James Mustich's 1000 Books to Read Before You Die discussion

This thread is meant to share our thoughts about the book we're reading on January 2022, The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels by Freya Stark.

I have made a start on this, having read the first chapter on travels in NW Luristan (now in Iran) and am enjoying the recollections of the author’s travel as a single woman with a couple of locals as guides through a country which has not yet been mechanised, and the horse, mule or ass is the mode of transport. The poverty of some of the nomadic tent villages is extreme, yet Stark is offered hospitality wherever she goes, whilst she acknowledges that the same villagers might rob her if she had met them outside their villages, or if her “retainers” had not looked after her belongings, which were generally placed under their sacks used as pillows on the ground when sleeping.

If anyone has located useful maps, I should be grateful for the reference, as the map in my US Modern Library edition is very poor.

It definitely helps to have a good map while reading this book.