Explorer Memoirs

Whether you’re facing your own hip replacement surgery or want to train for something like a triathlon, or you simply find yourself facing extreme challenges in your own life, this book is your guide to putting steel in your bones and doing what you may never have thought was possible.

Lab Girl meets Why Fish Don’t Exist in this “compelling blend of memoir, environmental writing, and scientific exploration” (Kirkus Reviews) from a young scientist studying penguins in Antarctica—a firsthand account of the beauty and brutality of this remote climate, the direct effects...

Rebecca Rusch has run the gauntlet of endurance sports over her career as a professional athlete—climbing, adventure racing, whitewater rafting, cross-country skiing, and mountain biking—racking up accolades and world championships along the way.

In this bold and unflinching memoir, Dovie King—an Ivy League-educated attorney and former law student advisor at Harvard Law—pulls back the curtain on a disturbing reality: sometimes, the people who know the law best are the ones most harmed by it. Survivor at Law is the story of a woman who wore two titles—lawyer and survivor—and discovered just how incompatible those roles can be in a system that punishes vulnerability and protects power.

The explorers featured in this volume include: Michele Dougherty, the mathematician who persuaded the Cassini mission to Saturn to make a diversion; Richard Fortey on his love of trilobites; Monica Grady, Meteorite Lady; neurosurgeon Henry Marsh on slicing through our thoughts; the Director of the British Antarctic Survey, Jane Francis; Jocelyn Bell Burnell describing how she missed out on a Nobel Prize; Brian Cox on quantum mechanics; and Nobel Prize winner John Sulston on why he thought it would be a good idea to sequence the human genome.

In this riveting memoir, renowned mountaineer Lou Dawson shares a tumultuous coming-of-age journey, from the flatlands of Texas to the Colorado mountains, steeped in the counterculture revolution of the 1960s. Amidst the towering peaks, Lou discovers an enduring love for alpine sports: scaling cliffs, topping summits, skiing powder snow. However, as the avalanches fall and lifestyle choices veer, his pursuit of adrenaline becomes a poignant struggle for meaning in a culture where nothing succeeds like excess.

Karen Wilkes, the granddaughter of an early 20th century hardrock miner, firmly grasps our hand and enthusiastically leads us into the remote and private world of a western mining town — Pioche, Nevada. We become insiders as we meet and form friendships with each of four miners and their families. We laugh, we struggle, and, "yes," we cry as we follow the lives and careers of these four strong, independent, but yet tender men.

Travel to the top of the world’s highest mountains with this this riveting and uplifting memoir that “is a rare mix of heart-stopping adventure and powerful self-reflection” (Johanna Garton, author of Edge of the Map) by Vanessa O’Brien, record-breaking American British explorer. Long...

The Copper Scroll Project tells the story of an Oklahoma arson investigator, Jim Barfield, who sets off on a decade-long quest to uncover Qumran’s secrets - the lost treasures of the Jerusalem temple - and show the world that the Dead Sea Scrolls were merely the tip of the archaeological iceberg. Could its secrets hold the keys to one of the greatest treasures in Israel’s history?

A powerful, deeply personal memoir of a young boy who watched his world fall apart—and chose to rebuild it with faith, strength, and love. In The Day Everything Changed, Joe Dawson Jr. shares the raw truth of growing up with a mother diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia, being raised under a heavy hand, and surviving the chaos of family trauma. From a childhood in Cleveland to a fresh start in Tennessee, and later Florida, Joe’s journey is one of transformation—from pain to peace, fear to faith, and survival to significance.

No American president has been more enthusiastic in appreciating the wilderness and in conserving our nation’s natural treasures than Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). And no other president wrote more about nature and his explorations of it than T. R., in scattered books, such as African Wilderness, and in his countless letters, including those collected in The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt).

John Greystone is a twenty year old who lands a summer job as a wildfire spotter in Sequoia National Park. A helicopter pilot drops him off on a remote mountain top with a promise to return an hour later with supplies. The next day the pilot has not returned and John is out of water.

Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noe Álvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother. A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Álvarez struggled to fit in. At 19, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories and his own, Álvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala.

Crimson Arrows: A Bowhunting Odyssey is narrated from the heart and soul of a bowhunter. Spanning three decades of his adventures, Eyad Yehyawi takes you through the emotions, heartbreaks, and successes from his earliest years in Iowa, to physically and psychologically challenging backcountry hunts in Alaska and Canada, to a breathtaking African safari. Every setback and missed opportunity is revealed, along with the rewards earned through hard work and perseverance.

Ed Stafford - adventurer extraordinaire and Guinness World Record holder for walking the length of the Amazon River - likes a challenge. Casting about for an adventure that would top the extraordinary feat he recounts in Walking the Amazon, Stafford decides to maroon himself on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. His mission: to survive for 60 days equipped with nothing - no food, water, or even clothing - except the video cameras he would use to document his time.

Mit feinem Gespür für historische Dramatik und psychologische Tiefe zeichnet Stefan Zweig das Porträt eines der kühnsten Entdecker der Menschheitsgeschichte: Ferdinand Magellan. In einer Zeit, in der die Welt noch voller weißer Flecken war, wagt Magellan das scheinbar Unmögliche – die erste Weltumsegelung. Doch Zweigs Biografie ist weit mehr als ein Abenteuerbericht. Sie ist eine literarische Hommage an den unbeirrbaren Willen, die visionäre Kraft und das stille Heldentum eines Mannes, der gegen Widerstände, Intrigen und Naturgewalten kämpft, um eine Idee zu verwirklichen.

Vanessa France had built a life that looked whole — wife, mother of four, hospice liaison — but inside, she was unraveling. Years of anxiety, bulimia, and addiction caught up, and when alcohol stopped working, she was left with the raw truth: something had to change. What she found was not another way to escape, but a way to return. On the yoga mat, in stillness and breath, Vanessa discovered the courage to face her pain, loosen her grip, and step into sobriety. Faith deepened. Motherhood softened. Healing began to weave her back together.

This was my journey, throughout the years of enduring deception by manipulation that contributed to me falling into a brain fog that led me into a downward spiral. My husband was cunning and knew just how to persuade me and alter who God created me to be. For fifty years he led me down a negative pathway, of what could have been the road of no return. Continuing in my cloudy behavior would have killed me, but Jesus intervened, showing me HIS truth that set me free!

The riveting true story of a legendary Spanish galleon that sunk off the coast of Colombia with over $1 billion in gold and silver—and one man’s obsessive quest to find it—from the New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth Roger Dooley wasn’t looking for the...

À 32 ans, GUIREC SOUDÉE prend le départ du Vendée Globe, la mythique course en solitaire sans assistance autour du monde. On connaissait de lui son épopée de cinq ans du pôle nord au pôle sud avec sa poule Monique, dont un hivernage au Groenland, ou ses transatlantiques à la rame aller et retour...