travel

A collection of short-form travel writing features William Least Heat-Moon's observations on locations ranging from Japan, England, and Italy to Long Island, Oregon, and Arizona.

Felicity Aston, physicist and meteorologist, took two months off from all human contact as she became the first woman -- and only the third person in history - to ski across the entire continent of Antarctica alone. She did it with the simple apparatus of cross-country, without the aids used by her prededecessors - two Norwegian men -- each of whom employed either parasails or kites. Aston's journey across the ice at the bottom of the world asked of her the extremes in terms of mental and physical bravery, as she faced the risks of hypothermia and unseen cracks buried in the snow so large they might engulf her. She had to deal with her emotional vulnerability in face of the constant bombardment of hallucinations, brought on by the vast sea of whiteness which caused the lack of stimulation to her senses, as she faced what is tantamount to a form of solitary confinement.

The story of a young man who rediscovers not only his childhood life and home...but an identity long-since left behind.

On November 21, 1961, Michael C. Rockefeller, the twenty-three year old son of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, vanished off the coast of southwest New Guinea when his catamaran capsized while crossing a turbulent river mouth. He was on an expedition to collect art for the Museum of Primitive Art, which his father founded in 1957. Michael's expedition partner stayed with the capsized boat and was rescued. Michael did not, instead choosing to swim for help. His last words were "I think I can make it". But he did not. For fifty-plus years, Michael's fate remained unknown. The official verdict was that he drowned. But rumors circulated that he had made it to shore and then was killed and eaten by the Asmat, a native tribe of warriors whose complex culture was built around sacred, reciprocal violence, headhunting, and ritual cannibalism.

Combines an account of Robert Louis Stevenson's experiences as he traveled from New York to California by train in 1879 and a description of the building and operation of railroads in nineteenth-century America.

In this memoir, former teacher David Menasche, blind and having mobility and vision issues from cancer, recorded his travel across the United States visiting old students.

Michael Ghiglieri writes of his seventeen years as a professional river guide in the Grand Canyon.

Navigating between human and natural history and between science and myth, chronicles the author's journey through the oceans to rediscover the sea and its islands, birds, and beasts, and to seek encounters with animals and people.

Elizabeth Gilbert recounts the experiences she had on her year-long journey around the world, and shares how her trip helped her deal with her divorce and the depression that threatened to end her career and her happiness.