Welcome!

Enrich Your Travels with Longitude

We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.

SIGN UP FOR

Longitude News

Get our monthly e-mail update

GET A

Catalog

BEST OF 2011

Wild Coast

John Gimlette

SEE ALL >

FOR THE HOLIDAYS

To the Arctic

Florian Schultz

SEE ALL >

OUR FAVORITES

Arctic Dreams

Barry Lopez

SEE ALL >

GLOBES

The Pioneer

Replogle

SEE ALL >

Poland

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

  • E-MAIL
  • PRINT

Kids

Books for

We feature a handpicked selection of travel guides, maps, literature, books on art, nature and culture, all designed to help you get more out of your travels to Poland. Order an essential package, and we'll ship any additional items for free.

Essential Reading

Item EXPLD07. Buy these 5 items as a set for $77 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

ADD SET
TO BOOKBAG
Eyewitness Guide Poland

Eyewitness Guide Poland

by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

An informative, visual guide to the history, culture and attractions of Poland. (PLD21, $25.00)

Heart of Europe, The Past in Poland's Present

Heart of Europe, The Past in Poland's Present

by Norman Davies

  • HISTORY
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 483 PAGES
  • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE

A history of Poland in reverse chronology from the Solidarity Movement to early civilization, condensed from the author's definitive three-volume history. (PLD06, $25.99)

Kingdom of Auschwitz

Kingdom of Auschwitz

by Otto Friedrich

  • HISTORY
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 128 PAGES

Otto Friedrich's slim book is an intensely personal account of the infamous Auschwitz death camp. He covers the entire history of Auschwitz in short chapters punctuated with eyewitness accounts and testimonies. (PLD04, $11.00)

Poland

Poland

by James Michener

  • LITERATURE
  • 1990
  • PAPER
  • 616 PAGES

In his epic style, Michener presents the sweep of Polish history from the earliest days to 1983 in this massively researched novel. An excellent choice for the airplane. (PLD02, $7.99)

Poland Map

Poland Map

by Michelin Travel Publications

  • 2010
  • MAP

A self-folding full color map of Poland at a scale of 1:700,000, updated annually. (PLD20, $11.95)

 
Krakow Map

Krakow Map


by ITMB

  • 2008
  • MAP

A folded city map of Krakow with an inset map of the city center at 1:10,000, along with a metropolitan area and regional map. (PLD42, $10.95)

Berlitz Polish Phrase Book & CD

Berlitz Polish Phrase Book & CD


by Berlitz Multimedia

  • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
  • 2007
  • AUDIO CD
  • 224 PAGES

A 224-page phrase book and audio CD, this handy language primer focuses on food, people, fun and the basic phrases for getting around in another language. Compatible with iPod and MPS devices, this bestselling series is geared for travelers. (PLD69, $14.95)

Culture Smart! Poland

Culture Smart! Poland


by Greg Allen

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 168 PAGES

A concise, no-nonsense guide to local customs, etiquette and culture with a short overview of the land and people along with practical travel advice. (PLD68, $9.95)

Frommer's Krakow Day by Day

Frommer's Krakow Day by Day


by Peterjon Cresswell

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2009
  • PAPER

A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food, hotels and neighborhoods to shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (PLD78, $12.99)

Lonely Planet Polish Phrasebook


by Lonely Planet

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

This handy pocket phrasebook includes pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary. (PLD79, $8.99)

Polish, A Language Map

Polish, A Language Map


by Kristine K. Kershul

  • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
  • 2002
  • PLASTIC CARD

This durable, foldout card, featuring 1,000 words and phrases, works as a quick reference for travelers. (PLD48, $7.95)

Rough Guide Poland

Rough Guide Poland


by Mark Salter

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 720 PAGES

A comprehensive travel guide, including an excellent historical and cultural overview of Poland. (PLD09, $24.99)

A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron, Forgotten Heroes of World War II


by Lynne Olson | Stanley Cloud

  • HISTORY
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 495 PAGES

The riveting history of the No. 303 "Kosciuszko" Polish Fighter Squadron, an all Polish unit of the Royal Air Force formed during WWII. (PLD56, $17.00)

A Traveller's History of Poland

A Traveller's History of Poland


by John Radzilowski

  • HISTORY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 302 PAGES

A wide-ranging, accessible and effectively condensed brief history of Poland through the 1990s. With a useful chronology and historical gazetteer, this book marches confidently through the centuries. (PLD53, $14.95)

Bury Me Standing

Bury Me Standing


by Isabel Fonseca

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 322 PAGES

This marvelous portrait of the Roma, also known as the Gypsies, offers insight into their music, foods, religions and folk traditions, and also examines their influential but complex relationship with Eastern Europe. (EUR09, $14.95)

Cracow, An Illustrated History

Cracow, An Illustrated History


by Zdzislaw Zygulski

  • HISTORY
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 150 PAGES

A slender history of the Polish city, from its founding to the present day, with 50 black-and-white illustrations. The author is a curator at the National Museum of Cracow. (PLD33, $12.95)

Hitler and the Holocaust

Hitler and the Holocaust


by Robert S. Wistrich

  • HISTORY
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 295 PAGES

A short history of the cultural and political circumstances surrounding the genocide of the Jews. Wistrich looks closely at Anti-Semitism in Germany, Europe and abroad in an attempt to understand the evil unleashed during World War II. (EUR114, $15.00)

Resistance, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising


by Israel Gutman

  • HISTORY
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 277 PAGES

An account of the Warsaw ghetto under Nazi control, gleaned from the author's first-hand experience. He also places the ghetto experience in the context of Jewish history in general. (PLD17, $19.95)

The Grooves of Change, Eastern Europe at the Turn of the Millennium

The Grooves of Change, Eastern Europe at the Turn of the Millennium


by J.F. Brown

  • HISTORY
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 248 PAGES

A survey of the events from the fall of communism to 2000 by a leading scholar. Brown discusses social and political change in the region, prospects for the future -- and the growing economic rift between East Central and South Eastern Europe. (EUR90, $25.95)

The Haunted Land, Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism

The Haunted Land, Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism


by Tina Rosenberg

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 437 PAGES

In this groundbreaking book, a journalist reports on how the newly democratized people of East Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic have confronted the horrors of their former governments. (EUR54, $17.95)

The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795-1918


by Piotr S. Wandyc

  • HISTORY
  • 1993
  • PAPER

A scholarly history of Poland during the period when it was divided between Prussia, Austria and Russia. Originally published in 1975, this volume in the "History of East Central Europe" series is the most comprehensive book on the subject. (PLD35, $35.00)

The Magic Lantern, The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague

The Magic Lantern, The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague


by Timothy Garton Ash

  • HISTORY
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 167 PAGES

With a chapter each on Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague, this eyewitness account by an astute journalist and historian shows these vibrant cities during a time of great change. (GER36, $15.00)

The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe

The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe


by Dennis Hupchick | Harold Cox

  • HISTORY
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 130 PAGES

The changing borders and complex history of Eastern Europe as told through 52 maps and accompanying essays, organized chronologically. An excellent reference, the book shows the rise of Poland, changing borders of the Ottoman Empire, Hapsburgs and fate of Yugoslavia in admirable clarity. (EUR138, $21.95)

The Polish Way, A Thousand Year History of the Poles and Their Culture

The Polish Way, A Thousand Year History of the Poles and Their Culture


by Adam Zamoyski

  • HISTORY
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 422 PAGES

An excellent overview of Polish culture and history, comprehensive, engaging and balanced. Zamoyski focuses especially on the period 1400-1800, writing with flair and authority about the origins of Polish nationhood. With maps and illustrations throughout. (PLD03, $22.50)

Another Beauty

Another Beauty


by Adam Zagajewski | Clare Cavanagh | Susan Sontag

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

A quirky, lyrical memoir of coming of age in Poland in the 1960s and 1970s by the influential poet of the Polish New Wave. (PLD37, $19.95)

The Zookeeper's Wife

The Zookeeper's Wife


by Diane Ackerman

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

A marvelous storyteller, Ackerman recalls madcap, bohemian Warsaw before WWII, the devastation of the city by Nazi bombs in 1939, the horrors of the holocaust and heroic efforts in the resistance in this moving tale of Antonina and Jan Zabinski, directors of Warsaw Zoo. (PLD70, $14.95)

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen


by Tadeusz Borowski | Barbara Vedder | Jan Kott

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1992
  • PAPER
  • 180 PAGES

A series of uninflected, austere stories, published in Polish after WWII -- and drawn from the author's experiences in Auschwitz and Dachau from 1943 to 1945. (GER95, $15.00)

Woman from Hamburg And Other True Stories


by Hanna Krall | Madeline G. Levine

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

Krall reveals the lives and strange trajectories of her compatriots in these poignant stories, profiles and interviews of survivors of WWII. (PLD49, $14.95)

Maus, A Survivor's Tale I & II

Maus, A Survivor's Tale I & II


by Art Spiegelman

  • LITERATURE
  • 1986
  • PAPER
  • 296 PAGES

The Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative of Spiegelman's father and family in Poland as World War II erupts. He renders the story of his father's early life, the Nazi occupation of Poland, survival in a concentration camp and other events as a stark graphic novel. (PLD22, $31.90)

Polish Writers on Writing


by Adam (EDT Zagajewski

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

Featuring 20th-century writers, including Nobel Prize winners Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska, this collection captures the brilliance and originality of a literary culture considered one of the most important and influential of our time. (PLD63, $24.95)

Schindler's List

Schindler's List


by Thomas Keneally

  • LITERATURE
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 400 PAGES

A landmark in literature about the Holocaust, this is the compelling story of the transformation of a Nazi tycoon and his rescue of 1,300 Jews from the concentration camps near Plaszow. (GER51, $16.00)

Shosha

Shosha


by Isaac Bashevis Singer

  • LITERATURE
  • 1996
  • PAPER

A powerful novel of love set in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw as World War II erupts around the protagonists. (PLD18, $15.00)

The Doll


by Boleslaw Prus | David Welsh | Darius Tolczyk | Anna Zaranko

  • LITERATURE
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 702 PAGES

An 1890 landmark of Polish realist fiction, set among the middle classes in Warsaw in the late 19th century. Richly plotted, the book is wonderfully evocative of old Warsaw, and also a consideration of the value of revolution. (PLD32, $19.95)

The Painted Bird

The Painted Bird


by Jerzy Kosinski

  • LITERATURE
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

The acclaimed novel based on the author's own experiences in World War II Poland. The often disturbing account of a young Jewish boy's journey through rural Poland as he tries to evade everyone from SS officers to anti-Semitic Polish peasants will leave an indelible impression. (PLD07, $14.00)

The Polish Officer, A Novel

The Polish Officer, A Novel


by Alan Furst

  • LITERATURE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

Rich in historical detail, this novel is a tale of espionage and bravery in WWII-era Poland. (PLD62, $15.00)

The Spies of Warsaw

The Spies of Warsaw


by Alan Furst

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 266 PAGES

Alan Furst sets his richly atmospheric tale of espionage and love squarely amidst the leafy boulevards, grand squares, stately mansions and elegant cafes of the glittering 1937 capital. With a map on the inside covers, this isn't just a gripping novel, Furst's 10th WW II-era thriller, it's a guide to Warsaw of today. (PLD80, $15.00)

The Street of Crocodiles

The Street of Crocodiles


by Bruno Schulz

  • LITERATURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

These remarkable stories draw on Schulz's childhood and the people, places and events of provincial Poland in the early 20th century. (PLD24, $16.00)

To Begin Where I Am, The Selected Prose of Czeslaw Milosz

To Begin Where I Am, The Selected Prose of Czeslaw Milosz


by Czeslaw Milosz | Madeline G. Levine | Bogdana Carpenter

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 272 PAGES

Culled from a lifetime's worth of publications, these essays by the Lithuanian-born Polish poet and Nobel laureate Milosz address the Polish experience at home and abroad in the 20th century. (PLD25, $17.00)

Bradt Guide Central and Eastern European Wildlife

Bradt Guide Central and Eastern European Wildlife


by Gerard Gorman

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 160 PAGES

An illustrated guide to the plants, mammals, birds and other wildlife of the region. (CEU36, $25.99)

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.