Book picks similar to
Alone Together: Sailing Solo to Hawaii and Beyond by Christian Williams
travel
sailing
non-fiction
nautical
The Voyage of the Northern Magic: a Family Odyssey
Diane Stuemer - 2002
A year later they had sold their business, rented out their house, and were setting out to circumnavigate the globe in a 40-year-old yacht. Their entire sailing experience consisted of six afternoons on the Ottawa River.Over the next four years, squeezed into quarters no bigger than the Stuemers’ old bedroom, the family of five would become seasoned mariners. They would battle deadly storms at sea and evade real-life pirates. Dodge waterspouts and lightning strikes and witness the bombing of the USS Cole. See the staggering beauty of Borneo’s rainforest, and its destruction from logging. Be arrested at gunpoint and entertained like visiting royalty. In all, they would visit 34 countries and cover 35,000 nautical miles.Almost everywhere they went, the family made lasting friendships. They learned to trust each other and embrace opportunity, and in Kenya they learned the true meaning of humanity. As Northern Magic pushed onward, many thousands followed the family’s progress in Diane’s dispatches to the Ottawa Citizen, and thousands more turned out to cheer when the amazing Stuemers came home.
Minefields: A life in the news game - the bestselling memoir of Australia's legendary foreign correspondent
Hugh Riminton - 2017
It is proof that, 'if you go looking for trouble, you'll probably find it'.
Over nearly 40 years as a journalist and foreign correspondent, Hugh Riminton has been shot at, blown up, threatened with deportation and thrown in jail. He has reported from nearly 50 countries, witnessed massacres in Africa, wars and conflicts on four continents, and every kind of natural disaster. It has been an extraordinary life. From a small-town teenager with a drinking problem, cleaning rat cages for a living, to a multi-award-winning international journalist reporting to an audience of 300 million people, Hugh has been a frontline witness to our times. From genocide in Africa to the Indian Ocean tsunami, from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to slave-trading in Sudan, Hugh has seen the best and worst of human behaviour. In Australia, he has covered political dramas, witnessed the Port Arthur Massacre and the Thredbo disaster and broke a major national scandal. His work helped force half-a-dozen government inquiries.Entertaining, deeply personal and quietly wise, MINEFIELDS is a compelling exploration of a foreign correspondent's life.
'His story is a triumph' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
Jonathan Franklin - 2015
A vicious storm killed his engine and the current dragged his boat out to sea. The storm picked up and blasted him west. When he washed ashore on January 29, 2014, he had arrived in the Marshall Islands, 9,000 miles away—equivalent to traveling from New York to Moscow round trip.For fourteen months, Alvarenga survived constant shark attacks. He learned to catch fish with his bare hands. He built a fish net from a pair of empty plastic bottles. Taking apart the outboard motor, he fashioned a huge fishhook. Using fish vertebrae as needles, he stitched together his own clothes.He considered suicide on multiple occasions—including offering himself up to a pack of sharks. But Alvarenga never failed to invent an alternative reality. He imagined a method of survival that kept his body and mind intact long enough for the Pacific Ocean to toss him up on a remote palm-studded island, where he was saved by a local couple living alone in their own Pacific Island paradise.Based on dozens of hours of interviews with Alvarenga and interviews with his colleagues, search and rescue officials, the medical team that saved his life and the remote islanders who nursed him back to health, this is an epic tale of survival, an all-true version of the fictional Life of Pi. With illustrations, maps, and photographs throughout, 438 Days is a study of the resilience, will, ingenuity, and determination required for one man to survive fourteen months, lost at sea.
Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman -- Summary, Review & Analysis
Save Time Summaries - 2013
Do not buy this summary & analysis if you are looking for a full copy of this fascinating book, which can be found back on the Amazon search page.Instead, we have already read Orange Is the New Black and pulled out some of the key points, story lines and insights to give you a comprehensive chapter-by-chapter summary & review. In doing so, unfortunately we do not have the space to include all of the many important ideas and anecdotes found in Orange Is the New Black. To get it all, you should first order the full book. Packaged together in an engaging and easily digestible format, this concise summary & analysis works best as an unofficial guide or companion to read alongside the book. ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK: MY YEAR IN A WOMEN’S PRISON by PIPER KERMAN -- SUMMARY, REVIEW & ANALYSIS As a naive 24-year-old looking for adventure, Piper Kerman got into a romantic relationship with a woman 10 years her senior who was running a heroin smuggling operation. For a short time, being the girlfriend of an older woman who was a drug smuggler seemed exciting and risqué to Piper. Puppy-like, she followed her girlfriend around the world and played the role of the "kept woman" in all sorts of exotic locales: Bali, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Although Nora didn't ask anything illegal of Piper in the beginning, the day came when Nora asked Piper to carry a suitcase full of cash into Brussels. Piper agreed to help. Several years later, when Piper was living in New York City, working as an art director and dating her future husband Larry, federal agents knocked on her door. In this summary, you will discover:•The prison work system, where inmates are often paid about as much for their labor as people who work in factories in developing nations. •Most of her new neighbors in Prison Dorm B were African-American; spending time with them helped Piper to recognize and overcome some of her more subtle racial prejudices.•Sometimes inmates would flirt with male officers; other times, male officers would give unwelcome and uninvited sexual attention to the women.•Most federal prisoners, both at the time of Piper's incarceration and today, are non-violent drug offenders.•Piper finally admitted fault and revealed a sense of remorse for her actions when she described herself as a party to the drug addictions of some of her incarcerated friends.You will get all this and much more!FROM START-TO-FINISH IN JUST 30 MINUTES!Here's your chapter-by-chapter guide to Piper Kerman's Orange Is the New Black that you can download right now!
One More Hour
Sleater-Kinney - 2021
Listen to this bold duo speak openly about the places, people, and movements that have shaped their career as well as the evolution of their creative and personal relationship. The bandmates and friends trace how their ambitions and their relationship have continued to inform each other and how they’ve navigated through the ups and downs for the sake of the band and their art. They move seamlessly through the different chapters of the band, sharing peeks behind the curtain, like the story behind their beloved autobiographical song "One More Hour," which they wrote about their own experience breaking up as a romantic couple and finding their way back to each other as friends and bandmates.They dive into their ongoing journey from their beginnings out of the Riot Grrrl scene in Olympia, Washington, to Carrie’s triumph with the TV show Portlandia, and on to their continued efforts to challenge each other and meet the political moment. It’s a deeply personal and exciting exploration of themes that have followed them throughout their career, like anxiety, activism, feminism, LGBTQ identity, motherhood, friendship, creativity, and change —all illustrated by evocative new recordings that’ll make you turn up the volume.This entry to the Words + Music series features eight exclusive new versions of songs spanning the band’s 10-album discography (so far), from "One More Hour" and 'One Beat" to "Path of Wellness" and "Worry With You" from their 2021 album Path of Wellness.©2021 Sleater-Kinney, LLC (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC
The Awakening of HK Derryberry: My Unlikely Friendship with the Boy Who Remembers Everything
Jim Bradford - 2016
He certainly was not seeking a son, but the small nine-year old boy sporting an overgrown buzz haircut and missing baby teeth desperately needed a dad. The businessman had no clue this boy was born when a car wreck took his mother’s life, or that he had been raised by his grandmother when his alcoholic father abandoned him at age five. He did not know the little boy was blind, had cerebral palsy, and plenty of other problems, or that he spent eighteen solitary hours in the restaurant most weekends while his grandmother worked the cash register. Sixteen years later neither Jim Bradford nor HK Derryberry could have fathomed how much this chance encounter would transform each other’s life. This is Jim’s extraordinary true story of an enduring friendship between a disabled boy with a remarkable hidden gift, and his best friend for life.
John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life
Kenneth Womack - 2020
Lennon's final pivotal year would climax in several moments of creative triumph as he rediscovered his artistic self in dramatic fashion. With the bravura release of the Double Fantasy album with wife Yoko Ono, he was poised and ready for an even brighter future only to be wrenched from the world by an assassin's bullets. John Lennon, 1980 isn't about how the gifted songwriter died; but rather, about how he lived.
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
Sebastian Junger - 1997
It was "the perfect storm"--a tempest that may happen only once in a century--a nor'easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on Earth have ever witnessed. Few, except the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat tragically headed towards its hellish center.
In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898
John Taliaferro - 2006
Without relief, two hundred whalers would starve to death by winter's end. Mercifully, an extraordinary missionary, Tom Lopp, and seven Eskimo herders embarked on a harrowing journey to save the whalers, driving four hundred reindeer more than seven hundred untracked miles. At the heart of the rescue expedition lies another, in some ways more compelling, journey. In a Far Country is the personal odyssey of Tom and his wife Ellen Lopp -- their commitment to the natives and the rugged but happy life they built for themselves amid a treeless tundra at the top of the world. The Lopps pulled through on grit and wits, on humility and humor, on trust and love, and by the grace of God. Their accomplishment would surely have received broader acclaim had it not been eclipsed by two simultaneous events: the Spanish- American War and the Alaska gold rush. The United States and its territories were transformed abruptly and irrevocably by these fits of expansionist fever, and despite the thoughtful, determined guidance of the Lopps, the natives of the North were soon overwhelmed by a force mightier than the fiercest Arctic winter: the twentieth century.
A Trip of One’s Own
Kate Wills - 2021
Luckily, her job as a travel journalist offered her the perfect opportunity to escape from it all. But this time, her restless jet-setting felt different. She felt more alone than ever before, particularly against a backdrop of never-ending hen dos, weddings and baby showers.So she began to search history for female travellers to inspire her. From a 4th-century nun to a sailor in disguise; from an opium-addicted author, to a globe-girdling cyclist, Kate retraces these incredible journeys on a quest to discover what her desire to be on the move is really about. And when Covid-19 grounds all her travel plans, she discovers that happiness can surprise you in unexpected places.We've all dreamed of leaving it all behind and striding off into the sunset to somewhere hotter, happier and quieter. Perhaps we've even got a little way down the road, before the logistics, the doubts and the ties that bind have caused us to turn back.
Unspoken: A Memoir
Luke Daniels - 2020
Up until now, words have never been in short supply. However, by and large, this unending tide of words has been someone else's. In real life he's an introvert who seriously doesn't even talk much, preferring to observe and mimic. That's his Comfort Zone. But Luke's own personal story? That's his Danger Zone. And frankly, he's terrified.But this story deserves to be told as much as it needs to be heard. So here we go.In 2016, the morning after Valentine's Day, Luke's son passed away from breathing issues complicated by congenital birth defects. He was 21 months old. And his name was Finnegan.This kind of loss is terrifyingly huge and scary, but the love and light in this story far outweigh the tragedy. Through comic book metaphors, Shakespeare references, and lilting Irish brogues, Luke tells the story of his too-short time with Finn. This is his tribute to storytelling, parenthood, and his rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed baby boy.
The Sky Below
Scott Parazynski - 2017
From dramatic, high-risk spacewalks to author Scott Parazynski’s death-defying quest to summit Mount Everest—his body ravaged by a career in space—readers will experience the life of an elite athlete, physician, and explorer.This intimate, compelling account offers a rare portrait of space exploration from the inside. A global nomad raised in the shadow of NASA’s Apollo missions, Parazynski never lost sight of his childhood dream to one day don a spacesuit and float outside the airlock. With deep passion, unbridled creativity, resilience, humility, and self-deprecation, Parazynski chases his dream of the ultimate adventure experience, again and again and again. In an era that transitioned from moon shots to the Space Shuttle, space station, and Mars research, Parazynski flies with John Glenn, tests jet packs, trains in Russia to become a cosmonaut, and flies five missions to outer space (including seven spacewalks) in his seventeen-year NASA career.An unparalleled, visceral opportunity to understand what it’s like to train for—and deploy to—a home in zero gravity, The Sky Below also portrays an astronaut’s engagement with the challenges of his life on Earth, including raising a beautiful autistic daughter and finding true love.
Permanently Suspended: The Rise and Fall... and Rise Again of Radio's Most Notorious Shock Jock
Anthony Cumia - 2018
A must-read for all diehard O&A fans, Permanently Suspended finally answers the questions that everyone has been waiting for: What really happened between Opie and Anthony? What was the reasoning behind the multiple firings? What prompted the tweeting about the Times Square NYC incident? What is the true account of the controversial allegations? What are the never-before-revealed details of Anthony’s stint in rehab? What does the future hold for his livestream podcast? These questions, and many more, will be answered. Permanently Suspended is a humorous, no-holds-barred account of the legendary career and life of Anthony Cumia—a blue collar guy who made his dreams come true, rising above all obstacles to become one of the most well-known and successful personalities in radio history.
Climbing with Mollie
William Finnegan - 2019
When his adolescent daughter, Mollie, proves to be a natural-born climber, Finnegan follows his newfound passion toward rock climbing. It’s an arduous apprenticeship, and it turns the parent-child dynamic on its head, as Mollie slips into the role of coach and mentor, while her father has to push his limits to keep pace.Finnegan takes listeners deep into the world of climbing–indoors and out, from climbing gyms to rock faces in Central Park, Mexico and Canada. Mollie, a wry and gentle soul who had shown no previous interest in sports, grows into a ferociously gifted climber, and she leads the way. What begins as a hobby for the father-daughter duo becomes an obsession, as they start taking every opportunity to slip on their climbing shoes, chalk up their hands, and attack problems, climber-speak for routes. They learn a new language of specialized moves and rock types, they seek tougher climbs and forge new memories–not just muscle memories. Through it all, they add a new dimension to their relationship. As he and Mollie start climbing outdoors, tackling harder and higher climbs, the endeavor increasingly takes on another aspect: danger, which climbers call exposure. Finnegan offers a candid and gripping look at risk, fear, and humility in the pursuit of a perilous hobby. While he navigates the boundaries of trust and adventure, as well as the far edge of his physical limits, he reminds listeners that to fall is to be human.This Audible Original includes an additional interview Finnegan did with his daughter, Mollie, for the story.
The Cobbler: How I Disrupted an Industry, Fell From Grace, and Came Back Stronger Than Ever
Steve Madden - 2020