Asia
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Go, Girl! The Black Woman’s Book of Travel & Adventure: Compiled by Elaine Lee
Published by The Eighth Mountain Press, 1997, 368 pages Elaine Lee is an African-American woman who has made travel a way of life. Her compilation of 52 pieces of travel writing by African-American women encourages black women to travel by… Continue reading
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A Year in the World—Journeys of a Passionate Traveller: Frances Mayes
Published by Broadway, 2006, 448 pages “How do place and character intertwine? Could I feel at home here? What is home to those around me? Who are they in their homes, those mysterious others?” To find out, Frances Mayes (of Under… Continue reading
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Tales of a Female Nomad—Living at Large in the World: Rita Golden Gelman
Published by Crown, 2001, 320 pages When her marriage starts to disintegrate, Rita Golden Gelman decides to go to Mexico on her own to take a break and think things through. Never having traveled on her own, she is nervous… Continue reading
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Tigers in Red Weather: Ruth Padel
Published by Little, Brown / Abacus, 2005, 448 pages This is a travel book with a difference: it is also a call for the conservation of wildlife ⎯ tigers in particular ⎯ and wild spaces. Ruth Padel is a single… Continue reading
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Wild by Nature—From Siberia to Australia: Sarah Maquis
Published by Thomas Dunne Books / Allen & Unwin, 2014, 272 pages I love the way Sarah Maquis begins this book: “Put on your shoes. We’re going walking.” And walk she does, equipped with a backpack and a cart, through… Continue reading
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Revolutionary Ride—On the Road in Search of the Real Iran: Lois Pryce
Published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2017, 287 pages One evening in Kensington, London, Lois Pryce finds a note left on her motorcycle from a man called Habib: “I have seen your motorbike and I think you have travelled to many… Continue reading
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A Short Ride through the Jungle—The Ho Chi Minh Trail by Motorcycle: Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent
Published by Road Dog Publications, 2014, 384 pages The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a feat of engineering constructed during the Viet Nam war to supply manpower and material to the North Vietnamese army. It runs from north to south… Continue reading
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Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates—A Woman’s Trek through Turkey: Üstün Bilgen-Reinart
Published by Dundurm Press, 2007, 240 pages Üstün Bilgen-Reinart is a Turkish woman, who moved to Canada to study when she was 18 and stayed on. But in the late 1990s, she moved back to Turkey to spend more time… Continue reading
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Radio Shangri-La—What I Discovered on my Accidental Journey to the Happiest Kingdom on Earth: Lisa Napoli
Published by Broadway Paperbacks, 2011, 293 pages Lisa Napoli was working at a radio station in Los Angeles, dissatisfied with her life, when a chance encounter led her to a radio job in Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan. All she… Continue reading
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On The Noodle Road—From Beijing to Rome with Love and Pasta: Jen Lin-Liu
by Jen Lin-Liu Published by Riverhead Books, 2013, 400 pages Food and travel—what’s not to like? This is a book about food across cultures—in this case, pasta in all its forms (I use the term to include noodles, dumplings, etc.).… Continue reading









