Literary journalist Orlean has been called "a kind of latter-day Tocqueville." In this unconventional travel book, she conducts a tour of the world via its subcultures, from the heart of the African music scene in Paris to the World Taxidermy Championships in Springfield, Illinois--and even into her own apartment, where she imagines a very famous houseguest taking advantage of her hospitality. Readers will climb Mt. Fuji; play ball with Cuba's Little Leaguers; trawl Icelandic waters with Keiko, everyone's favorite whale (of "Free Willy" fame); stay awhile in Midland, Texas, a place where oil time is the only time that matters; explore the halls of a New York City school so troubled it's known as "Horror High"; and stalk caged tigers in Jackson, New Jersey, a suburban town with one of the highest concentrations of tigers per square mile anywhere in the world.--From publisher description.