Notes From A Big Country : Journey Into The American Dream

Bill Bryson has the rare knack of being out of his depth wherever he goes - even (perhaps especially) in the land of his birth. This became all too apparent when, after nearly two decades in England, the world's best-loved travel writer upped sticks with Mrs Bryson, little Jimmy et al. and returned to live in the country he had left as a youth. Of course there were things Bryson missed about Blighty but any sense of loss was countered by the joy of rediscovering some of the forgotten treasures of his childhood: the glories of a New England autumn; the pleasingly comical sight of oneself in shorts; and motel rooms where you can generally count on being awakened in the night by a piercing shriek and the sound of a female voice pleading, 'Put the gun down, Vinnie, I'll do anything you say.' Whether discussing the strange appeal of breakfast pizza or the jaw-slackening direness of American TV, Bill Bryson brings his inimitable brand of bemused wit to bear on that strangest of phenomena - the American way of life.

Countdown

On 11 May 1998 the Indian government tested five nuclear devices some forty kilometers from Pokaran. Seventeen days later Pakistan tested nuclear devices of its own. About three months after the tests, Amitav Ghosh went to the Pokaran area, after which he visited Kashmir as part of the defense minister???s entourage. He also went to the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram Mountains where Indian and Pakistani soldiers have been exchanging fire since 1983. Ghosh then travelled through Pakistan and Nepal. Countdown is partly a result of these journeys and conversations with many hundreds of people of the subcontinent.

In An Antique Land

Packed with anecdote and exuberant detail, In an Antique Land provides magical and intimate insights into Egypt from the Crusades to Operation Desert Storm. It exposes the indistinguishable and intertwining ties that bind together India and Egypt, Hindus and Muslims and Jews. By combining fiction, history, travel writing and anthropology, to create a single seamless work of imagination, Ghosh characteristically makes us rethink the political boundaries that divide the world and the generic boundaries that divide narratives.

From The Holy Mountain

In his third book william dalrymple has dug deep to present the case of the middle easts downtrodden christians more hard-hitting than either of his previous books, from the holy mountain is driven by indignation while leavened with his characteristic jauntiness and humour, it is also profoundly shocking time and time again in the details of dalrymples discoveries i found myself asking: why do we not know this? the sense of unsung tragedy accumulates throughout the chapters of this book from the holy mountain is the most rewarding sort of travel book, combining flashes of lightly-worn scholarship with a powerful sense of place and the immediacy of the best journalism but more than that it is a passionate cri de coeur for a forgotten people which few readers will be able to resist-philip marsden, spectator

Everybody Loves A Good Drought

The human face of poverty The poor in India are, too often, reduced to statistics. In the dry language of development reports and economic projections, the true misery of the 312 million who live below the poverty line, or the 26 million displaced by various projects, or the 13 million who suffer from tuberculosis gets overlooked. In this thoroughly researched study of the poorest of the poor, we get to see how they manage, what sustains them, and the efforts, often ludicrous, to do something for them. The people who figure in this book typify the lives and aspirations of a large section of Indian society, and their stories present us with the true face of development.

Chasing The Monk's Shadow : A Journey in The Footsteps of Xuanzang

An Indian woman with a China craze, a Chinese monk with an Indian obsession; we had the same schizophrenia, the monk and I. It seemed logical to take the same road.' In the seventh century AD, the Chinese monk Xuanzang (earlier spelt as Hiuen Tsang or Hsuan Tsang) set off on an epic journey to India to study Buddhist philosophy from the Indian masters. Travelling along the Silk Road, through the desolate wastes of the Gobi desert and the icy passes of Central Asia, braving brigands and blizzards, Xuanzang finally reached India, where his spiritual quest took him to Buddhist holy places and monasteries throughout the subcontinent. By the time he returned to China eighteen years later, carrying with him nearly 600 scriptures which he translated from Sanskrit into Chinese, Xuanzang had covered an astonishing 10,000 miles. He also left a detailed record of his journey, which remains a valuable source of historical information on the regions he traversed. Fourteen hundred years later, Mishi Saran follows in Xuanzang's footsteps to the fabled oasis cities of China and Central Asia, and the Buddhist sites and now-vanished kingdoms in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan that Xuanzang wrote about. Travelling seamlessly back and forth in time between the seventh century and the twenty-first, Saran uncovers the past with consummate skill even as she brings alive the present through her vivid and engaging descriptions of people and places. Her gripping chronicle includes an extraordinary eyewitness account of Kabul under the Taliban regime, just one month before 9/11. Running parallel to the account of her travels is the moving story of the author's inner journey towards a new understanding of her roots and her identity. With its riveting mix of lively reportage, high adventure, historical inquiry and personal memoir, this delightfully written book is a path-breaking travelogue.

The Rise And Fall of Nations

The crisis of 2008 ended the illusion of a golden era in which many people imagined that prosperity and political calm would continue to spread indefinitely. In a world now racked by slowing growth and mounting unrest, how can we discern which nations will thrive and which will fail? Shaped by prize-winning author Ruchir Sharma's twenty-five years travelling the world, The Rise and Fall of Nations rethinks economics as a practical art. By narrowing down the thousands of factors that can shape a country's future, it spells out ten clear rules for identifying the next big winners and losers in the global economy. Each rule looks at a nation's political, economic, and social conditions in real time to filter out the hype and noise. He shows, for example, how slow population growth is eroding economic growth, and ranks nations by how well they respond. He describes the way cycles of political complacency and revolt fuel economic booms and busts. Amid growing tensions over inequality, he demonstrates how billionaire lists yield clues to which economies are most or least threatened by extreme wealth. In a period when the world is struggling with trillions of dollars in new debt, he explains which nations are most likely to avert this threat or buckle under it. Sharma's rules are based on the data he has collected over many years at Morgan Stanley Investment Management in New York, where he is now Head of Emerging Markets and Chief Global Strategist. This is a book of original research, not mere opinion. The final chapter takes the reader on a surprising world tour of the likely winners and losers in the near future. The Rise and Fall of Nations is enlivened by Sharma's stories from the road and his encounters with presidents, tycoons, and villagers from Rio to Beijing. It is a pioneering field guide to understanding our impermanent world.

Maximum City : Bombay Lost And Found

Bombay's story, told through the lives, often desperately near the edge, of some of the people who live there. The complex texture of these extraordinary tales is threaded together by Suketu Mehta's own history of growing up in Bombay and returning to live there after a 21-year absence. Hitmen, dancing girls, cops, movie stars, poets, beggars and politicians - Suketu looked at the city through their eyes, and in looking found the city within himself

Tibet, Tibet : A Personal History of a Lost Land

Tibet has long fascinated the West, but what really lies beyond our romantic image of a Buddhist mountain kingdom of peace and spirituality? Travelling through the country, French meets warrior monks, nomads and a nun secretly fighting Chinese communist rule, but also young Tibetans with a more pragmatic attitude to their situation. Interweaving these encounters with little-known stories of war and turmoil from Tibet's past, he reveals a more nuanced, fascinating and surprising picture of this complex place than any other book has done.'Mixes a compelling subject, magnificent prose and deep understanding' The Times'Inspired and heartfelt ... shows that Tibet was never the peace-loving paradise so many generations of well-wishers have longed for it to be' Pico Iyer, Los Angeles Times 'Tibet, Tibet, so good they named it twice ... French is a writer of generous talents' Sunday Timesn 'French has produced something very different from what he calls "Tibetophile" literature, something greatly superior in its honesty and lack of false sentiment' Spectator 'A gripping mix of history, travel writing and personal memoir ... vividly told' Observer

Lady And The Monk

A beautifully written book about someone looking for ancient dreams in a strange modern place'??? Los Angeles Times Book Review When Pico Iyer decided to go to Kyoto and live in a monastery, he did so to learn about Zen Buddhism from the inside, to get to know Kyoto, one of the loveliest old cities in the world, and to find out something about Japanese culture??? not the world of businessmen and production lines, but the traditional world of changing seasons and the silence of temples, of the images woven through literature, of the lunar Japan that still lives on behind the rising sun of geopolitical power. All this he did. And then he met Sachiko. Vivacious, attractive, thoroughly educated, speaking English enthusiastically if eccentrically, the wife of a Japanese `salaryman', who seldom left the office before 10 p.m., Sachiko was as conversant with tea ceremony and classical Japanese literature as with rock music, Goethe and Vivaldi. With the lightness of touch that made Video Night in Kathmandu so captivating, Pico Iyer fashions from their relationship a marvelously ironic yet heartfelt book that is at once a portrait of cross-cultural infatuation??? and misunderstanding??? and a delightfully fresh way of seeing both the old Japan and the very new.

Three - Quarters of a Footprint: Travels in South India

I travelled with Mrs Trivedi from Madras to Bangalore, overnight on the mail train. ???First class this time so that you are not overwhelmed???. It was my second night in India and I was already overwhelmed???. Joe Roberts stayed five months with the Trivedis in Bangalore. Using that as a base he travelled all over southern India. Wherever he went he met extraordinary people???Major Trivedi warned him that ???nothing is as fixed as you think???. In Pondicherry he found Rita, a melancholy divorcee banished to an ashram. He encountered worshippers at the great temple at Madurai and on the holy island of Rameswaram. He mingled with the vociferous crowds at the snakeboat races at Arunmala and in Cochin he was offered heroin in the Jewish cemetery??? Funny, empathetic, and always entertaining, Three Quarters of a Footprint has established itself as a travel classic about modern India.

A Search In Secret India : The Classic Work On Seeking A Guru

The late Paul Brunton was one of the twentieth century's greatest explorers of and writers on the spiritual traditions of the East. A Search in Secret India is the story of Paul Brunton's journey around India, living among yogis, mystics and gurus, some of whom he found convincing, others not. He finally finds the peace and tranquility which come with self-knowledge when he meets and studies with the great sage Sri Ramana Maharishi.

Once Upon A Time In The Soviet Union

The fantastic motorcar rally undertaken by two young French couples on the forbidden roads of the Soviet Union Dominique Lapierre, aged 25 and Jean - Pierre Pedrazzini, 27, two star reporters of the prestigious French news magazine Paris Match, obtained from Nikita Khrushchev in 1956 the extraordinary authorization to cross the iron curtain aboard their own automobile and to travel 13,000 kilometers on the forbidden Soviet roads. Never before had any foreigner been able to live such an adventure. In the whole of Soviet Russia there was only one petrol pump selling high octane gasoline and no Soviet citizen had ever seen an automobile painted in two colours. From Poland to the mountains of Ural, from the villages of White Russia to the beaches of the Black Sea, from the Kremlin to Stalin's birth place in Georgia, Lapierre, Pedrazzini and their Parisian wives discover the secret faces of a people hidden behind the walls of the Cold War. As they get deeper into their adventure, they are struck by an alarming question: how has the Soviet regime managed to convince a nation deprived of freedom that it is the happiest one on earth? Beyond its unbelievable adventures, this trip is a dive into a world that explored the history of mankind.

A Thousand Suns

Among the premier journalists of our time, Dominique Lapierre has traveled to the four corners of the globe, witnessed word - shaking events and met extraordinary people from all walks of life. Now this remarkable man shares this adventure and encounters in a book that aptly reflects a favorite proverb from India: that beyond the clouds, there are always… Starting with his fledgling days as a reporter for Paris Match, Lapierre candidly traces his growth from detached journalist to concerned participant in the great human dramas he was privileged to behold. Vividly and insightfully, he recaptures his personal involvements with many different kinds of heroes, such as: Raphael Matta chief warden of the ivory Coast's Bouna Game Reserve, who gave his life in his valiant fight to save the elephants of Africa from extinction El Cordoba's, the legendary Andalusian bullfighter whose passion and daring catapulted him from penniless obscurity to fame and fortune - and who embodied the hopes of Spain to escape from the chains of tyranny and join a modern Europe. And the anonymous inhabitants of a Calcutta slum, whose struggles in the face of overwhelming poverty will reaffirm your faith in the courage, compassion and dignity of the human spirit. Form Japanese terrorists in the Holy Land freedom fighters in fascist Portugal; from spread of Nazism to the liberation of Paris; from Mahatma Gandhi to Mother Teresa; Lapierre delves eloquently into the very heart of the history of our time. Most of all this international bestseller bears moving testimony to the ability of mankind to endure, to dream, to triumph.

City Of Djinns : A Year In Delhi

Delhi is a city like no other, one which, in spite of being as old as time, is culturally dominated by relatively new dwellers. Interspersed with accounts of meeting assorted Delhiwallahs including Sufis, eunuchs, Persian scholars and an Englishwoman who stays behind after the Raj's hasty exit, City of Djinns seeks out the essence of this ancient town in a travelogue like no other. Moving, profoundly insightful and compulsively readable, City of Djinns is a loving exploration by one of the great historians of our time of the city he choses to call home.

Her Master Key : A Hotel Housekeeper’s Stories From Inn-dia

She uncovers incredible and amusing stories from luxury hotels in India. She captures extraordinary episodes of infidelity, bigotry and brings to light the absurdity of travellers. She highlights the struggles of white-collared, blue-collared and non-collared staff to break the stereotypes around hotel professionals. While much has been written and read about star hotels in the West, the tales from India remain untold.It???s time we read these stories!

India : A Million Mutinies Now

The Middle Passage

In 1960, Dr Eric Williams, the first Prime Minister of independent Trinidad, invited V. S. Naipaul to revisit his native country and record his impressions. In this classic of modern travel writing he created a deft and remarkably prescient portrait of Trinidad and the Caribbean societies of four adjacent countries, Guyana, Surinam, Martinique and Jamaica. Haunted by the legacies of slavery and colonialism, and so thoroughly defined by the norms of Empire that it can scarcely comprehend its end, Naipaul catches this poor, topsy-turvy world at a critical moment, a time when racial and political assertion had yet to catch up ??? a perfect subject for the acute understanding and dazzling prose of this great writer.

The 50 Greatest Wonders Of The World

Where The Indus Is Young : A Winter In Baltistan

One winter in the mid-1970s, Dervla Murphy, her six-year-old daughter Rachel and Hallam, a hardy mule, walked into Baltistan close to Pakistan-held Kashmir???the frozen heart of the Western Himalayas. For three months they travelled along the perilous Indus Gorge and into nearby valleys, making a mockery of fear, trekking through the forbidding Karakoram mountains and lodging with the Balts, who farm one of the remotest regions on earth. Despite the hardship, Dervla never forgot the point of travel, retaining enthusiasm for her magnificent surroundings and using her sense of humour to bring out the best in her hosts, who were often locked into the melancholic mood of mid-winter. This hair-raising, quirky and vivid account of their adventure is a classic of travel writing.