Passage to India   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Essential Books These 4 items are available for $72, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXIDA272)		  
India  •  Stanley Wolpert
HISTORY •  2009 •  PAPER  • 281 PAGES
A wonderfully literate introduction to India by the acknowledged master. Author of 14 books and a professor of history since 1958, Wolpert distills a tremendous amount of information in this detailed overview, tackling the environment, religion and philosophy, the arts and sciences, domestic and foreign policy and culture. (IDA04, $24.95)		   India
Taj Mahal  •  Giles Tillotson  •  Mary Beard
ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 190 PAGES
This pocket book in Harvard's Wonders of the World series is a guide and witty meditation on the place of the Taj Mahal in the cultural imagination of India and the wider world. An art historian, Tillotson demolishes myths about the structure ("the queen of architecture"), its history and meaning. (IDA528, $19.95)		   Taj Mahal
Mirrorwork, 50 Years of Indian Writing 1947-1997  •  Salman Rushdie  •  Elizabeth West
ANTHOLOGY •  1997 •  PAPER  • 554 PAGES
This choice anthology -- published in celebration of 50 years of Independence -- includes both fiction and non-fiction by Jawaharlal Nehru, R.K. Narayan, Satyajit Ray, Amit Chaudhuri and Vikram Seth. Selected by Rushdie and Elizabeth West, the collection begins with begins with Nehru's Tryst with Independence, his most famous speech. (IDA293, $19.99)		   Mirrorwork, 50 Years of Indian Writing 1947-1997
India Map  •  ITMB
2009 •  MAP
A double-sided shaded relief map of India at the excellent scale of 1:2,100,000, printed on tear and waterproof paper. With an index, it shows major roads, rivers, and locations of national parks. Two Sides. 27x40 inches. (IDA18, $12.95)		   India Map



Also Recommended

Culture Smart! India  •  Becky Stephen   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A concise, well-illustrated guide to both social and business customs in India. (IDA298, $9.95)
 		  
Eyewitness Guide Delhi, Agra and Jaipur  •  Anuradha Chaturvedi   • GUIDEBOOK  •  With chapters on Taj Mahal, Amber Fort Palace, Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Red Fort and dozens of other highlights for the traveler, this compact, gorgeously illustrated guide to Delhi and its environs features 900 color photographs, maps and site plans. (IDA151, $25.00)
 		  
India Safari Companion  •  Alain Pons   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A colorful, illustrated slim guide to wildlife, photography and travel in India. (IDA371, $14.95)
 		  
Lonely Planet India Phrasebook  •  Omkar Koul   • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS  •  A handy palm-sized guide. (IDA538, $10.99)
 		  
Love Mumbai  •  Fiona Caulfield   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This beautifully made, affectionate guide, packaged in its own satchel of locally woven cloth or khadi and printed on hand-made paper, captures the soul of the city, pointing with authority to neighborhoods, shops, markets, restaurants and attractions. 3rd Edition. (IDA389, $50.00)
 		  
City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi  •  William Dalrymple   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • FAVORITE  •  Dalrymple infectiously interweaves his own experiences over a year in Delhi with the art, architecture, history and literature of the city. (IDA06, $16.00)
 		  
In Spite of the Gods, The Strange Rise of Modern India  •  Edward Luce   • HISTORY  •  Luce tackles the challenges and reality of the world's largest democracy with insight and balance in this portrait of a nation in transition. (IDA349, $16.00)
 		  
India Unveiled  •  Robert Arnett   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A celebration of the people, landscapes and traditional culture of India, organized regionally and featuring 268 beautiful color photographs. It's a revealing, insightful portrait of the country combining history, geography and travelogue. (IDA107, $55.00)
 		  
India, A Wounded Civilization  •  V.S. Naipaul   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A vivid and unsentimental cultural portrait that draws together conversations with Indians, news reports, politics and literature, paying particular attention to the Hindu confrontation with the West. (IDA224, $12.95)
 		  
May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, A Journey Among the Women of India  •  Elisabeth Bumiller   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A wonderfully written and fascinating portrayal of Indian women from Bollywood stars to Indira Gandhi to prostitutes. It's an insightful portrait of the country as seen through the eyes of its women. (IDA37, $14.95)
 		  
Indian Art, A Concise History  •  Roy C. Craven   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  This convenient volume in the acclaimed "World of Art" series is a crisp, illustrated overview of the range of Indian art over the centuries. (IDA16, $21.95)
 		  
Taj Mahal  •  M.C. Joshi  •  Jean-Louis Nou  •  Amina Okada   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  This lavish portrait features 158 full-color photographs (including four magnificent foldout panels) by the extraordinary Jean-Louis Nou. With grand exterior views, filigreed inscriptions and bejeweled floral mosaics. (IDA108, $75.00)
 		  
Taj Mahal, Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire  •  Diana Preston  •  Michael Preston   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  A vivid narrative history of the creation of the Taj Mahal, a memorial created by Moghul emperor Shah Jahan for his beloved wife. (IDA340, $16.95)
 		  
The Ajanta Caves, Ancient Paintings of Buddhist India  •  Benoy Behl   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  A beautifully photographed overview of the ancient murals and paintings of the life of Buddha carved into a hillside in western India. (IDA316, $34.95)
 		  
A Princess Remembers, The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur  •  Devi Gayatri   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE  •  The memoirs of an extraordinary life. Widow of the Maharaja of Jaipur, member of parliament and a fascinating character, Gayatri recalls growing up in the palace compound, marrying the Maharaja, her political triumphs and work on behalf of education in India. (IDA149, $39.95)
 		  
An Autobiography, Or the Story of My Experiments with Truth  •  Mohandas K. Gandhi   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  There is no substitute for reading Gandhi in his own simple, direct prose. A highly recommended glimpse into the personality and life of this remarkable figure. (IDA163, $10.95)
 		  
Slowly Down the Ganges  •  Eric Newby   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  In 1963, the author and his wife set out an a 1,200-mile voyage down the Ganges River. The title could apply as easily to the ruminative attitude Newby takes towards his journey as to the many mishaps which bedevil the quest. (IDA179, $18.95)
 		  
A Fine Balance  •  Rohinton Mistry   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  Set in Indira Gandhi's "Emergency Raj" of 1975 in an unnamed Indian "city by the sea," which bears a striking resemblance to Bombay, this tender novel follows the intermingled fortunes of a Parsi widow, her boarder and two tailors. (IDA92, $17.00)
 		  
Kim  •  Rudyard Kipling   • LITERATURE  •  For the sheer pleasure of its prose, insight into the British in India and its extraordinary sense of place, you can't do better than Kipling's classic novel about a boy who travels the Grand Trunk Road with the Dalai Lama. (IDA65, $9.00)
 		  
Malgudi Days  •  R. K. Narayan   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  Wonderful tales from one of India's foremost writers about a fictional South Indian town, populated by quirky characters whose unique approaches to tradition and modernity are the stuff of great short stories. (IDA59, $15.00)
 		  
Midnight's Children  •  Salman Rushdie   • LITERATURE • FAVORITE  •  Crowned Best of the Booker in 2008, Rushdie's greatest novel is a madcap, comic take on the birth of modern India in all its splendid and unexpected manifestations. (IDA12, $16.00)
 		  
The God of Small Things  •  Arundhati Roy   • LITERATURE  •  This luminous, Booker-prize winning novel is part mystery, part family saga -- a tale of lost innocence set in Kerala during the tumult of the 1960s. (IDA31, $16.00)
 		  
The White Tiger, A Novel  •  Aravind Adiga   • LITERATURE  •  Mordant, funny, angry, horrifying, this Booker Prize-winning tale of a village pauper turned success (and murderer) skewers the ambition, inequity and corruption of 21st-century India. (IDA542, $15.00)
 		  
Travelers' Tales India  •  James O'Reilly  •  Larry Habegger   • ANTHOLOGY  •  A collection of 45 descriptive and thought-provoking short excerpts on Indian life and culture, including contributions from Rushdie, Naipaul and Dalrymple, plus some valuable excerpts from books long out of print. (IDA05, $19.95)
 		  
Wild India, The Wildlife of India and Nepal  •  Guy Mountefort  •  Gerald Cubitt   • NATURAL HISTORY  •  An informative introduction to the natural history of the region in a handsome oversize volume. With hundreds of extraordinary photographs of the wildlife and landscapes of the Himalayas, the Indo-Ganges Plain and the Deccan. (IDA02, $29.95)
 		  
Birds of India  •  Richard Grimmett  •  Carol Inskipp  •  Tim Inskipp   • FIELD GUIDE  •  Thoroughly revised, with 73 new plates and many others updated or repainted, the second edition of the masterful Birds of India now features all maps and text opposite the plates for quicker and easier reference. (FG43, $39.50)
 		  
Mammals of India  •  Vivek Menon   • FIELD GUIDE  •  A Princeton Field Guide edition of Menon's authoritative survey of 400 mammalian species from tropical lowlands to the Himalayas. With large, clear photographs, range maps and introductory chapters on the groups of mammals, conservation and protected areas. (IDA546, $35.00)
 		  
 
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