Other books that might interest you

• 

  Young Americans Abroad

  John Overton Choules

  • 1
  • 0
  • 0

  It’s 1851 and the Crystal Palace Exhibition is on in England. English American the Reverend Dr. Choules leaves Newport, Rhode Island with three teenaged students - James Robinson, George Vanderbuilt, and Weld French, who are forced to leave the fourth member of their blue-blooded quartet at home - and all four travelers promise to write to “Dear Charley”, Charles Duston, of later fame. The boys meet the Duke of Wellington, travel down the Rhine, and meet many friends along the way. While the letters are filled with some prejudice against the Catholic religion, they are a product of their time - a sometimes ignorant, but often dazzling, period of our history. (Summary by Sibella Denton)

  Show book

• 

  Spirit Traffic - A Mother's...

  C. Jane Taylor

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Spirit Traffic recounts how, at the age of 50, the author learned to ride a motorcycle, overcame the terror of navigating her steep dirt driveway in Vermont, and, three days after her son’s college graduation, set off with him and her yoga-teacher husband (his stepdad) on a 10,000-mile two-wheel adventure that took them all into uncharted territory—both as novice riders, and as a family. As if in the saddle of her dual-sport BMW, the reader will experience the good, the bad, and the heartbreak of her journey as a soon-to-be-empty-nester grappling with impermanence, sexuality, hot flashes, high winds, and tailgating tour buses.  
  Spirit Traffic is at once a colorful travelogue of a bucket-list bikers’ route across America and an unflinching memoir of a middle-aged mom conquering her fears (on and off the bike), unpacking a complicated childhood with an addict father and stoic mother, and ultimately, learning to let go of her only child. (Think Blue Highways meets Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance meets Operating Instructions meets Wild.) 
  With its first-person accounts of legendary rides such as the Burr Trail, Hell’s Backbone Road, and the Pacific Coast Highway, Spirit Traffic will find a ready audience among bikers. But as a midlife memoir, Spirit Traffic will also resonate for anyone who is navigating the departure of a child, negotiating the dynamic tensions of family, or simply yearning for life’s next adventure.

  Show book

• 

  The Tombstone Express -...

  Steve Edwards

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The public thinks he’s a motorcycle cop, but he’s a civilian, and an inexperienced rider at that. This new job as a police motorcycle escort for funeral processions is the best job he’s ever had, affording him respect and dignity that has so far eluded him. But can he make ends meet, pursuing his interest in bikes and cemeteries, leading to a better life? A colorful cast of characters help and hinder in his struggle to find meaning as they deliver the hearse and the deceased on its final journey to the grave. With constant reflections on mortality and a distinct sense of humor, Edwards tells his story with unflinching honesty and insight.

  Show book

• 

  On Fiji Islands

  Ronald Wright

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In little more than a century, Fiji islanders have made the transition from cannibalism to Christianity, from colony to flourishing self-government, without losing their own culture. As Ronald Wright observes, societies that do not eat people are fascinated by those that did, and often used this fact as an excuse to conquer, kill and enslave. Touring cities bustling with Indian merchants, quiet Fijian villages and taking part in communal ceremonies, he attributes the remarkable independence of Fiji to the fact that the indigenous social structure remains intact and eighty-three per cent of the land remains in local hands. Wright tells their story with wit and evident pleasure.

  Show book

• 

  Surviving the City

  Cai Lonergan

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A compilation of strategies and hard-earned lessons to ease any English teacher or traveler into life in a Chinese city, as well as a few stories that reveal the nature of the beast. There are so many things to understand about Chinese cities and their different cultures, and this book is meant to focus on encouraging travelers to enjoy all of the benefits of living in China, even those that come in disguise. 
  From language to travel advice to price points, the traveler to China will learn all about surviving the city.

  Show book

• 

  The Ukimwi Road - from Kenya to...

  Dervla Murphy

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Allowing herself several months to unwind, Dervla Murphy, at sixty, set off on a three-thousand-mile bike ride from Kenya to Zimbabwe via Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. She soon realized that, for travellers in search of tranquillity, Africa is best avoided. Beguiled by the loquacious people she met, she was nevertheless preoccupied by their immense hardships: the devastating effects of AIDS (or ukimwi as it's called in Swahili); drought and economic collapse; scepticism about Western aid schemes; and corruption and incompetence. During her journey, Murphy was sustained by her extraordinary thirst for adventure. Despite being beaten by paramilitaries, and having to endure starvation and a bout of malaria, her deeply personal, compassionate and often humorous description of East Africa and its peoples is high-spirited and hugely compelling.

  Show book