Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

A fascinating book about the history of the fabled Silk Road, not a single path but a network of routes stretching from China through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Iran to Turkey. Thubron travelled 7000 miles in 8 months through the Taklamakan desert and conflict ridden mountains. Beautifully written and absorbing. A window on an alien world

The Afghan Amulet: Travels from the Hindu Kush to Razgrad by Shelia Paine

An extraordinary travelogue as Paine travels through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey in search of the origins of a triangular amulet. She somehow communicates with people with whom she has no language in common and writes of people so without possessions that a local British calendar is a real gift. Makes me more determined to make my tread lighter on the earth. And unlike Thubron Paine is female and there is one episode where she has to jump over muddy streams from the roadside in a burkha, she is regularly asked where her husband is and has to be constantly on her guard against assualt. So many situations where she appears fine and I would have been scared witless!