Travel Books Bestsellers
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010 By Simon Thomsen, Joanna Savill - Buy
Girl by Sea By Penelope Green - Buy
Lonely Planet's Ultimate Experiences for a Lifetime - Buy
Explore Australia 2010
Updated, with a fresh and user-friendly design and all-new images. Key tourist towns are highlighted in the A-Z town sections for each state, and the atlas section includes new city and regional mapping.
Europe on a Shoestring: Big Trips on Small Budgets (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides) By Sarah Johnstone
Covering 44 countries, this is a guide to Europe. Including Dedicated Language chapter with key phrases in 29 languages, it offers coverage on Montenegro. It also features a Responsible Travel page with advice on how to travel ethically around the region
. Birdsville: My Year in the Back of Beyond By Evan McHugh
For a town with seventy residents (on a good day), Birdsville is remarkably well known – the Birdsville Track, the rodeo, the pub, the infamous races. With its ruggedness, inaccessibility and larrikin charm, this small town on the edge of the Simpson Desert has become a symbol of the great Australian outback.
What is it about Birdsville that has made it stand so large in our legends? And what's it like to live there amongst the floods and the heat and the dust storms?
To find out, Evan McHugh packed up his Sydney home, bought a four-wheel drive and headed off with his wife for a year in the back of beyond. Here, he tells us of the large adventures – midnight desert rescues, aerial mustering on vast cattle stations, relentless heat and massive floods – but also the small details of life in one of Australia's most isolated towns – like driving 700 kilometres to go shopping. As the month fly by, Evan learns about an ancient culture, sees dunes carpeted in millions of tiny wildflowers, and meets the members of an outback community facing extraordinary challenges with quiet determination and buckets of good humour.
Birdsville is about breathtaking beauty and harshness of this country the generosity of its salt-of-the-earth people, and one man's discovery of his own reserves of courage and resilience.
'McHugh is a clever mixture of curious outsider and eager participant... Written in a simple but elegant style where honesty and thoughtfulness build an accurate picture of the richness of life in one of Australia's most famous outback towns.' The Age More
Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs (She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse)
By Paul Carter
A take no prisoners' approach to life has seen Paul Carter heading to some of the world's most remote, wild and dangerous places as a contractor in the oil business. Amazingly, he's survived (so far) to tell these stories from the edge of civilization. He has been shot at, hijacked and held hostage; almost died of dysentery in Asia and toothache in Russia; watched a Texan lose his mind in the jungles of Asia; lost a lot of money backing a scorpion against a mouse in a fight to the death, and been served cocktails by an orang-utan on an ocean freighter. And that's just his day job. Taking postings in some of the world's wildest and most remote regions, not to mention some of the roughest rigs on the planet, Paul has worked, got into trouble, and been given serious talkings to, in locations as far-flung as the North Sea, Middle East, Borneo and Tunisia, as exotic as Sumatra, Vietnam and Thailand, and as flat-out dangerous as Columbia, Nigeria and Russia, with some of the maddest, baddest and strangest people you could ever hope not to meet.
Crossing the Ditch: Two Mates Conquering One of the Roughest Seas in the World
With more than two thousand kilometres of treacherous seas and dangerously unpredictable weather and currents, not to mention the ever-present threat of sharks, it was little wonder no one had ever successfully crossed the Tasman by kayak. Australian adventurer Andrew McAuley had come close just months earlier -tragically, though, not near enough to save his life. But two young Sydneysiders, James Castrission and Justin Jones, reached the sand at New Plymouth - and a place in history - on 13 January 2008, 62 days after they’d set off from Forster on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.
In the process, they overcame a litany of difficulties, including dwindling food supplies, a string of technical problems and two close encounters with sharks, as well as one demoralising 14-day period in which - caught in a whirlpool - they found themselves being dragged back to Australia. When they arrived in New Zealand, they were sun burnt, bearded, underweight, physically and mentally wasted … and, most of all, happy to be alive. More
by Ryan Ver Berkmoes
Nobody knows Bali and Lombok like Lonely Planet, and our 12th edition offers the best of these island paradises. Whether that's trekking through the ancient rice paddies of Jatiluwih, being dazzled by a Legong dance in Ubud, sliking along the sleek bars of Seminyak, or being pampered on an idyllic beach - you decide.
Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.
At the end of a long working week, a weekend away is a welcome prospect. The new edition of Good Weekends Away presents independent reviews of more than 100 of Australia's best short breaks, as reviewed by journalists from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Weekend.
Billy Connolly, Journey to the Edge of the World
In the summer of 2008 Billy Connolly set sail on a ten-week journey from ocean to ocean: from the Atlantic to the Pacific, by way of the Northwest Passage - a fabled route deep within the Arctic Circle that has thwarted explorers and fortune-hunters for centuries. For Cook, Drake and countless other adventurers, the Northwest Passage has been an alluring but impossible journey, a trial of unparallelled physical and mental strength, a haunting and fascinating wilderness. Now the Arctic is melting at a rate of 36,000 square miles a year and the journey is finally possible. For the first time, if you're quick, you can sail freely, if precariously, fromNewfoundland right round to Vancouver. By plane, rail, road and boat, along coastlines and across sweeping landscapes that represent the final Northern frontier of the inhabited world for both man and beast, Billy's adventure will embrace a memorable mix of bizarre encounters, Hemingway-esque characters, incredible wildlife,forgotten languages, big game hunting and all night carousing under the midnight sun. And he's taking us with him. This is primetime ITV, to be broadcast as 4x60mins in the early spring of 2009.
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything
It's 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She's in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they're trying for a baby - and she doesn't want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own journey in search of three things she has been missing: pleasure, devotion and balance. So she travels to Rome, where she learns Italian from handsome, brown-eyed identical twins and gains twenty-five pounds, an ashram in India, where she finds that enlightenment entails getting up in the middle of the night to scrub the temple floor, and Bali where a toothless medicine man of indeterminate age offers her a new path to peace: simply sit still and smile. And slowly happiness begins to creep up on her.
Lonely Planet Japan
Written by a team of Japanese-speaking authors, this updated guide offers unique and expert coverage of such off-the-beaten track destinations as Okinawa and the Southwest Islands. 176 maps.
The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious, and Perplexing, City
By David Lebovitz
Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever since he first visited the city in the 1980s. Finally, after a nearly two-decade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author, he moved to Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in the lively Bastille neighborhood.
But he soon discovered it's a different world en France.
From learning the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men's footwear, from shopkeepers who work so hard not to sell you anything to the etiquette of working the right way around the cheese plate, here is David's story of how he came to fall in love with—and even understand—this glorious, yet sometimes maddening, city.
When did he realize he had morphed into un vrai parisien? It might have been when he found himself considering a purchase of men's dress socks with cartoon characters on them. Or perhaps the time he went to a bank with 135 euros in hand to make a 134-euro payment, was told the bank had no change that day, and thought it was completely normal. Or when he found himself dressing up to take out the garbage because he had come to accept that in Paris appearances and image mean everything.
The more than fifty original recipes, for dishes both savory and sweet, such as Pork Loin with Brown Sugar–Bourbon Glaze, Braised Turkey in Beaujolais Nouveau with Prunes, Bacon and Bleu Cheese Cake, Chocolate-Coconut Marshmallows, Chocolate Spice Bread, Lemon-Glazed Madeleines, and Mocha–Crème Fraîche Cake, will have readers running to the kitchen once they stop laughing.
The Sweet Life in Paris is a deliciously funny, offbeat, and irreverent look at the city of lights, cheese, chocolate, and other confections.
10. The White Masai
By Corinne Hofmann, Peter Millar (Translated by)
Corinne Hofmann falls in love with a Masai warrior while on holiday with her boyfriend in Kenya. After overcoming all sorts of obstacles, she moves into a tiny shack with him and his mother in his village, and spends four years in Kenya. Slowly but surely the dream starts to crumble until she flees back home with her baby daughter born out of the seemingly indestructible love between a white European woman and a Masai. This is a major feature film to be released in the UK 2006
Other Bestsellers
Lonely Planet Italy
Lonely Planet's most successful European guide takes readers beyond the usual cities into the heart of the Italian countryside. This book features seven inspiring new itineraries with more focus on responsible travel, farm stays, local markets, and slow food restaurants.
Rick Steves' Paris: 2009
The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the cozy crperies of Ile St. LouisRick Steves' Paris 2009 allows any traveler to experience all that the City of Light has to offer, from the big-name attractions to the local favorites. Rick covers the best of Paris, providing full tours of the museums and historic sights, detailed walks through various neighborhoods, and complete coverage of Parisian cuisine. Pick from over 400 types of cheeses at the fromagerie on Rue Cler or take a day trip to Versaillesit''s all possible with Rick Steves as your guide.
by Bill Bryson
After tales from the USA and Britain, Bill Bryson turns his roving eye to Australia, the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. It is the driest, flattest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents. It has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way that anywhere else. Yet when Bill Bryson travelled to Australia he promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, the cities safe and clean, the food is excellent, the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. He tries to find out why Aussies are so cool, digging up a past that revealsconvicts, explorers, gold diggers and outlaws.
In this his most challenging journey, Michael Palin tackles the Himalaya, the greatest mountain range on earth, a virtually unbroken wall of rock stretching 1800 miles from the borders of Afghanistan to south-west China. Penetrated but never conquered, it remains the world's most majestic natural barrier, a magnificent wilderness that shapes the history and politics of Asia to this day. Having risen to the challenge of seas, poles, dhows and deserts, the highest mountains in the world were a natural target for Michael Palin.
by Don Watson
Only in America - the most powerful democracy on earth, home to the best and worst of everything - are the most extreme contradictions possible. In a series of journeys, acclaimed author Don Watson set out to explore the nation that has influenced him more than any other. Travelling by rail gave Watson a unique and seductive means of peering into the United States, a way to experience life with its citizens: long days with the American landscape and American towns and American history unfolding on the outside, while inside a tinyparticle of the American people talked among themselves. Watson's experiences are profoundly affecting: he witnesses the terrible aftermath of Hurricane explores the savage history of the Deep South, the heartland of the Civil War and journeys to the remarkable wilderness of Yellowstone National Park. Yet it is through the people he meets that Watson discovers the incomparable genius of America, its optimism, sophistication and riches - and also its darker side, its disavowal of failure and uncertainty. Beautifully written, with gentle power and sly humour, American Journeys investigates the meaning of the United States: its confidence, its religion, its heroes, its violence, and its material obsessions. The things that make America great are also its greatest flaws.
