Where did Charlie Parker first play with Dizzy Gillespie? What are the best jazz clubs in Chicago and many other cities? This completely updated edition of The Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the U.S. tells readers where to find everything from the current music scene to major jazz/blues landmarks in more than twenty-five American cities and the Mississippi Delta. With city-by-city listings for clubs, festivals, musicians' homes, historic theaters, record stores, radio stationsand with anecdotes from club owners and performers The Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide is the essential where-to” bible for jazz and blues fans everywhere.

The Jazz And Blues Lover's Guide To The U.s.: With More Than 900 Hot Clubs, Cool Joints, Landmarks, And Legends, From Boogie-woogie To Bop And Beyond

Arts & Photography

Bird, Christiane

Music

Da Capo Press

Where did Charlie Parker first play with Dizzy Gillespie? What are the coolest clubs in Chicago? Which city has the largest jazz museum? Where is Howlin' Wolf buried? The answers can be found in The Da Capo Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the U.S., an insiders look at all the places where jazz and blues live, from national clubs to unmarked holes in the wall, in twenty-five cities and the Mississippi Delta. With the most up-to-date listings for festivals, historic theaters, record stores, and radio stations-plus anecdotes from club owners and musicians—this is the essential "where-to" for jazz and blues fans everywhere.

The Da Capo Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the United States

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Though the Kurds played a major military and tactical role in the United States’ recent war with Iraq, most of us know little about this fiercely independent, long-marginalized people. Now acclaimed journalist Christiane Bird, who riveted readers with her tour of Islamic Iran in Neither East Nor West, travels through this volatile part of the world to tell the Kurds’ story, using personal observations and in-depth research to illuminate an astonishing history and vibrant culture. For the twenty-five to thirty million Kurds, Kurdistan is both an actual and a mythical place: an isolated, largely mountainous homeland that has historically offered sanctuary from the treacherous outside world and yet does not exist on modern maps. Parceled out among the four nation-states of Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran after World War I, Kurdistan is a divided land with a tragic history, where the indomitable Kurds both celebrate their ancient culture and fight to control their own destiny. Occupying some of the Middle East’s most strategic and richest terrain, the Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the region and the largest ethnic group in the world without a state to call their own. Whether dancing at a Kurdish wedding in Iran, bearing witness to the destroyed Kurdish countryside in southeast Turkey, having lunch with a powerful exiled agha in Syria, or visiting the sites of Saddam Hussein’s horrific chemical attacks in Iraq, the intrepid, insightful Bird sheds light on a violently stunning world seen by few Westerners. Part mesmerizing travelogue, part action-packed history, part reportage, and part cultural study, this critical book offers timely insight into an unknown but increasingly influential part of the world. Bird paints a moving and unforgettable portrait of a people uneasily poised between a stubborn past and an impatient future.

A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan

History

Americas

Ballantine Books

Though the Kurds played a major military and tactical role in the United States’ recent war with Iraq, most of us know little about this fiercely independent, long-marginalized people. Now acclaimed journalist Christiane Bird, who riveted readers with her tour of Islamic Iran in Neither East Nor West, travels through this volatile part of the world to tell the Kurds’ story, using personal observations and in-depth research to illuminate an astonishing history and vibrant culture. For the twenty-five to thirty million Kurds, Kurdistan is both an actual and a mythical place: an isolated, largely mountainous homeland that has historically offered sanctuary from the treacherous outside world and yet does not exist on modern maps. Parceled out among the four nation-states of Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran after World War I, Kurdistan is a divided land with a tragic history, where the indomitable Kurds both celebrate their ancient culture and fight to control their own destiny. Occupying some of the Middle East’s most strategic and richest terrain, the Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the region and the largest ethnic group in the world without a state to call their own. Whether dancing at a Kurdish wedding in Iran, bearing witness to the destroyed Kurdish countryside in southeast Turkey, having lunch with a powerful exiled agha in Syria, or visiting the sites of Saddam Hussein’s horrific chemical attacks in Iraq, the intrepid, insightful Bird sheds light on a violently stunning world seen by few Westerners. Part mesmerizing travelogue, part action-packed history, part reportage, and part cultural study, this critical book offers timely insight into an unknown but increasingly influential part of the world. Bird paints a moving and unforgettable portrait of a people uneasily poised between a stubborn past and an impatient future. From the Hardcover edition.

Middle East

Random House Trade Paperbacks

A story virtually unknown in the West, about two of the Middle East’s most remarkable figures—Oman’s Sultan Said and his rebellious daughter Princess Salme—comes to life in this narrative. From their capital on the sultry African island of Zanzibar, Sultan Said and his descendants were shadowed and all but shattered by the rise and fall of the nineteenth-century East African slave trade. “As shrewd, liberal, and enlightened a prince as Arabia has ever produced.” That’s how explorer Richard Burton described Seyyid Said Al bin Sultan Busaid, who came to power in Oman in 1804 when he was fifteen years old. During his half-century reign, Said ruled with uncanny contradiction: as a believer in a tolerant Islam who gained power through bloodshed and perfidy, and as an open-minded, intellectually curious man who established relations with the West while building a vast commercial empire on the backs of tens of thousands of slaves. His daughter Salme, born to a concubine in a Zanzibar harem, scandalized her family and people by eloping to Europe with a German businessman in 1866, converting to Christianity, and writing the first-known autobiography of an Arab woman. Christiane Bird paints a stunning portrait of violent family feuds, international intrigues, and charismatic characters—from Sultan Said and Princess Salme to the wildly wealthy slave trader Tippu Tip and the indefatigable British antislavery crusader Dr. David Livingstone. The Sultan’s Shadow is a brilliantly researched and irresistibly readable foray into the stark brutality and decadent beauty of a vanished world.

The Sultan's Shadow: One Family's Rule at the Crossroads of East and West

Random House]

Combining reminiscence, travelogue, historical study, unforgettable portraits, and interviews with Iranians of all walks of life, this intriguing odyssey through modern-day Iran captures a complex nation shrouded by misunderstanding, cultural stereotypes, and hostility.

Neither East Nor West: One Woman's Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran

Community & Culture

Atria

Fusing travelogue, historical inquiry, and interviews with Iranians from all walks of life, Neither East Nor West is a landmark contribution to travel writing and to cultural studies, as well as a timely illumination of a nation deeply misunderstood by most Westerners. In describing life in Iran today, Christiane Bird, an American who spent part of her childhood there, breaks the silence that has surrounded Iran's culture -- unlike its politics -- for nearly twenty years. 
 Traveling alone and largely by bus, Bird journeys from the modern, bustling capital of Tehran to the medieval holy city of Qom, from the sacred pilgrimage site of Mashhad -- visited by more than twelve million Shi'ites annually -- to the isolated valley of Alamut, once home to the legendary cult of the Assassins. She visits mosques, public baths, Khomeini's former home, and a Caspian Sea resort, and attends prayer meetings and a horse racing meet. Along the way, she talks to muleteers and ayatollahs, Kurds and Turkomans, Westernized and traditional Iranians -- many of whom invite her home for a cup of tea. 
 The result is an astounding, insightful journey into the Islamic Republic of Iran -- in all its beauty, ferocity, and contradiction.

Atria Books

Explores New York State from Manhattan to the Adirondacks and all points in between with over one hundred maps and tips on festivals, outdoor adventures, and such attractions as the Baseball Hall of Fame and Harriet Tubman's house

New York Handbook (Moon Handbooks)

Travel

United States

Moon Travel Handbooks

A neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide to New York City highlights popular tourist attractions and lists museums, theaters, hotels, shopping areas, and dining spots.

New York City Handbook

Avalon Travel Pub

One of the oldest states in the Union, New York is a picture of contrasts, from the bustling metropolis of New York City to the quiet solitude of the Adirondacks. In Christiane Bird's updated and revised Moon Handbooks New York State, travelers are given everything they need to plan a trip through this diverse landscape. Included in the book are tips on going to New York City's jazz clubs, theatres, and festivals; visiting the Great River Estates of the Hudson Valley; touring the Finger Lake Wineries; and hiking and canoeing in the Adirondacks. Fun and off beat destinations include hunting for treasures in the Chelsea flea market or visiting Harriet Tubman's home in Auburn. Winner of the New York Public Library award for outstanding reference book, Moon Handbooks New York State is the most informative guide on touring the state.

Moon Handbooks New York State

Food, Lodging & Transportation

Moon Travel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bird, Christiane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bird, Christiane

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bird, Christiane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Jazz And Blues Lover's Guide To The U.s.: With More Than 900 Hot Clubs, Cool Joints, Landmarks, And Legends, From Boogie-woogie To Bop And Beyond

The Da Capo Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the United States

A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan

A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistan

The Sultan's Shadow: One Family's Rule at the Crossroads of East and West

Neither East Nor West: One Woman's Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran

Neither East Nor West: One Woman's Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran

New York Handbook (Moon Handbooks)

New York City Handbook

Moon Handbooks New York State