THINKING PLACES: Where Great Ideas Were Born, by Carolyn and Jack Fleming with foreword by Elliot Engel, © 2007, Trafford Publishing, pp. 398. Pensacolians will recognize the name of these authors. Carolyn is a published novelist. Both collaborated on the lyrics with composer Allen Pote on the fulllength musical SEAPLANE. Jack is a retired Medical Center cardiologist with four decades of medical practice.

The book has a unique point of view in that it is a literary travelogue. The Flemings describe their visits to various destinations in the U. S., Europe and the South Seas. It also represents biography. With each description there is a section called “Lagniappe” in which they record unexpected observations and insights.

Carolyn and Jack report that the idea was begun when they visited the home of Glenn Curtis’ home in Hammondsport NY during the period of research for SEAPLANE. Curtis was an airplane inventor-designer. His home had a large upstairs room with panoramic view which he called his “Thinkorium.”

This gave them the idea of make the focus on the places which gave inspiration for these literary and other geniuses.

The list includes Edvard Grieg, Shaw, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Faulkner, Hemingway, Booker T. Washington and many others. The chapter on Robert Louis Stevenson required four trips to Samoa to complete. The majority of photographs were taken by the Flemings. The rest were contributed by museums or other sources.

The reader may choose to read all the way through or, as I did, read in short segments. The latter choice gave me opportunity to reflect on the subject and the authors’ unique observations.

The book is available locally at Celebrations and on order from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com. The Flemings inform me that they have just had an offer from a publisher in Japan who wants to publish it in Japanese.