From Randomhouse: This just in

Tony Hawks gives us A Piano in the Pyrenees, a travelogue that also talks of finding love in the mountains. You plunge in expecting descriptions of stunning views and a great deal of romance.

And it’s all there, coupled with smaller stories — about the author’s dream of mastering the piano, adjusting to a foreign culture, building a swimming pool, and meeting an old friend called Ron.

This is a funny book, with the kind of dry English humour that makes women at bars everywhere giggle girlishly and play with their glasses.

Not bad for a lazy afternoon.

And then, there's Last Seen in Lhasa: The Story of an Extraordinary Friendship in Modern Tibet, courtesy Claire Scobie. It carries with it praise from a big name — Monica Ali, who describes Scobie’s surprising journey and friendship with a Tibetan nun as "an intimate and moving account of a way of life that is fast disappearing.”

It can’t hurt that Scobie is an award-winning journalist — she was awarded the Catherine Pakenham as Best Journalist of the Year in 1997 — considering the backdrop against which the book is set. Scobie leaves London for the Himalayas in search of a rare flower. She comes — as one of few Westerners ever — to the high peaks of Pemako, where the myth of Shangri-La was born.

We are treated to seven journeys in Tibet, journeys that involve monks, mobile phones, the Dalai Lama and even Lhasa's sex industry. A perfect choice if what you want is something between insight and escapade.