11. Peru

The Lost City, by Henry Shukman (2008). With poetic precision, Shukman conjures the cloud forest to life, in this powerful novel about a young, British ex-soldier's search for an ancient ruined city in a little-explored region of the Peruvian highlands.

12. Morocco

In Arabian Nights, by Tahir Shah (2008). Inspired by The Thousand and One Nights—also known as the Arabian Nights—Shah interweaves descriptions of his adventures in his adopted Casablanca and around the country as he pursues a time-honored Berber quest: to find the story in his heart.

13. Caribbean

Don't Stop the Carnival, by Herman Wouk (1965). For anyone who has ever vacationed in the Caribbean and contemplated moving there permanently, Wouk's satirical novel of a New-Yorker-turned-island-hotelier will make you think twice. Still, it's a work bathed in the kind of tropical charm that makes the Caribbean so enticing in the first place.

14. Umbria

My House in Umbria, by William Trevor (1991). In this closely observed novella, an English ex-prostitute/romance novelist invites an eclectic group of people back to her green-shuttered villa in Umbria after they survive a terrorist attack on a train. Maggie Smith stars in the 2003 film version.

15. Canada

Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, by Will Ferguson (2004). This collection of essays about Ferguson's travels to the little known or undervalued bits of Canada—Churchill, Manitoba; Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan; Thunder Bay, Ontario—benefits from the Canadian humorist's dry wit. If you like Bill Bryson, you'll like Ferguson's pointed musings on what defines Canada and what it means to be Canadian.

16. Boston

The Bostonians, by Henry James (1886). Initially published as a serial in a magazine, this novel is James's intriguing portrayal of a Civil War veteran and lawyer, his Bostonian feminist cousin, and her protégé.

17. Alaska

Coming Into the Country, by John McPhee (1976). Alaska might be America's least portable state—photographs and travel tales rarely capture the complex sensuality of this frozen zone. But McPhee's passionate detachment brings the variety of Alaska into sharp focus; he spends time among miners, grizzly bears, a young Athabaskan chief, politicians, bush pilots, and durable (if cockeyed) settlers, and paints a picture that stretches from urban culture to pipeline-crossed wilderness to remote Arctic expanses.

18. The Sahara

Arabian Sands, by Wilfred Thesiger (1959). Simply said, a classic. Thesiger journeyed among the nomadic camel-breeding peoples of southern Arabia, fell in love with the desert and the Bedouin, and wrote a rich account of his experiences.

19. Mexico

Stones for Ibarra, by Harriet Doerr (1978). Doerr's first novel relates how an American couple, Richard and Sara Everton, set out from San Francisco for Ibarra, "a declining village of one thousand souls" in Mexico. The Evertons, the only foreigners in the town, hope to restore an ancestral house and copper mine. The mundane details of Mexican village life are cast in new light in this affectionate portrait.

20. Japan

Geisha, by Liza Dalby (1983). Cultural anthropologist Dalby turns in her American dress for kimonos and tabi (split-toed socks) to become the only American to be trained as a geisha. Studying in the Pontocho district, Dalby details the fascinating life of a geisha amidst cherry trees and white powder in modern Japan.