Suggestions for Travel Lit on Israel?

Has anyone read a great book about Israel? I'm trying to make sure my travel lit reading is well-rounded and Israel is one of the countries I'm having a hard time finding a book about.

I read these a while ago so they aren't the most up to date but will provide you with an interesting prospective:

This Heated Place: Encounters in the Promised Land by Deborah Campbell

My Jerusalem: Secular Adventures in the Holy City by Bronwyn Drainie A good read.

From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman

Thanks pmarshall! Those all look interesting.

If you can find a copy, Emmanuel Dehan's Our Visit to Israel is a very interesting book. Dehan appears to have been an independent tour guide back in the 70's and 80's who noticed that his customers would start the tour frantically scribbling notes, but give up trying to keep up half way through. So, he began to produce his own set of notes which he seems to have initially self-published annually. I picked up a copy of the 1980 edition at a used book store, and it's a charming look at Israel ... with tons of pictures.

 

Try this classic as well In the Steps of the Master by H.V. Morton The journal of H.V. Morton's journey through the Holy Land, exploring the places associated with the life and ministry of Jesus Christ"

Dennis
A Long Desire

BTRIPP & Dennis_David -- Those both sound interesting, I'll have to check them out. Thanks!

Try My Father's Paradise by Ariel Sabar, which covers Iraq, Israel and L.A. It won the 2008 autobiography award from the National Book Critics Circle. Sabar writes about the relationship with his father, who grew up in a mud hut in Kurdish Iraq, emigrated to isreal with thousands of other Jews, and wound up as an Aramaic professor at UCLA. My book club, which has a Jewish theme, really liked it.

Winner Takes All by Stephen Brook is superbly written and as dispassionate as a travel writer can be while still managing to get to the heart and soul of a country in a way that so many others can't quite manage.

How to understand Israel in 60 days or less by Sarah Glidden is an interesting nonfiction graphic novel on her Birthright tour of Israel.

Not a travel narrative, but for a balanced look at the people, try The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land by Donna Rosenthal - though it's a large book, it reads fairly quickly, anything but dry!

A unique travel guide for Israel is: Israel: A Spiritual Travel Guide : A Companion for the Modern Jewish Pilgrim, 2nd edition. Several U.S. temple libraries I know of have added it to their collections.