Photography by Marc Appleton

Lotusland is a magical and rare place located in Santa Barbara, CA. This sprawling botanical garden was founded by former opera singer, and many times divorced socialite, Madame Ganna Walksa. Deciding six husbands was enough, she turned her attention full time to creating her amazing gardens. …

Debra Bokur

fire thiefThe first in an excellent new series, Bokur hits all the right buttons. Her mystery is set on the island of Maui and revolves around Police Chief Walter Alaka’i and his niece, Detective Kali Māhoe. The plot is tight and fast moving – a surfer who dies mysteriously, …

The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations

Micro Nations

Micronations, sometimes also referred to as model countries and new country projects, are small, self-proclaimed entities that claim to be independent sovereign states but which are not acknowledged as such by any recognized sovereign state, or by any supranational organization. Wikipedia

Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies

Alastair Bonnett

Unruly PlacesAt first glance, Bonnett’s book may look like another interesting guide to off-the-beaten-track places. Unruly Places goes a step further. Divided into eight categories, Bonnett looks at truly unique geographical places and concepts. Lost Spaces include cities that have been …

Molly Oldfield

In many ways, this is an excellent and intriguing book. Oldfield managed to gain access to sixty museums and was allowed to view objects never seen by the public.  Each entry covers one of these objects.  They range from the sad – Anne Frank’s friendship book, and sketches …

Timpson's Country ChurchesJohn Timpson

Any of my fellow Anglophiles will love this collection of country churches, collected by former BBC news reporter John Timpson. Each church is featured with a short description of the most unique features and a photo or two. The tidbits of fascinating history Timpson ferreted out are not …

Bernhard Edmaier

Edmaier’s aerial photos of volcanoes, both active and dormant, around the world are works of art.  Some are so alien, so intensely colored and strangely shaped, that they can’t be of this planet. Some are brooding dead hunks of rock, other fiery pits and still others glowing pools …

Japanese ArchitectureJapanese Detail: Architecture by Sadao Hibi  & The Art of Japanese Architecture by David and Machiko Young

Both of these architecture books are unique to the standard Japanese architecture books I’ve looked through in the past. Generally, the standards fall into the categories of brief overviews of large buildings, cities …

Lost Worlds of the Guiana HighlandsStewart McPherson

I’m guessing most viewers of the Pixar  flick  Up were convinced that the surreal, twisted landscape on the top of the mountain where the balloon-house landed were figments of overheated animators’ brains. However, based on the pictures in Lost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands, it is clear that …

Travels in SiberiaIan Frazier

Frazier’s dense and fascinating look at Siberia from seven trips over two decades makes a nowhere place into somewhere.  Most often associated with gulag camps and cold, Siberia is as as vast and varied hunk of land as the US.  Starting with his early fascination with the country, …

Stephen Fry in AmericaStephen Fry

British actor and comedian Stephen Fry (Jeeves of Jeeves and Wooster fame) is that rare breed of European – one who actually likes Americans. In his attempt to show his British audiences that we aren’t all a bunch of loud, vulgar, gun-toting religious nuts he undertakes a project …

Catherine Price

I was a bit disappointed that many of the places Price lists are related to a personal anecdote (albeit hilarious), don’t really exist (hell) or you would not be able to experience yourself (being a bull at the running of the bulls). However, there are plenty of doozies …