The Grown-Up's Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad


Rosanne Knorr - 1998
    This second edition of THE GROWN-UP'S GUIDE covers estimating cost-of-living expenses, the dos and don'ts of international health care, the boom in online travel resources, and much more. Whether planning a monthlong escape or a whole new life in another country, this empowering guide will encourage mature would-be expats to pursue the overseas adventure they've been craving.  An accessible primer for midlife adults who long to live or retire in another country, featuring information on choosing a destination, readying finances, working, and keeping the stateside home fires burning. Detailed advice is interspersed with lively and inspiring anecdotes from the author's own adventures, plus interviews with other experienced expats.

St. John Feet, Fins and Four Wheel Drive


Pam Gaffin - 1994
    John, Virgin Islands. It tells you exactly where to go, how to get there, and what to do and see when you arrive. It contains everything you need to know about the St. John's beaches and hiking trails, as well as its confusing system, of roads, foot-paths and goat-trails. Recommended by Caribbean Travel and Life and by many St. Johnians since locals are NOT on vacation and can't always take time off from work to be a tour guide for their guests. Best Selling St John Guidebook since 1994. Updated in 2009.

Misery Obscura: The Photography of Eerie Von (1981-2009)


Eerie Von - 2009
    Beginning as the unofficial photographer for punk legends The Misfits and later taking charge of the bass guitar as a founding member of underground pioneers Samhain and metal gods Danzig, the evil eye of Eerie Von's camera captured the dark heart of rock's most vital and bleeding-edge period, a time when rock and roll was not only dangerous, but downright menacing. Eerie Von's lens has documented everything from The Misfits' humble beginnings in Lodi, New Jersey, to the heights of Danzig's stadium-rock glory alongside metal superstars Metallica. As well as an essential visual document of music history, Eerie's road stories of triumph and damnation bring to life an era the likes of which will never again be seen.

Sea Trials: Around the World with Duct Tape and Bailing Wire


Wendy Hinman - 2017
    Not for the Wilcox family. To triumph, they must rebuild their boat on a remote Pacific island. Damage sustained on the reef and a lack of resources haunt them the rest of the way around the world as they face daunting obstacles, including wild weather, pirates, gun boats, mines and thieves, plus pesky bureaucrats and cockroaches as stubborn as the family. Without a working engine and no way to communicate with the outside world, they struggle to reach home before their broken rig comes crashing down and they run out of food in a trial that tests them to their limits.

I Will Never Forget You: Frida Kahlo and Nickolas Muray


Salomon Grimberg - 2004
    Now back in print by popular demand, the classic volume I Will Never Forget You collects more than 50 striking portraits of Kahlo as we know and love her, wearing traditional costumes, heavy jewelry, and flowers in her hair. Archival letters and photographs that tell the story of Kahlo and Muray's touching relationship accompany these stunning plates and make for a truly unique celebration of one of the 20th century's most beloved artists.

Off the Tourist Trail: 1,000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives


Sadie Smith - 2009
    It takes a hundred clichéd tourist destinations - everything from over-visited national parks to overrated museums - and reveal 1,000 fresh and fascinating alternative options. Written by a team of travel experts, and with a foreword by Bill Bryson, this book brings vibrant cities, enchanting sights, breathtaking natural wonders and unforgettable experiences to life with informative narrative and stunning photography. Choose your destination by theme - Ancient and Historical Sights, Festivals and Parties, Great Journeys, Architectural Marvels, Natural Wonders, Beaches, Sports and Activities, Art and Culture, and Cities - or simply flick through this sumptuous guide and be inspired. Practical advice on getting there and around, where to stay, where to eat and when to go, as well as useful 'Need to Know' facts, ensure that you get the most out of your time away. Less crowded, generally less expensive, and often more spectacular and rewarding, these lesser-known wonders of the world encourage readers to ditch the famous but well-worn choices, reminding them what real travel is all about - escaping the everyday and embracing the new. Vacations will never be the same again.

Cocaine + Surfing: A Sordid History of Surfing's Greatest Love Affair


Chas Smith - 2018
    The 1960–70s image, bolstered by Tom Wolfe and Big Wednesday, was one of mild outlaws―tanned boys refusing to grow up, spending their days drinking beer and smoking joints on the beach in between mindless hours in the water.But in the 1980s, as surf brands morphed into multibillion-dollar companies, the derelict portrait began to harm business. The external surf image became Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton, beacons of health, vitality, bravery, and clean-living.Internally, though, surfing had moved on from booze and weed to its heart’s true home, its soul’s twin flame: cocaine. The rise of cocaine in American popular culture as the choice of rich, white elites was matched, then quadrupled, within surf culture. The parties got wilder, the nights stretched longer, the stories became more ridiculously unbelievable. And there has been no stopping, no dip in passion.It is a forbidden love, and few, if any, outside the surf world know about this particular rhapsody. Drug use is kept very well-hidden, even from insiders, but evidence of its psychosis rears its head from time to time in the form of overdoses, bar fights, surf contests, murders, and cover-ups.Cocaine + Surfing draws back the curtain on a hopped-up, sometimes-sexy, sometimes-deadly relationship and uses cocaine as the vehicle to expose and explain the utterly absurd surf industry to outsiders.

Dame Traveler: Live the Spirit of Adventure


Nastasia Yakoub - 2020
     From backpackers in Peru to artists in Berlin to storytellers in Morocco, Dame Traveler celebrates the diversity and bravery of women from around the world who are not afraid to think (and live) outside the box.The revolutionary Dame Traveler Instagram account was founded by Nastasia Yakoub, who was born into a strict Chaldean-Middle Eastern community where women are expected to marry young and put aside other personal ambitions. But at the age of twenty, Nastasia embarked on a solo trip to South Africa to volunteer at an orphanage in Cape Town, which sparked a love of world travel. Recognizing a void in the travel industry, she founded Dame Traveler, the first female travel community on Instagram, now more than half a million strong. Nastasia herself has traveled to sixty-three countries on solo adventures, sharing colorful photos of her tantalizing travels along the way.Dame Traveler celebrates these women with a photographic collection of 200 stunning images paired with inspiring captions, 80% of which have never been seen on the Instagram account. Organized into sections on architecture, culture, nature, and water, each entry features travel information, plus tips, advice, unique solo-travel experiences, and wisdom from contributing globe-trotters to embolden the next generation of Dame Travelers.

Niagara


Alec Soth - 2006
    And as with his photographs of the Mississippi, these images are less about natural wonder than human desire. "I went to Niagara for the same reason as the honeymooners and suicide jumpers," says Soth, "the relentless thunder of the Falls just calls for big passion." The subject may be hot, but the pictures are quiet, the rigorously composed and richly detailed products of a large-format 8x10 camera. Working over the course of two years on both the American and Canadian sides of the Falls, Soth edited the results of his labors down to a tight and surprising album. He depicts newlyweds and naked lovers, motel parking lots, pawnshop wedding rings and love letters from the subjects he photographed. We read about teenage crushes, workplace affairs, heartbreak and suicide. Oscar Wilde wrote, "The sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life." Niagara brings viewers both the passion and the disappointment--a remarkable portrayal of modern love and its aftermath.

Himalaya: Adventures, Meditations, Life


Ruskin Bond - 2016
    Others find refuge and tranquility in the mountains, a place where they can seek their selves, perhaps even God. And over millennia, the mountains have cradled civilization itself and nurtured teeming, irrepressible life.With over fifty essays, this comprehensive volume brings together a dazzling range of voices—among others, Fa-Hsien, Pundit Nain Singh, Heinrich Harrer, Fanny Parkes, Dharamvir Bharati, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Rahul Sankrityayan, Amitav Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru, Frank Smythe, Paul Brunton, Edmund Hillary, Mark Twain, Sarat Chandra Das, Dom Moraes, Manjushree Thapa—and the two editors themselves—in an unparalleled panorama.Here you will find stories of great ascents and descents; The madness of war on the ‘world’s highest battlefield’; Tales of exploratory derring-do in Tibet and elsewhere; A drunken jaunt in Kumaon and even the probable sighting of an 'Abominable Snowman in the Valley of Flowers'. A seeker has an intense spiritual experience on Mount Kailas, another among shamans on a mountaintop in Nepal and looking for the snow leopard in Ladakh, an author finds himself. A resident of a Sherpa village writes a heartfelt account of the aftermath of an avalanche which killed porters and climbers on Everest and residents of Langtang record an oral history of the earthquake which wiped out their village. A matriarch describes her life and family in Almora of a bygone time; A prisoner in Dehra Dun jail draws solace from visits by birds and small animals and the fragrance of lime makes a traveler's night in a remote Garhwal village memorable for all time.Edited by Ruskin Bond, India’s most-loved writer and acclaimed novelist Namita Gokhale, this anthology spans the entire range, from the foothills to the highest peaks and from its easternmost to its westernmost ends. Himalaya will keep you riveted.

Key West: History of an Island of Dreams


Maureen Ogle - 2006
    The city’s real story—told by Maureen Ogle in this lively and engaging illustrated account—is as fabulous as fiction. In the two centuries since the city’s pioneer founders battled Indians, pirates, and deadly disease, Key West has stood at the crossroads of American history. In 1861, Union troops seized control of strategically located Key West. In the early 1890s, Key West Cubans helped José Martí launch the Cuban revolution, and a few years later the battleship Maine steamed out of Key West harbor on its last, tragic voyage. At the turn of the century, a technological marvel—the overseas railroad—was built to connect mainland Florida to Key West, and in the 1920s and 1930s, painters, rumrunners, and writers (including Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost) discovered Key West. During World War II, the federal government and the military war machine permanently altered the island’s landscape, and in the second half of the 20th century, bohemians, hippies, gays, and jet-setters began writing a new chapter in Key West’s social history.

Inside the Vatican


Bart McDowell - 1991
    Bart McDowell takes readers through centuries of Vatican history, describing the days of the Roman Empire, the glorious years of the Renaissance, the power struggle between Church and State that endured from the late 7th century until 1929, and much more. Since the center of the Roman Catholic Church is also the world's smallest nation, McDowell explains religious matters, such as the process of canonization, and governmental operations of the Vatican-highlighted by a visit with Pope John Paul II as he attends to his many daily duties. Photographer James L. Stanfield spent nearly a year inside the Vatican with unprecedented access to its museums, ceremonies, and people. His full-color photographs show art that few visitors to the Vatican have the chance to see-works of such masters as Michelangelo and Raphael-and provide private viewings of Pope John Paul II's quarters, the necropolis beneath St. Peter's Basilica, and world-renowned libraries. Through these beautiful and exclusive photographs and the revealing text that accompanies them, Inside the Vatican celebrates a small, dynamic community unique in the world.

Simply Beautiful Photographs


Annie Griffiths - 2010
    Award-winning photographer Annie Griffiths culled the images to reflect the many variations on the universal theme of beauty. Chapters are organized around the aesthetic concepts that create beauty in a photograph: Light, Composition, Moment (Gesture and Emotion), Motion, Palette, and Wonder.Beyond the introduction and brief essays about each featured concept, the text is light. The photographs speak for themselves, enhanced by lyrical quotes from scholars and poets. In the chapter on Light, for example, we read these words of whimsical wisdom from songwriter Leonard Cohen: "Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the lights get in." And then the images flow, of light entering scenes via windows, clouds, and spotlights, from above, alongside, and behind, casting radiance upon young ballerinas and weathered men, into groves of autumn trees and island-dotted seas, revealing everything it touches to be beautiful beyond expectation.To illuminate the theme of Wonder, Griffiths chose a wish from Andre Bazin: "If I had influence with the good fairy...I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life." This thought is juxtaposed with an exquisite vision in white, a frame filled with the snowy-pure dots and rays of a bird's fan tail. And on it goes, picture after tantalizing picture, alive with wondrous beauty.When she created National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs, Annie Griffiths set two goals: to maximize visual delight, and to create a book unique in the world of publishing--one in which many of the photographs could be purchased as prints. She has succeeded on both counts. Many of these stunning images are available for order, and there can be no doubt as to the visual delight. You must open this book for yourself, and take in its radiant beauty.

My Father's Island: A Galapagos Quest (Pelican Press)


Johanna Angermeyer - 1990
    Like her father, she came to love the Galapagos and to dream of having a life there. Her experience was filled with the perils and incomparable pleasures of living on the Galapagos.

The Woman Who Fell from the Sky


Jennifer Steil - 2010
    The author, who had been a senior editor at The Week in New York, recounts her year in Yemen teaching journalism to the staff of The Yemen Observer in Sana'a, the capital, where she now lives.