“In the Footsteps of Marco Polo” ($29.95, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) is a companion to a film being aired on public television by two self-described “regular guys” from Queens, N.Y. (one is a professional photographer, the other a sculptor), who apparently one day up and decided to go on the two-year adventure of a lifetime from Italy to China. Covering more than 25,000 miles, authors Denis Belliveau and Francis O’Donnell sought to discover whether Marco Polo ever reached China, and they are considered to be the first explorers to actually retrace Polo’s entire expedition. The large-format book is fascinating, packed with beautiful color photographs, and the writers’ conversational styles make it an easy read. Along the way, they have some tense border crossings, including some unpleasant time spent in Afghanistan, and meet a compelling variety of personalities. Kyle Wagner
