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	Arctic Dreams, Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape  •  Barry Lopez NATURAL HISTORY •  2001 •  PAPER  • 417 PAGES • FAVORITE One of the best books we've read on any destination, this celebrated meditation on the Arctic draws on Lopez's travels throughout the North, including Baffin Island, Siberia and Greenland. A dazzling writer and compassionate observer, Lopez weaves biology and history into his storytelling, including extended chapters on the polar bear and narwhal. (ARC11, $15.00)
	The Colossus of Maroussi  •  Henry Miller TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1958 •  PAPER  • 249 PAGES • FAVORITE The soul of Greece circa 1939. Miller captures the spirit and warmth of the resilient Greek people in this tale of a wartime journey from Athens to Crete, Corfu and Delphi with his friend Lawrence Durrell. Miller at his most inspired. (GRE05, $14.95)
	Dersu the Trapper  •  V.K. Arseniev  •  Malcolm Burr TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1996 •  PAPER  • 358 PAGES • FAVORITE A mesmerizing account of adventure, exploration and friendship in the Russian Far East. Arseniev, a Russian captain who explored much of the region north of Vladivostok at the turn-of-the-century, forged a friendship with the taciturn Dersu, a nomadic Goldi hunter, to whom he owed much of his success. The bond between the men, almost wordless (and much romanticized), heightens Arseniev's obvious love for the wilderness. The book was the source for Kurosowa's magnificent 1976 film, Dersu Uzala. (SIB24, $16.00)
	Desert Solitaire  •  Edward Abbey NATURAL HISTORY •  1990 •  PAPER  • 289 PAGES • FAVORITE A beloved classic, read aloud at campfires throughout the Southwest. It's one of the great works on the value of the desert, eloquent and laugh-out-loud funny. Although Abbey writes specifically about the Colorado Plateau and his experiences as a ranger at Arches National Park outside Moab Utah, his message is universal. Originally published in 1990. (DES02, $14.95)
	Dreams of Trespass, Tales of a Harem Girlhood  •  Fatima Mernissi BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1995 •  PAPER  • 242 PAGES • FAVORITE This gentle memoir captures the hierarchy and decorum of growing up behind the door of a harem, which, as the author explains, is not necessarily a collection of wives, but rather a house in which all the women of a family are secluded. The work is also an engrossing portrait of Fez in the 1940s. Mernissi, a sociologist, brings to vivid and often hilarious detail the exploits of the various women in the house: her mother, fighting against the veil, her grandmother, clinging to tradition, and especially a divorced aunt, who teaches her much about rebellion. Surely the most charming feminist tract ever written. (Mernissi has also written "Beyond the Veil," a scholarly study of relations between the genders in Muslim society, item MDE35.) (MRC10, $17.00)
	Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage  •  Alfred Lansing EXPLORATION •  1998 •  PAPER  • 280 PAGES • BEST SELLER • FAVORITE An extraordinary tale of survival that reads like a good novel. It's the gripping day-by-day story of Shackleton's legendary perseverance: losing his ship in the ice, drifting helplessly across the Weddell Sea, and finally reaching Elephant Island, from where he sailed 800 miles to South Georgia to get help for his stranded men. With maps and a 8-page selection of Frank Hurley photographs. (ANT03, $14.95)
	The Fatal Shore  •  Robert Hughes HISTORY •  1988 •  PAPER  • 752 PAGES • FAVORITE A celebrated social history, both scholarly and entertaining. Hughes traces the fate of those who were transported to the penal colonies of Australia between 1787 and 1868 in this engaging popular account, drawn from the experiences of the colonists themselves. A precursor to the gulags and prison camps of the 20th century, the British penal colonies in Australia are an oft-forgotten experiment in 19th century social reform and colonization. While the colonies were concentrated mainly in small coastal sections of New South Wales and Tasmania, the book helps elucidate how this first chapter in their history was the most vital factor in defining the early Australian character. (AUS04, $19.95)
	The Great Game, The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia  •  Peter Hopkirk HISTORY •  1994 •  PAPER  • 565 PAGES • FAVORITE • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE A spellbinding, vivid, and riveting account of the great European struggle for supremacy in Central Asia. This is a romantic, glamorous tale of intrigue, treachery and adventure that takes us over the high mountain passes and through the scorching deserts and caravan towns of the Silk Road. With meticulous scholarship and on-the-spot research, the author describes the history of this region at the core of geopolitics today. With 39 photographs and fine maps. (CAS09, $18.00)
	Here is New York  •  E.B. White CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 56 PAGES • FAVORITE Perhaps no one has captured the city as lyrically, and certainly none as efficiently, as E.B. White. This brief essay (it was originally a 7500-word piece for Holiday magazine, and is easily read in an hour) was written in a hot hotel room over a 2-day period in the summer of 1948. The famous opening line ("On anyone who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.") sets the stage for a portrait of the city that moves from Broadway to Central Park, from the horn of the great steamships to the dark of the bars on 3rd Avenue. Though, as Roger Angell points out in the introduction to the new edition, so much of what he mentions is no longer here (the hotel cafe he hung out in was gone even by the time the piece was first published in 1949), the prose has an amazingly timeless, fresh quality to it, and is a marvelous introduction to what people still love about New York City. (NYC28, $16.95)
	Homage to Catalonia  •  George Orwell BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1987 •  PAPER  • 234 PAGES • FAVORITE Orwell's portrait of the Barcelona uprising and the spirit of a city at war is a classic, an observant and heartfelt report from the streets. In part, this book is the simply told story of a wide-eyed soldier caught up in revolutionary fervor and the allure of Spain. (SPN03, $14.00)
	Independent People, An Epic  •  Halldor Laxness LITERATURE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 480 PAGES • FAVORITE A masterwork redolent of Icelandic rural life in the early days of the 20th century. This great mock-epic features Bjartur of Summerhouses -- a hard-headed, independent-minded sheep farmer whose voice dominates the story. Whatever its ethnographic interest, this is a tremendously good book, rich in local detail. The author won the Nobel Prize in 1955. (ICL01, $15.95)
	In Patagonia  •  Bruce Chatwin TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1989 •  PAPER  • 204 PAGES • BEST SELLER • FAVORITE A masterpiece of travel, history and adventure. This award-winning book captures the spirit of the land, history, wildlife and people of Patagonia. There's no travel writer as engaging, insightful and just plain wonderful as Bruce Chatwin. (PAT01, $15.00)
	In Siberia  •  Colin Thubron TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES • FAVORITE One of our favorite writers, Thubron captures in dazzling prose the contradictions, beauty, personality and hardship of this huge land. Thubron journeyed 15,000 miles along the Trans-Siberian Railway, up the Yenisei River to the Arctic, into the mountains abutting Mongolia, to Lake Baikal -- the world's oldest and deepest lake -- and east to Magadan and the Pacific. (SIB14, $14.95)
	The Log from the Sea of Cortez  •  John Steinbeck  •  Edward F. Ricketts TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1995 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES • FAVORITE The classic account of a collecting trip to the Sea of Cortez with marine biologist Ed Ricketts, first published in 1941. Subtitled "A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research," this much-loved book captures the wonders of the Gulf of California and the joys of discovery. It's one of our favorite books. For those of you who have battled outboard engines, we especially recommend the hilarious few pages on the "Hansen Sea Cow." (BJA02, $15.00)
	Midnight's Children  •  Salman Rushdie LITERATURE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 533 PAGES • FAVORITE Salman Rushdie's greatest book is a madcap, comic, unrestrained novel that takes as its subject the birth of modern India. The narrator, born at the stroke of India's independence on August 15, 1947, is a proxy for the nation itself, and the history of his family is also the history of India. (IDA12, $14.95)
	The Path Between the Seas, The Creation of the Panama Canal: 1870-1914  •  David McCullough HISTORY •  2004 •  PAPER  • 700 PAGES • FAVORITE A great story, admirably told in vivid, page-turning detail. McCullough reveals the full scope of the Panama Canal, its characters, technical difficulties and Byzantine politics. Capturing all the international intrigue, you couldn't make up a better story. It's 700 pages long but reads like a suspense novel. (CAM32, $18.00)
	Playing With Water: A Passion and Solitude on a Philippine Island  •  James Hamilton-Paterson BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1994 •  PAPER  • 282 PAGES • FAVORITE Hamilton-Paterson writes with unusual warmth of his time among the villagers and under the water on a small Filipino island. Part philosophical meditation, part memoir -- and wonderful. The British author, who lives in the Philippines and Tuscany, has also written several novels, including Ghosts of Manilla. (PLP04, $14.95)
	The Snow Leopard  •  Peter Matthiessen EXPLORATION •  2008 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES • FAVORITE A vivid memoir of a five-week journey through Nepal with George Schaller in search of the magnificent leopard. As perceptive, wonderful and acutely descriptive as any of Matthiessen's writing. (NPL03, $15.00)
	Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice  •  Mark Plotkin TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1994 •  PAPER  • 328 PAGES • FAVORITE This is the stuff of adventure movies. Like Russ Mittermeir and Wade Davis, Mark Plotkin is the student of the extraordinary Richard Schultes at Harvard University, a pioneer in the field of ethnobotany. In this marvelous book Plotkin recounts his work documenting the use of medicinal plants among remote tribes in the Northwest Amazon of Suriname, Venezuela, Guyana and French Guiana. The book is a portrait of people and their environment, a tale of adventure and -- most of all -- a moving example of science in the service of preservation. He reminds us, "every time a shaman dies, it is as if a library burned down." (AMZ15, $16.00)
	Trading with the Enemy, A Yankee Travels through Castro's Cuba  •  Tom Miller TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES • FAVORITE Written in 1992, during the worst of the "special period," this excellent travelogue rings as true now as it did then. Miller does a wonderful job of capturing the openness, sensuality, and pride in the revolution that characterizes the Cuban spirit. In a manner both entertaining and warm, he takes the readers on his adventures, (including traveling with a Cuban baseball team, studying the oboe and shadowing "the Cuban Julia Child" as she teaches TV viewers suffering from chronic food shortages how to make "steak" out of grapefruit rinds). He manages to cover all the important bases -- from literature to automobiles -- and by the time you're done you feel you might understand something real about Cuba. . (CBA11, $16.95)
	Voyage of the Beagle  •  Charles Darwin EXPLORATION •  2002 •  PAPER  • 468 PAGES • BEST SELLER • FAVORITE The wide-eyed tale of a young man on a five-year voyage that changed his life -- and our way of thinking about the world. First published in 1839, this book is still essential reading. Darwin's South American chapters are an excellent introduction to the Galapagos, Beagle Channel, Chile, Tierra del Fuego, the Chilean fjords and the Brazilian coast. With maps and appendices. (GPS02, $12.95)
	West with the Night  •  Beryl Markham BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1983 •  PAPER  • 294 PAGES • FAVORITE A direct, stylish, and engrossing story of a marvelous life well lived. Markham describes her childhood in Kenya and her experiences as a bush pilot in the 1930s, evoking the landscapes, people, and wildlife of East Africa in rich detail. (EAF10, $15.00)
	Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China  •  Jung Chang BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2003 •  PAPER  • 524 PAGES • FAVORITE A riveting tale of three generations spanning the end of Old China, Mao's regime and the Japanese occupation. Chang chronicles the enormous changes in China since 1929 through her family's story, which includes arrest during the Cultural Revolution, exile to the Sichuan wilderness and coming to terms with the bewildering state of China today. It's quite a tale, wonderfully told without a trace of rancor or bitterness. Living in London since 1978, Chang visits her mother back in China every year. You can imagine Chang with notebook in hand back in the family apartment absorbed in the stories of her much-loved mother. The book opens with the statement, "At the age of 15 my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general. It was 1929 and China was in chaos." (CHN04, $16.00)
	The World of Venice  •  Jan Morris HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 315 PAGES • FAVORITE Morris displays her talent for research, telling anecdote and well-wrought prose in this spirited portrait of a beloved city, its history and inhabitants. If you are going to read one book on Venice, we recommend this favorite. Originally published in 1974 and revised for this edition, it's a tour de force. (ITL12, $16.00)
	The Worst Journey in the World  •  Apsley Cherry-Garrard EXPLORATION •  2006 •  PAPER  • 573 PAGES • FAVORITE One of the great tales of exploration, originally published in 1922. Cherry-Garrard's epic midwinter journey to the emperor penguin rookery is just a warm-up for the main event: his vivid account of Scott's doomed last expedition. This huge book, called the best adventure tale ever written, is well worth the effort. It was neighbor George Bernard Shaw, an early supporter of Cherry-Garrard, who bestowed the title. (ANT23, $18.00)

	The Tuscan Year, Tuscan Life and Food in an Italian Valley  •  Elizabeth Romer   • FOOD • FAVORITE  •  An intimate portrait of life on a Tuscan farm, as seen primarily through the robust food, and a Longitude favorite. Romer captures the goings-on in the countryside, and especially in the Cerotti kitchen, where traditional Tuscan rural food is prepared with loving care. Every chapter includes concisely described recipes. (ITL131, $14.00)
	City of Djinns, A Year in Delhi  •  William Dalrymple   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • FAVORITE  •  Dalrymple describes his year in Delhi with enormous humor, heart and understanding, skillfully interweaving his own adventures with a solidly researched history of the city. (IDA06, $16.00)
	Coming into the Country  •  John McPhee   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • FAVORITE  •  McPhee's lyrical portrait of frontier life and some unforgettable Alaskan characters captures the spirit of the place like no other. (ALA04, $17.00)
	The City of Florence, Historical Vistas and Personal Sightings  •  R.W.B. Lewis   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • FAVORITE  •  A vivid tour of the city and its riches by the fine biographer of Edith Wharton and Henry James. Lewis has written what he calls "a partial biography of Florence," beautifully interweaving the personal and the historical. (ITL47, $19.00)
	The Songlines  •  Bruce Chatwin   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • FAVORITE  •  Chatwin transforms a journey through the outback into an exhilarating, semi-fictional meditation on our place in the world. (AUS01, $16.00)
	A Dragon Apparent, Travels in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam  •  Norman Lewis   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE  •  A classic account of travels and adventure during the last years of French Indochina, strong on atmosphere and including wonderfully detailed descriptions of local cultures and archaeological treasures. First published in 1951. (SEA40, $33.95)
	A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush  •  Eric Newby   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  Newby wrote a string of memorable books about his adventures, often on a bicycle, but sometimes by foot or train, usually with his wife. This classic is a superb example of the misguided lark: a comically ill-prepared jaunt in the Naristan mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. "People like it," he explained, "when things go wrong." (CAS32, $14.99)
	A Time of Gifts  •  Patrick Leigh Fermor   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Fermor effortlessly interweaves anecdote, history and culture in this exuberant account of a walk from Holland, up the Rhine and down the Danube in 1933, through Germany, Prague and Austria. The now-accomplished author reflects on adventures 40 years past with perspective and a sweet nostalgia. The adventure continues in Between the Woods and Water (CEU31). (CEU30, $16.95)
	Annapurna, The Epic Account of a Himalayan Conquest and its Harrowing Aftermath  •  Maurice Herzog   • EXPLORATION • FAVORITE  •  This classic account of the first ascent of an 8,000-meter peak -- and their extraordinary rescue -- was dictated by expedition leader Herzog from his hospital bed in Paris. (HML07, $16.95)
	Arabian Sands  •  Wilfred Thesiger  •  Rory Stewart   • EXPLORATION • FAVORITE  •  The last of the great British traveler-explorers, Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) journeyed among the nomadic camel-breeding peoples of Southern Arabia in the late 1940s, falling in love with the desert and ways of life of the Bedouin. This eloquent book is his tribute to them. (ARB15, $15.00)
	Between Meals, An Appetite for Paris  •  A.J. Liebling   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • FAVORITE  •  Liebling captues with stylish prose his coming-of-age in Paris in this elegant memoir, which is also a tribute to French cuisine. (FRN32, $14.00)
	Eastern Approaches  •  Fitzroy MacLean   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • OUT OF PRINT  •  Fitzroy MacLeans's action-packed account of his amazing adventures undercover in the Central Asian Republics of the USSR during Stalin's reign, as a commando in the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa, and with the Partisans in Yugoslavia during World War II. Touted as the real-life inspiration for James Bond, Maclean is not only a terrific writer but an eyewitness to historic events. Originally published in 1949. (CAS48, $30.00)
	In a Sunburned Country  •  Bill Bryson   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  The intrepid, ever-resourceful Bryson revels in Australia's eccentric characters, dangerous flora and fauna, and other oddities in this wildly funny, effortlessly informative travelogue. (AUS83, $14.95)
	In Trouble Again  •  Redmond O'Hanlon   • EXPLORATION • FAVORITE  •  As funny as he is insightful, O'Hanlon starts his comic masterpiece of a journey between the Orinoco and the Amazon with a litany of creatures that can do you harm. (AMZ04, $13.95)
	Italian Days  •  Barbara Grizzuti Harrison   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  Grizzuti Harrison writes with warmth and depth of her journey from Milan south to Calabria in this sprightly account of Italy and the Italians. (ITL02, $15.00)
	Libby: The Alaskan Diaries and Letters of Libby Beaman, 1879-1880  •  Libby Beaman  •  Betty John   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • FAVORITE  •  Beaman's wonderfully evocative account, peppered with drawings and period photographs, depicts life in the Pribilof Islands. (ARC07, $16.95)
	Midnight in Sicily, On Art, Food, History, Travel and La Cosa Nostra  •  Peter Robb   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  Combining interviews, research and essays on Sicilian history and culture, this vivid report by journalist Peter Robb is a superb introduction to Italy's glorious, corrupt and troubled south. (ITL74, $16.00)
	Motoring with Mohammed, Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea  •  Eric Hansen   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  Classic travel writing: insightful, personal, informative, entertaining, and a wonderful introduction to life on the Arabian Peninsula. Ten years after he was shipwrecked aboard a sailboat in the Red Sea, the intrepid Hansen returns to Yemen in search of a journal he buried in the sand. (ARB11, $14.95)
	Nothing to Declare  •  Mary Morris   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  An absorbing memoir of a woman traveling alone throughout Mexico and Central America. Morris, a favorite writer, evokes the people and places she visits in gritty immediate detail. (CAM08, $14.00)
	The Panama Hat Trail  •  Tom Miller   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  An entertaining and insightful social history of Ecuador -- as told through its hat-making history. It's a classic example of travel writing, and one of the best things written on Ecuador. (EDR15, $14.00)
	The River at the Center of the World  •  Simon Winchester   • EXPLORATION • FAVORITE  •  Winchester writes about the character of Yangtze, and the people and places along its banks, with an easy grace in this remarkable portrait of the great river that is at the symbolic and literal heart of China. (CHN31, $16.00)
	The Tree Where Man Was Born  •  Peter Matthiessen   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  This classic portrait of East Africa, enthralling in its detail on nature and daily life, takes in the Maasai, Ngorongoro, the Kenyan highlands and Mathiessen's field trips, safaris and adventures in the Serengeti. (EAF27, $17.00)
	Two Towns in Provence  •  M. F. K. Fisher   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • FAVORITE  •  Few can paint the earthy details of a place and time like celebrated food writer M.F.K. Fisher. In this small volume, she contrasts village life in Aix-en-Provence with bustling Marseilles, evoking both with anecdote and loving description. (FRN27, $16.95)
	Video Night in Kathmandu, and Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East  •  Pico Iyer   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Iyer brings enormous wit and humor to these classic essays on travel to places including Bali, Hong Kong and Bangkok. (ASA02, $14.95)
	What Am I Doing Here?  •  Bruce Chatwin   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  A delightful collection of essays by one of our favorite travel writers, capturing the allure of the land and its wildlife and history. Includes a great chapter on his visit to Chiloe Island. (PAT02, $16.00)
	Wind, Sand and Stars  •  Antoine de Saint Exupery   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  St. Exupery's luminous account of flying early postal routes over South America, Europe and the deserts of West Africa in the 1930s, including the classic tale of his crash in the Libyan desert. (DES11, $13.00)
	A Fine Balance  •  Rohinton Mistry   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  Set in Indira Gandhi's "emergency Raj" of 1975 in an unnamed Indian "city by the sea," which bears a striking resemblance to Bombay, this tender novel follows the intermingled fortunes of a Parsi widow, her boarder and two tailors. (IDA92, $15.95)
	Malgudi Days  •  R. K. Narayan  •  Jhumpa Lahiri   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  Wonderful tales about a fictional South Indian town, populated by quirky characters whose unique approaches to tradition and modernity are the stuff of these great short stories. (IDA59, $15.00)
	Never Cry Wolf  •  Farley Mowat   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  A laugh-out-loud account of wolf research and government folly set on the barren lands of northern Manitoba. Perfect for teens. (BST34, $12.99)
	Our Man in Havana  •  Graham Greene   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  The story of a British vacuum cleaner salesman who gets accidentally drawn into cold war espionage with disastrous results. (CBA19, $14.00)
	The Quiet American  •  Graham Greene   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  A classic, this is the most famous western work of fiction on Vietnam. Greene writes of a love triangle between a war correspondent, his Vietnamese consort and an optimistic young American during the last days of French rule. (VNM08, $15.00)
	The Sun Also Rises  •  Ernest Hemingway   • LITERATURE  •  Hemingway's great novel, which encapsulates the angst of the post-WWI "lost generation," is the story of unmoored American and British expats travelling from Paris to Pamplona. (SPN33, $15.00)
	The Towers of Trebizond  •  Rose MacAulay  •  Jan Morris   • LITERATURE  •  Known for her sparkling humor, Macaulay's minor masterpiece follows an eccentric party of Brits who set off for Turkey to establish a mission. The novel was first published in 1956. (TKY15, $14.95)

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