Book picks similar to
An Australian Birding Year by R. Bruce Richardson
natural-history
reserved
memoir-autobiography
Fly-Fishing the 41st: Around the World on the 41st Parallel
James Prosek - 2003
. . . he has taken us on an unforgettable journey.” — Thomas McGuane, author of The Cadence of Grass and The Longest Silence: A Life in FishingThe New York Times has called James Prosek "the Audubon of the fishing world," and in Fly-Fishing the 41st, he uses his talent for descriptive writing to illuminate an astonishing adventure. Beginning in his hometown of Easton, Connecticut, Prosek circumnavigates the globe along the 41st parallel, traveling through Spain, Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, China, and Japan. Along the way he shares some of the best fishing in the world with a host of wonderfully eccentric and memorable characters.
Daring to Fly: The TV star on facing fear and finding joy on a deadline
Lisa Millar - 2021
Big Sam: My Autobiography
Sam Allardyce - 2015
Before he took the England manager's job in July 2016, he was the second longest-serving manager in the Premier League, behind Arsene Wenger.Over the last 42 years, Allardyce has seen it all. The game he so loves is radically different to that in which he made his debut back in 1973, and in telling his wonderfully colourful story for the very first time, Allardyce talks intriguingly about the changing face of players and managers. His autobiography positively crackles with characteristic insight, honesty and hard-hitting opinions.
Blood on the Rosary
Sue Smethurst - 2019
Her twin brother. The secrets and lies that would tear them apart.There is a special bond that twins share, an ethereal connection that can't be put into words.Margaret Harrod shared that unique bond with her twin brother, Michael.As children they were inseparable, and at age 22, together, they gave their lives to the Catholic Church. Margaret became a nun and Michael a Salesian priest - it was the proudest day of their deeply religious parents' lives. Margaret cherishes those carefree childhood memories because the brother she adored is now in jail. Father Michael Aulsebrook pleaded guilty to multiple charges of molesting children, some as young as seven. And the unlikely whistle-blower was his courageous twin sister.It cost Margaret everything, but she couldn't stay silent any longer about the damage her brother was wreaking in his community. Margaret knows of that damage firsthand, having had that trust betrayed herself.Blood on the Rosary is a heartfelt, brave and inspiring memoir that tells Margaret Harrod's story - how she sacrificed everything she held dear in the pursuit of the truth and how she bravely fought her church and her community to bring paedophile priests, including her beloved brother, to justice.
A Season with Mom: Love, Loss, and the Ultimate Baseball Adventure
Katie Russell Newland - 2021
Along with black-and-white photographs, Katie shares letters written to her mom, who died of cancer before the two of them could go on this adventure of a lifetime together.A Season with Mom reminds readers that in life, as in baseball, sometimes you strike out, but sometimes you hit home runs. Even if the wait is longer than you’d hoped, dreams can come true.
Morality Tale
Sylvia Brownrigg - 2008
Burdened by her husband's ongoing negotiations with his angry ex-wife, the strains of looking after two stepchildren, and the lingering ghost of her own past betrayals, she finds that the life of a “second marryer” leaves much to be desired. As their friendship develops, so grows the shadow cast over her marriage, and when they make a late, illicit bay crossing on a ferryboat, the story gathers momentum under California's Mount Tamalpais. There, in the fabled Golden State, Sylvia Brownrigg shows how even a layman's Zen can lead to some important revelations about the need to look forward, not back. Bristling with honesty and wit, Morality Tale explores the triangular complications that can befall a modern marriage and the tragicomic forces that surround them.
Drive-Thru USA: A tale of two road trips
Rich Bradwell - 2014
From feasting on lobster on the rocky shores of Maine, to tracking down America's first pizzeria, no culinary stone goes unturned. On his quest, he finds the origin of hot dogs and the best barbecue in the south, he even tries soup made from peanuts. Joined by his long-suffering wife and haunted by a shambolic cross-country trip with his idiotic friend ten years earlier, he travels the length and breadth of the country, from the Florida Keys to Death Valley to the Rocky Mountains. In between he also falls in love with a clown and escapes alien abduction…ok, so that doesn't happen, but he does win a poker tournament in Las Vegas, hides from forest hippies in Georgia and falls out with an Australian. Rich's hilarious journey is littered with insights into a land best understood with one hand on the wheel and the other on a burger. "Hilarious! Drive-Thru USA is an adventure that makes you want to hit the road and drive." shuttersafari.com "Funny and perceptive, filled with insights and tales of amazing food" thewiredjester.co.uk
A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali: The Greater Sunda Islands
John MacKinnon - 1993
This book provides the first complete identification guides to the birds of this teeming tropical paradise. It gives descriptions of 820 regional species, illustrated in 88 specially commissioned color plates accompanied by notes detailing distinctive features and habitats. Entries cover nomenclature, plumage, markings, voice, global range, distribution and regional status, habits, and diet. The main text gives practical information on where to find many exotic species, citing major birdwatching locations. Introductory chapters discuss habitats, climate, land-use, and conservation concerns. Professional ornithologists and amateur bird watchers alike will find this the indispensable bird guide for eastern Malaysia and western Indonesia for many years to come. It is also an unrivalled source of information for casual travellers and ecotourists.
Loose Head: Confessions of an (un)professional rugby player
Joe Marler - 2020
From just about surviving the equivalent of 30 car crashes a game and crooning Adele for team spirit, to extensive field notes on the smell of the Scrum and the fine art of on-pitch relief. Then there's rugby's secret naked wrestling scene and how it was exposed.In my world, you never know how the ball will bounce...
Palm Trees in the Snow
Gloria Maria Strassburger - 2011
Strassburger begins her story with her parents' courtship in the golden years of pre-Castro Cuba. Her memoir recounts how her father's mental collapse and the communist revolution of 1959 uprooted her privileged childhood, both physically and emotionally. While providing substantial background on Fidel Castro's political revolt, Strassburger focuses on her family's experiences: The appropriation of their wealth and properties by the rebel regime. How families were torn apart as children were taken from their parents, forced to undergo communist indoctrination in Russia. Strassburger narrowly escaped such a fate through Operation Peter Pan, one of the largest political exoduses of children in history. Fearing for her future, her parents sent her out of Cuba-alone-in 1961. She relates the terror of being separated from her family and living in a foreign country without them. With affecting detail, Strassburger depicts her family's disintegration as her father spiraled into schizophrenia and communism forced them into exile. They left behind their loved ones, their homes, and their identities to face the hardships of a new life in the United States. Palm Trees in the Snow is a family's story of love, sacrifice, and survival. It is the author's tribute to a way of life lost forever and the embracing of a new one in America.
The Backwoods of Canada
Catharine Parr Traill - 1989
Like a full-colour footnote, select words and phrases throughout the book are links to websites that contain a wealth of additional information, pictures, definitions and historical information that gives context to the text. Now, with the click of a mouse, you can investigate life in the backwoods without having to leave your screen. Catharine Parr Traill’s The Backwoods of Canada, first published in 1836, gives an intimate and vivid picture of life in the bush country of Upper Canada. The series of letters that make up the book cover a period of two and half years. Though most were originally written to her mother, the letters were later compiled and published for an intended audience of future female emigrants. Traill’s account of life in the New World is cheerful and buoyant despite the hardships she relays—from the three-month journey to Upper Canada by ship to settling in the bush near Peterborough, Ontario. The letters offer remarkable insight into the skills a well-suited woman might be expected to learn, but the lasting appeal of her work is due to her astute observations of changing notions of class and economy, which reached well beyond her stated audience. Traill typified a new type of woman—the pioneer—and contributed much to an emerging understanding of Canada and Canadian identity. "'The Backwoods of Canada is one of the most frank and pragmatic pioneer accounts ever written and the first to examine women’s experience and the domestic economy of the settler’s life in any detail." —Camilla Gibb
Days Like These
Kristian Anderson - 2012
Thanks to the now famous YouTube video he made for her 35th birthday, he captured the world′s attention.Many of us didn′t know Kristian but we were so inspired by him that we felt like we did.His story is a lasting legacy to a brief but blessed life that will inspire others to know that even in the darkest moments, the light can shine through.
Magdalena Mountain: A Novel
Robert Michael Pyle - 2018
At the center of this story of majesty and magic in the natural world are three Magdalenas—Mary, a woman whose uncertain journey opens the book; Magdalena Mountain, shrouded in mystery and menace; and the all-black Magdalena Alpine butterfly, the most elusive of several rare and beautiful species found on the mountain. And high in the Colorado Rocky Mountain wilderness, sharing the remote territory of the Magdalena butterfly, lives the enigmatic Oberon, a reluctant de facto leader of The Grove, a diverse community of monks who share a devotion to Nature. Converging in the same wilderness are October Carson, a beachcomber-wanderer in pursuit of the alpine butterflies he collects for museums; James Mead, a young graduate student intent upon learning the ecology of this seductive creature; and the enigmatic Mary Glanville, who also seeks the butterfly but can't remember why. While the mystery surrounding Mary takes a menacing turn, their shared quest pulls them deeper into the high mountain wilderness culminating in a harrowing encounter on the stony slopes of Magdalena Mountain.
"Pyle has the ability to find wonder in the mundane and beauty in the unpretentious." —Library Journal
"Pyle's laid-back humor is appealing and his descriptive talents are poetic." —Publishers Weekly
Never Mind the Quantocks
Stuart Maconie - 2012
Culled from his monthly column in 'Country Walking' magazine, this book is full of the beautiful places, magical moments and wonderful characters Stuart has encountered on his travels.
Our Life Off the Grid: An Urban Couple Goes Feral
J. David Cox - 2015
With no skills and very limited knowledge they built a life in the middle of nowhere by reading how-to books and doing things the hard way. In this lighthearted memoir they face the challenges of constructing their own home, providing their own water and electricity, and learning to live with the wildlife, including their few, but eccentric neighbors. This ten year journey from soft city dwellers to independent and self sufficient country bumpkins includes accidents, adventures, misadventures, how-not-to’s and blood, sweat and tears. Their relationship evolves, as together they discover an immensely satisfying and totally new way of living life—off the grid.