Impossible to read without laughing out loud.” That’s what people said about the first two books in the series. Now the third book sees Mark Richards and his youngest son walking the Kerry Way in South West Ireland. Over the nine days of the walk they meet the usual cast of oddball characters and have more than their fair shares of misadventures. Well, one of them does… ‘Father, Son and the Kerry Way’ will be published in early Autumn at £3.99. Until then you can pre-order it for £2.99. The book will be delivered to your Kindle as soon as it is published and that’s when your account will be charged. There will also be a paperback out in good time for Christmas

    With Ugresic’s characteristic wit, Fox takes us from Russia to Japan, through Balkan minefields and American road trips, and from the 1920s to the present, as it explores the power of storytelling and literary invention, betrayal, and the randomness of human lives.

    Starting in September 2017 in a city in Northern Syria, a stone's throw away from Turkey and amidst the deadliest war of the twenty-first century, Wood set forth on a 5,000-mile trek through the most contested region on the planet. He moved through the Middle East for six months, from ISIS-occupied Iraq through Kuwait and along the jagged coastlines of the Emirates and Oman; across a civil-war-torn Yemen and on to Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Israel, before ending on the shores of the Mediterranean in Lebanon. Like his predecessors, Wood travelled through some of the harshest and most beautiful environments on earth, seeking to challenge our perceptions of this often-misunderstood part of the world. Through the relationships he forges along the way--and the personal histories and local mythologies that his companions share--Wood examines how the region has changed over thousands of years and reveals a side of the Middle East we don't often see in the media.At once a thrilling personal journey and a skillful piece of cultural reportage, Arabia is a breathtaking chronicle of an epic journey through the land at the root of all civilization.

    Getting Stoned with Savages again reveals his wry wit and infectious joy of discovery in a side-splittingly funny account of life in the farthest reaches of the world. After two grueling years on the island of Tarawa, battling feral dogs, machete-wielding neighbors, and a lack of beer on a daily basis, Maarten Troost was in no hurry to return to the South Pacific. But as time went on, he realized he felt remarkably out of place among the trappings of twenty-first-century America. When he found himself holding down a job—one that might possibly lead to a career—he knew it was time for him and his wife, Sylvia, to repack their bags and set off for parts unknown.Getting Stoned with Savages tells the hilarious story of Troost’s time on Vanuatu—a rugged cluster of islands where the natives gorge themselves on kava and are still known to “eat the man.” Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles against typhoons, earthquakes, and giant centipedes and soon finds himself swept up in the laid-back, clothing-optional lifestyle of the islanders. When Sylvia gets pregnant, they decamp for slightly-more-civilized Fiji, a fallen paradise where the local chiefs can be found watching rugby in the house next door. And as they contend with new parenthood in a country rife with prostitutes and government coups, their son begins to take quite naturally to island living—in complete contrast to his dad.

    Huntley's husband had signed on with the American Bar Association to help rebuild Kosovo's legal system. Not quite sure how she could be of any service in a country that had suffered so much, Huntley found a position at a private school teaching English to a group of Kosovo Albanians. In this inspiring diary of her experiences in Kosovo, Huntley describes the deep friendships she formed with her students and the remarkable book club that they created . . .One day in a bookstore in Prishtina, Huntley stumbled upon a copy of Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea and--judging that it was just the right reading level and length--she made copies of it for the group. Despite lingering concerns that this quintessential American writer so notorious for his machismo might not resonate, the story of the old man's struggle to bring in his big fish touched them deeply. So deeply in fact that, though the group went on to read other great American writers, a name for their club was born: The Hemingway Book Club of Kosova.This book reveals both the fragility and strength of the human spirit. Neither a journalist nor a historian, Huntley describes her students' experiences during the war and the intimacy of the bond that she formed with them with a rare purity and directness. A vision of great hope, The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo reveals the power of human connection to bring about healing in even the most war-torn circumstances.

    Recounts how the author, an Austrian, escaped from an English internment camp in India in 1943 and spent the next seven years in Tibet, observing its social practices, religion, politics, and people.

    And every year, more than 30,000 adventure tourists try. But for each person who goes to the mountain, there are thousands more who chat about it at cocktail parties, making plans to go...someday. That's how Daniel Dorr got started: flirting with a beautiful brunette over hot cocoa and spouting impressive plans. Six months later, he was lying on the cold gravel trail at 18,000 feet, panting and hacking in the darkness.Dorr is a typical marketing exec by day but, amped up by his re-acquaintance with a romantic interest, he gained the determination to pursue one of his lifelong dreams -- summiting Kilimanjaro. When Dorr left behind the familiarity of his weekend-warrior lifestyle in Southern California to reach the top of the 19,340-foot peak, he didn't realize he would cross a threshold to a new way of life. As he fondles expensive hi-tech gear, gets vaccinated for the jungle, travels local-style across East Africa, and vomits on top of the African continent, readers share in the rewards, both large and small, of reaching for personal fulfillment through adventure travel.

    Five years later, Stephen Venables intensified the challenge by leading three unknown American climbers up the East Face - this time without oxygen. The question to most climbing experts wasn't whether they would summit, but whether they would live. They nearly didn't Everest: Alone at the Summit is Venables' rousing account of one of the greatest feats of twentieth century mountaineering, a triumph over doubt, the elements and the limits of human endurance that has never been repeated. "Climbers or not, all will be interested in this mountaineering thriller of a tiny band pulling off an incredible victory-an account so stirring it will be put down only to obtain a moment's breather." -- American Alpine Journal

    His tale is, according to The Boston Globe, "a gripping account of how it feels to be charged by an incensed elephant and kept awake at night by the roaring of stalking lions." But it is more than an adventure story. The Los Angeles Times noted that "the pace of walking gives Ridgeway time to contemplate his great theme and the great men and women who have struggled with the conundrum of whether man can live at peace with the beasts." Ridgeway examines the effects of colonial expansion on the indigenous people, the landscape, and the animals, and contemplates the future for all of them.

    It is 1984 and they live in Skopje, which will one day be the capital of Macedonia but is currently a part of Yugoslavia. A Spare Life tells the story of their childhood, from their only friend Roza to their neighbor Bogdan, so poor that he one day must eat his pet rabbit. Treated as freaks and outcasts—even by their own family—the twins just want to be normal girls. But after an incident that almost destroys their bond as sisters, they fly to London, determined to be surgically separated. Will this be their liberation, or only more tightly ensnare them?At once extraordinary and quotidian, A Spare Life is a chronicle of two girls who are among the first generation to come of age under democracy in Eastern Europe. Written in touching prose by an author who is also a master poet, it is a saga about families, sisterhood, immigration, and the occult influences that shape a life. Funny, poignant, dark, and sharply observed, Zlata and Srebra reveal an existence where even the simplest of actions is unlike any we’ve ever experienced.

    With her beloved Tuscany as a home base, Mayes travels to Spain, Portugal, France, the British Isles, and to the Mediterranean world of Turkey, Greece, the South of Italy, and North Africa. Weaving together personal perceptions and informed commentary on art, architecture, history, landscape, and social and culinary traditions, Mayes brings the immediacy of life in her temporary homes to readers. An illuminating and passionate book that will be savored by all who loved Under the Tuscan Sun, A Year in the World is travel writing at its peak.

    When he visits Estonia for a three-week search for inspiration, he falls for a young waitress called Kaja, deeply bound up in the suffering of her country and the joy and danger of its new freedom. They embark on a passionate affair on a lonely island in a time warp. Then it's over. But of course nothing is ever over. Still childless six years later, Jack and Milly's marriage shows the strain, but they battle on better than most - until the past returns with a vengeance. The crisis takes place over a month, against a precise calendar of background events, both minor and major. Set in London and Estonia between 1999 and 2005 in the aftermath of the London bombings, as a hot, despondent summer drags on unnaturally into the autumn, Between Each Breath is a rich and often hilarious critique of Blair's Britain: decadent, bewildered, shallow, greedy, but knowing all the right buttons to press; knowing the language of compassion and abusing it.A story of love and betrayal, of age and youth, of wealth and poverty, of the new Europe and the old Europe, of art and compromise, of youthful ideals and cynical weariness, Adam Thorpe's extraordinary new novel is a biting, timely satire and a powerfully moving examination of social and emotional disintegration.

    It is now possible for cyclists of all abilities to ride a well marked, well marshalled event just about any weekend of the year, usually based around one, two or sometimes as many as ten fearsome hills. For the first time, here is a pocket-sized guide to the 100 greatest climbs in the land, the building blocks for these rides, written by a cyclist for cyclists. From lung busting city centre cobbles to leg breaking windswept mountain passes, this guide locates the roads that have tested riders for generations and worked their way into cycling folklore. Whether you're a leisure cyclist looking for a challenge or an elite athlete trying to break records stick this book in your pocket and head for the hills. To watch a video of Simon Warren in action click here

    Hana is twelve-years-old when she is put on one of the last UN evacuation buses fleeing the besieged city of Sarajevo. Her twenty-one-year-old sister, Atka, staying behind to look after their five younger siblings, is there to say goodbye. Thinking that they will be apart for only a few weeks, they make a promise to each other to be brave.But as the Bosnian war escalates and months go by without contact, their promise to each other becomes deeply significant. Hana is forced to cope as a refugee in Croatia, far away from home and family, while Atka battles for survival in a city where snipers, mortar attacks and desperate food shortages are a part of everyday life. Their mother, working for a humanitarian aid organisation, is unable to reach them and their father retreats inside himself, shocked at what is happening to his city. In Sarajevo, death lurks in every corner and shakes the foundation of their existence. One day their beloved uncle is killed while queuing up for bread in the market square, in a massacre similar to the one three months earlier which prompted a cellist to make a lone musical protest in the deserted streets. But when Atka finds work as a translator in an old, smoky radio station, and then with a photojournalist from New Zealand, life takes an unexpected turn, and the remarkable events that follow change her life, and those of her family, forever.Set in the middle of the bloodiest European conflict since the Second World War, Goodbye Sarajevo is a moving and compelling true story of courage, hope and extraordinary human kindness.

     Although initially drawn to Italy for its art, architecture, and Vogue, often described in other books, it is evident that still lifes and stilettos do not hold this author’s attention as much as living people do. The author’s open, sympathetic viewpoint captures the characters’ quirky charm and the local color. Although you wouldn’t call this a philosophical book, how the author observes and deals with individuals and situations in her life shows that she follows her own philosophy, one that is worth looking into. While the author is not so naïve as to think that all Italians’ lives flow as smoothly as their olive oil, she has not met anyone in Italy who is bitterly disappointed with life. So pour yourself a glass of Italian wine, add a dose of accordion music, and spend some time in Ivanka Di Felice’s Italy. This book can be read as a stand-alone or feel free to tag along for more laugh out loud adventures in Italy by reading A Zany Slice of Tuscany and Zany Renovations. THIS IS NOW ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS. Italy without FAMIGLIA isn't really Italy! - Whistlers Mom TOP 500 REVIEWER If you enjoy ex-pat stories, you've probably read a pile of books by people who've moved to Italy. They marvel at the ancient wonders. They do battle with horrendously complicated Italian bureaucracy. They agonize over tardy repairmen. They spend most of their time with other ex-pats, but have cute stories to tell about the natives and they ALL consider themselves experts on Italian life. These people know NOTHING! Italian life is about family and this author knows all about Italian families because she married into one. Her handsome husband was born in Canada to Italian parents. Then he married a woman who was in love with him and with the idea of living in Italy and slowly she chipped away at his resistance until he agreed to move to his ancestral village. And there she meets the FAMIGLIA - an assortment of grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins who believe that Italy is the ONLY place to live and that there can never be too much food or wine or too many loud, crowded family gatherings. Eventually the young couple relocates to Tuscany and their adventures continue as they locate a house, buy a car, get to know the neighbours, seek work, and (of course) entertain visiting relatives. This is the true Italy.No matter how much you've read about Italy and Italians, this will be a real eye-opener and you'll have to stop so often to laugh that it will take you much longer to read than you anticipate.