Adventure Biography

Roger Deakin set out in 1996 to swim through the British Isles. The result a uniquely personal view of an island race and a people with a deep affinity for water. From the sea, from rock pools, from rivers and streams, tarns, lakes, lochs, ponds, lidos, swimming pools and spas, from fens, dykes, moats, aqueducts, waterfalls, flooded quarries, even canals, Deakin gains a fascinating perspective on modern Britain.

The audio edition of On the Grand Trunk Road is finally available, revised and updated with new material. Focusing on Coll's journeys in conflict-ridden India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan as a bureau chief for The Washington Post, On the Grand Trunk Road reveals a little-seen area of the world where violence, corruption, and greed have had devastating effects on South Asians from all walks of life.

In 1948, a young Australian mining engineer named Ben Carlin set out to do the impossible: circumnavigate the globe, by land and sea, in a single vehicle. The vehicle in question was an amphibious jeep developed by the U.S. Army, which Carlin christened Half-Safe, after a deodorant slogan. It was a mechanical mongrel that was supposed to move with equal ease across land and water but in practice wasn't much good for either one. Undaunted, Carlin and his wife Elinore set off across the Atlantic Ocean with dreams of fame and fortune, and of carving a small notch in history.

Elephant trunk steaks? Disk-lipped women? A thermometer reading of 163 degrees? A four-day motorcycle trip across central Africa? These true stories, drawn from the real-life adventures of the authors, display their refreshing zest for life and deep faith in God. Each chapter is written as a series of shorter stories–many of them set in the heart of Africa....

Recipient of the MacArthur “genius” fellowship and founder of the National Yiddish Book Center, Lansky recounts his efforts to rescue the world’s abandoned Yiddish-language books before they pass out of existence. Outwitting History follows Lansky’s far-flung travels and features the engaging men and women he meets along the way.

A collection of 13 award winning short stories the true adventures of California Fish and Game Wardens and the wildlife-destroying outlaws they pursue. These stories illustrate the wide variety of wildlife-related problems wardens face in California, which has a greater diversity of wildlife and wildlife habitat than any other state and is second only to Alaska in its vast expanses of wilderness.

Vera, a Guatemalan young woman, decides to travel to the old continent after a sentimental failure. Nevertheless, fate plays a trick on her, and loaded with a baggage of disappointments and sadness, she decides to return to her native country. After she returns to her land, Vera meets a man of Lebanese descent; an enigmatic person who has a special gift, and who changes her worldview forever. After hearing the anecdotes about his grandparents, she becomes obsessed with knowing the story of his new friend's Lebanese ancestors, and to find it, she has to travel to Lebanon. There, unexpectedly...

Behind a cacophony of traffic noise, iPhone alerts and our ever-spinning thoughts, an elusive notion - silence - lies in wait. But what really is silence? Where can it be found? And why is it more important now than ever? Erling Kagge, the Norwegian adventurer and polymath, once spent 50 days walking solo in Antarctica with a broken radio. In this meditative, charming and surprisingly powerful book, he explores the power of silence and the importance of shutting out the world.

Faced with buying a car and getting a real job - or taking the money and blowing it on a six-month adventure around Asia...well, there really is no contest! Who wouldn't want to visit exotic places, like Borneo, Cambodia, and China? Who wouldn't want to tackle the world's most dangerous hiking path, tangle with the Vietnamese Mafia, and suffer days in the dreaded Mongolian saddle? And who wouldn't want to try five-organ soup? All he has to do is survive long enough to realize his dreams.

Bound for Distant Seas begins sailing author James Baldwin's epic tale of his second circumnavigation. His story is seasoned by his adventures during his first circumnavigation in 1984-86 as told in Across Islands and Oceans. Alone with little money aboard Atom, his now-engineless 28-foot sailboat, James embarks on his odyssey without the comforts and equipment most sailors consider essential.

From a young paperboy in Southern California to a visionary leader in education and business, David R. Jackson’s story is a testament to adventure, ambition, and perseverance.

On the afternoon of July 13, 1977, having become the first climbers to reach the summit of the Ogre, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington began their long descent. In the minutes that followed, any feeling of success from their achievement would be overwhelmed by the start of a desperate fight for survival. And things would only get worse.

In 2008, Lynn Barber's passion for birding led her to drive, fly, sail, walk, stalk, and sit in search of birds in 25 states and three provinces. Traveling more than 175,000 miles, she set a 21st century record at the time, second to only one other person in history. Over 272 days, Barber observed 723 species of birds in North America north of Mexico.

Join a witty Psychiatric ER technician for his funniest, craziest, and most inspiring moments on the job. Step into a a world of deity delusions, heartbreaking hallucinations, shameless romances, and brutal blindsides.

Shoji Morimoto was constantly being told by his boss, "It makes no difference whether you’re here or not," and that his presence contributed nothing to the company. Morimoto began to wonder whether a person who "does nothing" could still have actual value and a place in the world. Perhaps he could turn "doing nothing" into a service? With one tweet, Rental Person was born.

Long before his finest hour as Britain's wartime leader, Winston Churchill emerged on the world stage as a brazen foreign correspondent, covering wars of empire in Cuba, India, the Sudan, and South Africa. In those far-flung corners of the world, reporting from the front lines between 1895 and 1900, Churchill mastered his celebrated command of language and formed strong opinions about war.

In 2005, Vanessa Woods accepted a marriage proposal from a man she barely knew and agreed to join him on a research trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country reeling from a brutal decade-long war that had claimed the lives of millions. Settling in at a bonobo sanctuary in Congo's capital, Vanessa and her fiancee entered the world of a rare ape with whom we share 98.7 percent of our DNA.

Born to a family of modest means in Kentucky, Jim Glidewell overcame insurmountable odds to create a business of staggering success. In January of 1970, he opened Glidewell Laboratories - one of the largest and most successful dental laboratories in the world with multiple locations worldwide. Jim Glidewell’s story is one of the great American success stories of our times and offers valuable wisdom on topics ranging from relationships to investing and ways to navigate insurmountable obstacles in a changing world.

MONTEROCA, MY DEAREST IMPOSTOR, is a novel based on true stories. This colorful man, genius, human, sees his life, rolling out in front of his own eyes, with success and normalcy ; up to the day Hitler invades Checoslovaquia. He decides to steal a military plane and escape to England to fight and help liberate his beloved country from the inhuman tyranny and oppression. Of course, life is not the Garden of Eden, and he realizes that his future is insecure, and tries to change his destiny. He did it through illegal means and great dangers. He leaves England to Peru, and from there escapes in...

Whether you're fascinated by emergency response, global health, or stories of ordinary people making an extraordinary impact, On the Edge will inspire, educate, and ignite a passion for volunteerism.