The Open Road

My, weren't my Gazette Great Reading picks apropos this week? The Dalai Lama and Tibet.

The Open Road: the Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (2008) by Pico Iyer.
This new look at the Dalai Lama shows why attempts by the Chinese government to besmirch his reputation over the latest Tibetan situation will fail. Veteran writer Iyer, a 30-year friend of the Dalai Lama, shows the fundamental goodness and genius of this complex man.

**Update April 14: Pico Iyer was the guest on CBC Radio 1's spirituality show, Tapestry, Sunday. Host Mary Hynes talked to him about the book, about the Dalai Lama and Iyer read from the book. Tapestry is available as a free podcast [here].

Prayer of the Dragon (2007) by Eliot Pattison
A serial killer hides in the Tibetan mountains in this fifth mystery in the acclaimed series starring exile Beijing investigator Shan Tao Yun. Freed from the Chinese gulag, living with Tibetan lamas, Shan is asked to find the real killer after an innocent man is falsely accused. Here are the previous Tibetan Inspector Shan titles:

1. The Skull Mantra (2001)
2. Water Touching Stone (2002)
3. Bone Mountain (2004)
4. Beautiful Ghosts (2005)

Eliot Pattison suggests John Avedon's In Exile from the Land of Snows: The Dalai Lama and Tibet since the Chinese Conquest (1997) as an "invaluable overview" of Tibet.