No comments about A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 1809: In which is included, some account of the proceedings ... Jones ... to the court of the King of Persia.

No comments about Qutb Minar and Its Monuments (Monumental Legacy).

No comments about Khmer Mythology: Secrets of Angkor.

No comments about Cricket: A Bridge of Peace.

2 comments about A Meeting by the River.

1. Isherwood takes on the ambiguities inherent in sexuality,religious devotion, and sibling relationships in a completelynon-polemical way. Easy to read, involving, and witty, the Isherwood way. A fifth star would be deserved if the book were a little messier--it does have a slight tendency toward "patness". But that's a minor quibble. END



2. After he moved in 1939 to Los Angeles, where he met Swami Prabhavananda, Christopher Isherwood translated many Hindu texts, wrote a biography of Ramakrishna (a nineteenth-century Indian mystic), and increasingly incorporated his newly adapted religious beliefs into his fiction. Those beliefs are ever-present in "A Meeting by the River," in which the author depicts two British brothers who serve as alter egos for his own spiritual and sexual longings.
   
   The story is simple and is established in the first few pages: living near the Ganges, Oliver writes to his brother, Patrick, and reveals that he intends to enter the Hindu monastery at which he has been studying. In Los Angeles for business, Patrick, whose wife Penny and their children live in London, departs immediately to India to see Oliver, find "out what kind of state he's in," and to prevent "this monstrously unnatural spectacle of a young Englishman being turned into a Hindu swami." Patrick, however, has a secret of his own: a lover, Tom, whom he left behind in Los Angeles.
   
   Conceptually, it is a brave book, but its execution is appalling. The book is often excruciating to read, and it's difficult to believe that Isherwood wrote such a book only three years after "A Single Man," which is a tour de force of incisive prose and controlled diction. Stylistically, the novel alternates between Patrick's letters--to Tom, to Penny, to his mother--and Oliver's diary entries. The epistolary sections transcend informality into the realm of chattiness; they are freckled with conversation tidbits, pillow talk, and exclamation points. ("You deserve the best, and what the best is, from your point of view, only you can say! Do I deserve you? I would never dare to claim that. But if you say I do, then I'll be the last to contradict you!") The diary entries, by comparison, are respites amidst the prattle, but even their loquaciousness threaten to turn these oases into swamps.
   
   What saves the book from being a total wreck are Isherwood's fascination with the atmosphere of the monastery and his post-Freudian portrayal of the two conflicted brothers. (The offstage character of Tom, on the other hand, is a somewhat embarrassing boy-toy fantasy whose presence seems rather pointless, while Penny and the mother serve as little more than recipients for Patrick's increasingly hysterical letters.) The book's ending, too, while altogether unsurprising, contains just enough ambiguity to allow it to be incongruously affecting. The last few pages offer a regretfully brief hint of what this novel could have been.

No comments about Lonely Planet Citiescape Kathmandu (Lonely Planet Citiescape. Kathmandu).

No comments about Full Tilt: From Dublin to Delhi with a Bicycle.

2 comments about The Kathmadu Valley.

1. I love knocking around this book and remembering my trip to Nepal- I just wish there was a way to get the noise and smells (except the throat-burning CO fumes), too, as any experience in the Kathmandu Valley is incomplete without them! Arvidsson's photography captures all that one would like to remember about Kathmandu and its sister cities, Patan & Bhaktapur. If I had only brought more film with me in the first place!!! Luckily, there is this book for all my armchair travels back in time... The photographs themselves are sharp, introspective and capture the color of the area (of which there is a lot!) as well as providing a glimpse of the far off snowy peaks of the Himalayas which if you are lucky, on a clear day, you can see from the city- you cannot believe that the mountains are so far away because it looks as if you could just reach out and scoop the snow off one of their majestic summits.I do not know if there was one, but I would love to one day see an exhibition of these photos and be wonderfully overstimulated by the sheer sensory overload that is Kathmandu and the Kathmandu Valley.



2. If you have ever had the privilege of visiting Kathmandu, you will appreciate this book very much. The Kathmandu Valley is a cornucopia of sights and smells, and seemingly around every corner is a beautiful picture in one of the poorest cities on the face of the earth. For all its natural beauty though, it is the people, and the religion and festivities which make Kathmandu and the Kathmandu valley truly unique and a place which holds a special place in my heart. This is a coffee table book with stunning pictures and history of the beautiful Kathmandu Valley. Most casual travelers who visit will not get a chance to see all of the places in this book. The pictures encompass Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur, and also the periphery of the valley where farming is done in the shadow of the urban chaos.
   
   What this book cannot do is expose the reader to the overwhelming sights and smells of this beautiful valley, for Kathmandu is the epitome of sensory overload.......for that you will need to purchase a ticket;-)

No comments about Manaslu.

1 comments about Sikkim Region of India Map by ITMB (Travel Reference Map).

1. This map is all you need to discover the possibilities for adventures in Sikkim. It enables you to get a feel for lie of the land and enables you to plan accordingly, whether it be trekking or cultural experiences. If you are going to Sikkim you need this map. Dont leave home without it.