Travel Geography

After defeating the terrifying Necromuse and his mysterious orchestra, all Amelia Jones hopes for is a return to normal. But to her surprise, her class is sent to Europe for a month of study abroad. This seems like the perfect escape from all her problems, but not long after they land in Salzburg, Austria, danger haunts their steps. A street musician claims there is something wrong with Amelia’s magic, odd visions of the past appear around the city, and Amelia finds a strange message preserved in a museum—a message she fears was left by the Necromuse.

Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the listener from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness". This uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is.

If you have never ridden a mule along a 48-inch wide trail whose ledge drops off, in places, 700 feet to the Colorado River, straight down, you may have difficulty picturing the temporary insanity that leads otherwise responsible adults to sign away the remainder of their natural life expectancy just for the chance to see the Grand Canyon's natural beauty close-up.

Marco Polo (1254-1324), is probably the most famous Westerner who traveled on the "Silk Road." His journey through Asia lasted 24 years. He traveled the whole of China and returned to tell the tale, which became one of the world's greatest travelogues.

Croatia is a country blessed with an unusually rich history. It is also a great tourist attraction. This is a general introduction to Croatia, its history, culture, and tourist attractions. The book will benefit anyone who wishes to know more about the country, or who wishes to plan a trip to it.

Otto and Sheed are the local sleuths in their zany Virginia town, masters of unraveling mischief using their unmatched powers of deduction. And as the summer winds down and the first day of school looms, the boys are craving just a little bit more time for fun, even as they bicker over what kind of fun they want to have. That is, until a mysterious man appears with a camera that literally freezes time.

Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has long wanted to make history come to life for the children of his listeners. In this book, he travels back in time with fearless history teacher Rush Revere. With the help of his faithful talking horse, Liberty, Rush experiences American history as it happens, having adventure after adventure with exceptional Americans such as Paul Revere and George Washington.

In The Geography of Genius, acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places, like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley, to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity.

Liberty, my wisecracking horse, our old friends Cam, Tommy, Freedom, and I are off to meet some super-brave soldiers in the year 1775. Yep, that’s right. We’ll be visiting with the underdog heroes who fought for American independence, against all odds - and won! But not before eight very real years of danger and uncertainty. Be a part of Rush Revere’s crew as we rush, rush, rush into a time when British rule had become a royal pain, and rebellion was in the air.

In this passionate, playful, and indispensable guide, oyster aficionado Rowan Jacobsen takes listeners on a delectable tour of the oysters of North America. Region by region, he describes each oyster's appearance, flavor, origin, and availability, as well as explaining how oysters grow, how to shuck them without losing a finger, how to pair them with wine (not to mention beer), and why they're one of the few farmed seafoods that are good for the earth as well as good for you.

In Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils, the award-winning author David Farrier explores the traces we will leave for the very distant future. Modern civilization has created objects and landscapes with the potential to endure through deep time, whether it is plastic polluting the oceans and nuclear waste sealed within the earth or the 30 million miles of roads spanning the planet.

Adrian Martin and his family set out to sail the Great Loop, one of America's best kept boating secrets. But aside from the journey and the scenery, this book is about what it is like to live on a boat twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in all weather and in all conditions. More than anything, Adrian wants to relate with honesty and humor what this lifestyle is like for all the many people who have dreamed about living aboard and experiencing the cruising life. And to add to the authenticity, Adrian gets seasick riding in the back seat of an automobile, or at the carnival, or when ...

In The Geography of the Soul, you will join Dr. Royce Fitts on his stravage across the elegant English countryside following along the “oldest road in England and Europe”—a path formed in prehistory, by the Ice Age and before the English Channel existed, stretched across the European continent. More than that, you will join Royce in a most reflective journey of memories, dreams, and healings from his life and work on the American prairie.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson’s quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. His challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know.

From the beet fields of North Dakota to the wilderness campgrounds of California to an Amazon warehouse in Texas, people who once might have kicked back to enjoy their sunset years are hard at work. Underwater on mortgages or finding that Social Security comes up short, they're hitting the road in astonishing numbers, forming a new community of nomads: RV and van-dwelling migrant laborers, or "workampers".

Dive amongst the coral in the weird and wonderful Great Barrier Reef in sunny Australia, climb to the coldest heights of Mount Everest and strap in for some splashingly good fun down the rapids at The Grand Canyon. There are many more natural wonders to visit and so much more to learn and discover about them all ,so don't miss out on this global adventure!

"With humor and lyrical grace," Kathleen Norris meditates on a place in the American landscape that is at once desolate and sublime, harsh, and forgiving, steeped in history and myth (San Francisco Chronicle). A combination of reporting and reflection, Dakota reminds us that wherever we go, we chart our own spiritual geography.

Ferdinand Magellan's ideas were as big as the world. As it turned out, the world was bigger than he—and everyone else—thought.

Traveling along the Yukon as the salmon migrate, a four-month journey through untrammeled landscape, Adam Weymouth traces the fundamental interconnectedness of people and fish through searing and unforgettable portraits of the individuals he encounters. He offers a powerful, nuanced glimpse into indigenous cultures and into our ever-complicated relationship with the natural world.

In the works for more than twenty years, Interstate 69 has been both eagerly anticipated as an economic godsend and the center of a firestorm of protests by local environmentalists, farmers, ranchers, anarchists, and others who question both the wisdom of building more highways and the merits of globalization. Part history, part travelogue, Interstate 69 chronicles the last great highway project in America, introducing the people who have worked tirelessly to build it or stop it from being built, and the many places it would change forever.