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Natural Born Heroes: Mastering the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance
By Christopher Mcdougall. 2016
The best-selling author of Born to Run now travels to the Mediterranean, where he discovers that the secrets of ancient…
Greek heroes are still alive and well on the island of Crete, and ready to be unleashed in the muscles and minds of casual athletes and aspiring heroes everywhere. After running an ultramarathon through the Copper Canyons of Mexico, Christopher McDougall finds his next great adventure on the razor-sharp mountains of Crete, where a band of Resistance fighters in World War II plotted the daring abduction of a German general from the heart of the Nazi occupation. How did a penniless artist, a young shepherd, and a playboy poet believe they could carry out such a remarkable feat of strength and endurance, smuggling the general past thousands of Nazi pursuers, with little more than their own wits and courage to guide them? McDougall makes his way to the island to find the answer and retrace their steps, experiencing firsthand the extreme physical challenges the Resistance fighters and their local allies faced. On Crete, the birthplace of the classical Greek heroism that spawned the likes of Herakles and Odysseus, McDougall discovers the tools of the hero--natural movement, extraordinary endurance, and efficient nutrition. All of these skills, McDougall learns, are still practiced in far-flung pockets throughout the world today. More than a mystery of remarkable people and cunning schemes, Natural Born Heroes is a fascinating investigation into the lost art of the hero, taking us from the streets of London at midnight to the beaches of Brazil at dawn, from the mountains of Colorado to McDougall's own backyard in Pennsylvania, all places where modern-day athletes are honing ancient skills so they're ready for anything. Just as Born to Run inspired readers to get off the treadmill, out of their shoes, and into the natural world, Natural Born Heroes will inspire them to leave the gym and take their fitness routine to nature--to climb, swim, skip, throw, and jump their way to their own heroic feats.From the Hardcover edition.The Great Northern Canada Bucket List: One-of-a-Kind Travel Experiences
By Robin Esrock. 2016
Following a car accident in Vancouver, Robin Esrock set off on a worldwide expedition to tick off the many items…
on his personal bucket list. More than one hundred countries later, he realized that missing among his extraordinary adventures was his adopted home: Canada. Welcome to Robin’s acclaimed journey to discover the bucket-list-worthy experiences that define a nation. Travelling across Canada’s vast northern territories, Robin was delighted to find unique adventures for both visitors and locals alike. Through his discovery of nature, culture, history, food, and a few quirky tidbits of Canadiana, Robin's personal quest to tick off the exceptional destinations and activities of the North pack in enough adventure for a lifetime. Accompanied by recommendations, and with bonus content available online, discover one-of-a-kind experiences in Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Categorized by territory, The Great Northern Canada Bucket List will give you a first-hand perspective on: Camping in the High Arctic. Crossing the Northwest Passage. Watching wild beluga whales play at your feet. Tasting muktuk and Arctic char. Dogsledding with a Yukon Quest legend. Flying with Buffalo Air. Swallowing the Sourtoe Cocktail. ... and much more!In the fourth Railroad Semantics collection, Aaron takes you along on an epic train journey through desolate stretches of Wyoming,…
Colorado, and Utah. His personal accounts of train hopping are paired with newspaper clippings, photos, rail yard graffiti, and ephemera to fill in the story. In this volume, Aaron survives encounters with police, railroad workers, and hipsters posing as hobos. He drinks under overpasses, is injured alone in the desert, and even takes a legitimate, ticketed Amtrak ride.No Summit out of Sight: The True Story of the Youngest Person to Climb the Seven Summits
By Jordan Romero, Linda Leblanc. 2014
Jordan Romero climbed Mount Everest at age thirteen--and he didn't stop there. In this inspiring young adult memoir, he tells…
how he achieved such great heights. On May 22, 2010, at the age of thirteen, American teenager Jordan Romero became the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. At fifteen, he became the youngest person to reach the summits of the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. In this energizing memoir for young adults, Jordan, now seventeen, recounts his experience, which started as a spark of an idea at the age of nine and, many years of training and hard work later, turned into a dream come true.Lost on a Mountain in Maine
By Donn Fendler, Joseph Egan. 1978
All he had was hope.When twelve-year-old Donn Fendler gets tired of waiting for his father and brothers to join him…
on the summit of Maine's highest peak, he decides to find his own way back to camp. But Donn doesn't expect a fast-moving fog to obscure his path, knocking him completely off course. He doesn't count on falling down an embankment that hides him from sight. And he never could have imagined taking a wrong turn that leaves him alone to wander aimlessly for nearly two weeks in the empty mountain wilderness.A true and inspiring story about a boy's harrowing journey through nature's unforgiving terrain.To the Ends of the Earth
By Paul Theroux. 1991
"Travel writing at its best."THE HOUSTON POSTAuthor and travel writer Paul Theroux does what no one else can: he travels…
to the isolated, unusual, and fascinating spots of the world, and creates an elegy to them that makes readers feel they are traveling with him. Evocative, breathtaking, intriguing, here is the armchair traveler's guide to the sites of the world he makes us feel we know.From the Paperback edition.Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder?
By Patricia Brennan Demuth. 2013
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, based on her own childhood and later life, are still beloved classics almost a…
century after she began writing them. Now young readers will see just how similar Laura's true-life story was to her books. Born in 1867 in the "Big Woods" in Wisconsin, Laura experienced both the hardship and the adventure of living on the frontier. Her life and times are captured in engaging text and 80 black-and-white illustrations.Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
By William Finnegan. 2015
Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates,…
it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses--off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves. Finnegan shares stories of life in a whitesonly gang in a tough school in Honolulu even while his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly--he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Maui--is served up with rueful humor. He and a buddy, their knapsacks crammed with reef charts, bushwhack through Polynesia. They discover, while camping on an uninhabited island in Fiji, one of the world's greatest waves. As Finnegan's travels take him ever farther afield, he becomes an improbable anthropologist: unpicking the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissecting the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, navigating the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity. Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little understood art. Today, Finnegan's surfing life is undiminished. Frantically juggling work and family, he chases his enchantment through Long Island ice storms and obscure corners of Madagascar. **Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography**In 1912, six months after Robert Falcon Scott and four of his men came to grief in Antarctica, a thirty-two-year-old…
Russian navigator named Valerian Albanov embarked on an expedition that would prove even more disastrous. In search of new Arctic hunting grounds, Albanov's ship, the Saint Anna, was frozen fast in the pack ice of the treacherous Kara Sea-a misfortune grievously compounded by an incompetent commander, the absence of crucial nautical charts, insufficient fuel, and inadequate provisions that left the crew weak and debilitated by scurvy.For nearly a year and a half, the twenty-five men and one woman aboard the Saint Anna endured terrible hardships and danger as the icebound ship drifted helplessly north. Convinced that the Saint Anna would never free herself from the ice, Albanov and thirteen crewmen left the ship in January 1914, hauling makeshift sledges and kayaks behind them across the frozen sea, hoping to reach the distant coast of Franz Josef Land. With only a shockingly inaccurate map to guide him, Albanov led his men on a 235-mile journey of continuous peril, enduring blizzards, disintegrating ice floes, attacks by polar bears and walrus, starvation, sickness, snowblindness, and mutiny. That any of the team survived is a wonder. That Albanov kept a diary of his ninety-day ordeal-a story that Jon Krakauer calls an "astounding, utterly compelling book," and David Roberts calls "as lean and taut as a good thriller"-is nearly miraculous.First published in Russia in 1917, Albanov's narrative is here translated into English for the first time. Haunting, suspenseful, and told with gripping detail, In the Land of White Death can now rightfully take its place among the classic writings of Nansen, Scott, Cherry-Garrard, and Shackleton.The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places
By William Atkins. 2018
In the classic literary tradition of Bruce Chatwin and Geoff Dyer, and for readers of Ryszard Kapuscinski and Rory Stewart,…
a rich and exquisitely written account of travels in eight deserts on five continents that evokes the timeless allure of these remote and forbidding places and their inhabitants.One-third of the earth's land surface is classified as desert. Restless, unhappy in love, and intrigued by the Desert Fathers who forged Christian monasticism in the Egyptian desert, William Atkins decided to travel in six of the world's driest, hottest places: the Empty Quarter of Oman, the Gobi and Taklamakan Desert of northwest China, the Great Victoria Desert of Australia, the man-made desert of the Aral Sea in Kazkahstan, and the Black Rock and Sonoran Deserts of the American Southwest, and Egypt's Eastern Desert. Each of his travel narratives effortlessly weaves aspects of natural history, historical background, and present-day reportage into a compelling tapestry that reveals the human appeal of these often inhuman landscapes.Moon Machu Picchu: With Lima, Cusco & the Inca Trail (Travel Guide)
By Ryan Dub. 2018
Mystical, timeless, and full of adventure: embark on the trip of a lifetime to the jewel of Peru with Moon…
Machu Picchu. Inside you'll find:Strategic trekking guides, including two to four days on the Inca Trail, five days on the Salcantay, and an Inca Jungle Trail itinerary, plus focused coverage of Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and LimaUnique experiences beyond the beaten path: Explore seldom-seen ruins like the Ollantaytambo Temple and visit remote Quechua-speaking villages. Go horseback riding on a caballo de paso in the Sacred Valley, mountain biking to the hilltop fortress of Sacsayhuamán, or set up camp on the riverbank after a day of rafting on the Río Apurímac. Sample coca tea and authentic local delicacies, or shop for handmade Peruvian weavings, pottery, and jewelryEssential planning information on agencies, tour guides, and porters, food and accommodations, packing suggestions, finding the best airfares, and getting around by bus, train, taxi, car, or motorcycle rentalHow to visit Machu Picchu respectfully, with tips on sustainability and helping the local economy, minimizing your impact, and avoiding over-tourism, with insight from Lima resident Ryan DubéA guide to hazards, precautions, and gear, including how to avoid altitude sicknessFull-color photos and detailed maps throughoutThorough background information on the landscape, wildlife, plants, culture, history, and local customs Handy tools including a Spanish phrasebook, visa information, volunteer and study opportunities, and tips for seniors, families with children, visitors with disabilities, women traveling alone, and LGBTQ+ travelersWith Moon Machu Picchu's practical advice and insider know-how, you can forge your own path.Exploring the rest of the country? Try Moon Peru. Doing a tour of South America? Try Moon Colombia or Moon Patagonia.Special ebook features:Easily navigate listings with quick searches, plus website links and zoom-in maps and imagesPersonalize your guide by adding notes and bookmarksMoon USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 59 Parks (Travel Guide)
By Becky Lomax. 2018
They've been dubbed America's best idea for a reason: get inspired, get outdoors, and discover the wild beauty of the…
United States with Moon USA National Parks. Inside you'll find:Coverage of all 59 national parks, from the misty mountains of the east and the redwoods of the west, to the glaciers of Alaska and volcanoes of Hawaii, organized by regionStrategic lists and itineraries: Choose from lists of the best parks for hiking, wildlife, families, and scenic drives, or make your way down the list of the top ten national parks experiences across the countryThe best outdoor adventures in every park, including backpacking, biking, mountain climbing, kayaking, rafting, and more, plus detailed hike descriptions and trail maps marked with distance, duration, effort level, and trailheadsNational parks road trips with driving times and advice for linking multiple parks, interesting stops between them, and nearby attractions and state parksComprehensive planning resources: With detailed maps and transportation tips, you'll have the tools to explore each park or region individually, or visit multiple for an epic national parks tripExpert advice from former park guide Becky Lomax on how to avoid crowds, what time of year to visit, and where to stay inside and outside the parks, from campgrounds to hotelsKnow before you go: Find essential background on climate, terrain, wildlife, history, and safety precautions, plus practical information on park fees, passes, and reservations, including how to obtain and use a National Parks PassGorgeous, full-color photos throughout, plus a handy keepsake section for your national parks stamps and a detachable fold-out poster mapWhether you're trekking to striking vistas, rafting a wild river, or camping under the stars, find your park adventure with Moon USA National Parks.For more in-depth information on a specific park, check out Moon's national parks travel guides.In the tradition of Hidden Figures and The Girls of Atomic City, Code Girls is the amazing true story of…
the young American women who cracked German and Japanese military codes during World War II.More than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II, recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to the nation's capital to learn the top secret art of code breaking. Through their work, the "code girls" helped save countless lives and were vital in ending the war. But due to the top secret nature of their accomplishments, these women have never been able to talk about their story--until now. Through dazzling research and countless interviews with the surviving code girls, Liza Mundy brings their story to life with zeal, grace, and passion. Abridged and adapted for a middle grade audience, Code Girls brings this important story to young readers for the first time, showcasing this vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.Boys can be anything they want to be! This timely book joins and expands the gender-role conversation and gives middle-grade…
boys a welcome alternative message: that masculinity can mean many things. You won't find any stories of slaying dragons or saving princesses here. In Stories for Boys Who Dare to Be Different, author Ben Brooks-with the help of Quinton Wintor's striking full-color illustrations-offers a welcome alternative narrative: one that celebrates introverts and innovators, sensitivity and resilience, individuality and expression. It's an accessible compilation of 75 famous and not-so-famous men from the past to the present day, every single one of them a rule-breaker and stereotype-smasher in his own way. Entries include Frank Ocean, Salvador Dali, Beethoven, Barack Obama, Ai Weiwei, Jesse Owens, and so many more-heroes from all walks of life and from all over the world. A New York Times BestsellerIn 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It…
was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death. In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones, satellite dishes, and electronic positioning systems. A Voyage for Madmen is a tale of sailors driven by their own dreams and demons, of horrific storms in the Southern Ocean, and of those riveting moments when a split-second decision means the difference between life and death.So, How Big Is Earth?
By Amy Tao. 2018
Beliefs about the shape of the earth have varied over the millennia, but the Ancient Greeks were able to observe…
that our planet is round and even Eratosthenes attempted to measure its size. It was not until explorers had fully charted the globe that most people were really able to comprehend its spherical shape.Moon Angkor Wat: With Siem Reap & Phnom Penh (Travel Guide)
By Tom Vater. 2015
The ancient temples at Angkor Wat are unlike anything else on earth. Step back in time and take the trip…
of a lifetime with Moon Angkor Wat. Inside you'll find:Strategic itineraries ranging from one to three days in Angkor to a week exploring the Khmer Empire, with suggestions on the most beautiful (and most secluded) temples to visitTop sights and unique experiences: Explore the sublime forested temple ruins of Angkor, remnants of the ancient Khmer Empire. Marvel at Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world, get up close to Angkor Thom's carved bodhisattva, and wander among nearly 100 monuments deep in the jungle at Koh Ker. Immerse yourself in bustling city of Siem Reap, drink thick sweet coffee and sample barbequed meats from street carts in Phnom Penh, and stroll the colorful markets, quiet streets, and funky art galleries of BattambangTips for the best ways to tour the temples to get the most out of this sacred and awe-inspiring siteFocused advice and historical context from documentarian and journalist Tom VaterEssential insight on trip planning, health and safety, reservations, transportation (by tuk-tuk, taxi, motorbike, or bicycle), and accommodations ranging from hotels to homestays with local familiesFull-color photos and detailed maps throughout In-depth coverage of Siem Reap, Angkor and all its temples, Phnom Penh, and excursions to other parts of Cambodia such as Banteay Chhmar, Sambor Prei Kuk, Preah Khan, Koh Ker, Preah Vihear, and BattambangWith Moon Angkor Wat's practical tips and an insider's view on the best things to do and see, you can plan the trip of a lifetime.Exploring more of Asia? Check out Moon Vietnam or Moon Phuket & Ko Samui. Special ebook features:Easily navigate listings with quick searches, plus website links and zoom-in maps and imagesPersonalize your guide by adding notes and bookmarksTo Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret
By Jedidiah Jenkins. 2018
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. A New York Times BestsellerInto Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents
By Jim Malusa. 2008
With plenty of sunscreen and a cold beer swaddled in his sleeping bag, writer and botanist Jim Malusa bicycled alone…
to the lowest point on each of six continents, a six-year series of "anti-expeditions" to the "anti-summits." His journeys took him to Lake Eyre in the arid heart of Australia, along Moses' route to the Dead Sea, and from Moscow to the Caspian Sea. He pedaled across the Andes to Patagonia, around tiny Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, and from Tucson to Death Valley. With a scientist's eye, he vividly observes local landscapes and creatures. As a lone man, he is overfed by grandmothers, courted by ladies of the night in Volgograd, invited into a mosque by Africa's most feared tribe, chased by sandstorms and hurricanes - yet Malusa keeps riding. His reward: the deep silence of the world's great depressions. A large-hearted narrative of what happens when a friendly, perceptive American puts himself at the mercy of strange landscapes and their denizens, Into Thick Air presents one of the most talented new voices in contemporary travel writing.The Rhine: Following Europe's Greatest River from Amsterdam to the Alps
By Ben Coates. 2018
The Rhine is one of the world's greatest rivers. Once forming the outer frontier of the Roman Empire, it flows…
800 miles from the social democratic playground of the Netherlands, through the industrial and political powerhouses of Germany and France, to the wealthy mountain fortresses of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. For five years, Ben Coates lived alongside a major channel of the river in Rotterdam, crossing it daily, swimming and sailing in its tributaries. In The Rhine, he sets out by bicycle from the Netherlands where it enters the North Sea, following it through Germany, France and Liechtenstein, to where its source in the icy Alps. He explores the impact that the Rhine has had on European culture and history and finds out how influences have flowed along and across the river, shaping the people who live alongside it. Blending travelogue and offbeat history, The Rhine tells the fascinating story of how a great river helped shape a continent.