Vintage departures

Explores the dark side of Manhattan from approximately 1840 to 1919, covering such topics as popular entertainments, the plight of workers, prostitution, crooked cops, and street children.

Married less than two years, the author and her husband decided they wanted a honeymoon adventure. They set out for South America, including the Amazon River. When their plane crashes on the way to their next destination, they are stranded in a town in the middle of nowhere. Boats are infrequent and they would have to wait months for the next one. They decide to take a stranger's suggestion and build a raft to take them down the Amazon to their next destination, which, he assures them, will be easy. Ready for a new adventure, they are excited as they set off. Soon their excitement turns to horror and despair as a storm pushes their raft into a dead-end channel of the piranha-infested River Madre de Dios (Mother of God). Without the means of a motor or paddles, they wait for death as they slowly starve to death for twenty-six days. Only a chance encounter with two natives saves their lives.

A biography of the Dalai Lama written by a man who has known the Dalai Lama for three decades as a friend of his father. Describes the Tibetan leader who has become a world figure while Tibet itself is becoming a Chinese province. Discusses his everyday discipline and humanity while he brings a transformative message to the world.

The author recounts his experiences getting stranded on a desert island in the Red Sea, burying seven years' worth of his travel diaries on the island, and returning to Yemen ten years later to retrieve the journals with the help of a guide named Mohammed.

Pico Iyer chronicles the experiences his had while embarking on a physical and psychological quest to find out what remains constant in a world gone mobile.

Chronicles the journey of author Vikram Seth from China, through Tibet and Nepal, to his home in New Delhi, India and his encounter with nomadic Muslims, Chinese officials, and Buddhists.