Seduced by the Beauty of the World: Travels in India

Dutch anthropologist and photographer Bijlveld and American novelist Bloch (Passing Through, etc.) team up to chronicle India's people, monuments and landscapes in this pretty coffee table book. As they set out with the goal of capturing""reality in the spirit of masti, a Sanskrit word meaning... quiet, ecstatic surrender to the beauty around us, an infatuation with the world,"" the authors portray gem polishers crouching over their work in a decaying Puri building, a musician and his daughters doing an impromptu dance to welcome visitors to Jodhpur, and Sufi women honoring Allah by counting 250,000 coffee beans next to the tomb of""the great Sufi teacher who brought Islam to India."" The unusually long captions serve the images well, often explaining the circumstances of and stories behind the pictures. Focusing on the more exotic aspects of Indian culture, this collection depicts a colorful India and will give curious readers a vibrant portrait of this rich, complex country.