Dr. Tuthill began writing her exquisite travel stories in honor of her best friend, the astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who tragically perished in the crash of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. Tuthill's first collection of stories, "Letters from Africa," lovingly chronicles thrilling safari trips taken throughout southern Africa over the past five years. This new collection of stories represents an eclectic mix of letters written for Kalpana's sisters in India, detailing Tuthill's other fascinating travel experiences. The stories range from scuba diving with manta rays to searching for exotic birds, from a frigid night spent in the Ice Hotel in Sweden to raising funds for breast cancer research with a grueling 60-mile walk. Throughout these stories we experience Tuthill's passion for life and adventure, for animals and wild places, and her concern for conducting a life as ecologically sensitive as possible. The colors, the sounds, and the scents are so realistically portrayed that it feels as if you are there with Tuthill throughout her travels, culminating in a captivating and poignant trip to visit Kalpana's sisters in India, commemorating the 5th anniversary of the shuttle disaster.