Reclaiming Home is the diary of Lesego Malepe’s travels in South Africa in 2004, the 10th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy. The book begins with Malepe taking the bus from Pretoria, where she grew up, to Cape Town, where she visits Robben Island—the prison where her brother served a life sentence during apartheid days. She interrupts her travels to return to Pretoria, where she attends the ceremony marking the official settlement of land claims for her parents’ property and her grandmother’s property in Kilnerton, Pretoria, which were confiscated by the apartheid government when Malepe was four, forcing her family—along with the rest of their community—to move to Mamelodi township for Africans. Over the course of her travels, Malepe traverses much of her home country, visiting locales including Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Thohoyandou, the University of Venda, and Giyani. Ultimately, hers is a sprawling, revealing journey that illuminates the ways South Africa has changed—and the ways it has remained the same—since the end of apartheid.

Celebrating Fifty Years of Picador Books In this acclaimed travel memoir Jamaica Kincaid chronicles a spectacular and exotic three-week trek through the Himalayan land of Nepal, where she and her companions are gathering seeds for planting at home. The natural world and, in particular, plants and gardening are central to Kincaid's work. Among Flowers intertwines meditations on nature and stunning descriptions of the Himalayan landscape with observations on the ironies, difficulties and dangers of this magnificent journey. For Kincaid and three botanist friends, Nepal is a paradise, a place where a single day's hike can traverse climate zones, from subtropical to alpine, encompassing flora suitable for growing at their homes, from Wales to Vermont. Yet as she makes clear, there is far more to this foreign world than rhododendrons that grow thirty feet high. Danger, too, is a constant companion - and the leeches are the least of their worries. Unpredictable Maoist guerrillas live in these perilous mountains, and when they do appear - as they do more than once - their enigmatic presence lingers long after they have melted back into the landscape. And Kincaid, who writes of the looming, lasting effects of colonialism in her works, necessarily explores the irony of her status as memsahib with Sherpas and bearers. A wonderful blend of introspective insight and beautifully rendered description, Among Flowers is a vivid, engrossing, and characteristically frank memoir from one of the most striking voices in contemporary literature. Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best in modern literature.

'Heads up - here's how to run like a pro' The Times 'A fascinating book' Adharanand Finn, author of Running With the Kenyans 'I'm convinced that Shane's insights were were instrumental in me winning the Marathon des Sables for a second time' Elisabet Barnes, coach and athlete 'Shane is the Indiana Jones of the running world' Damian Hall, ultra marathon runner 'You can't but help go out the door for your next run and try to put it all into practice' Nicky Spinks, endurance runner The Lost Art of Running is an opportunity to join running technique analyst coach and movement guru Shane Benzie on his journey across five continents as he trains with and analyses the running style of some of the most gifted athletes on the planet. Part narrative, part practical, this adventure takes you to the foothills of Ethiopia and the 'town of runners'; to the training grounds of world-record-holding marathon runners in Kenya; racing across the Arctic Circle and the mountains of Europe, through the sweltering sands of the Sahara and the hostility of a winter traverse of the Pennine Way, to witness the incredible natural movement of runners in these environments. Along the way, you will learn how to incorporate natural movement techniques into your own running and hear from some of the top athletes that Shane has coached over the years. Whether experienced or just tackling your first few miles, this groundbreaking book will help you discover the lost art of running.

Mike and Barbara Bivona have danced their way around the world, embracing the colorful rhythms of each country and culture in their travels. Now, Mike, the author of Dancing Around the World with Mike and Barbara Bivona, returns to share more of their globe-trotting adventures in part one of a new travel memoir series. While cruising the islands, they witnessed lava flowing into the surf off the shores of Hawaii and danced on a nightclub floor that once saw the white-uniformed officers of the warships anchored at the naval station in Pearl Harbor. Mike describes the thrill and challenge of learning the intricate steps of the Argentine tango in Buenos Aires and, more importantly, absorbing its proper attitude from master dancers. The brimstone fumes wreathing the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius transported them back in time, as the frozen bodies of the unlucky residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum-as well as the evidence of Romans' lively erotic imagination left on walls and sculptured into clay-inspired numerous colorful conversations. Mike and Barbara's shared passion for art and history has led them to seek out the haunts of other lovers of adventure-Columbus, Ponce de Leon, General Custer, circus impresario John Ringling, and the elderly jazz musicians in New Orleans. Part memoir and part travelogue, this volume offers you a trip around the world with the Bivonas-without ever leaving your chair.

INCLUDES "WAITING FOR THE TALIBAN, "PREVIOUSLY AVAILABLE ONLY AS AN EBOOK""
2011 JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION WRITING AND LITERATURE AWARD FINALIST
Travel books bring you places. War books bring you tragedy. In "Peace Meals, "war reporter Anna Badkhen brings us not only an unsparing and intimate history of some of the last decade's most vicious conflicts but also the most human elements that transcend the dehumanizing realities of war: the people, the compassion they scraped from catastrophe, and the food they ate.
Making palpable the day-to-day life during conflicts and catastrophes, Badkhen describes not just the shocking violence but also the beauty of events that take place even during wartime: the spring flowers that bloom in the crater hollowed by an air-to-surface missile, the lapidary sanctuary of a twelfth-century palace besieged by a modern battle, or a meal a tight-knit family shares as a firefight rages outside. Throughout Badkhen's stories, punctuated by recipes from the meals she shared with the people she encountered, emerges the most important lesson she has observed in conflict zones from Afghanistan to Chechnya: that war can kill our friends and decimate our towns, but it cannot destroy our inherent decency, generosity, and kindness--that which makes us human.

One of The Economist's Best Books of the Year

From the bestselling author of Oracle Bones and River Town comes the final book in his award-winning trilogy on the human side of the economic revolution in China.

Peter Hessler, whom the Wall Street Journal calls "one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China," deftly illuminates the vast, shifting landscape of a traditionally rural nation that, having once built walls against foreigners, is now building roads and factory towns that look to the outside world.

This compendium of facts, observations, discoveries, reviews, serendipities, humor, experiences, and more is not only for the road traveler, but the armchair traveler as well. Unlike typical guides, which read more like phone directories, Romancing the Roads is a shared diary of discoveries along America's highways and byways. Join Gerry on a tour of hotels, B & B's, restaurants, national parks, antique stores, consignment shops, boutiques, and little-known places that make America such a great place for road-tripping. Unless otherwise noted, the author has visited every place mentioned, from the ostrich farm along Interstate 10 in Arizona to the Biltmore hotel in Los Angeles. Even if you never get in the car and discover such wonders for yourself, you will enjoy this vicarious journey to places both sublime and ordinary as the author makes her way from Washington to California and east to the Mississippi River.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - FOR nearly ten years my health had been declining; and for some while before I set forth upon my voyage, I believed I was come to the afterpiece of life, and had only the nurse and undertaker to expect. It was suggested that I should try the South Seas; and I was not unwilling to visit like a ghost, and be carried like a bale, among scenes that had attracted me in youth and health. I chartered accordingly Dr. Merrit's schooner yacht, the CASCO, seventy-four tons register; sailed from San Francisco towards the end of June 1888, visited the eastern islands, and was left early the next year at Honolulu. Hence, lacking courage to return to my old life of the house and sick-room, I set forth to leeward in a trading schooner, the EQUATOR, of a little over seventy tons, spent four months among the atolls (low coral islands) of the Gilbert group, and reached Samoa towards the close of '89. By that time gratitude and habit were beginning to attach me to the islands; I had gained a competency of strength; I had made friends; I had learned new interests; the time of my voyages had passed like days in fairyland; and I decided to remain. I began to prepare these pages at sea, on a third cruise, in the trading steamer JANET NICOLL. If more days are granted me, they shall be passed where I have found life most pleasant and man most interesting; the axes of my black boys are already clearing the foundations of my future house; and I must learn to address readers from the uttermost parts of the sea.

Die fassinerende ontwikkelingsgeskiedenis van Berlyn loop baie nou saam met die ontwikkeling van die staat Pruise, die Eerste Wereldoorlog, die opkoms van Nazisme, die konsentrasiekampe naby die stad en die gruwels van die Tweede Wereldoorlog. Daar word ook uitgewei oor die bloeityd van die kabaret en film in die tyd tussen die oorloë en na die verdeling van die stad in Oos- en Wes-Berlyn ná die Tweede Wêreldoorlog.

The imperial road to Italy goes from Munich across the Tyrol, through Innsbruck and Bozen to Verona, over the mountains. Here the great processions passed as the emperors went South, or came home again from rosy Italy to their own Germany. And how much has that old imperial vanity clung to the German soul? Did not the German kings inherit the empire of bygone Rome? It was not a very real empire, perhaps, but the sound was high and splendid. Maybe a certain Grossenwahn is inherent in the German nature. If only nations would realize that they have certain natural characteristics, if only they could understand and agree to each other's particular nature, how much simpler it would all be. The imperial procession no longer crosses the mountains, going South. That is almost forgotten, the road has almost passed out of mind. But still it is there, and its signs are standing. The crucifixes are there, not mere attributes of the road, yet still having something to do with it. The imperial processions, blessed by the Pope and accompanied by the great bishops, must have planted the holy idol like a new plant among the mountains, there where it multiplied and grew according to the soil, and the race that received it. . . .

A Walk on the Wild Side charts the authors journey from Hampshire to the Scottish Highlands and eventually to one of the largest districts in Scotland and the least densely populated area of the British Isles. The book tells the stories surrounding the wildlife encountered in and around his home and throughout the beautiful and remote area of Sutherland in the northern Highlands of Scotland. Discover its unique landscape containing every conceivable habitat and the associated wildlife that abounds within. From the estuaries and mixed woodland along the narrow eastern seaboard to the wild and rugged interior of mountain and moor. From the secret coves and stunning sea cliffs of the north to Handa Island off the west coast with its sea stacks full of nesting birds and marauding skuas patrolling the skies above the hill lochans. Each chapter captures these diverse habitats and the birds, mammals and wild flowers that live within their confines. The magnificent golden eagle, the spectacular osprey, the haunting red and black throated divers, the secretive pine marten and otter - all of these are brought to life through the exploits of one man and his intimate knowledge of the area.

A Gelato A Day is a collection of travel tales that highlights the good, the bad and the not-really-that-ugly of the family travel experience. These stories go beyond holidays-gone-wrong to dive thoughtfully into the deeper parental and family connections that can occur when we take ourselves (or are taken out of) our daily routines and comfort zones. More often than not, entering unfamiliar places, spaces and situations encourages us to open up to one another or react in ways that may surprise, delight or frustrate those we hold most dear.

ONES COMPANY- A Journey to China By PETER FLEMING. Originally published in 1934. FOREWORD: THIS book is a superficial account of an unsensational journey. My Warning to the Reader justifies, I think, its superficiality. It is easy to be dogmatic at a distance, and I dare say 1 could have made my half-baked conclusions on the major issues of the Far Eastern situation sound con vincing But it is one thing to bore your readers, another to mislead themj I did not like to run the risk of doing both. I have therefore kept the major Issues in the back ground The book describes in some detail what I saw and what I did, and in considerably less detail what most other travellers have also seen and done. If it has any value at all, it is the light which it throws on the processes of travel amateur travel - in parts of the interior which, though not remote, are seldom visited, On two occasions, I admit, I have attempted seriously to assess a politico-military situation, but only a because I thought 1 knew more about those particular situations than anyone else, and because if they had not been explained certain sections of the book would have made nonsense. For the rest, I make no claim to be directly instructive. One cannot, it is true, travel through a country without finding out something about it and the reader, following vicariously In my footsteps, may perhaps learn a little. But not much I owe debts of gratitude to more people than can con veniently be named, people of all degrees and many nation alities. He who befriends a traveller is not easily forgotten, and I am very grateful indeed to everyone who helped me on a long journey. PETER FLEMING . London, 1934. Contents include: PART I MANCHUKUO FACE I BOYS WILL BE BOYS 19 i j II INTO RUSSIA 24 r III THE MIRAGE OF MOSCOW 29 1 IV DRAMA 37 J V TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS 44 P VI FLOREAT MONGOLIA 2 VII CRASH 59 VJIII HARBIN 67 IX PXJ YI 72 f X WINGS OVER MUKDEN 82 to XI GEISHA PARTY 92 XII JEHOL 102 XIII PRAYERS 108 XIV AN AFTERNOON WITH THE GODS 114 Q XV GARRISON TOWN I2O T XVI REUNION IN CHINCHOW 125 XVII PAX JAPONICA 129 XVIII FLYING COLUMNJ 134 XEB THE FIRST DAY S MARCH 140 XX GETTING WARMER 146

Shantyboat is the story of a leisurely journey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. For most people such a journey is the stuff that dreams are made of, but for Harlan and Anna Hubbard it became a cherished reality. In the fall of 1944 they built a houseboat, small but neatly accommodated to their needs, on the bank of the Ohio near Cincinnati, and in it after a pause of two years they set out to drift down the river. In their small craft, the Hubbards became one with the flow of the river and its changing weathers. An artist by profession, Harlan Hubbard records with graceful ease the many facets of their life on the river-the panorama of fields and woods, summer gardening, foraging expeditions for nuts and berries, dangers from storms and treacherous currents, the quiet solitude of the mists of early morning. Their life is sustained by the provender of bank and stream, useful things made and found, and mutual aid and wisdom from people met along the journey. It is a life marked by simplicity and independence, strenuous at times, but joyous, with leisure for painting and music, for observation and contemplation.

All over the world there are places that became famous forever because something extraordinary happened there by chance. Beautifully illustrated and carefully researched Fame By Chance covers 380 such places with new insights and facts that are amusing, surprising and sometimes controversial. Foreword by Peter Ackroyd. All over the world there are places that became famous forever by chance - battles briefly waged, scenes of triumph and disater, sites of murder and intrigue, centres of influential creativity and noted mythical places from books and film. How and why did; Angora, Tabasco, Duffel and Fray Bentos give us products good and bad; Kohima's tennis court save India; Storyville's 269 brothels helped it to create jaz; Botany Bay never saw any British convicts; Tay Bridge was a disaster avoided by Marx and Engels; 'OK' stands for a farmhouse; Ferrari chose the 'Prancing Horse of Maranello'; Kyoto was saved from Hiroshoma's terrible fate; The British built the Great Hedge of India; With 432 pages beautifully illustrated and carefully researched Fame By Chance covers 380 such places with new insights and facts that are amusing, surprising and sometimes controversial.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - MONDAY. - It was, if I remember rightly, five o'clock when we were all signalled to be present at the Ferry Depot of the railroad. An emigrant ship had arrived at New York on the Saturday night, another on the Sunday morning, our own on Sunday afternoon, a fourth early on Monday; and as there is no emigrant train on Sunday a great part of the passengers from these four ships was concentrated on the train by which I was to travel. There was a babel of bewildered men, women, and children. The wretched little booking-office, and the baggage-room, which was not much larger, were crowded thick with emigrants, and were heavy and rank with the atmosphere of dripping clothes. Open carts full of bedding stood by the half-hour in the rain. The officials loaded each other with recriminations. A bearded, mildewed little man, whom I take to have been an emigrant agent, was all over the place, his mouth full of brimstone, blustering and interfering. It was plain that the whole system, if system there was, had utterly broken down under the strain of so many passengers.