughed the most during Thompson’s To Hellholes and Back, in which the author marches out to single-handedly combat the “pussification of America” (and I cheered him on as I read, scratched my belly, and sipped a beer)…. Enjoy->

“Nicaragua is a place of wonders”: A Chat with Silvio Sirias, author of Meet Me Under the Ceiba

January 13th, 2010 | By Joshua | 27 Comments »

There is not much fiction in the suggested readings section of my book, Moon Nicaragua. It’s mostly history, memoir, and political analysis. That’s why Silvio Sirias’s books are such a breath of fresh air.

In his first novel, Bernardo and the Virgin (Northwestern University Press, 2007), Sirias takes the reader to the village of Cuapa, Chontales, in central Nicaragua. The book fictionalizes the story of a campesino to whom the Holy Virgin appeared in 1980 while providing a vivid slice of recent history through the eyes of everyday Nicas.

His latest book, Meet Me Under the Ceiba (Arte Publico Press, 2009, winner of the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize), is also a work of fiction. It takes place in the tiny twin villages of La Curva and Pio XII, in the hills south of the capital. Maybe I’m biased since I actually lived in Pio XII as a Peace Corps trainee in 1998 (as Sirias writes, “…very few people in Managua had even heard of this miserable little town”), and I can vouch for the book’s authenticity. Ceiba is based on a true crime that occurred in 1999, and on the intolerance of Nicaraguan culture to homosexuality. I wrote a short review of his book here, then had the opportunity to sit down with the author (he in Panama, where he teaches literature, and me in Colorado).

Enjoy: (more…)

In my book bullpen: five very different travel memoirs

October 12th, 2009 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

I haven’t read them all yet, only bits and pieces, but reading-time is scarce this fall season, and I’m doing the best I can. I’m also interested in these titles because I am writing my own travel memoir, even as the publishing world continues to implode and naysayers say nay, doom, and gloom, especially about the memoir. It’s the hardest-hit genre unless you’re a huge celebrity, they say. Yet here I am, immersed in memoir, specifically, the loose travel-essay/lit shelf, that ragtag stepchild of the orderly aisles of guidebooks found in any bookstore.

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Andrew Zimmern on globalization, immersive travel, and the royal rat—my interview with “El Pelón” on World Hum

September 15th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

“Travels in a ‘Bizarre World’ — Joshua Berman asks the Travel Channel host about his new show, his book, and the impact of globalization on culinary diversity”

Last winter, I served as a researcher and guide for Travel Channel superstar Andrew Zimmern and his crew during the filming of episodes in both Nicaragua and Belize. Nicaraguans love giving nicknames—they called Andrew “El Pelón que come gusanos” (the bald one who eats worms) and “Chamboaca,” the latter a highly complex term of endearment which is short for “El que come como un chancho, duerme como un boa, y caga como una vaca” (or “He who eats like a pig, sleeps like a boa, and shits like a cow”).

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Where Am I Wearing: Kelsey the Touron Travels to the Origin of his Clothes

May 3rd, 2009 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Where am I Wearing?: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes is an impressive debut book—a clever concoction of memoir, travelogue, and narrative nonfiction—by Kelsey Timmerman, popular travel blogger and the original Traveling Touron.

In Wearing, Kelsey takes us on a decidedly different kind of journey than the other titles on the “travel lit” shelf, most of which are macho/romantic memoir clutter. Kelsey travels to the garment industry countries where his clothes were made, a seemingly simple proposition which arose not from any academic/journalist rigueur, but rather the sheer curiosity that came from reading the tags on his t-shirt, boxers, jeans, and flip-flops one day. That meant going to Honduras, Cambodia, China, and Bangladesh. So he went. (more…)

Africa Trek: 8,700 miles and 1,200 African families

November 14th, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

This ultimate three-year honeymoon deserves another mention. Alexandre and Sonia Poussin asked for and received lodging along their entire route, staying with over a thousand African families from a stunning cross-section of the continent’s people. The couple walked the entire way with the guiding philosophy of, “Let adventure be.”

“Reporting about the world in a deeper and slower way is their way of practicing journalism. They raise their two children just outside Paris, surrounded by fields, forests and horses, and are preparing their next journey.”

At their website, AfricaTrekSeries.com, you’ll find:

–A Q&A interview with author Alexandre Poussin

–Video teaser

–Recent articles and reviews

–Africa Trek fall book tour currently underway

–Article in the Oregonian: “It is, Poussin admits, ‘a maverick story. Insane. Not to be advised.’”

My Review of Bruce Barcott’s new Belize book in July, 2008, issue of Mountain Gazette

July 31st, 2008 | By Joshua | 3 Comments »

My first article in the venerable, crusty, old Mountain Gazette magazine is a book review of Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw by Bruce Barcott (Random House, 2008). The July issue of MG is on stands now, or you can download a PDF of my piece here: “Birds of Paradise.”

The book is about an eco-battle royale against the construction of the Chalillo Dam in Belize. It’s a superbly crafted story: “Barcott puts all the pieces in order, frequently taking a few generous steps back to give the reader an ample, global context for each chapter. Brief, sharp histories of hydroelectric power, Belizean demographics, endangered species lists, environmental law, and post-colonial politics pepper the storyline. Between these contextual tangents the author strings a narrative of dramatic episodes and dialogue, resulting is a sweeping snapshot of a country as it makes its awkward debut in the new global economy.”

[READ my Mountain Gazette article]

[BUY the book]

[NY Times review of Macaw]

[Grist interview with Barcott]

The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: Nonfiction Eco-Thriller about Belize Out this Week

February 11th, 2008 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

News flash: Macaw featured on the cover of this week’s New York Times Book Review!

I’ve been waiting four long years for the release of The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird, ever since I met author Bruce Barcott in San Ignacio during one of his research trips to Belize. Bruce is a Seattle-based writer and Outside Editor-at-Large, and is in Colorado this week reading and signing his new book at the Boulder Bookstore on Wednesday and Denver’s Tattered Cover on Tuesday the 19th. I look forward to reading the book, which features a number of Belizean and expat characters, as Bruce tells the tale of the infamous Chalillo Dam and the Upper Macal River.