BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • Forget room service: this is a riotous elegy, a deadpan celebration of colliding worlds, and a spirited defense of love. Blending incisive wit with surprising compassion, Hotel World is a wonderfully invigorating, life-affirming book. Five people: four are living; three are strangers; two are sisters; one, a teenage hotel chambermaid, has fallen to her death in a dumbwaiter. But her spirit lingers in the world, straining to recall things she never knew. And one night all five women find themselves in the smooth plush environs of the Global Hotel, where the intersection of their very different fates make for this playful, defiant, and richly inventive novel.
Written by one of the world's leading trend spotters and proprietor of the widely-read www.coolhunter.net, Bill Tikos, The World's Coolest Hotel Rooms opens the doors to more than fifty of the hippest, sexiest, newest, and most unusual rooms across the seven continents. Featuring the work of today's top architects and interior designers, this book offers diverse accommodations with one thing in common: impeccable taste with edge. So wherever wanderlust may take you—from an idyllic getaway in Scotland's remote Jura Island to the bright lights and nonstop action of Berlin—there is an amazing place to stay, and Tikos has roamed the globe to find it and the best room in the house. From a personal concierge in Buenos Aires who can schedule an impromptu tango lesson to a spectacular view of Rajasthan's age old Aravali hills from a deluxe suite, every accommodation provides a unique experience. Boring is not an option. There are rooms that fulfill rock star fantasies—complete with soundstage—and others that elevate the meaning of luxury, with sumptuously dressed daybeds in lush, secluded gardens with private pools. Each entry provides the inspiration behind the hotel's architecture, details the room's special amenities, design features, and rate. Local points of interest are described as well. With every entry personally selected by a tastemaker whose discerning eye for the most happening movements, styles, and trends in travel, fashion, music, urban living, and design has earned him a global following, The World's Coolest Hotel Rooms is indispensable for creating a special travel experience.
Take control of revenue management in the new hotel economy Hotel Pricing in a Social World: How to Drive Value in the New Hotel Economy is an insightful resource that provides guidance on improving organizational decision making to keep your hotel relevant, from a pricing standpoint, in the often chaotic hotel landscape. This groundbreaking book clearly showcases the current environment of the hotel industry, and describes new and emerging trends that can impact your revenue management tactics. This essential text prepares you to survive and thrive in today's highly competitive market, and outlines the best approach to building profitable pricing strategies that follow both tactical and strategic best practices. Revenue management has become a key activity in the highly social environment of today's hotel industry, thanks to mobile technology and social media. Though relatively new, revenue management is a quickly-evolving discipline that requires precision if you want to maintain your hotel's relevance in the market. Leverage original research, case studies, and industry examples to understand the practical application of key concepts Explore current market conditions that have an impact on revenue management Consider how advances in data management, analytics, and data visualization can impact revenue management practices Identify how revenue management can help you take advantage of market opportunities and overcome challenges Hotel Pricing in a Social World: How to Drive Value in the New Hotel Economy is an essential text for hotel CFOs, CMOs, revenue managers, and operations managers who want to leverage revenue management techniques to keep their hotel competitive.
At The Plaza is a pictorial record and an anecdotal history of the world's most famous hotel: New York's Plaza. As a story, it traverses the breadth and scope of Gotham's high society during the American Century. As a photo collection, it's like no other, capturing the hotel's remarkable presence on the ever-changing New York scene. For almost one hundred years, The Plaza has mirrored the social history of Manhattan: its tastes in design, entertainment, restaurants and accommodations, as well as its adjustment to Prohibition, the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, women's rights, smokers' rights, animals' rights and British rock-and-roll. The first guests to sign the register-Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt-set the standard for the long procession of luminaries that followed: Mark Twain, Diamond Jim Brady, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Beatles, among many others. In At The Plaza, the hotel's official historian, Curtis Gathje, has compiled a tremendous collection of photographs and vignettes chronicling the colorful history of a building, an institution, and a city.
The definitive word on tacos from native Angeleno Wes Avila, who draws on his Mexican heritage as well as his time in the kitchens of some of the world's best restaurants to create taco perfection. In a town overrun with taco trucks, Wes Avila's Guerrilla Tacos has managed to win almost every accolade there is, from being crowned Best Taco Truck by LA Weekly to being called one of the best things to eat in Los Angeles by legendary food critic Jonathan Gold. Avila's approach stands out in a crowded field because it's unique: the 50 base recipes in this book are grounded in authenticity but never tied down to tradition. Wes uses ingredients like kurobata sausage and sea urchin, but his bestselling taco is made from the humble sweet potato. From basic building blocks to how to balance flavor and texture, with comic-inspired illustrations and stories throughout, Guerrilla Tacos is the final word on tacos from the streets of L.A.
Join the Facebook Group here! In the hotel at the end of the world it's business as usual, as Pema dishes up rice and pork curry to travellers who stop by for a drink and refuge from the rains. Everyone there has a story to tell, and at times they end up revealing more than they want to. On their journey to China, Kona and Kuja, bound together by fate, stumble upon the trail of the Floating Island, promised land of plenty. Pema's story is about lost love, while her husband speaks of homesick Japanese soldiers in Manipur and the Naga hills during World War II. The Prophet takes us back to the quest for the Floating Island, leading us to the little girl's story as she sets out to fetch water and chances upon something quite unexpected—
"Sentimental, heartfelt….the exploration of Henry’s changing relationship with his family and with Keiko will keep most readers turning pages...A timely debut that not only reminds readers of a shameful episode in American history, but cautions us to examine the present and take heed we don’t repeat those injustices."-- Kirkus Reviews “A tender and satisfying novel set in a time and a place lost forever, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet gives us a glimpse of the damage that is caused by war--not the sweeping damage of the battlefield, but the cold, cruel damage to the hearts and humanity of individual people. Especially relevant in today's world, this is a beautifully written book that will make you think. And, more importantly, it will make you feel." -- Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain “Jamie Ford's first novel explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut.” -- Lisa See, bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept. Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago. Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart. BONUS: This edition contains a Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet discussion guide and an excerpt from Jamie Ford's Love and Other Consolation Prizes.
WINNER OF THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE • A prize-winning historian’s “effervescent” (The New Yorker) account of a close-knit band of wildly famous American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, took on dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism “High-speed, four-lane storytelling . . . Cohen’s all-action narrative bursts with colour and incident.”—Financial Times NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE PROSE AWARD ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, NPR, BookPage, Booklist They were an astonishing group: glamorous, gutsy, and irreverent to the bone. As cub reporters in the 1920s, they roamed across a war-ravaged world, sometimes perched atop mules on wooden saddles, sometimes gliding through countries in the splendor of a first-class sleeper car. While empires collapsed and fledgling democracies faltered, they chased deposed empresses, international financiers, and Balkan gun-runners, and then knocked back doubles late into the night. Last Call at the Hotel Imperial is the extraordinary story of John Gunther, H. R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson. In those tumultuous years, they landed exclusive interviews with Hitler and Mussolini, Nehru and Gandhi, and helped shape what Americans knew about the world. Alongside these backstage glimpses into the halls of power, they left another equally incredible set of records. Living in the heady afterglow of Freud, they subjected themselves to frank, critical scrutiny and argued about love, war, sex, death, and everything in between. Plunged into successive global crises, Gunther, Knickerbocker, Sheean, and Thompson could no longer separate themselves from the turmoil that surrounded them. To tell that story, they broke long-standing taboos. From their circle came not just the first modern account of illness in Gunther’s Death Be Not Proud—a memoir about his son’s death from cancer—but the first no-holds-barred chronicle of a marriage: Sheean’s Dorothy and Red, about Thompson’s fractious relationship with Sinclair Lewis. Told with the immediacy of a conversation overheard, this revelatory book captures how the global upheavals of the twentieth century felt up close.
