Travel writing Books
McClelland & Stewart Inc. Ten Thousand Scorpions
Book SynopsisThe desert tribes of Yemen call her Bilqis. In the high plateaus of Ethiopia, she is revered as Makeda. And in the fertile valleys of Anatolian Turkey, she is known as Saba Sultana. Who was the mysterious Queen of Sheba, and why has her legend survived for three thousand years - not least in accounts from both the Bible and the Koran?In 1996, a geology team working for Chuck Fipke (the immensely colourful discoverer of the Etaki diamond mines in the Northwest Territories and the subject of the bestselling 1999 biography Fire into Ice) was looking for gold deposits in the remote Yemeni desert. There they stumbled upon ancient mine tunnels. Were these primitive Iron Age ruins the source of Sheba’s gold?Author Larry Frolick travelled with Fipke’s Cantex crew into the desert, seeking the truth of the legendary Queen. What he found there were not answers but more questions - questions that ultimately led him from Yemen to the Highlands of Ethiopia during L
£15.26
Walker & Company Ghosts of Spain
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£17.00
Random House USA Inc The Nile
Book SynopsisThe Nile, like all of Egypt, is both timeless and ever-changing. In these pages, renowned Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson takes us on a journey downriver that is both history and travelogue. We begin at the First Nile Cataract, close to the modern city of Aswan. From there, Wilkinson guides us through the illustrious nation birthed by this great river. We see Thebes, with its Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and Luxor Temple. We visit the fertile Fayum, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and finally, the pulsing city of Cairo, where the Arab Spring erupted on the bridges over the water. Along the way, Wilkinson introduces us to the gods, pharaohs, and emperors who joined their fate to the Nile and gained immortality; and to the adventurers, archaeologists, and historians who have all fallen under its spell. Peerlessly erudite, vividly told, The Nile brings the course of this enduring river into stunning view.
£16.15
New Directions Publishing Corporation Helen in Egypt
Book SynopsisA fifty-line fragment by the poet Stesichorus of Sicily (c. 640-555 B.C.), what survives of his Pallinode, tells us almost all we know of this other Helen, and from it H. D. wove her book-length poem.
£17.09
Syracuse University Press All in a Days Work Scenes and Stories from an
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£16.46
University of Arizona Press The Panama Hat Trail
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£20.85
Beaufort Books The Camino
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£15.29
Schiffer Publishing Ltd Maryland Lost and Found...Again
Book SynopsisVeteran Washington Post reporter and award-winning writer Eugene L. Meyer directs a tour across the âœFree Stateâ that is part love letter, part oral history, part obituary. He explores what makes Maryland special, the people who make it unique, and the places and livelihoods that have vanished over the years. The whole of the American experience is found within or close to the state's borders and between the covers of this bookmegalopolis, Appalachia, the Chesapeake Bay, the Deep South, the industrial North, rich farmland, a major port, the nation's capital, the primary car and rail routes carrying East Coast interstate traffic. Maryland Lost and Found Again transcends the state to comment on the American landscape.
£13.49
WW Norton & Co Walking Home A Poets Journey
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Portico Prize for Nonfiction Nineteen days, 256 miles, and one renowned poet walking the backbone of England.Trade Review"Part pilgrimage and part stunt… He writes with self-effacing humor and mixes a few of his own poems with memoir, natural history, and literary reflections… Though Armitage complains at times that the Pennine Way is an ‘unglamorous slog among soggy, lonely moors' …his account is never a slog for the reader." -- New Yorker"Never showy or excitable, his prose has a steady, phlegmatic, gently propulsive rhythm perfectly suited to the matter at hand, his sentences in tune with his feet." -- The Wall Street Journal"The walk is serious, but Armitage knows how to have fun along the way . . . managing a surprise ending that feels, psychically, satisfying." -- Boston Globe"Entertaining…Walking Home riffs on the ancient correlation between itinerancy and story-telling, with embedded tales of varying tallness coming and going in an almost casual manner." -- The Guardian"What makes Armitage’s pilgrimage special is that he attempts to fuel it on poetry alone. . . . [T]his is an adventure story, compellingly and humorously told." -- Daily Beast"Walking Home fits into the classic unnecessary journey genre, with a cast of local characters and transcendent moments…And never will reading about a hot shower and some foot ointment be quite so enjoyable." -- The Independent"Starred review. [A]n ingenious idea for a journey and a brilliant idea for a book, which includes some of his poems. In this entertaining jaunt through rural Britain and unpredictable weather, part travel guide and part memoir, Armitage describes his adventures, from collie dogs growling at his heels and “mean-looking cows” to the unbridled generosity of strangers. A travel gem." -- Booklist"Lovely… Armitage’s account is so observant, so funny and so intensely likeable you leave it wishing he’d picked a longer route. The dialogue is note-perfect and the jokes alone are worth the journey. And at the end of it all, Armitage has achieved far more than his stated ambition. Walking Home tells us not just about the bones of Britain, but about the connections still to be forged between people and print, and the everlasting power of an open heart." -- The Telegraph"[Armitage] displays a sharp appreciation of place, both in its unique contours and its mystery…doling out small stories—about the people he walks with or the history of the landscape, the misery of midges or the terror of a deep fog high in the Uplands—that flash like sun on chrome." -- Kirkus
£11.99
Orbis Books (USA) GRACIAS A Latin American Journal
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£17.55
Ibis Press Searching for ShangriLa Book I Himalayan Trilogy
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£19.80
Ibis Press Shambhala Sutra Book III Himalayan Trilogy
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£19.80
Academy Chicago Publishers Voyages of Discovery Captain James Cook
Book SynopsisOn each of his three voyages, James Cook kept a log and his reputation rose steadily with each voyage largely because Europeans were fascinated with the romance of discovery as well as reports of sexual licence in Tahiti and other Polynesian islands. This work features an introduction by Robert Welsch.
£15.26
Albatross Publishing The Wisdom of Tuscany Simplicity Security the
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£18.04
The New York Review of Books, Inc Hindoo Holiday An Indian Journal New York Review
Book SynopsisIn the 1920s, the young J. R. Ackerley spent several months in India as the personal secretary to the maharajah of a small Indian principality. In his journals, Ackerley recorded the Maharajah's fantastically eccentric habits and riddling conversations, and the odd shambling day-to-day life of his court. Hindoo Holiday is an intimate and very funny account of an exceedingly strange place, and one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century travel literature.
£12.95
The New York Review of Books, Inc African in Greenland An New York Review Books
Book SynopsisTété-Michel Kpomassie was a teenager in Togo when he discovered a book about Greenland—and knew that he must go there. Working his way north over nearly a decade, Kpomassie finally arrived in the country of his dreams. This brilliantly observed and superbly entertaining record of his adventures among the Inuit is a testament both to the wonderful strangeness of the human species and to the surprising sympathies that bind us all.
£15.19
The Library of America Henry James Travel Writings Vol. 2 Loa 65 The
Book SynopsisHenry James’s travel writings are at once literary masterpieces, unsurpassed guidebooks and penetrating reflections on the international themes familiar from his fiction. This volume, the second of two, begins with the classic A Little Tour in France (1900), illustrated with Joseph Pennell’s exquisite drawings from the original edition. James begins his tour of the French countryside one rainy morning in mid-September of 1882, when he sets off for the city of Tours as a means of exploring the proposition that “though France might be Paris, Paris was by no means France.”From Tours, Balzac’s birthplace, James travels to the great chateaux of the Loire Valley, visiting Chambord, Amboise, Chenonceaux, and Blois, where, as you cross the threshold, “you step straight into the sunshine and storm of the French Renaissance.” Dense with literary associations and historical echoes, James’s prose brings castles and cathe
£30.00
Archipelago Books Autonauts of the Cosmoroute
Book SynopsisAutonauts of the Cosmoroute is a travelogue, a love story, an irreverent collection of visual and verbal snapshots. In May 1982, Julio Cortázar and Carol Dunlop climbed aboard Fafner, their VW camper van, and embarked on an exploration of the uncharted territory of the Paris-Marseilles freeway. It was a route they¢d covered before, usually in about ten hours, but his time they loaded up with supplies and prepared for an ardous voyage of thirty-three days without leaving the autoroute. Along the way they would uncover the hidden side of the freeway and record The trip’s vital minutiae with light-hearted abandon. At roadside rest areas, armed with typewriters, cameras, and mutual affection, the authors composed this book.
£18.36
Chronicle Books Feast for the Senses A Musical Odyssey in Umbria
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£32.00
International Polar Institute Press Kayakmen Tales of Greenlands Seal Hunters
Book SynopsisTranscribed directly from hunters, the stories described here relate adventures in the hazardous environment of Greenland in the mid 19th century.
£18.05
Hawthorne Books Joy Ride A Bike Odyssey from Alaska to Argentina
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£15.96
BookBaby The Wandering Investor
£21.59
WW Norton & Co The Heros Way Walking with Garibaldi from Rome
Book SynopsisThe acclaimed author of Italian Ways returns with an exploration into Italy’s past and present—following in the footsteps of Garibaldi’s famed 250-mile journey across the Apennines.Trade Review"[An] utterly transporting chronicle." -- Liesl Schillinger, New York Times Book Review"A rattlingly good story….Mr. Parks’s passionate engagement with this story lends this travelogue a special quality." -- Gregory Dowling, Wall Street Journal"A dream for armchair globetrotters…Parks intertwines his travelogue with thought-provoking contemplation on leadership, history, memory, politics, idealism and the true meaning of love of country." -- Jeremy Cliffe, The New Statesman"A chronicle of wiliness in defeat and the unlikely escape of a shrinking ragtag volunteer army…[T]he central point of how a seeming military debacle gradually became viewed as 'a glorious act of resistance' is powerfully made." -- Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times"A fresh, intriguing, environmentally sensitive, oddly endearing account." -- Jenny McPhee, Air Mail"Garibaldi's heroic journey and Parks' enthusiastic guide make this a trip well worth taking." -- Cory Oldweiler, Minneapolis Star Tribune"Soulful…This gripping account of Italy’s visionary past serves as a revealing window into its clouded present." -- Publishers Weekly (starred)
£14.73
Mariner Books Figures in a Landscape
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£15.19
Random House USA Inc Travels with Herodotus Vintage International
Book SynopsisFrom the renowned journalist comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales.In the 1950s, Ryszard Kapuscinski finished university in Poland and became a foreign correspondent, hoping to go abroad - perhaps to Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was sent to India - the first stop on a decades-long tour of the world that took Kapuscinski from Iran to El Salvador, from Angola to Armenia. Revisiting his memories of traveling the globe with a copy of Herodotus' Histories in tow, Kapuscinski describes his awakening to the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of new environments, and how the words of the Greek historiographer helped shape his own view of an increasingly globalized world. Written with supreme eloquence and a constant eye to the global undercurrents that have shaped the last half-century, Travels with Herodotus is an exceptional chronicle of one man's journey
£15.30
Sourcebooks, Inc In the Land of Invisible Women
Book SynopsisA strikingly honest look into Islamic culture?in particular women and Islam?and what it takes for one woman to recreate herself in the land of invisible women.Unexpectedly denied a visa to remain in the United States, Qanta Ahmed, a young British Muslim doctor, becomes an outcast in motion. On a whim, she accepts an exciting position in Saudi Arabia. This is not just a new job; this is a chance at adventure in an exotic land she thinks she understands, a place she hopes she will belong.What she discovers is vastly different. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a world apart, a land of unparalleled contrast. She finds rejection and scorn in the places she believed would most embrace her, but also humor, honesty, loyalty and love.And for Qanta, more than anything, it is a land of opportunity.Very few Islamic books for women give a firsthand account of what it''s like to live in a place where Muslim women continue to be oppressed and treated as inferior to men. But if you waTrade Review"Ahmed was saddened, distressed, and taken aback by her colleagues' excitement in reaction to the 9/11 attacks. Her friends talked about how America "deserved" this tragedy because of its support of Israel." - ForeWord"Denied visa renewal in America, British-born Pakistani physician Ahmed, 31, leaves New York for a jobin Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she celebrates her Muslim faith on an exciting Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca...After 9/11, she is shocked at the widespread anti-Americanism. The details of consumerism, complete with Western brand names .... are central to this honest memoir about connections and conflicts, andespecially the clamorous clash of "modern and medieval, . . . Cadillac and camel."" - Booklist"A female doctor provides a uniquely revealing look at the hidden world of Saudi Arabian women.Denied a renewal of her visa in the United States, British-born, American-educated pulmonologist Ahmed accepted a position at a hospital in Riyadh. On rounds, the male residents she supervised would interrupt her, and female residents (what few there were) would cluster silently at the back of the group. All female doctors were required to be completely veiled. In surgeries, sons would supervise unconscious mothers, not to ensure the quality of their medical care, but to ensure that no parts of their faces were revealed by slipping veils. With such evidence around her, Ahmed began to think of these women as the wretched of the Earth. "I wouldn't be corrected in my simplistic views," she writes, "until much later, when I had befriended more Saudi women." When she did, she learned that the lives of these women under veils were no less complex and rich for being largely unseen. At her first party, she was astounded by the elegance and confidence exuded by professional women who had struggled immensely to achieve their positions. She began to understand how respect and love for women were expressed in her adopted society. Despite the strict monitoring of their clothing and behavior and the edicts against showing even the smallest scrap of skin in public, the Saudi women she met were neither so silent nor so helpless as their formless presence suggested. However, her friends were wealthy and educated; the vast impoverished majority could not even afford to visit doctors, let alone become one. Though never ceasing to be dismayed by the uglier aspects of regressive Saudi orthodoxy, Ahmed also found her own Muslim faith deepened and her conception of Islam broadened by her sojourn there. If she never learned to love the veil, she at least learned to understand it.A big-hearted examination of the extreme contradictions in a society very different-yet not so different-from our own." - Kirkus Reviews""Despite the restrictive customs of Saudi's religious rule, Ahmed found a vibrancy that left her hopeful. 'Saudi is much more heterogeneous than one would expect,' she says. 'Muslims themselves feel fairly lost in a country so caricatured and vilified for its severe austerity and Wahhabi theocracy, but it's also the cradle of Islam and the site of the Hajj-a symbol of what Islam could be.'"" - Kirkus Reviews"Ahmed still beautifully asserts her arguments and confronts the anti-Semitism, the sexism, and the anti-western attitudes she experienced... In the Land of Invisible Women gave me a lot to think about, and just not about the complexities of Saudi Arabia but also my country's, the U.S.A., interactions within the Middle East. " - Adventures in Reading"This book is a well -written and fascinating insider's look into life in Saudi Arabia and the challenges that women and sometimes even men must face in their daily lives." - Bookopolis"In the Land of Invisible Women is a must read for everyone. Why? People must find out how Dr. Ahmed dared to cope with radical Islamic fundamentalism. Rather than misery and despair, her story is one of brightness and optimism for Saudi women. But equally vital, it is a tale of expectation, a hope that brave Saudi men, who dare read her story, might have a jolt of conscience over unjustified cowardly feelings they hold toward women." - Blog CriticsTable of ContentsChapter 1: The Bedouin BedsideChapter 2: A Time to Leave AmericaChapter 3: My New Home, a Military CompoundChapter 4: Abbayah Shopping Chapter 5: Invisible and SafeChapter 6: Saudi Women Who Dance AloneChapter 7: Veiled DoctorsChapter 8: The Lost Boys of the KingdomChapter 9: A Father's Grieving Chapter 10: An Invitation to God Chapter 11: The Epicenter of Islam Chapter 12: Into the Light Chapter 13: The Child of God Chapter 14: The Million-Man Wheel Chapter 15: Committing Haram Chapter 16: Calling Doctora Chapter 17: Daughters of the DesertChapter 18: Next Stop: Absolution Chapter 19: Prayer under the Stars Chapter 20: Between the Devil and the Red Sea Chapter 21: Mutawaeen: The Men in Brown Chapter 22: Single Saudi MaleChapter 23: The Calm before the Storm Chapter 24: Wahabi Wrath Chapter 25: Doctor Zhivago of Arabia Chapter 26: Love in the Kingdom Chapter 27: Show Me Your Marriage License! Chapter 28: An Eye for an EyeChapter 29: Princes, Polygamists, and PaupersChapter 30: Divorce, Saudi-StyleChapter 31: The Saudi DivorcéeChapter 32: Desperate HousewivesChapter 33: The Making of a Female Saudi SurgeonChapter 34: The Hot Mamma Chapter 35: The Gloria Steinem of ArabiaChapter 36: Champion of ChildrenChapter 37: 9/11 in Saudi ArabiaChapter 38: Final Moments, Final Days Afterword: Rugged GloryEndnotesBibliographyReading Group Guide Acknowledgments
£17.46
Harperenfoque Los Siete Principios del Camino de Santiago
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£12.34
National Geographic Society Secret Journeys of a Lifetime
Book SynopsisThis beautiful and evocative sequel to National Geographic's bestselling travel book, Journeys of a Lifetime, is illustrated with hundreds of dazzling full-color images and highlights 500 trips to the world's most inviting and inspirational - but quietly secret--localesTrade Review“If you've resolved to explore new horizons this year, Joe Yogerst has some suggestions. As one of the primary authors of Secret Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's-Best Hidden Travel Gems (National Geographic, $40), he says many incredible sites are overlooked.” –USA Today "We're kind of obsessed with National Geographic's new book, Secret Journeys of a Lifetime. The book, which came out earlier this week, has all sorts of travel tips, from the best ghost towns worth visiting to broader topics like the most idyllic island getaways, spiritual travel tips and even classic road trips worth embarking on." --The Huffington Post “As is custom in a National Geographic coffee table book, the photos are stunning; the practical information and planning advice are useful; and the small sidebars on other nearby points of interest are fascinating. But most compelling are the star attractions, with vivid descriptions that transport you for a tiny glimpse into an often unseen world. It will leave you wondering what National Geographic will come up with next.” –San Jose Mercury News
£30.48
Chronicle Books China Days
Book SynopsisThe nation of China is a constant source of fascination, yet we rarely glimpse life beyond its urban centers. Far west of Beijing and Shanghai, in the remote Chinese province of Yunnan, pioneering artist Henrik Drescher settled over a decade ago. While residing in his adopted home, Drescher records his experiences and observations in his illustrated notebooks, capturing everyday life in settings ranging from street markets to mountainscapes. These richly illustrated pages are compiled here for the first time. Drescher''s loyal fans will appreciate this window onto the life of the artist at the height of his powers, while those with an interest in Chinese culture will marvel at this rarely seen view of a country in the global spotlight.
£18.70
Orion Publishing Co Wayward
Book SynopsisThe life story of the young musician who gave up everything and everybody to take to the road with a horse, wagon, dog and partner, in a journey that would lead to the writing and recording of her 1970 album Just Another Diamond DayTrade ReviewThis is a magical and transporting memoir, relating how Bunyan ducked out of the London music scene, instead choosing to make her way - by foot and wagon - to the Outer Hebrides. Her mesmerising viewpoint and lyrical outlook on life will be familiar to anyone who, like me, loves her music, but Wayward proves that Bunyan has lived the best possible life, on her own idiosyncratic terms -- Maggie O'FarrellA gorgeous account of outsiderness and survival; a map of how to live outside the boundaries and of striving for an authentic artistic life. A quietly defiant and moving work -- Sinéad GleesonVashti Bunyan possesses one of the purest voices English music has ever produced, and now that unique otherness translates to literature. Wayward is an epic in miniature, a mythical tale with echoes of her ancestor John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, made all the more magical by the fact it actually happened. I loved - and lived - every sentence -- Benjamin MyersA quietly beautiful and gentle read, full of light and kindness. Underneath its easygoing exterior is a proud story about gut instinct and persistence, and I have much affection for what it showed me about choosing a pace of life, and how we might find our place in the world as we move through it -- Jennifer Lucy AllanThis simply beautiful memoir cast the same spell on me as Vashti Bunyan's music. Her account of a legendary road-trip taken at horse pace through a gone England is hedgerow rich in vivid detail. But this is no nostalgia piece: Bunyan is needle-sharp on the way so many men tried to cut her - and her songs - down to size: essential reading for women in the arts now. I read the last pages through tears, deeply moved by the wilder life she embarked on, step by step, song by song. If you loved Patti Smith's Just Kids then you need to read Wayward next. -- Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for SleepBunyan weaves her captivating nomad's tale with a rambler's eye for detail and a dreamer's visionary ambition. Her perpetual search for utopia, and the experiences behind her songs of innocence, are romantic and revelatory -- Rob YoungDefiant and surprisingly unromantic, painting her cross-country journey in shades of muddy green, this is a fascinating and brave memoir -- Bob StanleyLike the music she makes, Vashti Bunyan's writing in this memoir of an unusual musical life is ethereal and dream-like, skipping from one thought to the next, lingering long enough to leave a clear impression but not to overburden the reader's experience . . . a story of finding meaning in the right location, with beautiful music as a backdrop * Record Collector *Extraordinary * Mojo *
£23.53
Grand Central Publishing Three Weeks with My Brother
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£16.14
Chicago Review Press The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen,
Book SynopsisChronicling the author’s 10,000-mile “Great Lakes Circle Tour,” this travel memoir seeks to answer a burning question: Is there a Great Lakes culture, and if so, what is it? Largely associated with the Midwest, the Great Lakes region actually has a culture that transcends the border between the United States and Canada. United by a love of encased meats, hockey, beer, snowmobiling, deer hunting, and classic-rock power ballads, the folks in Detroit have more in common with citizens in Windsor, Ontario, than those in Wichita, Kansas—while Toronto residents have more in common with Chicagoans than Montreal's population. Much more than a typical armchair travel book, this humorous cultural exploration is filled with quirky people and unusual places that prove the obscure is far more interesting than the well known.Trade Review"[A] hearty, good-natured homage." -- Booklist"The author struts an extensive knowledge of the area that makes this a must for fans of travel literature." -- Kirkus ReviewsCaptures a slice of North Americana with the precision of a Walker Evans photograph, and sentences worthy of John McPhee." --Neal Pollack, author, Alternadad"To [Ted McClelland], the North is a state of mind, and it is the Great Lakes region that fuels his imagination." --Chicago Tribune"Is there a Great Lakes culture? Damned straight, and Ted McClelland nails it." --Jerry Dennis, author, The Living Great Lakes and A Place on the Water" The Third Coast is much like the place it chronicles: interesting, not at all ostentatious, and a great amount of fun." --Tom Bissell, author, The Father of All Things"[A] quirky travelogue." -- Kenosha News"A very good read. I learned more about the Great Lakes region from it than I had in a half century of living in Michigan." -- The Bay City Times
£19.76
WW Norton & Co In High Places with Henry David Thoreau: A
Book SynopsisThis is the essential guide for modern-day walkers and hikers eager to retrace Thoreau’s routes on New England’s peaks. Insights about Thoreau’s mountain journeys, excerpts from his trip narratives, detailed topographical maps, and precise trail directions pave the way—figuratively—for hikers who want to cover the same ground that Thoreau explored in the mid-19th century. With this inventive guide in hand, history and literature buffs and outdoors enthusiasts alike can enjoy a dozen hikes and at least as many stories of what the trails were like in Thoreau’s day. Thoreau was drawn to these high places because they are the natural world amplified, the world thrust upward. Not to go there was unthinkable. “We must go out and re-ally ourselves to Nature every day,” he wrote in 1856. “I am sensible that I am imbibing health when I open my mouth to the wind...Alone in distant woods or fields, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold and solitude are friends of mine.” John Gibson is the author of several books, including Explorer’s Guides 50 Hikes in Coastal and Southern Maine and Weekend Walks along the New England Coast (both Countryman). He lives in Hallowell, ME. Trade Review" Walk a mile (or many miles) in the shoes of philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau as he explores the mountains of his native New England. Gibson (Maine’s Most Scenic Roads) combines passages from Thoreau’s journals with maps and advice for duplicating his hikes. Twelve treks are included, from Mount Washington to Grand Monadnock, covering western Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. It’s an engaging volume for the armchair traveler, gathering Thoreau’s observations on everything from advice on how to sustain oneself while on the road to descriptions of native plants and geologic formations. Thoreau lamented that local inhabitants often were not very knowledgeable about their own surroundings. More adventuresome readers will want to pull on their hiking boots and plant their feet on the same trails that Thoreau once rambled. Some paths have changed very little since Thoreau’s time. Adequate maps and instructions are included, though the author cautions that some places may warrant trail maps. Verdict: Literary tourists and regional collections alike will want this slim but impressive volume. " -- Library Journal
£14.24
Monthly Review Press,U.S. Cheap Motels and a Hotplate: An Economist's
Book SynopsisThe road trip is a staple of modern American literature. But nowhere in American literature, until now, has a left-wing economist hit the road, observing and interpreting the extraordinary range and spectacle of U.S. life, bringing out its conflicts and contradictions with humor and insight. Disillusioned with academic life after thirty-two years teaching economics, Michael D. Yates took early retirement in 2001, with a pension account that had doubled during the dot.com frenzy of the late 1990s. He and his wife Karen sold their house, got rid of their belongings, and have moved around the country since then, often spending months at a time on the road. Michael and Karen spent the summer of 2001 in Yellowstone National Park, where Michael worked as a hotel front-desk clerk. They moved to Manhattan for a year, where he worked for Monthly Review. From there they went to Portland, Oregon, to explore the Pacific Northwest. After five months of travel in Summer and Fall 2004, they settled in Miami Beach. Ahead of the 2005 hurricane season, they went back on the road, settling this time in Colorado. "Cheap Motels and a Hotplate" is both an account of their adventures and a penetrating examination of work and inequality, race and class, alienation and environmental degradation in the small towns and big cities of the contemporary United States.
£72.80
Smithsonian Books Wondrous Cold: An Antartic Journey
Book SynopsisFor centuries Antarctica has captured the imagination of explorers, scientists, and armchair travelers. Its starkly beautiful landscape, extraordinary wildlife, and harsh climate only begin to suggest the wonders of the world's least understood continent.Intrigued by a part of the planet vividly described in the journals of explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Henry Shackleton, award-winning photographer Joan Myers set out to see for herself why people are drawn to such an inhospitable and uncompromising place. Over the course of several trips, Myers traversed the continent by foot, plane, helicopter, snowmobile, and Coast Guard icebreaker. Working in below-freezing temperatures, braving blizzards and wind chills as low as -84°F, she captured entrancing panoramas of Antarctica's beauty and vast scale, teeming penguin rookeries and docile seals, and the ghostly abandoned huts of early explorers. From her temporary base at McMurdo Station, Antarctica's primary research facility, she documented the daily lives of the scientists and support staff who work in this extreme environment.Wondrous Cold features more than 180 of Myers' captivating color and black-and-white photographs. Her engaging journal entries describe the physical challenges of taking photographs in a place where a tripod freezes solid in five minutes as well as the research, rhythms, and rituals of life on the Ice. New York Times writer Sandra Blakeslee contributes sidebars on the science conducted at the world's most remote frontier.
£29.75
The New York Review of Books, Inc Paris and Elsewhere
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£18.36
The New York Review of Books, Inc A Time to Keep Silence
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£13.46
The New York Review of Books, Inc Stones of Aran: Labyrinth
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£23.96
The New York Review of Books, Inc The Way of the World
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£16.96
The New York Review of Books, Inc Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure
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£19.51
Arcadia Publishing 3000 Miles in the Great Smokies Narrative
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£21.24
Arcadia Publishing Tracing the Cape Romain Archipelago Natural
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£18.69
Chelsea Green Publishing Co Hitching for Hope: A Journey into the Heart and
Book Synopsis#1 Irish Times Bestseller! A book about hope when the world was collapsing Irish Times A modern travel tale, part personal pilgrimage, part political quest that captures the power of human resilience "McKiernan sticks his thumb out, and somehow a healthy dose of humanity manages to roll up alongside him. . . . This book is a paean to nuance, decency and possibility."—Colum McCann, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin and Apeirogon. Perfect for fans of Bill Bryson Following the collapse of Ireland’s economy, social activist Ruairí McKiernan questions whether he should join the mounting number of emigrants searching for greater opportunity elsewhere. McKiernan embarks on a hitchhiking odyssey with no money, no itinerary and no idea where he might end up each night. His mission: to give voice to those emerging from one of the most painful periods of economic and social turmoil in Ireland’s history. Engaging, provocative and sincere, Hitching for Hope is a testimony to the spirit of Ireland. It is an inspirational manifesto for hope and healing in troubled times.Trade Review“A timely comfort read.”–The Sunday Times Library Journal— “An uplifting account of McKiernan’s journey and the stories shared with him along the way. Will appeal to lovers of memoirs and patrons who enjoy reading about those who effect and inspire change.”‘In Hitching for Hope, Ruairí McKiernan sets out on a pilgrimage to capture truth and to hear stories that deserve to be heard. He sticks his thumb out, and somehow a healthy dose of humanity manages to roll up alongside him. McKiernan is a writer who finds home in the elsewhere. This book is a paean to nuance, decency and possibility.’—Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin; cofounder of Narrative 4‘Ruairí’s tale of his journey comes as a breath of fresh air, awakening us to the adventures in store when we embark beyond well-trod routines into new encounters. It reminds me of my own hitchhiking trip in the UK seventy years ago—full of spunk, resilience, and zest for discovery. Whether “hitching for hope” or working together in a neighbourhood garden, we can link arms for the sake of the Great Turning to a life-sustaining future.’—Joanna Macy, author of Coming Back to Life‘Ruairí McKiernan takes time to look behind the stone walls of Ireland. Travelling from pillar to post, he takes note of what many of us sometimes fail to see. Always revealing, always caring and compassionate.’—Christy Moore, singer-songwriter ‘The act of hitchhiking demands spontaneous interaction—a subversive moment of community between strangers that is increasingly lost or avoided in lives dictated by algorithms and automated route planners. The insights Ruairí McKiernan shares from people he meets on these freewheeling journeys somehow defy cynicism. The many voices in this book, from undocumented immigrants to young farmers, capture Ireland at a time of deep crisis but also radical change.’—Caelainn Hogan, author of Republic of Shame‘Ireland went through its Celtic Tiger phase, all consumerism and growth. And then it crashed. In the aftermath, Ruairí McKiernan found that, like humans everywhere, what people really yearned for was community and connection, even if they’d almost forgotten how any of that worked. This is a tale that will resonate all over the world.’—Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home‘Making a reader stop and think is something we should all want to achieve, and Ruairí McKiernan succeeds. Ordinary people and their lived experiences are at the heart of this book. Hitching for Hope demonstrates that, despite a diversity of backgrounds, we all want the same things: to find peace, to flourish and to help our families and communities thrive.’—Lynn Ruane, Independent Senator; activist; author of People Like Me‘After travelling around Ireland and listening rather than speaking, McKiernan has produced a personal diary, a guided tour of his native country and an Irish Canterbury Tales for the twenty-first century. Hitching for Hope is a package of hope itself, full of kindness, political observations and of course the craic. Irish at its core and international in its search for optimism and communal involvement, it’s an easy and uplifting read.’—Peggy Seeger, singer-songwriter; author of First Time Ever ‘Hitchhiking is the ultimate act of surrender and vulnerability where one must depend on the kindness of strangers and one’s own inner patience. At a time of social and ecological transition, McKiernan opens himself to the road, offering up a moving window into the fears, dreams, and possibilities of the Irish land and people. More transporting than a travelogue, Hitching for Hope is a tale full of serendipitous encounters and the spirit of Ireland’s byways.’—Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies; author of Born on Third Base‘In this pilgrimage around modern Ireland, Ruairí takes us to the people—to the nation’s beating heart. At times we glimpse the light that, since the old Dark Ages, has been Ireland’s gift to a hungry world.’—Alastair McIntosh, author of Soil and Soul and Poacher’s Pilgrimage‘Listening requires focus, attention, and awareness—skills that Ruairí has perfected. He listens to so many different perspectives without reacting or debating, and opens his mind and heart to each of them. I highly recommend this book. I guarantee that you will not be able to put it down.’—Frances Black, Independent Senator; singer; founder of RISE Foundation‘Funny, philosophical, and moving, this book illuminates a lesser-seen map of a better and kinder humanity. In an age of cynicism and despair, the stories and insights Ruairí unveils are exactly the medicine we need to wake up and remember who we really are. Whether or not it persuades you to hitchhike to your next business meeting, this book will certainly remind you that people—and the future—may not be as scary as you thought.’—Amanda Palmer, singer-songwriter; author of The Art of Asking ‘Ruairí McKiernan hitchhikes through Ireland’s soul—its heartbeat—to bring us an authentic and utterly compelling narrative. Think McCarthy’s Bar for the socially conscious. An important and enjoyable read from a trusted voice.’—Brian O’Connell, journalist; author of The Personals‘An epic journey into the hearts and minds of Ireland. Powerful and insightful.’—Damien Dempsey, folk singer‘Burnt out from his work as a community organizer, Ruairí McKiernan decided to hit the road. He stuck out his thumb—and his neck, too—hoping to learn something about himself and his country. A wholehearted testament to the power of deep listening and a beautiful glimpse into the Irish spirit, Hitching for Hope tells the story of his journey. There is cause for hope in these dark times, and Ruairí found it in the people.’—Andrew Forsthoefel, author of Walking to Listen
£14.24
Wings Press Trout in the Desert: On Fly Fishing, Human
Book SynopsisMatthew Dickerson takes his readers from tiny mountain streams in the southern Rockies of New Mexico to the mighty Colorado River at the head of the Grand Canyon, to the Hill Country of Texas, exploring these various waters that manage to hold cold-loving trout in the midst of the hot desert landscapes of the American southwest. This lovingly described journey brings us through Dickerson’s own life of discovery and his love of fly fishing, trout, and the rivers where trout live. Though neither an historical nor a scientific text, the writing is informed by both. The book is illustrated by original prints from Texas artist Barbara Whitehead.Trade Review“If Matthew Dickerson’s paean to the cold waters and elusive fish of the American southwest were not so beautifully rendered you might be tempted to put it down, get out your rod, and step into the nearest stream. But Trout In The Desert will stop you in your tracks. It is not only a splendid testament to one man’s passion, but an enchanting evocation of a landscape’s unfolding secrets." — Sue Halpern, regular contributor to The New Yorker, author of A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home: Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher
£15.26
History Press A History of Camp Cory Landmarks
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press A History of Longfellows Wayside Inn Landmarks
Book Synopsis
£18.69
Shambhala Publications Inc Walking the Kiso Road: A Modern-Day Exploration
Book SynopsisStep back into old Japan with this fascinating travelogue of the famous Kiso Road, an ancient route used by samurai and warlords The Kisoji, which runs through the Kiso Valley in the Japanese Alps, has been in use since at least 701 C.E. In the seventeenth century, it was the route that the daimyo (warlords) used for their biennial trips—along with their samurai and porters—to the new capital of Edo (now Tokyo). The natural beauty of the route is renowned—and famously inspired the landscapes of Hiroshige, as well as the work of many other artists and writers. William Scott Wilson, esteemed translator of samurai philosophy, has walked the road several times and is a delightful and expert guide to this popular tourist destination; he shares its rich history and lore, literary and artistic significance, cuisine and architecture, as well as his own experiences.
£17.99
Shambhala Publications Inc Singapore Dream and Other Adventures: Travel
Book SynopsisHermann Hesse''s voyage to the East Indies, recorded in journal entries and other writings translated into English for the first time, describes the experiences that influenced his greatest works. “I knew but few of the trees and animals that I saw around me by name, I was unable to read the Chinese inscriptions, and could exchange only a few words with the children, but nowhere in foreign lands have I felt so little like a foreigner and so completely enfolded by the self-existing naturalness of life’s clear river as I did here.” In 1911, Hermann Hesse sailed through southeastern Asian waters on a trip that would define much of his later writing. Hesse brings his unique eye to scenes such as adventures in a rickshaw, watching foreign theater performances, exploring strange floating cities on stilts, and luxuriating in the simple beauty of the lush natural landscape. Even in the doldrums of travel, he records his experience with faithful humor, wit, and sharp observation, offering a broad vision of travel in the early 1900s. With a glimpse into the workings of his mind through the pages of his journals, poems, and a short story—all translated into English for the first time—these writings describe the real-life experiences that inspired Hesse to pen his most famous works.
£16.19
