Longhorn Reviews

By: Thubron, Colin

Thubron has penned a number of entertaining and insightful books over a long career, and he may be one of the last in the British tradition of “gentleman travelers.” His is an elegant style. He writes with crystalline clarity and his narratives, and travels, inevitable veer from the beaten track, bringing us vivid tales from faraway places inhabited by strangers who soon become our familiars. In this book, he details his journey through modern Asia along the ancient Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, revisiting some of the same people and places he detailed in two earlier books, only twenty years on. His descriptions of history, cultures and people are vivid and unforgettable.

Reviewer: Tim Strawn

By: Horwitz, Tony

When it comes to history and the “discovery” of America, Tony Horwitz is a dummy and he is betting that his readers are as well. During a visit to Plymouth Rock, Horwitz discovers, much to his priate school educated chagrin, that he knew next to nothing about the people who traveled the continent (before and after Columbus), much less the folks who inhabited “America” before European contact commenced. Horwitz writes a well-paced and humorous travelogue of self-tutoring as he sweats it out in a lodge with MicMacs in Newfoundland, follows Coronado’s trail all the way to Kansas (who knew?) and tours present-day Roanoke which was briefly settled, not by fantasized Pilgrim forebears, but by a, “… motley crew of slave traders, tourists, castaways and Tudor knights….” Horwitz neatly balances historical narrative with his own present-day travel stories for an engaging and entertaining history lesson.

Reviewer: Tim Strawn

By: Alain de Botton

How art has influenced what we consider beautiful in the world, and how an appreciation of art can enhance your travels and your life.  “Although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so.”—from the jacket blurb

Reviewer: Ellen