The Big Red Train Ride  •  Eric Newby TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 267 PAGES • FAVORITE • COMING IN Newby's marvelous account of speeding across Russia with wife Wanda on the Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Khabarovsk recalls the joys, frustrations and oddities of remote Russia during the Brezhnev years. With photographs by the Newbys. (RUS140, $18.95)
On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers  •  Kate Marsden TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES • COMING IN Certainly one of the most outlandish of the Victorian travelogues, this classic chronicles Marsden's 3,000-mile journey from St. Petersburg to the Viluisk leper colony in Siberia. Marsden, who had nursed Russian soldiers in Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish war, seems to have been fired by missionary zeal, dispensing religion, tea and bandages as though they were all three medical supplies. Her book is a lively tale of adventure and a fascinating report on Siberia (not to mention 19-century attitudes toward leprosy). First published in 1893. (RUS138, $16.95)
Irkutsk, Lake Baikal Map  •  Russian Government MAP • COMING IN A city map of Irkutsk, with an odd map of Lake Baikal (but not the surrounding roads or topography). Published in Irkutsk, key place names are transliterated with some features in Cyrillic only. Travel information is presented in Cyrillic and English. (SIB17, $10.00)
Across Arctic America, Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition  •  Knud Rasmussen EXPLORATION •  1999 •  PAPER  • 415 PAGES • COMING IN A facsimile edition of Rasmussen's 1927 account of a 20,000-mile journey by dogsled across the top of North America. Published in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Fifth Thule Expedition. With black-and-white photographs and maps. (ARC90, $24.95)
Open Lands, Travels Through Russia's Once Forbidden Places  •  Mark Taplin TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 376 PAGES • COMING IN An information officer posted at the U.S. embassy in Moscow in 1992, Taplin jumped at the chance to visit the regions of Russia suddenly thrown open to the West. Off he goes to gulags, Siberian archipelagos, Kamchatka and Vladivostok in this witty travelogue that mixes journalism, social commentary and history. (RUS62, $18.00)
Baikal, Sacred Sea of Siberia  •  Boyd Norton  •  Peter Matthiessen NATURAL HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER • COMING IN The handsome diary of an expedition, combining 50 striking color photographs by Boyd Norton and illuminating text by the incomparable Peter Matthiessen, a portrait of the world's oldest and deepest freshwater lake and the industrialization that threatens its future. It's as big as Belgium. With excerpts on the history and biology of Baikal and translations of Buryat myths and folklore. A portion of the royalties go to Baikal Watch. (SIB02, $18.00)