Since 1980, the Thomas Cook Travel Book of the Year has been considered the travel writing equivalent to the Booker or Pulitzer, and this Stewart's second book to win the prestigious honor. The book's framework is Stewart's plan to travel from roughly the western edge of the 12th-century Mongol empire to the mountain in eastern Mongolia where Ghengis Khan was buried. The first quarter of the book covers his trip from Istanbul to the the Crimea on a decrepit Russian cargo ship, across Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan by train, and by air into Mongolia. This is all warmup for Mongolia itself, as he intersperses the history Mongol conquest with that of a proselytizing mission made by a Franciscan monk to the Mongol court in 1253, as well as his own encounters with a gun-toting teenage Russian smuggler, a Dickens-loving Russian procuress, and various lonely souls.

Once in Mongolia, Stewart switches to horseback, as his plan is to ride over 1,000 miles across its breadth. With a succession of translators, guides, and horses, he find that the happiest and healthiest Mongols live virtually the same nomadic lives as their ancestors of five centuries ago. Even accounting for a certain degree of romanticization of the countryside, it's hard to find anything redeeming about the settlements he passes through. Virtually all are crumbling towns with few permanent residents beyond a mayor, policeman, and a few other caretakers. These regional centers are ugly concrete legacies of the Soviet era which have been largely abandoned since the end of Soviet aid and seem destined to return to the earth.

Out in the countryside, Stewart meets innumerable nomads, takes part in a wedding, visits a shaman, goes to a festival which includes horse-races and wrestling, and generally finds the people to be friendly and curious. Of course the landscape features prominently, and people with horses may find themselves yearning to across the world to ride next to history's most famous horsemen. The real pleasure of the book is that while Stewart does all these fascinating things, he writes about it in simply stunning prose liberally sprinkled with humor and heart. Here's a brief paragraph from his chapter on attending a wedding:

"Religion was represented by the kind of monk the Communists warned the populace about in the 1930s. A theatrical figure of porcine debauchery, the attendant lama would have made Falstaff seem both abstemious and thin. He was attired in a filthy [robe], a Manchu moustache, and a pirate's headband. Laying a fat hand on my head, he mumbled a few words in faux Tibetan by way of a blessing, then offered me a bowl of [fermented mare's milk]. I liked him, He was jolly, lecherous, and very drunk."

It's a fascinating and funny book, and one that should read by anyone with an interest in other cultures. One interesting footnote: in discussing the book, several professional reviews have said that the Mongolian nomadic life will likely "die out in our lifetime." This is directly opposite to what Stewart describes! He is very clear that the nomadic lifestyle is the only one which makes much sense in a country like Mongolia, and that the vast majority of people prefer not to live in urban areas!

Since it's Frank Miller, you know this graphic novel looks awesome, and you can pretty much count on a dark moodiness too. The book starts with samurai in feudal Japan failing his master and becoming ronin (wandering and masterless) before a climactic encounter with the demon who slew his master. Then the book flashes forward to a dystopian 21st-century New York where the streets are rubble ruled by gangs, and ghouls rule beneath the streets. The ronin and demon's story is carried on in the context of a a giant corporation involved in bio-technology. It gets a little complicated and somewhat cheezy after that, but it's still worth checking out.

Am I the only man who read this book?... This is pretty stunning stuff from a first-time novelist: beautiful but grounded prose, deep and believable characterizations, and a deft handling of complicated coming-of-age issues. On the other hand, first novels (and films) are often about those things closest to the author's heart and experience, so we'll wait to see what Williams comes up with next before proclaiming her the voice of a new generation... The book is about Skye, a high school senior in Santa Barbara trying to deal with a new school, making new friends, her insane New Age-addict mother, and her own sexuality. Williams juggles these along with the typical teenage traumas of parties, a controlling parent, an absent parent, and an out-of-control friend. It's a complex journey into Skye's head, and even though much of the book concerns her lesbianism, it never draws attention to itself. Williams' prose floats and flows but never lifts off into the realm of mawkishness. Deserves a wide readership.

This collection of seven short stories set in Iran reveal the author's deep understanding of the country and their people. O'Donnell's stories present both issues of Western interaction with Persians, as well as cultural divides within Persian culture. The collection is subtitled "Stories of Old Iran" as they portray an Iran of 20-40 years ago and have a certain reserve to them. "The Tree and the Pool" is perhaps the least successful of the stories, portraying a somewhat stereotyped "ugly American." Another featuring Americans, "The Women and the Ladies" is also somewhat awkwardly executed. The concluding "Mrs. Cahn" is a more even piece, as an old American woman transcends her background to connect with local tribespeople. "The Duck Hunt" works well as a sketch of the tension in a Norwegian family on vacation in Iran. "The Price and the Baker," "The Stone of Love," and "The Old Men of Isfahan" are more fablistic, and enjoyable on that level. As a whole, the stories are a good glimpse into a passing time and place. The story titles are presented as two page spreads with lovely black and white photos that perfectly capture the mood of the book as a whole.

This is a fairly cute and telling fictional journal/scrapbook of a New Orleans punk who, instead of going to college, decides to move to Washington, D.C. and live a more "punk" life. Elliot's two years in D.C. unfold in a series of letters to his former girlfriend, letters to his little sister back home, journal entries, and three issues of "Mindcleaner" a 'zine he starts. Elliot's punk experience runs the gamut, from living in the Positive Force house, a hazy relationship with a riot grrrrl, working in a health food store at Dupont Circle, trying to organize a collective, moving to Mt. Pleasant, and of course, being in a band and putting out a record. I believe the book is pretty much based on the co-author's experiences in moving to D.C. and I suppose it captures/satirizes a lot of the D.C. "scene" pretty accurately. Although the names have been changed, plenty of D.C. bands (Fugazi, Nation of Ulysses) and scenesters will be recognizable to people in the know. The book works better as a rabid cry to "do something" instead of posing--an aim that is always laudable. It's critique/satire of the D.C. scene gets a little stale by the end, it seems to me like a lot of Elliot's disillusionment stems from idealized expectations about D.C.

I picked this up because I'd really enjoyed Lethem's Gun With Occasional Music, and heard so many good things about his Motherless Brooklyn. Unfortunately, this sci-fi surrealist road-trip book never went anywhere interesting to me. Chaos, the hero, is on a quest to discover the truth of what what happened the world (alien attack, nuclear/biological holocaust, etc.) and his own identity. However, memory, time and truth seem to be totally subjective in this landscape and are somehow dictated and controlled by his dreams. The end result is a really dull roadtrip as he struggles to find himself in a world which makes no sense. If this is supposed to be allegorical, it's pretty weak and shallow. There are a few interesting ideas, but on the whole, this is a book best left unread (and unpublished for that matter), Lethem is capable of much better.

This is a light and breezy small village comedy of manners, a la P.G. Wodehouse, albeit with a gay theme. When a rich London theatrical producer buys the "Hall House" in a small village an hour outside London, and installs his young boyfriend there, wacky antics ensue. The books is chock-a-block with misunderstandings, mistaken identities, secret longings, and over-the-top characters. Per the genre, the book ends with all the characters gathered for a party which quickly degenerates into a wild fiasco in which all is revealed and resolved. It's all fairly diverting stuff, although I never found it laugh-out-loud funny, nor particularly insightful on gay issues.

This history of Shanghai during WWII is amazingly researched (check the notes), and beautifully written, and yet somehow failed to be quite as fascinating as I'd anticipated. There are bizarre personalities, intrigues, and dastardly deeds by the handful, but there's a lot of history of fairly boring bureaucratic maneuvering as well. Shanghai was certainly interesting in the variety of interests and intelligence groups operating in it, but in the end one gets the feeling that a great deal of time and effort was expended on all sides to virtually no effect. I think the book possibly suffers from the lack of a single major dramatic incident. Of course, this is history, so it is what it is, but it rather peters out, I felt. Still, of considerable interest to WWII or Chinese history buffs.

This collection of "transmissions from the edge of style culture" is intermittently interesting, depending on one's personal interests, level of interest in cultural studies and tolerance for semi-academic jargon. Beard's pieces are mostly republished from various style mags (mostly i-D and Arena) he wrote for over the course of the '90s. For me, he's probably at his best extolling various sci-fi writers like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, or J. G. Ballard or specific topics as opposed to the pieces where he's making broader assertions or bringing together bits and pieces of his vast reading. Likely to appeal to a fairly limited audience.

This compilation of about 100 "strange coincidences, ominous premonitions, and baffling mysteries" contains a lot of tantalizing little tidbits, but one has to be a little dubious about some of the stuff. Especially since others with much more detailed WWII knowledge than me have pointed out factual errors that undermine the entire book's credibility. Even so, it's worth reading for some of the incidents are remarkable and would make great grist for the Hollywood Mill. If you've got limited time or interest, the sections "Puzzling Events," "Uncanny Riddles," and "People Who Vanished" are much, much stronger than "Odd Coincidences," "Curious Happenings," "Peculiar Premonitions," and "Strange Encounters."