Travel Nonfiction

At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

Elaine Sciolino, the former Paris bureau chief of The New York Times, invites us on a tour of her favorite Parisian street, offering an homage to street life and the pleasures of Parisian living. While many cities suffer from the leveling effects of globalization, the rue des Martyrs maintains its distinct allure. On this street, the patron saint of France was beheaded and the Jesuits took their first vows.

Lost on Purpose is the nonfiction adventure narrative of a former technology executive who took leave of the real world to reinvent himself as a 21st-century mountain man. In October-November 2013, Patrick Taylor crossed the Rocky Mountains alone on foot. He passed through one of the largest wilderness areas in the lower 48 to reach and retrace the route of Lewis and Clark in the winter. The sacrifices - vocationally, financially, emotionally - are measured against the benefits by the author in a refreshingly honest, humorous, and inspirational fashion.

★★★★★ "It's an extraordinary book and an instant classic." ★★★★★ "One of the finest pieces of writing today... a true masterpiece." ★★★★★ "In his debut travel book Tom Dymond has triumphed. You don’t have to be hooked on sailing to revel in the tales of two young men’s round the world voyage of self discovery." ★★★★★ "I feel as if I have just circumnavigated the world with Tom and James. A great read! Some passages were so funny I had to put the book down to recover." ★★★★★ "Tom writes with such deftness that every chapter takes you to ...

At sea, captains need to know their ships’ location at all times or risk crashing into unseen dangers. Since people first took to the seas, the stars have been useful for measuring latitude - or position relative to north and south. But up until the 18th century, there was no accurate way to measure longitude - or position relative to east and west. Countless seamen were lost because they didn’t know they had sailed into dangerous waters. To encourage the invention of an accurate method for measuring longitude, the British monarchy offered the Longitude Prize in 1714.

New York Times bestselling author Jim Harrison (1937-2016) was a writer with a poet’s economy of style and trencherman’s appetites and ribald humor. In The Search for the Genuine, a collection of new and previously published essays, the giant of letters muses on everything from grouse hunting and fishing to Zen Buddhism and matters of the spirit, including reported pieces on Yellowstone and shark-tagging in the open ocean, commentary on writers from Bukowski to Neruda to Peter Matthiessen, and a heartbreaking essay on life on the US/Mexico border.

★ IT WAS THE BET OF A LIFETIME! ★ Overcome with patriotic fervour, New Zealander Justin Brown bets an Australian mate that the All Blacks will thrash the Wallabies in an up-coming rugby match. They don't. Forced to pay his debt, Justin has to busk his way around England until he earns enough money for his airfare home. THE DEAL If Justin's favourite team loses he must door-door-busk his way around the United Kingdom. If Justin's supposed best mate's favourite team loses he must streak at the Wimbledon Grand Final. THE OUTCOME Justin's teams loses. He is forced to go to the other side of...

Mike Gerrard's travel writing has won awards in the UK and USA, and been published in The Times, Time Out, The Washington Post, Wanderlust, The Independent on Sunday, The Express, The Sydney Sun-Herald, The Guardian, and many other publications. In this collection of his travel writing, his award-winning pieces about eating snake in China, taking a taxi ride through troubled Belfast, and walking the hair-raising levadas of Madeira are all included. Also here are other evocative accounts of his experiences: * camel-trekking in the Sinai Desert * helping to drink a bar dry in Guyana * dodging...

★ Bowling Through India is the exhilarating true story of Justin Brown's journey through the heart of India. From the bustling streets of Kolkata to tea shops in Darjeeling, Brown takes readers on a wild ride as he and ‘The Black Craps’ navigate the challenges and triumphs of competing in slums, cemeteries and exotic locations - mostly against ten year old kids! Joining Justin in the van is a high-country farmer, a savvy businessman, a world class photographer with bowel issues, and a shoestring traveller named Blanket Boy. Together the amateur sportsmen take to the streets of India ...

"Steinbeck falsified his trip. I am delighted that you went deep into this.” -- Paul Theroux, Author of “Deep South" and "The Tao of Travel" "No book gave me more of a kick this year than Bill Steigerwald's investigative travelogue 'Dogging Steinbeck.'" -- Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief of Reason.com "I still believe John Steinbeck is one of America's greatest writers and I still love 'Travels With Charley,' be it fact or fiction or, as Bill Steigerwald doggedly proved, both. While I disagree with a number of Steigerwald's conclusions, I don't dispute his facts. He greatly broadened my...

Our village school was used for a military camp, and we ended up in a restaurant hall that our teachers used for our classroom. Our home was also full of German soldiers and Russian Cossacks who surrendered to the Germans on their way to Russia, running from communism. They cooked in our kitchen and offered us their food, because there was no room for us to cook our meals. So, mom and I decided to leave our home and move in with grandma... The year was 1945, and everybody felt the end was near... Instead of traveling two hours by train, it took us two days of hitchhiking to get to our ...

In the fall of 1960 John Steinbeck and his standard poodle Charley set out on a 10,000 mile road trip around the USA that would become his iconic best-selling nonfiction travel book, 'Travels With Charley.' In 2010, exactly 50 years later, journalist Bill Steigerwald left Steinbeck's former home in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and faithfully retraced the great author's route from Maine to Seattle to Monterey to New Orleans to New York City. Steigerwald's original goal was to produce an American road book comparing the different Americas he and Steinbeck saw through their windshields on 'The ...

Whenever someone asks me what the most memorable tour was during my 15 years as a tour operator and tour guide, I never hesitate to say – this one – THE FLINDERS AND BIRDSVILLE TOUR. When I look back on it, I often wonder how we got away with it. This is a true story of a group of Kiwi Seniors on a bus trip through Outback Australia in 2008. The travelers survived, sadly the bus did not.

★ THE KIWI GOLFER WHO TOOK ON A RIDICULOUS AND BEAUTIFUL CHALLENGE ★ Bestselling author Justin Brown ('UK on a G-String' and 'Bowling Through India') has the idea to tour the U.S and play golf with whoever is on the front page of the newspaper in every town he visits. Amazingly, he's not arrested. With charm and wit, Justin blags his way into meeting clowns, a young Beto O'Rourke, Stevie Wonder impersonators, crocodile wranglers and drunken beauty queens. His journey is full of mayhem, self-discovery and as it turns out, very little golf. You'll laugh and cringe at the situations this ...

Dozens of astronauts travel to space every year, but what makes these amazing trips possible? Max Axiom has the answers. Join Max as he explores the science and engineering behind space travel.

In March 2022, Michael Palin travelled the length of the River Tigris through Iraq to get a sense of what life is like in a region of the world that once formed the cradle of civilisation, but that in recent times has witnessed turmoil and appalling bloodshed. It was a journey of sharp, often brutal contrasts. At one moment he would be exploring the old streets of Baghdad or the ancient ruins of Babylon. At the next he would be visiting the war-torn city of Mosul, or learning about the horrific Speicher massacre in Tikrit.

Romantic honeymoon or midlife crisis? Wilson and Noella trek the wild backcountry and shores of Spain and Portugal, balancing bliss and burnout. Their postmodern pilgrimage to the enchanted island of Formentera tilts at windmills of fabled palaces, descends into inner child wells. The walking tour gives occasion to reflect on imperial history’s passing, in the light of the raw beauty left behind. In the crucible of their creative retreat, Wilson and Noella challenge each other to discover the most of who they can be, in their personal fulfillment and for each other. Rich with “...

At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic, the largest passenger steamship of this time, met its catastrophic end after crashing into an iceberg. Of the 2,240 passengers and crew onboard, only 705 survived. More than 100 years later, today's listeners will be intrigued by the mystery that surrounds this ship that was originally labeled "unsinkable".

Travel along with two international educators who take the leap and move to Gurgaon, India, to become principals at an Indian/International school. Excited by the opulent marble hallways and the grandness of the school, they quickly learn it lacks even the most basic supplies, like chalkboard erasers. The couple, however, make a go of it and ultimately adjust to the dizzying day-to-day life of Indian society where sacred cows stop for red lights, women wear glittery saris while planting rice, and dreadlocked sadhus go about renouncing all their worldly pleasures. Part memoir, part ...

Jump on board with tour guide, Tess, and bus driver, Richard, as they navigate their way down through New Zealand's Wild West Coast with a group of lovely Kiwi Senior Citizens on board. Experience the drama as a sudden out-of-the blue event throws their plans into chaos and leaves them shaken. Better buckle up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. The West Coast of New Zealand's South Island is a much admired and fascinating part of the country. The tour itinerary, tour operators and the places described in this book are very real, however; the storyline is a fabricated version of events that may or...