Short List: On my Bookshelf

Travels in the East, Japan-based scholar Donald Richie's newest collection of incisive and insightful travel essays from all over Asia and the Pacific, from Mongolia to Borneo.

The Jewel Trader of Pegu, a historic novel by Jeffrey Hantover about a Jewish widower's romance with a young woman in the Burmese kingdom of Pegu

Havana Deco, a photo book ideal for lovers of Havana's art deco gems.

Riding Toward Everywhere, William T. Vollmann's memoir of riding freight trains across the American West.