Best Adventure Travel
Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: This special eBook edition of Cheryl Strayed’s national best seller, Wild ,features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide. Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2012: At age 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself alone near the foot of the Pacific Crest Trail--inexperienced, over-equipped, and desperate to reclaim her life. While readers looking for adventure or a naturalist's perspective may be distracted by the emotional odyssey at the core of the story, Wild vividly describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker, the ubiquitous perils of the PCT, and its peculiar community of wanderers. But Strayed doesn't want sympathy, and her confident prose stands on its own, deftly pulling both threads into a story that inhabits a unique riparian zone between wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir. Two months before Wild was published I stood on a Mexican beach at sunset with my family assisting dozens of baby turtles on their stumbling journey across the sand, then watching as they disappeared into the sea. Echoing the ever-popular search for wilderness salvation by Chris McCandless (Back to the Wild, 2011) and every other modern-day disciple of Thoreau, Strayed tells the story of her emotional devastation after the death of her mother and the weeks she spent hiking the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail. As her family, marriage, and sanity go to pieces, Strayed drifts into spontaneous encounters with other men, to the consternation of her confused husband, and eventually hits rock bottom while shooting up heroin with a new boyfriend. Woefully unprepared (she fails to read about the trail, buy boots that fit, or pack practically), she relies on the kindness and assistance of those she meets along the way, much as McCandless did.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Although I did not hike the PCT I did backpack in Yosemite."
"Cheryl Strayed's memoir of an 1100 miles trek on the Pacific Crest trail is an astonishing story of a spectacular and breathtaking adventure of coming to terms with grief and survival during a difficult trek through snow_clad mountains and thick forests for two months beginning in the Mojave desert and hiking through California and Oregon to the Bridge of Gods in Washington."
"This book is not for everyone, you either seem to love it or hate it, but I loved it."
"The author tells her personal story which includes a lot of her flaws and mistakes. I'm grateful for the author's willingness to share this with enough detail to make the reader understand her state of mind and her experience of events."
"Having hiked, during my long life, on four continents, along trails of varying degrees of intensity, I empathised with every painful step this young, intelligent and courageous woman endured on the extremely challenging Pacific Crest Hiking Trail on the North American continent."
"I am an experienced hiker and Cheryl Strayed was an outdoor person but not a hiker of the type who usually attempts an extreme hike. Her writing is so good that I could envision each part of the trail as she hiked along the PCT."
McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run. Book Description Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong. Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder. With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. That’s the most important thing I picked up from my time in the Copper Canyons, the understanding that running can be fast and fun and spontaneous, and when it is, you feel like you can go forever. Q: You trained for your first ultramarathon—a race organized by the mysterious gringo expat Caballo Blanco between the Tarahumara and some of America’s top ultrarunners—while researching and writing this book. He studies rock climbing to find shoulder techniques for kayakers, and applies Nordic skiing’s smooth propulsion to mountain biking. What he’s looking for are basic engineering principles, because he’s convinced that the next big leap forward in fitness won’t come from strength or technology, but plain, simple durability. His starting point was uncertainty; he assumed that the Tarahumara step into the unknown every time they leave their caves, because they never know how fast they’ll have to sprint after a rabbit or how tricky the climbing will be if they’re caught in a storm. It’s really awful that so many doctors are reinforcing this learned helplessness, this idea that you have to be some kind of elite being to handle such a basic, universal movement. I couldn’t figure out why, until one runner explained that throughout history, the four basic ingredients for optimal health have been clean air, good food, fresh water and low stress. They’re out in the woods for hours at a time, breathing pine-scented breezes, eating small bursts of digestible food, downing water by the gallons, and feeling their stress melt away with the miles. Ann Trason and Krissy Moehl often beat every man in the field in some ultraraces, while Emily Baer recently finished in the Top 10 at the Hardrock 100 while stopping to breastfeed her baby at the water stations. We may not be fast, but we’re born with such remarkable natural endurance that humans are fully capable of outrunning horses, cheetahs and antelopes. I thought I’d have to go on some kind of prison-camp diet to get ready for an ultra, but the best advice I got came from coach Eric, who told me to just worry about the running and the eating would take care of itself. I instinctively began eating smaller, more digestible meals as my miles increased, but then I went behind his back and consulted with the great Dr. Ruth Heidrich, an Ironman triathlete who lives on a vegan diet. The first boom came during the Great Depression; the next was in the ‘70s, when we were struggling to recover from a recession, race riots, assassinations, a criminal President and an awful war. There are rogues aplenty here, such the deadly narco-traffickers who roam Copper Canyon, but there are many more who inspire, such as the Tarahumara runners, who show the rest of the world the false limitations we place on human endurance. McDougall has served as an Associated Press war correspondent, is a contributing editor to Men’s Health, and runs at his home in rural Pennsylvania, and he brings all of these experiences to bear in this slyly important, highly readable account.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Learning about the Tarahumara, how they run and what they eat was really interesting."
"It is a true gem for anyone who puts one foot in front of the other at a rate faster than a walk."
"Do not know about non-runners, but walkers and runners will enjoy this well written book."
"I don't run but a friend recommended this book and it was unexpectedly awesome."
"If you’ve ever laced up with a purpose and felt good after you’d run it, this book should be your next read."
"If you are a runner or thinking of taking up running, this is a must read!"
"This book changed my relationship with running and strengthened my resolve to overcome my physical barriers to running (all the typical problems as described in the book: plantar fasciitis, tight achilles, ankle pain)."
"And with his story of the ancient Tarahumara tribe in Mexico, a people who grow up running as a way of life, he is able to display running at its core, a god given gift to us, meant to be enjoyed, not dreaded or avoided as most Americans would see it. A great story and a great read that not only informs you of a lot of science and history of running but becomes a page turner as you are dying to see how the big race between the Tarahumara’s best and the elite American runners turns out."
In 2003, software engineer David Miller left his job, family, and friends to fulfill a dream and hike the Appalachian Trail. Of course, fellow Appalachian Trail (AT) hikers reading his book will be like the choir before the preacher, devouring his passages like a mystery novel, despite knowing exactly how it will end. Miller does a particularly good job of describing how hikers' moods change more sharply than the physical ups and downs of the mountain chain -- from senseless euphoria to mindless morosity -- as they put one foot in front of the other for months at a time. In fact, hikers spend many of their thoughts contemplating why in the heck they're out there, suffering through the blisters, bugs, rain and boredom that are as much a part of the experience as the dramatic views and inspiring wilderness. David Miller's Awol on the Appalachian Trail allows us to sample the pleasures and the pains of hiking 2,172 miles from Georgia to Maine. Readers who are considering the Trail or who simply enjoy being in the outdoors will find this book most appealing, but Miller's talent should bring him an even larger audience.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I read a lot of books about the Appalachian Trail so the subject matter was not at all new to me but I enjoyed the humor interspersed at regular intervals throughout the book."
"Enjoyed my vicarious journey."
"If you delight in an author's ability to make the printed page a canvas; if you relish rereading a paragraph just because of how smart it was--you'll love this whether you're a hiker or not. If there is a criticism, I'd offer that he might have left out the few mild obscenities in exchange for broadest appeal."
"Our trips were no longer than 2 or three hours and we experienced no real hardships, but this book awakened the memory of those wonderful imagined hikes into history."
"The author shared his respective periods of pain and elation, as he successfully traversed the almost 2,200 miles on the Appalachian Trail."
"Enjoyed the read and found it to be a great mix of a recital of conditions along the trail, personal insights and a realistic journaling of the physical demands and injuries that are a part of any long through hike."
"I have read other books written by people who took on the challenge of hiking the A.T. All have been enjoyable and I would recommend them to anyone who is curious about the experience."
"Kudos to David for completing his hike and taking the time to share it with us all."
Best Pacific U.S. Regional Travel
Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: This special eBook edition of Cheryl Strayed’s national best seller, Wild ,features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide. Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2012: At age 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself alone near the foot of the Pacific Crest Trail--inexperienced, over-equipped, and desperate to reclaim her life. While readers looking for adventure or a naturalist's perspective may be distracted by the emotional odyssey at the core of the story, Wild vividly describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker, the ubiquitous perils of the PCT, and its peculiar community of wanderers. But Strayed doesn't want sympathy, and her confident prose stands on its own, deftly pulling both threads into a story that inhabits a unique riparian zone between wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir. Two months before Wild was published I stood on a Mexican beach at sunset with my family assisting dozens of baby turtles on their stumbling journey across the sand, then watching as they disappeared into the sea. Echoing the ever-popular search for wilderness salvation by Chris McCandless (Back to the Wild, 2011) and every other modern-day disciple of Thoreau, Strayed tells the story of her emotional devastation after the death of her mother and the weeks she spent hiking the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail. As her family, marriage, and sanity go to pieces, Strayed drifts into spontaneous encounters with other men, to the consternation of her confused husband, and eventually hits rock bottom while shooting up heroin with a new boyfriend. Woefully unprepared (she fails to read about the trail, buy boots that fit, or pack practically), she relies on the kindness and assistance of those she meets along the way, much as McCandless did.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Being an avid reader of true life adventures,this is definitely one of my favorites.I think what I loved about this story, is it is so honest, and primal.We all have times in our lives when we want to just leave everything behind, and go on an essential walkabout.Yet, we don't really know how many people are required to be involved in a singular journey."
"Some of the events that she recalls are very sad, yet it's in the sadness, her happy moments, the scenes that she describes and her "radical aloneness" that I strangely felt empowered, just from reading her story. Hers' is not just one of a woman braving it through the wild of the PCT alone, but the story of a human being on their journey to save themselves."
"Her inner mental battles, the unique people she meets along the way, the beauty and majestic world that is put for you to see (or imagine seeing) is a journey I enjoyed taking with her."
"Although I did not hike the PCT I did backpack in Yosemite."
"I have an acquaintance who also hiked this trail, writing in a moleskin book and drawing beautiful line. illustrations. Having also lost my Mother recently, lived and hiked in No CA, gave me reference points. And when noted - and her feet, body was ravaged, why not contact Paul to, at least, get new boots, proper weight in. backpack? I took it to the northern woods of Michigan - where it's raw and unpopulated, to read - when I was scattering my own Mother's ashes."
Best Travel
Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: This special eBook edition of Cheryl Strayed’s national best seller, Wild ,features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide. Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2012: At age 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself alone near the foot of the Pacific Crest Trail--inexperienced, over-equipped, and desperate to reclaim her life. While readers looking for adventure or a naturalist's perspective may be distracted by the emotional odyssey at the core of the story, Wild vividly describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker, the ubiquitous perils of the PCT, and its peculiar community of wanderers. But Strayed doesn't want sympathy, and her confident prose stands on its own, deftly pulling both threads into a story that inhabits a unique riparian zone between wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir. Two months before Wild was published I stood on a Mexican beach at sunset with my family assisting dozens of baby turtles on their stumbling journey across the sand, then watching as they disappeared into the sea. Echoing the ever-popular search for wilderness salvation by Chris McCandless (Back to the Wild, 2011) and every other modern-day disciple of Thoreau, Strayed tells the story of her emotional devastation after the death of her mother and the weeks she spent hiking the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail. As her family, marriage, and sanity go to pieces, Strayed drifts into spontaneous encounters with other men, to the consternation of her confused husband, and eventually hits rock bottom while shooting up heroin with a new boyfriend. Woefully unprepared (she fails to read about the trail, buy boots that fit, or pack practically), she relies on the kindness and assistance of those she meets along the way, much as McCandless did.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Being an avid reader of true life adventures,this is definitely one of my favorites.I think what I loved about this story, is it is so honest, and primal.We all have times in our lives when we want to just leave everything behind, and go on an essential walkabout.Yet, we don't really know how many people are required to be involved in a singular journey."
"Some of the events that she recalls are very sad, yet it's in the sadness, her happy moments, the scenes that she describes and her "radical aloneness" that I strangely felt empowered, just from reading her story. Hers' is not just one of a woman braving it through the wild of the PCT alone, but the story of a human being on their journey to save themselves."
"Her inner mental battles, the unique people she meets along the way, the beauty and majestic world that is put for you to see (or imagine seeing) is a journey I enjoyed taking with her."
"Although I did not hike the PCT I did backpack in Yosemite."
"I have an acquaintance who also hiked this trail, writing in a moleskin book and drawing beautiful line. illustrations. Having also lost my Mother recently, lived and hiked in No CA, gave me reference points. And when noted - and her feet, body was ravaged, why not contact Paul to, at least, get new boots, proper weight in. backpack? I took it to the northern woods of Michigan - where it's raw and unpopulated, to read - when I was scattering my own Mother's ashes."
Best U.S. State Travel
Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded. Though the ‘stranger’ in the title is Knight, one closes the book with the sense that Knight, like all seers, is the only sane person in a world gone insane—that modern civilization has made us strangers to ourselves." —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times "Michael Finkel has done something magical with this profound book… [His] investigation runs deep, summoning…the human history of our own attempts to find meaning in a noisy world."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Not only is this story of Chris Knight one of the most compelling that I have read in some time, but the lengths that you went to, to research his venture into the woods of Maine, to understand him, to get to know him, clearly better than anyone else has, and to represent him with such dignity, astounds me. While some, especially those whose homes were burgled, might still never understand what would cause a person to want to live in such extreme conditions let alone in solitude, far removed from the ‘regular’ world, after reading the book, while I will never spend a night, let alone an hour in the woods, what drew Knight makes sense to me now. It’s not to say that after reading THE STRANGER IN THE WOODS that every reader will feel compelled to pick up and leave their jobs, families, and the comfort of modern society behind, but it sure does offer food for thought."
"I wanted to read this book as the Maine woods have been a part of my life and I was unfamiliar with this story until I saw this book. I realized from the start that at the core of this story was an important topic I already have been worrying about that I feel American society either is unaware of or is purposefully ignoring: the neuro-atypical person and the challenge of how they will live (not thriving but suffering) in modern America. Knight was content and found peace in living that life until he was caught with the help of sophisticated surveillance equipment while robbing food from a nonprofit camp for disabled children (including kids on the Autism Spectrum). The heartbreaking part of this story is that the suffering that Knight endured was due to square pegs not fitting in the round holes of modern American society, his relief and contendedness was found living in isolation in nature, but this is not really allowed in America, and when possible it's only available to those who are able to financially support themselves due to an inheritance or some income stream that they are lucky to find that meshes with their talents and abilities. But this book provides more food for thought, for me at least, than just Knight's hermit years story. I hope this book is a catalyst for Americans to think about this issue, with the rising rates of Autism and mental illness, we have more people this decade than ever before who are not fitting in with the mandatory American public school system and who are not fitting in to work jobs as adults enough to support themselves independently let alone the issue of if a person is happy or content."
"Many of us dream of secluding from the busyness of modern living—the fast-paced, noisy, cyclical nature in which life has become; yet many of us do not have the courage or tenacity to pursue such a dream, much less achieve this dream for the amount of time that Knight did. On a practical level, Michael Finkel has written this biographical account excellently."
"My heart goes out to Mr. Knight."
Best Specialty Travel
Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: This special eBook edition of Cheryl Strayed’s national best seller, Wild ,features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide. Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2012: At age 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself alone near the foot of the Pacific Crest Trail--inexperienced, over-equipped, and desperate to reclaim her life. While readers looking for adventure or a naturalist's perspective may be distracted by the emotional odyssey at the core of the story, Wild vividly describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker, the ubiquitous perils of the PCT, and its peculiar community of wanderers. But Strayed doesn't want sympathy, and her confident prose stands on its own, deftly pulling both threads into a story that inhabits a unique riparian zone between wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir. Two months before Wild was published I stood on a Mexican beach at sunset with my family assisting dozens of baby turtles on their stumbling journey across the sand, then watching as they disappeared into the sea. Echoing the ever-popular search for wilderness salvation by Chris McCandless (Back to the Wild, 2011) and every other modern-day disciple of Thoreau, Strayed tells the story of her emotional devastation after the death of her mother and the weeks she spent hiking the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail. As her family, marriage, and sanity go to pieces, Strayed drifts into spontaneous encounters with other men, to the consternation of her confused husband, and eventually hits rock bottom while shooting up heroin with a new boyfriend. Woefully unprepared (she fails to read about the trail, buy boots that fit, or pack practically), she relies on the kindness and assistance of those she meets along the way, much as McCandless did.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Although I did not hike the PCT I did backpack in Yosemite."
"Cheryl Strayed's memoir of an 1100 miles trek on the Pacific Crest trail is an astonishing story of a spectacular and breathtaking adventure of coming to terms with grief and survival during a difficult trek through snow_clad mountains and thick forests for two months beginning in the Mojave desert and hiking through California and Oregon to the Bridge of Gods in Washington."
"This book is not for everyone, you either seem to love it or hate it, but I loved it."
"The author tells her personal story which includes a lot of her flaws and mistakes. I'm grateful for the author's willingness to share this with enough detail to make the reader understand her state of mind and her experience of events."
"Having hiked, during my long life, on four continents, along trails of varying degrees of intensity, I empathised with every painful step this young, intelligent and courageous woman endured on the extremely challenging Pacific Crest Hiking Trail on the North American continent."
"But this book is really less about the PCT and more about the emotional journey which apparently was a good deal more strenuous than the trail. This book documents with chilling honesty the route she took emotionally to deal with that upbringing."
"I am an experienced hiker and Cheryl Strayed was an outdoor person but not a hiker of the type who usually attempts an extreme hike. Her writing is so good that I could envision each part of the trail as she hiked along the PCT."
Best Travel Reference
Experience Maori culture, be wowed by beautiful glaciers or hike through gorgeous scenery; all with your trusted travel companion. Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - Maori culture, history, cuisine, arts, music, landscape, wildlife Free, convenient pull-out touring map (included in print version), plus over 90 maps Covers Auckland, Bay of Islands, Coromandel Peninsula, Central Plateau, Rotorua, East Coast, Wellington, Marlborough, West Coast, Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown, Fiordland, Southland and more. Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book was the end-all-be-all for references and recommendations in New Zealand."
"Very informative, with up to date information and good recommendations on activities, restaurants, etc."
"Incredibly helpful in planning my trip to New Zealand."
"Provides most of the necessary information."
"We stuck mostly to the book and had an amazing trip."
"Informative and easy to use and enjoy."
"For trip planning, background history, information about the country and important travel tips to know it is great."
Best Botswanan Travel Guides
A hilarious, highly original collection of essays based on the Botswana truism: “only food runs!” With a new introduction and new material from the author In the tradition of Bill Bryson, a new writer brings us the lively adventures and biting wit of an African safari guide. No one could make up these outrageous-but-true tales: the young woman who rejected the recommended safari-friendly khaki to wear a more “fashionable” hot pink ensemble; the lost tourist who happened to be drunk, half-naked, and a member of the British royal family; establishing a real friendship with the continent’s most vicious animal; the Japanese tourist who requested a repeat performance of Allison’s being charged by a lion so he could videotape it; and spending a crazy night in the wild after blowing a tire on a tour bus, revealing that Allison has as much good-natured scorn for himself. A hilarious chapter recounting a troubled thousand mile trek through the Kalahari Desert finds Allison trying to wave down a passing truck in the middle of the night: "I realized that the driver would have seen what looked like a very animated sage bush with pasty white hands growing from it... he'd probably go straight to a witch doctor... and ask if there was a curse on him."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I read this just before my Botswana safari & I learned things that they would never put in the tour brochure."
"Fun book, entertaining to read on plane in the way to Safari."
"I really enjoyed this book but that was in large part due to the fact that we just returned from Botswana, where one of the camp managers recommended it. If you do go, Peter's book will give you a pretty good idea of the excitement and unpredictability of trekking through the jungles of Botswana in a Range Rover or trying to return to your tent from the camp bar and lounge area late at night."
"Just finished and this is a book that will appeal to virtually everyone!"
"A book full of adventure, and simply an entertaining read."
"Since we are heading to Africa next year, Botswana in particular, this book was recommended by an experienced traveler."
"Love the campfire type stories and the wonderful verbal visuals."
"Beautifully and humorous,y told stories with real appreciation for natural wildlife, the people he worked with and the animals encountered."
Best Motorcycle Travel Reference
Peter Egan's writing invites you to pull up a chair, pour a little scotch, and relax while he shares with you his tales from the road, his motorcycling philosophy, and his keen observations about the two-wheeled life. Peter Egan is one of the most readable writers in the motorcycle enthusiast world.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I am a regular reader of Peter Egans columns but I find having the collected columns together like this better."
"When you finish reading a page, your hair is actually wind blown, and you can smell the pine trees and corn fields as you have been riding along with him."
"Articles by Peter Egan and Kevin Cameron were the sole remaining reasons why I continued to subscribe to Cycle World."
"A wonderful read, I miss his regular columns both here and in Road & Track."
"The last of the series of articles that Peter wrote."
"I own and have read volumes 1 and 3 and the stories capture the excitement, wonder, camaraderie, craziness, perverse logic, and sometimes pain that is motorcycling."
"Cant get enough of this scibes scribblings."
"His wit and self-deprecating humor, along with his background and knowledge of man and machine, add up to a collection of yarns that make you love motorcycling, or wish you could."
Best One-Hour Travel Short Reads
- How to find mistake fares. - How to avoid fees. - Which flight search engine is best. - How to save money on nearly every flight. The author is a travel expert who has earned millions of frequent flyer miles and travels tens of thousands of miles per year.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is OK. That's really all i can say about it."
"There is a lot of useful info , especially re search engines."
"Information was good but you needed to have many credit cards, airline cards, to get the large points to take advantage of the cheap or free flights - nothing new really."
"I learned some great travel strategies that will save me money as I travel internationally."
"Excellent."
"I thought I was good at finding cheap flights already because I would go to Southwest and book RT flights under $120 from Dallas to different destinations but this book is amazing!"
"Very short."
"There is much more to check out there to find good deals."
Best Republic of South Africa Travel
These are just a few of the 101 jaw-dropping sightings, scrapes and encounters in this collection of extraordinary true stories from the roads, camps, picnic sites and walking trails of South Africa’s Kruger National Park, as told by the very people who experienced them. There are no game ranger tales here – each and every story happened to an ordinary Kruger visitor doing what over a million tourists do in this spectacular reserve each year. :: Over 420 Kindle pages of extraordinary, hair-raising, unusual, hilarious and jaw-dropping safari tales. :: Astonishing photographs of many of the incidents. :: All stories 100% true - and could happen to YOU! :: Find out what it is like to be stormed by a lion, attacked by an elephant, bitten by a deadly snake or chased by hyaenas. :: A thrilling read whether you're a Kruger veteran or a safari dreamer. :: Discover for yourself the wildlife magic that draws over a million tourists to this spectacular piece of Africa each year. I can't think of a better way to experience the Kruger than through these fireside stories" Andrea Weiss , founding editor of go! "Best book ever written about Kruger National Park ... Had me gasping in astonishment, laughing out loud and even shedding a few tears" Dana Atkinson , author of Traveling Africa: A Woman's Guide. Prepare to giggle in disbelief, tut in despair, and turn pages like you're clicking on cat videos" Kulula Airlines Inflight Magazine. Prepare to giggle in disbelief, tut in despair, and turn pages like you're clicking on cat videos" Kulula Airlines Inflight Magazine. "Jaw-dropping stories ... A bedside book, travel companion, dip-into, read-anywhere compilation of joyful encounters laced with terrible warnings" North Coast Courier. The idea for this collection of 101 extraordinary tales from the Kruger National Park arose purely from envy. I am, however, always flabbergasted by the tales of other visitors, recounted - with perhaps a smattering of exaggeration - in rest camps in the evenings, or shared through open car windows when I've asked, 'Seen anything interesting today?'. When I first set about collecting stories for the book four years ago, I never anticipated the sheer wealth of incredible tales, accounts and anecdotes I would receive. But each one, I hope, captures and shares a little of the wonder and the thrill we all feel when we pass through the gates, full of anticipation of what lies ahead, into the great expanse of one of Africa's greatest treasures. The criteria for selecting the stories were simple: they should all be extraordinary in one way or another; they should all take place in the Kruger National Park itself, not one of the adjoining reserves of Greater Kruger; they should only take place on any of the publicly accessible tourist roads, rest camps, picnic sites or walking trails; and importantly, they should primarily be the tales of ordinary Park visitors like you and me - not game rangers, field guides or any of the other lucky people who work and live in the Park.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"101 stories --- mostly memories of people who have had experiences in-situ --- brilliantly told in short (really short and crisp and to the point --- well done) stories about individual or family events while visiting the world's greatest wild life reserve."
"Each story was a few pages in length which made for a good pick up and put down book when there were a few minutes to spare."
"I think it would be a good book to read to older children and what a fun discussion it would bring."
"This is the perfect book to bring back memories of many a trip to the kruger national park I have taken.I had heard of some of the stories before by going on the San Parks forum but many were unfamiliar and some were unbearably sad .The tales are short so it is a great book to pick up and go back to again.It also is a must for anyone planning to visit the KNP as it helps to bring the various locales alive."
"what a lovely story, it tells us so much about life among the wild creatures of the park.,., It gave me a good idea of the Park that I am unlikely to ever see."
"The Kruger park never disappoints and this book lays claim to that."
"As a nature lover who grew up reading books on Africa by people like Osa Johnson, Armand and Michelle Denis, I cannot get enough of such stories.Thanks to a very dear friend, I was also able to visit Kruger eight years ago - a long cherished dream from my childhood."
"I have truly enjoyed reading this book of harrowing and hilarious stories about Kruger National Park."
Best Boston Massachusetts Travel Books
This is the true story of Stan Zuray's incredible journey; the reformation of a man's heart and mind in the forbidding darkness of Alaska's endless winter.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Nice product like advertised."
"Love this book."
"One of the better adventure books about Alaska that I have ever read."
"I enjoyed Stans story, I found it was just enough story to make the point, & give a descent amount of detail."
"Very good book and very interesting ."
"Great adventure book."
"Excellent."
Best Trucks & Vans
Going far beyond the myth of the American road trip, he whisks readers down the I-95 Powerlane, across the Florida Everglades, in and out of the truck stops of the Midwest, and through the steep grades of the Rocky Mountains. Through it all, Murphy tells poignant, funny, and often haunting stories of the people he encounters on the job: a feisty hoarder in New Hampshire; a Virginia homeowner raging when Murphy’s truck accidentally runs down a stand of trees; an ex-banker in Colorado who treats Finn and his crew with undisguised contempt; a widow who needs Murphy to bring her archeologist husband’s remains and relics to a Navajo burial ceremony in New Mexico. "There's nothing semi about Finn Murphy's trucking tales of The Long Haul."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Here's a sample: "A Jake brake...sounds like a machine gun beneath my feet as it works to keep 70,000 pounds of steel and rubber under control." Also, this: "I was running north in a convoy with nine other trucks...We flew together for 130 miles doing 65 the whole way...it was wonderful...We all fell into a groove. He was a smart, thoughtful, and defeated man caught in the amber of class, education, and diminished expectations for himself and his progeny.""
"WOW!"
"Learned so much from this book....about big trucks....truckers and truck stops.....generous and mean people......and about professionalism and compassion applied to a profession that meets customers at high points of anxiety in their lives."
"Very interesting stories and a fun book to read."
"I've moved several times in my life and it was enjoyable to read the movers side of the story."
"Quick and interesting read about the unsung people we share the roads with and who transport our life essentials."
"Great book."
"Humor mixed with reality on the road."
Best Sailing Narratives
In his most ambitious journey ever, Heat-Moon sets off aboard a small boat he named Nikawa ("river horse" in Osage) from the Atlantic at New York Harbor in hopes of entering the Pacific near Astoria, Oregon. But the hard days yield up incomparable pleasures: strangers generous with help and eccentric tales, landscapes unchanged since Sacagawea saw them, riverscapes flowing with a lively past, and the growing belief that efforts to protect our lands and waters are beginning to pay off. The voyage--from New York harbor to the Pacific Ocean--packs surprises, wisdom, regrets, mishaps, candor, and conversations that readers who savored Blue Highways and PrairyErth will delight in. The impetus for River Horse is one of intrigue--less urgent than the departure in Blue Highways --and the narrative possesses a captivating pull as it courses westward through the strongest currents and pauses in the back eddies of contemporary American life. Written in short thematic chapters, River Horse plies canals, greets the Missouri's many moods, and challenges chaotic waves. Writing under the name Heat-Moon (Blue Highways), William Trogdon once again sets out across America, this time propelled chiefly by a dual-outboard boat dubbed Nikawa, "River Horse" in Osage. Citing 19th-century travelogues and dredging odd bits of the rivers' past, Heat-Moon conveys the significance of passing "beneath a bridge that has looked down on the stovepipe hat of Abraham Lincoln, the mustache of Mark Twain, the sooty funnels of a hundred thousand steamboats."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It is a well crafted account of the challenge, both technical and personal, of taking a small craft across the country using river routes that are barely passable at times, routes that were used hundreds of years ago by both native Americans and the early settlers of the United States."
"I find River Horse fascinating, entertaining, and believable, a worthy companion to Blue Highways and PrairyErth, and having shared the trials, fears, joys, and victories of the Northwest Passage, I store his travels with my own travels with my wife, on secondary roads, around, over, and through the middle and western states on our motorcycle (about 52,000 miles)."
"However, William Least Heat-Moon's earlier books fascinated me with their combination of travelogue, social history and natural history, and I expected the same from "River Horse." Although he is constantly impelled to move onward and westward for fear (unfounded mostly) of having too little water in the West, Heat-Moon still takes plenty of time to learn and relate the histories of many of the small river towns he finds along the way."
"I hate to see the book end."
"I am enjoying the book, but have only read a few chapters so far."
"Doing it the way the author did -- and also not naming minor real-life characters such as the Reporter and the Photographer -- keeps the story moving, and this book is all about movement. I will, though, agree with those who say that a bit of self-righteousness had crept into the author's writing by the time this book was composed, which is why I give it four stars instead of five."
"Heat-Moon chooses a most challenging transit of this country and recalls the experience in words of absolute stark reality."
"this is an extraordinary book."
Best Individual Sports
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Above all, he recalls the foundational relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. It’s an amazing tale.”— Bill Gates, one of his favorite books of 2016 “ Shoe Dog is a great American story about luck, grit, know how, and the magic alchemy of a handful of eccentric characters who came together to build Nike. That it happened at all is a miracle, because as I learned from this book, though we are a nation that extols free enterprise, we also excel at thwarting it. I’ve worn the gear, with pride, but I didn’t realize the remarkable saga of innovation and survival and triumph that stood behind every swoosh. " Shoe Dog is an extraordinary hero's journey, an epic tale of faith, unparalleled determination, excellence, failure, triumph, hard earned wisdom, and love. Phil Knight takes us back to the Big Bang of the swoosh, recalls how he first begged and borrowed from reluctant banks, how he assembled a crew of eccentric but brilliant misfits, how they all worked together to build something unique and paradigm changing. "A fresh historical prospective on one of the most profiled companies in the world...[ Shoe Dog ] builds characters of the people behind the brand, many of whom we've never heard of." As Knight collects the misfits and oddballs who become the core of his growing company, Shoe Dog is more like The Lord of the Rings than a typical mogul memoir." As a business biography, it ranks with such recent works as Neal Gabler’s Disney and Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs . But as a personal memoir Shoe Dog reaches a depth of emotional honesty that even the best biographies haven’t touched." “A fascinating warts and all account of the company’s early years, a rascally tale of scrappiness and survival, a great read .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"To put it bluntly, they are “crap between covers.” There are very few business memoirs that are even good, since most of them make the person writing the memoir seem like a business savant who always knew the right answers and knew things would come out right. Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog: A Memoir by The Creator of Nike is a great business memoir. This will be a great read for anybody, but if you’re thinking about starting a business, especially a business that you expect to grow, this book belongs on your must-read list. If you start a business and that business starts to grow, you are funding the process out ahead of your cash flow. But if you’re in business, and especially if you’re starting a business and wanting to make it grow, this book should be on your must-read list. If you want some seasoned advice to help you run and grow your company, or if you just want to read a great business memoir, pick up a copy of Shoe Dog: A Memoir by The Creator of Nike."
"The author also demonstrates the importance of creative individuals to a organization, perseverance of management, and the importance of having a passionate knowledge of the product as well as market contacts with which to ensure growth."
"The last chapter sums everything together and is beautifully descriptive as it bridges and incorporates the old and new, the people who made the biggest impact to NIKE and what they are doing now.."
"Phil Knight tells his story and the story of Nike’s rise – from his earliest travels to Japan, to the company’s first stirrings in 1972 to its IPO in 1980."
"Phil Knight is an amazing CEO and he shares his many challenges and credits his crew for his many successes."
"This is a must read for any aspiring entrepreneur, not because of any technical content, but because Knight's outlook on life and business is so refreshing."
Best Sailing
If you are not rich, but dream of seeing our beautiful world from the deck of your own boat, this book is packed full of practical and spiritual advice to help you cut through the endless marketing and identify what it is you truly need to become a modern sea gypsy and sail away on the greatest adventure of your life…. He became a RYA qualified skipper in 2008 and has lived aboard every day since 2007 when he bought his first boat Marutji – a steel Van de Stadt 34 (pictured on the cover).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Interesting take on considerations made for affordable and comfortable sailboat cruising."
"Reading this book will no doubt prevent many bad purchases or decisions."
"Incredibly brilliant book."
"Even if sailing is not your bailiwick the book is applicable anyone looking for inspiration and advice on how to move forward with experiencing life vice a job."
"Though a little over the top in the beginning, bashing corporate everything, the book settled in to very good and strong information."
"This book is similar to the Fatty Goodlander book "Buy, Outfit, and Sail" but rather than more of the same it was a good complement to the Goodlander book."
"It is amazingly written, full of real info, and extremely funny."
"I think this book has had a bigger impact on my state of mind than books about how to change your state of mind."
Best Curiosities & Wonders
Talk about a bucket list: here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that's so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England. “Fair warning: It's addictive.” — NPR, “Cosmos & Culture” “In this gorgeous collection, the celebrated Atlas Obscura website is condensed into 480 pages of awe-inspiring destinations. “Odds are you won’t get past three pages without being amazed at something truly strange that you didn’t know existed.” — San Francisco Chronicle. “Richly illustrated, delightfully strange, this compendium of off-beat destinations should spark many adventures, both terrestrial and imaginary.” — Boston Globe. “Whether describing a Canadian museum that showcases world history through shoes, a pet-casket company that will also sell you a unit for your severed limb, a Greek snake festival, or a place in the Canary Islands where inhabitants communicate through whistling, the authors have compiled an enthralling range of oddities. Featuring full-color illustrations, this hefty and gorgeously produced tome will be eagerly pored over by readers of many ages and fans of the original website.”— Booklist (Starred Review). a wonderful browse [for] armchair travelers who enjoyed Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York and Frank Warren’s PostSecret .” — Library Journal. It's the kind of book that makes you want to pack in your workaday life and head out to places you'd never have dreamed of going, to see things you could not even have imagined. “ Atlas Obscura is a joyful antidote to the creeping suspicion that travel these days is little more than a homogenized corporate shopping opportunity. Here are hundreds of surprising, perplexing, mind-blowing, inspiring reasons to travel a day longer and farther off the path. Never start a trip without knowing where a haunted hotel or a mouth of hell is!”. —GUILLERMO DEL TORO, filmmaker, Pan’s Labyrinth “ What a strange and wonderful book! Each page reveals some hidden realm—a realm that is frightening, or funny, or magical, or simply mad, but that always leaves the reader in wonder.”. —DAVID GRANN, author of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Be grateful when visiting the Karni Mata Rat Temple if one of the 20,000 venerated rodents runs across your bare foot—it is considered good luck.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Revel in the places that you've seen!"
"I read a short description of the book in the travel section of the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago, and made the purchase based on that. That said, there are items about things I have no interest in seeing, e.g., “Lake Monsters of the USA,” but there don’t seem to be many of that sort of thing included. As with "Lake Monsters," even if you (or a recipient) aren't likely to visit many of the places described, I think for many curious people this would make for an interesting read even without the travel element. It's not a perfect book, and I don't think any one book can be perfect for all readers, but I do think it's very good and I can easily recommend it for anyone who might be potentially interested."
"This book exceeded my already higher-than-average expectations."
"I think she is gonna love this."
"For all who love the obscure in life, this is your book."
"Wonderful book to have on table in living room where everyone can see it."
"WOW!"
"A lot of interesting and informative info."