The Sierra Madre - no other mountain range in the world possesses such a ring of intrigue. In the Sierra Madre is a groundbreaking and extraordinary memoir that chronicles the astonishing history of the one of the most famous, yet unknown regions in the world. Based on his one-year sojourn among the Raramuri/Tarahumara, award-winning journalist Jeff Biggers offers a rare look into the ways of the most resilient indigenous culture in the Americas, the exploits of Mexican mountaineers, and the fascinating parade of argonauts and accidental travellers that has journeyed into the Sierra Madre over centuries. From African explorers, Bohemian friars, Confederate and Irish war deserters, French poets, Boer and Russian commandos, Apache and Mennonite communities, bewildered archaeologists, addled writers, and legendary characters including Antonin Artaud, B. Traven, Sergei Eisenstein, George Patton, Geronimo and Pancho Villa, Biggers uncovers the remarkable treasures of the Sierra Madre.

His life was a shambles, he felt exhausted by work, his marriage was foundering. So he prepared a backpack, found a walking staff and departed on a 30-day, 500-mile journey along the Camino de Santiago, the route across northern Spain that has been followed by pilgrims for at least a thousand years. He knew what he was fleeing from, not what he was seeking. The Camino would teach him that and many other things. Walking by day, he slept in pilgrims' hospices at night, in boarding houses, in abandoned schools and churches or under the stars. As he moved forward in space, he seemed to be going backwards into time. He went through country where villages and people have barely changed since the Middle Ages, landscapes that James Michener has called the best in Spain and some of the finest in the world. Although he began his trip alone, Edward F. Stanton soon discovered that pilgrimage means fellowship as well as solitude: his journey coincided with the modern revival of the Camino de Santiago. Along the way he met a Spanish astrologer who taught him to find his own rhythm in walking, the abbess of a convent who offered him sage advice for the road, a pair of French women in search of a new life, peasants and shepherds with the knowledge of centuries. Road of Stars to Santiago is a beautifully written story that blends personal experience with folklore, legend, the wisdom of old chronicles and canny observations of life in modern Spain. It is at once a travel memoir, a picaresque adventure, a modern quest, a rite of passage and initiation into what has been called "the premier cultural route of Europe".

In 1987 Michael Harrold went to North Korea to work as English language adviser on translations of the speeches of the late President Kim Il Sung (the Great Leader) and his son and heir Kim Jong Il (then Dear Leader and now head of state). For seven years he lived in Pyongyang enjoying privileged access to the ruling classes and enjoying the confidence of the country's young elite. In this fascinating insight into the culture of North Korea he describes the hospitality of his hosts, how they were shaken by the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and many of the fascinating characters he met from South Korean and American GI defectors to his Korean minder and socialite friends. After seven years and having been caught passing South Korean music tapes to friends and going out without his minder to places forbidden to foreigners, he was asked to leave the country.

“She was part of the ‘stunt girl’ movement that was very important in the 1880s and 1890s as these big, mass-circulation yellow journalism papers came into the fore.” –Brooke Kroeger Around the World in Seventy-Two Days (1890) is a travel narrative by American investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Proposed as a recreation of the journey undertaken by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), Bly’s journey was covered in Joseph Pulitzer’s popular newspaper the New York World, inspiring countless others to attempt to surpass her record. At the time, readers at home were encouraged to estimate the hour and day of Bly’s arrival, and a popular board game was released in commemoration of her undertaking. Embarking from Hoboken, noted investigative journalist Nellie Bly began a voyage that would take her around the globe. Bringing only a change of clothes, money, and a small travel bag, Bly travelled by steamship and train through England, France—where she met Jules Verne—Italy, the Suez Canal, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. Sending progress reports via telegraph, she made small reports back home while recording her experiences for publication upon her return. Despite several setbacks due to travel delays in Asia, Bly managed to beat her estimated arrival time by several days despite making unplanned detours, such as visiting a Chinese leper colony, along the way. Unbeknownst to Bly, her trip had inspired Cosmopolitan’s Elizabeth Brisland to make a similar circumnavigation beginning on the exact day, launching a series of copycat adventures by ambitious voyagers over the next few decades. Despite being surrounded by this air of popularity and competition, however, Bly took care to make her journey worthwhile, showcasing her skill as a reporter and true pioneer of investigative journalism. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Nellie Bly’s Around the World in Seventy-Two Days is a classic work of American travel literature reimagined for modern readers.

Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings.

Cairo is a city of extremes. On its chaotic streets BMWs driven by sharp-suited businessmen compete for road space with donkey carts laden with farm produce; in its mosques the wealthy and the destitute pray next to each other. The largest conurbation in Africa since the Middle Ages, it was in Ibn Battutah's words "the mother of cities". With a present-day population of around eighteen million, this sprawling metropolis is home to one thousand new migrants every day, drawn to the seething intensity of a modern, cosmopolitan capital that blends together the cultures of the Middle East and Europe. The fabled city on the banks of the River Nile, once home to pharaohs and emperors, now forms a focal point of the Islamic faith and of the Arab world. Andrew Beattie explores the turbulent past and vibrant present of this city where the enduring legacies of the ancient Egyptians, the early Coptic Church, British colonial rule and the modernist zeal of the post-independence era have all left their mark. THE CITY OF WRITERS, CONQUERORS AND REVOLUTIONARIES: From Mark Twain and Thackeray to Paul Theroux and Naguib Mahfouz, Alexander the Great to Napoleon, and Lawrence of Arabia to Colonel Nasser. THE CITY OF MONUMENTS AND SPECTACLE: From the Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara to the Mosque of Mohammed Ali, dominating the Cairo skyline; from the teeming bazaars of the muski to Coptic and Islamic festivals. THE CITY OF ANCIENT AND MODERN: Where ancient churches and mosques sit cheek-by-jowl with modern skyscrapers and busy highways; where prosperous suburbs lie close to areas of third world poverty and deprivation.

Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2012 Between the Orinoco and the Amazon lies a fabulous forested land, barely explored. Much of Guiana seldom sees sunlight, and new species are often tumbling out of the dark trees. Shunned by the conquistadors, it was left to others to carve into colonies. Guyana, Suriname and Guyane Francaise are what remain of their contest, and the 400 years of struggle that followed. Now, award-winning author John Gimlette sets off along this coast, gathering up its astonishing story. His journey takes him deep into the jungle, from the hideouts of runaway slaves to penal colonies, outlandish forts, remote Amerindian villages, a 'Little Paris' and a space port. He meets rebels, outlaws and sorcerers; follows the trail of a vicious Georgian revolt, and ponders a love-affair that changed the face of slavery. Here too is Jonestown, where, in 1978, over 900 Americans, members of Reverend Jones's cult, committed suicide. The last traces are almost gone now, as the forest closes in. Beautiful, bizarre and occasionally brutal, this is one of the great forgotten corners of the Earth: the Wild Coast.

More than half a century after his death, Winston Churchill, the most significant British statesman of the twentieth century, continues to intrigue us. Peter Clark's book, however, is not merely another Churchill biography. Churchill's Britain takes us on a geographical journey through Churchill's life, leading us in Churchill's footsteps through locations in Britain and Ireland that are tied to key aspects of his biography. Some are familiar-Blenheim Palace, where he was born; Chartwell, his beloved house in the country; and the Cabinet War Rooms, where he planned the campaigns of World War II. But we also are taken to his schools, his parliamentary constituencies, locations of famous speeches, the place where he started to paint, the tobacco shop where he bought his cigars, and the graves of his family and close friends. Clark brings us close to the statesman Churchill by visiting sites that were important to the story of his long life, from the site where his father proposed to his American mother on the Isle of Wight to his grave in a country churchyard in Oxfordshire. Designed as a gazetteer with helpful regional maps, Churchill's Britain can be dipped into, consulted by the traveler on a Churchill tour of Britain, or read straight through--and no matter how it's read, it will deliver fresh insights into this extraordinary man.

The Best Travel Writing, Volume 11 is the latest in the annual Travelers' Tales series launched in 2004 to celebrate the world's best travel writing from Nobel Prize winners to emerging new writers. The points of view and perspectives are global, and themes encompass high adventure, spiritual growth, romance, hilarity and misadventure, service to humanity, and encounters with exotic cuisines and cultures. Includes winners from the annual Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing. Introduction by Rolf Potts In The Best Travel Writing, Volume 11, readers will: Piece together the puzzle of life in rural Cambodia Reawaken the joy of travel on a bus ride through Mexico Reexamine war memories with former soldiers in Vietnam Learn the ropes and the art of sailing with a "good captain" on the Pacific Find a true soul sister in the highlands of Ecuador Follow Vincent van Gogh's footsteps in France Survive (or not) a home invasion in Brazil...and much more

Well known as a political commentator and the author of sixteen novels, William F. Buckley Jr. was also a superb chronicler of travel. Getting About gathers more than one hundred of his articles about journeys by boat, train, or plane, representing a lifetime of adventure around the world-from Annapolis to Zurich, from the Azores to the Virgin Islands. An elegant jet-setter with a flair for literary journalism, Buckley had few rivals in the art of travel writing. He took first place in the Magazine Article on Foreign Travel category in the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition for eight pieces written while "Concording around the world" in 1989. A master storyteller, he adeptly wove devices of fiction together with reportage to craft entertaining pieces full of exuberance and authority. Being a Bach afficionado, he composed his sentences for a well-tuned ear. Buckley's talent for arranging a mise-en-scene stands out in accounts of riding the Orient Express, skiing at Alta, or vacationing at Barbuda. Though himself a central character in the story, he never dominates it. He wrote candidly about travel misadventures, as when his sixty-foot schooner broke down in the Bahamas and was towed to Miami by a Coast Guard cutter, or when a malfunctioning compass landed his boat on a rocky shoal off Rhode Island and the Coast Guard said, "Sorry, we can't help you." He also took a gimlet eye to the travel industry and a discriminating palate to airline food, suggesting that airports sell "a really good box lunch" with celery remoulade, fresh figs, and a nice Bordeaux. Getting About is pure enjoyment, but it also broadens the significance of Buckley's oeuvre. Along with Bill Meehan's illuminating introduction, this delightful collection helps preserve Buckley's legacy as his centenary, in 2025, approaches.

Richard Clubley once again shows his love for the Scottish island of Orkney through this new book, recording the special way of life that exists only on Orkney. With full colour images and illustrations, his ode to the island is formed of articles from Living Orkney magazine and the students of Kirkwall Grammar School.

"Listening to the gentle lapping of the river, I ponder the strange fate that brought me, a Soviet kid from a small Russian town, right here, to this very table in the middle of the Surinamese jungle on this particular night." From early childhood spend in an akademgorodok (purpose-built academic community) in the USSR, Kaminski has been obsessed with food. Fuelled by ancestral wanderlust, as an adult she put her obsession to good use, contributing to several dozen Lonely Planet and Rough Guides guidebooks and traversing six continents in search of sustenance and something even less tangible. Part-memoir, part-travelogue, "Eyeball Tacos & Kangeroo Stew" explores a life less ordinary through the prism of memorable meals, from sharing burgers with death row inmates in San Quentin Prison to feasting on spam and cassava with the crocodile-skinned men of Papua New Guinea's Middle Sepik, and being adopted by an Aboriginal family in the Outback over a pot of kangaroo stew. Through breaking bread with strangers and travel to the further corners of the former Soviet Union and beyond, the author discovers that her roots stretch further than she'd ever imagined and that kinship can be found in the strangest of places.

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Humorous tales of travel and misadventure. Lonely Planet knows that some of life's funniest experiences happen on the road. Whether they take the form of unexpected detours, unintended adventures, unidentifiable dinners or unforgettable encounters, they can give birth to our most found travel lessons, and our most memorable - and hilarious - travel stories. These 31 globegirdling tales that run the gamut from close-encounter safaris to loss-of-face follies, hair-raising rides to culture-leaping brides, eccentric expats to mind-boggling repasts, wrong roads taken to agreements mistaken. The collection brings together some of the world's most renowned travellers and storytellers with previously unpublished writers. Includes stories by Wickam Boyle, Tim Cahill, Joshua Clark, Sean Condon, Chistopher R.Cox, David Downie, Holly Erikson, Bill Fink, Don George, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Jeff Grenwald, Pico Iyer, Amanda Jones, Kathie Kertesz, Doug Lansky, Alexander Ludwick, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Jan Morris, Brooke Neill, Rolf Potts, Laura Resau, Michelle Richmond, Alana Semuels, Deborah Steg, Judy Tierney, Edwin Tucker, Jeff Vize, Danny Wallace, Kelly Watton, Simon Wichester, Michelle Witton About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places where they travel. TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) *#1 in the world market share - source: Nielsen Bookscan. Australia, UK and USA. March 2012-January 2013

One summer, writer and musician, Jasper Winn set himself an extraordinary task. He would kayak the whole way round Ireland - a thousand miles - camping on remote headlands and islands, carousing in bars and paddling clockwise until he got back where he started. But in the worst Irish summer in living memory the pleasures of idling among seals, fulmars and fishing boats soon gave way to heroic struggles through storm-tossed seas ... and lock-ins playing music in coastal pubs. Circling the country where he grew up, Jasper reflects on life at the very fringes of Ireland, the nature and lore of its seas, and his own eccentric upbringing - sprung from school at age ten and left free to explore the countryside and its traditional life. Charming, quietly epic, and with an irresistible undertow of wit, Paddle is a low-tech adventure that captures the sheer joy of a misty morning on Ireland's coast. As the sun breaks through, you'll be longing to set off too.

The chapters in this book are organised to represent different segments of the route followed by the Corps of Discovery across Idaho, Washington and Oregon. The first chapter describes their crossing of the Continental Divide -- three times on the way west -- as they looked for the most practical route. This was the most gruelling terrain they encountered on the entire trip and it was their introduction to the north-west. At this point they met with Shoshone Indians to trade for horses and found that Sacagawea, the young wife of their French interpreter, was a sister to the chief. She had been captured as a young girl and now returned home as a member of the expedition. Chapter two describes another dramatic event involving an Indian woman, the Nez Perce Wetxuiis, who was never mentioned in the journals of the expedition, but who may have saved the lives of the starving and exhausted white men. The Nez Perce proved to be stalwart friends who shared food, knowledge of the country, and dugout canoe construction so the Corps could continue on toward the ocean. Chapter three focuses on reaching the Columbia River, the Big River, a critical milestone that they hoped would take them swiftly and easily to the Pacific. They met more friendly tribes there and joined them in feasts of salmon. Chapter four describes the explorers encounter with the Chinookan Traders at Celilo Falls, the Great Falls of the Columbia, where they entered yet another world in the culture of Northwest Indians. Here they were faced with the sophisticated centre of trade for the Pacific Plateau Trade System. Tribes from downriver came to trade and meet with those from the eastern plateau region of the north-west. The Corps entered the spectacular Columbia River Gorge, navigated dangerous rapids in dugout canoes and survived to continue onward downstream. Chapter five covers a gruelling 150 miles downstream from the beginning of tidal influence to the Pacific Ocean. Battered by storms and tides, this relatively short distance was anything but a downstream float trip. However, they did plant the flag for the United States on the northern shore of the Columbia River, near the ocean, and thus staked a claim to the north-west. This done, they immediately made plans to pass the winter in a sheltered spot on the south shore and made their way across the river to build a stockade they called Fort Clatsop. The winter passed there is covered in chapter six. They brought journals and maps up to date, hunted, made moccasins, and traded with their Indian neighbours. Chapter seven is an account of their homeward journey east -- now up the Columbia. They portaged around rapids and, finally, took an overland route to the lands of the Nez Perces. Chapter eight describes their reunion with their Indian friends and their stay with them while waiting for the snow to melt enough to open Lolo Pass for their last crossing of the Divide. The book ends with an epilogue and brief profiles of Captains Lewis and Clark, the Shoshone woman Sacagawea, and York, Clarks slave. Each chapter contains a trail guide which points out actual sites of camps and significant events and landmarks experienced during the expedition. There are also regional places of interest and sightseeing opportunities listed, along with maps. One of the directives given to the Captains was to collect information on flora and fauna that might be new to science. They did so with great scientific care and skill. At the end of this book you will find a description of the plants and animals the explorers catalogued as they travelled across the north-west. There is also a bibliography and an index.

One of the Europe's most celebrated rivers, the Seine stretches from the fertile plains of Burgundy to the English Channel at Le Havre. Starting at its source near Dijon, writer and engraver Robert Gibbings follows the river's 400-mile course as it develops from a tranquil stream into the mighty waterway that links Rouen to the sea. The journey takes different forms: on foot, in a tiny boat 'hardly more than a coracle', on a barge, and on a boat used for transporting books. Throughout this leisurely voyage during one summer Gibbings records his impressions, visual and verbal, of places and people as well as explaining how the river has played a vital role in French history. In part an evocation of the Seine's changing landscapes and rural beauty, this is also an account of towns and cities-Troyes, Rouen, Paris-and their relationship with the river. Looking at writers and painters as well as historic figures who have left their mark on the Seine, Gibbings presents an affectionate picture of this great river and the people who live and work on its banks. Discussing the vineyards of Champagne, the paintings of Sisley and Utrillo, the rituals of Parisian cafe life, the author conveys an irresistible enthusiasm not just for boats and river life, but for all things French. First published in 1953, Coming Down the Seine is illustrated with more than fifty of Gibbings' delightful engravings.

The first of a set of 5 additions to the best selling Recollections series taking us on a nostalgic tour of Britain during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.Cedric Greenwood takes us on a photographic journey from Cornwall to Scotland with a wide selection of atmospheric shots taken during those three decades.Using the means of transport available including buses, trams, trains and ships we see the street scenes and life as it was back then.The fashions, the vehicles, the shops, the industries, the landscape and much, mich more frozen in the moment and captured by Cedric's camera for us to enjoy 40, 50, 60 years later!This first volume (No 70 in the Recollections series takes us to the centre of Britain covering Northamptonshire to Merseyside.

An eclectic compendium of the best travel writing essays published in 2019, collected by esteemed guest editor Robert Macfarlane, author of Mountains of the Mind and Underland. The Best American Travel Writing gathers together a satisfyingly varied medley of perspectives, all exploring what it means to travel somewhere new. For the past two decades, readers have come to recognize this annual volume as the gold standard for excellence in travel writing.

A cult classic with an ever-growing audience, Tracks is the brilliantly written and frequently hilarious account of a young woman's odyssey through the deserts of Australia, with no one but her dog and four camels as companions. Davidson emerges as a heroine who combines extraordinary courage with exquisite sensitivity. 16 pages of photos.

If you think McDonald's is the most ubiquitous restaurant experience in America, consider that there are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Wendys combined. New York Times reporter and Chinese-American (or American-born Chinese). In her search, Jennifer 8 Lee traces the history of Chinese-American experience through the lens of the food. In a compelling blend of sociology and history, Jenny Lee exposes the indentured servitude Chinese restaurants expect from illegal immigrant chefs, investigates the relationship between Jews and Chinese food, and weaves a personal narrative about her own relationship with Chinese food. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles speaks to the immigrant experience as a whole, and the way it has shaped our country.

New York Times bestseller - "Thrilling, tender, utterly absorbing . . . Every chapter shimmered with truth." --Cheryl Strayed

From travel writer Jedidiah Jenkins comes a long-awaited memoir of adventure, struggle, and lessons learned while bicycling the 14,000 miles from Oregon to Patagonia.

On the eve of turning thirty, terrified of being funneled into a life he didn't choose, Jedidiah Jenkins quit his dream job and spent the next sixteen months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. He chronicled the trip on Instagram, where his photos and profound reflections on life soon attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and got him featured by National Geographic and The Paris Review.

In this unflinchingly honest memoir, Jed narrates the adventure that started it all: the people and places he encountered on his way to the bottom of the world, and the internal journey that prompted it. As he traverses cities, mountains, and inner boundaries, Jenkins grapples with the questions of what it means to be an adult, his struggle to reconcile his sexual identity with his conservative Christian upbringing, and his belief in travel as a way to "wake us up" to life back home.

A soul-stirring read for the wanderer in each of us, To Shake the Sleeping Self is an unforgettable reflection on adventure, identity, and a life lived without regret.

The Storm Leopard is an alchemic blend of travel and nature writing that explores the primary dilemma of the 21st century - the conflict of modern lifestyles with the natural environment. This is an account of the author's journey from the Cape to the Serengeti Plains and his search for an answer to the Old Timer, a Kenyan who foretold the end of the wild. Martyn decided on one more trip, but this time without an agenda, without a timetable and without preconceptions: with no purpose other than to know, to feel and to understand. The book is filled with insights of African elephants and antelope, and with portraits of a natural world inhabited by Bushmen, game wardens and scientists. Running through it is an outspoken and highly ethical regard for humankind's relationship with nature. From his first contact with Bushman rock art in the Western Cape, the author is drawn into a spiritual journey as he grapples with the quandary of balancing our lifestyles with protecting the environment. His travelling companion, Stu, a fellow scientist and arch cynic, is nettled by this lack of rationality. Marooned together in their 4A--4, the friction, humour and hardship of their journey carry the reader across the continent from one adventure to another, to the final revelation atop an isolated kopje in the heart of the Serengeti Plains. The Storm Leopard is a unique book that emanates from the author's passionate affair with nature and many years of experience in the field as an ecologist and consultant in conservation - nothing deals with today's environmental issues in the same way.

Between Germany and Russia is a region strewn with monuments to the horrors of war, genocide and disaster - the bloodlands where the murderous regimes of Hitler and Stalin unleashed the violence that scarred the twentieth century and shaped so much of the world we know today. In September 2016 the German-Iranian writer Navid Kermani set out to discover this land and to travel along the trenches that are now re-emerging in Europe, from his home in Cologne through eastern Germany to the Baltics, and from there south to the Caucasus and to Isfahan in Iran, the home of his parents. This beautifully written travel diary, enlivened by conversations with the people Kermani meets along the way, brings to life the tragic history of these troubled lands and shows how this history leaves its traces in the present. It will be of great interest to anyone concerned with current affairs and with the events that have shaped, and continue to shape, the world in which we live today.