Happy Global New Year!

One of the little rites I love is watching as New Year’s celebrations sweep the globe, from Sydney to Tokyo to Beijing and on to London and Paris. Though I live on the West Coast now, having spent my formative years on the East Coast, I still think of the Times Square ball-drop as the official [...]

Inspiring Views of Two National Parks

Wondering where to go in the new year? How about a trip to a national park? Here’s a book that will pique your park wanderlust.
Yellowstone and Grand Teton. For the casual traveler, these words evoke the wild grandeur of the Old West – the wide-open West of shark-tooth peaks, skyscraping geysers, snaking rivers, plunging waterfalls [...]

Into the Heart of Africa

I have been lucky enough to travel on two safaris in Africa – the first some thirty years ago and the second last year.  Both times I felt an exhilarating connection with the wild places and wildlife of the continent – and experienced that singular sensation of being a guest in the home of the [...]

Great Gift Books: Part Seven

The other day, while looking for a picture book for a friend who is about to visit Machu Picchu, I stumbled upon a book that offers a unique – and uniquely penetrating – evocation of that special place.  

The book is called simply Machu Picchu, and it is a combination of creations by three extraordinary [...]

Great Gift Books: Part Six

You may think you know India, but I’ll wager you’ve never seen it from the perspective of Nicolas Chorier, whose specialty is taking photographs with a camera held aloft by a kite. He utilizes this innovative art to illuminating and enchanting effect in his wonderful new book, Kite’s Eye View: India Between Earth and Sky, [...]

Great Gift Books: Part Five

I have not yet had the good fortune to visit Alaska, but I know one thing from friends who have traveled there: It changes you. Alaska is one of those rare and cherished places that gets inside your mind and soul and forever rearranges your way of looking at the world.
I’d grasped this idea of [...]

Great Gift Books: Part Four

Simon Winchester is one of our most masterful storytellers. In the past he has turned his talents to explicating the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (in “The Professor and the Madman”), illuminating the evolution of geography (“The Map That Changed the World”), and tracking the causes and effects of the famous volcanic explosion of [...]

Great Gift Books: Part Three

This fall, for the first time, I visited the tranquil town of Bishop, California, just east of the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Until that visit I had known Bishop for only one reason: It was for many years the home base for photographer Galen Rowell, a man whose work I had always greatly [...]

Great Gift Books: Part Two

Following up on my coffeetable book recommendation of a couple of days ago, today I want to spotlight another wonderful holiday gift book, Matthieu Ricard’s stunning Tibet: An Inner Journey.

Tibet exerts a pull that few other countries can match. Partly it’s the country’s high solitude and mountain-ringed inaccessibility. Partly it’s the culture’s association with a [...]

Great Gift Books: Part One

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll spotlight some of my favorite coffeetable books of the year. These make exceptional gifts for the special people on your list — or for yourself!
First is the beautiful Wild at Heart, a collection featuring photographs by Chris Johns and essays by Peter Godwin, with a foreword by Nelson [...]