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	Don Quixote  •  Miguel de Cervantes  •  Edith Grossman LITERATURE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 976 PAGES The 400-year-old landmark novel (the most famous work in Spanish literature) in a sparkling new translation. Edith Grossman (better known for her translations of contemporary masters like Gabriel Garcia Marquez) aims for uninflected, accessible prose, dumping the quaint, old-fashioned tone and mock-chivalry of earlier translations. Fear not, it's an absorbing tale, and quite funny. This sparkling translation into lively, modern English makes the story of a mad romantic and his sidekick even more entertaining. (SPN211, $16.95)
	The World, Life and Travel 1950-2000  •  Jan Morris TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 458 PAGES A compilation of eyewitness reports, meditations and adventures by prose stylist, journalist, traveler, man and woman, Jan Morris, organized by decade. The selections, chosen by Morris, offer a good dose of the author's insight, perspective and scintillating prose. (TVL29, $16.95)
	Nine Hills to Nambonkaha, Two Years in the Heart of an African Village  •  Sarah Erdman CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2004 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES Erdman's vivid account of her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small Muslim village in Cote d'Ivoire captures the rhythms, challenges and traditions of Nambonkaha and its people. It's an affectionate, insightful portrait of place, especially poignant since the West African nation would soon be plunged into an ugly civil war between north and south. Erdman dedicated herself to a health clinic in the village. (WAF72, $14.00)
	Monster of God: The Man Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind  •  David Quammen NATURAL HISTORY •  2004 •  PAPER  • 384 PAGES In tracking the alpha predators, Quammen transports us to four of the world's great wild regions: the Gir forest in India, the Russian Far East, the coast of northern Australia and the mountains of Romania. Much like in his award-winning Song of the Dodo, Quammen combines scholarly insight, vivid prose and travel in this latest effort, a marvelous meditation on Indian lions, Australian crocodiles, European brown bears and Siberian tigers, man-eaters all. (BST84, $15.95)
	Feeding a Yen, Savoring Local Specialties from Kansas City to Cuzco  •  Calvin Trillin FOOD •  2004 •  PAPER  • 197 PAGES Boy, Trillin can really write -- and he drags the reader along in his enthusiasm for food and travel (not to mention his neighborhood in the West Village). This slim book, with many of the essays originally published elsewhere, includes Trillin's priceless riff on bagels as bait to lure his daughters home from the West Coast, his quest for the best ceviche with none other than Douglas Rodriguez, as well as 11 other ramblings, many in search of local foods. Trillin casually interweaves stories of his many friends, strong-minded daughters and beloved wife Alice, in whose memory the book is dedicated. (WLD40, $13.95)
	Dark Star Safari, Overland from Cairo to Cape Town  •  Paul Theroux TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 472 PAGES Theroux sets his sights on Africa in his latest travelogue. By means of local buses, cattle trucks, hitched rides, trains and canoes, Theroux makes his way across the length of the continent. Revisiting this land of his youth -- he worked there in the 1960s -- on the eve of his 60th birthday, Theroux finds a land more decrepit and downtrodden than when he left. Although it is a sobering look at modern Africa (and he has very little good to say about tourists), Theroux maintains his trademark wit as he recounts meetings with missionaries, aid workers, tourists and natives. (AFR131, $15.95)
	Stone Voices, The Search for Scotland  •  Neal Ascherson HISTORY •  2004 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES Ascherson writes with verve and insight on the centuries-old impulse toward nationhood in Scotland, interweaving some highly symbolic moments in history with archaeology, myth and his own interviews and travels. A native Scot (that should come as no surprise), Ascherson offers a lucid, absorbing and affectionate portrait of a nation in the making. (SCT66, $14.00)
	Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded: August 27,1883  •  Simon Winchester NATURAL HISTORY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES With this marvelous book, his 16th, Winchester returns to his original calling of roots in geology, masterfully combining his own observations of Krakatoa with a vivid retelling of the eruption itself, and a crystal-clear overview of plate tectonics and volcanology. The ecological concept of succession has rarely had such an excellent spokesman. (INS93, $13.95)
	1,000 Places to See Before You Die  •  Patricia Schultz TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 800 PAGES What an excellent idea. Here's a tantalizing roundup of 1,000 great places -- world famous monuments, fine restaurants, essential hotels and extraordinary travel experiences -- complete with a convenient checklist. Each monument, museum, town, trek, or park is nicely described in a few paragraphs, including travel details. Not just for explorers and adventurers, the selections are skewed toward North America and Europe; mortals can imagine actually visiting many of the places. It seems to us that, apart from anything else, this book would make a great parlor game. For fun, compare Shultz's selections to the Before You Die picks at travelintelligence.net. (TVL23, $19.95)
	Birds of Chile  •  Alvaro Jaramillo FIELD GUIDE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES A compact, comprehensive guide to 473 species in the Princeton Field Guide series with illustrations by David Beadle and Peter Burke, detailed range maps and condensed descriptive information, integrated on facing pages for easy reference in the field. It includes the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Jaramillo, a biologist born in Chile and raised in Toronto, leads birding trips throughout the Americas. A lifelong birder, he and Burke previously collaborated on a guide to the blackbirds of the Americas. (CHI50, $29.95)
	The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America  •  David Sibley FIELD GUIDE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 474 PAGES A compact, geographically-specific version of the Sibley Guide with all-new range maps, the same glorious illustrations and expanded, extremely valuable descriptions of each bird with status, habitat, range, voice and identifying marks. The book covers 703 species of birds occurring west of the Rockies, including Alaska, the western Canadian provinces, Baja California and portions of northern Mexico. Maps show the range throughout North America. For birders living east of the Rockies, you'll want to use Sibley's "Birds of Eastern North America" (USE262). (USW418, $19.95)
	The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America  •  David Sibley FIELD GUIDE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 432 PAGES A compact, geographically-specific version of the Sibley Guide with all-new range maps, the same glorious illustrations and expanded, extremely valuable descriptions of each bird with status, habitat, range, voice and identifying marks. It includes 20 pages on the many and confusing species of wood warblers. This is the book we are now using. For birders living west of the Rockies, you'll want to use Sibley's "Birds of Western North America" (USW418). (USE262, $19.95)
	The Towers of Trebizond  •  Rose MacAulay  •  Jan Morris LITERATURE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 277 PAGES First published in 1956, this is the impossibly witty account of an eccentric party of Brits who set off for Turkey to establish a mission. Known for her sparkling humor, Macaulay has written a minor masterpiece that makes great fun of the church and eccentric Englishmen in exotic lands. It also includes much information on the region and its ancient history. (TKY15, $14.95)

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