Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions


Rachel Held Evans - 2010
    Using as an illustration her own spiritual journey from certainty to doubt to faith, Evans challenges you to disentangle your faith from false fundamentals and to trust in a God who is big enough to handle your tough questions.In a changing cultural environment where new ideas seem to threaten the safety and security of the faith, Faith Unraveled is a fearlessly honest story of survival.This book is also available, with this same ISBN entitled "Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions"...with a published date of 2010 by Zondervan...it has the reddish cover, not this cover.

Around Africa on My Bicycle


Riaan Manser - 2007
    He thought it would take him a year - it took him over two. At the end of 2005, he cycled back into Cape Town, 14kg lighter and having covered 36 500 km through thirty-four countries. Intending to use his journey to generate local and international awareness of the often appalling standard of living in Africa, Riaan was also propelled by a strong desire for African adventure, a desire that was inevitably fulfilled. While Riaan's journey allowed him to experience some of the greatest generosity and kindness that he had ever encountered, often from the poorest of the poor, his adventures were also often of a more harrowing kind. In Around Africa on my Bicycle, Riaan allows the reader to relive the toil, excitement and occasional terror of his journey - negotiating the Sahara and Libyan deserts, learning French, Portuguese and Arabic, eating monkey, rat and bat, standing in front of the pyramids, being awarded the freedom of the Red Sea in Egypt, feeding hyenas mouth to mouth, and standing on the highest, as well as at the lowest, points in Africa. Riaan arrived safely in Cape Town on 25 November 2005.

Lost on a Mountain in Maine


Donn Fendler - 1978
    After hours of trying to find his way back, a nervous and tired Donn falls down an embankment, making it impossible for him to be found. One sleepless night goes by, followed by a second . . . and before Donn knows it, almost two weeks have passed, leaving him starving, scared, and delirious.With rainstorms, black bears, and his fear of being lost forever, Donn's journey is a physically, mentally, and emotionally charged story told from the point of view of the boy who lived it.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains


Isabella Lucy Bird - 1879
    In this volume, she paints an intimate picture of the "Wild West," writing eloquently of flora and fauna, isolated settlers and assorted refugees from civilization, vigilance committees and lynchings, and crude table manners yet a gentle civility — even chivalry — among the men she encountered in the wilderness. Thoughtfully written, this captivating narrative provides a vibrant account of a bygone era and the people that forever changed the face of the frontier.

Pedalling to Hawaii: A Human Powered Adventure


Stevie Smith - 2004
    One rainy, miserable Monday he resolves to grab life with both hands and embark on an adventure: the first entirely human-powered journey around the world. Although he had never been on an expedition of any kind and had no money, Stevie and his friend Jason dreamed up a voyage that would take them from England to Hawaii by bicycle, inline skates and ocean-going pedal boat. For 111 days, they pedalled 7,500 kilometers across the Atlantic, and then crossed the United States to take on the challenge of the Pacific. Pedalling to Hawaii is hilarious, entertaining and refreshingly non-heroic, packed with thrills and spills as the intrepid and sometimes blundering duo make their way around the world. It is also a meditative account of a search for simplicity and integrity.

Stumbling Thru: Hike Your Own Hike


A. Digger Stolz - 2013
    This novel follows Walter, a sad-sack schlump of a protagonist, as he sets out to hike the Appalachian Trail against his will.

No Sense of Direction


Eric Raff - 2001
    With a sharp eye for detail and a keen sense of humor, Eric Raff recounts what its like to hit the road with no plan and no destination.If you've ever thought of giving it all up to take off and travel, No Sense of Direction might just give you the incentive to do it.

My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future


Indra Nooyi - 2021
    The first woman of color and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company -- and one of the foremost strategic thinkers of our time -- she transformed PepsiCo with a unique vision, a vigorous pursuit of excellence, and a deep sense of purpose. Now, in a rich memoir brimming with grace, grit, and good humor, My Life in Full offers a firsthand view of Nooyi's legendary career and the sacrifices it so often demanded.Nooyi takes us through the events that shaped her, from her childhood and early education in 1960s India, to the Yale School of Management, to her rise as a corporate consultant and strategist who soon ascended into the most senior executive ranks. The book offers an inside look at PepsiCo, and Nooyi's thinking as she steered the iconic American company toward healthier products and reinvented its environmental profile, despite resistance at every turn.For the first time and in raw detail, Nooyi also lays bare the difficulties that came with managing her demanding job with a growing family, and what she learned along the way. She makes a clear, actionable, urgent call for business and government to prioritize the care ecosystem, paid leave and work flexibility, and a convincing argument for how improving company and community support for young family builders will unleash the economy's full potential.Generous, authoritative, and grounded in lived experience, My Life in Full is the story of an extraordinary leader's life, a moving tribute to the relationships that created it, and a blueprint for 21st century prosperity.

This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone


Melissa Coleman - 2011
    Melissa Coleman doesn’t just tell the story of her family’s brave experiment and private tragedy; she brings to life an important and underappreciated chapter of our recent history.” —Tom Perrotta In a work of power and beauty reminiscent of Tobias Wolff, Jeannette Walls, and Dave Eggers, Melissa Coleman delivers a luminous, evocative childhood memoir exploring the hope and struggle behind her family's search for a sustainable lifestyle. With echoes of The Liars’ Club and Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Coleman’s searing chronicle tells the true story of her upbringing on communes and sustainable farms along the rugged Maine coastline in the 1970’s, embedded within a moving, personal quest for truth that her experiences produced.

Just Passin' Thru: A Vintage Store, the Appalachian Trail, and a Cast of Unforgettable Characters


Winton Porter - 2009
    But in this historic setting — a store on the Appalachian Trail called Mountain Crossings — the characters who show up are no fictional creations. They are the real-life stars of the author’s new life as a backpack-purging, canteen-selling, hostel-running, bandage-taping, lost-child finding, argument-settling, romance-fixing, chili-making man of many faces. Like any good drama, there are the good guys (and gals) and the weirdos, too. Some show up once (and that’s enough), and some appear again and again. Some are friends, and some dangerous. But all are united by two things: the author’s story-capturing talent, and whatever it is that lures them to attempt (or conquer) a 2,200-mile path that climbs and plummets from Georgia to Maine.

Operation Ironman: One Man's Four Month Journey from Hospital Bed to Ironman Triathlon


George Mahood - 2015
    After major surgery to remove a spinal cord tumour, George set himself the ultimate challenge – a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run, all to be completed within 16 hours. He couldn’t swim more than a length of front crawl, he had never ridden a proper road bike, and he had not run further than 10k in 18 months. He had four months to prepare. Could he do it?

I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail


Gail D. Storey - 2013
    Storey and her husband were in their fifties when they decided it was time to test themselves on a new path—a 2,663-mile path known as the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from Mexico to Canada. I Promise Not to Suffer is Gail's light-hearted yet heart-felt memoir about her and her husband's adventures and misadventures, deepening marriage, and reflections on being irrevocably changed by life on the trail. She was a novice hiker, while he was an experienced outdoorsman. Removed from their usual routines and living outside in the wilderness for months exposed hidden intricacies in their relationship. Hiking 20 miles a day over mountains, thirsting in the high desert of California, forcing frozen feet into icy socks and boots each morning in the High Sierra, stumbling through lava fields in Oregon—Gail was required to meet the elements on their own tough-love terms. From an encounter with a mountain lion to her mother's battle with cancer at home, she confronts each challenge with wit and brave style. While a dangerous loss of weight forces Gail to leave the PCT after 900 miles, she regains strength and later rejoins her husband on sections until he triumphantly reaches the northern terminus in Canada. Humorous yet honest, this journey of harrowing hilarity and reluctant revelations will be loved by active hikers (appendices include details of their unique ultralight gear and other essential how-to information), fans of female adventure stories, and armchair travelers alike.

The Curve of Time: The Classic Memoir of a Woman and Her Children Who Explored the Coastal Waters of the Pacific Northwest


M. Wylie Blanchet - 1961
    This is the fascinating true adventure story of a woman who packed her five children onto a twenty-five-foot boat and explored the coastal waters of British Columbia summer after summer in the 1920's and 1930's.

Exposed: Confessions of a Wedding Photographer: A Memoir


Claire Lewis - 2008
    Fate led her elsewhere. And while she might not be on assignment for The New York Times, her current job carries its own dangers: Claire is a wedding photographer. Her world is populated by stressed-out brides and the mothers who reared them, grooms who seduce bridesmaids, brides who change their minds, pass out, or dance on tables in tiaras, and the occasional couple who are truly in love. If you told Claire that you thought being a wedding photographer was glamorous, chances are she'd laugh and give you a list of reasons why it is not glamorous. What it is is unpredictable, funny, demanding, moving, and full of spontaneous moments that cause one to question the nature of love and relationships. As Claire says, it's all that and it's never dull. What more could you ask for?Told with great wit and exuberance, this memoir is a hilarious and touching account of one woman's adventures in a career that she never saw herself in, and of how she braved those waters while also managing to fall in love and have a wedding of her own. A delightful, insightful read, Exposed: Confessions of a Wedding Photographer will make you see weddings in a whole new light.

Travels With Myself and Another


Martha Gellhorn - 1979
    As a journalist, Gellhorn covered every military conflict from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua. She also bewitched Eleanor Roosevelt's secret love and enraptured Ernest Hemingway with her courage as they dodged shell fire together.Hemingway is, of course, the unnamed other in the title of this tart memoir, first published in 1979, in which Gellhorn describes her globe-spanning adventures, both accompanied and alone. With razor-sharp humor and exceptional insight into place and character, she tells of a tense week spent among dissidents in Moscow; long days whiled away in a disused water tank with hippies clustered at Eilat on the Red Sea; and her journeys by sampan and horse to the interior of China during the Sino-Japanese War.