Travel and holiday Books

Whether you want to explore Portland, drink wine in the Willamette Valley, or hike the Columbia River Gorge, the local Fodor's travel experts in Oregon are here to help! Fodor's Oregon guidebook is packed with maps, carefully curated...

Get to know the inhabitants of a tiny Japanese island - and their unusual stories and secrets - through this fascinating, intimate collection of portraits.When American journalist Amy Chavez moved to the tiny island of Shiraishi (population 430), she...

"Presented alongside Hiroshige's prints, with descriptions and context, Delord's work offers an absorbing contemplation of Japan's past and present via one legendary travel route, and shows how thoroughly upended our surroundings have been in what was,...

Japan is home to some of the world's most interesting alcoholic beverages - from  traditional Sak and Shochu to Japanese whisky, beer, wine and cocktails that are winning global acclaim and awards. In this comprehensive survey of...

Japan's World Heritage Sites presents the exquisite temples, shrines, gardens, castles and natural wonders found throughout Japan which have now been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This new edition has more convenient size and includes...

Take a visual journey to Japan's vast northern island of Hokkaido.This stunning guide covering all the places foreign and Japanese tourists alike find so fascinating here - spectacular volcanic landscapes, the world's best powder...

A handy Japanese phrasebook and guide to the Japanese language, Survival Japanese contains basic vocabulary necessary for getting around. This book contains all the necessary words and phrases for speaking Japanese in any kind of...

In Cool Japan Guide comic book artist and food blogger Abby Denson-along with her husband Matt, friend Yuuko, and their sidekick, Kitty SweetTooth-takes you on a graphic tour everywhere from high-energy urbanstreets to peaceful Zen gardens and Shinto...

From the author of Threading My Prayer Rug, an eye-opening view of life in Saudi Arabia.It's Not What You Think is a wry, incisive account of working in Saudi Arabia that offers insight into that insular patriarchal society, what is so attractive to...

California prison inmates display authenticity, creativity, discipline, talent, and artistic passion while creating visual, performance, and literary artworks.

Discovering the Russian soul is like opening a matryoshka, a Russian doll, and revealing the many layers. The Russian orthodox religion is unique, Russian history is tragic, and the people are unpredictable. Russia's military and political power, as well...

A guide to the best hikes and microbreweries in the Canadian Rockies.Beer lovers and hiking enthusiasts, these 30 Canadian Rockies hikes are for you! Each carefully selected hike leads you through a stunning natural landscape and ends near a brewery or a...

Photographer Ed Hotchkiss traveled to neighborhoods from the north Bronx to Rockaway; from the teeming center of Queens to the western edge of midtown. This unexpected odyssey resulted in a group of photographs that reveals the true humanity on the NYC...

Italian cities have been points of reference for much of architect Peter Wilson's professional life and the many reasons for visiting the country have long presented themselves as not just the easy list holidays, food, architecture and culture. The grand...

Oxford's university buildings are world-famous. Over eight centuries, starting in the twelfth century, the University the third oldest in Europe gradually occupied a substantial portion of the city, creating in the process a unique townscape containing...

Nestling in the foothills of the Himalayas, Nepal is a land of contrasts and incongruities--not least in the variety of its cultural, ethnic, and religious weave. The Nepalese attitude to life is essentially religious. Hindu and Buddhist values...

The French are "different." You'll often hear this in conversations among the "Anglo-Saxons," as the French like to call English-speakers. "Different" means charming, challenging, questioning, stylish, and doing things in their own way and to their own...

In 1973, the Afghans still had a King who ruled from a palace in Kabul with his own resident court of musicians when Veronica set up home in Herat. This Afghan city sat close to the Persian frontier and was fully cognisant of its glorious history as the...

Whether you want to spot wildlife in Denali National Park, cruise past glaciers in Glacier Bay, or experience the Northern Lights, the local Fodor's travel experts in Alaska are here to help! Fodor's Alaska guidebook is packed with maps, carefully...

Brooklyn is one of the most dynamic and ethnically diverse places on the planet. In fact, it's estimated that one in every eight US families had relatives come through Brooklyn when settling in the country. Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb have been...

For over two decades, Phyllis Galembo has documented cultural and religious traditions in Africa and the African Diaspora. Traveling widely throughout western and central Africa, and regularly to Haiti, her subjects are participants in masquerade...

In 1975, fresh out of art school, Martin Parr moved to the picturesque Yorkshire Pennine mill town of Hebden Bridge. Over a period of five years, he documented the town in photographs, showing in particular the aspects of traditional life that were...

The novelist E. M. Forster opens the door on life in a remote Maharajah's court in the early twentieth century, a 'record of a vanished civilization.' Through letters from his time visiting and working there, he introduces us...

In little more than a century, Fiji islanders have made the transition from cannibalism to Christianity, from colony to flourishing self-government, without losing their own culture. As Ronald Wright observes, societies that do not eat people are...

This is at once a riveting journey, written with wit and wisdom, but also a study of a civilisation.'Time Among the Maya shows Ronald Wright to be far more than a mere storyteller or descriptive writer. He is an historical philosopher with a profound...

NigelBarley travels to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia to live among the Torajanpeople, known for their spectacular buildings and elaborate ancestor cults. At lasthe is following his own advice to students, to do their anthropological...

'Jonathan Raban is the only person I listen to in matters of travel and books and writing in general. Reading him, talking to him as I have over fifty years, he has made my work better and me happier.' Paul Theroux'For Love and Money ... is as good a...

'Of all his generation's travellers, Jonathan Raban is the most sophisticated, writing with a subtle and imaginative brilliance.' Colin Thubron'One of the most humane and visionary of all travel writers.' Jeremy SealInto Jonathan Raban's familiar Earls...

'A valuable book and a necessary one. One of the funniest and cleverest voyages on record.' Christopher Hitchens, New Statesman'The finest writer afloat since Conrad.' Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Guardian'Unfailingly witty and entertaining.' Salman...

'Jonathan Raban is one of the world's greatest living travel writers.' William Dalrymple'The best book of travel ever written by an Englishman about the United States' Jan Morris, IndependentNavigating the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New...

There are only a handful of destinations left in the world that have retained their ability to shock the traveller with their unique perspective. These places still awaken a sense of deep wonder as they offer the rare opportunity to observe the world...

Over the summer of 2011, Dervla Murphy spent a month in the Gaza Strip. She developed an acute eye for the way in which isolation has shaped this society, meeting liberals and Islamists, Hamas and Fatah supporters, rich and poor...

Throughout the 1960's John Freely and Hilary Sumner-Boyd explored every alley, cove and monument of their adopted home of Istanbul in between their teaching jobs. They created a legendary guidebook, covering 1,500 years of Byzantine...

Mary Montagu was one of the most extraordinary characters in the world. She was a self-educated intellectual, a free spirit, a radical, a feminist but also an entitled aristocrat and a society wit with powerful friends at court.In 1716 she travelled...

A Place Apart is a remarkable geographical and psychological travelogue that rises above history, politics, theology and economics.Created by a southern Irishwoman, cycling into the mayhem of Northern Ireland in order to try and sort...

'Coffin roads' along which bodies were carried for burial are a marked feature of the landscape of the Scottish Highlands and islands - many are now popular walking and cycling routes. This book journeys along eight coffin roads to...

Scotland is famed for its rugged coastlines, pristine beaches, endless rivers and deep lochs. The whole country is a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts from all over the world.In this unique guide, adventurer Mollie Hughes introduces many of her favourite...

When Mike Tomkies moved to a remote cottage on the shores of Loch Shiel in the West Highlands of Scotland, he found a place which was to provide him with the most profound wilderness experience of his life. Accessible only by boat, the cottage he renamed...

This book is the essential companion for anyone exploring the new Fife Pilgrim Way, whether on foot, by car or bicycle or simply as an armchair traveller.Packed with history, vivid anecdote and nearly 100 colour illustrations, it brings to life the...

Paul Murton has long had a love of the Viking north - the island groups of Orkney and Shetland and the old counties of Caithness and Sutherland - which, for centuries, were part of the Nordic world as depicted in the great classic the Orkneyinga Saga...

This is the essential guide to the north of Scotland, on a route which begins in Inverness, weaves westwards to Applecross and then northwards towards Torridon. From Ullapool it leads to the most northerly points in Britain, passing by Caithness and John...

Scotland has had a uniquely important military history over the last five centuries. Conflict with England in the 16th century, Jacobite rebellions in the 18th century, 20th-century defences and the two world wars, as well as the Cold War, all resulted...

The Outer Hebrides lie 40 miles to the west of mainland Scotland, forming a barrier to the North Atlantic. Culturally distinct from early prehistory, the islands contain a wealth of historical and archaeological monuments, including the standing stones...

Orkney lies only 20 miles north of mainland Scotland, yet for many centuries its culture was more Scandanavian than Scottish. Strong westerly winds account for the scarcity of trees on Orkney and also for the tradition of well-constructed stone...

Each year, the One World Calendar Group collaborates to produce this best-selling calendar.It portrays positive and inspiring images of people around the world. The photographs are taken by some of the world's leading photographers, and increasingly by...

The bookshop is, and will always be, the soul of the trade. What happens there does not happen elsewhere. The multifariousness of human nature is more on show there than anywhere else, and I think it's because of books, what they are, what they release...

A radiant, unforgettable memoir of one woman's 450 days spent in captivity, and her defiant refusal to have her humanity stripped away.When Edith meets Luca in a small Northern town, the two connect instantly. Under the Northern Lights, they develop a...

'Exciting, funny, and occasionally heart-stopping...readers can stay home and dry, but feel like they are on the high seas.' BOOKLISTA man and his chicken sail 45,000 nautical miles in this powerful story of following your dreams no...