In Britain, AA Gill is a household word, as an exceedingly popular restaurant and media critic for the Times of London. He hates to travel, but his readers love it when he does, because he so frequently comes back with a hilarious, intricately observed report. This book is a collection of those essays. The range is staggering -- included are reports from famine-plagued Sudan, Tokyo, Scotland, Tanzania and the Kalahari, and Los Angeles where he investigates the adult-film (AKA porn) industry. Gill manages to be both very funny and very moving throughout this book: no mean feat. One caveat: despite the introduction written specifically for an American audience, these essays remain very British, with a fair amount of mystifying slang.  (TVL76, $14.00)

Best of 2005