Jeff Rasley has trekked or climbed in the Nepal Himalayas almost every year since 1995. He kept a written and photographic journal each trip. The personal essays included in this anthology are based on these journals.

Photos included illustrate the magnificent beauty of the Himalayan Mountains and the unique culture of the high mountain dwellers. The anthology of photos and articles will whet the appetite of those interested in trekking the Himalayas.

The stories present a gestalt of the local culture and some of the interesting characters who have climbed and trekked the Himalayas. The experience of a first Himalayan climb is described as is the inspiring experience of trekking with Sir Edmund Hillary's elder sister as is the gratification of helping to finish a little village school in the land of the Rai people.

The amazing strength and admirable gentleness of the Sherpa and Rai people living within the most spectacular vistas on planet Earth create a magnetic attraction for adventurers and spiritual seekers. Rasley's love of the mountains and mountain people shows through his personal essays. But he is also critical of how the spread of materialistic consumerism has damaged traditional cultures. And he describes how some mission and development efforts with the best of intentions have harmed rather than helped the traditional culture of local people.

At the French Culinary Institute, Lauren Shockey learned to salt food properly, cook fearlessly over high heat, and knock back beers like a pro. But she also discovered that her real culinary education wouldn't begin until she actually worked in a restaurant. After a somewhat disappointing apprenticeship in the French provinces, Shockey hatched a plan for her dream year: to apprentice in four high-end restaurants around the world. She started in her hometown of New York City under the famed chef Wylie Dufresne at the molecular gastronomy hotspot wd~50, then traveled to Vietnam, Israel, and back to France. From the ribald kitchen humor to fiery-tempered workers to tasks ranging from the mundane (mincing cases of shallots) to the extraordinary (cooking seafood on the line), Shockey shows us what really happens behind the scenes in haute cuisine, and includes original recipes integrating the techniques and flavors she learned along the way. With the dramatic backdrop of restaurant life, readers will be delighted by the adventures of a bright and restless young woman looking for her place in the world.

The Sri Lanka Reader is a sweeping introduction to the epic history of the island nation located just off the southern tip of India. The island's recorded history of more than two and a half millennia encompasses waves of immigration from the South Asian subcontinent, the formation of Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil Hindu civilizations, the arrival of Arab Muslim traders, and European colonization by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, and finally the British. Selected texts depict perceptions of the country's multiple linguistic and religious communities, as well as its political travails after independence in 1948, especially the ethnic violence that recurred from the 1950s until 2009, when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were defeated by the Sri Lankan government's armed forces.

This wide-ranging anthology covers the aboriginal Veddhas, the earliest known inhabitants of the island; the Kings of Kandy, Sri Lanka's last indigenous dynasty; twenty-first-century women who leave the island to work as housemaids in the Middle East; the forty thousand Sri Lankans killed by the tsunami in December 2004; and, through cutting-edge journalism and heart-wrenching poetry, the protracted violence that has scarred the country's contemporary political history. Along with fifty-four images of paintings, sculptures, and architecture, The Sri Lanka Reader includes more than ninety classic and contemporary texts written by Sri Lankans and foreigners.

In October 2008 Jeff Rasley led a trek to a village in a remote valley in the Solu region of Nepal, where trekkers and mountaineers do not go. In Basa Village he found a people thoroughly unaffected by Western consumer-culture values. They had no running water, electricity, or anything that moves on wheels. Each family had a flower garden, and they lived in beautiful, hand-chiseled stone houses. All they seemed to want, beyond what they had, was education for their children.

Bringing Progress to Paradise chronicles Jeff's adventures through remote Nepal: the thrill of reaching mountain peaks and of getting a good night's sleep in a warm tent, the inevitable mishaps that are part and parcel of climbing adventures, and a few tragedies, as well. But the book is more than an engrossing travelogue. Throughout, Rasley reflects deeply on the tangled relationship between tourists and locals in remote locations. In short, the locals seem to want what we have, and we want who they are. How do we promote change without doing harm?

Where are the best places to hike in the Delaware Valley? Whether you're a novice or an old trailhand, a lover of mountains or meadows, there are wonderful hikes within an hour's drive, in some of the region's most beautiful natural places. AMC's Best Day Hikes Near Philadelphia is a guide to 50 hikes in central and South Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, and northern Delaware. There are short, easy hikes perfect for novices or families with children, challenging treks on rugged terrain, and all kinds of hikes in between. Each hike is described in detail, with map, directions, and GPS location, with notes on trails good for kids and dogs, as well as for snowshoes and skis.

The book also includes essays on the geology, plants, and wildlife of the region, giving added context to the trail descriptions.

An engagingly personal guidebook to more than 80 art museums, Art Museums PLUS: Cultural Excursions in New England brings to light the wealth of small and large art museums in the six New England states. In addition to nuts-and-bolts information, it also offers the reader informed and intimate introductions to the museums and their histories, holdings, traditions, and architecture, as well as the relationship to their town or city. Each entry concludes with a "PLUS" section, which enriches a visit by pointing to other cultural sites nearby, such as historically or aesthetically significant buildings and institutions, historic districts, and parks and gardens; it proposes walks and hikes or mentions relevant books and movies and contains 48 illustrations and six maps.

Tourism today is recognized as the largest and fastest-growing industry in the world, capable of producing positive social and economic transformations, especially in developing countries. Yet for UNESCO, it works in conjunction with World Heritage sites for a far more ambitious goal: to produce "peace in the minds of men" by creating a new, global identity.

Anthropologist and former tour operator Michael Di Giovine draws on ethnographic fieldwork, close policy analysis, and professional experiences in Southeast Asia and Europe to provide a detailed examination of UNESCO's unusual effort to harness globalization and cultural diversity for the purpose of creating peace. He convincingly argues that UNESCO's designations are not impotent political performances that lead to the commercialization of local monuments, but instead are the building blocks of a new social system he calls the "heritage-scape"--an imaginative re-ordering of the world that knows no geopolitical boundaries but exists in the individual "minds of men."

Written for social scientists and heritage and tourism professionals, The Heritage-scape is an insightful, detailed, and expansive look at UNESCO's World Heritage Program in Vietnam, Cambodia, and across the world.

As implied by the title, this is a comprehensive reference book to color knitting techniques. There are complete chapters on stripes, pattern stitches, knitting with multicolor yarns, stranded knitting, and intarsia, covering both the theory and the how-to behind each method. Additional chapters offer insights into less well-known techniques such as mosaic knitting, shadow knitting, twined knitting and entrelac. Projects scattered throughout the book provide the opportunity to test out these techniques, and chapters on color theory for knitters and garment design round out this beautiful, densely illustrated book.

A comprehensive guide to the mysteries of knitting, this book is designed to answer the many questions that frustrate knitters. Broad in its approach, it covers in detail everything from cast ons to bind offs, with chapters on needles; yarn; shaping; color work; circular knitting; patterns, abbreviations and charts; pattern stitches; and finishing techniques. Line drawings clearly illustrate techniques. All of this is packed into a volume small enough to fit easily in any knitting bag. The Knitting Answer Book has been a best-seller in knitting and needlecrafts since it's release in 2005.

Newly expanded edition includes the boat-repairs-and-maintenance vocabulary found in Kathy Parson's highly successful first edition plus 10 new topics essential to cruising the Caribbean, the Americas, and Spain. No other source provides boaters and marine interests with the unique practical, specialized phrases necessary for communicating with port captains, marina and boatyard staff, mechanics, technicians, emergency rescuers, divers, and fishermen. The book is just as useful ashore when provisioning, banking, clearing in or out of a country, traveling inland, or using phone, internet, medical, or dental services. Completely indexed in Spanish and English, with an easy-to-use pronunciation scheme, hundreds of drawings, photos, and diagrams of systems and boat parts, Spanish For Cruisers will be the boater's essential companion throughout any visit in Spanish-speaking waters.