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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Essential Reading

Item EXMED453. Buy these 5 items as a set for $95 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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Eyewitness Guide Greek Islands

Eyewitness Guide Greek Islands

by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 408 PAGES

Color photography, excellent local maps and an island-by-island synopsis of attractions make this book the one to carry with you. (GRE37, $28.00)

Eyewitness Guide Istanbul

Eyewitness Guide Istanbul

by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2013
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES
  • BEST SELLER

This superb guide to Istanbul features color photography, dozens of excellent local maps and a district-by-district synopsis of the city's attractions. Handsome, convenient and up-to-date, this is the guide to carry. (TKY86, $25.00)

Ancient Greece: Art, Architecture, and History

Ancient Greece: Art, Architecture, and History

by Marina Belozerskaya | Kenneth Lapatin

  • ARCHAEOLOGY
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 144 PAGES

This lively illustrated guide covers the architecture, painting and sculpture of Ancient Greece from the third millennium to the end of the Hellenistic period. With 282 color and 28 black-and-white illustrations. (GRE194, $19.95)

Turkish Reflections, A Biography of a Place

Turkish Reflections, A Biography of a Place

by Mary Lee Settle

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1991
  • PAPER
  • 253 PAGES

Settle's captivating travelogue is a richly detailed portrait of contemporary Turkey, its people, monasteries, myths, archaeological treasures and living traditions. Exemplary. (TKY08, $16.99)

Greece Map

Greece Map

by Michelin

  • 2011
  • MAP

A colorful shaded map of Greece, the Greek Islands and the western coast of Turkey at a scale of 1:800,000. (GRE24, $12.95)

 
Eyewitness Top Ten Athens

Eyewitness Top Ten Athens


by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 160 PAGES

A compact illustrated guide in the popular series, featuring favorite attractions, events, restaurants, shops and excursions in Athens. (GRE219, $14.00)

Lonely Planet Istanbul Encounter

Lonely Planet Istanbul Encounter


by Verity Campbell

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 176 PAGES

With a section of not-to-miss highlights, pull-out map and a calendar of annual events. (TKY151, $12.99)

1453, The Holy War For Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West

1453, The Holy War For Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West


by Roger Crowley

  • HISTORY
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

In this well-paced history, Crowley recounts with drama the events surrounding the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. (TKY114, $15.99)

Ancient Turkey, A Traveller's History

Ancient Turkey, A Traveller's History


by Seton Lloyd

  • HISTORY
  • 2013
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

A lively tale of cultures and conquest, from the Hittites to St. Paul, that illuminates the living past of Turkey's archaeological treasures, this classic by professor Seton Lloyd, first director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, is now in a 25th anniversary edition. With maps, drawings, site plans and a photographs. (TKY43, $31.95)

Crescent and Star

Crescent and Star


by Stephen Kinzer

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 265 PAGES

This insightful anecdotal report on contemporary life, culture and politics in Turkey comes from a former New York Times Istanbul bureau chief, who is especially attuned to the powerful geographic position of Turkey and its multiple identities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. (TKY64, $17.00)

Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire

Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire


by Bernard Lewis

  • HISTORY
  • 1989
  • PAPER
  • 187 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

In this slim volume the great Islamic scholar describes the invasion of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks on May 29, 1453, evoking the city at this pivotal moment in its long history. (TKY17, $24.95)

Lords of the Horizons

Lords of the Horizons


by Jason Goodwin

  • HISTORY
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 351 PAGES

Goodwin artfully combines his modern travels with scholarship, history and reflection, capturing the outrageous personalities, events and vagaries of the 600-year-old Ottoman empire. (TKY44, $18.00)

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, Why the Greeks Matter

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, Why the Greeks Matter


by Thomas Cahill

  • HISTORY
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

Cahill brings to life ancient Greek society and civilization through the lives and words of politicians, playwrights, a poet, philosopher and artist in this eloquent and absorbing tribute. (GRE182, $17.00)

The World of the Ancient Greeks

The World of the Ancient Greeks


by John Camp | Elizabeth Fisher

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES
  • CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
    • >

Featuring hundreds of illustrations and inviting short chapters on topics from The First Greeks to The Heroic Age and Classical Athens. With modern color photographs of great ancient cities from Athens and Delphi to Knossos, Ephesus, Pergamum and Priene. (GRE365, $24.95)

Art of the Byzantine Era

Art of the Byzantine Era


by David Talbot Rice

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 1985
  • PAPER
  • 286 PAGES
  • CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
    • >

Wide-ranging and literate, this thoroughly illustrated introduction to Byzantine art is an indispensable classic. (TKY22, $21.95)

St. Paul's Ephesus, Texts and Archaeology

St. Paul's Ephesus, Texts and Archaeology


by Jerome Murphy O'Connor

  • ARCHAEOLOGY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 289 PAGES

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor transports us back to the ancient city of Ephesus during its heyday, including contemporary accounts from Roman to biblical times, and featuring a guided walk through the city as a center of Paul's teachings. (TKY226, $29.95)

Dinner with Persephone

Dinner with Persephone


by Patricia Storace

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 398 PAGES

The pleasures and complexities of contemporary Greece, marvelously described by an American poet spending a year there. Storace intertwines her own perceptions with the history of the country and the influence of pop culture on the classical landscape. (GRE28, $18.00)

Istanbul, Memories and the City

Istanbul, Memories and the City


by Orhan Pamuk

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

Nobel Prize-winner Pamuk writes with quiet grace of the city of his birth, celebrated in his many novels: a magical place of crumbling mansions and Ottoman riches, mingling Asian, Islamic, secular and European influences. (TKY99, $16.95)

Reflections on a Marine Venus

Reflections on a Marine Venus


by Lawrence Durrell

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 198 PAGES

The great novelist writes of the warmth of the people and the intoxicating beauty of Rhodes in this classic ode, originally published in 1953. Also out in new editions are Durrell's books on Corfu (GRE48), Cyprus (MED13) and Sicily (ITL08). (GRE29, $12.00)

The Colossus of Maroussi

The Colossus of Maroussi


by Henry Miller

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 223 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Miller captures the spirit and warmth of the resilient Greek people in this inspired tale of a wartime journey from Athens to Crete, Corfu and Delphi with his friend Lawrence Durrell. (GRE05, $12.95)

Greece, A Traveler's Literary Companion

Greece, A Traveler's Literary Companion


by Artemis Leontis

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 288 PAGES

In this terrific anthology 24 modern Greek writers offer a flavor of their nation, its culture and people, its beautiful landscapes and rich history. (GRE190, $14.95)

Mythology

Mythology


by Edith Hamilton

  • LITERATURE
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 497 PAGES

The classic introduction to Greek and Roman mythology. (GRE82, $14.99)

The Iliad

The Iliad


by Homer | Robert Fagles

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 704 PAGES

In the excellent Fagles translation -- here presented in a deluxe paper edition -- Homer's Trojan epic hasn't aged a bit in the last 2,700 years. Take it along to Troy and the Aegean. (GRE173, $18.00)

The Janissary Tree

The Janissary Tree


by Jason Goodwin

  • MYSTERY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

With beautiful descriptions of Istanbul and its palaces, this engaging and bizarre historical mystery will keep you reading. The Ottoman Empire mysteries continue with The Snake Stone (TKY156, $14.00) and The Bellini Card (TKY191, $25.00), set in 1840s Venice. (TKY125, $15.00)

The King Must Die

The King Must Die


by Mary Renault

  • LITERATURE
  • 1988
  • PAPER
  • 330 PAGES

A novel of Theseus, slayer of the Minotaur and King of Athens, including his Cretan adventures. The first in Renault's trilogy of well-researched page-turners. (GRE23, $15.00)

The Odyssey

The Odyssey


by Homer | Robert Fagles

  • LITERATURE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 541 PAGES

The blind bard's epic in a translation celebrated for its clarity and expressiveness. Take is along for a voyage in Homeric lands and waters. (GRE45, $18.00)

The Towers of Trebizond

The Towers of Trebizond


by Rose MacAulay | Jan Morris

  • LITERATURE
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 277 PAGES

Mixing high farce, archaeology, history and lively travel writing, Rose MacAulay's impossibly witty short novel is back in a new edition., Originally published in 1956, MacAulay follows the adventures of English missionaries traipsing to across Turkey from Istanbul to Trabzon. (TKY15, $16.00)

More Recommendations

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Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.