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BEST OF 2011

Wild Coast

John Gimlette

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FOR THE HOLIDAYS

To the Arctic

Florian Schultz

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Arctic Dreams

Barry Lopez

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Replogle

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Summer Reading

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Here'e our pick of new & noteworthy travel books, many just out in paper, for summer reading.

Essential Reading

Item EXTVL12. Buy these 4 items as a set for $82 including shipping, 21% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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Paris to the Past, Traveling Through French History by Train

Paris to the Past, Traveling Through French History by Train

by Ina Caro

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 381 PAGES

The infectiously enthusiastic Ina Caro, biographer husband Bob in tow, charts 25 day trips from Paris in this marvelously conceived history and guide. From the splendor of Chartres, wonders of Sainte-Chapelle and elegant Place de la Concorde, Caro enchants. (FRN953, $27.95)

The Floor of Heaven, A True Tale of the American West and the Yukon Gold Rush

The Floor of Heaven, A True Tale of the American West and the Yukon Gold Rush

by Howard Blum

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 448 PAGES

Through the eyes of a trio of fascinating historical characters -- a Pinkerton detective, a confidence man and a prospector-turned-tycoon -- the Edgar Award-winning Howard Blum explores the dreams that drove men to the Alaskan Frontier, the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush. A tale almost too good to be true. (ALA341, $26.00)

The Tiger's Wife, A Novel

The Tiger's Wife, A Novel

by Tea Obreht

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 353 PAGES

Ranging over decades and across the war-torn former Yugoslavia, Obrecht's richly imagined fable follows a young woman and her grandfather, also a doctor, who has just died. Winner of the 2011 Orange Prize. (BLK159, $15.00)

Moby-Duck

Moby-Duck

by Donovan Hohn

  • SCIENCE
  • 2012
  • HARD COVER
  • 416 PAGES
  • NEW

Hohn's accidental odyssey into the fate of many thousand rubber ducks takes him into the world of oceanography, tides and currents, Arctic research and the shadowy realms of manufacture in China. It's a high adventure, harebrained perhaps, but compelling, especially for those of us who have spent time at sea; Hohn experiences some truly terrible weather. (OCE176, $27.95)

 
Born in Africa

Born in Africa


by Martin Meredith

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 288 PAGES

Martin Meredith (The Fate of Africa) turns to human origins and the riveting tale of rival anthropologists, archaeologists and scientists who have struggled to unravel the story of the evolution of humankind on the plains of Africa. (AFR286, $26.99)

Cradle of Gold, The Story of Hiram Bingham

Cradle of Gold, The Story of Hiram Bingham


by Chris Heaney

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

A graduate of Yale and archaeologist, Chris Heaney turns his research in Peru and in the archives into a moving tale of discovery, focusing not just on the charismatic explorer and politician (he was a Connectiut Senator) but also on the controversy surrounding the artifacts Bingham shipped (some say smuggled) home to the Peabody Museum. (PRU106, $17.00)

Empires of the Silk Road

Empires of the Silk Road


by Christopher I. Beckwith

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 504 PAGES
  • NEW

Beckwith rescues Central Asia from the periphery of world affairs with flair and scholarship, showing the sweep of empire, trade and cultural life over the millennia. (CAS171, $16.95)

Reset, Iran, Turkey, and America's Future

Reset, Iran, Turkey, and America's Future


by Stephen Kinzer

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 284 PAGES

A master storyteller with an eye for grand characters and illuminating historical detail, Kinzer introduces grand themes and larger-than-life figures, like a Nebraska schoolteacher who became a martyr to democracy in Iran, a Turkish radical who transformed his country and Islam forever, and a colorful parade of princes, politicians, women of the world, spies, oppressors, liberators, and dreamers. (TKY239, $15.99)

Silk Parachute

Silk Parachute


by John McPhee

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

In these 10 marvelously varied essays John McPhee ranges with his characteristic humor and intensity through lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, the weird foods he has sometimes been served in the course of his travels, a golf championship, and a season in Europe in this latest collection of ten sparkling essays, most originally appearing in The New Yorker. Always the geologist, the chapters "following the chalk," from the downs and sea cliffs of England to the Maas valley in the Netherlands and the champagne country of northern France show McPhee at his best. (GEN560, $15.00)

Sorcerer's Apprentice, An Incredible Journey into the World of India's Godmen

Sorcerer's Apprentice, An Incredible Journey into the World of India's Godmen


by Tahir Shah

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

"You can keep your sensible cars, clothes and prim little houses," bellowed Shah to his posh London friends, " I'm off to India to become a magician." The apprentice of this beguiling book is none other than the young author, who travels from Calcutta to Madras, Bangalore and Bombay in pursuit of swamis, tricksters, and other eccentrics. Originally published in 1998, Shah's fantastic journey, recounted with deadpan humor, is impossible to put down. (IDA624, $14.95)

The Hare With Amber Eyes

The Hare With Amber Eyes


by Edmund De Waal

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

Edmund de Waal unfolds the story of his remarkable family, a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who "burned like a comet" in early 20th-century Paris and Vienna. (FRN941, $16.00)

Death at the Chateau Bremont

Death at the Chateau Bremont


by M.L. Longworth

  • MYSTERY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 311 PAGES

A lively whodunit steeped in the rich, enticing, and romantic atmosphere of Aix-en-Provence, Death at the Chateau Bremont introduces Antoine Verlaque, the handsome and seductive chief magistrate of Aix, and his sometime love interest, law professor Marine Bonnet. (FRN972, $14.00)

Faithful Place

Faithful Place


by Tana French

  • MYSTERY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

The third Dublin Murder mystery from French centers around Frank Mackey, who returns to the inner city neighborhood in Dublin of his youth, a place he had hoped to leave behind for good, to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend of 20 years earlier. (IRE285, $16.00)

French Feast, A Traveler's Literary Companion

French Feast, A Traveler's Literary Companion


by William Rodarmor

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 248 PAGES

With deliciously idiosyncratic twists, you won't find recipes or expats or sweet nostalgia in this sampling of contemporary short stories, many translated by editor William Rodarmor. As his co-conspirator Jean Anderson puts it in the introduction, "none of the 30 stories is really about food; they're about people". (FRN970, $14.95)

Killed at the Whim of a Hat

Killed at the Whim of a Hat


by Colin Cotterill

  • MYSTERY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 374 PAGES

Cotterill trades in Laos -- and the elderly Dr. Paiboun -- for Jimm Juree, "a feisty Thai lady journalist with relatives that make the Adams family look like Alexander McCall Smith characters," for this wry new book set in a dusty resort along the Gulf of Siam. (TLD100, $24.99)

Let the Great World Spin

Let the Great World Spin


by Colum McCann

  • LITERATURE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

Dublin-born New Yorker Colum McCann took home the 2011 International Impac Dublin literary award for his stunningly realized portrait of New York City. Set in 1974, he traces the interlocking lives of diverse characters as as Philippe Petit tightrope walks between the newly built Twin Towers. Let the Great World Spin won the National Book Award in 2009. (NYC214, $15.00)

Our Kind of Traitor

Our Kind of Traitor


by John Le Carre

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 305 PAGES

In John le Carre's latest thriller, an unsuspecting young British couple on a tennis holiday in Antigua meet Dima, a money launderer on the run from the Russian mob, keen to defect to the United Kingdom. Naturally, Perry and Gail are soon drawn into the deadly games and international intrigue, well-played as usual by the master of espionage. (GRB10, $15.00)

Spies of the Balkans

Spies of the Balkans


by Alan Furst

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 288 PAGES

A master storyteller, Furst places senior police official Costa Zannis at the center of this taut World War II thriller, his eleventh. The action (and there is plenty) plays out against a backdrop of the Nazi occupation of Salonika. (BLK152, $15.00)

State of Wonder, A Novel

State of Wonder, A Novel


by Ann Patchett

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 368 PAGES

Pharmacologist Marina Singh travels to the heart of the Amazon to investigate the reported death of her colleague, a field researcher for a top-secret fertility drug. (AMZ130, $26.99)

The Invisible Bridge

The Invisible Bridge


by Julie Orringer

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 684 PAGES

Set during the rise of fascism and cataclysms of World War II, Oringer's grand love story follows the fate of three Jewish Hungarian brothers against the backdrop of Budapest, Paris, Hungary and the Carpathian mountains. (EUR378, $15.95)

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, A Novel

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, A Novel


by David Mitchell

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 479 PAGES

Mitchell sets this richly imagined historical novel in the world of the Dutch East Indies company and cloistered early 18th-century Japan, where -- to this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons -- comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk. (JPN415, $15.00)

We, the Drowned

We, the Drowned


by Carsten Jensen

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 678 PAGES

Set in his hometown in Denmark, Jensen spins an old-fashioned tale of love, war and adventure, following his seafaring townsmen from the shipyards in Marstal to the barren rocks of Newfoundland, roughest bars in Hobart and the frozen coasts of Russia. (DMK44, $28.00)

Work Song

Work Song


by Ivan Doig

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

Ivan Doig peoples this lively portrait of the copper-mining capital Butte circa 1919 with host of colorful characters, including the schoolteacher Morrie Morgan at the center of his equally compelling The Whistling Season. (USW654, $15.00)

The Sweet Life in Paris


by David Lebovitz

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 304 PAGES

As clever as he is talented (but not sweet), David Lebovitz writes with flair and insight of his adopted home in this cheeky memoir. The pastry chef includes stellar recipes throughout. (FRN816, $14.00)

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.