In the early seventies, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe-in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. He was accompanied by an unforgettable sidekick named Stephen Katz (who will be gloriously familiar to readers of Bryson's A Walk in the Woods). Twenty years later, he decided to retrace his journey. The result is the affectionate and riotously funny Neither Here Nor There.

Setting off alone from Boston aboard the 36 foot wooden sloop Spray in April 1895, Capt. Slocum went on to join the ranks of the world's great circumnavigators. But by circling wthe globe without crew or consorts, Slocum would outdo them all. His three year solo voyage of more than 46,000 miles remains unmatched in maritime history of its courage, skill and determination. Includes hair-raising encounters with pirates off Gibraltar and dnagerous natives...

"Plagued by anxiety and a persistent feeling that there was more to life than paychecks and mortgages, Kim and her husband decide to uproot their lives and travel around the world. Just before their departure, they're given an unexpected gift that will shape their adventures: a yellow envelope containing a check and instructions to give the money away to those they encounter on their journey. Through Ecuador, India, Nepal, and beyond, the pair encounter...

Mary Hunter Austin (1868-1934) moved with her family from Illinois to the desert on the edge of the San Joaquin Valley in 1888. In the next fifteen years she moved from one desert community to another, working on her sketches of desert and Indian life. Spending the last years of her life in Santa Fe, Austin remained a lifelong defender of Native Americans and was recognized as an expert in Native American poetry. The land of little rain (1903), Austin's...

Traveling more than 14,000 miles by bus and train to the farthest reaches of China, the authors of this narrative explore the minority peoples who dwell there, talking to farmers in their fields, monks in their monasteries, fishermen on their skiffs, and herders on the steppe. Closely observing daily life in these remote regions, they document the many lifestyles and adventures of the Chinese natives-they visit an old Catholic fisherman at a church...

" An irresistible account of bread, bread baking, and one home baker's journey to master his craft In 2009, journalist Samuel Fromartz was offered the assignment of a lifetime: to travel to France to work in a boulangerie. So began his quest to hone not just his homemade baguette-which later beat out professional bakeries to win the "Best Baguette of D.C."-but his knowledge of bread, from seed to table. For the next four years, Fromartz traveled across...

Do you like small towns, places off the beaten path, trips down memory lane? Ever wonder if old-fashioned values are still alive in America? Then kick back, unwind, and hop onboard with travel writer Bill Graves as he takes you On the Back Roads. Graves has a knack for finding the quirky, the offbeat in some of the most obscure, yet fascinating, small towns on the map. Among the places and faces he discovers: a town where it's against the law not...

"A stunning, revelatory memoir about a 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City--an unforgettable pilgrimage to the heart of America across some of our oldest common ground. Neil King Jr's desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession. Determined to rediscover what matters in life and to see our national story with new eyes, Neil turned north with a small satchel on his back and one...

A story of ideas in which two companions, traveling and talking together, explore the hopes and dreams that animate both them and the people they encounter in Central Australia's almost uninhabitable regions.

In the late 1800s, John Muir made several trips to the pristine, relatively unexplored territory of Alaska, irresistibly drawn to its awe-inspiring glaciers and its wild menagerie of bears, bald eagles, wolves, and whales. Half-poet and half-geologist, he recorded his experiences and reflections in 'Travels in Alaska', a work he was in the process of completing at the time of his death in 1914.