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Vietnam & Cambodia   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Essential Books These 3 items are available for $61, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXSEA289)		  
National Geographic Vietnam  •  Jim Sullivan
GUIDEBOOK •  2009 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES
This guide to Vietnam, published in National Geographic's attractive visual style, features hundreds of photographs, full color maps, and good information on history, nature, culture and travel in Vietnam. (VNM93, $22.95)		   National Geographic Vietnam
Understanding Vietnam  •  Neil Jamieson
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1995 •  PAPER  • 428 PAGES
Jamieson's ambitious primer addresses politics, social history, village life, structural renewal, literature and the arts, illuminating the Vietnamese worldview with insight and depth. It does just what the title promises -- it illuminates the Vietnamese and their worldview. (VNM01, $27.95)		   Understanding Vietnam
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia Map  •  Nelles
2010 •  MAP
A convenient, double-sided map of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam at a scale of 1:1,500,000, with city maps of Hanoi, Vientiane, Ho Chi Minh City, Luang Prabang, and Phnom Penh. Includes the eastern portion of Thailand and Bangkok. (SEA75, $13.95)		   Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia Map



Also Recommended

Angkor Map  •  Dawn Rooney   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A site plan and pocket guide to the city of Angkor at a scale of 1:40,000. (CBD16, $12.95)
 		  
Culture Smart! Vietnam  •  Geoffrey Murray   • GUIDEBOOK  •  Take along this concise, well-illustrated and practical guide to local customs, etiquette and culture. (VNM87, $9.95)
 		  
Eyewitness Guide Vietnam and Angkor Wat  •  Eyewitness Guides   • GUIDEBOOK  •  Featuring innovative site diagrams, local maps and hundreds of color photographs, this handy companion introduces the culture, history and attractions of Vietnam. (VNM102, $25.00)
 		  
Lonely Planet Vietnamese Phrasebook  •  Nguyen Xuanthu   • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS  •  A handy palm-sized guide to pronunciation, grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. (VNM20, $8.99)
 		  
A Traveller's History of Southeast Asia  •  J.M. Barwise  •  Nicholas J. White   • HISTORY • COMING IN MARCH  •  A compact history of the region, including the Khmer and the various ancient kingdoms that produced Borobudur, Angkor and other architectural marvels. (SEA36, $14.95)
 		  
Fire in the Lake  •  Frances FitzGerald   • HISTORY  •  A classic historical, political and cultural portrait of a nation at war, this powerful book won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. FitzGerald, a staff writer at the New Yorker and a reporter in Vietnam, presents a vivid image of a revolution. (VNM12, $18.99)
 		  
The Civilization of Angkor  •  Charles Higham   • HISTORY • COMING IN  •  A concise history of the origins, development and rise of the kingdom of Angkor by a leading archaeologist. It's an up-to-date, accessible overview of the civilization from prehistory through the fall of Angkor in 1431. (CBD26, $24.95)
 		  
Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind, and Spirit  •  Nguyen Van Huy  •  Laurel Kendall   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A marvelously illustrated portrait of culture and society in contemporary Vietnam, featuring informed essays by diverse contributors with accompanying color photographs. (VNM66, $50.00)
 		  
Angkor Cities and Temples  •  Claude Jacques  •  Michael Freeman   • ART & ARCHITECTURE • COMING IN MARCH  •  One of the nicest books of its kind, this is a gorgeous, oversized portrait of the monuments, temples and exquisite sculptures of Angkor. Claude Jacques, who directed much of the site excavation, writes with authority about individual temples, inscriptions and Khmer culture. (CBD18, $80.00)
 		  
A Dragon Apparent, Travels in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam  •  Norman Lewis   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE  •  A classic account of travels and adventure during the last years of French Indochina, strong on atmosphere and including wonderfully detailed descriptions of local cultures and archaeological treasures. First published in 1951. (SEA40, $33.95)
 		  
Catfish and Mandala, A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam  •  Andrew X. Pham   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  Much more than the story of a road trip, this book combines the author's family history with his many and often-gritty adventures by bicycle through foreign lands including Mexico, Japan and, notably, Vietnam. (VNM50, $16.00)
 		  
Descending the Dragon, My Journey Down the Coast of Vietnam  •  Rob Howard  •  Jon Bowermaster   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Bowermaster and a team, including his long suffering foreign press monitor and photographers, set forth from Hanoi by kayak to explore the long coast of Vietnam on a two-month-long journey of discovery. With dozens of color and black-and-white photographs. (VNM121, $21.95)
 		  
Japanland, A Year in Search of Wa  •  Karin Muller   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  Looking to gain a competitive edge in her judo practice and a fresh perspective in life, Muller, who ended up also making a film about her experience, heads to Japan for a year. She discovers in sometimes awkward, often comical interactions just how maddeningly complicated it is being Japanese. (JPN366, $15.95)
 		  
The Eaves of Heaven, A Life in Three Wars  •  Andrew X. Pham   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  Pham recounts the story of his father's life during the French occupation, Japanese invasion and the American War, weaving such momentous events with anecdotes from his childhood and details of family, friends, food and daily life. (VNM120, $16.00)
 		  
The Gods Drink Whiskey  •  Stephen T. Asma   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Asma writes with verve and wit in this eye-opening account of his yearlong stint teaching at the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh. His account is both an overview of Theravada Buddhism and a down-to-earth portrait of contemporary Cambodia. (CBD46, $14.99)
 		  
The River's Tale, A Year on the Mekong  •  Edward Gargan   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  A personal, probing chronicle of a 3,000 mile journey on the river from its source in China through Tibet, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. (SEA33, $15.95)
 		  
The Sacred Willow, Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family  •  Duong Van Mai Elliott   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  This vivid family saga, beginning with the author's great-grandfather, captures the life and momentous history of Vietnam over the last 100 years. (VNM39, $24.99)
 		  
The Quiet American  •  Graham Greene   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  A classic, this is the most famous Western work of fiction on Vietnam. Greene writes of a love triangle between a war correspondent, his Vietnamese consort and an optimistic young American during the last days of French rule. (VNM08, $16.00)
 		  
Vietnam, A Traveler's Literary Companion  •  John Balaban  •  Nguyen Qui Duc   • ANTHOLOGY • COMING IN FEBRUARY  •  From rain forest and rural countryside to the cities, these 17 stories from Vietnam's finest writers explore Vietnam's landscapes, myths and changing traditions. (VNM04, $14.95)
 		  
Birds of Southeast Asia  •  Craig Robson   • FIELD GUIDE  •  This authoritative, masterfully illustrated guide, featuring 140 color plates covering 1,270 species throughout the region, also includes Malaysia, Burma, Borneo and Indonesia. (SEA49, $35.00)
 		  
 
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