AUGUST 2008
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THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: MACHU PICCHU

1. New & Noteworthy: Tui de Roy's Galapagos
2. Italian Mysteries: Camilleri, Leon, Nabb, Dibdin

3. New & Noteworthy City Guides: Frommer's Day-By-Day
4. Featured Destination: Machu Picchu & the Sacred Valley

Dear Traveler,

Hope you are off somewhere fun. We'll soon have reports
from Sarajevo (Darrel) and rafting the Middle
Fork of the Salmon (Daniel). Meanwhile, we couldn't resist
getting out the word that we've just received the 10th
anniversary edition of Tui de Roy's magnificent Galapagos book.

Happy trails,

Daniel Kaizer and Darrel Schoeling
Longitude Books
800-342-2164


1. NEW & NOTEWORTHY
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Galapagos, Islands Born of Fire (GPS28, $65.00)
Tui de Roy's stunning photographic celebration showcases
the landscapes, wildlife and habitats of the Galapagos.
Raised in the archipelago, with a camera in hand, Tui knows
the islands just about as well as anyone, and thoughtful essays
accompany her large color photos.

Albatross: Their World, Their Ways (BRD64, $49.95)
Tui has also just published with Mark Jones and Julian Fitter
this handsome book of 300 striking color photographs of these
oceanic wanderers, at sea and on the nest. With essays and
authoritative information on natural history, status and conservation,
it's not only beautiful but also informative.

Wildlife of the North Atlantic,
A Cruising Guide (ATL26, $25.99)
Tony Soper, a veteran expedition leader and friend who is
as congenial as he is mad about birds, is also the author of
a series of compact wildlife guides. His latest is this field
guide to the birds, marine mammals and nature of the North
Atlantic, indispensable for anyone venturing by sea from Scotland
and the Faroes to Iceland and Greenland. The series also includes
the Arctic (ARC85, $21.95) and Antarctic (ANT30, $21.95).

One Thousand Languages,
Living, Endangered, and Lost (WLD146, $29.95)
Peter Austin edits this visually appealing and thoroughly
fascinating compendium of the world's languages, broadly
organized by region. Most get a two-page spread with a succinct
essay accompanied by maps, photographs and (we like this) how to
count to ten. Aimed at a general audience, it's a marvelous
introduction to the diversity, evolution and history of languages.

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (CAS159, $28.00)
Paul Theroux retraces the places and beloved trains of The
Great Railway Bazaar in this dyspeptic reprise of his 1975
classic journey across Asia. The Orient Express, The Khyber
Pass Local, The Frontier Mail, The Golden Arrow, The Mandalay
Express, The Ozora Limited -- the journey takes him aboard
legendary trains in a circle from London to Tokyo and back.

Peterson Field Guide
to Birds of North America (NAM42, $26.00)
In celebration of the centennial of Roger Tory Peterson's birth
on August 28, this historic, combined edition of Eastern
and Western Birds brings the master's legacy into the 21st century;
it comes with video podcasts! Michael DiGiorgio, Jeff Gordon,
Paul Lehman, Michael O'Brien, Larry Rosche, Bill Thompson III and
other experts have reviewed the text, created all new maps, supplied
40 new plates. They have also rearranged and digitally enhanced
Peterson's original paintings. A handsome book, well-executed, we
still like the drop-dead beautiful Sibley Guide to Birds (FG48, $35.00),
which this new book resembles, for the windowsill, and the more compact
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America for the
field. (FG09, $24.00).

Birdwatcher,
The Life of Roger Tory Peterson (NAT151, $29.95)
Elizabeth Rosenthal's entertaining new biography, enlivened
with juicy anecdotes, includes interviews with just about
everyone that the pioneering naturalist knew -- or inspired.
She shows the life of not just Roger Tory Peterson but of a
whole generation of birders and naturalists. With chapters on
the Lindblad Explorer, RTP's many ornithologist/artist progeny
and competing field guide series (see above), capturing Peterson's
steely determination.

2. NEW & NOTEWORTHY MYSTERIES
===============================

Sicily
Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano Mysteries
Being that it's the dead of summer, we had thought it perfect
to lead off our roundup of new Italian mysteries with Andrea
Camelliri's forthcoming August Heat, alas postponed until
February (a marketing decision?). Happily, we've got
The Paper Moon (ITL898, $13.00), number nine in the series.
If you haven't yet discovered Andrea Camilleri's irresistible
Inspector Montalbano, a small town Sicilian police detective
with a healthy appetite, roving intellect and wry sense of
humor, the books are short! In this latest book two beautiful
and evasive women turn up as prime suspects in a murder case
that involves threatening letters, cocaine dealings and
computers. So rich in local color and flavor, we recommend
the new Language and Travel Guide to Sicily (ITL872, $29.95)
as a companion.

Venice
Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries
Brunetti's got to be the most likeable detective around and
Donna Leon the most industrious author. The series now numbers
seventeen. The satisfying The Girl of His Dreams (ITL940, $24.00)
opens with the funeral of Brunetti's mother (his family life
is woven through all the tales). Thickly plotted, our detective
goes undercover to investigate a secretive religious sect and
looks into the suspicious death of a gypsy girl. If you have
fallen behind, Suffer the Little Children (ITL834, $7.99) is
out in paper. Novices may wish to begin with Death at
La Fenice (ITL555, $13.95), the book that launched the series.

Florence
Magdalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia Investigations
In this, the 14th and last of Nabb's fast-paced series, all
evocatively set in Florence, Vita Nuova (ITL938, $24.00),
Marshal Guarnaccia, the Colombo of Italy, is singled out to
solve the death of a reclusive single mother with a messy family.
Nabb died in 2007. Soho Press has recently re-issued almost
the entire series in paper (click on the link above to see them all).

All Over Italy
Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen Mysteries
Murder, eccentric millionaires, American film scouts and
buried treasure in Calabria all figure prominently in
End Games (ITL873, $13.95), Michael Dibdin's last Aurelio
Zen mystery. Dibdin offers a richly atmospheric portrait of
Italy without illusions in gorgeous muscular prose. In each
book, Inspector Zen unravels a mysterious death (usually a
number of them), while also managing to find the time to go
sightseeing, sample the local bounty or expound on some aspect
of Italian culture (wine-making, art, politics).

Originally from Venice, posted to Rome and sometimes hiding
out in Lucca or some other such scenic place, Aurelio Zen
skips all over Italy (if such a wry, beleaguered man can
be said to skip). Here's the geographic lineup:

(1) Ratking (ITL622, $13.95) is set in Perugia, where Dibdin lived;
(2) Vendetta (ITL621, $13.95) takes Zen to the mountains of Sardinia;
(3) Cabal (ITL620, $12.95) explores the world of the Vatican;
(4) Our hero returns to Venice in Dead Lagoon (ITL577, $13.95);
(5) Cossi Fan Tutti (ITL623, $13.95) is enjoyably set in Naples;
(6) A Long Finish (ITL193, $13.95) is all about Piemontese wine;
(7) Blood Rain (ITL624, $13.00) is darkly set in ancient Catania;
(8) And Then You Die (ITL619, $12.00) has Zen hiding out on the Tuscan coast;
(9) Medusa (ITL576, $12.95) requires Zen to go all over northern Italy;
(10) A man is killed with a Parmesan knife in Back to Bologna (ITL746, $12.95).

Michael Dibdin
Dibdin died in 2007 at age 60 after a short illness. Christopher
Hawtree captures the spirit of both the man and his books in
this fine obituary in the Guardian Unlimited.



3. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: CITY GUIDES
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Subtitled Smart Ways to See the City, Frommer's shirt
pocket guides ($12.99 each) deliver not-to-be-missed
attractions, choice restaurants, lodging, shops, walks
and excursions in a nicely illustrated package. The series
now includes these cities, coincidentally on our short list
of places to visit:

Frommer's Provence & the Riviera Day by Day (FRN763)

Frommer's Seville Day by Day (SPN362)

Frommer's Lisbon Day by Day (PGL69)

Frommer's Prague Day by Day (CZH85)

Frommer's Dublin Day by Day (IRE240)

Frommer's Brussels and Bruges Day by Day (BLG33, $12.99)


4. MACHU PICCHU AND THE SACRED VALLEY
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The Incas' Crown Jewels:
Machu Picchu, Saqsaywaman, Pisac, & Ollantaytambo

Kindly contributed by Kim MacQuarrie (The Last Days of the
Incas), who lived for five years in Peru.

"Some six hundred years ago, an Inca ruler considered the
'Alexander the Great' of his empire began the conquest of
a swath of South America that would eventually lead to an
empire that stretched 3,000 miles along the Andes and boasted
over 26,000 miles of stone roads. The Emperor's name was
Pachacuti (Pacha-COO-tee), and to commemorate his triumphs,
he ordered a string of architectural wonders to be built:
Machu Picchu, Saqsaywaman, Pisac, & Ollantaytambo. All of
these are located only a short distance from the former
capital of the Inca Empire, Cusco, easily visited by a
traveler in a few days.

One of Pachacuti's creations was Saqsaywaman (local guides
pronounce it "sexy woman"), a massive religious complex
overlooking Cusco. The ruins resemble a fortress. The Incas
built it from enormous, carved granite blocks, some weighing
more than 360 tons and the size of small automobiles.

Another majestic, lesser-known crown jewel is Pisac (PEE-sack),
a sprawling architectural complex high on a ridge above the
Sacred Valley, only 30 miles from Cusco.

The third jewel in the crown is the fortress of Ollantaytambo
(Oh-yahn-tay-TAHM-bow), which lies midway between Cusco and
Machu Picchu. Below the ruins lies the only inhabited town
in Peru that is pretty much as the Incas left it, with stone
streets, gutters, houses, and the Incas' improbably hewn
stone walls. The Incas succeeded in repelling a fierce Spanish
attack here, yet abandoned Ollantaytambo and retreated to the
upper Amazon. There they founded a new capital and launched a
guerrilla war against the Spaniards that would last for
nearly 40 years.

The fourth and most magnificent of Pachacuti's jewels is
Machu Picchu. Built both as a monument to commemorate
Pachacuti's victories as well as a sort of a private
'Camp David' retreat where the emperor could escape
Cusco's frigid winter cold, Machu Picchu was recently
voted one of seven new Wonders of the World. Yet six
hundred years after its completion, the famous Inca citadel
is really just one of Pachacuti's four crown jewels."

The Last Days of the Incas (PRU77, $16.95)
MacQuarrie tackles the personality, aspirations and greed
of Francisco Pizarro and his clash with Atahualpa and the
mighty Inca Empire in this vivid account of the conquest
of a continent. A filmmaker and journalist, who has lived
and worked in Peru, MacQuarrie brackets his tale with the
story of the re-discovery of Machu Picchu and Vilcabamba.

Essential Reading: Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley