Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25232
• • • • books "For an already edgy, landlocked waterhead, the end- less purple mountain majesties and amber waves of grain ... amounted to little more than claustrophobic time and distance between two oceans .... " IN SEARCH OF CAPTAIN ZERO: A SURFER'S ROAD TRIP BEYOND THE END OF THE ROAD (Allan Weisbecker, Penguin Putnam, March 2001, www.aweisbecker.com. $25) "Surfing's a trip-you better have your bags packed. "-Herbie Fletcher, surfer Taking off for two years in a car packed with surfboards and a dog, writer and pho- tographer Allan Weisbecker goes to Centra l America in search of a long-lost surf buddy. Encountering local dangers from the beaches to the jungles, Weisbecker searches for a surf ideal that has shaped his view of life and t ravel. SASSO (James Sturz, Century, $12) In an insu lar town in southern Italy, a teenage couple is fou nd mysteri- ously dead in a cave. While investigat ing the deat hs, police discover that the couple had unearthed a breathtaking ancient fresco. After a f ive- member group of foreign geologists, art historians and ant hropologists comes to study the fresco, more bodies are found and they quick ly find themselves drawn into a tangled mystery of blood , heat and passion. As the unstable rock foundation of the town crumbles and secrets become exposed, the story beh ind these puzzling deaths unfo lds. James Sturz is a contributor to blue (see "Under the Blue Sea," June/July 2000). Sasso is his first novel. ADRENALINE 2000: THE YEAR'S BEST STORIES OF ADVENTURE AND SURVIVAL (Clint Wills (editor), Thunder's Mouth Press, $17) 'The best adventure writing tells us how to live. These are survival stories in the deepest sense-stories about staying not just alive, but fully alive in the face of our own fragility. "-Clint Willis, editor of Adrenaline 2000 Th is collection of real ta les stripped bare of glory redefi nes the meaning of advent ure. Michael Finkel rides across turbu lent waters with Haitian refugees desperate to make a new life in America, while Reinhold Messner encounters the legendary yeti in libet. These authors bring a sense of humility to adventure travel. ALONG THE INCA ROAD: A WOMAN'S JOURNEY INTO AN ANCIENT EMPIRE (Karin Muller, National Geographic Adventure Press, $26) Fighti ng bulls, hunting for hidden cocaine labs and downing cactus ju ice with shamans. For Karin Muller th is list wou ld sum up just another day on the Inca Road. With the help of a grant from the National Geographic Societ y, Muller was able to fulfill her gnawing obsession of mapping the route and record ing the history of the Inca Road . HISTORICAL ATLAS OF EXPEDITIONS (Karen Farrington, Checkmark Books, $35) , "Human endeavor has rarely been as animated and arousing as in the course of conquering the unknown world. To' /earn how mankind has brought about a world without physical frontier is to understand human nature itself and what makes it tick. " -Karen Farrington, Historical Atlas of Expeditions Marco Polo, Alexander the Great and Alexandra David-Neel: old school backpackers. Quests for food and water, expanding empires and religious fu lfillment have forever lured individuals on roads less t raveled . With t ime lines, maps and detailed sto- ri es, Karen Farrington charts the evol ut ion of expeditions. TEXT: NICOLE CHO AFGHANISTAN DIARY: 1992-2000 PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT BY EDWARD GRAZDA (Edward Grazda, powerHouse Books, $30) "A week after I left Kabul, all forms of photography--even family portraits-were banned. A history and culture were being erased. " - Edward Grazda, Afghanistan Diary Since the 1980s, photographer Edward Grazda has documented the st ruggles of daily life in a country constant ly at war and in chaos. Grazda's lens draws back layers of the stifling burqa, revea ling a glimpse of everyday Afghani life. 71