A Good Year

A Good Year
by Peter Mayle

One Word: Wine

Two Words: French Vineyard

More Words: Max Skinner, a successful London businessman, inherits a vineyard in France that he visited during the summers of his youth. Max has become a calloused jerk wanting neither the vineyard nor the memories, but the small town charm, a local woman, an American tourist, the caretaker and the vineyard itself might be able to change his mind.

Pages: 304

Recommend It? YES, but watch the movie. It's better.

INTO THE WILD

Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer

One Word: Tragic

Two Words: Adventurous Vagabond

More Words: After graduating from college, forsaking all his friends and family, giving away most of his possessions and hitchhiking across the United States, a young man hikes into the Alaskan Wilderness to live alone, away from civilization. But something goes wrong. Four months later he is dead. Krakauer examines this young man's life with the help of the boy's family, the journals and photos the boy left behind. Intermingled throughout the story is a collection of similar vagabond stories, including a few from the author. Though you know the ending of the book (it's on the front cover), finding out how it happens is worth the read.

Pages: 203

Recommend It? YES

Dishwasher

Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States
by Pete Jordan

One Word: Slacker

Two Words: Master Dishwasher

More Words: Pete Jordan chronicles his decade plus years traveling the US as a dishwasher. Any job washing dishing was perfect to him. From an oil rig to a ski resort, from an Alaska fish cannery to a summer camp, he did it all! The best part was if something wasn't right, he'd walk off the job to find another one. His laissez-faire approach to employment and life reminds everyone of a simpler time.

Pages: 353 + a P.S. section of interviews and covers of his Dishwasher magazine.

Recommend It? YES