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Burma

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Books for

Order an essential package, and we'll ship any additional items for free. We offer a mix of guidebooks, maps, field guides, novels and books on art, architecture, history, nature and culture.

Essential Reading

Item EXBMA40. Buy these 5 items as a set for $93 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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The River of Lost Footsteps, Histories of Burma

The River of Lost Footsteps, Histories of Burma

by Thant Myint-U

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER

In this stimulating and important book, Myint-U (grandson of the late UN Secretary General U Thant and author of The Making of Modern Burma) uses Burmese history as a lens for understanding Myanmar today. (BMA51, $16.00)

Letters from Burma

Letters from Burma

by Aung San Suu Kyi | Heinn Htet

  • HISTORY
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 244 PAGES

A collection of candid and affectionate letters on Burmese culture, daily life and politics written by the country's iconic Nobel Prize-winning human rights leader who was held under house arrest by the military junta for many years. (BMA49, $16.00)

In Buddha's Land

In Buddha's Land

by Moe Min

  • RELIGION
  • 2007
  • HARD COVER
  • 208 PAGES

This beautiful, illustrated portrait of monuments, monasteries and rituals is both a striking visual overview of Buddhism as practiced in Burma, and a splendid introduction to the country. (BMA52, $30.00)

Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma)

Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma)

by Joe Cummings | Michael Clark

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 428 PAGES

Featuring maps, travel information and a good overview of society, culture, history and politics. (BMA20, $24.99)

Myanmar (Burma) Map

Myanmar (Burma) Map

by Nelles

  • 2011
  • MAP

A double-sided map of Burma at a scale of 1:1,500,000, with an inset of Rangoon. (BMA02, $13.95)

 
Historical Walks in Yangon, A Myanmar Heritage Trust Guide Map

Historical Walks in Yangon, A Myanmar Heritage Trust Guide Map


by Silkworm Books

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • MAP

This innovative map lays out three walking tours through Yangon that guide visitors to landmarks, gardens and architectural points of interest. (BMA66, $15.00)

Myanmar & the Greater Mekong Map Guide

Myanmar & the Greater Mekong Map Guide


by Odyssey Maps

  • 2012
  • MAP

This map-guide shows both the Greater Mekong, including Yunnan, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, with a more detailed map of Myanmar on the reverse. (BMA76, $14.95)

Culture Shock! Myanmar

Culture Shock! Myanmar


by Saw Myat Yin

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 234 PAGES

A lively guide to customs and business etiquette, culture and manners in Burma. (BMA53, $15.95)

Insight Guide Burma

Insight Guide Burma


by Insight Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2013
  • PAPER
  • 365 PAGES

An illustrated overview of Burma with essays on history, archaeology and culture. (BMA04, $24.99)

Lonely Planet Burmese Phrasebook

Lonely Planet Burmese Phrasebook


by Lonely Planet

  • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES

A palm-size dictionary and guide to the Burmese language with common phrases for travelers. (BMA36, $8.99)

Odyssey Guide Myanmar

Odyssey Guide Myanmar


by Caroline Courtauld

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 312 PAGES

Refreshingly direct and engaging, Caroline Courtauld covers Burma's culture, long history and religion with grace in this richly illustrated guide, which includes fine color maps (as is the custom with the excellent Odyssey guides), photographs and well chosen literary excerpts. (BMA16, $26.95)

Burma, Rivers of Flavor

Burma, Rivers of Flavor


by Naomi Duguid

  • FOOD
  • 2012
  • HARD COVER
  • 364 PAGES

A culinary adventurer, Naomi Duguid presents the food, local markets, people and culture of Burma in this exceedingly informative (not to mention beautiful) cookbook and cultural guide. The 125 personable recipes (most get at least a page) are interspersed with tales and photographs from her many travels in the region. Her first solo venture (she parted ways with husband and co-author Jeffrey Alford a few years ago), Burma, Rivers of Flavor, like Beyond the Great Wall and Mangoes & Curry Leaves introduces a new world through its food. (BMA77, $35.00)

A History of Myanmar Since Ancient Times, Traditions and Transformations

A History of Myanmar Since Ancient Times, Traditions and Transformations


by Michael A. Aung-Thwin

  • HISTORY
  • 2012
  • HARD COVER
  • 304 PAGES

Michael Aung-Thwin takes us from the sacred stupas of the plains of Bagan to the grand colonial-era British mansions in this tale of Burma's storied 3,000-year history and rich culture. (BMA72, $39.00)

Burma/Myanmar, What Everyone Needs to Know

Burma/Myanmar, What Everyone Needs to Know


by David I. Steinberg

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

One in a series of brief, balanced, and authoritative guides by Oxford University Press. (BMA60, $16.95)

Freedom from Fear and Other Writings

Freedom from Fear and Other Writings


by Aung San Suu Kyi | Michael Aris

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

This collection of speeches, letters and interviews by and about Burma's Nobel Prize-winning human rights leader, edited by her late husband and with forwards by Vaclav Havel and Desmond Tutu, provides essential background to her role in Burmese politics and the situation of the country today. (BMA08, $17.00)

Sacred Sites of Burma


by Donald Stadtner

  • RELIGION
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 300 PAGES

Stadtner focuses on the origins and evolutions of the Buddhist myths behind Burma's sacred sites, some of the most spectacular in Asia, in this beautifully illustrated portrait. (BMA64, $35.00)

Where China Meets India, Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia

Where China Meets India, Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia


by Thant Myint-U

  • HISTORY
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES

Home to 60 million people and bigger than France, Burma -- as Thant Myint-U so effectively argues --- is hardly small or politically isolated; it is at the center of Asia. Mr. Thant mixes anecdote, travel, memoir and history in this compelling personal portrait -- and Cri de Coeur for western engagement in the region. (BMA70, $18.00)

Burmese Looking Glass

Burmese Looking Glass


by Edith Mirante

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 333 PAGES
  • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE

A moving story of resistance in the highlands by a dedicated writer with the soul of a poet and the passion of a revolutionary. Deported to Thailand in 1988, Mirante was the first westerner to march with the rebels. (BMA05, $12.00)

Finding George Orwell in Burma

Finding George Orwell in Burma


by Emma Larkin

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

An American journalist fluent in Burmese, Emma Larkin (a pseudonym) masterfully interweaves her travels in the footsteps of the British colonial officer and writer with interviews and an astute, moving history of modern Burma. (BMA40, $16.00)

From the Land of Green Ghosts, a Burmese Odyssey

From the Land of Green Ghosts, a Burmese Odyssey


by Pascal Khoo Thwe

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

The young Burmese author, a member of a remote hill-tribe in the Shan hills, captures the traditions and challenges of the Padaung people in this astonishing memoir. (BMA29, $13.99)

The Burma Chronicles

The Burma Chronicles


by Guy Delisle

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

Posted to Burma with his Doctors Without Borders wife and young son, Delisle captures the absurdities, challenges and routines of everyday life in Burma in bold black-and-white panels in this droll graphic travelogue, his third. (BMA58, $16.95)

The Lady and the Peacock, The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi

The Lady and the Peacock, The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi


by Peter Popham

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2013
  • PAPER
  • 334 PAGES

Peter Popham's timely biography follows the arc of Suu Kyi's life from her childhood in Rangoon, formative years in India and Oxford, marriage to Michael Aris and her return to Burma, where she has become a potent symbol for the Burmese people. The British journalist doesn't dodge from Suu Kyi's moral decision to remain in Burma, even as her husband was dying in 1999, and her children Alexander and Kim remained behind in Britain. (BMA79, $16.95)

Burmese Days

Burmese Days


by George Orwell

  • LITERATURE
  • 1989
  • PAPER
  • 287 PAGES

Orwell, a veteran of the Colonial police force in Rangoon, writes with irony and insight in this sharp novel of politics, folly and the British. (BMA03, $14.00)

The Glass Palace

The Glass Palace


by Amitav Ghosh

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 474 PAGES

In this panoramic novel full of tales and anecdote, Ghosh follows the lives and fortunes of Rajkumar and his family over three eventful generations in Burma, India and Malaysia. (IDA173, $15.00)

The Piano Tuner

The Piano Tuner


by Daniel Mason

  • LITERATURE
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

In this transporting first novel, a mild-mannered tradesman is seduced by late Victorian Burma. Mason's complex, absorbing tale dives into the world of 19th-century colonial Burma, its traditions, trappings, personalities and politics. (BMA31, $14.95)

Birds of Myanmar

Birds of Myanmar


by Kyaw Nyunt Lwin | Khin Ma Ma Thwin | Aung Thant

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 165 PAGES

A slim field guide to 350 birds of Burma, featuring 74 full-color plates, descriptive information, and a comprehensive checklist. (BMA42, $37.95)

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.