Wanderlust by Don George

If you think an anthology of travel pieces from the online journal salon.com will be a cut above the average, better think again. Many of the 40-odd inclusions are shockingly clichéd. An American has a high old time in an English country-house hotel. Isabel Allende says the Amazon is "a kingdom of water". A piece entitled "Passionate and Penniless in Paris" recalls "quivering nights" when "the air was dusty with miracles and the stars were hung lower". All this and Peter Mayle in Provence. Truly, the call of the mild.