In this inspiring memoir—the antidote to the “just quit your job and ditch all your belongings to backpack the world” mentality—a young woman explores how she took calculated risks to follow her dreams: traveling and living abroad without sacrificing stability and comfort. Helene Sula always knew she wanted to pursue something a little different from a “normal life”—not an outright rejection of the conventional path many of her peers embraced but one that empowered her to experience other cultures and corners of the globe.

The year before her thirtieth birthday, Jen Ruiz decided to change everything. Despite being professionally accomplished and contributing to the world as an attorney at a nonprofit, she had yet to achieve the most important goal, according to society: becoming a wife and mother. So, after more ghostings than a graveyard, tired of dating apps and sitting in a windowless office, Jen embarked on an epic challenge to send her twenties out in style. Twelve months, twelve trips, no excuses.

Despite what appeared to be a glamorous existence full of globetrotting adventures, behind the scenes, Anna felt invisible in her own life. Consumed by a marriage that left no space for her own desires and creativity, she chose to reframe the failure of her marriage as an opportunity to begin again.

Wedding planner Rosie is struggling with her grey, rain-soaked life in Ireland. When her landlord suddenly doubles the rent, Rosie is left with no choice but to pack up her family, two dogs, and possessions into a 20-year-old camper van and head off in search of her own happy ending in sunny Italy. While Rosie is determined to create the perfect life for her family in Italy, despite a hurricane, a raucous family dispute, and a little thing called a global pandemic to top it all off, she begins to realize that the Italian dream may be too big for her.

Steve Hoffman is a perfectly comfortable middle-aged Minnesotan man who has always been desperately, pretentiously in love with France, more specifically with the idea of France. To follow that love, he and his family move, nearly at random, to the small, rural, scratchy-hot village of Autignac in the south of the country, and he immediately thinks he’s made a terrible mistake.

Come to Paris, August 2021, when the City of Lights was still empty of tourists and a thirst for long-overdue pleasure gripped those who wandered its streets. After New York City emptied out in March 2020, Glynnis MacNicol, aged forty-six, unmarried with no children, spent sixteen months alone in her tiny Manhattan apartment. The isolation was punishing. A year without touch. Women are warned of invisibility as they age, but this was an extreme loneliness no one can prepare you for. When the opportunity to sublet a friend’s apartment in Paris arose, MacNicol jumped on it.

Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls) and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage.

Trauma, heartbreak, anxiety, and mourning are all parts of the human experience, and Josh Fletcher’s mission in life is to normalize the need to find a trusted professional with whom you can discuss all of life’s scariest aspects. Through the lens of four of his patients—Daphne, a wildly successful actor who still struggles to find contentment; Levi, an intim­idating bouncer with obsessive tendencies who’s trapped in a sex cult; Zahra, an anxious, people-pleasing doctor in the midst of unpacking serious trauma; and Noah, a shy newcomer with some major closet skeletons.

I learned a great many things on the hiking trails of America. One of the most important is that we all climb mountains. Every. Single. Day. I thought I was just hiking mountains. What I was really doing was learning valuable lessons that I could equate directly to life. Hiking thousands of miles over perhaps hundreds of mountains all over the United States teaches you a lot. With that said, you don’t have to be a hiker to enjoy any of these revelations.

Travel isn’t just about how many passport stamps you have—it’s about your mindset. In Wander Woman, Santos busts myths about who can travel, empowering women to uncover the confidence they need to see the world for themselves, by themselves. and giving them the lifelong tools to challenge your preconceptions, try something new, and get out of your comfort zone—whether that’s halfway around the world or just down the street.

Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we tarmacked, farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? In his vital, bewitching, inspiring classic, Robert Macfarlane sets out in search of the wildness that remains.

Christine discovered long distance backpacking while surfing the internet at work. She decided that day to attempt to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. One adventure led to another and a few years later she set out on the Wonderland Trail in Mt Rainier National Park. Her Rugged Outdoors Woman persona started as a joke, a nod to the outdoor adventurer that she wished to be. But in the years since, she has come into her own as a backpacker, rock climber, and trail runner. This book is a testament to the decision to name who you want to be and make it so.

On the eve of turning 30, terrified of being funneled into a life he didn’t choose, Jedidiah Jenkins quit his dream job and spent 16 months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. 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.

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is, honestly, overwhelmed. So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick's brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian.

In this personal journey, ultra-light backpacker and sought-after speaker Glen Van Peski shares the life lessons he has learned through years of lightening his pack and helping others. Adventures provide the richness and texture to a life well lived. So remain open. Keep saying "YES" to life's opportunities. Glen Van Peski helped revolutionize backpacking by creating ultralight equipment, which allows people to take less so they can do more in the wilderness. During decades of championing ultralight backpacking, Glen became aware that “take less, do more” is more than just a hiking slogan.

In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologizes his native land, explaining how a dusty hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up, as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question, and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame.

The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.

Pulitzer Prize, Biography, 2016. Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.

When she was suddenly given the opportunity of a new life in rural Jutland, journalist and archetypal Londoner Helen Russell discovered a startling statistic: the happiest place on earth isn't Disneyland but Denmark, a land often thought of by foreigners as consisting entirely of long, dark winters, cured herring, Lego and pastries. What is the secret to their success? Are happy Danes born or made?

When Edmund Hillary first conquered Mt. Everest, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was at his side. Indeed, for as long as Westerners have been climbing the Himalaya, Sherpas have been the unsung heroes in the background. In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world’s most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time.

The “mountain men” were the hunters and trappers who fiercely strode the Rocky Mountains in the early to mid-1800s. They braved the elements in search of the skins of beavers and other wild animals, to sell or barter for goods. The lifestyle of the mountain men could be harsh, existing as they did among animals, and spending most of their days and nights living and camping out in the great unexplored wilds of the Rockies.

From the highly acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts comes a collection of alternately playful and exquisite essays—including seven collected here for the first time—borne of a lifetime spent fishing.

For fans of The Lost City of Z, Walking the Amazon, and Turn Right at Machu Picchu comes naturalist and explorer Paul Rosolie’s extraordinary adventure in the uncharted tributaries of the Western Amazon - a tale of discovery that vividly captures the awe, beauty, and isolation of this endangered land and presents an impassioned call to save it.

Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life - from six weeks to four months to two years - to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Rolf Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel.

If you are planning on (or just thinking about) hiking the Appalachian Trail, this book is for you. Planning an Appalachian Trail thru-hike is overwhelming. I know. I spent months researching every question I could think of before starting the six-month journey. Even after all of that research, there were countless mistakes I made. This book is everything I wish I would have known before starting. Inside is a step-by-step guide to efficiently plan for a successful thru-hike. Complete with personal tips and experiences.

In this inspiring memoir—the antidote to the “just quit your job and ditch all your belongings to backpack the world” mentality—a young woman explores how she took calculated risks to follow her dreams: traveling and living abroad without sacrificing stability and comfort. Helene Sula always knew she wanted to pursue something a little different from a “normal life”—not an outright rejection of the conventional path many of her peers embraced but one that empowered her to experience other cultures and corners of the globe.

The year before her thirtieth birthday, Jen Ruiz decided to change everything. Despite being professionally accomplished and contributing to the world as an attorney at a nonprofit, she had yet to achieve the most important goal, according to society: becoming a wife and mother. So, after more ghostings than a graveyard, tired of dating apps and sitting in a windowless office, Jen embarked on an epic challenge to send her twenties out in style. Twelve months, twelve trips, no excuses.

Wedding planner Rosie is struggling with her grey, rain-soaked life in Ireland. When her landlord suddenly doubles the rent, Rosie is left with no choice but to pack up her family, two dogs, and possessions into a 20-year-old camper van and head off in search of her own happy ending in sunny Italy. While Rosie is determined to create the perfect life for her family in Italy, despite a hurricane, a raucous family dispute, and a little thing called a global pandemic to top it all off, she begins to realize that the Italian dream may be too big for her.

When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.

Lisa Anselmo wraps her entire life around her mother, a strong woman who is a defining force in Lisa's life - maybe too defining. When her mother dies from breast cancer, Lisa realizes she hasn't built a life of her own and struggles to find her purpose. Who is she without her mother - and her mother's expectations? Desperate for answers, she turns to her favorite city - Paris - and impulsively buys a small apartment, refusing to play it safe for the first time.

Come to Paris, August 2021, when the City of Lights was still empty of tourists and a thirst for long-overdue pleasure gripped those who wandered its streets. After New York City emptied out in March 2020, Glynnis MacNicol, aged forty-six, unmarried with no children, spent sixteen months alone in her tiny Manhattan apartment. The isolation was punishing. A year without touch. Women are warned of invisibility as they age, but this was an extreme loneliness no one can prepare you for. When the opportunity to sublet a friend’s apartment in Paris arose, MacNicol jumped on it.

Charlie knows he’s not the main character in his own story. He’s just another schmuck in the Ivy League looking to be somebody. He plays in a terrible jazz band, falls in love too easily, and struggles with the human being business. Written in a wry, comedic style, A Comedy of Nobodies: A Collection of Stories traces one fall semester in the lives of four typical but unforgettable university students who, as compensation for their existential anxieties, just want to feel understood.

When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he was about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history? Abroad in Japan charts a decade of living in a foreign land and the chaos and culture clash that comes with it. Packed with hilarious and fascinating stories, this book seeks out to unravel one the world's most mysterious and impenetrable cultures.

Deep in the African rain forest, near the legendary ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, an expedition of eight American geologists are mysteriously and brutally killed in a matter of minutes. Ten thousand miles away, Karen Ross, the Congo Project Supervisor, watches a gruesome video transmission of the aftermath: a camp destroyed, tents crushed and torn, equipment scattered in the mud alongside dead bodies - all motionless except for one moving image - a grainy, dark, man-shaped blur.

Among the women of Greek mythology, the witch Medea may be the most despised. Known for the brutal act of killing her own children to exact vengeance on her deceitful husband, Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, Medea has carved out a singularly infamous niche in our histories.