Explorer Memoirs

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".

Led by Brigadier-General Charles Granville Bruce, the 1922 Everest Expedition storms the unforgiving slopes of Mount Everest armed with pioneering bottled oxygen and unbreakable resolve. George Mallory and his comrades push beyond the limits of human endurance, shattering altitude records by reaching over 27,000 feet—whilst battling howling winds, treacherous ice, and a devastating avalanche that claims brave lives.

At age 47, a mother of two, Debbie Moderow was not your average musher in the Iditarod, but that's where she found herself when, less than 200 miles from the finish line, her dogs decided they didn't want to run anymore. After all her preparation, after all the careful management of her team, and after their running so well for over a week, the huskies balked. But the sting of not completing the race after coming so far was nothing compared to the disappointment Moderow felt in having lost touch with her dogs.

Unexpectedly denied a visa to remain in the United States, Qanta Ahmed, a young British Muslim doctor, becomes an outcast in motion. On a whim, she accepts an exciting position in Saudi Arabia. This is not just a new job; this is a chance at adventure in an exotic land she thinks she understands, a place she hopes she will belong. What she discovers is vastly different. The Kingdom is a world apart, a land of unparalleled contrast. She finds rejection and scorn in the places she believed would most embrace her.

Leslie White knew she wanted more out of life - She found it in an unlikely place. Devastated from the loss of both parents to cancer nine months apart, Leslie vowed to change her life. She bought the neighbor’s old motorhome, found a job as a traveling histologist, and hit the road. But she found she could not trust the one person she was still holding onto.

When Richard “Frosty” Hesson was first approached by a young Jay Moriarty in 1990, the skinny kid with a sparkle in his eye only wanted one thing from the icon: His help in becoming a better surfer. Hesson, one of the first to conquer the huge waves off northern California known as Mavericks, recognized that the kid “had a vision.” Jay quickly demonstrated a resolve that reminded Frosty of his younger self, pursuing his goal with a seriousness far beyond his years. His attitude and work ethic earned Frosty’s respect and, eventually, his friendship.

Conquering Kilimanjaro embodies making a life-changing decision of saying yes to accomplish an insurmountable feat to most. After spending years desiring to climb, Jodi made her way across the Atlantic to ascend the majestic roof of Africa.

No Baggage is a memoir that will resonate with adventurers and homebodies alike - it's at once a romance, a travelogue, and a bright, modern take on the age-old questions: How do you find the courage to explore beyond your comfort zone? Can you love someone without the need for commitment or any expectations for the future?

Into the North Wind chronicles Jill Homer’s record-breaking bicycle ride across Alaska on the Iditarod Trail. Jill is one of those “accidental athletes” who stumbled into endurance racing shortly after she moved to Alaska in 2005. Ever since, she dreamed about the chiming of ice crystals at 30 below zero, black spruce shadows in the moonlight, the ethereal dance of the Northern Lights, and a journey that could take her deeper into this transcendental world - the 1,000-mile race to Nome.

With Straits, celebrated historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto subjects the surviving sources to the most meticulous scrutiny ever, providing a timely and engrossing biography of the real Ferdinand Magellan. The truth that Fernández-Armesto uncovers about Magellan's life, his character, and the events of his ill-fated voyage offers up a stranger, darker, and even more compelling narrative than the fictional version that has been celebrated for half a millennium.

David Crockett was an adventurer, a pioneer, and a media-savvy national celebrity. In his short-but-distinguished lifetime, this charismatic frontiersman won three terms as a US congressman and a presidential nomination. His 1834 memoir enjoyed frenzied sales and prompted the first-ever "official" book tour for its enormously popular author. Down-to-earth, heroic, and independent to a fault, the real Crockett became lost in his own hype, and he's been overshadowed by a larger-than-life, pop-culture character in a coonskin cap.

In 1911, Captain Robert Falcon Scott went back to the huge frozen wasteland of the Antarctic with the intention of reaching the South Pole, by a long and terribly arduous trek across the ice. On finally reaching the pole, Scott and his comrades were devastated to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegian explorer Amundsen. With temperatures of minus 30, they began their slow journey back to their base.

Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty and Los Angeles explores the artistic life of Tom Petty through his career-long relationship with Los Angeles and the many colorful characters and venues that inspired him and his music - including his work with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, Johnny Cash, Roger McGuinn, Leon Russell, Rick Rubin, and Del Shannon.

Reporter Diana Marcum is in crisis. A long-buried personal sadness is enfolding her - and her career is stalled - when she stumbles upon an unusual group of immigrants living in rural California. She follows them on their annual return to the remote Azores islands in the Atlantic Ocean, where bulls run down village streets, volcanoes are active, and the people celebrate festas to ease their saudade, a longing so deep that the Portuguese word for it can’t be fully translated.

Narrated by the author, this is the tell-all tale of hunting with the same crossbow for a decade. Detailed exploits of Bunjie the crossbow and lessons learned by the hunter who carried him make this book an enjoyable and informative listening experience. You will be a better hunter if you listen to the author read this book! Well, at least you will be a happier one.

Rod Halsted is the classic irrepressible Aussie larrikin. As soon as he could leave school, he headed straight to Kalgoorlie for adventure. Rod drank with Bob Hawke, did business with drug tsars, was rescued from the nick by Charles Waterstreet, hung with one of the Great Train Robbers, and wrote off endless cars. He has long since abandoned the drugs and conquered his alcohol addiction. This is his laugh-out-loud story.

When firefighter Pat Hardison ran into a burning home, he came out alive—but with injuries so severe, he was unrecognizable. Facing the Fire is his raw, unfiltered true story of survival, a record-breaking face transplant, and the God who never left him in the flames. For the next fourteen years, Pat lived behind skin grafts, pressure masks, and the constant stares of strangers—fighting to be the husband and dad his family needed when every mirror told him to quit. Then came an unexpected call from New York: a chance at the most extensive face transplant ever attempted.

Percy Fawcett was a mapmaker and an adventurer. In the early 1900s, he spent years mapping out the jungles of South America. Fawcett became obsessed with the idea of a lost city of gold hidden deep in the jungle.

Filled to the brim with stories of adventure, this book could only come from a man who's actually lived those events. Barry Cooper began his lifelong romance with tea at an early age, being raised amongst the tea fields of Kenya, East Africa. In Silver Spoons, he chronicles his ensuing forty-year quest for the perfect cup of tea. Cooper shares lessons learned while being trained in England's most esteemed tea house. He lays bare truths of the tea industry, including the unreported struggles between growers, buyers, blenders, and merchants around the world.

After being shot ten times by her fiancé and left for dead, Katrina Brownlee miraculously survived and became a decorated NYPD detective, a mentor, and founder of a nonprofit support group for at-risk women.