When graphic designer Vahram Muratyan began his online travel journal, Paris vs New York, he had no idea how quickly it would become one of the most buzzed-about sites on the Internet-it garnered more than a million and a half page views in just a few months, and the attention of savvy online critics.

Now Muratyan presents his unique observations in this delightful book, featuring visually striking graphics paired with witty, thought-provoking taglines that celebrate the special details of each city.

Paris vs New York is a heartfelt gift to denizens of both cities and to those who dream of big-city romance.

Shannon Bennett, chef and owner of internationally renowned restaurant Vue de monde, takes you on the journey of a lifetime as he explores the country he adores: France. Shannon and friends review all their favourites, from three-star restaurants to local bistros, from luxury hotels to rooms with a view. This unique guide includes Shannon's perfect three-day break in Monte-Carlo and a movie producer's guide to Cannes, as well as a sommelier's tips on choosing the best French wines. And, of course, there are Shannon's own recipes, for everything from Goose and Foie Gras Rillettes and Salade Lyonnaise to Bouillabaisse and Gteau Basque.

All surfers dream of shedding responsibilities and answering the siren song of the ocean swells. For most, it is an ideal that recedes as age advances - as family, career and provider commitments overwhelm the wanderlust of youth. But what if you could defy the slow march of age? Shelve all your worldly pressures, pack up the family and a few trusty surfboards and hit the open road for the Great Australian surfing road trip? Tim Baker is doing just that. Inspired by the dreams of his youth, and in the face of looming middle-age, Baker is embarking on the Big Lap, with his wife Kirsten and two children, Vivi, 8, and Alex, 4. Starting in late January 2011, the family will set out from their home in Currumbin, Queensland, heading south down the east coast. Over the next six to eight months, they will circumnavigate the country, as Baker documents the state of surf culture and our coastline, and the array of colourful characters encountered along the way. Surfari will evoke all the magic and charm, the challenges and perils of the Australian coastline and the curious variety of human sub-species who inhabit it. The result will be a lively, colourful handbook on how to trade your life for another variety, the delights and dangers that lay in wait for those who dare to chase their dreams.

Author Biography: Tim Baker is the best-selling author of Bustin' Down the Door, High Surf, Occy and Surf for Your Life. He has surfed and traveled throughout Australia, Indonesia, Hawaii, Central and South America, North America, Europe, South Africa, Fiji, Tahiti, and Sri Lanka.                                            

Certain special places move us at a profound level - with a kind of inner beauty that puts us in direct touch with the spirit. It might be a temple, a church, a commemorative monument, a wayside shrine or a landscape feature that is saturated in the ambience of ancient sacred traditions. Such places are worth taking the trouble to visit. They add meaning to our lives, awakening a sense of awe, beauty or tranquillity. From the prehistoric megaliths of Carnac in Brittany to the Buddhist temple-complex of Borobodur in Java, from the giant medicine wheel at Bighorn, Wyoming in the USA to the Confucian Temple of Heaven in Beijing, this book guides the reader on a journey around a hand-picked selection of 100 of the world's most spiritually uplifting sites. Accompanying the superb photographs are evocative descriptions of each place, many of them from esteemed writers who share with us their personal responses in their inimitable style. For anyone who wishes to seek out some of these places for themselves, there is a helpful gazetteer at the back of the book giving key facts for visitors. By immersing ourselves in those special places where landscape, art and spirit meet in a radiant intersection, we enlarge our perspective on life. This book gives us the inspiration and knowledge to do so. FOREWORD BY: Pico Iyer, a travel writer of whom the New Yorker said that 'As a guide to far-flung places, Pico Iyer can hardly be surpassed.' CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: Mark Tully * Jan Morris * Michael Ondaatje * Alexander McCall Smith * Andrew Motion * Joseph Marshall III

Author Biography: Pico Iyer is a respected travel writer, close confidant of the Dalai Lama, and author of several books. Jan Morris is one of the world's most celebrated and respected travel writers. She has written more than 30 books. Mark Tully is a prolific journalist for the BBC and CNN based in India. He is the author of several bestselling books. Alexander McCall Smith is a bestselling author of more than 60 books incuding the No 1. Ladies' Detective Agency series. Andrew Motion is a celebrated poet, novelist and biographer. He was Poet Laureate of the UK from 1999 to 2009. Michael Ondaatje is the bestselling author of The English Patient, In the Skin of the Lion and Anil's Ghost. Joseph Marshall III is a Native American historian, writer, teacher and actor.                                            

The delectable follow up to "Transit Maps of the World"- with a French twist <br>A word-of-mouth sensation, "Transit Maps of the World" garnered rave reviews and offered delicious eye-candy to the many who devoured its lusciously designed pages. In "Paris Underground," Mark Ovenden turns his attention to the famous Paris transit system with its inimitable Art Nouveau inspired stations and Art Deco signage. More than one thousand maps, diagrams, and photographs-historical and current-along with fascinating factual tidbits and enthusiastic, informed commentary embellish this gorgeous cultural history of the M?tro's design and construction. Transit buffs, Francophiles, and anyone who appreciates beautiful design are sure to make "Paris Underground" the season's must-have volume.

When journalist Miranda Kennedy arrives in New Delhi she discovers that renting an apartment as a single woman is next to impossible and finds herself cheerfully labelled as 'the unmarried Feringhee (foreigner) with the cats'. And so begins her struggle to find a place for herself in the New India, a country racing headlong into a future no one seems to be able to keep up with, least of all the extraordinary women who become her friends and unofficial guides. There is the devout Sex and the City fan who wears mini-skirts to work at a Western company yet prefers the old Bollywood style of romance; her mismatched housekeepers - a proud Brahmin widow constantly struggling to keep her smiling 'Untouchable' co-worker in her place; and the rebel who defiantly chainsmokes and drinks whisky, yet keeps her boyfriend a secret from her family. From acting as chaperone for a friend's 'interview' for an arranged marriage to reassessing her own way of life, Kennedy offers a uniquely personal insight into both their world and hers as they struggle with the challenges every woman faces: how to find the perfect partner, meet your family's expectations and yet become the woman you want to be.

Sophie Cunningham writes a year in the city's life, a year that takes us from the heatwave that culminated on Black Saturday when temperatures soared to 47 degrees to the destructive deluge of a hailstorm. She walks through Melbourne's oldest suburb to its largest market, she goes to the footy and to the comedy festival, she talks publishing and learns how to use a letterpress. Along the way she journeys deep into her own recollections of the city she grew up in, and tells stories from its history: the theft of Picasso's Weeping Woman, the Hoddle Street massacre, William Barak's trek from Healesville, the Westgate Bridge Disaster, the high drama of the 1970 and 2009 AFL grand finals and the Market Murders of the sixties. She strolls by Melbourne's rivers and creeks while considering the history of the wetlands and river that sit at Melbourne's heart. She clambers through the drains that lie beneath. For it is water - the corralling of it, the excess of it, the squandering of it, the lack of it - that defines Melbourne's history, its present and its future

What would happen if one day you decided to follow your heart? And where would it take you? Author Pia Jane Bijkerk takes us on her journey as she leaves her comfortable life in Sydney to follow, unconditionally, her instincts. Setting up home first in Paris, then on a houseboat in Amsterdam, Pia observes the serendipitous moments that present themselves when letting go and following one's dreams. With beautiful photographs from her travels in France, Amsterdam, Belgium, Italy and Sydney, "My Heart Wanders" is a reflective, inspirational, tender memoir that speaks to 'the wandering heart' in all of us.