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BEST OF 2011

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Best of 2008

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

Our choice of the 15 Best Travel Books of 2008, including two uncommonly good memoirs and a natural history guide to Chile.

Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All

Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All

by Christina Thompson

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 288 PAGES

In this endearing, offbeat memoir, anthropologist Thompson effortlessly alternates tales of mostly disastrous early encounters with the Maori and the story of the love of her life, Seven, the Maori she married. (NZL96, $16.00)

Apples are from Kazakhstan

Apples are from Kazakhstan

by Christopher Robbins

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

Yes, apples do come from Kazakhstan. Tulips too. Robbins offers a rich cultural portrait of a remarkable country the size of Western Europe, sealed off from the world by the Tsars and Soviet Russia. (CAS160, $15.00)

Twenty Chickens for a Saddle

Twenty Chickens for a Saddle

by Robyn Scott

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 464 PAGES

Haphazardly schooled by her free-spirited mother and left to roam the bush, Scott writes with warmth and candor of her unconventional upbringing in Botswana, including her Grandpa Ivor (personal pilot to the first president of Botswana), physician father's work, unfortunate pets, siblings and adventures. (SAF203, $15.00)

A Wildlife Guide to Chile

A Wildlife Guide to Chile

by Sharon Chester

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 392 PAGES

Chester's splendid guide, featuring 120 color plates, covers the wildlife, plants and natural history of Chile from the Atacama Desert and Patagonia to Easter Island and Antarctica. (CHI77, $19.95)

Antarctica, Secrets of the Southern Continent

Antarctica, Secrets of the Southern Continent

by David McGonigal

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 400 PAGES

Expedition leader McGonigal's strikingly illustrated Antarctic primer features 600 color photographs and excellent maps along with essays on history, exploration, wildlife, science and conservation by fellow Antarcticans. (ANT167, $59.95)

The Fruit Hunters, A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce and Adventure

The Fruit Hunters, A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce and Adventure

by 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 many more exotic fruits you've never heard of -- jambu, galangal, voavanga, farkleberry -- take the starring role in Adam Gollner's surprisingly juicy account of the history, pleasure and business of fruit. (NAT138, $25.00)

China, Portrait of a Country

China, Portrait of a Country

by Heung Shing Liu

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 424 PAGES

A spectacular visual history of triumph and hardship since 1948 through the eyes of 88 Chinese photographers. The accompanying expert text is by journalist James Kynge (China Shakes the World) and art historian Karen Smith (CHN525, $29.99)

Venice Is a Fish

Venice Is a Fish

by Tiziano Scarpa

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 160 PAGES

The hugely popular Venetian novelist, poet and playwright makes his English-language debut with these marvelously digressive essays on the many moods and pleasures of La Serenissima. (ITL964, $12.00)

The Open Road, The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

The Open Road, The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

by Pico Iyer

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 288 PAGES

Travel writer Pico Iyer, who has known the Dalai Lama since his days as a graduate student in Britain, draws on his long association with the man and his ideas for this remarkable portrait of the Tibetan people and the aspirations of their leader. He includes chapters on daily life in Dharamsala, travels with the Dalai Lama and incisive commentary on the history and future of Tibet. (TBT118, $14.95)

Long After Midnight at the Nino Bien

Long After Midnight at the Nino Bien

by Brian Winter

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 336 PAGES

A journalist posted to the capital during the economic crisis, Winter captures the rhythms and character of Buenos Aires with fearless, profane wit in this wise and rollicking portrait. (ARG80, $24.95)

Beyond the Great Wall

Beyond the Great Wall

by Jeffrey Alford | Naomi Duguid

  • FOOD
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 376 PAGES

The globe-trotting duo weave tales of travel with contemporary politics, commentary, carefully documented recipes and stunning photographs for this sumptuous overview of the food and culture of Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Yunnan and other far-off regions of ethnically diverse China. (CHN475, $40.00)

Sea of Poppies

Sea of Poppies

by Amitav Ghosh

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 528 PAGES

Amativ Ghosh conjures the tumult of the 19th-century Opium Wars and colonial India in this expansive tale, featuring a motley cast of British, Chinese and Indian characters. (IDA529, $16.00)

Wolf Totem

Wolf Totem

by Jiang Rong

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 544 PAGES

Defiant, unyielding, feared, hunted and revered, the great Mongolian wolf is the heart and center of Jiang Rong's epic tale of a young man from Beijing and his surprising encounters on the Mongolian steppe. A stirring epic, allegory and elegy for a vanished way of life, the novel won the first Man Asia Prize. (CHN471, $15.00)

Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000

Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000

by Barry Cunliffe

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 520 PAGES

In this magnificent book, distinguished archaeologist Cunliffe boldly recasts European history through the lens of geography, showing its seas and rivers as the conduits to trade and culture. With lucid maps and choice illustrations. (EUR310, $30.00)

India, In Word and Image

India, In Word and Image

by Eric Meola

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 272 PAGES

Meola deftly pairs colorful photographs of people, traditions, art and architecture with choice quotations by Salman Rushdie, R. K. Narayan, Jhumpa Lahiri and others in this dazzling visual celebration of the culture and pagaentry of India. (IDA540, $60.00)

 
Made in France, A Shopper's Guide

Made in France, A Shopper's Guide


by Laura Morelli

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

Both a fascinating history of France's artisanal legacy and an insider's shopping guide, Made in France includes illustrations, maps, a primer on French shopping culture, and craft festivals. (FRN706, $24.95)

Bhutan, Hidden Lands of Happiness

Bhutan, Hidden Lands of Happiness


by John Wehrheim

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 279 PAGES
  • OUT OF PRINT

Wehrheim pairs black-and-white photographs of the people, monasteries, villages and festivals with stories, journal entries, teachings and lore in this striking, personal portrait of the Buddhist kingdom. (BHU30, $65.00)

Horse Song, The Naadam of Mongolia

Horse Song, The Naadam of Mongolia


by 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, gorgeously illustrated account of their travels. Geared for children, enjoyable for the whole family. (MGL61, $19.95)

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World


by Tony Horwitz

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 464 PAGES

What happened in America after Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue? In this latest outing, Tony Horwitz (Blue Latitudes) takes us on a thrilling and eye-opening adventure in Pre-Mayflower America. It's not so much Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth that interest him (though they are included too), it's the places associated with forgotten explorers, many of them Spanish, like Erik the Red (Vinland gets the first chapter), Henry Hudson, Verrazano, De Soto, Cabeza de Vaca, Cortes and Balboa. Horwitz rescues whole chapters of early America from the dustbin of history in this rich mix of wit, scholarship and modern-day adventure. (NAM51, $18.00)

Blood River, Retracing Stanley's Journey to Africa's Broken Heart

Blood River, Retracing Stanley's Journey to Africa's Broken Heart


by Tim Butcher

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

Correspondent for the Telegraph, Butcher retraces Stanley's 3,000-mile journey down the Congo in this harrowing, utterly absorbing and compassionate tale of hard travel through "the most daunting, backward country on earth." (AFR228, $16.00)

China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors

China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors


by Frances Wood

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 209 PAGES

Wood's astute biography -- enlivened with woodcuts, engravings, poetry and recipes from the period -- is a rich introduction to Emperor Qin Shihuangdi (258-210 BC) and his times. (CHN492, $24.95)

State by State

State by State


by Matt Weiland | Sean Wilsey

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 572 PAGES

With chapters by Rick Moody (Connecticut), Jhumpa Lahiri (Rhode Island) and Jonathan Franzen (New York), this inspired book, modeled after the WPA-era American Guides, pairs a writer with each of the 50 states. It's an irresistible tribute to the diversity of the country. (USA325, $16.99)

The Ancient Shore

The Ancient Shore


by Shirley Hazzard

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 144 PAGES

Hazzard's lyrical collection of essays on the history, beauty, complexities and contradictions of Naples. Includes a celebrated New Yorker essay by husband Francis Steegmuller. (ITL967, $18.00)

The Eaves of Heaven, A Life in Three Wars

The Eaves of Heaven, A Life in Three Wars


by Andrew X. Pham

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

Pham recounts the story of his father's life during the French occupation, Japanese invasion and the American War, weaving such momentous events with anecdotes from his childhood and details of family, friends, food and daily life. (VNM120, $16.00)

The Geography of Bliss, One Grump's Search For the Happiest Places in the World

The Geography of Bliss, One Grump's Search For the Happiest Places in the World


by Eric Weiner

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 329 PAGES

NPR corespondent Weiner's hilarious, well-informed and surprisingly profound tale of a quest in search of what makes us happy. (GEN430, $13.99)

The Great Wall, The Extraordinary Story of China's Wonder of the World

The Great Wall, The Extraordinary Story of China's Wonder of the World


by John Man

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Off he went, across China and Mongolia, in search of the wall of history and legend, not continuous, built over millennia, in many places a faint hill or rammed earth, not necessarily a wall at all. (CHN533, $16.95)

The Last Days of Old Beijing, Tales from the New City

The Last Days of Old Beijing, Tales from the New City


by Michael Meyer

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

Meyer's lovely memoir of the hutong (ancient lane), where he taught school, captures the rhythms, traditions and spirit of the alleyways, gardens and courtyard houses of Beijing's traditional neighborhoods south of Tiananmen. (CHN493, $16.00)

Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black

Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black


by Nadine Gordimer

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 192 PAGES

The Nobel Prize winner daringly explores racial identity, sexuality and loss in this latest, marvelous collection of South African tales. (SAF221, $14.00)

Breath

Breath


by Tim Winton

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES

Tim Winton evokes the sea and the thrill of surfing in this emotionally complex tale of coming-of-age in western Australia in the 1970s. (AUS218, $14.00)

China, A Traveler's Literary Companion

China, A Traveler's Literary Companion


by Kirk Denton

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 231 PAGES

An introduction both to China's finest modern writers and its diverse cultures, concerns and landscapes, organized geographically. (CHN520, $14.95)

City of Thieves

City of Thieves


by David Benioff

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

David Benioff (screenwriter for The Kite Runner and Wolverine) turns his grandfather's stories of surviving the infamous Siege of Leningrad into a wise and touching novel of coming of age that's hard to put down. Seventeen-year-old Lev and his charismatic buddy Koly are sent out by their German captors to bring back a dozen eggs, just the start of a gripping odyssey. (RUS380, $15.00)

Everything but the Squeal

Everything but the Squeal


by John Barlow

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 256 PAGES

Barlow, his wife (from Galicia but a vegetarian) and young son gallavant from roadhouse to fine dining establishments, villages and cities in this endearingly offhand, loving account of travels in honor of pork. A delightful, witty guide to the traditions, culinary and otherwise, of the region. (SPN368, $25.00)

Fine Just the Way It Is, Wyoming Stories 3

Fine Just the Way It Is, Wyoming Stories 3


by Annie Proulx

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

A collection of visceral, often heartbreaking stories about life in the arid West by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Annie Proulx, aurhor of Close Range, Bad Dirt and The Shipping News. (USW569, $15.00)

How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone

How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone


by Sasa Stanisic

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

Stanisic's powerful, vivid novel shows the calamity of war in the Balkans through the eyes of a young Bosnian refugee from Visegrad. (BOS32, $14.00)

In the Land of No Right Angles

In the Land of No Right Angles


by Daphne Beal

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 278 PAGES

Beal evokes the grit of Kathmandu and the emotional intricacies of trying to do good in the world in this tale of a young American student abroad, an older expat and a young village woman whose life they change forever. (NPL60, $13.95)

Lush Life

Lush Life


by Richard Price

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 455 PAGES

With an ear for dialogue and feel for the nuances of class and race. Richard Price brilliantly explores the reverberations of the murder of a hipster on the Lower East Side. (NYC203, $15.00)

People of the Book

People of the Book


by Geraldine Brooks

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

March turns the tale of a real book, the Sarajevo Haggadah, hidden from the Nazi's and safely ensconced in a bank vault as the national library burned in 1992, into a exhilarating modern novel, with an Australian conservator -- and mystery -- at its center. (EUR284, $16.00)

Shadow Country

Shadow Country


by Peter Matthiessen

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 892 PAGES

Matthiessen returns to his tale of Florida sugarcane farmer and murderer Edgar J. Watson in this National Book Award winner, a reprise of his classic trilogy: Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man's River and Bone by Bone. (FLA72, $17.00)

Telex from Cuba

Telex from Cuba


by Rachel Kushner

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Kushner re-imagines the world of her mother in this astonishingly wise first novel set in the American enclave in 1950s Cuba. Riveting. (CBA111, $16.00)

The Adventures of Amir Hamza

The Adventures of Amir Hamza


by Ghalib Lakhnavi | Musharraf Ali Farooqi

  • LITERATURE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 448 PAGES

A deft new translation of the rip-roaring tales of the storied life and fabulous exploits of the Prophet Mohammed's uncle Hamza and his heroic encounters with emperors, merchants, viziers, courtesans, warriors and magical beings. (IDA391, $18.00)

The Lazarus Project

The Lazarus Project


by Aleksandar Hemon

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

A tale historical sweep, contemporary insight and dazzling originality, cutting between events in Chicago in 1908 and the Balkans of today. (BLK128, $16.00)

The Reserve

The Reserve


by Russell Banks

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER

Bank's absorbing tale of class, politics, family and lunacy set in the Adirondacks in the 1930s. (NYS69, $24.95)

The Secret Scripture


by Sebastian Barry

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 300 PAGES

Barry, a noted playwright, evokes the sweep of 20th-Century Irish history in this gorgeously written tale of Roseanne McNulty, a very old woman shuttered in a Roscommon asylum. (IRE246, $15.00)

The Size of the World

The Size of the World


by Joan Silber

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Drawing on her travels in Asia, Joan Silber brings a depth of experience to her richly imagined tales -- set in wartime Vietnam, Thailand and Florida in the 1920s, Mexico, WWII Sicily and present-day Indiana. She deftly illuminates the difficulty of finding one's place in the world in just 300 heartfelt pages. (WLD143, $14.95)

The Wasted Vigil

The Wasted Vigil


by Nadeem Aslam

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 319 PAGES

Calm, richly told written, this beautiful novel shows the reality of war-torn Afghanistan through the interlocking lives of five people in the wake of 9/11. (CAS167, $25.00)

The White Mary

The White Mary


by Kira Salak

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

Set in the remote jungles of New Guinea's interior, Salak's first novel -- the tale of a young reporter searching for a colleague -- captures the thrill and uncertainty of adventure. (PNG25, $14.00)

The White Tiger, A Novel

The White Tiger, A Novel


by Aravind Adiga

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 288 PAGES

Mordant, funny, angry, horrifying, this Booker Prize-winning tale of a village pauper turned success (and murderer) skewers the ambition, inequity and corruption of 21st-century India. (IDA542, $15.00)

Unaccustomed Earth

Unaccustomed Earth


by Jhumpa Lahiri

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 352 PAGES

The least three stories in this luminous collection by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the Interpreter of Maladies, many set in Southeast Asia, form an intricate love story -- a couple who met as children are separated and then reunited by destiny. (WLD139, $15.00)

Albatross: Their World, Their Ways

Albatross: Their World, Their Ways


by Tui De Roy | Mark Jones | Julian Fitter

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 240 PAGES

The culmination of a storied career at sea as roving naturalist-photographers, this remarkable collection of 300 photographs of the ocean wanderers, both at sea and on the nest, is not just beautiful. It's also an authoritative survey of the natural history, status and conservation of the world's Diomedeidae. Anyone who has tried to photograph these magnificent birds in flight will appreciate the art, experience and perseverance of De Roy, Jones and Fitter. (BRD64, $49.95)

Nature of the Rainforest, Costa Rica and Beyond

Nature of the Rainforest, Costa Rica and Beyond


by Adrian Forsyth | E.O. Wilson | Michael Fogden

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 200 PAGES

Our favorite biologist-writer returns to the Neotropics in this beautifully illustrated, oversized overview of the rain forest. With chapters on Monteverde and Guanacaste, plants, frogs and snakes, birds, monkeys and jaguars, the sloth, peculiar insects and biodioversity, the book is a marvelous, anecdotal introduction to ecology, evolution and conservation. (CRC67, $29.95)

The Antarctic From the Circle to the Pole

The Antarctic From the Circle to the Pole


by Stuart Klipper

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 175 PAGES

Make room in your library for this exceptional book of Antarctic photography by National Science Foundation five-time grantee Stuart Klipper. The 110 large color photographs, beautifully bound in sturdy white covers, display Klipper's talent in translating scenery into art. With an introduction by Guy Guthridge, a marvelous essay on the transformation of ice into art by Stephen J. Pyne and a biographical essay on Klipper and his work by William L. Fox. Fond of panoramas, Klipper works with a 110-degree Technorama camera. (ANT282, $45.00)

The Rainforest, Light and Spirit

The Rainforest, Light and Spirit


by Harry Holcroft | Ghillean Prance

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 196 PAGES

One in a series of beautifully illustrated journals featuring exquisite watercolor paintings. (NAT160, $65.00)

Thousand-Mile Song

Thousand-Mile Song


by David Rothenberg

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

Musician-naturalist Rothenberg jams with cetaceans from the Caribbean to the Arctic in this exuberant chronicle of the rich underwater universe of whales. Audio CD included. (NAT144, $18.00)

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America


by Roger Tory Peterson

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 528 PAGES

This revised combo edition of Peterson's classic field guides, published in celebration of the centennial of his birth, includes all new maps and digital enhancements to the master's original paintings. (NAM42, $26.00)

More Recommendations

Here are some other groups of books that might be of interest

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.