Absurdistan  •  Gary Shteyngart   • LITERATURE • NEW  •  Shteyngart, a young Russian immigrant himself, riffs on the privilege and behavior of the new breed of Russian oligarchs along with many more less politically correct targets in this outrageous first novel set in the Bronx, St. Petersburg and oil-besotted Absurdsvani. (RUS321, $13.95)
	Bradt Safari Guide Northern Tanzania with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar  •  Philip Briggs   • GUIDEBOOK • NEW  •  A compact, practical overview of the history, wildlife and attractions of northern Tanzania, including the Serengeti, Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Olduvai, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. With maps, town plans and lots of good travel information. (EAF143, $22.95)
	Burton Holmes Travelogues  •  Genoa Caldwell   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • NEW  •  A glorious selection of hand-colored photographs of monuments, peoples and cultures, all taken from the collections of Holmes, the dynamic performer who invented the word "travelogues" to describe his wildly popular early 20th-century slide shows. (TVL116, $59.99)
	The Caliph's House, A Year in Casablanca  •  Tahir Shah   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • NEW  •  Shah is a marvelous storyteller, weaving Moroccan customs and history with deft portraits of neighbors, craftsmen and others in this entertaining tale of the transformation of a crumbling palace in Casablanca. (MRC66, $13.00)
	The Cave Painters, Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists  •  Gregory Curtis   • ART & ARCHITECTURE • NEW  •  Curtis introduces the masterworks of cave art, the Paleolithic and paleoarchaeology in this tour of Altamira, Lascaux, Les Trois-Freres, Cosquer, Chauvet and other caves in France and Spain. (FRN620, $14.95)
	The Classical World, An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian  •  Robin Lane Fox   • HISTORY • NEW  •  Fox conjures tyrants, conquerors and enthralling personalities in this marvelously well-written history of ancient Greece and Rome. (GRE293, $18.95)
	Climbing the Mango Trees, A Memoir of a Childhood in India  •  Madhur Jaffrey   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • NEW  •  An actress and food writer, Jaffrey combines her warm tale of coming-of-age in a sprawling homestead in Old Delhi with 32 recipes. (IDA327, $14.95)
	A Commonwealth of Thieves, The Improbable Birth of Australia  •  Thomas Keneally   • HISTORY • NEW  •  Keneally illuminates the birth of New South Wales with drama and flair, richly evoking the social conditions in London, long sea voyage and the conditions in Australia. (AUS177, $15.95)
	A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife  •  Richard Sale   • NATURAL HISTORY • NEW  •  This stunning primer features hundreds of spectacular color photographs, range maps, and descriptions of 200 birds and 77 mammals. (ARC190, $49.95)
	Cross Country  •  Robert Sullivan   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • NEW  •  Sullivan's marvelously digressive chronicle of a cross-country car trip, the history of the Interstate system, fast-food, variety of to-go coffee cup lids, the marvels of the roadside attraction and many, many other subjects. (USA135, $14.95)
	East Wind Melts the Ice: A Memoir Through the Seasons  •  Liza Crihfield Dalby   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • NEW  •  Dalby's captivating almanac, inspired by poetic traditions popular in 11th-century Japan. (JPN246, $24.95)
	Galen Rowell, A Retrospective  •   Sierra Club  •  Galen Rowell   • ART & ARCHITECTURE • NEW  •  Gorgeously produced, this oversized showcase of Rowell's life and life's work features full- and double-page magnificent color photographs of mountain peaks, icy landscapes, wildlife and remote places from the Arctic and Antarctic to the Himalayas and his native California. (PHT21, $50.00)
	Historical Atlas of the United States  •  Derek Hayes   • REFERENCE • NEW  •  Geographer Hayes assembles an impressive array of original maps in this stunning visual history of America from European discovery and exploration through western expansion, railroads, the growth of cities to Interstates and the Cold War. (USA150, $45.00)
	The Inheritance of Loss  •  Kiran Desai   • LITERATURE • NEW  •  Kiran Desai's luminous family saga, a tale of East and West, shifts between life in a once grand household in northern India and that of the cook's son, struggling to get by in immigrant New York. Desai illuminates the aspirations, delusions and reality of both worlds. (IDA303, $14.00)
	Life, A Journey Through Time  •  Frans Lanting   • EXPLORATION • NEW  •  From fiery eruptions, geysers and stark geology, through single-celled organisms and fish, to the rise of amphibians and reptiles, birds, flowering plants and mammals, this is a splendid tale of biodiversity and wonder. (NAT110, $59.99)
	The Middle Sea, A History of the Mediterranean  •  John Julius Norwich   • HISTORY • NEW  •  A marvelous writer who has already tackled Byzantium, the Normans in Sicily and Venice, Norwich spins his magic in this story of culture, trade and politics, royalty and rulers, wars and religion in the Mediterranean. (MED98, $20.00)
	My Life in France  •  Julia Child   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • NEW  •  Child's characteristically ebullient record of Paris and Provence, her many friends, family and memorable meals, in the years after WWII. (FRN596, $14.95)
	Mysteries of the Middle Ages, The Rise of Feminism, Science And Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe  •  Thomas Cahill   • HISTORY • NEW  •  Cahill deftly evokes the historic glories of the major medieval (and the places they frequented) in this illuminating overview of philosophy, art and literature. (EUR239, $32.50)
	The Naked Tourist, In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall  •  Lawrence Osborne   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • NEW  •  In this entertaining, wide-ranging account of a six-month journey from Dubai to India, Bangkok, Bali and Papua New Guinea on the Asian Highway, Osborne layers his own adventures with ruminations on the meaning of travel. (SEA50, $14.00)
	The Night Watch  •  Sarah Waters   • LITERATURE • NEW  •  Waters gradually reveals her characters in this intricately plotted, atmospheric novel set in London in the 1940s. (GBR681, $15.00)
	Odyssey Guide Three Gorges of the Yangtze River  •  Raynor Shaw   • GUIDEBOOK • NEW  •  Compact, illustrated and up-to-date, this detailed guide focuses on the 120-mile-long Three Gorges section of the Yangtzi, including Chongsing, Yichang and Wuhan. With 12 color maps and diagrams. (CHN368, $21.95)
	Oracle Bones, A Journey Between China's Past and Present  •  Peter Hessler   • HISTORY • NEW  •  In this fine portrait of tumult and tradition, Hessler (River Town) finds clues to modern China's realities in the personal stories of peasants, scholars, day laborers and activists. (CHN316, $15.95)
	Overthrow, America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq  •  Stephen Kinzer   • HISTORY • NEW  •  In this compelling review of American adventures overseas, Kinzer crisply outlines the events, politics and personalities of 14 cases in which America has brought down foreign governments over the last 110 years. (USA148, $16.00)
	The Places in Between  •  Rory Stewart   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • NEW  •  Rory Stewart illuminates the absurdity, plight and peril of war-ravaged Afghanistan in his thrilling, poignant account of a walk across the country from Herat to Kabul in the dead of winter. (MDE100, $14.00)
	The Reindeer People, Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia  •  Piers Vitebsky   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • NEW  •  An anthropologist, Vitebsky captures the hardships, challenges and routines of everyday life on the taiga of northeastern Siberia in this portrait of the Eveny people. (SIB48, $15.95)
	Reluctant Mr. Darwin, An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution  •  David Quammen   • NATURAL HISTORY • NEW  •  Quammen casts his usual magic in this marvelous and marvelously well-written essay on Darwin and his ideas, weaving well-chosen anecdote, solid science and travel. (NAT94, $14.95)
	The Ruby in Her Navel, A Novel of Love and Intrigue in the 12th Century  •  Barry Unsworth   • LITERATURE • NEW  •  Unsworth transports the reader to the 12th century in this richly imagined novel of love and intrigue set in Norman Sicily, where Christian knights, Anatolian belly dancers, Jews and Arabs mix and mingle. (ITL760, $14.95)
	Russian Short Stories  •  Robert Chandler   • LITERATURE • NEW  •  This fine collection of tales captures the sweep and soul of Russian literature, including works by Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Tolstoy along with lesser-known greats. (RUS288, $17.00)
	Scott of the Antarctic, A Life of Courage and Tragedy  •  David Crane   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • NEW  •  In this balanced and dramatic biography, Crane looks at Robert Falcon Scott afresh in the context of Edwardian exploration and empire, showing him to a be flawed hero but a hero nonetheless. (ANT233, $16.95)
	The Secret River  •  Kate Grenville   • LITERATURE • NEW  •  Inspired by the history of her own family, Kate Grenville evokes all the bravado, trickery and conflict over the settlement of New South Wales in her tale of a Thames boatsman banished to the new colony in 1806 (AUS179, $14.00)
	The Spice Route, A History  •  John Keay   • HISTORY • NEW  •  John Keay draws on ancient logs, traveler's accounts and maps for this rousing history of trade in cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, pepper, gums, resins and other costly goods from antiquity to the 17th century. (ASA52, $16.95)
	Under The Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, North Korea and the Kim Dynasty  •  Bradley K. Martin   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • NEW  •  A detailed portrait of Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il, their monstrous egos, appetites and monuments, and of the relationship of North Korea to the rest of the world, by a Newsweek bureau chief. (KOR18, $19.95)
	Whales, Dolphins, and Other Marine Mammals of the World  •  Hadoram Shirihai  •  Brett Jarrett   • FIELD GUIDE • NEW  •  This eye-catching Princeton Field Guide by Shirihai and illustrator Jarrett is noteworthy for its 450 excellent color photographs, range maps and text, all bundled in a compact package. (FG62, $24.95)
	The Whistling Season  •  Ivan Doig   • LITERATURE • NEW  •  Doig's richly textured novel of the Old West revolves around a rancher, a new housekeeper (can't cook but doesn't bite) and her scholarly, mysterious brother, who takes over as schoolteacher in Marias Coulee, Montana. (RKY94, $14.00)
	The World of the Polar Bear  •  Norbert Rosing  •  Ian Stirling   • NATURAL HISTORY • NEW  •  Norbert Rosing provides all new photography for this edition of his sumptuous and informative volume showcasing not only the photogenic bears and their cubs but also the sly Arctic fox, sleek seals, ungainly walruses, myriad seabirds and glimmering aurora borealis. Tracking change over the four seasons, his accompanying essays describe his travels and the natural history of Hudson Bay. (ARC50, $45.00)