Book picks similar to
Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going by Ana Maria Spagna
nonfiction
essays
non-fiction
nature
On the Nose: A Lifelong Obsession with Yosemite's Most Iconic Climb
Hans Florine - 2016
The Good Rain: Across Time & Terrain in the Pacific Northwest
Timothy Egan - 1990
Here is a blend of history, anthropology and politics.
Walking the Big Wild: From Yellowstone to the Yukon on the Grizzle Bears' Trail
Karsten Heuer - 2002
Accompanied by occasional human companions and a remarkable border collie named Webster, Heuer faces immense challenges; storms, avalanches, floods, and grizzly bears. At the end of the journey, Heuer proves that there is nearly continuous wilderness that can support wildlife along the length of the Rockies, and is salvageable if the right decisions are made now.
To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret
Jedidiah Jenkins - 2018
He chronicled the trip on Instagram, where his photos and reflections drew hundreds of thousands of followers, all gathered around the question: What makes a life worth living?In this unflinchingly honest memoir, Jed narrates his adventure--the people and places he encountered on his way to the bottom of the world--as well as the internal journey that started it all. As he traverses cities, mountains, and inner boundaries, Jenkins grapples with the question of what it means to be an adult, his struggle to reconcile his sexual identity with his conservative Christian upbringing, and his belief in travel as a way to wake us up to life back home.A soul-stirring read for the wanderer in each of us, To Shake the Sleeping Self is an unforgettable reflection on adventure, identity, and a life lived without regret.Praise for To Shake the Sleeping Self"[Jenkins is] a guy deeply connected to his personal truth and just so refreshingly present."--Rich Roll, author of Finding Ultra"This is much more than a book about a bike ride. This is a deep soul deepening us. Jedidiah Jenkins is a mystic disguised as a millennial."--Tom Shadyac, author of Life's Operating Manual"Thought-provoking and inspirational . . . This uplifting memoir and travelogue will remind readers of the power of movement for the body and the soul."
--Publishers Weekly
A Hunt for Justice: The True Story of a Woman Undercover Wildlife Agent
Lucinda Delaney Schroeder - 2006
Fish and Wildlife Service. In August 1992, she accepted an assignment that forever changed--and endangered--her life. She posed as a big-game hunter in Alaska in order to infiltrate an international ring of poachers out to kill the biggest and best of that state's wildlife.A Hunt for Justice recounts her dramatic story--a story she was not legally permitted to write about until her retirement in 2004.
New Year, Same Trash: Resolutions I Absolutely Did Not Keep (A Vintage Short Original)
Samantha Irby - 2017
Nope. With a small group of woo-woo others, Irby sets seventy micro-resolutions, and then—with the rest of us—she fails at almost every single one of them. Thoughtful, witty, poignant—the failed intentions in New Year Same Trash will make you laugh and cry. Because you know you’ve been there. You can’t wake up in time to go to brunch. Swimming three times a week? Who are you kidding. You’re not going to shower every day or pack your lunch every day. You’re definitely not going to choose a smart movie over mindless entertainment, because you’re tired. You’re lazy. And, no, you’re never going to be a positive thinker. “I didn’t do this. I’m gonna. Maybe.” Don’t worry. It’s okay. There’s always next year. Instantly recognizable to anyone who’s ever failed to make goals and stick with them, New Year Same Trash will bring hilarious relief.A Vintage Shorts Original. An ebook short.
Missing in the Minarets: The Search for Walter A. Starr, Jr.
William Alsup - 2001
Rigorous and thorough searches by some of the best climbers in the history of the range failed to locate him despite a number of promising clues. When all hope seemed gone and the last search party had left the Minarets, mountaineering legend Norman Clyde refused to give up. Climbing alone, he persevered in the face of failure, resolved that he would learn the fate of the lost man. Clyde’s discovery and the events that followed make for compelling reading. Recently reissued with a new afterword, this re-creation of a famous episode in the annals of the Sierra Nevada is mountaineering literature at its best.
A Woman's Place Is at the Top: A Biography of Annie Smith Peck, Queen of the Climbers
Hannah Kimberley - 2017
Peck was a scholar, writer, lecturer, mountain climber, swimmer, oarswoman, horsewoman, splendid conversationalist, and well-trained listener. She was a feminist and an independent thinker who never let gender stereotypes stand in her way. Peck gained fame as the third woman recorded in history to climb the Matterhorn--not for her daring alpine feat, but because she climbed wearing pants--and would eventually be the first climber ever to conquer Mount Huascaran (21,812 feet) in 1908 and would race Hiram Bingham (the model for Indiana Jones) to climb Mount Coropuna in 1911. A Woman's Place Is at the Top: The Biography of Annie Smith Peck is the first full length work about this incredible woman who single-handedly carved her place on the map of mountain climbing and international relations. Peck marched in suffrage parades, was the president of the Joan of Arc Suffrage League in New York City, became a political speaker and writer before women had the right to vote, and was also a propagandist, an expert on North-South American relations, and an author and lecturer contracted to speak as an authority on multinational industry and commerce before anyone had ever thought to appoint a woman as a diplomat. This empowering biography will give Peck her rightful place in history.
That Wild Country: An Epic Journey through the Past, Present, and Future of America's Public Lands
Mark Kenyon - 2019
These vast expanses provide a home to wildlife populations, a vital source of clean air and water, and a haven for recreation.Since its inception, however, America’s public land system has been embroiled in controversy—caught in the push and pull between the desire to develop the valuable resources the land holds or conserve them. Alarmed by rising tensions over the use of these lands, hunter, angler, and outdoor enthusiast Mark Kenyon set out to explore the spaces involved in this heated debate, and learn firsthand how they came to be and what their future might hold.Part travelogue and part historical examination, That Wild Country invites readers on an intimate tour of the wondrous wild and public places that are a uniquely profound and endangered part of the American landscape.
The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod
Henry Beston - 1928
Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in a seaside cottage, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he "could not go."Instead, he sat down to try and capture in words the wonders of the magical landscape he found himself in thrall to: the migrations of seabirds, the rhythms of the tide, the windblown dunes, and the scatter of stars in the changing sky. Beston argued that, "The world today is sick to its thin blood for the lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot." Seventy-five years after they were first published, Beston's words are more true than ever.
Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude
Stephanie Rosenbloom - 2018
Through on-the-ground reporting and recounting the experiences of artists, writers, and innovators who cherished solitude, Stephanie Rosenbloom considers how being alone as a traveller--and even in one's own city--is conducive to becoming acutely aware of the sensual details of the world--patterns, textures, colors, tastes, sounds--in ways that are difficult to do in the company of others.Alone Time is divided into four parts, each set in a different city, in a different season, in a single year. The destinations--Paris, Istanbul, Florence, New York--are all pedestrian-friendly, allowing travelers to slow down and appreciate casual pleasures instead of hurtling through museums and posting photos to Instagram. Each section spotlights a different theme associated with the joys and benefits of time alone and how it can enable people to enrich their lives--facilitating creativity, learning, self-reliance, as well as the ability to experiment and change. Rosenbloom incorporates insights from psychologists and sociologists who have studied solitude and happiness, and explores such topics as dining alone, learning to savor, discovering interests and passions, and finding or creating silent spaces. Her engaging and elegant prose makes Alone Time as warmly intimate an account as the details of a trip shared by a beloved friend--and will have its many readers eager to set off on their own solo adventures.
My Other Ex: Women's True Stories of Losing and Leaving Friends
Jessica Smock - 2014
There can be so much good, so much power, so much love in female friendships. But there is also a dark side of pain and loss. And surrounding that dark side there is often silence. There is shame, the haunting feeling that the loss of a friendship is a reflection of our own worth and capacity to be loved. My Other Ex: Women's True Stories of Losing and Leaving Friends is a step toward breaking that silence. The brave writers in this engrossing, diverse collection of 35 essays tell their own unique stories of failed friendships and remind us of the universality of loss.
Free Outside: A Trek Against Time and Distance
Jeff Garmire - 2019
Exhausted and emotionally ruined living the fast-paced life of a successful young professional it was all too easy to give up. The challenges came on the adventure of a lifetime. Months in the woods that would provide adversity, healing, and tranquility. Setting out to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, and Continental Divide Trail in a single calendar year was an audacious goal but the 8,000 mile Calendar Year Triple Crown would be the story of a lifetime. The journey was riddled with inclement weather, shady characters, wildlife attacks, and injuries. The trails crossed frozen rivers, were rerouted around wildfires, and packed with snow. The physical challenge was soon overshadowed by the mental toughness required. It became a mental battle. Free Outside is a captivating story of strength and courage. Hiking through remote areas in America, Jeff is continually overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of strangers. Free Outside is the fascinating story of Jeff Garmire’s journey along the national scenic trails that define wild America.
The Lives Our Mothers Leave Us: Prominent Women Discuss the Complex, Humorous, and Ultimately Loving Relationships They Have with Their Mothers
Patti Davis - 2009
No matter what a woman achieves in her life, no matter how old she gets or whether or not she herself becomes a mother, she is always and forever a daughter. The Women Whose Stories Are Included . . .Patti Davis Anne RiceCarolyn See Marg HelgenbergerMelissa Gilbert Carnie WilsonRosanna Arquette Mariel HemingwayAnna Quindlen Angelica HustonMary Kay Place Ruby DeeFaye Wattleton Julianne MarguliesLily Tomlin Diahann CarrollCandice Bergen Marianne WilliamsonLorna Luft Whoopie GoldbergAlice Hoffman Cokie RobertsKathy SmithLinda Bloodworth Thomason
Natural Rivals: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the Creation of America's Public Lands
John Clayton - 2019
A poor immigrant, self-taught, individualistic, and skeptical of institutions, his idealistic belief in the spiritual benefits of holistic natural systems led him to a philosophy of preserving wilderness unimpaired.Gifford Pinchot founded the U.S. Forest Service and advised his friend Theodore Roosevelt on environmental policy. Raised in wealth, educated in privilege, and interested in how institutions and community can overcome failures in individual virtue, Pinchot’s pragmatic belief in professional management led him to a philosophy of sustainably conserving natural resources. When these rivaling perspectives meet, what happens? For decades, the story of their relationship has been told as a split between the conservation and preservation philosophies, sparked by a proposal to dam a remote Yosemite valley called Hetch Hetchy. But a decade before that argument, Muir and Pinchot camped together alongside Montana’s jewel-like Lake McDonald in, which was at the heart of a region not yet consecrated as Glacier National Park.At stake in 1896 was the new idea that some landscapes should be collectively, permanently owned by a democratic government. Although many people today think of public lands as an American birthright, their very existence was then in doubt, and dependent on a merger of the talents of these two men. Natural Rivals examines a time of environmental threat and political dysfunction not unlike our own, and reveals the complex dynamic that gave birth to America's rich public lands legacy.