Books like Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin

A graphic novel chronicling the social conditions and politics of Burma through the eyes of a respected international reporter, focusing on everyday life and resilience in the face of authoritarian rule.

Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American journalist with deep family ties to Iran’s elite, offers an intimate, nuanced portrait of Iran’s culture, politics, and paradoxes, explaining why the United States often misunderstands the country.

A collection of Mark Twain’s tales featuring Tom Sawyer adventures abroad, detective work, and other humorous and adventurous stories set in varied locales.

Matt Taibbi examines post‑9/11 America from the corridors of Congress to the frontlines of Iraq, the rise of the 9/11 Truth Movement, and the influence of evangelical mega‑churches, revealing a nation in political turmoil.

Though the Kurds played a major military and tactical role in the United States’ recent war with Iraq, most of us know little about this fiercely independent, long-marginalized people. Now acclaimed journalist Christiane Bird, who riveted readers with her tour of Islamic Iran in Neither East Nor West, travels through this volatile part of the world to tell the Kurds’ story, using personal observations and in-depth research to illuminate an astonishing history and vibrant culture. For the twenty-five to thirty million Kurds, Kurdistan is both an actual and a mythical place: an isolated, largely mountainous homeland that has historically offered sanctuary from the treacherous outside world and yet does not exist on modern maps. Parceled out among the four nation-states of Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran after World War I, Kurdistan is a divided land with a tragic history, where the indomitable Kurds both celebrate their ancient culture and fight to control their own destiny. Occupying some of the Middle East’s most strategic and richest terrain, the Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the region and the largest ethnic group in the world without a state to call their own. Whether dancing at a Kurdish wedding in Iran, bearing witness to the destroyed Kurdish countryside in southeast Turkey, having lunch with a powerful exiled agha in Syria, or visiting the sites of Saddam Hussein’s horrific chemical attacks in Iraq, the intrepid, insightful Bird sheds light on a violently stunning world seen by few Westerners. Part mesmerizing travelogue, part action-packed history, part reportage, and part cultural study, this critical book offers timely insight into an unknown but increasingly influential part of the world. Bird paints a moving and unforgettable portrait of a people uneasily poised between a stubborn past and an impatient future. From the Hardcover edition.

A travel writer and explorer describes his journey through the foothills of the Himalayas, recounting his trips along the Silk Road of Afghanistan, the Line of Control between Pakistan and India, the disputed territories of Kashmir, and earthquake-damaged regions of Nepal.