Huston Smith has had the habit of showing up in the most remarkable places at the most historic times. This autobiography tells the story of Smith's experiences of historic turning points and encounters with many of the people that shaped the 20th century. In addition to the figures above, Smith tel[...]

An unforgettable spiritual journey through the Himalayas? now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary
IN 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow l[...]

Suddenly realizing what's important in life (with the help of a bunny), a man quits his job and heads to the countryside in this internationally bestselling comic novel.
"Which of us has not had that wonderfully seditious idea: to play hooky for a while from life as we know it?" With these word[...]

Having captivated readers with such gems of travel writing as Video Night in Kathmandu, Pico Iyer now presents a novel whose central character is another place: the melancholy, ebullient, and dazzlingly inconsistent island that is Castro's Cuba. "On almost every page you can smell the dust, the chea[...]

Using his own multicultural upbringing as a point of departure, Pico Iyer sets out on a journey - both physical and psychological - towards a definition of home in this world gone mobile. He travels to America, Hong Kong, Toronto, Atlanta, England, and Japan, where he finally finds a home.[...]

One of the best travel writers now at work in the English language brings back the sights and sounds from a dozen different frontiers. A cryptic encounter in the perfumed darkness of Bali; a tour of a Bolivian prison, conducted by an enterprising inmate; a nightmarish taxi ride across southern Yemen[...]

Actor and award-winning travel writer Andrew McCarthy leads the charge in ancestral travel as he masterfully describes his own quest to uncover his Irish roots, followed by twenty-five other compelling stories that span the globe. From Sicily to Russia to Taiwan and beyond, each of the 26 stories pr[...]

Esteemed essayist Pico Iyer explores why it is that the more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug[...]

Certain special places move us at a profound level - with a kind of inner beauty that puts us in direct touch with the spirit. It might be a temple, a church, a commemorative monument, a wayside shrine or a landscape feature that is saturated in the ambience of ancient sacred traditions. Such places[...]