Adrift (A Junket Junkie In Europe) by Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu Meet Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu: Self-professed travel enthusiast (her motto,"have money, will travel" is almost respectable), fiercely independent, thirty -something, single, and endowed with a wry sense of humour. She is not lost. She is not queuing up to find herself. She is not going away to connect with the voice wthin. Nor is she on the path to self- discovery. On the contrary, this seasoned traveller is merely making a long overdue Pause in Europe, taking an entire fun- filled summer to press play again.Read More...Hide Pages: 106
Beyond the Three Seas: Travellers´ Tales from Mughal India by Michael H.Fisher Many of the European travellers that visited Mughal India left behind enthralling accounts of their experiences. Beyond the Three Seas is a collection of the best of these writings, starting from the mid fifteenth century and spanning two hundred years. There are stories of hunting with the emperor Akbar and his blindfolded panthers; of being stripped penniless in Surat and fleeing from angry villagers in Bengal in the middle of the night; descriptions of the Mughal roadside sarais, trying paan for the first time and of the lax morals of Indian women. The travellers themselves could not be more different: from the god-fearing, petulant Russian, Afanasy Nikitin to the Portuguese Father Antonio Monserrate desperately trying to convert Akbar to the plucky eighteen-year-old Venetian Niccolao Manucci who finds himself a patron in Dara Shukoh. Full of colour, detail and the occasional tall story, rarely has Mughal India been brought so vividly and fascinatingly alive.Read More...Hide Pages: 198
American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri Levy What does it mean to be an American, and what can America be today? To answer these questions, celebrated philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy spent a year traveling throughout the country in the footsteps of another great Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America remains the most influential book ever written about our country.
The result is American Vertigo, a fascinating, wholly fresh look at a country we sometimes only think we know. From Rikers Island to Chicago mega-churches, from Muslim communities in Detroit to an Amish enclave in Iowa, Lévy investigates issues at the heart of our democracy: the special nature of American patriotism, the coexistence of freedom and religion (including the religion of baseball), the prison system, the -return of ideology- and the health of our political institutions, and much more. He revisits and updates Tocqueville's most important beliefs, such as the dangers posed by "the tyranny of the majority,"explores what Europe and America have to learn from each other, and interprets what he sees with a novelist's eye and a philosopher's depth.
Through powerful interview-based portraits across the spectrum of the American people, from prison guards to clergymen, from Norman Mailer to Barack Obama, from Sharon Stone to Richard Holbrooke, Lévy fills his book with a tapestry of American voices-some wise, some shocking. Both the grandeur and the hellish dimensions of American life are unflinchingly explored. And big themes emerge throughout, from the crucial choices America faces today to the underlying reality that, unlike the "Old World," America remains the fulfillment of the world's desire to worship, earn, and live as one wishes'a place, despite all, where inclusion remains not just an ideal but an actual practice.
At a time when Americans are anxious about how the world perceives them and, indeed, keen to make sense of themselves, a brilliant and sympathetic foreign observer has arrived to help us begin a new conversation about the meaning of America.Read More...Hide Pages: 308 Accolades New York Times Best Seller
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America-majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you're going to take a hike, it's probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaing guide you'll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way-and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).Read More...Hide Pages: 394
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson Bill Bryson adores it, of course, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond the beaten tourist path. Here is a place where interesting things happen all the time, from a Prime Minister lost--yes, lost--while swimming at sea to Japanese cult members who may have set off an atomic bomb (sic) entirely unnoticed on their 500,000-acre property in the great western desert.
Wherever he goes (and Bryson goes just about everywhere) he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging--the beaming products of a land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine. On occasion the Aborigines, a remote and mysterious race with a tragic history, make a haunting appearance in this book. But by and large Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide. Published just in time for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, In a Sunburned Country offers the best of all possible introductions to what may well be the best of all possible nations. Even with those jellyfish.Read More...Hide Pages: 325
The Call of the Weird by Louis Theroux For ten years Louis Theroux has been making programmes about off-beat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to try to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and to find out what has happened to them since he last saw them. Along the way Louis thinks about what drives him to spend so much time among weird people, and considers whether he's learned anything about himself in the course of ten years working with them.
Has he manipulated the people he's interviewed, or have they manipulated him? From his Las Vegas base, Louis revisits the assorted dreamers and outlaws who have been his TV feeding ground. Attempting to understand a little about himself and the workings of his own mind, Louis considers questions such as: What is the difference between pathology and 'normal' weirdness? Is there something particularly weird about Americans? What does it mean to be weird, or 'to be yourself'? And do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us?Read More...Hide Pages: 288
India with Sanjeev Bhaskar by Sanjeev Bhaskar Sanjeev Bhaskar, the comedian and writer behind The Kumars at No. 42 embarks on an epic and highly personal journey through modern India. Sanjeev's characteristic humour and unique take on the country form the heart of this beautifully written travel book that became a Sunday Times bestseller in hardback when it accompanied his BBC series.
Exotic and diverse, richly colourful and endlessly complex ? India is one of the most exciting countries to visit in the world today. Sanjeev Bhaskar of Goodness Gracious Me has visited his Indian relations there over many years, but this is his chance to delve deeper into what makes this country so fascinating, perplexing and often challenging to visit. As Sanjeev travels from Delhi to Bombay, Jaipur to Calcutta, he meets ordinary and extraordinary Indian people from every background, and brings his natural warmth and sense of humour to these encounters. Although often baffled by the eccentricities of India, our endearingly good-natured guide never fails to find humour in these situations. Sanjeev's India is also a personal journey as Sanjeev meets old relatives who reveal their moving and often traumatic stories of Indian's turbulent and bloody past, and comes to understand a little more about his own roots. During his trip Sanjeev is invited to a middle-class wedding in Delhi as well as witnessing the poverty of the slums in the Calcutta backstreets. He wryly observes the polo-playing Maharajah jet-set in Jaipur as well as the kitsch of Bombay Bollywood, and experiences the Ganges lit up by a million floating candles for the ancient ritual of Diwali as well as the majestic colonial architecture of the British Raj. With such an engaging and thoughtful travelling companion, we find ourselves going beyond the clichés to reveal a country steeped in history yet at the forefront of new technology, at once confusing, astonishing and jaw-droppingly beautiful.Read More...Hide Pages: 266
Well-Known travel writer Bill Aitken was fifty years old when he first got on a bike.An then he choose to attempt the near impossible-a solo motorcycle ride across the Himalya and the Sahyadri,the most challenging mountain ranges of India.Over the next ten years,Aitken traversed practically the whole country,from Garhwal to Arunachal,and from Ladakh to Kanyakumari.In this book he relives the high points of his extraordinary romance with hills:an unexpected encounter with a hungry leopard in the jungles of Himachal,a last-minute rescue from the fury of the Brahmaputra by the Boarder Roads Organization,an exhilirating ride through the beautifully regimented tea gardens of Assam and Kerala,and above all,the spellbending beauty and grandeur of the natural landscape.
We read of apathetic bureaucrats and surly porters,confused policemen ignorant of government rules,and brave Border Roads personnel who risk their lives practically every day on the job.For those who might wish to follow a similar trail,the author also goes into the mechanics of bike-riding,discussing the best ways of keeping rider and machine in top gear.
Wonderfully descriptive and often startlingly insightful,Riding the Ranges:Travel on My Motorcycle is not only the record of a journey but the account of one man's attempt to comprehend teh cultural complexity of the nation he has made his income.Read More...Hide Pages: 271
My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere by Susan Orlean In My Kind of Place, Susan Orlean takes readers on a series of remarkable journeys in this uniquely witty, sophisticated, and far-flung travel book. In this irresistible collection of adventures far and near, Orlean conducts a tour of the world via its subcultures, from the heart of the African music scene in Paris to the World Taxidermy Championships in Springfield, Illinois, and even into her own apartment, where she imagines a very famous houseguest taking advantage of her hospitality.
With Orlean as guide, lucky readers partake in all manner of armchair activity. They will climb Mt. Fuji and experience a hike most intrepid Japanese have never attempted; play ball with Cuba?s Little Leaguers, promising young athletes born in a country where baseball and politics are inextricably intertwined; trawl Icelandic waters with Keiko, everyone's favorite whale as he tries to make it on his own; stay awhile in Midland, Texas, hometown of George W. Bush, a place where oil time is the only time that matters; explore the halls of a New York City school so troubled it's known as "Horror High"; and stalk caged tigers in Jackson, New Jersey, a suburban town with one of the highest concentrations of tigers per square mile anywhere in the world.
Vivid, humorous, unconventional, and incomparably entertaining, Susan Orlean's writings for The New Yorker have delighted readers for over a decade. My Kind of Place is an inimitable treat by one of America's premier literary journalists.Read More...Hide Pages: 302
House of the Tiger King by Tahir Shah In 1572, The Spanish Conquistadors stormed the Inca stronghold of Vilcamba in Peru,searching for treasure,only to find the city deserted,burned and stripped of its wealth.Myth has it that the Incas had retreated deep into the jungle where they built a magnificent, secret city.For centuries,adventurers and archaeologists have searched teh lost city, known locally as "The House of the Tiger King".
Falling victim to his obsession himself,Tahir Shah selects a motley team of desperados to explore the dense jungle in search of the lost city.As his thrilling but ultimately hapless quest unfolds,Shah is drawn to considering why such legends are so enduring.Read More...Hide Pages: 211
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