Here's a page from Longitude, the specialty bookseller for travelers. To order online, and to see the latest, most comprehensive selection of books and maps, go to http://reading.longitudebooks.com/LO11932. You may also call 800-342-2164 to order or request a catalog.

The Summer Book  •  Tove Jansson  •  Thomas Teal LITERATURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 176 PAGES A modern Scandinavian classic, originally published in 1977, Tove Jansson's slim novel follows a young girl and an old woman as they traipse around the coast and countryside of their tiny island in the Gulf of Finland, setting out for a neighboring island, shelling along the beach, turning over stones or talking about the cat. Known for her marvelous Moomin children's books (there are many), Jansson, who spent every summer on an island in the Gulf of Finland, also wrote 10 books for adults. This one, fiction that reads like a memoir. is beautifully translated by Teal Thomas. (SCN56, $14.00)
The Size of the World  •  Joan Silber LITERATURE •  2008 •  HARD COVER In this richly imagined novel-in-stories, Silber explores connections between cultures and countries, and the power of place to change a person's life. Drawing on historical events from wartime Vietnam to colonial Thailand, Mexico and 9/11-era United States, her loosely linked chapters follow travelers, immigrants and ex-pats as they leave home for adventures into the foreign, forever changed in unexpected ways. Silber, who has traveled extensively in Asia, grounds her globe-spanning narrative with the personal yearnings, hopes and fears of each character. Her prose, heartfelt yet unsentimental, creates a textured portrait of a complex world, in which the distance between countries are often smaller than the distance between people. (WLD143, $23.95)
The Fruit Hunters, A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce and Adventure  •  Adam Leith Gollner SCIENCE •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 288 PAGES The coco-de-mer, found only in the Seychelles, Asia's repugnant and coveted durian and all many exotic and wonderful fruits that you've never heard of take the starring role in this surprisingly juicy account of the history, pleasure and business of fruit. Admittedly addled, Gollner chronicles his travels all over the planet in search of Galangal, chempedak, salak, jambu, sapote, voavanga, farkleberry, ballion and other such marvels. (NAT138, $25.00)
Banana, The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World  •  Dan Koeppel HISTORY •  2008 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES Yes, we will have no bananas. In this lively account Koeppel traces the history, natural and otherwise, politics and precarious current status of the modern Cavendish in cereal bowls and on counters across the globe. He touches down in the markets of India (world center of banana diversity), heads off to Ecuador (world's largest producer) and tells the story of full of the machinations of the United Fruit Company (today's Chiquita) in Columbia and Guatemala. (CAM137, $16.00)
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink  •  David Remnick FOOD •  2007 •  HARD COVER  • 582 PAGES These entertaining and stylish essays, fiction, and cartoons collected from the pages of The New Yorker over the last 80 years includes contributions by such delightful, delectable prose masters as M.F.K. Fisher, A.J. Liebling, Calvin Trillin, Joan Didion, John Cheever and Roald Dahl. (GEN453, $30.00)
Shopping for Porcupine, A Life in Arctic Alaska  •  Seth Kantner BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 256 PAGES Kantner evokes in these interconnected essays and photographs life on the Kobuk River on the Chukchi coast in northwest Alaska, a beautiful wild place, rich in resources, where he was raised by his Ohioan back-to-the-land, igloo-dwelling parents in the 1960s and where he still lives. Winner of the 2005 Whiting Writer's Award (he includes a chapter on his fish-out-of-water trip to New York), Kantner honors inupiat friends with stories, sharply drawn portraits and a lovingly conveyed feel for living close to the land. (ALA272, $28.00)
Ordinary Wolves  •  Seth Kantner LITERATURE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 344 PAGES Raised on the Kobuk River in northwest Alaska, a beautiful, wild place, rich in resources, Kantner draws on his experiences living close to the land in this beautifully drawn semi-autobiographical novel of a white boy from Chicago adapting to Alaskan ways. (ALA286, $14.95)
Atlas Pocket Traveler France: Travels With a Donkey, Gleanings in France, a Motor-flight Through France  •  Diane Johnson TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 560 PAGES Presented in a handsome three-volume casebound set in a pleasing rose, with an introduction by Diane Johnson, these carefully edited travel classic include Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey, James Fenimore Cooper's Gleanings in France and Edith Wharton's A Motor-flight through France. Two Americans and a Scot, traveling in different periods with different temperaments, the spirited Wharton, melancholy, tormented Stevenson and endlessly curious Fenimore Cooper, each author portrays a very different France. (FRN756, $45.00)
Socialism Is Great!, A Worker's Memoir of the New China  •  Lijia Zhang BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 357 PAGES Zhang shows grit and determination in this spirited memoir of coming of age in Nanjing in the 1980s. (CHN501, $24.00)
Apples are from Kazakhstan, The Land That Disappeared  •  Christopher Robbins TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 304 PAGES In this richly observed portrait, the British journalist Christopher Robbins mixes tales of the Scythians and Sarmatians, of Eurasian steppe wolves and long-faced Saiga, his quest for apples and tulips, with travel, anecdote, impressions and a very evident appreciation for the diversity, beauty and future of Kazakhstan. And, yes, apples do come from Kazakhstan. Tulips too. It's a country the size of Western Europe, closed by the Tsars to foreigners in the 19th century and sealed off by the Soviets for 70 years. (CAS160, $24.00)
Odyssey Guide Kazakhstan  •  Dagmar Schreiber GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 456 PAGES A fully illustrated guide to the Central Asian nation, with essays on history, culture, architecture and nature, and plenty of practicalities. (CAS156, $29.95)
The Fragile Edge, Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific  •  Julia Whitty TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES Whitty (A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga) illuminates coral reefs and their inhabitants and the pleasures of diving in this memoir of underwater adventures in Rangiroa, Tuvalu and Moorea. Winner of the 2008 Kiriyama Prize and John Burroughs Medal. (PAC173, $14.95)
Mister Pip  •  Lloyd Jones LITERATURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES A transcendent tale of the power of storytelling, well-grounded in the politics and society of the modern South Pacific. Jones, a New Zealander, draws on his travels and recent events in Bougainville, largest of the Solomon Islands and a break away province of Papua New Guinea, for his story. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Mister Pip deservedly won both the Commonwealth Prize and Kiriyama Prize. (PNG22, $12.00)
Away, A Novel  •  Amy Bloom LITERATURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES Bloom's marvelous fifth novel draws from the real-life particulars of Lillian Leyb, a remarkable Russian immigrant who, settled in New York, took off across America, determined to walk to Siberia and reunite with her young daughter. Bloom draws the reader into 1920s Yiddishkeit New York, Chicago, rough-and-tough Seattle, the Alaskan wilderness in this tender, absorbing tale. The reviewer in Publisher's Weekly raved, "Encompassing prison, prostitution and poetry, Yiddish humor and Yukon settings, Bloom's tale offers linguistic twists, startling imagery, sharp wit and a compelling vision of the past. Bloom has created an extraordinary range of characters, settings and emotions. Absolutely stunning." (USA162, $14.00)
Travels With Herodotus  •  Ryszard Kapuscinski BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2008 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES In this most personal book, and his last, the great Polish journalist and writer weaves tales of his youthful encounters in India, China, Egypt, Congo, Iran and Ethiopia with a meditation on Herodotus. (MED106, $14.95)
The Classical World, An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian  •  Robin Lane Fox HISTORY •  2008 •  PAPER  • 656 PAGES • NEW Classicist and popular author Fox (Alexander the Great) illuminates ancient Greek and Roman civilizations with wit and flair in this hugely ambitious, stimulating history. Heroes and tyrants populate his tales, ranging from Homer to Augustus, the exploits of Alexander the Great, Roman rule and the rise of Christianity. (GRE293, $18.95)
Tales from the Torrid Zone, Travels in the Deep Tropics  •  Alexander Frater TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 384 PAGES Alexander Frater (Chasing the Monsoon) steers away from polar climes and snowy wilderness, comfortably confining himself to the wide zone between the Topic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Born in Vanuatu of British missionary stock, he's at home among scattered islands and tropical outposts, hop-scotching from the Solomon Islands to the Marquesas and Galapagos to the Caribbean, East Africa and Madagascar, and across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Papua New Guinea and Australia. (PAC172, $14.95)
Four Seasons in Rome  •  Anthony Doerr TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES Awarded a fellowship at the American Academy, Doerr moves Shauna and six-month-old Owen and Harry to Rome, a place where they had never been -- and a lovely excuse for this lyrical, sharply drawn memoir. A novelist and short story writer, Doerr captures the romance and challenge of living aboard with a writer's eye and dazzling prose. (ITL840, $14.00)
In Europe, Travels Through the Twentieth Century  •  Geert Mak HISTORY •  2008 •  PAPER  • 896 PAGES Dutch journalist Mak's big, bold account of Europe on the threshold of the 21st century bridges travel, journalism and history. He reports from Lisbon and Helsinki to Moscow, Istanbul, the D-day beaches and other momentous sites, deftly profiling the people and events that have defined modern Europe. (EUR254, $20.00)
The Sledge Patrol, A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival and Victory  •  David Howarth HISTORY •  2008 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES An engrossing true-life adventure story of Danish and Norwegian hunters evading Nazi troops across the hostile terrain of Greenland. (ARC112, $16.95)
The Shetland Bus, A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival and Adventure  •  David Howarth HISTORY •  2008 •  PAPER  • 236 PAGES David Howarth, author of "We Die Alone," tells another little-known story of courage and survival during World War II. This time he writes of the "Shetland Bus," a fleet of fishing boats that made regular journeys across treacherous waters from the Shetland Islands to Norway, in order to bring relief and fortifications to Norwegians weathering Nazi attacks. Howarth, who was second in command at the Shetland base, knows the story first-hand, and brings out the ferocity of the storms and battles endured by a few hundred brave men. (NOR26, $16.95)
Frommer's Provence & the Riviera Day by Day  •  Anna Brooke GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 218 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food to hotels, neighborhoods and shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (FRN763, $12.99)
Frommer's Seville Day by Day  •  Jeremy Head GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food to hotels, neighborhoods and shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (SPN362, $12.99)
Frommer's Brussels and Bruges Day by Day  •  Mary Anne Evans GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food to hotels, neighborhoods and shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (BLG33, $12.99)
Frommer's Dublin Day by Day  •  Emma Levine GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food to hotels, neighborhoods and shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (IRE240, $12.99)
Frommer's Lisbon Day by Day  •  Louise Pole-Baker GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food to hotels, neighborhoods and shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (PGL69, $12.99)
Frommer's Prague Day by Day  •  Mark Baker GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food to hotels, neighborhoods and shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (CZH85, $12.99)
Visiting Historic Beijing, A Guide to Sites & Resources  •  Robert L. Thorp GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 335 PAGES Thorp, an authority on early Chinese art and popular study leader, weaves essays on culture and history with site plans and description in this excellent, in-depth guide to exploring the temples, tombs, gardens, palaces, ancient archaeological sites and noteworthy architecture of Beijing and environs. With 150 black-and-white illustrations and maps. (CHN521, $24.95)
Odyssey Guide Beijing Walks, Exploring the Heritage  •  Don J. Cohn GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES An illustrated, literate guide to scenic and historical walks throughout Beijing, much enhanced by color photography and maps. Compact, but includes background on culture and natural history. (CHN369, $24.95)
Beijing Guidemap  •  MapEasy 2006 •  MAP Printed on sturdy, tear and water resistant Polyart paper, this handy colorful double-sided map shows The Forbidden City, Tiannamen Square, the Summer Palace, Greater and out-of-town Beijing (each with an inset) along with a walking map of Central Beijing at a scale of 1:15,000. With temples, gardens, hotels, retstaurants, metro stops and other key attractions. (CHN530, $6.95)
The Last Days of Old Beijing, Tales from the New City  •  Michael Meyer BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 336 PAGES A thoroughly engaging memoir of two years living in Beijing's oldest neighborhood. As more and more of Beijing's alleyways fall to its rapacious growth, journalist Michael Mayer moved into a threathened central Beijing hutong neighborhood (outside latrine and all), and here captures the rhythms, traditions, lively characters and history of the alleyways and courtyard houses. Meyer thoroughly enmeshed himself in the neighborhood -- he even becomes a teacher in the local elementary school -- and the result is a lovely elegy to a dying way of life. (CHN493, $25.99)
Beijing Time  •  Michael Dutton TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 268 PAGES It's a tad overly scholarly, and you will have to have a mild toleration for the postmodern academic lingo, but this book is a pretty great celebration of modern Beijing, and a welcome antidote to the idea that Beijing's modernization is ruining it. Written by a British urban scholar, together with two Chinese scholars, the book analyzes the contemporary Beijing cityscape, and puts it in historical and social context. The authors take carefully selected bits of Beijing -- starting with Tianenman square, but also much less well known examples of Beijing architecture and local life -- and open up the history and culture of each for the reader. (CHN467, $26.95)
China, A Traveler's Literary Companion  •  Kirk Denton ANTHOLOGY •  2008 •  PAPER  • 231 PAGES View China from the perspective of its very best modern writers in this excellent anthology of short fiction, organized geographically. Twelve diverse writers take the reader from the mountains and streams of West Hunan to the silk-worm raising country of Zhejiang, high plateau of western Sichuan, the sorghum fields of Shandong and the pastoral Northeast. (CHN520, $14.95)
Horse Song, The Naadam of Mongolia  •  Ted Lewin  •  Betsy Lewin CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 32 PAGES • FAMILY Caldecott winners Ted and Betsy Lewin depict the splendor of the Naadam festival and the intricacies of Mongolian culture in this terrific book, drawn from their own experiences and encounters in Mongolia. With intricately detailed and gorgeous watercolor illustrations, the book geared for kids will appeal to the whole family. Let's take a trip to a place where "the people are warm and friendly [and] the landscape ranges from snow-capped mountains and dense forests to the wide-open steppe and the sandy soils of the Gobi," noted author/illustrators Ted and Betsy Lewin encourage. (MGL61, $19.95)
Top to Bottom Down Under  •  Ted Lewin  •  Betsy Lewin TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2005 •  HARD COVER  • 40 PAGES • YOUNG READERS (Age 4-8) The beautifully illustrated, Caldecott-winning traveling duo's account of a visit to Kakadu and Kangaroo Island in the north and south of Australia, respectively, includes their encounters with yellow water billabongs and crocodiles, kangaroos and koalas, echidnas, 200-pound barramundi and all sorts of strange and wonderful creatures. (AUS206, $15.99)
Lost City, The Discovery of Machu Picchu  •  Ted Lewin EXPLORATION •  2003 •  HARD COVER  • 48 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) For this illustrated account of Hiram Bingham and the (accidental) discovery of Machu Picchu, Caldecott-winning author Ted Lewin traveled in the footsteps of the 1911 explorer. With detailed watercolor illustrations of Cuzco, the Urubamba Valley and Machu Picchu itself. The book stars Bingham's Quechua guide, a young boy. For 9-12 year olds. (PRU51, $17.99)
Beijing Day by Day  •  Jen Lin-liu GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 180 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food to hotels, neighborhoods and shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (CHN510, $12.99)