Explorer Memoirs

In Driving Lessons, Christopher B. Strain sets out on a quintessential American road trip, exploring not just the roads and byways of the country but the road trip's place in American culture. Strain dives into the well of American travel writing, illuminating fascinating aspects of the road trip, such as how race, class, and gender shape the experiences of road trippers.

At the age of 19, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to "the world's longest, toughest horse race" - an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of 25 wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. On a whim, she decided to enter the race. Riders often spend years preparing to compete in the Mongol Derby, and many fail to finish. Rough Magic captures the extraordinary story of one young woman who forged ahead, against all odds, to become the first female winner of this breathtaking race.

A tale of adventures, as Lin and Larry Pardey continue their voyaging on board their self-built 24'4" cutter. They cross the exotic sea that spawned Homer's tales of Ulysses' Odyssey, then sail through the strife torn Red Sea and across the typhoon tossed waters of the Bay of Bengal.

Fifteen Years Late – A Soldier’s Guide to Surviving PTSD is a raw, powerful blend of lived experience and hard-won truth. Written from the voice of Gabe, a fictional soldier whose story echoes that of thousands of real veterans, this guide cuts past clinical language and into the soul of what it means to come home shattered — and rebuild anyway.

Beneath the Rubble offers a look at the tumultuous journey of a waste management entrepreneur whose life teeters on the brink of ruin. Facing the grim reality of an FBI arrest, Sheldon Mickelson's world unravels as the empire he built from the ground up threatens to collapse beneath him. This gripping true story dives deep into the heart of despair and disillusionment, painting a vivid picture of a man ensnared by legal battles and the looming shadow of financial ruin.

The stories in YIKES!… are true, taken from NASA reports—the FAA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System database—where pilots voluntarily and anonymously share their moments of bad judgment with the rest of us. Combining humor with insightful analysis, I examined their stories in my General Aviation News column, “Human Factors.” The chapters in YIKES!… are curated from my column. YIKES!… is humorous-yet-educational, entertaining-yet-inspirational for pilots and non-pilots alike.

Tras el fallecimiento de su padre, Rodrigo González, en el terremoto de 1985, Amanda Lalena Escalante, de seis años, se embarca junto con su madre en un avión con destino a la Ciudad de México, dando inicio a esta narración autobiográfica en la que Amanda, desde una profunda intimidad y honestidad, comparte su vida en momentos conmovedora y en otros dolorosa. En estas páginas, recorreremos su infancia marcada por la muerte de su padre y la compleja relación con su madre; las carencias económicas y emocionales que padeció.

In 1922, a 16-year-old Canadian girl, fed up with life in a French convent school, answered an ad for a travelling secretary. Tall, blonde, and swaggering with confidence, she might have passed for twenty. She also knew what she wanted: to become the first female to drive around the world. Her name was Aloha Wanderwell. By the age of 25, she had become a pilot, a film star, an ambassador for world peace, and the centerpiece of one of the biggest unsolved murder mysteries in California history. Her story defied belief, but it was true. Every bit of it. Except for her name.

Jacques Cartier prépare minutieusement son premier voyage. Comme il est soutenu par le roi de France, il parvient à lever son équipage. Le 20 avril 1534, il assiste à la messe et au sortir de l’église, toute la ville l’accompagne sur les quais. La foule en liesse veut assister au départ de ce grand personnage auquel rien ne résiste. Il appareille avec deux navires ornés du drapeau fleurdelisé, symbole de la royauté. C’est le départ pour la grande aventure. En moins de trois semaines d’une traversée assez tranquille, Jacques Cartier passe au large de Terre-Neuve.

Featured on an enormously popular 20/20 segment and the real-life inspiration for the cinematic classic Fly Away Home, this heartwarming story tells of the late William Lishman, a reclusive sculptor, who adopted a gaggle of geese, flew with them in an ultralight glider, and actually taught them to migrate—earning himself the nickname "Father Goose".

Cincuenta años después de la tragedia de los Andes, los sobrevivientes narran cómo lograron superar lo insuperable. El 13 de octubre de 1972 un avión de la Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya se estrelló en la cordillera de los Andes. Iban a bordo cuarenta y cinco personas, dieciséis de las cuales fallecieron en el acto o pocas horas después. Con alrededor de veinte años, a cuatro mil metros de altura y treinta grados bajo cero, sin abrigo ni comida, la relación entre víctimas y sobrevivientes se invirtió y solo regresaron con vida dieciséis.

In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition held a tantalizing appeal: no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first.

Slave Girls, a new series by bestselling author Louise Allen, reveals a shocking modern-day scandal of County Lines–the single most dangerous form of systematic child abuse prevalent today.

In 2019, Landen Hoffmann was thrown from the third-floor balcony of the largest mall in America—a 39-foot drop onto a concrete foundation. Medical professionals who happened to be at that exact place at that exact time found Landen lifeless—no breathing and no pulse. However Landen’s mother, Kari Hoffmann, immediately began praying and pleading for everyone in the mall to pray for her son.

Imagine a young doctor, trained in the latest medical knowledge and state-of-the-art equipment, suddenly transported back to one of the world’s most isolated and unforgiving environments - Nome, Alaska. That’s what happen to Dr. Sims. His plans to become a pediatric surgeon were drastically changed when, on the eve of being drafted into the army to serve as a MASH surgeon in Vietnam, he was offered a commission in the US Public Health for assignment in Anchorage, Alaska, where he was scheduled to act as chief of pediatrics at the Alaska Native Medical Center.

The bestselling author of No Shortcuts to the Top and K2 chronicles his three attempts to climb the world's tenth-highest and statistically deadliest peak, Annapurna in the Himalaya, while exploring the dramatic and tragic history of others who have made -- or attempted – the ascent, and what...

At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, Egan's book tells the remarkable untold story behind Edward Curtis's iconic photographs, following him throughout Indian country from desert to rainforest as he struggled to document the stories and rituals of more than eighty tribes. Even with the backing of Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan, it took tremendous perseverance. The undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate.

No one has commanded more universal comment and attention than the mystic who was known by the name of the Comte de St. Germain. A hero of romance, a charlatan, a swindler, and an adventurer; rich and varied were the names that showered freely upon him. Hated by the many, loved and reverenced by the few, time has not yet lifted the veil that screened his true mission from the vulgar speculators of the period. Then, as now, the occultist was dubbed charlatan by the ignorant; only some men and women here and there realized the power with which he stood possessed.

Nick Bullock is a climber who lives in a small, green van, flitting between Llanberis, Wales, and Chamonix in the French Alps. Tides, Nick’s second work, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut, Echoes. Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one’s life to climbing.

Take That Leap recounts Nigel's unanticipated adventures as an entrepreneur, emerging philanthropist, and avid outdoorsman. Get inside his head as he negotiates deals with the big boys and wrestles with the myths surrounding work-life balance and being an entrepreneur. Be there with him through the crazy challenges of simultaneously launching a start-up and a family all the way through to the even zanier challenges of becoming a steward of Pachamama (Mother Nature).