Distant Fires
Scott D. Anderson - 1990
Describes the author's three month canoe adventure, which started at Duluth, Minnesota and ended at York Factory on the shores of Hudson Bay.
Bear in the Back Seat I and II: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Boxed Set
Carolyn Jourdan - 2014
You'll love seeing Kim and a fellow ranger tested as they bravely take on the task of relocating 77 live skunks by sedating them with darts from homemade blowguns, especially when the pickup truck load of stinkers wakes up while still in transit. An hilarious, heartwarming, and heartbreaking memoir by the chief wildlife ranger in the #1 most popular family vacation destination in the USA, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For over thirty years, Kim DeLozier acted as a referee in the wild, trying to protect millions of park visitors from one of the densest populations of wild black bears in America -- and the bears from tourists who get too close. Written with bestselling author Carolyn Jourdan who has several highly-regarded #1 Amazon bestsellers about the Smoky Mountains.
Travelling in a Box
Mike Wood - 2015
Parched, tinder-dry fields. There are alien invasions, military maneuvers and toxic waste, and all before the Wood family even start their Alpine caravan adventure. Why? Because it is fun. It is holidays. Travelling in a Box is about a family and their passion for all things camping and caravanning. As they embark upon a pan-European adventure with their thirty-year-old caravan in tow, will their unbreakable tolerance for ‘fun’ be pushed to new limits?
Oh Boy, You're Having a Girl: A Dad's Survival Guide to Raising Daughters
Brian A. Klems - 2013
In "Oh Boy, You're Having a Girl," Brian, a father of three girls, shares his tactics for surviving this new and glittery world. From baby dolls and bedtime rituals to potty training and dance recitals, he leads you through all the trials and tribulations you'll face as you're raising your daughter. He'll also show you how to navigate your way through tough situations, like making sure that she doesn't start dating until she's fifty.Complete with commandments for restroom trips and properly participating in a tea party, "Oh Boy, You're Having a Girl" will brace you for all those hours playing house--and psych you up for the awesomeness of raising a daughter who has you lovingly wrapped around her little finger.
At Home in the Pays d'Oc: A tale of accidental expatriates (The Pays d'Oc series Book 1)
Patricia Feinberg Stoner - 2017
Patricia and her husband Patrick are spending the summer in their holiday home in the Languedoc village of Morbignan la Crèbe. One hot Friday afternoon Patrick walks in with the little dog, thinking she is a stray. They have no intention of keeping her. ‘Just for tonight,’ says Patrick. ‘We will take her to the animal shelter tomorrow.’ It never happens. They spend the weekend getting to know and love the little creature, who looks at them appealingly with big brown eyes, and wags her absurd stump of a tail every time they speak to her. On the Monday her owner turns up, alerted by the Mairie. They could have handed her over. Instead Patricia finds herself saying: ‘We like your dog, Monsieur. May we keep her?’ It is the start of what will be four years as Morbignanglais, as they settle into life as permanent residents of the village. “At Home in the Pays d’Oc” is about their lives in Morbignan, the neighbours who soon become friends, the parties and the vendanges and the battles with French bureaucracy. It is the story of some of their bizarre and sometimes hilarious encounters: the Velcro bird, the builder in carpet slippers, the neighbour who cuts the phone wires, the clock that clacks, the elusive carpenter who really did have to go to a funeral.
River: One Man's Journey Down the Colorado, Source to Sea
Colin Fletcher - 1997
He needed "something to pare the fat off my soul...to make me grateful, again, for being alive." The 1,700 miles between the Colorado's source in Wyoming and its conclusion at Mexico's Gulf of California contain some of the most spectacular vistas on earth, and Fletcher is the ideal guide for the terrain. As his privileged companions, we travel to places like Disaster Falls and Desolation Canyon, observe beaver and elk, experience sandstorms and whitewater rapids, and share Fletcher's thoughts on the human race, the environment, and the joys of solitude.
Top 10 New Orleans
Paul Greenberg
Whether you're looking for the best live music spots and lively clubs, most interesting architecture, or want to find the best places in New Orleans to shop for Mardi Gras souvenirs; this guide is the perfect pocket-sized companion. Rely on dozens of Top 10 lists for all budgets — from the Top 10 jazz clubs and the Top 10 gay and lesbian venues to the Top 10 restaurants, children's activities, performing arts venues, shops and hotels and, to save you time and money, there's even a list of the Top 10 things to avoid. Eyewitness Top 10 New Orleans is packed with beautiful illustrations of the city's attractions with sections on the Garden District and Uptown, the Warehouse, Arts and Central Business District, the Lower French Quarter and the Upper French Quarter, providing the insider knowledge every visitor needs. Explore every corner effortlessly using the FREE pull-out map, plus many smaller maps included within the guide.
One Woman Walks Wales
Ursula Martin - 2018
In 17 months, she traversed beaches and mountains, farms and urban sprawl. She received unimaginable support – people offered beds, food, cups of tea, donated to her chosen charities. Walking Wales rooted her in the country and in herself; her account of the physical and mental challenges painting a unique portrait of the natural landscape of a country and its people.
Death in Zion National Park: Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness in Utah's Grand Circle
Randi Minetor - 2017
Prior to that, the steep, narrow route to Angels Landing led to at least five fatalities. Numerous people have found that high, exposed places in Zion-such as rim trails-are bad places to be in lightning storms. Death in Zion National Park collects some of the most gripping accounts in park history of the unfortunate events caused by natural forces or human folly.
1000 Mind-Bending Facts
James Egan - 2017
Nobody knows who created donuts. Or where. Or when. Neptune's core is covered in plastic. "Eleven plus two" is an anagram of "twelve plus one." Five of George Foreman's children are called George Foreman. One of the designers of Barbie used to build missiles. There's a flower that looks like Darth Vader's helmet. Bob Dylan won a Nobel Prize in 2016. There's an Egyptian professor who believes that the pyramids were built by dinosaurs. Abracadabra means "I create as I speak." Tulips used to be worth $1,250 each. There's a group of people who firmly believe that Finland isn't real. Queen Elizabeth I invented gingerbread men.
Rhythm of the Wild: A Life Inspired by Alaska's Denali National Park
Kim Heacox - 2015
Music runs through every page of this book, as do stories, rivers and wolves. At its heart, Rhythm of the Wild is a love story. It begins in 1981 and ends in 2014, yet reaches beyond the arc of time. Author and mountaineer Jonathan Waterman has called Heacox “our northern Edward Abbey.” In this book we find out why.We hitchhike with Kim through Idaho, camp on the Colorado Plateau, and fly off the sand cliffs of Hangman Creek with a little terrier named Super Max, the Wonder Dog. We meet Zed, the Aborigine; Nine Fingers, the blues guitarist; and Adolph Murie, the legendary wildlife biologist, who dared to say that wolves should be protected, not persecuted. Kim also reprises in this book his friend Richard Steele, a beloved character from The Only Kayak.Some books are larger than their actual subject—this is one. Part memoir, part exploration of Denali’s inspiring natural and human history, and part conservation polemic, Rhythm of the Wild ranges from funny to provocative. It’s a celebration of—and a plea to restore and defend—the vibrant earth and our rightful place in it.
501 Must-Visit Natural Wonders
David Brown - 2007
World famous sites including the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and the Great Barrier Reef feature alongside lesser-known gems such as the Shirakami-Sanchi Forest and the hauntingly beautiful Wrangel Island. llustrated with stunning photography and providing realistic advice for visiting these sometimes remote corners of the earth, this book serves as both an inspiration and a practical guide. There is a wealth of wonders here to exhaust even the most intrepid of armchair travellers. Here you will find the cave where 20 million bats roost, the remote Indian Ocean island that is home to 100,000 Giant Tortoises, as well as the world's most active volcano, the longest cave system and the lake so deep that it would take all the world's rivers more than a year to refill it. Mountain ranges, deserts, gorges, rivers, glaciers, marshes, cliffs, waterfalls, coral reefs, tropical rainforests.(Sentences in a slightly different order since some of them were already here,)
On Trails: An Exploration
Robert Moor - 2016
He learned the tricks of master trail-builders, hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails, and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter, Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science, history, philosophy, and nature writing—combining the nomadic joys of Peter Matthiessen with the eclectic wisdom of Lewis Hyde’s The Gift.Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic—the oft-overlooked trail—sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity’s relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life?Moor has the essayist’s gift for making new connections, the adventurer’s love for paths untaken, and the philosopher’s knack for asking big questions. With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era, On Trails is a book that makes us see our world, our history, our species, and our ways of life anew.
Buen Camino!
Natasha Murtagh - 2011
Peter and Natasha's journey starts in drizzle and wind as they scale Croagh Patrick, Ireland's Holy Mountain in Mayo, before setting off immediately afterwards for the Pyrenees in France. There, they start walking the Camino, the Way of St James, to Santiago de Compostela. It is a grueling trek over three mountain ranges; through fields and valleys, villages, towns and cities, to the lush countryside and forests of Galicia, and eventually to Finisterre, the pagan end of the earth. Along the way, they meet a motley collection of other pilgrims with whom they laugh, cry and above all have fun amid moments of high drama, exhilaration and sometimes exhaustion. They run with the bulls and parade in a fiesta; they pray with the faithful, and explore the Camino's rich Christian and pagan history; they stay in its sometimes Spartan pilgrim hostels and appreciate the richness of living simply. "A lovely book for those who have done the Camino, or like me, are thinking of doing it."--The Dubliner. "This is a travel book, certainly, but it is much much, more than that. It's about family and friendship and camaraderie, and it is, in the end, a wonderfully warm story about the bond between a loving adventurous father and his daughter ready to embrace the world."-The Irish Mail on Sunday.
Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
John M. Marzluff - 2012
They have brains that are huge for their body size and exhibit an avian kind of eloquence. They mate for life and associate with relatives and neighbors for years. And because they often live near people—in our gardens, parks, and cities—they are also keenly aware of our peculiarities, staying away from and even scolding anyone who threatens or harms them and quickly learning to recognize and approach those who care for and feed them, even giving them numerous, oddly touching gifts in return. With his extraordinary research on the intelligence and startling abilities of corvids—crows, ravens, and jays—scientist John Marzluff teams up with artist-naturalist Tony Angell to tell amazing stories of these brilliant birds in Gifts of the Crow. With narrative, diagrams, and gorgeous line drawings, they offer an in-depth look at these complex creatures and our shared behaviors. The ongoing connection between humans and crows—a cultural coevolution—has shaped both species for millions of years. And the characteristics of crows that allow this symbiotic relationship are language, delinquency, frolic, passion, wrath, risk-taking, and awareness—seven traits that humans find strangely familiar. Crows gather around their dead, warn of impending doom, recognize people, commit murder of other crows, lure fish and birds to their death, swill coffee, drink beer, turn on lights to stay warm, design and use tools, use cars as nutcrackers, windsurf and sled to play, and work in tandem to spray soft cheese out of a can. Their marvelous brains allow them to think, plan, and reconsider their actions. With its abundance of funny, awe-inspiring, and poignant stories, Gifts of the Crow portrays creatures who are nothing short of amazing. A testament to years of painstaking research and careful observation, this fully illustrated, riveting work is a thrilling look at one of nature’s most wondrous creatures.