Book picks similar to
Cape Town Calling: From Mandela to Theroux on the Mother City by Justin FoxRian Malan
travel
non-fiction
pinelands-high-school-library
reading-challenge
The Bad Beekeeper's Club
Bill Turnbull - 2010
* The hilarious, heartwarming and surprisingly inspiring account of one BBC Breakfast TV presenter's secret passion for bees...!
But you are in France, Madame
Catherine Berry - 2016
Her teacher was busy chatting, so we waited patiently in the corridor. When he did come out, he indicated that the meeting would take place downstairs and headed off with us in tow. Before sitting down, I introduced myself using my first name, and put out my hand to be shaken. He mumbled back his full name as he took my hand, although I suspect he would have been shocked if I had actually dared use it. By this stage, I had already understood that teachers did not expect to be questioned about their practices. Of course, I did—question him, that is; politely and almost deferentially. There was a slight pause, as he dipped his head to better digest what he had heard. Then, with the assurance of a perfect, unarguable answer, he replied, “But you are in France, Madame”. Some months before, my husband, three children and I had casually unzipped and discarded our comfortable Australian lifestyle and slipped on life in the country of haute couture. On arrival, there was no celebrity designer waiting for us, ready to pin and fit our new life to us; so we threw it on and wore it loosely, tightly, uncomfortably, any old how—until we learned for ourselves how to trim, hem and stitch à la française. This book is testament to the joyous, but not always easy, journey that we took along the way.
Long Way Back
Charley Boorman - 2017
His world crashed down after he smashed his right ankle and causing severe damage to his left fibia and tibia. It was unclear if he would ever walk properly again, let alone ride a motorbike. Charley recounts the ambulance ride, the numerous operations in a Portugese hospital, the medivac flight back to London, and his journey of recovery. As his inability to walk for several months provokes introspection, Boorman recounts his childhood, where his passion for motorbikes began, and the formative influences in his life—from his father, a famed director, to his longtime friend Ewan McGregor, and Sean Connery’s son Jason, who introduced him to bikes. These touchstones give him strength on the long way back to health.
Desert Sojourn: A Woman's Forty Days and Nights Alone
Debi Holmes-Binney - 2000
Armed with only basic supplies and her writing journals, she spent an extended sojourn in a place by turns physically terrifying, psychologically invigorating, and gloriously beautiful. Her moving account will appeal to both physical and spiritual adventurers.
A Midlife Cyclist: My two-wheel journey to heal a broken mind and find joy
Rachel Ann Cullen - 2020
frank and funny' Melanie Sykes'Gritty and glorious' Ruth Field, author of Run Fat B!tch Run'A truly inspiring tale' William Pullen, author of Run for Your Life'Thrillingly honest and hopeful' Jools Walker, author of Back in the Frame*****************************************Rachel is a cyclist. But she was never meant to be.After gaining mental strength and healing through running, she thought she was free. Her depression alleviated, she came off antidepressants, winning races and collecting medals at marathons.But when an injury stopped the only thing helping to quiet the voices in her brain, Rachel found out what she is truly made of. As body dysmorphia began to grip her in earnest, she knew she had to find a different way to kick her mental health demons for the sake of her sanity.So, she went down to her cellar, heaved out her old bike, and started pedalling.Like her life depended on it.A Midlife Cyclist is a tale of two wheels, across the Yorkshire Dales, Vietnam, Costa Rica and beyond, and a rider in search of peace.*****************************************Praise for Running For My Life:'Heartwarming' Jo Pavey'Brave and inspiring' Ruth Field'I love Running For My Life' Louise Minchin
Of Moose and Men: A Skewed Look at Life in Alaska
A.E. Poynor - 1999
E. Poynor. For less than twenty percent of what you paid for that grande maple-choco-frappa-machacino latte you'll spew out your nose while reading this book, you can learn about an aspect of Alaska most people never think about: everyday life in Alaska. Of Moose and Men: A Skewed Look at Life in Alaska provides a unique insight into the Land of the Midnight Sun, where laughing about the trials unique to the country is better than giving up.
Wages Of Sin
Suzy Spencer - 2000
Martin and her boyfriend, William M. Busenburg, killed Busenberg's best friend to fulfill Stephanie's fantasy of murdering someone. Martin, raised as a devout Southern Baptist, and Busenburg, a convert to Evangelical Christianity, were arrested within days of the murder. Busenburg confessed twenty-two months later and was sentenced to 40 years. Martin confessed five months after Busenburg and received a 50-year sentence.Includes 16 pages of never-before-seen photos.
Running to Extremes
Lisa Tamati - 2012
In Running to Extremes, she attempts to answer that question and many more about ultramarathon running. In the past few years, Lisa has taken part in some of the most gruelling races on earth. Not content with having run the Badwater Ultramarathon once, she's been back and done it a second time. She's also completed the Gobi March and a race in the Egyptian Sahara. However, none of these could have prepared her for her greatest challenge to date: La Ultra, a 222-kilometre non-stop race over two Himalayan mountain passes. Running to Extremes tells the stories behind these races and provides plenty of advice for runners of all levels and distances. Filled with training tips, gear lists, information on nutrition and supplements, advice on mental preparation and, most importantly, a focus on how to keep yourself healthy while training and racing, it will inspire and motivate runners and non-runners alike.
60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Salt Lake City: Including Ogden, Provo, and the Uintas
Greg Witt - 2008
It contains meticulous trail descriptions that range from comfortable strolls for families to difficult treks for those looking for a challenging workout. Extensive key-at-a-glance information makes it easier to choose a hike based on length, difficulty, or scenery. A helpful list of hikes in the front of the book highlights those with special interests — best hikes for children, scenic hikes, hikes good for wildlife viewing, best hikes for runners, and more. Each hike report includes commentary on trailside geology, flowers, and wildlife. Historical notes provide fascinating details about early miners, trailblazers, the Pony Express, and Mormon pioneers. Whether lacing up boots, stepping into sneakers or strapping on snowshoes, Salt Lake City is a premier destination for outdoor adventure.
No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight: Memories of a Hill Town
Parimal Bhattacharya - 2017
No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight is a memory of his time in the iconic town, and one of the finest works of Indian non-fiction in recent years.Parimal evocatively describes his arrival, through drizzle and impenetrable fog, at a place that was at odds with the grand picture of it he had painted for himself. And his first night there was spent sleepless in a ramshackle hotel above a butcher's shop. Yet, as he tramped its roads and winding footpaths, Darjeeling grew on him. He sought out its history: a land of incomparable beauty originally inhabited by the Lepchas and other tribes; the British who took it for themselves in the mid-1800s so they could remember home; the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway--once a vital artery, now a quaint toy train--built in 1881; and the vast tea gardens with which the British replaced verdant forests to produce the fabled Orange Pekoe.In the enmeshed lives of his neighbours--of various castes, tribes, religions and cultures--lived at the measured pace of a small town, Parimal discovered a richly cosmopolitan society which endured even under threat from cynical politics and haphazard urbanization. He also found new friends: Benson, a colleague whose death from AIDS showed him the dark underbelly of the hill station; Pratap and Newton, whose homes and lives reflected the irreconcilable pulls of tradition and upward mobility; and Julia and Hemant, with whom he trekked the forests of the Singalila mountains in search of a vanished Lepcha village and a salamander long thought extinct.With empathy, and in shimmering prose, No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight effortlessly merges travel, history, literature, memory, politics and the pleasures of ennui into an unforgettable portrait of a place and its people.
Ferdinand and Isabella
Malveena McKendrick - 2015
But the historic landfall of October 1492 was only a secondary event of the year. The preceding January, they had accepted the surrender of Muslim Granada, ending centuries of Islamic rule in their peninsula. And later that year, they had ordered the expulsion or forced baptism of Spain's Jewish minority, a cruel crusade undertaken in an excess of zeal for their Catholic faith. Europe, in the century of Ferdinand and Isabella, was also awakening to the glories of a new age, the Renaissance, and the Spain of the "Catholic Kings" - as Ferdinand and Isabella came to be known - was not untouched by this brilliant revival of learning. Here, from the noted historian Malveena McKendrick, is their remarkable story.
Narrowboat Dreams: A Journey North by England's Waterways
Steve Haywood - 2008
With irrepressible humor he recounts the history of the waterways and stories of his encounters with characters along the way, and attempts to define the magic that makes England’s waterways so appealing.
Travels with Charlie
Sol Smith - 2014
In Travels with Charlie, William and Charlotte Stronghold quit their jobs and sell their belongings in order to set sail and find a new home somewhere between their native California and the green mountains of Vermont. Along the way, they fall in love and into hate with the popular culture that binds Americans together. The lines are blurred between shady roadside attractions and heralded national monuments, between the natural wonders of the country and the loud and annoying tourists who populate them, between the concepts of place and self. A head-on collision, a single burrito nearly a yard long, dead presidents, something that is probably a bear, and a Canadian sex club provide the backdrop for this story that is part romance story, part tall-tale, and part coming of age memoir. At times sweet and heartbreaking, almost always bitingly funny, Travels with Charlie is an American story about life on the road, in the tradition of Huck Finn, On the Road, and Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley.
Bag of Meat on Ball of Dirt (Kindle Single)
Mara Altman - 2016
That quixotic quest for understanding has drawn much of the world’s population eastward ever since Buddha first assumed the lotus position, and writer Mara Altman needed to know why. So she flew around the world in search of an answer not only to that mystery, but also to the deeper questions that plague all who yearn to define the meaning of life. What Altman found in her wild, comic 18-day reporting trek across India – a journey that took her on a laborious, 37-hour cross-country train trip, onto a mystical flat rock by the ocean in Pondicherry, and eventually into the emergency room of a cut-rate Bangalore hospital – will make you laugh, learn and ponder. By the end of her epic odyssey, it will also take you unexpectedly and thrillingly close to the pulsing heart of human existence. After graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Mara Altman worked as a staff writer for The Village Voice. In 2009, HarperCollins published Altman's first book, Thanks For Coming: A Young Woman's Quest for an Orgasm, which was optioned as a comedy series by HBO. She has published seven bestselling Kindle Singles, including the #1 bestseller Bearded Lady, and has also written for New York Magazine and The New York Times. Cover design by Adil Dara
തപോഭൂമി ഉത്തരഖണ്ഡ് [Thapobhoomi Utharkhand]
M.K. Ramachandran - 2005
He is one of the best selling travelogue writer in kerala ,India. His way of writings with the myths, reality and mystical experiences about his ineffable pilgrimages are truly amazing and has attracted millions of fans. His mystical experiences, such as encounters with Divya Yogis and Yoginis deep inside Himalayas are telling to the world that there are many facts that are unexplainable through modern sciences and logic . He has already covered 64 different destinations in Himalaya. Each one of his travel consist of days of research , preparation, arrangement, lonely dangerous trekking through Himalayan glaciers . For example 35 days of trekking is needed for Srikand mahadave kilash darshan. Welcome to the world of amazing Himalaya mystical Explorations .........,