No comments about Knopf MapGuide: Hong Kong (Knopf Mapguides).

2 comments about Still Clueless In Tokyo: Another Sketchbook Of Weird And Wonderful Things In Japan.

1. Still Clueless in Tokyo continues to delight while sharing knowledge about a wide variety of common things found in Japanese Culture. Keeps you laughing while you learn.



2. Artist Betty Reynolds entertains us while she enlarges our understanding of what is foreign to our own culture. Some may think it is more a preparation for a trivia game but it is written/painted with great delight and should be received the same way. "STILL CLUELESS . . ." is brilliant. Be sure to add it to your book shelves; it works magic on a gloomy day.
   
   The watercolors are as amusing as they are bright. Reynolds, an acclaimed family flag-designer, takes the reader 'every-which-way' - - what may at first seem strange is shown to make sense: foods (gingko nuts are grilled - and delicious); holidays - including religious observances; seasons; advertising & vending machines; and a double-page spread about "the talented & terrifying toilets" mentioned by others . . .
   
   The New Year celebrations seem more interesting than ours in the U.S., or perhaps they are more age-friendly? And what country could match "Harikayo," a ceremony for retiring broken or crooked needles by burying them in tofu? I will now cultivate my "morning faces" (Morning Glories) as I say a prayer of Thanksgiving that my toilet is low-tech & doesn't require Japanese language skills to operate - or something similar to a TV control. Betty Reynold's sketchbook is about as opposite as you can get from the sumi-e of mcHAIKU's previous review (# 0806908335) but they each give delight.

No comments about Love Delhi.

No comments about Travels through Northern Persia: 1770-1774.

5 comments about Himalaya.

1. This book is amazing and is part of the reason I will be travelling to some of the places he visits in this book. Well written, with pictures to die for. He is a master story teller and really urges you to strap on your backpack and go. Thank you for another fantastic journey Mr Palin and co.



2. this is a beautiful book that provides background information and MORE for Palin's Himalaya TV series (also wonderful) :)
   I usually buy used, but couldn't wait for this book (or the DVDs of the series).



3. Compiled from the diaries of Michael Palin's extraordinary journey, and read by the author, Himalaya is the unabridged audiobook chronicle of Palin's personal determination to climb the full length of the Himalaya including the Khyber Pass, the valleys of the Hindu Kush, the ancient cities Peshawar and Lahore, and the peaks including K2, Annapurna and Everest. Altitudes as high as 17,500 feet, some of the world's deepest gorges, and the background threat of strife in political hotspots such as terrorism-plagued Kashmir were among the many hardships and risks Palin confronted in his expedition. His story tells of natural wonders and daily life, civilizations in the shadow of a global landmark, joy and suffering in a casual, easygoing manner that will nonetheless enthrall the listener. A captivating experience, and "must-read" for anyone planning to climb dangerous or potentially fatal peaks, Himalaya is surely the next best thing to personally being there. Consisting of 9 CDs with a total running time of 11 hours 32 min, Himalayan is especially recommended for library collections.



4. This book accompanying the TV series DVD is a beautiful account which I enjoyed thoroughly.
   
   The author's journey along the crest of the Himalaya, eastward starting from Khyber Pass on the Afghan-Pak border, through India and Nepal, into the Tibetan plateau, then onto India's Northeast Frontier and finally down into the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh definitely calls for a look at this interesting part of the globe.
   
   The book is embellished with amazing photographs which capture not only the grand landscape but also the life and spirit of the land. Palin and his team have done well in connecting with the people, which to me was one of the highlights of the book.
   
   And if you like a sprinkling of British humour, Michael Palin will surely add more than a smile to your countenance.



5. "Himalaya" is a book written by Michael Palin as an alternative account of a trip that was filmed and first shown as a TV program on BBC TV. (This program has also been shown on many other TV stations, and is now available on DVD.) In addition to the text in the book there are many beautiful pictures by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who accompanied the BBC team on the trip.
   
   This was a very interesting trip in beautiful and exciting places. Many countries around the Himalayan Mountains were visited, some of them well off the tourist track and some of them with security problems such that the team needed armed guards. Specifically, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Nagaland, Assam, Bhutan and Bangladesh were visited. A total of 3000 miles was traveled during 125 days (6 months), and many beautiful and exciting images, encounters and interviews resulted.
   
   High points (ha, ha) of the trip include several treks on foot up into the mountains, visiting the Dalai Lama, milking a yak, talking to a retired headhunter, buying booze in Pakistan, having an almost-encounter with Maoists in Nepal, watching bull racing and no-rules polo, and giving an elephant a rub-down. There are also many interesting encounters and interviews with local people who are special in one way or another.
   
   In my review of the DVD version of "Himalaya" I complained that the program wasn't really about Michael Palin's trip, as such, but was simply a string of encounters and events that made "good TV". The program ignored the travel aspect almost completely, and jumped from place to place in search of the images and people that the TV viewers would find exciting.
   
   The book version of "Himalaya" is a more complete account of the trip, including a lot of material that was skipped in the TV program, and some experiences not even included in the extra material on the DVDs.
   
   But still, the book account of the trip is not really a day-by-day account of the trip either. For example, I'd like to know what happened on "day 6" and "day 11", etc. These days are simply not mentioned in the book.
   
   One nice thing about the book, as compared to the TV program on DVD, is that Michael Palin's personal opinions are more evident, as is his enjoyment of traveling and experiencing new people and places. There is more of a "personal touch" to the book, and his wit and charm make it very readable and enjoyable. Michael also writes candidly about the health problems he experienced and the reservations he had about travel in the places where there were security problems. All of which makes the book better than the DVD version in my opinion.
   
   Finally, a note about the audio versions of this book. There are both abridged (6 hour) and unabridged (11 1/2 hour) versions in existence, and some resellers are selling the abridged version as unabridged, so beware. Michael Palin himself reads both versions, and he does a great job.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   Rennie Petersen

4 comments about Shanghai.

1. This is a work of exceptional richness and observation. Beautifully constructed and written -the author draws from converations across the work, the most sensual yet critically insightful portrait of this strangely synthetic city. Having reviwed much of the literature of prewar Shanghai, Ms. Sergeant's work gives the most complete sense of life and death of the city and of the culture.



2. While living in Shanghai I made a point of buying memoirs or oral histories of the old China-Coast communities. This book was the least informative, most fatueous one of the lot. Ms. Sergeant obviously had impeccable connections through her husbands business contacts into the upper reachs of the old Hong families and managed to say nothing interesting. Not even gossip.



3. The most memorable part of this fine, absorbing account of pre-war Shanghai is the description of the horrific factory conditions in the Chinese- and Western- owned businesses there. Here are tales right out of Dickens! I realized, unfortunately, that the unsavoury reputation of modern China's horrible factories has a long and sad history. The description of girls from the chrome plating factories with "chromium holes eating into their arms" was particularly awful.

   The book is also full of interesting stories and anecdotes of all aspects of old Shanghai - the parties, social gatherings, etc, and carries on right up to the communist takeover (when newer and even more devestating things happened). Many interesting photographs. For anyone who's been to the city recently and seen how much of the pre-war architecture survives, this book will be a treat. The author gets a little lost at the end - perplexed (sarcastic?) at Europe's seeming abandonment of the place to the Japanese without a fight, though it seems obvious that London was more worth saving than a ruthless mercantile city like Shanghai - kind of a pre-war Hong Kong is what it was, and clearly from these pages not so much glamorous as crass. Well-worth the read, this book will give the reader much food for thought as to China's current direction and unhealthy work conditions. Must Peking try so hard to follow in the ways of its more ruthless ancestors?

   Another good description of Shanghai's interesting and horrible sides is W. H. Auden's and Christopher Isherwood's 1930's account, "Journey to a War."




4. Through her skillful narration interspersed with rich vignettes, Sergeant delved into the fate, suffering and individual triumphs of 4 representative strata of the pre-World War II Shanghai society ¨C the English (the snobbish old colonial master), the Japanese (nouveau rich old-colonial-slaves-turned-new-colonial-master), the White Russians (the royalist Russians abandoned by fate and humiliated by self-degradation), and the Chinese (downtrodden colonial slaves seemingly condemned to unending cycles of oppression from within and outside its own community) ¨C in so doing Sergeant succeeded in vividly recreating the eerily exciting pulse and ambience an extraordinary city unique to the social, economic and political climate of its time.

   As a modernized China re-engages the world confident of its destiny on one hand and betraying insecurity about its traumatic past on the other, Sargeant's work is an essential background reading for any foreigner with a serious interest in engaging China at a deeper level.

No comments about Thailand Chic: Hotels, Restaurants, Shops, Spas (Chic Destinations).

1 comments about Evil Empire: The Irish Mob and the Assassination of Journalist Veronica Guerin.

1. I was very pleases with the service and the quality of the book would do business again with them.

No comments about Imperial Istanbul: A Traveller's Guide: Includes Iznik, Bursa and Edirne.

5 comments about Arousing the Goddess: Sex and Love in the Buddhist Ruins of India.

1. Wow, what a great novel! It is insightful and skillfully weaves together a spiritual journey through India with an unplanned, but welcomed love story. Arousing the Goddess is an easy-to-read novel which holds the reader's attention from the first to the last page. Tim is very open about his experiences, but he is also able to interject the right amount of humor and wit into the storyline.

   As Tim and Sabina's relationship evolves, the reader is constantly left wondering what will happen next as they journey together. What makes this a great novel is that as the story unfolds, the reader can't help but get caught up in the different emotions (passion, frustration, disappointment, heartbreak) that Tim and Sabina experience both individually and as a couple. Additionally, the reader can relate to the different levels of their relationship and can share in their pain and joy. Tim is able to engage the reader throughout his story even to the end where he leaves the reader with a thought provoking question.




2. Arousing the Goddess: Sex and Love in the Buddhist Ruins of India is the personal memoir of one man's sexual and spiritual awakening in India. Author Tim Ward traveled throughout India and the far east for two years, and fell in love with a beautiful Austrian Indologist on her own search for knowledge. The energy harnessed the power of tantric sex to achieve a sublime plateau of bliss, color, sensation, and awakened truths amid their passion. Their journey is one that pursues enlightenment as well as spiritual wisdom, and the heat of their unions recalls echoes of the ancient sex practices of the mysterious Tantrics. An enthralling true story of physical, carnal, and spiritual exploration as witnessed, lived, and recorded by Tim Ward.



3. A mystical philosopher engaged upon an autobiographical journey into the East, "searching for the inexplicable, something to crack open [his] metaphysical prejudices." Arousing the Goddess introduces us to a true traveler, an intrepid spiritual pilgrim looking for that elusive point wherein the hand of heaven touches earth. Yet in the early naïveté of the journey, the sexual and the spiritual get fused and confused under the banner of Tantric allure. Though even in this, the author is honest, perhaps too honest. For painfully prolific are the pages sticky with the seedy recollections of one seeking to uncover the metaphysical nature of sex. All the while, this novice exploration into the ruins of Tantric lore proves something of a bust. And thus the spiritual journey must continue, as this bona fide pilgrim yearns for a greater glimpse into the mysteries of reality. And as such, he challenges each of us to overcome our confusions and our delusions and travel onwards into What the Buddha Never Taught.



4. This is a fun read...Sabrina is a "tireless" Goddess
   
   Sudden Warm Shower
   opening
   entirely
   
   [...]



5. Would highly recommend this book to all those interested in travel and sex. For it provides a wonderful account of travelling through India and then goes very deeply into the experience of falling in love, and making love. I have studied the anthropology of sexuality at Cambridge University and the University of Hawaii, and this book deserves to be on every syllabus - I believe it is already on the syllabus of Claremont University in California. Even that doesn't justify this book for it also a deeply spiritual study of one young man's quest for meaning when he studies Buddhism. Not only that but is an easy to read account, that is absolutely gripping - and Tim's emotional honesty is breathtaking. I quoted extensively from on my book on travelling with your intuition Travelling Magically: How to Turn Your Journey into a Life-Changing Experience I read an enormous amount of travel books for it and quoted from some. But this book - I originally found from an amazon list - is way up there with the very best. Really, I wish I had come across it years ago. I can't recommend it more highly.