Travel Writing & Commentary

In her inimitably funny and feel-good way, social media star Kacie Rose offers a refreshingly honest take on navigating a new life abroad in You Deserve Good Gelato, covering everything from travel fails and homesickness to the joy of culture shocks and the power of doing the s*** that scares you.

Into Thin Air is the definitive, personal account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest...

The River of Doubt brings alive extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived....

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe - and built her back up again....

The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America - majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes....

She got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world, all alone....

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion up, down, and over the Appalachian Trail...

Paul Rosolie’s extraordinary adventure in the uncharted tributaries of the Western Amazon - a tale of discovery that vividly captures the awe, beauty, and isolation of this endangered land....

Step inside this captivating account of Paulo Coehlo's pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. This fascinating parable explores the need to find one's own path....

Despite what appeared to be a glamorous existence full of globetrotting adventures, behind the scenes, Anna felt invisible in her own life....

When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he was about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history....

For anyone uncertain about the direction of their life or unsure of how to move forward after a loss, Look for Me There is a poignant reflection that offers encouragement to examine our choices, take risks, and discover our truest selves....

An intimate, funny, and poignant travel memoir follows New York Times bestselling author and actor Andrew McCarthy as he walks the Camino de Santiago with his son Sam....

A cross-country hitchhiking journey with America’s most beloved weirdo....

From the unique perspective of David Sedaris comes a new collection of essays taking his listeners on a bizarre and stimulating world tour....

In this follow-up to Clanlands Sam & Graham document their journey across New Zealand, a country Graham calls home and that Sam has longed to visit since learning it was a popular destination for Scottish immigrants to settle back in the 19th century....

In the best-selling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail is a major work of participatory history....

A story as vast and exhilarating as the open ocean itself, Sailing Alone chronicles the daring, disastrous, and often absurd history of those who chose to sail across the ocean, in very small boats, alone.

In less than a year, Neil Peart lost both his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, and his wife, Jackie.....

Spain is an immemorial land like no other, one that James A. Michener, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author and celebrated citizen of the world, came to love as his own. Iberia is Michener’s enduring nonfiction tribute to his cherished second home....

Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America now....

Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor....

In the first of three essays included in this audiobook, Bill Bryson decides to move back to the United States, after nearly two decades in Britain. But not before taking one last trip....

His second major venture into nonfiction (after Death in the Afternoon, 1932), Green Hills of Africa is Ernest Hemingway's lyrical journal....

Peter Mayle personally recounts the pleasures and frustrations of Provençal life--sharing in a way no one else can, the unique and endearing culture that is Provence....

Embarking on a journey of resilience and determination after a life-altering accident, I discovered the adrenaline rush of solving problems is not just a pursuit but a gateway to enhancing our collective social well-being. This realization propelled me to break free from societal perceptions that often cast shadows of doubt on the capabilities of disabled individuals. Inspired by the indomitable spirit of legends like Stephen Hawking, I set my sights beyond the confines of my immediate environment, thirsting for the thrill of overcoming obstacles and engaging in relentless problem-solving.

Kacie decided to leave her life as a pro dancer in New York City and move to Italy in 2021—and she never looked back. Okay, that isn't strictly true... In You Deserve Good Gelato, Kacie reflects on the pure terror of driving on Italian roads, the trials of speaking a new language (and getting it horribly, horribly wrong), and the genuine beauty of a slower pace of life, all with humour and heart.

It started with an epiphany and a desire to live life more fully. One fateful day in 2017, a thirty-something American woman—up until that point, a responsible, hard-working, tax-paying citizen—decided to leave her home and career and set off to explore the other side of the world. That choice led to a three-year journey laced with serendipity and unexpected twists of fate that would show her more than she ever could have imagined.

In her inimitably funny and feel-good way, social media star Kacie Rose offers a refreshingly honest take on navigating a new life abroad in You Deserve Good Gelato, covering everything from travel fails and homesickness to the joy of culture shocks and the power of doing the s*** that scares you. Because life is too short not to.

Elemental, fierce, and full of wonder, the Cairngorm mountains are the high and rocky heart of Scotland. To know them would take forever, to love them demands a kind of courageous surrender. In The Hidden Fires, Merryn Glover undertakes that challenge with Nan Shepherd as companion and guiding light. Following in the footsteps and contours of The Living Mountain, she explores the same landscapes and themes as Shepherd's seminal work

Are We There Yet? shows a way to turn travel into a spiritual practice. From the Gully to the Crossroads—walking, driving, flying—Rabbi Shefa Gold shares her experience and insight on travel and helps us reexamine our natural inclination to focus on our destinations—both physical and spiritual. Ride along with her on her many journeys—some mundane, some mysterious, and a few near miraculous—and discover the joy of what can happen when you stop worrying about there and focus on here.

Sailing by yourself, out of sight of land, can be invigorating and terrifying, compelling and tedious—and sometimes all of the above in one morning. But it is also a wide expanse of time in which to think. Sailing Alone tells the story of some of the remarkable people who, over the last four centuries, have spent weeks and months, moving slowly over the world's largest laboratory: a capricious and startling place in which to observe oneself, the weather, the stars, and countless sea creatures, from the tiniest to the most massive and threatening.

Travel YouTuber Drew Binsky, who has visited every country in the world, shares everything you need to know to go anywhere you want. In 2021, Drew Binsky completed his 10-year journey to travel to every country in the world—all 197 of them. Now, for the first time, Drew reveals his wildest stories and best moments, even from places the United Nations deems the most “dangerous.” As you’ll discover with him as your guide, the world is more accessible than you think, and no matter where you’re from, people have more in common than they do differences.

From the preface: I brought all this information together, in a very simple way, so you, the person who wants to travel by bike, can! So go for a long or short ride and experience the Earth and its inhabitants. In 2000, I was a very different person, I was very focused on material possessions, money, work, and although I was passionate about the Earth and nature I had let my false need for respect from others to creep its way into my life; I gained weight and became dangerously unhealthy. I came across an Adventure Cyclists Magazine in a bookstore, which made me pine for travel and to be ...

Why We Travel is a smart-thinking travel book, which uses travel as a window into human motivations. It explores what we can gain from venturing out into the world. It threads together reflective memoir, evocative travelogue, research, conversation, advice and big ideas. Some of the travels are epic adventures; others are closer to home; and some are journeys of internal exploration.

Travelogues, professional adventures, offbeat stories, and other musings by a lifelong lover of science and exploration.

In 1961, an adventurous law student gets a passport and picks up where Jack Kerouac left off, undertaking an unparalleled trip, pre-drug cartel, hitchhiking solo from Wisconsin through middle America to Texas, then thousands of miles down the Pan-American Highway through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama to the Panama Canal – likely the first time, and maybe the only time, such a journey has been done, particularly alone.

MORE STORIES FROM THE ROAD features 23 selected stories from Gypsy Jane Finley’s now discontinued website Wanderings: Living the Ordinary Extraordinarily (Stories from the Road). Her stories are based on both her travels in a Mazda Pickup truck with a tiny box-shaped Stubby camper on the back during five years of full-time RVing that started in the year 2000 – on what she calls FREEDOM DAY – and starting in 2005 on her half-time RVing and half-time living in a mobile home in Quartzsite, Arizona at the Desert Gardens RV Park every year up to the present time. The stories in this book ...

RVING TIPS & MISCELLANEA is from Gypsy Jane Finley’s now discontinued website Wanderings: Living the Ordinary Extraordinarily (Stories from the Road). This book covers Comments from Others; Travel Tips; Food; Exercising; Healthy Living; Happiness; Places; Restaurants; Serendipity; Haiku; Books; Movies; and Music. This book is based on Gypsy Jane Finley’s over 17 years of RVing, five of which were full-time. The RVing tips and miscellanea were all written by Gypsy Jane Finley while she was living her wandering life. The compiling, editing, and background writing is by Jack Wiley.

DANCE & MUSIC STORIES features 12 selected stories from Gypsy Jane Finley’s now discontinued website Wanderings: Living the Ordinary Extraordinarily (Stories from the Road). Her dance and music stories were written during five years of full-time RVing in a Mazda Pickup truck with a tiny box-shaped Stubby camper on the back that started in the year 2000 – on what she calls FREEDOM DAY – and starting in 2005 while she was half-time RVing and half-time living in a mobile home in Quartzsite, Arizona at the Desert Gardens RV Park every year up to the present time. The stories in this book ...