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.

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.

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.

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.

"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...

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.

Nepal is known for two things: Mount Everest and the legend of the Yeti. This book will not explore latter. Rather, it will focus on the geography of Nepal. The book will make it seem like you’re experiencing the Nepalese traditions and culture first-hand. Enjoy the wild ride to the mountains of Nepal!

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".

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.

My true story of fleeing fire from our home in France as dread, fear, then panic set in. It left me with a permanent fear of fire. AMAZON TOP 500 REVIEWER: "She makes the reader see it, hear it, smell it, and FEEL it." "Truth more terrifying than fiction!" VINE VOICE: Another exciting read from the author of the Samantha Jamison Mysteries." "Thrillingly reminiscent of Daphne Du Maurier" "Fear along with a burning sense of place was riveting." "Kept me glued to my chair." "Read it with a sense of mounting dread as the unthinkable happened" "Read it in one sitting" "What an awesome, fast ...

Follow along with “Captain Bob” Young as he crosses the USA from Santa Monica to Connecticut and back in his two seater airplane. He visits old and new friends while searching for himself and discovering the good in us all.

This audiobook includes unabridged recordings of Mark Twain's Chapters From My Autobiography; 5 pieces of short non-fiction; and 6 pieces of his groundbreaking, wide-ranging travel writing.

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.

Before Marsha and I were married, Marsha saved enough money in one year of teaching to take an all-inclusive six-week tour of Europe with a group of teachers. She loved the experience and later described it to me in glorious detail. Between the ages of 9 and 14, I had made several trips back and forth from Iowa to the State of Washington with my family and enjoyed every minute and every mile. In anticipation of each trip, I pored over and, on a borrowed typewriter, laid out the route we might take. Discovering that we both loved to travel, Marsha and I dreamed of traveling together in ...

A surreal, high-wire act of narrative nonfiction that redefines the genre, Avoid the Day is part detective story, part memoir, and part meditation on the meaning of life - all told with a dark pulse of existential horror. What emerges is an unforgettable study of mortality and the artist’s journey.

Chinese was the first truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese labourers began to sojourn and settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese has the curious distinction of being both one of the world's best-loved food cultures and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking has ensured that few foreigners experienced anything of the richness or sophistication of China's local food traditions - but today that is beginning to change.

You’re about to have hours of family fun competing with your rivals. Whether at home or on a road trip, Dad to the Bone Trivia: Kids Edition (K-6) will keep the family entertained with laughter and fond memories for a lifetime. Divide into teams, and compete head-to-head to see who can answer the most questions each round. Or play as a group, and try not to miss a single question.

This book is wildly funny. I lost track of how many times I laughed out loud. -- Kathleen, Amazon ReviewerAuthor Al Macy is a character and a tightwad with a unique sense of humor. He and his wife squirreled away enough money to retire early, do interesting things, and take unusual trips. As he puts it: “Every day I wake up with nothing to do, and by the end of the day, I've only gotten half of it done.” During his working life, Macy was a neuroscientist, computer game programmer, jazz trombonist, chef, CEO, piano player, clam digger, and technical writer. The book is a journal of a car...

Sailing on a boat by yourself out at sea and out of sight of land can be exhilarating or terrifying, compelling or tedious - sometimes it can be all of these things just in one morning. It is an adventure at odds with our normal, sociable lives, carried out floating on a medium wholly inimical to our existence. But the deep ocean is also a remarkable place on which to think. Richard King's enormously engaging and curious book is about the debt we owe to solo sailors: women and men, young and old, who have set out alone.

Discover the amazing facts of Hawaii. Learn about the cultures, myths, food, population, islands, and much more.