Books » Travel Biographies & Memoirs

In less than a year, Neil Peart lost both his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, and his wife, Jackie. Faced with overwhelming sadness and isolated from the world in his home on the lake, Peart was left without direction. This memoir tells of the sense of loss and directionlessness that led him on a 55,000-mile journey by motorcycle across much of North America, down through Mexico to Belize, and back again. He had needed to get away, but had not really needed a destination. His travel adventures chronicle his personal odyssey and include stories of reuniting with friends and family, grieving, thinking, and reminiscing as he rode until he encountered the miracle that allowed him to find peace.

For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock 'n' roll all the way. Within the span of twenty-one days, Chuck had three relationships end -- one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a half-mile through a bean field. A man in Dickinson, North Dakota, explained to him why we have fewer windmills than we used to. He listened to the KISS solo albums and the Rod Stewart box set. At one point, poisonous snakes became involved. The road is hard. From the Chelsea Hotel to the swampland where Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane went down to the site where Kurt Cobain blew his head off, Chuck explored every brand of rock star demise. He wanted to know why the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing...and what this means for the rest of us.

In this compelling biography of the infamous author of "A Season in Hell", Nicholl pieces together the story of Rimbaud's life when he turned his back on poetry, France, and fame for a life of wandering in East Africa. 38 halftones.

After the author retired, he and his wife spent two years with the U.S. Peace Corps in the "Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho." While there, he discovered things about himself, America, the Third World, and foreign aid that made him rethink previous beliefs. 24 New Moons recounts the experience. It's not a tale of swash-buckling adventure because day-to-day living doesn't soar to that level, but it is a story of discovery and insight.

How do the places we live in and visit shape our lives and memories? What does it mean to reside in different locations across the span of a life? In richly textured portraits of places seen from within, Nicholas Howe contemplates how places create and gather their stories and how, in turn, a sense of place locates the stories of our own lives.

Howe begins with one of the finest descriptions ever written of Buffalo, that city on an inland sea where he grew up. He gives us a fresh Paris, viewed from the river below. And he depicts Oklahoma as a site of open lands and dislocation--a place of coming and going. Howe then turns to Chartres, a traditional location of pilgrimage, to ask what other sites might still be capable of compelling visitors in secular time. He portrays Berlin as a scene of twentieth-century history--and a city that helped him make sense of his American life. Finally, he writes about Columbus, Ohio, as home. Vividly rendering the places he has known, Howe meditates on the weight of home, the temptations of the metropolis, the fact of dislocation, the unraveling of history, the desire to remake ourselves through voyage, and the wonder of the familiar.

In ways that too often elude travel writers, it is place that holds our imagination, that inspires much of our art and literature. Across an Inland Sea evokes the various senses of place that can fill and haunt a life--and ultimately give life its form and meaning.

This non-fictional narrative is the story of three brothers, Carlos, Jorge and Jose Sievert y Barriere, who in the late 19th century made the courageous decision to leave their home in Cadiz, Spain, for the Philippine Islands, the last of Spain's colonial possessions, in search of a more rewarding life. The new immigrants learned about their adopted country's turbulent past, affecting both Christian and Muslim natives, and its cultural and economic transformation from Andres Reyes, a successful abaca trader, born and raised on the Visayan island of Samar.

One of the popular works written by the well-known doctor, Wilfred T. Grenfell. Sir Wilfred Grenfell is a legend in Newfoundland and Labrador. He arrived from England in 1892 to investigate the lives of the people who fished on "the Labrador." He found poverty and destitution, and decided to change it. Through his tireless efforts - fund raising, building hospitals, nursing stations, schools, and more - Dr. Grenfell enriched the lives of thousands of people.

Twenty-two and a World War II widow, Dorothy Estermann resolved to build a new life. It was 1944 and she was working as a secretary for the Commonwealth Edison Company. Joining a tour group that was traveling to Mexico seemed like a good start. It was DorothyÂ's first trip outside the U.S., and as it would turn out, the beginning of a lifetime of travel and adventure.

In the years that followed, Dorothy explored the western U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. She traveled to New York and revisited Mexico. In 1948, she took the big step of leaving her hometown of Chicago and moving to Los Angeles, California. Then, in 1950, Dorothy accepted a job in Germany with the Army of Occupation.

Young and abroad, Dorothy explored Europe on weekends and during vacations. Soon she met a tour guide and married. From then on, travel was a way of life. During their 46 years together, Dorothy and her husband, John, lived mostly in Switzerland, and traveled through Europe, the U.S., Mexico and Asia.

Dorothy describes her travels in An Adventure Called Life. It is the story of an independent woman who followed her heart and never looked back; whose adventurous spirit sought and found a rich and full life. This book is memorable not only for the sheer number of places Dorothy visited, but also for her courageÂ-few women of her time would have taken this path and pursued it with such enthusiasm.

Over 175 years ago George Catlin, American painter, writer and explorer, realized that the white settlers would eventually destroy the native cultures of North America. Devoting his life to preserving the Indian heritage, he traveled throughout the West sketching and painting hundreds of Indian portraits, village scenes, religious rituals and games. Eager to preserve the vanishing tribes and customs of the Native Americans through his art, his encounters with these fascinating people resulted in the book, The North American Indians, a collection of his letters with over 400 illustrations. Catlin toured Europe for eight years presenting his famous collection of portraits and sketches. As a result of this tour, Catlin published ADVENTURES OF THE OJIBBEWAY AND IOWAY INDIANS concentrating on these two intriguing tribes in this two-volume set.

Adventures Within is the true story of Joe Vitale's twenty-yearadventure through various gurus, seminars and unusual events while he worked asan journalist for numerous alternative magazines. This inspiring and informativebook is part autobiography, adventure story, self-help book and teachingtale. It was originally written over 15 years ago but published for the firsttime today. You'll discover firewalking, belief clearing, astral sex,controversial gurus, outspoken leaders, miracle makers, and other wild andsometimes shocking events. Written by Dr. Joe 'Mr. Fire!' Vitale,author of the global best-sellers Spiritual Marketing and The Greatest Money-MakingSecret of All Time!, among numerous other books.