Vanishing Bangkok

A unique angle on a city popular with tourists This stunning black and white photographic book takes us on a journey through the forgotten backstreets and hidden neighborhoods of Bangkok revealing the fragile beauty and faded charm of the city that is about to disappear forever beneath a tidal wave of development. From the splendid Old Customs House perched on the banks of the Chao Phraya river to the vibrant communities of Chinatown and sleepy canals lost in time, it evokes a city that despite successive waves of modernization still boasts an extraordinarily rich and diverse cultural heritage.

Tourism gentrification is a critical shaping force of socio-economic and contemporary urban landscapes. This book aims to be the first substantive text on this subject, explaining the multiple and complex relationships between tourism and gentrification and their outcomes and manifestations in contemporary metropolises. This is achieved by drawing on in-depth case analyses addressing the different issues at stake. Part I deals with the manifestations of tourism gentrification and the ways it affects urban landscapes through heritagization and urban regeneration strategies. Part II looks at the correlations between tourism gentrification and culture. Finally, the last two parts aim to identify and examine forms and expressions of tourism gentrification, distinguishing among the actors, beneficiaries, and victims of the phenomenon while looking at its implications for intra-metropolitan territories and metropolitan governance. The book approaches these issues in an innovative way, by looking at a variety of metropolises in a diverse range of countries and by dealing with the different relations and management issues generated by gentrification in relation to tourism. Through interdisciplinary approaches, this groundbreaking text sheds light on the role tourism plays in contemporary metropolises, furthering knowledge of urban tourism. For these reasons, it will be of particular interest to scholars and students of tourism, urban studies, geography, anthropology and sociology.

Drawing on the same standards of accuracy as the acclaimed DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, The DK Top 10 Guides use exciting photography and excellent cartography to provide a reliable and useful travel guide. Dozens of Top 10 lists provide vital information on each destination, as well as insider tips, from avoiding the crowds to finding out the freebies. The DK Top 10 Guides take the work out of planning any trip.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice An essential book for those coping with Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders that “reframe[s] our understanding of dementia with sensitivity and accuracy . . . to grant better futures to our loved ones and ourselves” (The New York Times). An estimated fifty million people in the world suffer from dementia. Diseases such as Alzheimer's erase parts of one's memory but are also often said to erase the self. People don't simply die from such diseases; they are imagined, in the clichés of our era, as vanishing in plain sight, fading away, or enduring a long goodbye. In On Vanishing, Lynn Casteel Harper, a Baptist minister and nursing home chaplain, investigates the myths and metaphors surrounding dementia and aging, addressing not only the indignities caused by the condition but also by the rhetoric surrounding it. Harper asks essential questions about the nature of our outsized fear of dementia, the stigma this fear may create, and what it might mean for us all to try to “vanish well.” Weaving together personal stories with theology, history, philosophy, literature, and science, Harper confronts our elemental fears of disappearance and death, drawing on her own experiences with people with dementia both in the American healthcare system and within her own family. In the course of unpacking her own stories and encounters—of leading a prayer group on a dementia unit; of meeting individuals dismissed as “already gone” and finding them still possessed of complex, vital inner lives; of witnessing her grandfather’s final years with Alzheimer’s and discovering her own heightened genetic risk of succumbing to the disease—Harper engages in an exploration of dementia that is unlike anything written before on the subject. A rich and startling work of nonfiction, On Vanishing reveals cognitive change as it truly is, an essential aspect of what it means to be mortal.

Adventure traveler James Dorsey takes readers around the world to not only explore ancient trails, but to help immerse readers in the old traditions of lands that seem to be disappearing in the modern world. This book of short stories takes readers on a descriptive journey through parts of Asia, Africa and South America. ""James Dorsey is no ordinary travel writer. In this remarkable book, ranging from Southeast Asia to West Africa, he takes us inside tribal cultures that many readers will be surprised to learn still exist. The author's sincere fascination with remote lands and the ancient practices of their inhabitants often makes him as much participant as observer. That a 21st-century man could yet invoke the spirit of a Stanley or a Shackleton makes ""Vanishing Tales from Ancient Trails"" all the more a must-read."" - Dick Russell, author of ""Eye of the Whale: Epic Passage from Baja to Siberia.""