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  Inland Voyage An

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  As a young man, Stevenson wished to be financially independent and began his literary career by writing travelogues. This is his first published work, written at a time when travel for pleasure was still a rarity. He and a friend traveled by canoe through France and Belgium and he relates how they were thrown in jail, mistaken for traveling salesmen and became embroiled in gypsy life. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

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  Digging for the Truth - One...

  Josh Bernstein

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  Digging For the Truth: A Real-Life Adventurer Explores the World's Greatest Ancient MysteriesJosh Bernstein, host of The History Channel's hit series Digging for The Truth, takes readers beyond the cameras for an even closer look at his adventures through some of the most intriguing, remote, and physically challenging locations on the planet as he explores the world's greatest ancient mysteries. No location is too dangerous, no terrain too rough, no culture too exotic for explorer and survival expert Josh Bernstein. With his unique hands-on approach, he travels the globe, seeking answers to some of the most enigmatic mysteries of the ancient world. Digging for the Truth shares Josh's personal stories, journals, and insights, revealing the risks and dangers of what went on behind the scenes in shooting the show, and the fascinating details about what he uncovers along each adventure. Readers are right in the action as he:Discovers who built Egypt's pyramids and learns what secrets may be buried below the Sphinx.Follows the trail of the Lost Ark of the Covenant to the remote monasteries and churches of Ethiopia.Explores the journey of a potential Lost Tribe of Israel and examines DNA evidence that could make or break their claim.Visits the ancient site of Stonehenge, witnesses a Druid ceremony, and learns what purpose the stone circles may have served.Sails a Viking ship on a quest to determine if the Vikings landed in the New World five hundred years before Columbus.Lives with a remote and mostly naked tribe in the Amazon to search for hidden cities and learn the fate of one of the world's great explorers.Listeners will have access to all the inside details that viewers never see-everything from food poisoning and spider bites to the logistical challenges of shooting in some of the most remote places on earth.

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  Turtle Envy - How facing the...

  A. K. Snyder

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  Learn to scuba alongside Alycea, a claustrophobic bubble watcher determined to overcome her anxiety and explore the reefs. 
  After a failed scuba class triggered her panic, Alycea swore never to try diving again. But when her husband fell in love with the sport, she faced a decision: overcome the fear or accept her fate as a bubble watcher. 
  Alycea clung to her identity as a free-spirited explorer as she struggled to master the mechanics of diving. Her focus on self-reliance blocked her from trusting her dive buddy and this conflict extended beyond diving. Was she harming her marriage with her inability to rely on others? 
  In lyrical prose, this journey is fraught with panic, humor, and dogged determination. From the coral reefs of Florida to the muck sites of Indonesia, you'll revel in the beautiful scenery and triumph in overcoming fear so you can live the life you choose. 
  This memoir will have you cheering for small successes and reflecting on what it means to trust your partner.

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  Ghost Wave - The Discovery of...

  Chris Dixon

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  “Takes us to a place of almost mythic power and tells a story that unfolds like a long ride on a killer wave . . . compellingly written.” —Sebastian Junger, New York Times–bestselling author 
   
  Rising from the depths of the North Pacific lies a fabled island, now submerged just fifteen feet below the surface of the ocean. Rumors and warnings about Cortes Bank abound, but among big wave surfers, this legendary rock is famous for one simple (and massive) reason: this is the home of the biggest rideable wave on the face of the earth.  
   
  In this dramatic work of narrative nonfiction, journalist Chris Dixon unlocks the secrets of Cortes Bank and pulls readers into the harrowing world of big wave surfing and high seas adventure above the most enigmatic and dangerous rock in the sea. The true story of this Everest of the sea will thrill anyone with an abiding curiosity of and respect for mother ocean. 
   
  “A terrific, deeply researched tale about a truly wild place. You couldn’t make up Cortes Bank, or the characters who’ve tried to make it theirs.” —William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life 
   
  “A first-rate account of an amazing phenomenon and the people who tried to conquer and exploit it. A great read.” —Winston Groom, New York Times–bestselling author of Forrest Gump 
   
  “After reading Chris’ most excellent account of the monstrous waves of the mysterious Cortes Bank—the Bermuda Triangle of the Pacific—I never thought I would ever consider riding a wave like this. But after surviving a five-foot, head-first fall from the stage earlier this year, I think I might be ready.” —Jimmy Buffett

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  Not a Hazardous Sport -...

  Nigel Barley

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  Nigel  Barley travels to Sulawesi in Indonesia to live among the Torajan people, known for their spectacular buildings and elaborate ancestor cults. At last he is following his own advice to students, to do their anthropological fieldwork 'somewhere where the inhabitants are beautiful, friendly, where you would like the food.' Barley explores the island on horseback and in buses jammed to the gunnels, and meets priests faithful to the old animist rituals. With his customary wit, he takes the reader deep into this complex but adaptable society.
  Reversing the habitual patterns of anthropology, Barley then invites four Torajan carvers to London to build a traditional rice barn at the Museum of Mankind. The observer becomes the observed. Now, it is Barley's turn to explain the absurdities of an English city to his bemused guests, in a glorious finale to a trilogy of anthropological journeys that began with The Innocent Anthropologist.

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  Naked at Lunch - A Reluctant...

  Mark Haskell Smith

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  “A delightful and informative look at nudism throughout history and around the world.” —The Seattle Times   People have been getting naked in public for reasons other than sex for centuries. But as Mark Haskell Smith reveals, being a nudist is more complicated than simply dropping trou. “Nonsexual social nudism,” as it’s called, rose to prominence in the late nineteenth century. Intellectuals, outcasts, and health nuts from Victorian England and colonial India to Belle Époque France and Gilded Age Manhattan disrobed and wrote manifestos about the joys of going clothing-free. From stories of ancient Greek athletes slathered in olive oil to the millions of Germans who fled the cities for a naked frolic during the Weimar Republic to American soldiers given “naturist” magazines by the Pentagon in the interest of preventing sexually transmitted diseases, this book uncovers nudism’s amusing and provocative past.   Coated in multiple layers of high SPF sunblock, Haskell Smith publicly disrobes for the first time in Palm Springs; observes the culture of family nudism in a clothing-free Spanish town; and travels to the largest nudist resort in the world, a hedonist’s paradise in the south of France. He reports on San Francisco’s controversial ban on public nudity, participates in a week of naked hiking in the Austrian Alps, and caps off his adventures with a week on a Caribbean cruise known as the Big Nude Boat.   Equal parts cultural history and gonzo participatory journalism, Naked at Lunch is “an absolute hoot” (Los Angeles Magazine) and “a total joy” (Meghan Daum).   “Smith puts on his reporter’s hat and takes off everything else as he explores the history and sociology of nudism.” —Los Angeles Times

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