Olive Awe Made Easy to Swallow

OLIVES: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit by Mort Rosenblum (North Point Press, $24).

A friend of Mort Rosenblum’s once gave him the mock Native American nickname, “Talks About Olives.” And in “Olives” Rosenblum does, in fact, chatter away on the subject with the fervor of the newly converted. In less skilled hands this might be a tedious fixation; in Rosenblum’s it’s a joyous passion.

This passion began innocently enough when Rosenblum discovered, after purchasing a small estate in Southern France, that he was also the owner of about 200 overgrown, dying olive trees. His involvement in the trees and their care became the impetus for the book and a tour of the Mediterranean olive countries, from Spain around to Morocco (including a brief detour to California).

Over several years and in between assignments, Rosenblum, a special correspondent for the Associated Press, poked into everything from the Mafia’s impact on olive oil prices to the fruit’s antioxidant properties. But “Olives” is no dry investigative piece. Everywhere he goes, even in the tragic groves of Bosnia and Israel’s West Bank, Rosenblum finds delight. He shares oil-pressing tips with Italians and bubbling water pipes with Tunisians. He dances in olive groves to a French accordion and eats Herculean meals in Greece. He glugs olive oils of every color and texture and rhapsodizes about them in connoisseur-speak: “It was fruity but not green, neither thin nor greasy, wonderfully mellow but with a subtle, sharp bite.”

Rosenblum is a writer of considerable charm, as readers of his previous book, “The Secret Life of the Seine,” already know. He makes all the historic lore, botanical facts and processing info of “Olives” as easy to swallow as you-know-what.

Like someone from an ancient Mediterranean culture, Rosenblum comes to venerate olive trees. He’s in awe of their astonishing age (some modern trees grow from rootstock thousands of years old) and he celebrates how olives and olive oil connect man and the natural world. In words that could easily have been his own, he quotes writer Willis Barnstone: “People who know olive trees revere them, like angels that spring from the earth. They live off them in the best way. The olive is to the Mediterranean what the camel is to the desert.”

INDONESIA HANDBOOK by Joshua Eliot (Footprint Handbooks, $24.95, maps). MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE HANDBOOK by Joshua Eliot (Footprint Handbooks, $21.95, maps).

Two new titles and a new look from the “Handbook” series. Fans need not be concerned: The changes are mostly window-dressing. Aside from flashy new covers and some tinkering with typefaces, the format is the same: lots of phone numbers and addresses, smart restaurant and hotel recommendations and tissue-thin pages that make the guides traveler-friendly even though they’re hardback and exhaustive (the venerable South America guide, first published in 1921 and now in its 73rd edition, has more than 1,600 pages).

Along with the new titles (previously, the two areas were combined into one guide) are new editions of the South America, Mexico and Central America, the Caribbean Islands, India and East Africa handbooks. All are notable for delivering a wealth of practical information in a no-nonsense style. For example, in the Jakarta section of the Indonesia guide, Eliot outlines six ways to get around town, the prices travelers should expect to pay for each (bargaining is encouraged in some cases) and some possible dangers, such as pickpockets on buses and taxi drivers who claim to have busted meters.

Quick trips:

AMERICA’S STRANGEST MUSEUMS: A Traveler’s Guide by Sandra Gurvis (Citadel Press, $12.95, paperback, photos). A state-by-state guide to oddball collections and memorabilia. Some don’t seem so strange, just quirky, such as the Merry-Go-Round Museum in Sandusky, Ohio, or the Experimental Aircraft Adventure Museum in Oshkosh, Wis. Others seem to have passed strange and gone straight to demented: the Tooth Fairy Museum in Deerfield, Ill., for example, or the U.S. National Tick Collection in Statesboro, Ga.

SMOOTH RIDE GUIDES: United States Eastern Seaboard by July Ramsey (FT Publications, $22.50, paperback). For the handicapped, a straightforward guide to wheelchair-accessible attractions and lodgings in 18 states. Also lists each state’s support organizations and outlines how to get around major airports.

STEPPING LIGHTLY ON AUSTRALIA: A Traveller’s Guide to Ecotourism by Shirley LaPlanche (Globe Pequot Press, $14.95, paperback, photos, maps). Describes the island continent’s various national parks and wildlife preserves, then devotes chapters to a number of eco-minded activities such as bush walking, bird-watching and diving. Includes a list of nature tour operators and a list of lodges, hotels and resorts that supposedly adhere to environmentally sound practices.

NEW ENGLAND LIGHTHOUSES: Bay of Fundy to Long Island Sound by Bruce Roberts and Ray Jones (Globe Pequot Press, $19.95, paperback, photos). Latest in a colorful series that includes Western, Southern and Great Lakes lighthouses. Among the New England lighthouses is America’s first, the Boston Light, built in 1716 and reconstructed in 1783.

Books to Go appears the second and fourth week of every month.