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The World Up Close
- 15 Personal Stories of Bicycling, Growth & Discovery
- Narrated by: Kameel Nasr
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
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The World Up Close
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Publisher's summary
With The World Up Close, bicyclist Kameel Nasr has created a fascinating and personal introduction to the world's people, sharing diverse episodes from his 40,000-mile bicycle journey through 70 countries. Nasr offers his readers a vicarious view across the handlebars as he tackles the Appalachians, the Anders, the Himalayas...crosses Sinai in the summer...shares the ever-present fears of Central Americans...explores Morocco's Hashish Trail.
Nasr's book will certainly be taken by fellow cyclists as an inviting challenge to take to the road as he has, but you don't have to be a bicycle buff to proclaim this book your listening adventure of the year. Nasr has made this much more a book of people than of places. In high festival or the despair of abject poverty, here are the world's people - very close up yet presented with breathtaking perspective.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
In 2001, martial arts-trained biker Glen Heggstad began a journey from California to the tip of South America on his motorcycle and made it as far as Colombia, where he was kidnapped by local rebels and held captive. Undeterred by more than a month of traumatic incarceration, the 'Striking Viking' finished his trip after being released. Three years later he set out into the world on his bike again, this time searching for truth on his own terms in a world that had become strangled by a climate of fear.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A 'true' adventurer
- By Mallik Kovuri on 10-29-16
By: Glen Heggstad
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Braver Than You Think
- Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother's) Lifetime
- By: Maggie Downs
- Narrated by: Rachel Fulginiti
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 44
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
As a child, Maggie Downs often doubted that she would ever possess the courage to visit the destinations her mother dreamed of one day seeing. "You are braver than you think," her mother always insisted. That statement would guide her as, over the course of one year, Downs backpacked through seventeen countries - visiting all the places her mother, struck with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, could not visit herself - encountering some of the world's most striking locales while confronting the slow loss of her mother.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not Ypur Typical Ttavel Destinations
- By Pammerpower on 06-12-20
By: Maggie Downs
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Dreaming of Jupiter
- By: Ted Simon
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 113
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
When Ted Simon rode 64,000 miles round the world on his 500c Triumph Tiger, he inspired thousands of motorcyclists to begin their own adventures, including Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who chronicled their travels in Long Way Round. Nearly 30 years later, Ted Simon took to the road again to retrace the epic journey he made in his 40s. He meets up with old friends and acquaintances, revisits old landmarks and locations, and rediscovers himself, as well as the world, along the way.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing book, Amazing Man
- By Roxanna on 08-16-18
By: Ted Simon
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Sahara
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 142
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
Michael Palin is off again, this time to the seemingly desolate Sahara Desert. There's no easy way across, as he and his team discover on their most challenging expedition yet.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A wonderful journey.
- By David on 05-22-05
By: Michael Palin
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What You Have Heard Is True
- A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
- By: Carolyn Forché
- Narrated by: Carolyn Forché
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 319
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 280
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Story5 out of 5 stars 280
What You Have Heard is True is a devastating, lyrical, and visionary memoir about a young woman’s brave choice to engage with horror in order to help others. Written by one of the most gifted poets of her generation, this is the story of a woman’s radical act of empathy, and her fateful encounter with an intriguing man who changes the course of her life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful story
- By Norhilda on 05-09-19
By: Carolyn Forché
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Married to a Bedouin
- By: Marguerite van Geldermalsen
- Narrated by: Cat Gould
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
"Where you staying?" the Bedouin asked. "Why you not stay with me tonight - in my cave?" Thus begins Marguerite van Geldermalsen's story of how a New Zealand-born nurse came to be married to Mohammad Abdallah Othman, a Bedouin souvenir-seller from the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. It was 1978, and she and a friend were travelling through the Middle East when Marguerite met the charismatic Mohammad who convinced her that he was the man for her.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing
- By Ellen on 12-03-23
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The Beast
- Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
- By: Oscar Martinez, Francisco Goldman - introduction, Daniela Maria Ugaz - translator, and others
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
One day a few years ago, 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar, Mexico, and Sasabe, Arizona. A local priest got 120 released, many with broken ankles and other marks of abuse, but the rest vanished. Óscar Martinez, a young writer from El Salvador, was in Altar soon after the abduction, and his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up and down the migrant trail from Central America and across the US border.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Phony accents
- By Gina on 05-17-22
By: Oscar Martinez, and others
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Canoeing The Congo
- First Source to Sea Descent of the Congo River
- By: Phil Harwood
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 206
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 189
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 191
Canoeing the Congo narrates the journey of Phil Harwood, who undertook an epic five-month solo attempt to canoe the Congo River in war-torn Central Africa. It was a historic 'first descent' from the true source in the highlands of Zambia. Just short of 3,000 miles long, the Congo River is the eighth longest in the world and the deepest river in the world, with a flow rate second only to the Amazon. Along the way, Phil encountered numerous waterfalls, huge rapids, man-eating crocodiles, hippos, aggressive snakes...
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4 out of 5 stars
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Adventure travel is human harassment
- By Kevin McCoffee on 10-26-13
By: Phil Harwood
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Full Circle
- A Pacific Journey with Michael Palin
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 112
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Following the hugely popular and successful Around the World in 80 Days and Pole to Pole, Michael Palin set off to meet another challenge: an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of the world's largest ocean, the Pacific.
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out of 5 stars
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Excellent, per usual
- By Enroute8 on 06-03-07
By: Michael Palin
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My Family's Survival
- The True Story of How the Shwartz Family Escaped the Nazis and Survived the Holocaust
- By: Aviva Gat
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu, Neil Hellegers
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story5 out of 5 stars 73
In 1937, the Shwartz family lived a calm life in their small village in Poland. Fifteen-year-old Rachel liked to sing and go out dancing at a local night club, while her older brother David was busy running a farm and raising a family with his wife Hinda. But all that changed when the war reached Butla. First, the Russians came and kicked them out of their house. Then, the Nazis came to cart them off. But the Shwartz family resisted. David decided that no matter what, his family would not be taken captive. Instead, he snuck his family out of their village and into Hungary.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of the best!
- By Ian on 08-11-20
By: Aviva Gat
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Travels in Siberia
- By: Ian Frazier
- Narrated by: Ian Frazier
- Length: 20 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 417
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 304
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Story4 out of 5 stars 303
Ian Frazier trains his eye for unforgettable detail on Siberia, that vast expanse of Asiatic Russia. He explores many aspects of this storied, often grim region. He writes about the geography, the resources, the native peoples, the history, the 40-below midwinter afternoons, the bugs. The book brims with Mongols, half-crazed Orthodox archpriests, fur seekers, ambassadors of the czar bound for Peking, tea caravans, German scientists, American prospectors, intrepid English nurses, and prisoners and exiles of every kind....
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5 out of 5 stars
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I Loved This Book
- By Sara on 01-05-14
By: Ian Frazier
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A Russian Journal
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 201
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 180
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 179
Steinbeck and Capa's account of their journey through Cold War Russia is a classic piece of reportage and travel writing.Just after the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck and acclaimed war photographer Robert Capa ventured into the Soviet Union to report for the New York Herald Tribune.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Extremely Interesting
- By Jean on 12-04-14
By: John Steinbeck
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Hunters in the Dark
- By: Lawrence Osborne
- Narrated by: Stephen Hogan
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
From the novelist the New York Times compares to Paul Bowles, Evelyn Waugh, and Ian McEwan, an evocative new work of literary suspense. Adrift in Cambodia, Robert Grieve - pushing 30 and eager to sidestep a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher - decides to go AWOL. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Graham Greene
- By Foxhuntingman on 02-26-16
By: Lawrence Osborne
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The Naked Don't Fear the Water
- An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees
- By: Matthieu Aikins
- Narrated by: Nick Nikon
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 124
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 124
In this extraordinary book, an acclaimed young war reporter chronicles a dangerous journey on the smuggler’s road to Europe, accompanying his friend, an Afghan refugee, in search of a better future.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great story, horrible narration
- By AB on 02-25-22
By: Matthieu Aikins
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A Bend in the River
- By: V. S. Naipaul
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 572
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 377
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Story4 out of 5 stars 385
In this incandescent novel, V.S. Naipaul takes us deeply into the life of one man, an Indian who, uprooted by the bloody tides of Third World history, has come to live in an isolated town at the bend of a great river in a newly independent African nation. Naipaul gives us the most convincing and disturbing vision yet of what happens in a place caught between the dangerously alluring modern world and its own tenacious past and traditions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful, insightful, troubling
- By Lawrence on 01-15-05
By: V. S. Naipaul
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Mukiwa
- A White Boy in Africa
- By: Peter Godwin
- Narrated by: Peter Godwin
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 112
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 99
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Story5 out of 5 stars 98
In unforgettable tales of innocence lost under African skies, we follow Godwin's awakening to the often savage struggle between Whites and Blacks, his horror when he is forced to fight in a civil war he detests, and his experiences as a journalist covering the country's violent transition to Black rule as Rhodesia's colonial era comes to an end and the new state of Zimbabwe is born from its bloody ashes. Mukiwa is a poignant, compelling memoir and an invaluable addition to the literature of southern Africa.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Captivating, poignant memoir.
- By Nakaale on 10-04-20
By: Peter Godwin