Travel Writing & Commentary

When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were...

The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America–majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide...

* Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature * Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Air Mail, Smithsonian Magazine, and Financial Times “A triumph. Fedarko doesn’t describe awe; he induces...

An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had...

A moving and provocative exploration of male friendship and loneliness, from New York Times bestselling author, filmmaker, and actor Andrew McCarthy as he crisscrosses the country to reconnect with his friends. “You don’t really have any friends, do you, Dad?” A seemingly innocuous, if...

A hilarious travel memoir about a man who moved with his wife, three kids, and two pets onto a forty-six-foot sailboat for a year. He expected it to be a yearlong version of Margaritaville, but what he got was shipwrecks, bad directions, hygiene calamities, and pirate attacks (sort of). Perfect...

Read by the author and available digitally for the first time From the star of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain's New York Times-bestselling chronicle of travelling the world in search the globe's greatest culinary adventures "Bourdain shows himself to be one of the country's best food writers...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Buffett offers his philosophy on life and how to live it, “like sitting with Buffett at a beachside bar, listening to him spin tales” (Time). “Buffett took his family on a three-week trek around the Caribbean...

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...

In this New York Times bestseller, follow the author of The Notebook as he travels the world with his brother learning about faith, loss, connection, and hope. As moving as his bestselling works of fiction, Nicholas Sparks's unique memoir, written with his brother, chronicles the life-affirming...

A 2026 Audie Awards Finalist! Stow away with Rick Steves for a glimpse into the unforgettable moments, misadventures, and memories of his 1978 journey on the legendary Hippie Trail. In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu...

To live in a pristine land unchanged by man... to roam a wilderness through which few other humans have passed....

This audiobook will change the way we understand ourselves and the great outdoors....

Paul Rosolie’s extraordinary adventure in the uncharted tributaries of the Western Amazon - a tale of discovery that vividly captures the awe, beauty, and isolation of this endangered land....

A guide to some of the world’s most fascinating places, as seen and experienced by writer, television host, and relentlessly curious traveler Anthony Bourdain Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York to...

Skeletons on the Zahara chronicles the true story of twelve American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the perilous heart of the Sahara. The western Sahara is a baking...

A collection of transcendent, lyrical essays on life in the American West, the classic companion to Gretel Ehrlich’s new book, Unsolaced “Wyoming has found its Whitman.” —Annie Dillard Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the first in a series of...

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 of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body “The best way of escaping into nature.”—The New York Times Back in...

Joe Simpson, with just his partner Simon Yates, tackled the unclimbed West Face of the remote 21,000 foot Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in June 1995. But before they reached the summit, disaster struck. A few days later, Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frostbitten, to tell...

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER By the YouTube sensation with three million followers, the inspiring account of a young woman who, in a moment of personal crisis, embarked on an epic, transcontinental motorcycle ride—and along the way found a new sense of purpose. Noraly Schoenmaker was a...

Notes from a Small Island After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to move his wife and kids back to his homeland of the United States. But not before taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home...

The most intimate and elaborately enhanced addition to the Hemingway Library series: Hemingway’s memoir of his safari across the Serengeti—presented with archival material from the Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library and with the never-before-published safari journal of...

THE MULTI-MILLION COPY INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING GILLIAN ANDERSON AND JASON ISAACS "Polished, poignant... an inspiring story of true love."—Entertainment Weekly A BEST BOOK OF 2019, NPR's Book Concierge SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARD The true story of a...

Challenged by an expert who said it couldn’t be done, Joshua Slocum, a fearless New England sea captain, set out in April 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world....

The Sumerians, the pragmatic and gifted people who preceded the Semites in the land first known as Sumer and later as Babylonia, created what was probably the first high civilization in the history of man, spanning the fifth to the second millenniums BC.

A moving and provocative exploration of male friendship and loneliness, from New York Times bestselling author, filmmaker, and actor Andrew McCarthy as he crisscrosses the country to reconnect with his friends. “You don’t really have any friends, do you, Dad?” A seemingly innocuous, if...

A resonant and timely story about love, loss, and forging a path forward in the aftermath of grief. After tragedy upended the contours of her life, Lauren Kessler, an unflinching immersion journalist, felt compelled to move—to do something, to be somewhere else. So she set out alone on the...

Brought to you by Penguin. No sex. No kids. No future? When Tom Feiling moved to Tokyo as a student in the early nineties, Japan was a beacon of the future: a rising superpower, a technology giant, and a global symbol of prosperity, civility and success. When he returned twenty-four years later...

En este libro te llevo conmigo por todos esos rincones que me han robado el corazón: desde Tenerife hasta Santorini, de paseo por las calles de Edimburgo, donde nació una historia de amor imposible, hasta el sol de Los Ángeles, pasando de las playas de Ibiza a la ajetreada Nueva York, visitando juntos el lluvioso Londres… No es una guía: es un recorrido por mis paisajes favoritos, por los pueblos que me acogieron, por los hoteles que se convirtieron en refugios, y por los bares y escenarios donde se forjaron los personajes que tanto queremos.

For listeners who wish Eat, Pray, Love had a cynical streak comes this propulsive, wildly original memoir about a journalist’s quest to conquer depression and addiction, set against the backdrop of international adventures and modern communal living. Through the eyes of others, Carly Schwartz seems to have everything going for her: top editor at the world’s biggest news site, fancy college degree, a seemingly endless parade of friends and parties.

Cheese Trekking recounts the author’s experiences visiting pastoral communities and cheesemakers in various countries and explains how cheeses can be local manifestations while also representing global archetypes, strategies that have been adopted in many places. It describes the constellations (a range of complementary milk foods that utilize all byproducts of cheesemaking) of various regions through a wide-angle lens. The central premise is that milk has a terroir, born from the plants and ecology of a landscape, that is concentrated via ruminant digestion and lactation.

THE SIMPLE SYSTEM FOR FLYING BUSINESS CLASS WITHOUT LOYALTY POINTS, MILES, OR LUCK The man in seat 14A paid $12,000 for his lie-flat to London. I was in 14B. Same champagne. Same flatbed. Same everything. My cost: $47. Not $47 plus years of elite status. Not $47 plus a hundred thousand frequent flyer miles. Just $47, charged to my credit card through a bidding platform that most passengers don't know exists. That flight wasn't luck. It was a system. Here's what the airline industry doesn't want you to figure out: Airlines are a trillion-dollar business running on algorithms. Those ...

469 miles. 26 tunnels. 50,000 feet of climbing. It sounded like a good idea at the time. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs for 469 miles through the Appalachian Mountains, from Virginia to North Carolina. It’s often described as America’s most scenic road — a gentle, meandering drive through endless mountain views, historic landmarks, and carefully placed overlooks. This is slightly misleading. Because what that description doesn’t mention is that it also climbs. A lot. Around 50,000 feet of it, in fact. Which is roughly the equivalent of cycling up Everest. Twice. For fun. It also ...

In Hidden Japan, acclaimed author and environmentalist Alex Kerr leads us to the country's most secluded and enchanting corners—places where time seems to stand still and traditional culture endures. From thatched-roof villages in misty mountains to volcanic islands few have ever visited, Kerr's lyrical prose, narrated by the author himself, is brought to life in this immersive audio experience.

Das Reisen ist Nina Sedanos große Leidenschaft. Ihr Leben in Frankfurt kann sie auf die Dauer nicht erfüllen und sie fasst einen mutigen Entschluss: Sie wird Geld ansparen, ihren Job aufgeben und alle 193 UN-Staaten bereisen. Voller Elan und Lebensfreude macht sie sich auf in die Ferne. Unterwegs erlebt sie Aufregendes, taucht in fremde Kulturen ein, knüpft Freundschaften, stößt manchmal an ihre Grenzen und lernt viel über das Leben, die Welt und sich selbst.

The Traveler’s Guide to Life is a captivating memoir that blends the thrill of global exploration with the deeper search for freedom, resilience, and self-discovery. Through vivid storytelling, Zhara York takes listeners across more than forty countries — from rooftop cafés in Madrid and hidden souks in Morocco to the sunlit vineyards of Tuscany and the turquoise waters of the Caribbean.

Life on the road isn’t always smooth—but it sure makes for great stories. In Rolling Smooth: From Breakdowns to Belly Laughs, author and full-time RVer Stan Cromlish shares the real, unfiltered, and often hilarious side of RV life. From black tank disasters and thunderstorm slide malfunctions to awning duels with gate posts and near misses on postage-stamp campsites, these stories prove that the best lessons often come from the biggest mistakes.

The world is still out there, waiting to be discovered. Not the world of package tours and resort pools, but the one that exists beyond the last paved road, in the places where language fails and instinct takes over, where the only way to understand a culture is to sit down, share a meal, and listen. Quinton Wall has spent a lifetime answering the pull that most people learn to ignore. Across all seven continents, on foot, by motorcycle, by train, and by felucca, he has sought out the raw, unscripted moments that only come to those willing to step beyond the familiar. Tales from the Road is...

Human history is woven with plant fibers. From the papyrus to the canvas, plants sustain and inspire us. Botanists study them, artists paint them, and poets praise them—plants are living archetypes around which we build our lives. This book is a collection of short stories from my life in the garden, featuring trees and shrubs as milestones to my memories of people and places from Seattle to Berlin. Because there is no life without plant life.

In this joy-filled, globe-trotting spirited memoir, one high-vibe, itchy-footed traveler invites you on a journey through the most amusing, inspiring, and unexpectedly enlightening moments of a life lived in motion. From overseas mishaps to island awakenings, every chapter brims with soulful insight, lighthearted laughter, and a healthy dose of the unexpected.