Asia
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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
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All Strangers are Kin—Adventures in Arabic and the Arab World: Zora O’Neill
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, 336 pages At a time when media coverage of the Middle East and North Africa is full of images of war, destruction and repression, and Arabic is increasingly associated with terrorists, Zora O’Neill’s book provides another… Continue reading
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A Journey Interrupted—Being Indian in Pakistan: Farzana Versey
Published by HarperCollins India, 2008, 299 pages This book about travelling in Pakistan is particularly interesting because the author is an Indian Muslim woman, whose various identities affect the way she perceives and is perceived by Pakistani people. Farzana Versey… Continue reading
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Indonesia etc.—Exploring the Improbable Nation: Elizabeth Pisani
Published by W. W. Norton & Company / Granta Publications, 2014, 405 pages Indonesia is a complex country. It is made up of 13,466 islands with over 360 ethnic groups and 719 languages. When it gained independence from the Dutch… Continue reading
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The Kama Sutra Diaries—Intimate Journeys through Modern India: Sally Howard
Published by Tranquebar Press / John Murray, 2013, 248 pages This is a travel book with a difference. Sally Howard takes us on a journey through the sexual mores of India, with all the contradictions. The civilization that gave us… Continue reading
Women's Travel Books 