Globe Corner Blogs

Bestselling Travel Narrative & Armchair Books of Spring 2010

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1. Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer
by Chuck Thompson
From Bangkok to Bogota, a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel. Travel writer, editor, and photographer Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough.

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2. The Weeping Goldsmith: Discoveries in the Secret Land of Myanmar
by W. John Kress
The Weeping Goldsmith is a memoir of the over nine years that Dr. Kress spent exploring the wilderness of Myanmar in search of rare and beautiful plants, and how he came to appreciate Myanmar’s unique people and culture. The book contains past explorers’ archival photographs as well as 200 of the author’s color photographs of plants, people, landscapes, and temples.

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3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
An international publishing sensation, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

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4. Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire
by Tilar J. Mazzeo
A young witness to the dramatic events of the French Revolution and a new widow during the chaotic years of the Napoleonic Wars, Barbe-Nicole Clicqout Ponsardin defied convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business she and her husband had nurtured.

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5. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
by Eric Weiner
The author takes readers on a whirlwind tour of countries that are quietly pursuing the most American of obsessions – the pursuit of happiness – or, in the crabby author’s case, moments of “un-unhappiness.” Weiner doesn’t profess to know what happiness is, but with a mixture of psychological insight, scientific research, geopolitical analysis and wry humor, he successfully shows us where happiness is.

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6. The Girl Who Played With Fire
by Stieg Larsson
Lisbeth Salander, the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker, is the focus and fierce heart of the story. Mikael Blomkvist – crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium – has decided to publish a story exposing an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government. On the eve of publication, the two reporters responsible for the story are brutally murdered. But perhaps more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander.

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7. La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language
by Dianne Hales
For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language.A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua  is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman’s personal quest to speak fluent Italian.

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8. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
by Stieg Larsson
The third and final novel in Stieg Larsson’s internationally best-selling trilogy. Lisbeth Salander–the heart of Larsson’s two previous novels–lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders.

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9. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens
by Jack Weatherford
The Mongol queens of the thirteenth century ruled the largest empire the world has ever known. Yet sometime near the end of the century, censors cut a section from The Secret History of the Mongols, leaving a single tantalizing quote from Genghis Khan: “Let us reward our female offspring.” Only this hint of a father’s legacy for his daughters remained of a much larger story.

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10. Stories of the Sea: Everyman’s Library Pocket Classics
edited by Diana Secker Tesdell
A gathering of the best maritime fiction from the last two hundred years: tales of shipwrecks, storms at sea, creatures from the deep and voyages that test human limits. Classic adventure stories by Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling and Jack London mix with marvelously imaginative tales by Isak Dinesen, Patricia Highsmith and J. G. Ballard.

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11. Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa
by Dambisa Moyo
Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined – and millions continue to suffer. Debunking the current model of international aid, Dambisa Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing development of the world’s poorest countries.

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12. To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism
by Chuck Thompson
The guru of extreme tourism sets out to face his worst fears in Africa, India, Mexico City, and – most terrifying of all – Disney World. He’s out to discover if some of the world’s most ill-reputed destinations live up to their bad raps, while confronting a few of his own travel anxieties in the process.

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13. Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann
It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in Colum McCann’s intricate portrait of a city and its people.

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14. The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East
by Neil MacFarquhar
In Media Relations, MacFarquhar shares a lesser known side of the region, the story he always wanted to file, showing the daily lives and attitudes of people frequently obscured behind the curtain of violence – the stories of chefs and sex therapists, bloggers and academics struggling to reform on their own terms.

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15. Gringa in Bogotá: Living Colombia’s Invisible War
by June Carolyn Erlick
As an experienced journalist, Erlick lets the things she observes lead her to larger conclusions. The courtesy of people on buses, the absence of packs of stray dogs and street trash, and the willingness of strangers to help her cross an overpass when vertigo overwhelms her all become signs of convivencia – the desire of Bogotanos to live together in harmony despite decades of war.

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16. City of Thieves
by David Benioff
During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a chance by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake.

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17. Strange Maps: Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities
by Frank Jacobs
Spanning many centuries, all continents, and the realms of outer space and the imagination, this collection of 138 unique graphics combines beautiful full-color illustrations with quirky statistics and smart social commentary. The result is a distinctive illustrated guide to the world.

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18. Bicycle Diaries
by David Byrne
Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Two decades ago, he discovered folding bikes and started taking them on tour with his band. The more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation it provided.

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19. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
by Daniyal Mueenuddin
In the spirit of Joyce’s Dubliners and Turgenev’s A Sportsman’s Sketches, Daniyal Mueenuddin’s collection of linked stories illuminates a place and a people through an examination of the entwined lives of landowners and their retainers on the Gurmani family farm in the countryside outside of Lahore, Pakistan.

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20. Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans
by Dan Baum
Nine Lives is a multivoiced biography of this dazzling, surreal, and imperiled city through the lives of nine characters over forty years and bracketed by two epic storms: Hurricane Betsy, which transformed the city in the 1960s, and Katrina, which nearly destroyed it. These nine lives are windows into every strata of one of the most complex and fascinating cities in the world.

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21. Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China
by Jen Lin-Liu
When Lin-Liu decided to enroll in a local cooking school – held in an unheated classroom with nary a measuring cup in sight – she jumped into China’s exploding food scene. In Serve the People, the author gives a memorable and mouthwatering cook’s tour of today’s China as she progresses from cooking student to noodle-stall and dumpling-house apprentice to intern at a chic Shanghai restaurant.

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22. An Atlas of Radical Cartography
edited by Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat
Radical Cartography pairs writers with artists, architects, designers and collectives to address the role of the map as political agent (rather than neutral document). Ten mapping projects dealing with social and political issues such as migration, incarceration, globalization, housing rights, garbage and energy issues are complemented by 10 critical essays and dialogues.

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23. The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
In a city ravaged by war, a musician plays his cello for twenty-two days at the site of a mortar attack, in memory of the fallen. Among the strangers drawn into the orbit of his music are a young father in search of water for his family, an older man in search of the humanity he once knew, a young woman, and a sniper.

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24. The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography
by Katharine Harmon
Maps can be simple tools, comfortable in their familiar form. Or they can lead to different destinations: places turned upside down or inside out, territories riddled with marks understood only by their maker, realms connected more to the interior mind than to the exterior world. These are the places of artists’ maps, that happy combination of information and illusion.

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25. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by David Grann
After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve “the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century”: What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?

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Bestselling Travel Narrative & Armchair Travel Books of 2009

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1. How to Read Buildings: A Crash Course in Architectural Styles
by Carol Davidson Cragoe
This practical primer is a handbook for decoding a building’s style, history, and evolution. Every building contains clues embedded in its design that identify not only its architectural style but also the story of who designed it, who it was built for, and why.

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2. The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris
by Kathleen Flinn
In 2003, Flinn, a 36-year-old American living and working in London, cleared out her savings and moved to Paris to pursue a dream diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.

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3. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
by Eric Weiner
The author takes readers on a whirlwind tour of countries that are quietly pursuing the most American of obsessions – the pursuit of happiness – or, in the crabby author’s case, moments of “un-unhappiness.” Weiner doesn’t profess to know what happiness is, but with a mixture of psychological insight, scientific research, geopolitical analysis and wry humor, he successfully shows us where happiness is.

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4. Morning Glory Farm and the Family That Feeds an Island
written by Tom Dunlop, photographs by Alison Shaw
A beautiful and evocative look at this most traditional of farms, along with 70 favorite Martha’s Vineyard recipes. Enjoy the story of the family that for thirty years has brought healthy, locally grown food to the island.

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5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
In this enthralling international bestseller, two girls live inconspicuous lives in the center of an elegant Paris apartment building. It is only when a stranger moves into their building–and sees through the girls’ disguises–that Paloma and Rene discover their kindred spirits.

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6. Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer
by Chuck Thompson
From Bangkok to Bogota, a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel. Travel writer, editor, and photographer Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough.

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7. Chinglish: Found in Translation
edited by Oliver Lutz Radtke
Chinglish offers a humorous and insightful look at misuses of the English language in Chinese street signs, products, and advertising. A long-standing favorite of English speaking tourists and visitors, Chinglish is now quickly becoming a culture relic.

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8. The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
In a city ravaged by war, a musician plays his cello for twenty-two days at the site of a mortar attack, in memory of the fallen. Among the strangers drawn into the orbit of his music are a young father in search of water for his family, an older man in search of the humanity he once knew, a young woman, and a sniper.

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9. Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lahiri delivers eight dazzling stories that take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.

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10. The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
by Benjamin Wallace
The Billionaire’s Vinegar tells the true story of a 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux – supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson – that sold for $156,000 at auction and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it.

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11. Three Cups of Tea
by Greg Mortenson
One man’s mission to promote peace…one school at a time. The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard.

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12. White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life — having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

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13. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku – the curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations.

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14. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
An international publishing sensation, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

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15. More Chinglish: Speaking in Tongues
edited by Oliver Lutz Radtke
More Chinglish: Speaking in Tongues offers a fresh look at the unintentional but very funny creative misuses of the English language in Chinese street signs, products, and advertising. Enjoy 100 brand-new examples of this unique cultural heritage

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16. My Life in France
by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
This is a delightful memoir of Julia’s years in Paris, Marseille, and Provence. Funny, earthy, forthright – Julia is with us on every page as she relishes the French way of life that transformed her, and us.

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17. The Enchantress of Florence
by Salman Rushdie
The Enchantress of Florence is the story of a mysterious woman, a great beauty believed to possess the powers of enchantment and sorcery, attempting to command her own destiny in a man’s world. It is also the story of two cities at the height of their powers – the hedonistic Mughal capital and the equally sensual city of Florence.

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18. Travelers’ Tales the Best Women’s Travel Writing
edited by Lucy McCauley
From the Travelers’ Tales series. Told by women who traveled the earth to discover new places, people, and facets of themselves.

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19. Bicycle Diaries
by David Byrne
Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Two decades ago, he discovered folding bikes and started taking them on tour with his band. The more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation it provided.

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20. Netherland
by Joseph O’Neill
The author of the New York Times Notable Book Blood-Dark Track delivers a mesmerizing novel about a man trying to make his way in an America of shattered hopes and values, and the unlikely occurrences that pull him back into an authentic, passionately engaged life.

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21. The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History
by Linda Colley
This is a book about a world in a life. Elizabeth Marsh (1735-1785) traveled farther and was more intimately affected by developments across the globe than the vast majority of men. She was the first woman to publish in English on Morocco, and the first to carry out extensive explorations in eastern and southern India.

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22. Best American Travel Writing 2009
edited by Simon Winchester
Acclaimed writer Winchester brings his keen literary eye to this year’s volume of the finest travel writing from the past year, providing a collection that is full of insights, humor, the exotic and distant, and the ordinary and near.

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23. Strange Maps: Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities
by Frank Jacobs
Spanning many centuries, all continents, and the realms of outer space and the imagination, this collection of 138 unique graphics combines beautiful full-color illustrations with quirky statistics and smart social commentary. The result is a distinctive illustrated guide to the world.

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24. The Beer Book
written by Tim Hampton, introduction by Sam Calagione
The world-wide interest in good beer is on the rise, and with it comes a thirst for more knowledge on the subject. The Beer Book offers a wealth of information on all aspects of beer, from its history to popular styles to brewing techniques.

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25. The Lazarus Project
by Aleksandar Hemon
Hemon has turned his talents to an embracing novel that intertwines haunting historical atmosphere and detail with sharp, shimmering and sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking contemporary storytelling.

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Top Selling Travel Narrative and Armchair Travel Books

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1. Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities
by Frank Jacobs
Spanning many centuries, all continents, and the realms of outer space and the imagination, this collection of 138 unique graphics combines beautiful full-color illustrations with quirky statistics and smart social commentary. The result is a distinctive illustrated guide to the world.

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2. Boston Noir
edited by Dennis Lehane
In keeping with the Akashic Noir series tradition, each story in Boston Noir is set in a different neighborhood of the city–the impressively diverse collection extends from Roxbury to Cambridge, from Southie to the Boston Harbor, and all stops in between.

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3. The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
by Benjamin Wallace
The Billionaire’s Vinegar tells the true story of a 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux – supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson – that sold for $156,000 at auction and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it.

. . .

. . .

4. The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
In a city ravaged by war, a musician plays his cello for twenty-two days at the site of a mortar attack, in memory of the fallen. Among the strangers drawn into the orbit of his music are a young father in search of water for his family, an older man in search of the humanity he once knew, a young woman, and a sniper.

. . .

. . .

5. How to Read Buildings: A Crash Course in Architectural Styles
by Carol Davidson Cragoe
This practical primer is a handbook for decoding a building’s style, history, and evolution. Every building contains clues embedded in its design that identify not only its architectural style but also the story of who designed it, who it was built for, and why.

. . .

6. The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire
by Tilar J. Mazzeo
A young witness to the dramatic events of the French Revolution and a new widow during the chaotic years of the Napoleonic Wars, Barbe-Nicole Clicqout Ponsardin defied convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business she and her husband had nurtured.

. . .

. . .

7. Bicycle Diaries
by David Byrne
Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Two decades ago, he discovered folding bikes and started taking them on tour with his band. The more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation it provided.

. . .

8. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
by Eric Weiner
The author takes readers on a whirlwind tour of countries that are quietly pursuing the most American of obsessions – the pursuit of happiness – or, in the crabby author’s case, moments of “un-unhappiness.” Weiner doesn’t profess to know what happiness is, but with a mixture of psychological insight, scientific research, geopolitical analysis and wry humor, he successfully shows us where happiness is.

. . .

9. The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris
by Kathleen Flinn
In 2003, Flinn, a 36-year-old American living and working in London, cleared out her savings and moved to Paris to pursue a dream diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.

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10. 6 Billion Others: Portraits of Humanity from Around the World
by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
The latest project from bestselling photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, 6 Billion Others presents the photographic portraits and transcribed responses of 500 men and women, interviewed on video over the past six years. This understated yet compelling look at ways of life both familiar and strange creates an instructive, affecting biography of modern humanity.

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11. City of Thieves
by David Benioff
During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a chance by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake.

. . .

12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
An international publishing sensation, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

. . .

. . .

13. My Life in France
by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
This is a delightful memoir of Julia’s years in Paris, Marseille, and Provence. Funny, earthy, forthright – Julia is with us on every page as she relishes the French way of life that transformed her, and us.

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14. Paris Underground: The Maps, Stations, and Design of the Métro
By Mark Ovenden
In this follow-up to Transit Maps of the World, Ovenden now turns his attention to the famous Paris transit system with its inimitable Art Nouveau inspired stations and Art Deco signs. This overstuffed book — packed with vintage maps, photographs and posters — is a train spotter’s delight.

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15. Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer
by Chuck Thompson
From Bangkok to Bogota, a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel. Travel writer, editor, and photographer Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough.

. . .

16. State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America
edited by Sean Wilsey & Matt Weiland
Inspired by the example of the legendary WPA American Guide series of the 1930s and ’40s, now 50 of our foremost writers have produced original pieces of reportage and memoir that capture the 50 states in our time, creating a fresh portrait of America as it lives and breathes today.

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17. Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters
by Ted Gioia
Tracing the history of the Delta blues from the field hollers and plantation music of the nineteenth century to the exploits of modern-day musicians in the Delta tradition, Delta Blues tells the full story of this timeless and unforgettable music.

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18. Sibley Guide to Trees
by David Allen Sibley
Similar in size and format to The Sibley Guide to Birds, this illustrated guide identifies more than 600 tree species in North America.

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19. The Way of the World
illustrated by Thierry Vernet, text by Nicolas Bouvier
In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had money to last them a few months and a Fiat to take them where they were going, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination.

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20. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
by Daniyal Mueenuddin
In the spirit of Joyce’s Dubliners and Turgenev’s A Sportsman’s Sketches, Daniyal Mueenuddin’s collection of linked stories illuminates a place and a people through an examination of the entwined lives of landowners and their retainers on the family farm in the countryside outside of Lahore, Pakistan.

. . .

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21. Stones into Schools
by Greg Mortenson
Picking up where Three Cups of Tea left off in late 2003, Stones into Schools traces the Central Asia Institute’s efforts to work in a new area, the secluded northeast corner of Afghanistan.

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22. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall
McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons where a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners shares their secrets.

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23. Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way
by Peter Kaminsky & Francis Mallmann
A trailblazing chef reinvents the art of cooking over fire. Gloriously inspired recipes push the boundaries of live-fired cuisine in this primal yet sophisticated cookbook introducing the incendiary dishes of South America’s biggest culinary star.

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24. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
In this enthralling international bestseller, two girls live inconspicuous lives in the center of an elegant Paris apartment building. It is only when a stranger moves into their building–and sees through the girls’ disguises–that Paloma and Rene discover their kindred spirits.

. . .

. . .

25. The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography
by Katharine Harmon
Maps can be simple tools, comfortable in their familiar form. Or they can lead to different destinations: places turned upside down or inside out, territories riddled with marks understood only by their maker, realms connected more to the interior mind than to the exterior world. These are the places of artists’ maps, that happy combination of information and illusion.

. . .

Top Travel Narrative & Armchair Travel Books

. . .

1. Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake delivers eight dazzling stories that take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.

. . .

. . .

2. How to Read Buildings: A Crash Course in Architectural Styles
by Carol Davidson Cragoe
This practical primer is a handbook for decoding a building’s style, history, and evolution. Every building contains clues embedded in its design that identify not only its architectural style but also the story of who designed it, who it was built for, and why.

. . .

. . .

3. The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
In a city ravaged by war, a musician plays his cello for twenty-two days at the site of a mortar attack, in memory of the fallen. Among the strangers drawn into the orbit of his music are a young father in search of water for his family, an older man in search of the humanity he once knew, a young woman, and a sniper.

. . .

. . .

4. The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris
by Kathleen Flinn
In 2003, Flinn, a 36-year-old American living and working in London, cleared out her savings and moved to Paris to pursue a dream diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.

. . .

. . .

5. The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
by Benjamin Wallace
The Billionaire’s Vinegar tells the true story of a 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux – supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson – that sold for $156,000 at auction and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it.

. . .

. . .

6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

. . .

. . .

7. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
by Eric Weiner
Weiner doesn’t profess to know what happiness is, but with a beguiling mixture of psychological insight, scientific research, geopolitical analysis and wry humor, he successfully shows us where happiness is.

. . .

. . .

8. Marco Polo Didn’t Go There
by Rolf Potts
Marco Polo Didn’t Go There is more than just an entertaining journey into fascinating corners of the world. The book is a unique window into travel writing, with each chapter containing a “commentary track” – endnotes that reveal the ragged edges behind the experience and creation of each tale.

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9. My Life in France
by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
This is a delightful memoir of Julia’s years in Paris, Marseille, and Provence. Funny, earthy, forthright – Julia is with us on every page as she relishes the French way of life that transformed her, and us.

. . .

. . .

10. Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer
by Chuck Thompson
From Bangkok to Bogota, a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel. Travel writer, editor, and photographer Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough.

. . .

. . .

11. Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way
by Peter Kaminsky & Francis Mallmann
A trailblazing chef reinvents the art of cooking over fire. Gloriously inspired recipes push the boundaries of live-fired cuisine in this primal yet sophisticated cookbook introducing the incendiary dishes of South America’s biggest culinary star.

. . .

. . .

12. Kilimanjaro: A Photographic Journey to the Roof of Africa
photographs by Hiltrud Schulz, text by Michel Moushabeck
Moushabeck and Schulz invite you along as they explore and climb Mount Kilimanjaro. In this book they capture the essence of this majestic mountain with over 200 full-color photographs and a narrative that smoothly ties together personal observations with the mountain’s history, its people and its ecology.

. . .

. . .

13. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
by Haruki Murakami
An intimate look at writing, running, and the incredible way they intersect. While simply training for New York City Marathon would be enough for most people, Murakami decided to write about it as well. The result is a memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing.

. . .

. . .

14. Bicycle Diaries
by David Byrne
Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Two decades ago, he discovered folding bikes and started taking them on tour with his band. The more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation it provided.

. . .

. . .

15. World Heritage Sites: A Complete Guide to 878 UNESCO World Heritage Sites
The first book that full describes every official UNESCO World Heritage site – the world’s most extraordinary places – covers 141 countries and highlights the fascinating facts of almost 900 properties, including 20 in America and 15 in Canada.

. . .

. . .

16. The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography
by Katharine Harmon
Maps can be simple tools, comfortable in their familiar form. Or they can lead to different destinations: places turned upside down or inside out, territories riddled with marks understood only by their maker, realms connected more to the interior mind than to the exterior world. These are the places of artists’ maps, that happy combination of information and illusion.

. . .

17. Gourmet Rhapsody
by Muriel Barbery
In the heart of Paris, the greatest food critic in the world, is dying. Monsieur Arthens has been lording over the world’s most esteemed chefs for years. But now, during his final hours, his mind has turned to simpler things. He is desperately searching for that singular flavor, that sublime something once sampled, never forgotten, “the Flavor” par excellence.

. . .

. . .

18. Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire
by Tilar J. Mazzeo
A young witness to the dramatic events of the French Revolution and a new widow during the chaotic years of the Napoleonic Wars, Barbe-Nicole Clicqout Ponsardin defied convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business she and her husband had nurtured.

. . .

. . .

19. The Prospector
by Jean-Marie Gustave L Clézio
Years after his father’s death, Alexis becomes obsessed with the idea of finding the Corsair’s treasure and, through it, the lost magic and opulence of his youth. He abandons job and family, setting off on a quest that will take him from remote tropical islands to the hell of World War I, and away from a love affair.

. . .

. . .

20. Paris Underground
by Mark Ovenden
In this follow-up to the sensational Transit Maps of the World, Ovenden now turns his attention to the famous Paris transit system with its inimitable Art Nouveau inspired stations and Art Deco signs.

. . .

. . .

21. Morning Glory Farm and the Family That Feeds an Island
written by Tom Dunlop, photographs by Alison Shaw
A beautiful and evocative look at this most traditional of farms, along with 70 favorite Martha’s Vineyard recipes. Enjoy the story of the family that for thirty years has brought healthy, locally grown food to the island.

. . .

. . .

22. Other
by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Looking at the concept of the Other through the lens of his own encounters in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and considering its formative significance for his own work, Kapuscinski traces how the West has understood the Other from classical times to colonialism, from the age of enlightenment to the postmodern global village.

. . .

. . .

23. Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China
by Fuschia Dunlop
When award-winning food writer Dunlop lived in China, she vowed to eat everything she was offered, no matter how alien or bizarre. This work is a unique, evocative account of Chinese culinary culture.

. . .

. . .

24. Sibley Guide to Trees
by David Allen Sibley
Similar in size and format to “The Sibley Guide to Birds,” this illustrated guide identifies more than 600 tree species in North America.

. . .

. . .

25. Stones of Aran: Labyrinth
by Tim Robinson
Robinson’s ambition is to find out both what it is to know a landscape extensively and intimately as possible and what it takes to make that knowledge, the sense of the landscape itself, come alive in writing.

. . .

1.   Montréal & Québec City Guide (Lonely Planet)

2.   Eyewitness Guide Ireland

3.   Eyewitness Guide Barcelona & Catalonia

4.   Frommer’s Paris 2009

5.   Morocco Guide (Lonely Planet)

6.   Nova Scotia Guide (Lonely Planet)

7.   Rick Steves’ Italy’s Countryside DVD

8.   Eyewitness Top 10 London

9.   Iceland Guide (Lonely Planet)

10. Landscapes of Sorrento, Amalfi, and Capri (Sunflower)

11. Egypt Guide (Lonely Planet)

12. Green Guide Spain (Michelin)

13. Italy Guide (Lonely Planet)

14. Rick Steves’ Paris 2009

15. Tanzania Guide (Lonely Planet)

16. Barcelona Guide (Lonely Planet)

17. Bradt Guide to Ghana

18. Frommer’s Northern Italy’s Best Loved Driving Tours

19. Eyewitness Guide Paris

20. Green Guide Scotland (Michelin)

21. India Guide (Lonely Planet)

22. Japan Guide (Lonely Planet)

23. Time Out Seville & Andalucía

24. Rough Guide to Ireland

25. Rough Guide to The Yucatán

Top Travel Narrative & Armchair Travel Books

. . .

1. How to Read Buildings: A Crash Course in Architectural Styles
by Carol Davidson Cragoe
This practical primer is a handbook for decoding a building’s style, history, and evolution. Every building contains clues embedded in its design that identify not only its architectural style but also the story of who designed it, who it was built for, and why.

. . .

2. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
In this enthralling international bestseller, two girls live inconspicuous lives in the center of an elegant Paris apartment building. It is only when a stranger moves into their building–and sees through the girls’ disguises–that Paloma and Rene discover their kindred spirits.

. . .

. . .

3. Morning Glory Farm: and the Family That Feeds an Island
written by Tom Dunlop, photographs by Alison Shaw
A beautiful and evocative look at this most traditional of farms, along with 70 favorite Martha’s Vineyard recipes. This is the story of the family that for thirty years has brought healthy, locally grown food to the island.

. . .

. . .

4. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
by Eric Weiner
Weiner doesn’t profess to know what happiness is, but with a beguiling mixture of psychological insight, scientific research, geopolitical analysis and wry humor, he successfully shows us where happiness is.

. . .

. . .

5. The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris
by Kathleen Flinn
In 2003, Flinn, a 36-year-old American living and working in London, cleared out her savings and moved to Paris to pursue a dream diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.

. . .

. . .

6. Netherland
by Joseph O’Neill
The author of the New York Times Notable Book Blood-Dark Track delivers a mesmerizing novel about a man trying to make his way in an America of shattered hopes and values, and the unlikely occurrences that pull him back into an authentic, passionately engaged life.

. . .

. . .

7. Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer
by Chuck Thompson
From Bangkok to Bogota, a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel. Travel writer, editor, and photographer Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough.

. . .

8. The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
In a city ravaged by war, a musician plays his cello for twenty-two days at the site of a mortar attack, in memory of the fallen. Among the strangers drawn into the orbit of his music are a young father in search of water for his family, an older man in search of the humanity he once knew, a young woman, and a sniper.

. . .

. . .

9. Chinglish: Found in Translation
edited by Oliver Lutz Radtke
Chinglish offers a humorous and insightful look at misuses of the English language in Chinese street signs, products, and advertising. A long-standing favorite of English speaking tourists and visitors, Chinglish is now quickly becoming a cultural relic.

. . .

10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku – the curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations.

. . .

11. The Lazarus Project
by Aleksandar Hemon
Hemon has turned his talents to an embracing novel that intertwines haunting historical atmosphere and detail with sharp, shimmering and sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking contemporary storytelling.

. . .

. . .

12. Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
by Jennifer 8 Lee
New York Times reporter and American-born Chinese, Jennifer 8 Lee traces the history of Chinese-American experience through the lens of the food in a compelling blend of sociology and history.

. . .

. . .

13. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

. . .

. . .

14. Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake delivers eight dazzling stories that take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.

. . .

. . .

15. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
by Haruki Murakami
An intimate look at writing, running, and the incredible way they intersect. While simply training for New York City Marathon would be enough for most people, Murakami decided to write about it as well. The result is a beautiful memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid memories and insights.

. . .

. . .

16. My Mercedes Is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou…An Auto-Misadventure Across the Sahara
by Jeroen Van Bergeijk
This book captures more than the adventure: it vividly portrays the impact of globalization on Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture.

. . .

. . .

17. Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
by Benjamin Wallace
The Billionaire’s Vinegar tells the true story of a 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux–supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson–that sold for $156,000 at auction and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it. Was it truly entombed in a Paris cellar for two hundred years? Or did it come from a secret Nazi bunker? Or from the moldy basement of a devilishly brilliant con artist?

. . .

18. Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Through crystalline examination of hard facts, Sachs predicts the cascade of crises that awaits this crowded planet and presents a program of sustainable development and international cooperation that will correct this dangerous course.

. . .

. . .

19. The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious–And Perplexing–City
by David Lebovitz
Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever since he first visited the city. He finally moved there, but soon discovered it’s a different world “en France.” From the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men’s footwear, Lebovitz tells how he came to love the glorious and sometimes maddening city.

. . .

20. The White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life — having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

. . .

21. The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History
by Linda Colley
This is a book about a world in a life. Elizabeth Marsh (1735-1785) traveled farther and was more intimately affected by developments across the globe than the vast majority of men. She was the first woman to publish in English on Morocco, and the first to carry out extensive explorations in eastern and southern India.

. . .

22. Travel As a Political Act
by Rick Steves
One of the world’s most famous travel writers shows how international travel can foster cultural understanding, peace, and help individuals tackle their own insecurities and fears.

. . .

. . .

23. Zeitoun
by Dave Eggers
When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and business. In the days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared.

. . .

24. Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China
by James Fallows
The ten essays collected here cover a wide range of topics: from visionary tycoons and TV-battling entrepreneurs, to environmental pollution and how China subsidizes our economy. Fallows explains the economic, political, social, and cultural forces at work turning China into a world superpower at breakneck speed.

. . .

25. My Life in France
written by Julia Child, with Alex Prud’homme
This memoir of Julia’s years in Paris, Marseille, and Provence opens with Paul and Julia–a tall, wide-eyed girl from Pasadena who can’t cook and doesn’t speak a word of French–disembarking in Le Havre, and ends with the launching of the two Mastering cookbooks and Julia winning the heart of America as “The French Chef.”

. . .

Top Travel Narrative & Armchair Travel Books

. . .

1. The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry
by Kathleen Flinn
In 2003, Flinn, a 36-year-old American living and working in London, cleared out her savings and moved to Paris to pursue a dream diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.

. . .

. . .

2. How to Read Buildings: A Crash Course in Architectural Styles
by Carol Davidson Cragoe
This practical primer is a handbook for decoding a building’s style, history, and evolution. Every building contains clues embedded in its design that identify not only its architectural style but also the story of who designed it, who it was built for, and why.

. . .

3. The Geography of Bliss
by Eric Weiner
Eric Weiner takes readers on a whirlwind tour of countries that are quietly pursuing the most American of obsessions: the pursuit of happiness. Weiner doesn’t profess to know what happiness is, but with a mixture of psychological insight, scientific research, geopolitical analysis and wry humor, he successfully shows us where happiness is.

. . .

4. Chinglish: Found in Translation
edited by Oliver Lutz Radtke
Chinglish offers a humorous and insightful look at misuses of the English language in Chinese street signs, products, and advertising. A long-standing favorite of English speaking tourists and visitors, Chinglish is now quickly becoming a cultural relic.

. . .

5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
In this enthralling international bestseller, two girls live inconspicuous lives in the center of an elegant Paris apartment building. It is only when a stranger moves into their building–and sees through the girls’ disguises–that Paloma and Rene discover their kindred spirits.

. . .

. . .

6. The Flaneur: A Stroll Through The Paradoxes of Paris
by Edmund White
A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through a city without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the place and in covert search of adventure, aesthetic or erotic. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, taking us into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians.

. . .

7. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku – the curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations.

. . .

. . .

8. Travels with a Tangerine
by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Captivated by the great Arab explorer Ibn Battutah’s account of his journey, the Arabic scholar and award-winning travel writer Tim Mackintosh-Smith set out to follow in the peripatetic Moroccan’s footsteps.

. . .

9. Three Cups of Tea
by Greg Mortenson
One man’s mission to promote peace…one school at a time. The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard.

. . .

. . .

10. Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake delivers eight dazzling stories that take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.

. . .

11. White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life — having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

. . .

12. The Travels of Ibn Battutah
edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Ibn Battutah set out on a 29 year long pilgrimage to Mecca from Morocco in 1325. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian, and occasional botanist and gastronome. Mackintosh-Smith brings to life these adventures in an abridged version of Battutah’s Travels.

. . .

. . .

13. Travelers’ Tales the Best Women’s Travel Writing
edited by Lucy McCauley
From the Travelers’ Tales series. Stories told by women who traveled the earth to discover new places, people, and facets of themselves.

. . .

. . .

14. The Enchantress of Florence
by Salman Rushdie
The Enchantress of Florence is the story of a mysterious woman, a great beauty believed to possess the powers of enchantment and sorcery, attempting to command her own destiny in a man’s world. It is the story of two cities at the height of their powers: the hedonistic Mughal capital and the equally sensual city of Florence during the High Renaissance.

. . .

15. The Grand Tour: Travelling the World with an Architect’s Eye
by Harry Seidler
Including many of the world’s most famous architectural structures, Seidler’s photographs illustrate the history and style of architecture in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. Divided into chapters by country, each with a brief introduction outlining its architectural history, The Grand Tour offers the opportunity to browse the buildings of the world through one man’s photographs

. . .

16. Postcards from Tomorrow Square
by James Fallows
Since December 2006, The Atlantic Magazine‘s James Fallows has been writing some of the most discerning accounts of the economic and political transformation occurring in China. The ten essays collected here cover a wide range of topics: from visionary tycoons and TV-battling entrepreneurs, to environmental pollution and how China subsidizes our economy.

. . .

17. Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer
by Chuck Thompson
From Bangkok to Bogota, a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel. Travel writer, editor, and photographer Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough.

. . .

18. The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the English
by Sarah Lyall
Sarah Lyall, a reporter for The New York Times, moved to London in the mid-1990s. She came to terms with its eccentric inhabitants (the English husband who never turned on the lights, the legislators who behaved like drunken frat boys, the hedgehog lovers, the people who extracted their own teeth), and found she had a ringside seat at a singular transitional era in British life.

. . .

19. My Mercedes Is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou…An Auto-Misadventure Across the Sahara
by Jeroen Van Bergeijk
This book captures more than the adventure: it vividly portrays the impact of globalization on Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture.

. . .

. . .

20. The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History
by Linda Colley
Elizabeth Marsh (1735-1785) traveled farther and was more intimately affected by developments across the globe than the vast majority of men. Her career illumines shifting patterns of Western power and overseas aggression. Yet the unprecedented expansion of connections across continents occurring during her lifetime also ensured that her ideas and personal relationships were shaped repeatedly by events and people beyond Europe.

. . .

21. Yemen the Unknown Arabia
by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Yemen is arguably the most fascinating and least known country in the Arab world. Crossing mountain, desert, ocean, and three millennia of history, Mackintosh-Smith reveals a land that, in the words of a contemporary poet, has become the dictionary of its people. In Yemen: The Unknown Arabia we witness the extraordinary in the ordinary.

. . .

22. Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by David Grann
After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve “the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century”: What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?

. . .

23. A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes
by David Tanis
This is the book for anyone who wants to gather and feed friends around a table and nurture their conversation. It’s not about showing off with complicated techniques and obscure ingredients. Worlds away from the showy Food Network personalities, Tanis believes that the most satisfying meals–for both the cook and the guest–are invariably the simplest.

. . .

24. The Prospector
by J.M.G. Le Clézio
Alexis loses his idyllic life with his family on the island of Mauritius upon the death of his father. Years later he becomes obsessed with finding the legendary Unknown Corsair’s treasure, and through that the lost magic and opulence of his youth.

. . .

. . .

25. A Culinary Traveller in Tuscany: Exploring & Eating Off the Beaten Track
by Beth Elon
Elon takes us along the back roads and through the ancient hill towns to remote restaurants that are for the most part overlooked by tourists and known only to the locals. At each restaurant the cooks share their highly personal recipes for regional dishes made with local ingredients.

. . .

More Chinglish--by Oliver Lutz Radtke

Stop everything. This is important. Very important. In fact, you may want to be sitting down. I don’t want to exaggerate, but the word “life-changing” may very well apply. Deep breaths. Okay, ready?

A new edition of Chinglish – appropriately titled More Chinglish – has just arrived. I know. Now, you may be thinking, “Does this mean that the old one is not available anymore?” Good question. I can hear the panic in your voice, but, dear Reader, you don’t need to worry. Chinglish was the number one best-selling book of 2008 for our store; it’s not going anywhere. Oliver Lutz Radtke’s new book More Chinglish has a place on our display table next to the original, some might say classic, Chinglish. More Chinglish was in the store for mere minutes before it started eliciting giggles and guffaws from browsers. And the staff have already made a dent in our inventory numbers. Continue Reading »

Top Travel Narrative & Armchair Travel Books of 2008

…

1. Chinglish: Found in Translation
by Oliver Lutz Radtke
Chinglish offers a humorous and insightful look at misuses of the English language in Chinese street signs, products, and advertising. A long-standing favorite of English speaking tourists and visitors, Chinglish is now quickly becoming a culture relic.

…

2. Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer
by Chuck Thompson
From Bangkok to Bogota, a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel. Travel writer, editor, and photographer Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough.

…

3. Transit Maps of the World
written by Mark Ovenden, edited by Mike Ashworth
Transit Maps of the World is the first and only comprehensive collection of historic and current maps of every rapid-transit system on earth. Using glorious, colorful graphics, Mark Ovenden traces the history of mass transit – including rare and historic maps, diagrams, and photographs, some available for the first time since their original publication.

…

4. The Widow Clicquot
by Tilar J. Mazzeo
In The Widow Clicquot, Tilar J. Mazzeo brings to life – for the first time – the fascinating woman behind the iconic yellow label: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin. She was a daring and determined entrepreneur, a bold risk taker, and an audacious and intelligent woman who took control of her own destiny when fate left her on the brink of financial ruin.

…

5. Three Cups of Tea
by Greg Mortenson
One man’s mission to promote peace…one school at a time. The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard.

…

…

6. The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the English
by Sarah Lyall
Sarah Lyall, a reporter for The New York Times, moved to London in the mid-1990s. She came to terms with its eccentric inhabitants (the English husband who never turned on the lights, the legislators who behaved like drunken frat boys, the hedgehog lovers, the people who extracted their own teeth), and found she had a ringside seat at a singular transitional era in British life.

…

7. The Flaneur: A Stroll Through The Paradoxes of Paris
by Edmund White
A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through a city without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the place and in covert search of adventure, esthetic, or erotic. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, taking us into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians.

…

8. My Life in France
by Julia Child, with Alex Prud’homme
This delightful memoir of Julia’s years in Paris, Marseille, and Provence opens with Paul and Julia – a tall, wide-eyed girl from Pasadena who can’t cook and doesn’t speak a word of French – disembarking in Le Havre, and ends with the launching of the two Mastering cookbooks and with Julia winning the heart of America as “The French Chef.”

…

…

9. Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson
Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on one fateful summer.

…

…

10. Landmark Herodotus: The Histories
written by Herodotus, edited by Robert B. Strassler
Ten years in the making, The Landmark Herodotus gives us a new translation by Andrea L. Purvis that makes this remarkable work of literature more accessible than ever before. Illustrated, annotated, and filled with maps, this edition also includes twenty-one appendices written by scholars at the top of their fields.

…

…

11. God’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre
by Richard Grant
Part gonzo misadventure, part cultural history, God’s Middle Finger explores a fascinating land–the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico–where few outsiders are foolish enough to venture.

…

…

12. The Conde Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys: Great Writers on Great Places
Travel writing maintains its seemingly endless popularity, and this volume offers a particularly transporting body of work, pairing exotic locales with writers of the highest caliber.

…

…

13. Eat Memory: Great Writers at the Table, A Collection of Essays from the New York Times
edited by Amanda Hesser
New York Times Magazine food editor Amanda Hesser has showcased the food-inspired recollections of some of America’s leading writers in the magazine. Eat, Memory collects the twenty-six best stories and recipes to accompany them.

…

14. Travelers’ Tales the Best Women’s Travel Writing 2008
edited by Lucy McCauley
This title presents stimulating, inspiring, and just plain wild adventures from women who have traveled to the ends of the earth to discover new places, peoples, and facets of themselves. The common threads connecting these stories are a woman’s perspective; fresh, lively storytelling; and compelling narrative that makes the reader laugh, weep, wish she was there, or be glad she wasn’t.

…

15. Shadow of the Silk Road
by Colin Thubron
Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart and camel, the author travels from the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, the mythic progenitor of the Chinese people, to the ancient port of Antioch– in perhaps the most difficult and ambitious journey he has undertaken in forty years of travel.

…

…

16. Islamic Design: A Genius for Geometry
by David Sutton
Focusing on Islamic geometric patterns, simple and complex, man-made and in nature, this book offers unique insight into Islamic culture. Harmony is central.

…

…

17. Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lahiri delivers eight dazzling stories that take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.

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18. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
by Eric Weiner
The author takes readers on a whirlwind tour of countries that are quietly pursuing the most American of obsessions – the pursuit of happiness – or, in the crabby author’s case, moments of “un-unhappiness.” Weiner doesn’t profess to know what happiness is, but with a mixture of psychological insight, scientific research, geopolitical analysis and wry humor, he successfully shows us where happiness is.

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19. When a Crocodile Eats the Sun
by Peter Godwin
Award winning author and journalist Peter Godwin writes with pathos and intimacy about Zimbabwe’s spiral into chaos and, along with it, his family’s steady collapse.

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20. The 10 Best of Everything: An Ultimate Guide for Travelers
by National Geographic
Scores of experts name the 10 best islands, poshest pubs and polo clubs, best things to do on Sundays afternoons in the world’s best cities, and a treasure trove of musts for the high-end traveler or anyone who aspires to be.

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21. Walking the Gobi
by Helen Thayer
At the age of 63, Helen Thayer fulfilled her lifelong dream of crossing Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. Walking the Gobi takes readers on a trip through a little-known landscape and introduces them to the culture of the nomadic people whose ancestors have eked out an existence in the Gobi for thousands of years.

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22. The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World
by Steven Kazlowski
Over the course of the last six years, wildlife photographer Steven Kazlowski has photographed the polar bear in its wild habitat, from Hershel Island in Canada to Point Hope in Alaska. The Last Polar Bear pairs his intimate images with anecdotes about his Arctic adventures, as well as authoritative essays about the polar bear in the context of climate change.

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23. What Is the What
by Dave Eggers
What Is the What is a novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children–the so-called Lost Boys–was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom.

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24. Metro Stop Paris
by Gregor Dallas
Metro Stop Paris recounts the extraordinary and colorful history of the City of Light, by way of twelve Metro stops–-a voyage across both space and time. At each stop a Parisian building, or street, or tomb, or landmark sparks a story that holds particular significance for that area of the city.

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25. Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar
by Paul Theroux
Thirty years after his classic work The Great Railway Bazaar, one of the world’s most acclaimed travel writers recreates his 25,000-mile journey through eastern Europe, central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia. In the three decades since Theroux made this trip, the world he recorded in that book has undergone phenomenal change.

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Three Cups of Tea --by Greg Mortenson

With so much to say about such a remarkable and now so popular story, it’s hard to know where to start. Before he set about single-handedly changing the landscape of northern Pakistan (work that, some contend, will eventually earn him the Nobel Peace Prize), author Greg Mortenson was a climbing enthusiast. It was after a failed and traumatic attempt at K2 that he first stumbled upon the small village of Korphe in the Baltistan region of Pakistan. Touched by the poverty, wisdom and kindness of the Korphe village, Mortenson’s life-path changed literally overnight and he committed himself to building a school for this unknown village. And the rest is history… Well, not exactly.

“The rest” is actually the remarkable story that is retold in Three Cups of Tea. Already from the cover anyone can see that Mortenson accomplished something great – the “#1 New York Times Bestseller” caption is one clue, the Kiriyama Prize Winner seal and the Tom Brokaw blurb are two more. But what the cover doesn’t reveal, and what no friend can properly relay to you (because  by now most know someone that has read this book and felt compelled to talk about it),  is just how hard Mortenson had to work to build the first school, not to mention the subsequent fifty.

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