Our favorite books of 2004.

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	The Accidental Connoisseur, An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World  •  Lawrence Osborne FOOD •  2005 •  PAPER  • 262 PAGES Oh, what a quest -- and what great fun. Osborne journeys across the world to places like Provence, Tuscany and Sonoma on an animated quest of what makes wine and what makes it good. He stops by New York, San Francisco, Paris, Florence, and Rome to see what people are drinking. He meets plenty of interesting characters along the way (like Robert Mondavi), revealing much about the pleasures of wine (and travel!) We're hoping for a southern hemisphere sequel. (TVL31, $14.00)
	The Alhambra  •  Robert Irwin ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 224 PAGES In this brief, indispensable guide, Irwin introduces the stunning Moorish palace and fortress complex, revealing its mysteries, myths and significance with wit and insight. He opens with a romantic description of the fairytale structure, which he then deliciously demolishes. Includes a detailed floor plan, sketches and aerial photographs. A volume in the Harvard University Press series, Wonders of the World. Irwin is a British novelist and Islamic scholar. (SPN226, $19.95)
	Birds & Mammals of the Antarctic, Subantarctic & Falkland Islands  •  Frank Todd FIELD GUIDE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 138 PAGES • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE Polar pioneer, penguinologist and popular lecturer Frank Todd covers all the marine mammals and birds of the Southern Ocean in this gorgeously illustrated compact field guide. Each species gets several color photographs, dramatically presented, alongside key features and distribution notes. Frank Todd's experience -- and collection of photographs -- is legendary (though even he admits sorting out all those prions, diving-petrels and other tubenoses is nearly impossible). This terrific book will give you a fighting chance. (ANT213, $29.95)
	Birds Without Wings  •  Louis De Bernieres LITERATURE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 480 PAGES Louis De Bernieres offers sweeping historical scope, memorable characters, drama, and many new vocabulary words in this stupendous novel set in Anatolia during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He interweaves a tale of family with the history of the rise of Ataturk, much about the decline of religious tolerance -- and a dazzling centerpiece in which a young townsman fights his way across Gallipoli. It's a big book, ambitious, generous and satisfying. (TKY91, $15.95)
	The Birth of Venus, A Novel  •  Sarah Dunant LITERATURE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 397 PAGES This tasty tale of art, passion, politics and danger, memorably set in Renaissance Florence in the days after the death of the powerful Lorenzo de Medici in 1492, comes to us from British novelist, broadcaster and critic Sarah Dunant, who brings her experience as the creator of the private investigator Hannah Wolfe to this new era. The malevolent political reformer (and zealot) Girolamo Savonarola figures prominently -- and even Michelangelo makes an appearance. Not surprisingly, Dunant divides her time between London and Florence, which she so vividly depicts. A runaway bestseller. (ITL532, $13.95)
	Evolution, The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory  •  Edward Larson NATURAL HISTORY •  2006 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and historian Edward Larson examines the multifaceted history of the scientific theory which has had such an impact on twentieth century thought. Larson begins his study before Darwin, with the scientific breakthroughs of the French Revolution, and then examines Darwin's work and its effects, from the age of Social Darwinism up to present day genetics and evolutionary studies. He focuses on the social and political controversies that have surrounded evolutionary theory, particularly in the United States. (NAT64, $14.95)
	Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World  •  Jack Weatherford BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2005 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES In this revisionist biography, Weatherford refurbishes the popular image of the great Mongol leader Genghis Khan, portraying him not just as a tyrant but also a religiously tolerant family man and entrepreneur on a world scale (not to mention military genius and crack administrator). The book is a lively portrait of Genghis Khan and the world of the Medieval Mongols, who once ruled the largest land empire on Earth. Weatherford, who has lived and studied in Mongolia, interweaves his own travels and field work on the Central Asian steppes, much of it on horseback. Professor Weatherford is a cultural anthropologist who teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul. (CAS106, $14.95)
	The Lawrence Durrell Travel Reader  •  Lawrence Durrell  •  Clint Willis TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 405 PAGES Durrell's intoxicating reflections on Greece and the Mediterranean, collected here in one volume, edited by Clint Willis. With chapters on Corfu, Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily, Delphi and Provence (where he lived for 33 years until his death in 1990) it's drawn from Durrell's four island books: Prospero's Cell, Reflections on a Marine Venus, Bitter Lemons and Sicilian Carousel. The book leads off with a 1960 essay, Landscape and Character. With a nicely detailed table of contents but oddly lacking illustrations, maps or an index. (GRE186, $15.00)
	Lords and Lemurs  •  Alison Jolly TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 310 PAGES An overview of the people, history and wildlife of Berenty, a reserve on the Mandrare river in Madagascar's thorny south, by a favorite author. This wonderful, personal book is subtitled "Mad Scientists, Kings With Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar." Lemurologist Alison Jolly looks back on a lifetime of research and friendship among the Malagasy in this surprisingly personal account of her field work. She weaves tales of sifakas, lepilemurs and their kind with stories of the neighboring Tandroy people, and the formidable Monsieur de Heaulme, who had the foresight to set aside the land as a reserve. (MAD37, $25.00)
	Lost in My Own Backyard, A Walk in Yellowstone National Park  •  Tim Cahill TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 160 PAGES Tim Cahill (who, as advertised, lives at Yellowstone's doorstep) brings his talents closer to home as he mixes tales of walks, hikes and three good backcountry treks with history, lore and gee-whiz wonder in this inspiring entry in the Crown Journeys series. (USW430, $16.95)
	A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, The Life of William Dampier  •  Michael Preston  •  Diana Preston EXPLORATION •  2005 •  HARD COVER  • 384 PAGES A marvelously well researched, absorbing biography of the 17th century English explorer, sea captain naturalist and buccaneer. Long our favorite pirate, it's a pleasure to see the accomplishments of the swashbuckler laid out so effectively. A master navigator and map-maker, Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times, wrote a series of best-selling books, and reached Australia 80 years before Captain Cook. (GBR436, $27.00)
	The Secret Life of Lobsters, How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of our Favorite Crustacean  •  Trevor Corson SCIENCE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 299 PAGES In this tasty book investigative journalist Corson unravels the social behavior of lobster and lobstermen on Little Cranberry Island in the Gulf of Maine. It's an entertaining, informative jaunt into the minds of lobster and those who study and catch them. Corson is a terrific writer and the basic conflcit between scientists and lobsterman over quotas is compelling. More rewarding, however, is Corson's indepth look into the social behavior of these strange (and strangely abundant) crustaceans. He includes in the appendix "How to Cook a Lobster." (USE340, $13.95)
	The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific  •  J. Maarten Troost TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES Dragged unwittingly with his wife to Kiribati, the author settled down to explore the island, its eccentric inhabitants, issues and challenges in this hilarious, disturbing first book. The account details his misadventures with pollution, angry dogs and other island disasters. It's hardly paradise. This isolated group of 33 atolls was known as the Gilbert Islands until independence from Britain in 1979. (PAC146, $12.95)
	The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen  •  Hans Christian Andersen  •  Diana Crone Frank  •  Jeffrey Frank LITERATURE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 293 PAGES • FAMILY A newly refurbished (and handsomely produced) collection of twenty-two tales, adroitly re-translated by Diana and Jeffrey Frank and with the original illustrations by Vilhelm Pedersen and Lorenz Froelich. The translators provide a 40-page introduction on the real H.C. Andersen, notes and an annotated bibliography. Best of all, the lively new translation captures the oddball charm, surprising syntax and colloquial simplicity of the original Danish (or so we believe after perusing stilted previous translations). (DMK27, $21.95)
	William Clark and the Shaping of the West  •  Landon Y. Jones BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2005 •  PAPER  • 408 PAGES Jones, who is author of the Essential Lewis & Clark and Vice President of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, combines first-rate scholarship and storytelling in this vivid tale of the American frontier. (USW437, $15.00)

	National Geographic Atlas of the World  •   National Geographic   • REFERENCE  •  We like this popular atlas for its exceptionally readable type and the instantly familiar map style made famous by the magazine. The regional maps are particularly good, many with information about expeditions and attractions. (GEN05, $165.00)
	Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945  •  Frederick Taylor   • HISTORY  •  A re-evaluation of the Allied firebombing of Dresden, one of the most destructive, and still controversial, air campaigns of WWII. (GER145, $15.95)
	Solovki, The Story of Russia Told Through Its Most Remarkable Islands  •  Roy Robson   • HISTORY  •  A remarkable amount of Russian history has played out among these remote arctic islands in Russia's White Sea. Robeson traces the story of the Solovetski Archipelago from settlement by early monks, though its 17th-century expansion into one of the largest monasteries in the world and its 20th-century infamy as fortress and prison camp. (SIB41, $30.00)
	The Man Who Would Be King, The First American in Afghanistan  •  Ben Macintyre   • HISTORY  •  The extraordinary tale of Josiah Harlan, a 19th-century American soldier and spy in Afghanistan, based on the remarkable character's long-lost diary. (CAS110, $14.00)
	Waterfront, A Journey Around Manhattan  •  Philip Lopate   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  Essayist and consummate New Yorker, Philip Lopate pulls in history, ecology, archaeology, literature and urban planning in this delightful, discursive account of his rambles along the water's edge of Manhattan. (NYC113, $15.95)
	Art & Architecture of Cambodia  •  Helen Ibbitson Jessup   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  This compact, illustrated volume in the "World of Art" series focuses on the breathtaking Hindu and Buddhist temples of Cambodia and the Khmer civilization. (CBD41, $16.95)
	A Death in Brazil  •  Peter Robb   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Peter Robb (Midnight in Sicily) flourishes his masterly combination of travel, politics, culture and history on the subject of Brazil in all its complexity. This book is impressive for its prose, insight and the author's sheer bravura. (BZL43, $15.00)
	Cork Boat, A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built  •  John Pollack   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  This endearing tale of family, loss and friendship revolves around a deliciously absurd childhood quest to build a boat of cork and sail it 133 miles on Portugal's Douro River. (PGL42, $14.95)
	Spanish Recognitions, The Roads to the Present  •  Mary Lee Settle   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  A magical, meditative account of Spanish history, art, archaeology and travels from Castile to the southern coast. (SPN205, $15.95)
	Stalin, The Court of the Red Tsar  •  Simon Sebag Montefiore   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  An enthralling, comprehensive portrait of Joseph Stalin and his court, drawing on archival material and interviews with surviving figures. At 800 pages, there is ample room for personal and anecdotal information about Stalin. (RUS228, $19.95)
	Americans in Paris, A Literary Anthology  •  Adam Gopnik   • ANTHOLOGY  •  This wide-ranging anthology includes early impressions by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, as well as by a generous sampling of 20th-century literary masters. (FRN427, $40.00)
	Odysseus, A Life  •  Charles Rowan Beye   • LITERATURE  •  A chronicle of the life of Homer's Odysseus by a classicist with a wry sense of humor. Beye draws on recent scholarship, literature and archaeology in constructing this clever "biography" of the cunning wanderer. (GRE191, $13.95)
	Waking Raphael  •  Leslie Forbes   • LITERATURE  •  This literary thriller, set in painter Raphael's hometown of Urbino, follows the fate of an art historian mixed up in local affairs. (ITL536, $14.00)
	Under Antarctic Ice  •  Norbert Wu  •  Jim Maestro   • NATURAL HISTORY  •  The 140 color photographs in this book features Wu's impressive collection of Antarctic photography, including not just sponges, jellyfish, and sea urchins but also Weddel seals, emperor and Adelie penguins, and orcas. (ANT211, $45.00)

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