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YEAR'S BEST READS

Best of 2011

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Longitude's 10 Best Travel Books of 2011, along with many more notable books of the year. Get all 10 at 25% off, including shipping.

Item EXTVL14. Buy these 10 items as a set for $154 including shipping, 25% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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TO BOOKBAG

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness

by Alexandra Fuller

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2012
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

Alexandra Fuller (Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight) returns to Africa in this shimmering memoir, focusing on her mother Nicola (a million percent Highland Scottish) -- and her odyssey from newlywed in the highlands of Kenya in the 1960s to the tumult of post-independence Rhodesia -- and life today with her husband on a farm in Zambia. Written with uncommon grace and generosity, the tale is peppered with family stories and photographs. (ZMB13, $15.00)

Wild Coast, Travels on South America's Untamed Edge

by John Gimlette

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 358 PAGES

Gimlette sets out for the watery wilds of the Guianas, attuned to history and the eccentric castaways and adventurers he meets along the way. He takes in colonial Georgetown ("a city of stilts and clapboard, brilliant whites, fretwork, spindles and louvers"), sleepy Paramaribo and, especially, the "claggy, overgrown hinterlands." (SAM168, $16.95)

The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott

by David Wilson

• EXPLORATION
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 192 PAGES

This gorgeous book of Scott's own photographs -- fought over, lost and forgotten -- supplemented by maps and incisive commentary, is a significant contribution to Antarctic history. Wilson's great uncle was expedition artist Edward Wilson, who died with Scott on his way back from the Pole. (ANT343, $35.00)

The Tao of Travel, Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

by Paul Theroux

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 304 PAGES

Theroux celebrates 50 years of wandering with this inspired miscellany of meditations, excerpts from his many books and quotes from favorite writers from Nabokov and Twain to McPhee, Waugh, Chatwin and Matthiessen. No one who loves travel writing should be without it! (TVL513, $14.95)

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)

Serengeti, The Eternal Beginning

by Boyd Norton

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 288 PAGES

Featuring 250 exquisite color photographs alongside Norton's firsthand accounts of travels in Serengeti National Park, Kenya's Masai Mara and Ngorongoro over a decades-long career. (EAF378, $35.00)

The Magnetic North

by Sara Wheeler

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 336 PAGES

Wheeler writes with zest and insight of the people, nature and future of the Circumpolar North in these many marvelously recounted adventures, including her time in Spitsbergen. (ARC250, $15.00)

To a Mountain in Tibet

by Colin Thubron

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

The intrepid, soulful Colin Thubron journeys from Nepal to Kailas, the revered mountain, "source of the universe, created from cosmic waters and the mind of Brahma" in his most revealing book yet. A New York Times Notable Book and Longitude favorite of 2011. (TBT134, $15.99)

Paris to the Past, Traveling Through French History by Train

by Ina Caro

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 400 PAGES

The infectiously enthusiastic Ina Caro 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, $17.95)

Radio Shangri-La

by Lisa Napoli

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 304 PAGES

Napoli's memoir of her time working on a fledgling Bhutanese radion station. She writes with frankness and clarity about the contradictions, poverty and reality of much mythologized Bhutan. (BHU35, $15.00)

 

Also Recommended

Eyewitness Guide Kenya

by Phili Briggs

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2011
• PAPER
• 448 PAGES

Another gem in the Eyewitness series, this superb guide is handsome, convenient and up-to-date; it's the guide to carry. Featuring color photography, dozens of excellent local maps and a region-by-region synopsis of the country's attractions, it also has an overview of parks and habitats, and a 50-page field guide. (EAF356, $25.00)

1493, Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

by Charles C. Mann

• HISTORY
• 2012
• PAPER
• 532 PAGES

Mann's eye-opening tale of the great Columbian Exchange, the biological tsunami unleashed by the introduction of foreign species of plants and animals both in Europe, and especially, in the Americas. (NAM70, $16.95)

Explorers of the Nile

by Tim Jeal

• HISTORY
• 2012
• PAPER
• 592 PAGES

Tim Jeal widens his scope in this spirited new history of the great 19th-century quest for the origins of the Nile, covering the many expeditions and complex rivalries of Burton and Speke, Livingstone and Stanley and other Victorian adventurers with panache. (AFR287, $18.50)

Inside Havana

by Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 240 PAGES

This handsome book showcases the diverse architecture of Havana, from modernist masterpieces to splendid baroque palaces and traditional businesses such as the Partagas cigar factory, one of Havana's oldest and finest. With expert writing by Hernandez and rich color photographs by Gianni Basso. (CBA102, $29.99)

Istanbul, A Cultural History

by Peter Clark

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2011
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

Peter Clark celebrates the history, architecture, literature and society of Istanbul. (TKY254, $15.00)

Jerusalem, The Biography

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

• HISTORY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 650 PAGES

Montefiore tells the history of a Holy City, focus of struggle between the Abrahamic religions, the place of prophets and patriarchs, Abraham, David, Jesus and Muhammad, with grace and balance, tracing the story of Jerusalem through the lives of men and women. (ISR99, $20.00)

Lost in Shangri-la, A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II

by Mitchell Zuckoff

• HISTORY
• 2012
• PAPER
• 384 PAGES

Zuckoff unleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War II rescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S. military personnel into the jungle-clad land of New Guinea. (PNG29, $15.99)

An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science

by Edward Larson

• EXPLORATION
• 2012
• PAPER
• 326 PAGES

In this fresh history, enriched by his own Antarctic travels with the National Science Foundation writers and Artists program, Pulitzer Prize-winner Ed Larson places the famed expeditions of Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton and the Heroic Age in the larger context of Edwardian politics and society. Not just geography and empire, science was an integral part of the whole Antarctic enterprise. (ANT337, $16.00)

Railway Maps of the World

by Mark Ovenden

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 144 PAGES

Featuring 500 full-color maps, posters and images from the beloved 1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway to the latest high-speed networks under construction in China, Mark Ovenden's colorful compendium includes the offical transit maps (WLD220, $25.00)

Temples of Cambodia, The Heart of Angkor

by Helen Ibbitson Jessup | Barry Brukoff

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 256 PAGES

Jessup (Art and Architecture of Cambodia) provides the accompanying essays to this oversized portfolio of dazzling color images by Barry Brukoff, who has been photographing the monuments of Cambodia since 1963. (CBD73, $65.00)

The Umbrella

by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert

• EXPLORATION
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 40 PAGES

A whirlwind tour of the world, this wordless picture book shows the many inadvertent adventures of a black terrier, carried from the desert to the sea, jungle and North Pole. (WLD221, $16.95)

The Unconquered, In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes

by Scott Wallace

• EXPLORATION
• 2012
• PAPER
• 512 PAGES

Wallace shows plight of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon in this travelogue and portrait of Sydney Possuelo, founder of Brazil's Department of Isolated Indians (AMZ132, $16.00)

Catherine the Great

by Robert K. Massie

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2012
• PAPER
• 625 PAGES

Eager readers of Massie's Nicholas and Alexandria or the Pulitzer Prize-wining Peter the Great will not be disappointed by this latest, an old-fashioned tale of politics, power and 18th-century Europe, drawing effectively from the ambitious Catherine's own memoirs. Winner of the first-ever Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. (RUS470, $20.00)

Fire Season, Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout

by Philip Connors

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

Philip Connors' lyrical account of a summer perched high above the Gila National Forest in southwest New Mexico -- with just his dog Alice as company -- captures not just the rugged beauty of the land but also the charms of solitude and the value of wilderness. At the urging of the great Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac), the Gila Wilderness was designated the first wilderness area in the national forest system on June 3, 1924. Connors' Top Ten Wilderness Books includes not just A Sand County Almanac and Desert Solitaire (both Longitude Favorites) but also Marilynne Robinson's affecting Housekeeping and John Fowles' classic The Tree, available in a 30th anniversary edition. Father's Day is coming! (USW690, $14.99)

The Longest Winter, Scott's Other Heroes

by Meredith Hooper

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2012
• PAPER
• 320 PAGES

The riveting tale of Scott's Northern Party, drawn from contemporary account, expedition diaries, journals and letters. (ANT312, $16.95)

Death at the Chateau Bremont

by M.L. Longworth

• MYSTERY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 311 PAGES

When local nobleman Etienne de Bremont falls to his death from the family chateau, the town is abuzz with rumors. A lively whodunit steeped in the rich and romantic atmosphere of Aix-en-Provence, this novel introduces Antoine Verlaque, the handsome and seductive chief magistrate, and his sometime love interest, law professor Marine Bonnet. (FRN972, $14.00)

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)

Jamrach's Menagerie

by Carol Birch

• LITERATURE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 295 PAGES

Plucked from the mouth of an escaped circus tiger in 19th-century London, the young Jaffy Brown is recruited by explorer and entrepreneur Mr. Charles Jamrach to join a whaling expedition to the East Indies and bring back a fabled dragon in this seafaring yarn of the first order, shortlisted for the 2011 Booker Prize. (INS117, $15.00)

The Cat's Table

by Michael Ondaatje

• LITERATURE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 269 PAGES

Ondaatje conjures the wonder of an 11-year-old boy on a great journey across the Indian Ocean from Colombo through the Suez Canal to London in this marvelous tale of coming of age on the high seas. The tale is populated with Miss Lasqueti, Flavia Prins and all manner of mysterious and appealing characters, with many scenes set at Table 76, the cat's table, "the least privileged place." (OCE179, $15.00)

African Safari, Into the Great Game Reserves

by Peter and Beverly Pickford

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 300 PAGES

With a traveler's notebook, essays and color photographs of Africa, its people, landscapes and wildlife, this dazzling photographic journey captures the adventure of Safari. (AFR260, $49.95)

Far from Shore, Chronicles of an Open Ocean Voyage

by Sophie Webb

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 80 PAGES
• MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12)

This latest, lively and illustrated diary of adventure by Sophie Webb shows scientists on a voyage from Ecuador to Hawaii, studying seabirds and dolphins, flying fish and whales. (OCE175, $17.99)

Moby-Duck

by Donovan Hohn

• SCIENCE
• 2012
• PAPER
• 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, $16.00)

The Quiet World, Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960

by Douglas Brinkley

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2012
• PAPER
• 592 PAGES

Brinkley documents the personalities and heroic vigorous campaigns to preserve wild Alaska from Denali to the Tongass and Chugach National Forests, Gates of the Arctic and Glacier Bay. (ALA349, $18.99)

The Way of the Panda

by Henry Nicholls

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 2012
• PAPER
• 304 PAGES

Nicholls, whose previous book was on the Galapagos tortoise, here turns to the panda as a powerful political and cultural symbol for modern China as well as for conservation. (CHN673, $15.95)

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America

by Jon Dunn

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 576 PAGES

From Alaska to Baja California, Nova Scotia and Florida, this guide is the veteran's choice for birding anywhere in the United States. Tabbed for easy access, the color range maps in this sixth edition are outstanding. (FG09, $27.95)

Wildlife of Southern Africa

by Martin B. Withers

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 272 PAGES

This Princeton Pocket Guide, featuring 400 color photographs by Withers and co-author David Hosking, covers all the birds, mammals, lizards and insects you are likely to encounter. (SAF300, $19.95)

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