San Francisco is spoken of in the same breath as Paris, Venice, and Rome, and has earned the slogan "America's Favorite City" for its openness, dramatic beauty, cultural amenities, the diversity of its neighborhoods and population, and its icons--the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, cable cars, Fisherman's Wharf, and fog. It sits on the tip of a peninsula on the edge of a continent in one of the world's most seismically active areas--no wonder there has always been a "sitting on the edge" mentality here. The city appeared instantly--just add gold and stir --when that precious ore was discovered i... View More...
Wild brings together the best writing about men and women fighting for their lives in the wilderness, from Jon Krakauer's article on which he based his bestseller Into the Wild, to Carl R. Raswan's account of surviving raids, droughts, and sandstorms in the desert with the Bedouins, to Joe Kane's description of terrifying adventures on the Amazon. Other accounts include: Philipe Descola telling of life with an isolated tribe of headhunters; Bill Bryson describing his life-threatening but hilarious adventures along the Appalachian Trail; and Eric Newby finding himself lost in some of the world'... View More...
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING TRAVEL MEMOIR What happens when an unadventurous adventure writer tries to re-create the original expedition to Machu Picchu? In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and "discovered" Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artifacts and credit for finding the great archeological site, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer's perilous path in search of the truth--except he'd written about adventure far more than he'd actually lived it. In fact, he'd never even slept in a tent. Turn Right ... View More...
Part historical essay, part scientific article, and part enthralling diary-Roald Amundsen's (1872-1928) book presents intriguing documentation about how his expedition reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911, just one month ahead of his rival, Robert Scott. Amundsen organized his gripping account using what is referred to in the film industry as the zooming technique. It starts in the past, examining the history of Antarctic exploration in different eras, and then moves ahead to describe how his own expedition was created, its organization, the slow stages involved in preparing for departu... View More...
Last year Rick Bass traveled to Rwanda, roaming from the bustle of Kigali to the breathtaking volcanic preserves of the last few mountain gorillas. Now he offers an extraordinary portrait of what can be found in that country today--heartbreaking evidence of the genocide that occurred there a generation ago, dazzling natural beauty, and young people who have emerged from tragedy with a blazingly optimistic spirit and a profound artistic voice. In My Home There Is No More Sorrow is an enchanting, harrowing narrative achievement--an unforgettable exploration of history and human nature from one o... View More...
A rollicking wine country travelogue paired with the only comprehensive guide to Napa's public tasting roomsHank Beal is a wine pro-the executive wine buyer at an upscale supermarket chain. Rick Kushman is an ordinary joe-a guy who enjoys wine but doesn't know a lot about it. Together, Hank and Rick set out to visit all 141 public tasting rooms in Napa during the course of a year. The result is A Moveable Thirst-an engaging, often hilarious book that's one part Sideways, one part Frommer's. The first part recounts their uproarious adventures on the road as Rick learns to sniff and spit like a ... View More...
The #1 New York Times bestseller Twelve years ago, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil exploded into a monumental success, residing a record-breaking four years on the New York Times bestseller list (longer than any work of fiction or nonfiction had before) and turning John Berendt into a household name. The City of Falling Angels is Berendt's first book since Midnight, and it immediately reminds one what all the fuss was about. Turning to the magic, mystery, and decadence of Venice, Berendt gradually reveals the truth behind a sensational fire that in 1996 destroyed the historic Fenice o... View More...
Artfully blending Scott Bischke and his wife Katie Gibson's agonizing struggle against Kate's advanced, recurrent, "terminal" cancer, this is the story of their three month, 800+ mile hike along the Continental Divide Trail across Montana. Numerous themes and parallels weave through the book: several encounters with grizzly bears, for example, provide an avenue for metaphorical comparisons between the fear of grizzlies and the fear of cancer. Similarly, Kate's ability to persevere through the toils of a long-distance hike provides a constant parallel to her ability to persevere against cancer.... View More...
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The classic chronicle of a "terribly misguided and terribly funny" (The Washington Post) hike of the Appalachian Trail, from the author ofA Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body "The best way of escaping into nature."--The New York Times Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Br... View More...
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The classic chronicle of a "terribly misguided and terribly funny" (The Washington Post) hike of the Appalachian Trail, from the author ofA Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body "The best way of escaping into nature."--The New York Times Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Br... View More...
Australia has more things that can kill you than anywhere else. Nevertheless, Bill Bryson journeyed to the country and promptly fell in love with it. The people are cheerful, their cities are clean, the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. View More...
Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. This time in Australia. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a wr... View More...
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.
Featuring an all-new cover, New York Times bestseller Bill Bryson's irrevent and hilarious journey through the beloved island nation he called home for two decades. From Downing Street to Loch Ness, this is a delightful look at the United Kingdom.Before New York Times bestselling author Bill Bryson wrote The Road to Little Dribbling, he took this delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation of Great Britain, which has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey.... View More...
A guide to the top 100 spas in the world. It features details on spas at resorts, on cruise ships, in world-class hotels, on remote islands, and in centuries-old cities, along with colour photographs, in order to make selecting a relaxing getaway stress-free. View More...
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe masterful chronicle of the discovery of the legendary lost civilization of the Maya and the quest to unlock their secrets. Featuring a history and description of the major Maya sites, including Chichen Itza, Tulum, Palenque, Uxmal, Copan, and more. Illustrated with a map and more than 100 images.In 1839, rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world's most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood--both al... View More...
Charlie Carroll's obsession began with his chance discovery of Seven Years in Tibet in the "Adult Reading" section of his grade school library. The battered hardcover with faded gold lettering sparked a twenty-year obsession with Tibet, and after combing through every book, article, and documentary on the mysterious and controversial nation, Charlie finally decided it was time to stop reading other people's records and thoughts. A high school English teacher by then, he took a sabbatical and set out to experience the shrouded land for himself. Contending with Chinese bureaucracy, unforgiving t... View More...
This rollicking saga by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is set 1,000 years ago along the ancient Silk Road, and tells the tale of two wandering adventurers and unlikely soul mates. View More...
Lewis and Benjamin Jones, identical twins, were born with the century on a farm on the English-Welsh border. For eighty years they live on the farm--sharing the same clothes, tilling the same soil, sleeping in the same bed. Their lives and the lives of their neighbors--farmers, drovers, clergymen, traders, coffin-makers--are only obliquely touched by the chaos of twentieth-century progress.Nonetheless, the twins' world--a few square miles of Welsh countryside--is rich in the oddities, the wonders, and the tragedies of the human experience. In this extraordinary novel Bruce Chatwin has captured... View More...
In this text, Bruce Chatwin writes of his father, of his friend Howard Hodgkin, and of his talks with Andre Malraux and Nadezhda Mandelstram. He also follows unholy grails on his travels, such as the rumour of a wolf-boy in India, or the idea of looking for a Yeti. View More...
The Medina -- the Old City -- of Fez is the best-preserved, medieval walled city in the world. Inside this vibrant Moroccan community, internet cafes and mobile phones coexist with a maze of donkey-trod alleyways, thousand-year-old sewer systems, and Arab-style houses, gorgeous with intricate, if often shabby, mosaic work. While vacationing in Morocco, Suzanna Clarke and her husband, Sandy, are inspired to buy a dilapidated, centuries-old riad in Fez with the aim of restoring it to its original splendor, using only traditional craftsmen and handmade materials. So begins a remarkable adventure... View More...
