Gifts For The Holidays

The Bazaar: Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World-Walter Weiss and Kurt-Michael Westerman take you on a grand tour of Islamic bazaars, where food, history, culture and art converge. This is a compelling book, a visual feast that takes you from Marrakech to Samarkand, Istanbul to Dubai, with fascinating commentary and beautiful color photographs that bring the landscape, markets, customs, and architecture to life. From couscous to camels, from the silver trade to a market that just sells the Koran, each market is described, placed in cultural context, and located on maps. This oversize cloth volume is much more than a coffee table book, it is a gift of rare insight. $50.00

Chasing Rickshaws-Ranging all over Asia in pursuit of the rickshaw, Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler and photographer Richard l’Anson have created a uniquely wonderful book. Wheeler uses the rickshaw as a window into Asian cultures, taking us from Agra and Calcutta to Manila, Hong Kong, Penang and seven other cities, where the number, design and use of the rickshaw varies with each city, culture and nation. Wheeler’s well-written, informative prose is accompanied by l’Anson’s striking color photographs, and together they make a great addition to any Asia enthusiast’s bookshelf. $34.95

Cooking at the Kasbah: Recipes From My Moroccan Kitchen-This is a delicious book of traditional and contemporary Moroccan recipes, colorfully spiced with photographs and historical and cultural notes. Kitty Morse offers information on kitchen supplies, ingredients, cooking techniques, and the art of eating, as well as about 70 recipes on everything from soups and bread to fish, meats and desserts. The text, and the photographs by Laurie Smith, will entice you its flavors of the Moroccan spirit. Bismillah! Paper, $22.95

Gardens of the Wine Country-This oversize cloth book is filled with gorgeous color photographs of the gardens of Napa Valley. Full-page plates as well as smaller photos evoke a sense of the land; the vineyards, orchards, rolling hills, and spectacular gardens that make up this fertile valley. Molly Chappellet, a Napa gardener herself, provides informal notes about the landscaping and the people who planted and designed each garden, from formal rose gardens to rock gardens to wisteria-covered homes and rows of cypress trees. Personal anecdotes and recollections of the area’s history complete the portrait of this beautiful region. $40.00

The Gift of Travel-What could be a more appropriate gift than a book actually entitled The Gift of Travel? The editors of the Travelers’ Tales have selected their favorite travel stories from their award-winning series and published them together in a single volume. Stories about people, places and experiences from Agra to Tibet, Paris to Palenque, Brazil to the Atlas Mountains and beyond. There are a few famous names, but most of the authors selected here are unknowns who have just written really great travel stories. A delightful, inspiring collection that will make you want to jump on the next plane bound for anywhere. $14.95

Grand Hotels-Elaine Denby has written a lavishly illustrated history of the world’s grand old hotels. Equal parts social history, architectural guide and coffee table book, it offers a detailed look at the origin of these lavishly appointed hotels, from the onset of rail travel in Europe and North America in the mid-1800’s to steamship travel in the Orient, from the creation of seaside resorts to mountain spas. Denby covers it all, even including a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the people who made the hotels run and the people who made them famous. Gorgeous interior and exterior shots in color and black and white accompany the truly fascinating text. $65.00

Hammond Atlas of the World - The new edition of this grand atlas is even better than the last. Satellite photography, 167 pages of computer-generated maps with topographic features, sections on population, climate, productivity, agriculture and environmental concerns, and a 100,000 entry index make this one of the most reliable atlases around. Fully updated, it includes over 60 maps of major cities and specialized maps of areas not usually covered, such as Vatican City and the Nile River Delta. The perfect gift for the globetrotter or student in your life. $69.95

Naples at Table-Arthur Schwartz, veteran cookbook author and restaurant critic, celebrates the food and people of Naples and the surrounding Campania region with 250 recipes from Avellino, Bonevento, Caserta, Salerno, the Amalfi Coast, Capri and Ischia. The recipes are culled from his many years of travel in the area, and are accompanied by informed notes on the origins of the recipes, the families who have used the recipes for generations, and local ingredients and specialties. Early chapters offer an extensive, enjoyable introduction to the region and its history, with subsequent chapters arranged by course. A delectable book. $27.50

New York Vertical-A condensed version of last season’s $95 volume of the same name, this gorgeous book pays homage to the New York skyscraper, right down to its size and shape-six and a half inches wide by thirteen inches high. It is filled with dazzling black and white vertical shots of Manhattan, from famous skyscrapers to unusual views of streets and neighborhoods, all taken by Horst Hamann and accompanied by witty and insightful quotes from the famous and the obscure. A lovely gift for any New Yorker, would-be New Yorker, or architecture buff. $29.95

Ring of Fire Boxed Video Set-If you missed the original 1988 showing on PBS of Ring of Fire, Lawrence & Lorne Blair's documentary of their ten-year journey through Indonesia, or if you would like to relive the excitement of the remarkable journey, we now have a complete boxed set available (videos not sold separately):
Volume One: Spice Island Saga
Volume 2: Dance of the Warriors
Volume 3: East of Krakatoa
Volume 4: Dream Wanderers of Borneo Boxed VHS Video Set: $79.95

Also:
Ring of Fire, the companion book to the PBS series, with color photographs $24.95

Rough Guide CD’s-The creators of the popular Rough Guides series have joined with the World Music Network to produce an excellent collection of music from around the world. Want to sample Brazil’s musical heritage? The Rough Guide Brazilian Music CD is arranged by region and contains music by some of Brazil’s best-loved and most respected musicians and vocalists. The Flamenco CD allows you to experience the varied forms and interpretations of this dynamic music performed by masters of the genre. All in all there are 26 regional CD’s so far in this series, each with over 60 minutes of music. "These discs delve right into the heart and soul of the regions they explore"-Rhythm Music Magazine.

The Andes (Music of) Australian Aboriginal Music Brazilian Music Cajun & Zydeco Colombian Music Cuban Music Eastern European Music English Roots Music Flamenco India & Pakistan (Music of) Irish Music Irish Music: Dublin Kenya & Tanzania (Music of)

Native American Music North African Music Portuguese Fado Reggae Salsa Scottish Music Scottish Music: Edinburgh South African Music Tango West African Music World Music World Music 2 Zimbabwe (Music of) Each $14.95

Rough Guide to The Millennium-Reservations for parties at the best hotels in the world have been sold out for years, but there are still lots of other options for New Year’s Eve 1999. This new book guides you to a wide array of celebrations worldwide, including one at the Eiffel Tower in Paris involving a Millennium "egg"; a party billed as the largest in the world at the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt; and feasts and festivals in Kiribati (or Christmas island), which is situated along the International Date Line and therefore will be the first place to experience the millennium, as well as in other runner-up islands in the South Pacific. Contact information is provided for these and other events, as are facts about the millennium and the angst that goes along with it. The perfect stocking stuffer for the procrastinating party animal. $8.95

Venice and Food-Sally Spencer has produced a beautifully illustrated examination of the intimate connection between the city of Venice and its cuisine. It is filled with information on the rich history and culture of Venice and the culinary specialties of the area, with Spencer’s full-color illustrations throughout. For those of us who would like a little Venetian magic in our own kitchens, Spencer includes recipes of traditional delicacies such as Gnocchi de Suca, Fondi de Articiochi, and Baicolo cookies. Venice and Food makes a wonderful gift for italophiles, gourmets (or gourmands) or oneself…
Cloth, $35.00

Destinations: Paris in the Springtime Last May my husband and I embarked on a ten day trip to Paris. The following is just a brief overview of some of the highlights of our trip. View the full 5-page article with more restaurant reviews, pictures, travel tips and impressions. We arrived in Paris by the R.E.R. train from Charles de Gaulle airport -- a convenient and inexpensive way to get into the city at 45 minutes and $10.00 per person. We had reserved a room in advance at a simple two-star hotel called the Grand Hotel des Balcons in the 6th arrondissement (3 Rue Casimir-Delavigne, fax: 011-33-1-46-34-06-27). We had chosen it because of good reviews in a number of Paris hotel guides, but mainly for its central location off the Place de l’Odeon, near the Odeon Metro stop, and its reasonable price ($78 per double, with private bath in high season!). We were not disappointed. One of our first stops was the main office of the Visitor’s Information Bureau at 127 Ave. des Champs-Elysees to buy a five-day museum pass. For about $40 a person, the Carte Musees grants you access to most of the museums and monuments in Paris and even some outside the city. This card is a must for museum goers and pays for itself after your third stop. The benefits, though, are immediate: regardless of what you think of I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre, it is absolutely the wrong way to enter the museum. Basically, it’s a line you wait on to get underground, . . . where you get on a line to actually enter one of the museum’s three wings. Take the metro to the Louvre’s station instead and use your Carte Musees to stroll in past everyone else. Our favorite museum was the Musee Rodin (77 Rue de Varenne), housed in the building that was the artist’s home from 1908 until his death in 1917. Room after room are filled with both finished pieces and working models by the renowned sculptor and by Camille Claudel, who was Rodin’s pupil, muse and mistress (and an accomplished sculptor in her own right). Larger works such as the Burghers of Calais, the Thinker and the Gates of Hell can be found in the beautiful formal gardens surrounding the building. You could easily spend hours wandering around this comfortably small but tightly packed museum, which, like many of Paris’ museums, is worth seeing just for the building it is housed in-a lovely, extravagantly columned home built in 1730. We had the best food of our stay on the left bank, a stone’s throw from Notre Dame,. The charming Les Bouchons de Francois Clerc is tucked out of the way on Rue de l’Hotel-Colbert (#12, about a block from the Seine). I started with excellent crepinettes de langoustines, followed by a tender leg of pork braised in brandy. My husband ordered Charlotte des Tomates, (sun-dried tomatoes over ricotta and artichoke hearts) and a main dish of tuna steak over an artichoke puree. (Craig lives for artichokes) This delicious meal was accompanied by a fine bottle of wine from their well stocked cellar. The two-course prix fixe meal cost 117F per person (about $20 each), not including the wine. Another highlight of our trip was a visit to Shakespeare & Company, located on the Left Bank across from the Seine at 37 Rue de la Bucherie. I had wanted to make a pilgrimage to this site ever since I first started my own career in bookselling 14 years ago at the Shakespeare & Company here in New York, and read Sylvia Beach’s book about her Paris bookshop. Now owned by the elderly George Whitman, and in a different location than the original, the scene is still the same: a warren of dusty rooms filled to the brim with books on every subject one can think of. It also remains the favorite hangout of students, famous and would-be famous writers, and various other intellectuals. We were lucky enough to be invited to tea up in Whitman’s own cramped private quarters above the store. We were joined by about eight other American and English expats and sat around for hours drinking tea, eating cookies and discussing books, politics, and life in Paris. Speaking of literary Paris, it may seem like a cliché but Hemingway was certainly right to call Paris "a moveable feast". There are two delightful outdoor markets on the Left Bank which are not to be missed. Rue de Buci and Rue Mouffetard both close to automobile traffic on different days of the week (and each weekend morning) and vendors line the streets, offering fresh vegetables and fruit, delectable pastries, breads, cheeses, pates, sandwiches and wine. You can put together a truly delicious picnic lunch for just a few francs and enjoy a quintessential Parisian experience. We spent our last day doing just that, dining along the bank of the Seine as the riverboats rolled by. ---Diana and Craig View the full 5-page article with more restaurant reviews, pictures, travel tips and impressions.