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Best of 2010

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

• E-MAIL
• PRINT

The Year's Best Reads for 2010 for the Traveler.

Item EXTVL10. Buy these 10 items as a set for $216 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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The Whale

by Philip Hoare

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

A deeply engaging meditation on all things whale. Philip Hoare saves his special love and attention for the sperm whale -- not only via a beautiful literary analysis of Moby Dick -- but also by indulging in a childhood fantasy and actually swimming with the whales in the Azores. (BST144, $15.99)

India, A Traveler's Literary Companion

by Chandrahas Choudhury

• ANTHOLOGY
• 2010
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

Each of these 14 stories evokes place and landscape, providing an excellent introduction both to contemporary writers and to India's diverse cultures and history. (IDA598, $14.95)

Egypt, A Short History

by Robert L. Tignor

• HISTORY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 371 PAGES

Princeton historian Tignor distills five decades of study and travel for this vivid account of the sweep and tumult of Egyptian history from the settlement of the Nile to the present. (EGY370, $19.95)

The Bread of Angels

by Stephanie Saldana

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2011
• PAPER
• 320 PAGES

Ostensibly in Syria on a Fulbright, the 26-year-old Stephanie Saldana seeks solace at a desert monastery, reads the Qur'an with a prominent woman scholar (a chic Sheikha), teaches at a madras -- and falls in love. Full of memorable characters, this illuminating memoir is also a delightful portrait of life in the old Christian district in Damascus. (SYR20, $15.00)

Southern Frontiers, A Journey Across the Roman Empire

by Don McCullin

• ARCHAEOLOGY
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 272 PAGES

Roman sites, both world famous and obscure, from Syria and Lebanon across North Africa to Morocco, Algeria and Libya are presented in gorgeous black-and-white splendor in this collection of oversized photographs by the celebrated Don McCullin. Historian Barnaby Rogerson supplies the accompanying text. (MED172, $69.95)

Travels in Siberia

by Ian Frazier

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 529 PAGES

Practically bursting with affection for Russia, steeped in its literature -- and fresh from language lessons in Brighton Beach, Frazier journeys from Nome to Chukotka, Moscow to Novosibirsk, pays homage to Arseniev in Kamchatka and camps along the shores of Lake Baikal in this wide-eyed tale of the people, land and history of Siberia. He keeps his wit and humor intact through the bureaucracy, mangled arrangements and other challenges of modern Russia. (SIB64, $20.00)

The Last Empty Places

by Peter Stark

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 352 PAGES

Peter Stark journeys (often with his young family) to four wild places in the lower forty-eight, weaving tales of his own adventures with those of early explorers and heroes. (USA423, $26.00)

Parisians, An Adventure History of Paris

by Graham Robb

• HISTORY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 368 PAGES

Beginning at the dawn of the French Revolution and continuing, in its own charming, haphazard way to the present, Robb's paean to the City of Light (he's clearly in love) takes in the history of Paris through the stories of Marie Antoinette, Sartre and Simon Beauvoir, Napoleon, Zola, Proust and others, renowned and heretofore unknown. (FRN888, $17.95)

Every Day in Tuscany, Seasons of an Italian Life

by Frances Mayes

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2011
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

Twenty years later Mayes is still besotted by Italy -- her house, the tumbling geraniums, the people and the food -- all lovingly documented in her best memoir yet. With interludes in Portofino, Assisi and Rome and a focus on Renaissance master artist Luca Signorelli. (ITA124, $15.00)

The Wildlife of Costa Rica, A Field Guide

by Zona Tropical Publications

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2010
• PAPER
• 360 PAGES

450 of the most common, interesting and charismatic mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and arthropods that you are likely to encounter. Each has exquisite full color illustrations by Fiona Reid (mammals), Robert Dean (birds) and friends. (CRC77, $29.95)

 

Also Recommended

Atlas of Remote Islands

by Judith Schalansky

• REFERENCE
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 144 PAGES

Tantalizingly subtitled Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, this intriguing collection of maps and lore is likely to ignite wanderlust in certain of us. An artist obsessed as a child with the world atlas, Schalansky includes islands, both famous and utterly obscure, ranging across the world's seas, each drawn at the same scale so that tiny Clipperton Atoll is a speck on the page while Deception Island in the Antarctic almost fills it. (WLD200, $30.00)

Vietnam, Rising Dragon

by Bill Hayton

• HISTORY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 272 PAGES

The veteran BBC newsman covers the tangled politics, rapidly changing economy, culture, history and people of Vietnam with great insight in this timely portrait of a nation in transition. (VNM134, $22.00)

Why the West Rules - For Now

by Ian Morris

• HISTORY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 750 PAGES

Archaeologist and historian Ian Morris offers his view on why the West has dominated the globe for the past 200 years and whether or not its power will last. (WLD217, $22.00)

A History of Arctic Exploration

by Juha Nurminen

• EXPLORATION
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 349 PAGES

The ancient Inuit, Vikings, Vitus Bering, whalers, explorers and James Cook are all paid tribute in this sumptuously illustrated history, drawing on the collections of Helsinki's Nurminen Foundation. (ARC257, $60.00)

Built to Last

by David Macaulay

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 272 PAGES
• FAMILY

A compilation of MacAulay's books Castle, Cathedral and Mosque with updated research and new color drawings. MacAulay tells the fictional but accurate stories of how these structures were built, explaining their historical and cultural importance. Packed with wonderfully detailed illustrations, this book will appeal to all ages. (GEN953, $24.99)

The Nile Cruise

by Jenny Jobbins

• ARCHAEOLOGY
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 160 PAGES

Weaving classic travelers' accounts with essays and 150 color photographs, this compact book beautifully illuminates the history and allure of the towns, temples and tombs of the Nile from Abydos to Abu Simbel. (EGY278, $29.95)

Country Driving

by Peter Hessler

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 480 PAGES

Opening with an eventful 7,000-mile road trip across northern China, Peter Hessler (River Town, Oracle Bones) shows the absurdity, humor and hope of China in this latest portrait of a nation catapulted into the modern world. (CHN600, $15.99)

Kingdom Under Glass, A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man's Quest to Preserve the World's Great Animals

by Jay Kirk

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2011
• PAPER
• 400 PAGES

Not just those of us transfixed by the spectacular habitat groups in the Akeley Hall of African Mammals at the American Museum of New York will devour Jay Kirk's riveting new biography of explorer and museology pioneer Carl Akeley (inventor of modern taxidermy). Focusing on his five great Africa expeditions over three decades, Kirk peoples his grand tale the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, George Eastman and other Gilded Age luminaries. (AFR272, $18.00)

Landfalls, On the Edge of Islam With Ibn Battutah

by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 384 PAGES

Mackintosh-Smith (Travels with a Tangerine) embarks on the third leg of his journey in the footsteps of the great 14th century traveler, which takes him from the Alhambra to Zanzibar. (EXP85, $16.95)

Nine Lives, In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

by William Dalrymple

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

From Sufi dervish and Buddhist monk to outcast and temple worshiper: nine people, nine lives, all captured by Dalrymple as he journeys throughout India in search of remarkable individuals transformed by religion. At turns bemusing, dazzling and heart-wrenching, this is his first travel book in 15 years. (IDA587, $16.00)

Running Dry

by Jonathan Waterman

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 305 PAGES

Weaving history and tall tales, adventures on the river and conservation, Waterman includes snapshots of local farmers, boatmen, park rangers and engineers in this absorbing account of a trip on the Colorado from Lake Powell to the Gulf of California. With an excellent pullout map of the Colorado Basin. (USW633, $26.00)

Silk Parachute

by John McPhee

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2011
• PAPER
• 240 PAGES

With his characteristic humor and intensity, McPhee ranges through lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, the weird foods dined on, 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)

The Black Nile

by Dan Morrison

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 320 PAGES

Abandoned by his childhood friend mid-trip, intrepid Dan Morrison persists with his plan to paddle 4,000-miles from Uganda across the Sudan to Cairo on a hand-built plank boat. (AFR271, $16.00)

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens

by Jack Weatherford

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2011
• PAPER
• 336 PAGES

Weatherford (Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World) turns to the wives and daughters of the great medieval leader in this bold history of the women of the Silk Road. (MGL71, $15.00)

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)

After the Ice

by Alun Anderson

• SCIENCE
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 298 PAGES

Anderson includes his travels, often by ship, and interviews with dozens of researchers and local leaders from Greenland to Siberia for this sharp report on the people, politics and impact of climatic change at the top of the world. (ARC263, $26.99)

Fraser's Penguins

by Fen Montaigne

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2012
• PAPER
• 320 PAGES

Montaigne turns a summer working alongside ecologist and penguin biologist Bill Fraser at Palmer Station (we know many of you have visited!) into a captivating tale of hard work, camaraderie and penguins, deftly capturing the allure and grandeur of the Antarctic Peninsula. (ANT323, $15.99)

Planet Arctic

by Wayne Lynch

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2012
• PAPER
• 240 PAGES

Expedition leader, photographer and colleague, Wayne Lynch presents the "large and legendary" musk oxen and bear, tundra plants, birds, mammals and, of course, polar bears and other marine creatures of the sea ice in this portfolio of 150 striking full-page color photos. (ARC268, $29.95)

The Darwinian Tourist

by Christopher Wills

• SCIENCE
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 288 PAGES

From the underwater life of Indonesia's Lambeh Strait to an earthquake's effect on coral reef off Pacific island of Yap, Wills demonstrates how ecology and evolution have interacted to yield the world we live in. (SCI291, $34.95)

The Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate Change

by Juliane Fry

• SCIENCE
• 2010
• HARD COVER
• 512 PAGES

Magnificently illustrated, authoritative and exceedingly well-organized, this striking visual guide by a team of experts covers weather, clouds, storms, regional climate, meteorology and changing climate in striking full color maps, charts, photographs and succinct text. (GEN556, $39.95)

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