No comments about China suffers;: Or, My six years of work during the incident.

1 comments about High Tartary (Kodansha Globe).

1. "High Tartary" is the sequel to the "Desert Road to Turkestan",from the 1927-1928 journey carried out by Owen Lattimore and his wife through Chinese Turkestan. While the first book dwells in depth on Lattimore's cavan trip through Inner Mongolia, High Tartary is focused more on the places than on the traveling method. Arriving in Urumchi and thinking the dangerous part of the voyage over, Lattimore beckons his wife Eleonore to reach him. With a seventeen day sledge journey through Siberia (that is object of the beautiful "Turkestan Reunion"), Eleonore reaches her husband and together they travel trough Tartary, a medieval country from the highlands of Tien Shan to the Pamir. Similarly to the Desert Road, Lattimore makes friends with all the people he travels with, he studies in detail all the places he visits with particular attention this time not only to the trade routes, but also to the relationship between Russians and Chinese in these border towns. Naturally we must remember that the book was written just about 10 years after the Russian revolution, so the political interpretations and the situation of those times was different from now, as is also pointed out by the Author in his introduction.
   The most fascinating aspect of the book in my opinion is the description of all the human types and ethnicities the travelers meet. They are most fascinated with the nomads Quazaqs, Qirghiz, Chahar, Torgut, whose habits are described in detail.
   After a long and apparently meandering trip full of hunting, reading, just simple staying (remember it was a honey moon trip!), the travelers go to Kashgar and then through the "Five Great Passes" to India, where their trip ends.
   This is a great travel book, like those written in the 1920-40 (when the going was good), it has humanity, culture, humor, learning, and I would say love in it. Owen and Eleonore Lattimore's lives went on to other books and other feats, but this narrative jewel is still here to remind us of youth, enthusiasm, courage and curiosity.

3 comments about Vietnam: A Book of Changes.

1. Superb. Among the many books of pictures of Vietnam, this one stands out as simply smarter, prettier, more disturbing and deeper than the rest. Epstein works with images like a novelist or composer, stringing them together in long symphonic wavelike movements. The photos--of daily life deep within the country-are beautiful and upsetting at the same time. Almost impossibly, Epstein allows the complicity of the American involvement in Vietnam into the picture frame, and comments subtly, and at the same time, on his own presence as picture taker, while never losing his visual perfect pitch. A must buy for anyone interested in photography, or our legacy in Vietnam



2. The pictures in this book tell a wonderful story of a country in progress and still recovering from years and years of hardship....
   Epstein caught the soul of vietnam with this wonderful collection of photo's....



3. The photographs are fine (particularly the people photographs, which I wish there were more of), but a lot of the photos are thoughtlessly printed across two pages and break apart in the middle, in the gutter (the spine where the book is bound, where one page crosses over into another). This really ruins what would otherwise be a wonderful viewing experience.

No comments about Mobil Travel Guide Beijing (Mobil Travel Guide).

No comments about Insight Fleximap Beijing (Insight Fleximaps).

No comments about Beijing Chic: Hotels - Restaurants - Spas - Shops (Chic Destinations).

1 comments about Lonely Planet Georgia and the Carolinas.

1. I am an extensive user of travel guides, particularly ones for travelers on a budget. The Lonely Planet books have the same budget travel info on hotels, airline travel, how to get around by bus, train, etc. that my other favorite series, "Let's Go" has. However, you don't get to learn as much history and culture in the Let's Go books like you do in Lonely Planet. Let's Go is more of a reference book. Lonely Planet teaches you local culture and has much more comprehensive coverage of the region, especially this one-the Carolinas and Georgia. Let's Go doesn't give North and South Carolina nearly as much justice as this Lonely Planet book. Let's Go never mentions the Triad or Wilmington, NC. Lonely Planet has a good section on those. This book makes the least-heralded travel destinations look interesting. This series is also updated an average of every two years, and they welcome input from readers and they use it for the next edition.

   This book has an entire section on Atlanta, including a set of very good maps and a MARTA map. You will do well in Atlanta with this book. Charleston and Myrtle Beach, and somewhat of Columbia, SC are well documented, and the up-country of Greenville/Spartanburg are represented. In North Carolina, you'll learn about the Triangle, Charlotte, the Western NC mountain region, and all the beach areas from top to bottom. Georgia has the entire state covered, even the mountain areas of the northeastern part of the state, where there are some excellent state parks, and of course, the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. You will also get to explore Savannah, Augusta, Hilton Head, and much more. There is a good deal of info in the book, and it isn't overbearing to find your way around in it.

   Very good information for international travelers from abroad as well. For those of you who visit our area and have never been to the South before, you'll get a handy primer on its eccentricities and its triumphs, as well as how to get along with the most genteel and aristocratic of Southern ladies and gentlemen.

No comments about Tourism and the Branded City (New Directions in Tourism Analysis).

No comments about Transcaucasia: Sketches of the Nations and Races between the Black Sea and the Caspian.

No comments about iSpeak Chinese Phrasebook, Summer 2008 Edition (iSpeak).