Occasionally I find a travel book that is both illuminating and entertaining where vivid writing and research replace self-indulgence and sloppy prose.

Just about every children's book in my local bookstore has an animal for its hero. But then only a few feet away in the cookbook section just about every cookbook includes recipes for cooking animals. Is there a more illuminating illustration of our paradoxical relationship with the nonhuman world?

When one takes action for others one's own suffering is transformed into the energy that can keep one moving forward a light of hope illuminating a new tomorrow for oneself and others is kindled.

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.