By John Higham

After more than a decade of planning, John Higham and his wife leave their jobs and suburban lives and pack up their home and set out with their two young children to travel around the world. In the course of the next 52 weeks, they crossed 24 time zones, visited 28 countries and experience a lifetime of adventures.

By Amy Elizabeth Smith
Recommended By Sue Ann R., Head of Children's Services

“Details the author's yearlong journey organizing book clubs devoted to Jane Austen novels in six Central and South American countries, during which she discovered friendship and love, and learned about life and the power of Austen (From the Publisher).”

By Matthew Polly

This is the story of the childhood dream that led Polly to study martial arts at China’s famed Shaolin Temple, his initial disenchantement that turned into respect for the instructors, and the training that eventually led him to represent the Temple in international competitions.

By James Campbell
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

The author describes his journey to the far reaches of Alaska with his teenage daughter where the harsh environment tested them and their relationship.

By Karen Connelly

Recounts the author's journey to Burma, where she fell in love with a leader of the Burmese rebel army and faced a decision of whether or not to marry him and the dangerous world and lifelong cause that came with him.

By Amit Chaudhuri

An account of the author's two years in Calcutta depicts the city's vibrant architecture, diverse classes, and evolving politics while exploring its self-renewing culture and resilience against globalization.

By Peter Gethers

“...The extraordinary feline with the great Scottish Fold ears, is hightailing it to the south of France - and making pit stops all over the globe (with his favorite human, of course) ... (From the Publisher).”

By Peter Gethers

“At one time, publisher and author Peter Gethers was a confirmed cat hater … THE CAT WHO WENT TO PARIS proves that sometimes all it takes is paws and personality to change a life (From the Publisher).”

By Peter Gethers

“A good balance of laugh-out-loud and tear-jerking recollections: Gethers makes Norton immortal, delivering an affecting narrative that belongs on the bookshelf of all cat-fanciers (Kirkus Reviews).”

By Peter Hessler

The author details his 7,000 mile journey across northern China, following the Great Wall, from the East China Seat to the Tibetan plateau.

By Al Lockwood
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

One mega ship. Two mature travelers. Fourteen days cruising from Barcelona to Miami. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to cruise across the Atlantic Ocean with more than 4,000 passengers, this travel memoir is for you. It answers questions like: Are the crowds crushing? Is the food boring? Is the experience a “get me outta here” nightmare or a dream-come-true adventure? The warm, personal, often humorous observations of Sunny and Al Lockwood will introduce you to colorful characters, enchanting sunsets, and authentic experiences that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading.

By Tim Bauerschmidt
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

Describes how, after being advised to undergo extensive therapy for her cancer diagnosis, ninety-year-old Miss Norma decides to skip the hospital bed and instead travel the country with her retired son Tim, his wife Ramie, and their dog Ringo.

By Elizabeth Gilbert
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian
With Lisa Jones, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, November 30, 2010.  1 PM & 7:30 PM.

After a failed marriage Gilbert sets off to discover her true self by eating in Italy, praying in India and finding love in Indonesia.

Became the movie: Eat, Pray, Love.

By Tembi Locke
Recommended By Meghan F., Children's Services Librarian

An actress and TEDx speaker describes how her professional chef husband's Sicilian family didn't initially approve of him marrying a black American woman and the three summers she spent with them after he succumbed to cancer.

By Aspen Matis

After suffering an emotional trauma, the author seeks healing in the freedom of the wild, on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail leading from Mexico to Canada, during which she came to terms with her sexual assault and her parents disappointing reaction, and found strength, hope, love and acceptance.

By Sarah Glidden
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

“A graphic memoir chronicles the author's Israeli government sponsored trip through Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Masada and a non-chaperoned trip into the West Bank (From the Publisher).”

By Dawn Ahid MacKeen

Presents the inspiring story of a young Armenian’s harrowing escape from genocide and of his granddaughter’s quest to retrace his steps.

By Bill Bryson
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

“...A book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended, if at times bemused, love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away (From the Publisher).”

By Anand Giridharadas
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

“Reversing his parents' immigrant path, a young American-born writer returns to India and discovers an old country making itself new… (Giridharadas) paints an intimate portrait of a country becoming modern while striving to remain itself (From the Publisher).”

By Jon Krakauer
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

The story of Chris McCandless, a young man who embarked on a solo journey into the wilds of Alaska and whose body was discovered four months later, explores the fascinating allure that the wilderness has for the American imagination.

Became the movie: Into the Wild.

By Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence

An award-winning conservationist traces his efforts to save the endangered White Rhino, describing the brutal region where the last 15 were struggling to survive, the bureaucratic forces the author navigated to establish protections and his work as chief negotiator between the violent Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government.

By David Gessner
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

An environmental clarion call is told through a New York Times best-selling author’s wilderness road trip inspired by America’s greatest conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt.

By Conor Knighton
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

A CBS Sunday Morning correspondent presents a behind-the-scenery look at his year traveling to each of America’s National Parks, which turned out to be the road trip of a lifetime that changed his views on everything from God and love to politics and technology.

By Bruce Weber

“Based on his popular New York Times series, chronicles the author’s revelatory cross-country bicycle trip during the summer and fall of 2011 (From the Publisher).”

By Emmanuel Carrere
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

Offers a biographical novel of the Russian writer and political dissident and his unconventional adventurous life as a dissident in Soviet Russia, a bum in New York, a celebrated writer in Paris, and an opposition party leader in post-communist Russia.

By David Grann

Interweaves the story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, who vanished during a 1925 expedition into the Amazon, with the author's own quest to uncover the mysteries surrounding Fawcett's final journey and the secrets of what lies deep in the Amazon jungle.

By Jennifer Baggett

Three friends at a crossroads in their twenties quit their high pressure New York media jobs, leave their friends and everything familiar behind, and embark on a year-long backpacking adventure around the world.

By Elizabeth Bard
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

“In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman—and never went home again… (From the Publisher).”

By Colin Pyle
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

"Brothers Colin and Ryan take us with them as they travel through the diverse and extraordinary landscapes of China, from its border with North Korea, to the ancient Muslin city of Kashgar, across the vast empty spaces of the Mongolian grasslands, over the mountains and into the monasteries of Tibet (From the Publisher)."

By Dave Eggers
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian
With Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, May 14, 2019. 7:30 PM.

Traces the story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni-American in San Francisco, and his dream of resurrecting the ancient art of cultivating, roasting, and importing Yemeni coffee, an endeavor that is challenged by the brutal realities of Yemen's 2015 civilwar.

By Polly Evans

The stampeding true story of one woman’s journey from timorous equestrian novice to wildly whooping cowgirl—a madcap ride through Argentina that will fascinate horse lovers, travelers, and armchair adventurers alike.

By Doreen Oriorn

This humorous tale involves a husband and wife as they set out to travel cross–country in a converted bus and the marvelous places they visit and the interesting people they encounter along the way.

By Marnie O. Mamminga

The author reflects on the times her family spent at a cabin in the Northwoods that her grandparents constructed, drawing on memories, interviews, and photographs.

By Candice Millard

Chronicles the 1914 expedition of Theodore Roosevelt into the unexplored heart of the Amazon basin to explore and map the region surrounding a tributary called the River of Doubt, detailing the perilous conditions they faced.

By James Dodson

The author writes about his once–in–a–lifetime trip with his young son through the great cities of Europe and all the adventures that come their way.

By Muriel Pomerance

A Small Presence in the Universe addresses three crucial life periods in which we get our bearings, find our role in society, and then slowly detach ourselves from the bonds of the material world—all in search of spiritual fulfillment. This inspiring memoir is the powerful story of a woman who broke the mold and lived to tell about it.

By Paul Theroux

The journeys of Paul Theroux take place not only in exotic, unexpected places of the world but in the thoughts, reading, and emotions of the writer himself. A gathering of people, places, and ideas in fifty glittering pieces of gold.

By Marlena de Blasi
Recommended By Sue Ann R., Head of Children's Services

“A journalist, restaurant critic, and food consultant, de Blasi left her home, her grown children, and her job as a chef in St. Louis to marry Fernando, a Venetian she barely knew. In defiance of the cynics who think true love in middle age is crazy, her marriage flourished, as these two strangers made a life together (Library Journal).”

By Frances Mays

The author buys and restores an abandoned villa in the Tuscan countryside and brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy.

By Bill Bryson
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

"A laugh-out-loud account of an outrageously rugged hike - by the beloved comic author of Lost Continent and Notes from a Small Island. Published on the 75th anniversary year of the Appalachian Trail (From the Publisher)."

By Ed Stafford

"Describes the author's quest to walk the entire length of the Amazon River, offering details on the effects of deforestation and his encounters with both vicious animals and tribal members with machetes (From the Publisher)."

By Cheryl Strayed
Recommended By Meghan F., Children's Services Librarian , Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions
With Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, November 13. 7:30 PM.

A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe - and built her back up again.

By Bonnie Rose Ward
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

Leaving behind friends, family, and life as they know it, the Wards embark on a journey into the Alaskan wilderness that will change them forever.

By Alice Steinbach

The author sets out to "find" herself and visits such places as Paris, Oxford and Milan and discovers both inner and outer beauty along the way in this voyage of discovery.

By Peter Mayle

The author describes his experiences when he and his wife moved to a two-hundred-year-old French farmhouse, and shares his observations on the people and culture of Provence.