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Venice for Lovers. By Louis Begley and Anka Muhlstein. Grove, $19.95 (9780802118752).
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Now, don't stop booking flights and hotel rooms to nice destinations once you've savored the armchair delights of the following books, reviewed in Booklist over the past year. Armchair should always be mixed with actual. - Brad Hooper
Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples. By Shirley Hazzard and Francis Steegmuller. Univ. ofChicago, $18 (9780226322018).
By two famous authors, this book speaks to how blessed they felt about their time spent in Naples and the indelible impressions with which the city left them.
Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent. By David McGorigal. Firefly $59.95 (9781554073986).
Sumptuously illustrated with photos, maps, and paintings, this will be the go-to armchair visit to Antarctica for years to come.
Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. By David Grann. Doubleday, $27.50 (9780385513531).
This celebrated member of the Royal Geographical Society explored the Amazon the hard way: on foot. Through his eyes, we experience the thrill of discovery.
Sea of Dangers: Captain Cook and His Rivals in the South Pacific. By Geoffrey Blainey. Ivan Dee, $27-50 (9781566638258).
An excellent work of popular history that recounts the exploits of men who dramatically expanded our knowledge of the globe.
Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing: Living in the Future. By Charles Bowden. Houghton, $24 (9780151013951).
This ravishing chronicle completes an "accidental trilogy" of books that flow from a single hunger and a single question: How can a person live a moral life in a culture of death-the deaths of people and animals, forests and oceans, clean air and water?
Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons: Travels in Sicily in a Vespa. By Matthew Fort. Minotaur, $25.96 (9780312559182).
Aiming to give the place its proper due, Fort's intimate portrait of modern Sicily introduces readers to the characters who enliven it.
Thames: The Biography. By Peter Ackroyd. Doubleday/Nan Talese, $40 (9780385526234).
From ancient times to the present day, the author charts the history of human habitation and usage of this vastly significant English river.
Traveler's Tales: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer. By Rolf Potts. Traveler's Tales, paper, $14.95(9781932361612).
Most of these tales first appeared online (written in the field, as it were). The author is a vivid, enthusiastic writer, and armchair travelers will get an enormous kick out of this thoroughly entertaining book.
Tropic of Capricorn: A Remarkable Journey to the Forgotten Corners of the World. By Simon Reeve. IPG/BBC, paper, $17.95(9781846073861).
Reeve takes readers along on a 23;000-mile journey through the tropics, in a must-read for armchair travelers.
Venice for Lovers. By Louis Begley and Anka Muhlstein. Grove, $19.95 (9780802118752).
Every year for two decades, the authors-both writers-have taken a two-week holiday in Venice to concentrate on writing as well as absorb more of Venetian customs and color.
Copyright Booklist Publications Sep 15, 2009