World TravelAnthony Bourdain & Laurie Woolever
- Genre: Essays & Memoirs
- Publish Date: April 20, 2021
- Publisher: Ecco
- Apple Books | $2.99Amazon Kindle
The most popular and best selling travel memoirs and essays at the Apple iBookstore. Chart updated daily.
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World TravelAnthony Bourdain & Laurie Woolever
A guide to some of the world’s most fascinating places, as seen and experienced by writer, television host, and relentlessly curious traveler Anthony Bourdain Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to Tanzania’s utter beauty and the stunning desert solitude of Oman’s Empty Quarter—and many places beyond. In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places—in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay and, in some cases, what to avoid, World Travel provides essential context that will help readers further appreciate the reasons why Bourdain found a place enchanting and memorable. Supplementing Bourdain’s words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about a place, including sardonic accounts of traveling with Bourdain by his brother, Christopher; a guide to Chicago’s best cheap eats by legendary music producer Steve Albini, and more. Additionally, each chapter includes illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook. For veteran travelers, armchair enthusiasts, and those in between, World Travel offers a chance to experience the world like Anthony Bourdain.
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A Walk in the WoodsBill Bryson
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The classic chronicle of a “terribly misguided and terribly funny” ( The Washington Post ) hike of the Appalachian Trail, from the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body “The best way of escaping into nature.”— The New York Times Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. For a start there’s the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson’s acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America’s last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is a modern classic of travel literature. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
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Great PlainsIan Frazier
National Bestseller Most travelers only fly over the Great Plains--but Ian Frazier, ever the intrepid and wide-eyed wanderer, is not your average traveler. A hilarious and fascinating look at the great middle of our nation. With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains . A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull's cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde, to the scene of the murders chronicled in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood . It is an expedition that reveals the heart of the American West.
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A Course Called IrelandTom Coyne
An epic Celtic sojourn in search of ancestors, nostalgia, and the world?s greatest round of golf In his thirties, married, and staring down impending fatherhood, Tom Coyne was well familiar with the last refuge of the adult male: the golfing trip. Intent on designing a golf trip to end all others, Coyne looked to Ireland, the place where his father had taught him to love the game years before. As he studied a map of the island and plotted his itinerary, it dawned on Coyne that Ireland was ringed with golf holes. The country began to look like one giant round of golf, so Coyne packed up his clubs and set off to play all of it. And since Irish golfers didn?t take golf carts, neither would he. He would walk the entire way. A Course Called Ireland is the story of a walking- averse golfer who treks his way around an entire country, spending sixteen weeks playing every seaside hole in Ireland and often battling through all four seasons in one Irish afternoon. Coyne plays everything from the top-ranked links in the world to nine-hole courses crowded with livestock. Along the way, he searches out his family?s roots, discovers that a once-poor country has been transformed by an economic boom, and finds that the only thing tougher to escape than Irish sand traps are Irish pubs. By turns hilarious and poetic, A Course Called Ireland is a magnificent tour of a vibrant land and a paean to the world?s greatest game.
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The PilgrimagePaulo Coelho & Julia Sanches
A powerful tale of self-discovery and a journey for the ages. Get lost—and found—in the brilliant words of the renowned international bestseller, Paulo Coelho Step into the enriching and enchanting world of The Pilgrimage, a profound parable by Paulo Coelho that marked the beginning of his legacy, paving the way to the renowned The Alchemist . These two works act as complements, with The Pilgrimage offering an intimate glimpse into Paulo Coelho's real-life spiritual transformation during his mystical walk along the fabled Santiago de Compostela route. Part travel memoir and part spiritual guide, The Pilgrimage is a story brimming with universal lessons that resonate with seekers of introspection and literary lovers alike, offering moving insight into living with mindfulness and humility and embracing the human connection to the divine. Coelho’s artful storytelling weaves the extraordinary into the ordinary, illuminating that the profound truths of life often dwell in life’s simplest aspects. As a gateway to Paulo Coelho’s masterpieces, and with over 250,000 copies sold, The Pilgrimage reveals the origins of his philosophy that has inspired millions worldwide to discover their unique inner guidance and overcome fear to build resilience. Whether you’re a fan of Coelho’s enchanting narratives or a first-time reader, this book invites you on an adventure—one that just might lead you to a greater understanding of yourself.
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Goodbye to a RiverJohn Graves
In the 1950s, a series of dams was proposed along the Brazos River in north-central Texas. For John Graves, this project meant that if the stream’s regimen was thus changed, the beautiful and sometimes brutal surrounding countryside would also change, as would the lives of the people whose rugged ancestors had eked out an existence there. Graves therefore decided to visit that stretch of the river, which he had known intimately as a youth. Goodbye to a River is his account of that farewell canoe voyage. As he braves rapids and fatigue and the fickle autumn weather, he muses upon old blood feuds of the region and violent skirmishes with native tribes, and retells wild stories of courage and cowardice and deceit that shaped both the river’s people and the land during frontier times and later. Nearly half a century after its initial publication, Goodbye to a River is a true American classic, a vivid narrative about an exciting journey and a powerful tribute to a vanishing way of life and its ever-changing natural environment.
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AmericanaHampton Sides
Harley-Davidson bikers • Grand Canyon river rats • Mormon archaeologists • Spelling bee prodigies • For more than fifteen years, the bestselling, award-winning author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers has traveled widely across the continent exploring the America that lurks just behind the scrim of our mainstream culture. This sparkling mosaic of our country, in all its wild and poignant charm, “may be the best road trip you’ll ever take—full of strange vision, hilarious detours, and sudden beauty in unlikely places” ( The New Yorker ). Reporting for Outside , The New Yorker , and NPR, among other national media, the award-winning journalist has established a reputation not only as a wry observer of the contemporary American scene but also as one of our more inventive and versatile practitioners of narrative non-fiction. In these two dozen pieces, collected here for the first time, Sides gives us a fresh, alluring, and at times startling America brimming with fascinating subcultures and bizarre characters who could live nowhere else. Following Sides, we crash the redwood retreat of an apparent cabal of fabulously powerful military-industrialists, drop in on the Indy 500 of bass fishing, and join a giant techno-rave at the lip of the Grand Canyon. We meet a diverse gallery of American visionaries— from the impossibly perky founder of Tupperware to Indian radical Russell Means to skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. We retrace the route of the historic Bataan Death March with veterans from Sides’ acclaimed WWII epic, Ghost Soldiers . Sides also examines the nation that has emerged from the ashes of September 11, recounting the harrowing journeys of three World Trade Center survivors and deciding at the last possible minute not to "embed" on the Iraqi front-lines with the U.S. Marines.
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Turn Right at Machu PicchuMark Adams
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING TRAVEL MEMOIR What happens when an unadventurous adventure writer tries to re-create the original expedition to Machu Picchu? In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and “discovered” Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artifacts and credit for finding the great archeological site, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer’s perilous path in search of the truth—except he’d written about adventure far more than he’d actually lived it. In fact, he’d never even slept in a tent. Turn Right at Machu Picchu is Adams’ fascinating and funny account of his journey through some of the world’s most majestic, historic, and remote landscapes guided only by a hard-as-nails Australian survivalist and one nagging question: Just what was Machu Picchu?
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Bom dia, invernoTamara Klink
Durante oito meses, Tamara Klink viveu sozinha num pequeno veleiro preso no mar congelado do Ártico Groenlandês. Depois de uma longa preparação e de atravessar o oceano desviando de icebergs, ela ancorou em um fiorde escuro sem saber se estava pronta para o que iria encontrar. O que acontece quando ficamos sozinhos, sem ter para quem sorrir? Quando passamos longos dias sem ver o Sol? Quando somos o ser vivo menos apto a sobreviver no lugar onde estamos? Depois de se tornar a pessoa mais jovem da América Latina a cruzar o Atlântico em solitário, a navegadora e escritora Tamara Klink se lançou numa nova navegação: em vez de atravessar o espaço, dessa vez atravessaria o tempo. Isolada em um fiorde na Groenlândia na época mais fria do ano, ela pôde observar o inverno polar transformar o mar em terra e os dias em noites infinitas. Em Bom dia, inverno , os leitores são convidados a conhecer de perto os perigos e as alegrias dessa viagem extremamente arriscada. Nessa experiência de isolamento radical, em meio a auroras boreais e visitas inesperadas de raposas, focas e outros animais selvagens, o silêncio se torna palco para reflexões profundas sobre a liberdade, a cultura, o futuro do planeta e o modo como escolhemos viver.
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McCarthy's BarPete McCarthy
A British author explores western Ireland—one eponymous pub at a time—in this "unfailingly sharp, good-humored, and offbeat" travelogue ( Kirkus Reviews ). Despite the many exotic places Peter McCarthy has visited, he finds that nowhere else can match the particular magic of Ireland, his mother's homeland. In McCarthy's Bar , his journey begins in Cork and continues along the west coast to Donegal in the north. Traveling through spectacular landscapes, but at all times obeying the rule, "never pass a bar that has your name on it," he encounters McCarthy's bars up and down the land, meeting fascinating people before pleading to be let out at four o'clock in the morning. Through adventures with English hippies who have colonized a desolate mountain; roots-seeking, buffet-devouring American tourists; priests for whom the word "father" has a loaded meaning; enthusiastic Germans who "here since many years holidays are making;" and his fellow barefoot pilgrims on an island called Purgatory, Peter pursues the secrets of Ireland's global popularity and his own confused Irish-Anglo identity. Written by someone who is at once an insider and an outsider, McCarthy's Bar is a wonderfully funny and affectionate portrait of a rapidly changing country.
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Blue HighwaysWilliam Least Heat-Moon
Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map -- if they get on at all -- only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.
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The Log from the Sea of CortezJohn Steinbeck & Richard Astro
A Penguin Classic In the two years after the 1939 publication of Steinbeck’s masterful The Grapes of Wrath , Steinbeck and his novel increasingly became the center of intense controversy and censorship. In search of a respite from the national stage, Steinbeck and his close friend, biologist Ed Ricketts, embarked on a month long marine specimen-collecting expedition in the Gulf of California, which resulted in their collaboration on the Sea of Cortez . In 1951, after Ricketts’ death, Steinbeck reissued his narrative portion of the work in memory of his friend and the inspiration for Cannery Row ’s “Doc”. This exciting day-by-day account of their journey together is a rare blend of science, philosophy, and high-spirited adventure. This edition features an introduction by Richard Astro. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Journey Across JapanChris Broad
From the author of the Number one bestselling Abroad in Japan , Journey Across Japan takes us through the 47 unique prefectures of the Land of the Rising Sun Japan is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with millions flocking there every month to follow the same cookie-cutter itinerary. But beyond the well-trodden tourist trail lies a country made up of forty-seven unique prefectures. Each one has its own story to tell, shaped by centuries of squabbling lords, impenetrable topography and a fierce local pride. On his quest to show the world that there’s so much more to Japan than Tokyo and Kyoto, Chris Broad has visited all of forty-seven prefectures himself. Now, in Journey Across Japan , he takes us with him on an epic adventure that spans every corner of the country. A collection of embarrassing stories, practical recommendations and hard-learned lessons, this book show us just how much each region has to offer, whether it’s a signature dish, a festival or a mildly terrifying mascot. From flying a plane over Japan’s most active volcano to exploring perfectly preserved Samurai districts, this guide will encourage readers, whether you’re a Japan neophyte or a seasoned veteran, to carve out your own story in the Land of the Rising Sun. Readers loved ABROAD IN JAPAN 'Undeniably the best book I've ever read' ***** 'Experience Japan without ever setting foot there' ***** 'A heartfelt, humorous journey into Japan and its culture' ***** 'I 1000000% reccommend it!' ***** 'A must-read for Japan enthusiasts' *****
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Michael Palin's Hemingway AdventureMichael Palin
A winning combination of No.1 travel writer Michael Palin and one of the great literary figures of the century. When Michael Palin was researching for his novel HEMINGWAY'S CHAIR his interest was stimulated by Hemingway's appetite for travel and 'Papa's' evocations of the places he knew. Hemingway remains a compelling figure, and Palin's goal was to revisit Hemingway's world. This book includes the American West ('wide lawns and narrow minds'), Idaho, Michigan ('fly fishing, hunting'), Europe in the First World (where Hemingway was wounded serving in the Ambulance Brigade), Cuba (where Hemingway wrote FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS), Paris in the Roaring Twenties and Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Sun Valley and Key West - where the Hemingway lookalike competition is an annual event.
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Dancing on the Wine-Dark SeaDiane LeBow
Diane LeBow's stories, like her life, take you to places and experiences you've probably never imagined. They are passionate, poignant, funny, sometimes tragic, and always unexpected. Share a meal with Corsican rebels in the ragged mountains of this ancient island, meet a black stallion in a blizzard on the Mongolian steppes, assist Afghan women exiled in Tajikistan in writing a Declaration of their Rights for the new Constitution, and savor a love affair with an elegant French Baron. LeBow gives us peeks behind the curtains into women's and men's lives around the world in our search for answers to universal human questions such as how to experience the best our world offers, ways to balance our desire for love with yearning for freedom and adventure, and longing for a sense of home within ourselves and in our worlds. Diane LeBow is an award winning writer and photojournalist, professor emerita, and president emerita of the Bay Area Travel Writers. Her work has appeared in multiple anthologies, including Best Women's Travel Writing, and numerous other publications. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Douglass College (Rutgers University) for her writing, photojournalism, women's rights work, and as a pioneer of women's studies and innovative college teaching in Paris, Holland, and the USA. She earned one of the first PhDs in Women's Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz. Her travels have taken her to almost 100 countries.
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Cem dias entre céu e mar (Nova edição)Amyr Klink
Livro de estreia de Amyr Klink, Cem dias entre céu e mar se tornou um clássico incontornável dos relatos de viagem. Nova edição, revista, com projeto gráfico atualizado. Em junho de 1984, Amyr Klink partiu sozinho da praia de Lüderitz, na Namíbia, rumo ao litoral da Bahia. A travessia do oceano Atlântico a remo, em um pequeno barco a remo projetado especialmente para a viagem, se estendeu por cerca de 6.500 quilômetros e durou exatos cem dias até alcançar porto da Praia da Espera, próxima a Salvador. Livro de estreia de Amyr Klink, Cem dias entre céu e mar é o relato de uma façanha que marcaria sua trajetória para sempre. Publicado em 1985, cerca de um ano após a viagem a bordo da "lâmpada flutuante" — como o autor carinhosamente apelidou seu barco —, o livro convida o leitor a acompanhar os detalhes de uma jornada até então inédita. Esta edição, revista e com novo projeto gráfico, traz o relato extraordinário de uma expedição inspiradora, que combina decisões pragmáticas com a ousadia dos grandes sonhos.
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30annozero - Il giro del mondo per investire su se stessiMarianna Sansone & Antonio Benforte
Arrivati alla soglia dei trent'anni, Marianna e Antonio si sono chiesti: "Ma è tutto qua?"Così hanno mollato i loro impieghi a Milano, sono tornati a Napoli. Da lì sono ripartiti, cambiando vita, fondando l'associazione culturale Econote, investendo su se stessi e sulle proprie capacità, e hanno iniziato a coltivare un'idea azzardata, secondo alcuni folle: "E se facessimo il giro del mondo?".Nel giugno 2014 sono partiti per Barcellona, San Sebastian e quindi Londra: da lì è iniziato il loro "Round The World", verso la Florida, la California, l'Australia e la Thailandia. 65 giorni, 10 tappe, oltre 60000 km su svariati mezzi di trasporto a spasso per quattro continenti, contenendo le spese grazie all'ospitalità di amici o di benevoli sconosciuti grazie al Couchsurfing. Dall'esperienza di Antonio e Marianna è nato un blog, e ora questo diario di viaggio, carico di spunti, suggestioni e consigli utili a tutti coloro che accarezzano il sogno di "mollare tutto e partire" senza investire un capitale. O anche a chi è curioso di "vivere" un giro del mondo attraverso le loro parole e fotografie.Marianna Sansone - Sociologa, si occupa di comunicazione e marketing. È appassionata di scrittura, viaggi e fotografia; colleziona “piccoli momenti di trascurabile felicità”. Nel 2008 ha fondato Econote.it, magazine sull’ecologia e la sostenibilità. E' autrice di Fermi tutti! (o almeno rallentate) ebook sulla decrescita. @lemillebollebluAntonio Benforte - Giornalista, esperto di comunicazione ed editoria, negli ultimi anni si è specializzato nella gestione dei social media e ha affinato il suo lato green. Ha lavorato in casa editrice, per giornali, blog e magazine online, tenuto lezioni di giornalismo all'Università e nelle scuole. Ama viaggiare, e dopo aver fatto il giro del mondo in due mesi è già pronto per la prossima avventura. @antoniobenforte
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The Happy Isles of OceaniaPaul Theroux
The author of The Great Railway Bazaar explores the South Pacific by kayak: "This exhilarating epic ranks with [his] best travel books" ( Publishers Weekly ). In one of his most exotic and adventuresome journeys, travel writer Paul Theroux embarks on an eighteen-month tour of the South Pacific, exploring fifty-one islands by collapsible kayak. Beginning in New Zealand's rain forests and ultimately coming to shore thousands of miles away in Hawaii, Theroux paddles alone over isolated atolls, through dirty harbors and shark-filled waters, and along treacherous coastlines. Along the way, Theroux meets the king of Tonga, encounters street gangs in Auckland, and investigates a cargo cult in Vanuatu. From Australia to Tahiti, Fiji, Easter Island, and beyond, this exhilarating tropical epic is full of disarming observations and high adventure.
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The Colossus of MaroussiHenry Miller
Henry Miller’s landmark travel book, now reissued in a new edition, is ready to be stuffed into any vagabond’s backpack. Like the ancient colossus that stood over the harbor of Rhodes, Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi stands as a seminal classic in travel literature. It has preceded the footsteps of prominent travel writers such as Pico Iyer and Rolf Potts. The book Miller would later cite as his favorite began with a young woman’s seductive description of Greece. Miller headed out with his friend Lawrence Durrell to explore the Grecian countryside: a flock of sheep nearly tramples the two as they lie naked on a beach; the Greek poet Katsmbalis, the “colossus” of Miller’s book, stirs every rooster within earshot of the Acropolis with his own loud crowing; cold hard-boiled eggs are warmed in a village’s single stove, and they stay in hotels that “have seen better days, but which have an aroma of the past.”
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Tip of the IcebergMark Adams
**The National Bestseller** From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu , a fascinating, wild, and wonder-filled journey into Alaska, America's last frontier In 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman organized a most unusual summer voyage to the wilds of Alaska: He converted a steamship into a luxury "floating university," populated by some of America's best and brightest scientists and writers, including the anti-capitalist eco-prophet John Muir. Those aboard encountered a land of immeasurable beauty and impending environmental calamity. More than a hundred years later, Alaska is still America's most sublime wilderness, both the lure that draws one million tourists annually on Inside Passage cruises and as a natural resources larder waiting to be raided. As ever, it remains a magnet for weirdos and dreamers. Armed with Dramamine and an industrial-strength mosquito net, Mark Adams sets out to retrace the 1899 expedition. Traveling town to town by water, Adams ventures three thousand miles north through Wrangell, Juneau, and Glacier Bay, then continues west into the colder and stranger regions of the Aleutians and the Arctic Circle. Along the way, he encounters dozens of unusual characters (and a couple of very hungry bears) and investigates how lessons learned in 1899 might relate to Alaska's current struggles in adapting to the pressures of a changing climate and world.
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A Year in the WorldFrances Mayes
A CLASSIC FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF UNDER MAGNOLIA The author who unforgettably captured the experience of starting a new life in Tuscany in bestselling travel memoirs expands her horizons to immerse herself—and her readers—in the sights, aromas, and treasures of twelve new special places. A Year in the World is vintage Frances Mayes—a celebration of the allure of travel, of serendipitous pleasures found in unlikely locales, of memory woven into the present, and of a joyous sense of quest. An ideal travel companion, Frances Mayes brings to the page the curiosity of an intrepid explorer, remarkable insights into the wonder of the everyday, and a compelling narrative style that entertains as it informs. With her beloved Tuscany as a home base, Mayes travels to Spain, Portugal, France, the British Isles, and to the Mediterranean world of Turkey, Greece, the South of Italy, and North Africa. In Andalucía, she relishes the intersection of cultures. She cooks in Portugal, gathers ideas in the gardens of England and Scotland, takes a literary pilgrimage to Burgundy, discovers an ideal place to live in Mantova, and explores the essential Moroccan city of Fez. She rents houses among ordinary residents, shops at neighborhood markets, wanders the back streets, and everywhere contemplates the concept of home. While in Greece, she follows the classic Homeric voyage across the Aegean, lives in a bougainvillea-draped stone house in Crete, and then drives deep into the Mani. In Turkey with friends, she sails the ancient coast, hiking to archaeological sites and snorkeling over sunken Byzantine towns. Weaving together personal perceptions and informed commentary on art, architecture, history, landscape, and social and culinary traditions of each area, Mayes brings the immediacy of life in her temporary homes to the reader. An illuminating and passionate book that will be savored by all who loved Under the Tuscan Sun, A Year in the World is travel writing at its peak. Now with an excerpt from Frances Mayes's latest southern memoir, Under Magnolia
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Blue LatitudesTony Horwitz
New York Times Bestseller: A Pulitzer Prize–winning author retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook: "Alternately hilarious, poignant, and insightful." — Seattle Times Captain James Cook's three epic journeys in the eighteenth century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from Tasmania to Oregon, from Easter Island to Siberia. When Cook set off for the Pacific in 1768, a third of the globe remained blank. By the time he died in Hawaii in 1779, the map of the world was substantially complete. Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic , vividly recounts Cook's voyages and the exotic scenes the captain encountered: tropical orgies, taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice. He also relives Cook's adventures by following in his wake to places such as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef to discover Cook's embattled legacy in the present day. Signing on as a working crewman aboard a replica of Cook's vessel, Horwitz experiences the thrill and terror of sailing a tall ship. He also explores Cook the man: an impoverished farm boy who broke through the barriers of his class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history, whose voyages helped create the "global village" we know today. "With healthy doses of both humor and provocative information, the book will please fans of history, exploration, travelogues and, of course, top-notch storytelling." — Publishers Weekly "Horwitz retells the sailor's story and tries to re-create first contact from the point of view of the locals—Tahitians, Maoris, Aleuts, Hawaiians, and others—and judge the legacy of his landing . . . thought-provoking . . . brims with insight." — Booklist "A rollicking read that is also a sneaky work of scholarship . . . new and unexpected insights into the man who out-discovered Columbus. A terrific book." —Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award winner and New York Times –bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea "Well-researched, gripping, and peppered with humorous passages." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Part Cook biography, part travelogue, and very much a stroke of genius." — Philadelphia Inquirer
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The Best Women's Travel Writing, Volume 9Lavinia Spalding
Since publishing the original edition of A Woman’s World in 1995, Travelers’ Tales has been the recognized national leader in women’s travel literature, and with the launch of the annual series The Best Travel Writing in 2004 , the obvious next step was an annual collection of the best women’s travel writing of the year. This title is the ninth in that series— The Best Women’s Travel Writing —presenting stimulating, inspiring, and uplifting adventures from women who have traveled to the ends of the earth to discover new places, peoples, and facets of themselves. The common threads connecting these stories are a female perspective and fresh, compelling storytelling to make the reader laugh, weep, wish she were there, or be glad she wasn’t. The points of view and perspectives are global, and themes are as eclectic as in all of our books, including stories that encompass spiritual growth, hilarity and misadventure, high adventure, romance, solo journeys, stories of service to humanity, family travel, and encounters with exotic cuisine.
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The Invention of AmsterdamBen Coates
An essential guide to one of the world’s most remarkable, and often misunderstood, cities by the author of Why the Dutch Are Different. When Ben Coates injures his leg and needs to rebuild his strength by walking, he finds himself presented with an exciting opportunity: to rediscover the city he has been working in for over a decade, at a slower pace. He devises ten walks, each demonstrating a different chapter of Amsterdam’s history, from its humble beginnings in the early 1200s as a small fishing community through two Golden Ages, fuelled by the growth of the Dutch colonial empire, two world wars, and countless reinventions. Join Coates as he meanders past beautiful townhouses and glittering canals, dances at Pride celebrations, witnesses the King’s apology at Keti Koti, attends a WW2 memorial, gets high at a coffee shop, walks through the red-light district, and gazes in awe at Rembrandt paintings, all the while illuminating modern Amsterdam by explaining its past. Blending travelogue and quirky history, The Invention of Amsterdam is an entertaining and sharply observed portrait of a fascinating and complicated city.
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The American SceneHenry James
The American Scene - Henry James - The American Scene is a book of travel writing by Henry James about his trip through the United States in 1904-1905. Ten of the fourteen chapters of the book were published in the North American Review, Harper's and the Fortnightly Review in 1905 and 1906.
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El sendero de la salRaynor Winn
En pocos días, Raynor se queda sin casa, sin trabajo y descubre que su marido de 32 años sufre una enfermedad terminal. Sin nada que perder y con poco tiempo, deciden caminar las 630 millas de la ruta costera del suroeste: de Somerset a Dorset. Casi sin dinero para comida y llevando solo lo esencial para sobrevivir a sus espaldas, viven salvajes en el antiguo y degradado paisaje de acantilados, mar y cielo. Sin embargo, a través de cada paso, cada encuentro y cada prueba en el camino, su viaje se convierte en una experiencia única. Una historia real y honesta de asunción del dolor y el poder terapéutico del mundo natural. En última instancia, una representación del hogar y de cómo se puede perder, reconstruir y redescubrir de las formas más inesperadas.
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The Great Loop Experience - From Concept to CompletionGeorge Hospodar & Patricia Hospodar
"After almost 40 years of marriage and boating together, Captain George and Pat Hospodar completed a yearlong Great Loop odyssey aboard their boat, “Reflection”. This trip resulted in their first book, Reflection on America’s Great Loop, a personal, light-hearted, real-life account of the couple’s travels while circumnavigating the waters of the United States and Canada. Their newest book, The Great Loop Experience – from Concept to Completion, is a comprehensive guide written to help others plan, prepare, and successfully execute their own Great Loop adventures. It also addresses the questions that these authors/lecturers are most frequently asked by future “Loopers”. Some of the many topics covered include: selecting and equipping your boat, choosing your route, financial considerations and trip costs, managing your onboard life, vessel security, Customs and border crossings, boating protocol, locking procedures, safely negotiating the waterways, open-water crossings, and great stops along the way. This how-to guide not only informs and educates you, but also hopes to inspire those who want to one day make this wonderful journey! The Great Loop Experience has the information you need so that you can confidently and knowledge- ably cast off your lines for your own exhilarating Great Loop adventure! "
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Granite IslandDorothy Carrington
'Get away from here before you're completely bewitched and enslaved...' Dorothy Carrington was told, while sitting in a fisherman's cafe at the magically quiet midday hour. But enslaved she was. GRANITE ISLAND, much more than a travel book, grew out of years spent in Corsica and is an incomparably vivid and delightful portrait. For the first time Corsica is brought to light as a vital element in Europe: a highly individualistic island culture whose people have nurtured their love of freedom and political justice, as well as their pride, hospitality and poetry.
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The Geography of BlissEric Weiner
Now a new series on Peacock with Rainn Wilson, THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS is part travel memoir, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide that takes the viewer across the globe to investigate not what happiness is, but WHERE it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in all that cash? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? In a unique mix of travel, psychology, science and humor, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.
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Kingdoms in the AirBob Shacochis
This " exuberant travel and cultural anthology" by the National Book Award–winning author "brings each setting to life with a perceptive eye " ( Booklist , starred review). Best known for his sweeping political novels, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul , Bob Shacochis began his career as a journalist and contributing editor for Outside magazine and Harper's . Kingdoms in the Air brings together the very best of Shacochis's culture and travel essays in a collection that spans his global adventures and passions; from Kathmandu to Mozambique, from his love of surfing to his obsession with the South American dorado . In the titular essay "Kingdoms," the longest work in the collection, Shacochis ventures to Nepal with his friend, the photographer Thomas Laird, who was the first foreigner to live in Nepal's Kingdom of Mustang as the forbidden Shangri-La prepared to open its borders to trekkers and trade. Replete with Shacochis's swagger, humor, and wisdom, Kingdoms in the Air is an essential collection of travel writing by an author who "has extended his knowledge and imagination into places most of us have never ventured" ( Washington Post ).
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Wild Atlantic WomenGráinne Lyons
At a crossroads in her life, Gráinne Lyons set out to travel Ireland's west coast on foot. She set a simple intention: to walk in the footsteps of eleven pioneering Irish women deeply rooted in this coastal landscape and explore their lives and work along the way. As a Londoner born to Irish parents, she also sought answers in her own identity. As Gráinne heads north from Cape Clear Island where her great-grandmother was a lacemaker, she considers Ellen Hutchins, Maude Delap, Edna O'Brien, Granuaile and Queen Maeve among others from her unique perspective. Their homes – in places that are famously wild and remote – are transformed into sites of hope, purpose, opportunity and inspiration. Walking through this history, her journey reveals unexpected insight into emigrant identity, travelling alone, femininity and the trappings of an 'ideal' life. Against the backdrop and power of this great ocean, Wild Atlantic Women will inspire the twenty-first-century reader and walker to keep going, regardless of the path.
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Once Upon a Time in the DustRoxane Jessi
Thirty-five years into the Burning Man movement, there are now over 100 annual events around the world. In 2018, Roxane Jessi set out to experience seven of these events firsthand, to get to the heart of a culture that is creating community in a disconnected world. Her journey spanned five continents, from Afrikaburn to Black Rock City, Blazing Swan to Burning Japan, Fuego Austral, Midburn and Nowhere. This is the story of that eye-opening odyssey, and the first book of its kind to provide a glimpse into Burning Man's eclectic Regional Network.
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The Olive RouteCarol Drinkwater
The author of acclaimed memoirs about life on a French olive farm explores the larger history and culture of the Mediterranean delicacy. Carol Drinkwater has a passion for olive trees and the fruit they bear—"bitter berries" that are transformed into savory delights and pressed into precious oil. Already intimately familiar with the fruit thanks to her olive farm in the South of France, she decided to travel throughout the Mediterranean basin—from Marseille to Malta, Israel to Tunisia—in a quest to learn about their ancient history, their spread throughout the world, and the tastes and traditions they represent. A culinary travelogue and a celebration of a humble, healthful food that inspires devotion among so many, The Olive Route is filled with unusual characters and fascinating anecdotes from "a storyteller of great economy and deftness" ( The Telegraph ). "Drinkwater has a sharp eye for character, and the people who populate The Olive Route will not disappoint her fans." — The Independent
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Travels with Charley in Search of AmericaJohn Steinbeck & Jay Parini
An intimate journey across and in search of America, as told by one of its most beloved writers, in a deluxe centennial edition In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante. His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Midwest to Chicago; onward by way of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana (with which he fell in love), and Idaho to Seattle, south to San Francisco and his birthplace, Salinas; eastward through the Mojave, New Mexico, Arizona, to the vast hospitality of Texas, to New Orleans and a shocking drama of desegregation; finally, on the last leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York. Travels with Charley in Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life—a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South—which Steinbeck witnessed firsthand— Travels with Charley is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition also features French flaps and deckle-edged paper. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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The Sweet Life in ParisDavid Lebovitz
From the New York Times bestselling author of My Paris Kitchen and L'Appart, a deliciously funny, offbeat, and irreverent look at the city of lights, cheese, chocolate, and other confections. Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever since he first visited the city and after a nearly two-decade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author, he finally moved to Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in the lively Bastille neighborhood. But he soon discovered it's a different world en France . From learning the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men's footwear, from shopkeepers who work so hard not to sell you anything to the etiquette of working the right way around the cheese plate, here is David's story of how he came to fall in love with—and even understand—this glorious, yet sometimes maddening, city. When did he realize he had morphed into un vrai parisien ? It might have been when he found himself considering a purchase of men's dress socks with cartoon characters on them. Or perhaps the time he went to a bank with 135 euros in hand to make a 134-euro payment, was told the bank had no change that day, and thought it was completely normal. Or when he found himself dressing up to take out the garbage because he had come to accept that in Paris appearances and image mean everything. Once you stop laughing, the more than fifty original recipes, for dishes both savory and sweet, such as Pork Loin with Brown Sugar–Bourbon Glaze, Braised Turkey in Beaujolais Nouveau with Prunes, Bacon and Bleu Cheese Cake, Chocolate-Coconut Marshmallows, Chocolate Spice Bread, Lemon-Glazed Madeleines, and Mocha–Crème Fraîche Cake, will have you running to the kitchen for your own taste of Parisian living.
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Neither here nor thereBill Bryson
Neither Here Nor There is an affectionate and riotously funny recount of Bill Bryson’s travels across Europe. Like many of his generation, Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies-in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. This hilarious romp of remembrance follows the best-selling author from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe’s most diverting and historic locales.
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The Lost ContinentBill Bryson
“The kind of book Steinbeck might have written if he’d traveled with David Letterman.” — New York magazine An inspiring and hilarious account of one man’s rediscovery of America and his search for the perfect small town. Following an urge to rediscover his youth, Bill Bryson left his native Des Moines, Iowa, on a cross-country road trip that would take him across 38 states. Lucky for us, he brought a notebook. With a razor wit and a kind heart, Bryson serves up a colorful tale of boredom, kitsch, and beauty when you least expect it. From Times Square to the Mississippi River to Williamsburg, Virginia, Bryson's keen and hilarious search for the perfect American small town is a beloved travelogue straight into the heart and soul of America. He was looking for the idyllic America of his youth. What he found was—something else entirely. Travel Humor: Experience Bryson’s legendary wit as he navigates the kitsch, beauty, and sheer absurdity of America's forgotten corners. Small Town America: Join the hilarious, heartfelt search for the perfect small town—and the stranger-than-fiction reality of what’s really out there. A Nostalgic Journey: A poignant and funny look at coming home, this trip through 38 states is a rediscovery of the country Bryson left behind. Classic Americana: From bizarre tourist traps to the surprising soul of the nation, it’s a loving, laugh-out-loud tribute to the heart of America.
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Tales of a Female NomadRita Golden Gelman
The true story of an ordinary woman living an extraordinary existence all over the world. “Gelman doesn’t just observe the cultures she visits, she participates in them, becoming emotionally involved in the people’s lives. This is an amazing travelogue.” — Booklist At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita Golden Gelman left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of travelling the world, connecting with people in cultures all over the globe. In 1986, Rita sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita’s example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.
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In PatagoniaBruce Chatwin & Nicholas Shakespeare
The masterpiece of travel writing that revolutionized the genre and made its author famous overnight An exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land, Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia teems with evocative descriptions, remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes. Fueled by an unmistakable lust for life and adventure and a singular gift for storytelling, Chatwin treks through “the uttermost part of the earth”—that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome—in search of almost-forgotten legends, the descendants of Welsh immigrants, and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy. An instant classic upon publication in 1977, In Patagonia is a masterpiece that has cast a long shadow upon the literary world. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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To Build a FireJack London
To Build a Fire and Other Stories is a collection of essential short stories by Jack London. The title tale is the best known of the London short works with its reflection of his experience in the frigid Northwestern Yukon territory with a husky wolf-dog.
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My Twenty-Five Years in ProvencePeter Mayle
From the moment Peter Mayle and his wife, Jennie, uprooted their lives in England and crossed the Channel permanently, they never looked back. Here the beloved author of A Year in Provence pays tribute to the most endearing and enduring aspects of his life in France—the charming and indelible parade of village life, the sheer beauty, the ancient history. He celebrates the café and lists some of his favorites; identifies his favorite villages, restaurants, and open-air markets; and recounts his most memorable meals. A celebration of twenty-five years of Provençal living—of lessons learned and changes observed—with his final book Mayle has crafted a lasting love letter to his adopted home, marked by his signature warmth, wit, and humor.
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Bill Bryson's African DiaryBill Bryson
From the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body comes a travel diary documenting a visit to Kenya. All royalties and profits go to CARE International. In the early fall of 2002, famed travel writer Bill Bryson journeyed to Kenya at the invitation of CARE International, the charity dedicated to working with local communities to eradicate poverty around the world. He arrived with a set of mental images of Africa gleaned from television broadcasts of low-budget Jungle Jim movies in his Iowa childhood and a single viewing of the film version of Out of Africa . (Also with some worries about tropical diseases, insects, and large predators.) But the vibrant reality of Kenya and its people took over the second he deplaned in Nairobi, and this diary records Bill Bryson’s impressions of his trip with his inimitable trademark style of wry observation and curious insight. From the wrenching poverty of the Kibera slum in Nairobi to the meticulously manicured grounds of the Karen Blixen house and the human fossil riches of the National Museum, Bryson registers the striking contrasts of a postcolonial society in transition. He visits the astoundingly vast Great Rift Valley; undergoes the rigors of a teeth-rattling train journey to Mombasa and a hair-whitening flight through a vicious storm; and visits the refugee camps and the agricultural and economic projects where dedicated CARE professionals wage noble and dogged war against poverty, dislocation, and corruption. Though brief in compass and duration, Bill Bryson’s African Diary is rich in irreverent, poignant, and morally instructive observation. Like all of this author’s work, it can make the reader laugh, think, and especially, feel all at the same time.
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Travels in SiberiaIan Frazier
A Dazzling Russian travelogue from the bestselling author of Great Plains In his astonishing new work, Ian Frazier, one of our greatest and most entertaining storytellers, trains his perceptive, generous eye on Siberia, the storied expanse of Asiatic Russia whose grim renown is but one explanation among hundreds for the region's fascinating, enduring appeal. In Travels in Siberia , Frazier reveals Siberia's role in history—its science, economics, and politics—with great passion and enthusiasm, ensuring that we'll never think about it in the same way again. With great empathy and epic sweep, Frazier tells the stories of Siberia's most famous exiles, from the well-known—Dostoyevsky, Lenin (twice), Stalin (numerous times)—to the lesser known (like Natalie Lopukhin, banished by the empress for copying her dresses) to those who experienced unimaginable suffering in Siberian camps under the Soviet regime, forever immortalized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago . Travels in Siberia is also a unique chronicle of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, a personal account of adventures among Russian friends and acquaintances, and, above all, a unique, captivating, totally Frazierian take on what he calls the "amazingness" of Russia—a country that, for all its tragic history, somehow still manages to be funny. Travels in Siberia will undoubtedly take its place as one of the twenty-first century's indispensable contributions to the travel-writing genre.
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Lost on Planet ChinaJ. Maarten Troost
The bestselling author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals returns with a sharply observed, hilarious account of his adventures in China—a complex, fascinating country with enough dangers and delicacies to keep him, and readers, endlessly entertained. Maarten Troost has charmed legions of readers with his laugh-out-loud tales of wandering the remote islands of the South Pacific. When the travel bug hit again, he decided to go big-time, taking on the world’s most populous and intriguing nation. In Lost on Planet China, Troost escorts readers on a rollicking journey through the new beating heart of the modern world, from the megalopolises of Beijing and Shanghai to the Gobi Desert and the hinterlands of Tibet. Lost on Planet China finds Troost dodging deadly drivers in Shanghai; eating Yak in Tibet; deciphering restaurant menus (offering local favorites such as Cattle Penis with Garlic); visiting with Chairman Mao (still dead, very orange); and hiking (with 80,000 other people) up Tai Shan, China’s most revered mountain. But in addition to his trademark gonzo adventures, the book also delivers a telling look at a vast and complex country on the brink of transformation that will soon shape the way we all work, live, and think. As Troost shows, while we may be familiar with Yao Ming or dim sum or the cheap, plastic products that line the shelves of every store, the real China remains a world—indeed, a planet--unto itself. Maarten Troost brings China to life as you’ve never seen it before, and his insightful, rip-roaringly funny narrative proves that once again he is one of the most entertaining and insightful armchair travel companions around.
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Bicycle DiariesDavid Byrne
“...an engaging book: part diary, part manifesto.”— The Guardian A round-the-world bicycle tour with Talking Heads co-founder David Byrne, one of the most original artists of our day. Urban bicycling has become more popular than ever as recession-strapped, climate-conscious city dwellers reinvent basic transportation. In this wide-ranging memoir, artist/musician and co-founder of Talking Heads David Byrne—who has relied on a bike to get around New York City since the early 1980s—relates his adventures as he pedals through and engages with some of the world's major cities. From Buenos Aires to Berlin, he meets a range of people both famous and ordinary, shares his thoughts on art, fashion, music, globalization, and the ways that many places are becoming more bike-friendly. Bicycle Diaries is an adventure on two wheels conveyed with humor, curiosity, and humanity.
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Holy CowSarah Macdonald
In her twenties, journalist Sarah Macdonald backpacked around India and came away with a lasting impression of heat, pollution and poverty. So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she would return to India—and for love—she screamed, “Never!” and gave the country, and him, the finger. But eleven years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah’s life is posted to India, she quits her dream job to move to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. For Sarah this seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, and it almost kills her, literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with double pneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some serious questions about her own fragile mortality and inner spiritual void. “I must find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes. “Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in search of the meaning of life and death. Holy Cow is Macdonald’s often hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos and contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians and a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis and Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life—and her sanity—can survive.
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I'm Off ThenHape Kerkeling
“Written with a gentle, wry humor that recalls Bill Bryson,” ( The New York Times ), this international bestseller about a modern pilgrimage by one of Germany’s most popular comedic entertainers has struck a nerve. Overweight, overworked, and physically unfit, Kerkeling was an unlikely candidate to make the arduous hike across the French Alps to the Spanish Shrine of St. James, a 1,200-year-old journey undertaken by nearly 100,000 Christians every year. But that didn’t stop him from getting off the couch and walking. Along the way, lonely and searching for meaning, he began the journal that turned into this utterly frank, engaging book. Simply by struggling with his physical limitations and the rigors of long-distance walking, he discovered a deep sense of peace that transformed his life and allowed him to forgive himself, and others, more readily. He learned something every day, and he took to finishing each entry with his daily lessons. Filled with quirky fellow pilgrims, historic landscapes, and Kerkeling’s self-deprecating sense of humor, I’m Off Then is an inspiring travelogue, a publishing phenomenon, and a spiritual journey unlike any other.
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On the Hippie TrailRick Steves
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Stow away with Rick Steves for a glimpse into the unforgettable moments, misadventures, and memories of his 1978 journey on the legendary Hippie Trail. In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year-old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world. This book contains edited selections from Rick’s journal and travel photos with a 45-years-later preface and postscript reflecting on how the journey through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal changed his life. You know Rick Steves. Now discover the adventure of a lifetime that made him the travel writer he is today.
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Leave Only FootprintsConor Knighton
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A delightful sampler plate of our national parks, written with charisma and erudition.”—Nick Offerman, author of Paddle Your Own Canoe From CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Conor Knighton, a behind-the-scenery look at his year traveling to each of America's National Parks, discovering the most beautiful places and most interesting people our country has to offer NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY OUTSIDE When Conor Knighton set off to explore America's "best idea," he worried the whole thing could end up being his worst idea. A broken engagement and a broken heart had left him longing for a change of scenery, but the plan he'd cooked up in response had gone a bit overboard in that department: Over the course of a single year, Knighton would visit every national park in the country, from Acadia to Zion. In Leave Only Footprints, Knighton shares informative and entertaining dispatches from what turned out to be the road trip of a lifetime. Whether he's waking up early for a naked scrub in a historic bathhouse in Arkansas or staying up late to stargaze along our loneliest highway in Nevada, Knighton weaves together the type of stories you're not likely to find in any guidebook. Through his unique lens, America the Beautiful becomes America the Captivating, the Hilarious, and the Inspiring. Along the way, he identifies the threads that tie these wildly different places together—and that tie us to nature—and reveals how his trip ended up changing his views on everything from God and love to politics and technology. Filled with fascinating tidbits about our parks' past and reflections on their fragile future, this book is both a celebration of and a passionate case for the natural wonders that all Americans share.
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HorizonBarry Lopez
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES • NPR • THE GUARDIAN From pole to pole and across decades of lived experience, National Book Award-winning author Barry Lopez delivers his most far-ranging, yet personal, work to date. Horizon moves indelibly, immersively, through the author’s travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galápagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica. Along the way, Lopez probes the long history of humanity’s thirst for exploration, including the prehistoric peoples who trekked across Skraeling Island in northern Canada, the colonialists who plundered Central Africa, an enlightenment-era Englishman who sailed the Pacific, a Native American emissary who found his way into isolationist Japan, and today’s ecotourists in the tropics. And always, throughout his journeys to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate places on the globe, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world.