Explorer Memoirs

New York Times best-selling author Martin Dugard writes the first account of Columbus’s little-known last voyage. Columbus’ famed 1492 expedition wasn’t his last. After tough times, he was given one more chance. But this voyage didn’t have the fortuitous accidents of 1492. Instead it brought a shipwreck and more violence and mutiny than ever before - pushing an aging explorer to his limit.

Would you leave your job, sell your house, abandon your family and friends, and move to France to live on a boat? With no income, and no idea what the next day would bring? Probably not. But that's what Mike and Liz did, choosing to cast off from corporate life to live on and travel the waterways of France.

Without a map, 19-year-old Jake Ducey leaves behind a drug-filled life and college basketball scholarship to wander the world and prove we can find our dreams by following our heart. On the outskirts of civilization, often uncertain, without money and near death, he finds that everything he was seeking in the world was within him the whole time. Journeying from Guatemala to Australia, Indonesia to Thailand, and ending with fourteen days of silent meditation, he shows that our destiny is in reach if we only look within ourselves first.

37 years of flying provides material for a lot of stories. Daddyman’s Flying Adventures is a collection of personal experiences—about people, connections, and the opportunities and chance meetings woven into the fabric of life. There is joy in flying, and sharing the experience with others. This book is for anyone who finds the joy and freedom of flight alluring

In the fall of 1978, Ray Ordorica packed everything he thought he would need into his Toyota LandCruiser and drove north to Alaska. He came to a land he had never seen, to find something he wasn't even sure existed: a wilderness cabin he could use for a year or more to live, think, relax, read, and write. Ordorica found his cabin, fixed it up, and, although it was just an un-insulated 12- by 16-foot one-room log structure, he spent three winters in it in relative comfort.

The ultimate laugh-out-loud, good life, meet the eccentric locals, house-hunting, foodie, travel-tour, fun memoir. There were highs, heartbreaks and cliff-hangers as British-born author Diz White scrambled between the Cotswolds, looking for a bargain cottage, and Hollywood, taking every hilariously wacky acting job to earn the down payment. Her search doubles as a travel tour, taking in every delight of this area.

The extraordinary true story of a young Jewish art student who not just survived but resisted and saved hundred of lives—all while retaining his infectious zeal for life.

Letizia ha vent'anni quando subisce violenza da un professore della sua università. Una violenza che la priva di tutto: fiducia, spensieratezza, felicità. Da quel momento il dolore diventa parte di lei, e con il tempo compaiono anche attacchi di panico e disturbi alimentari a ricordarle quanto fragile sia diventata. Ma a volte basta una frase per cambiare tutto: "Non è un dono ciò che ti è successo, non è niente di bello. Ma è successo, e ora sta a te decidere come sfruttarlo per uscirne". Poche parole, semplici e luminose, che le riaccendono qualcosa dentro.

For swimming champion Nancy Stearns Bercaw, the pool was a natural habitat. But on land, she could never shake the feeling of being a fish out of water. Starting at age two, Nancy devoted her life to swimming, even qualifying for the 1988 Olympic Trials in the fifty-meter freestyle event. But nearly two decades later, when she hung up her cap and goggles, she was confronted with a different kind of challenge: learning who she was out of the lanes.

Après la publication du Cri du Kalahari, les zoologistes Delia et Mark Owens retournent en Afrique pour poursuivre leurs recherches. Dans la vallée de la Luangwa, région reculée de la Zambie, ils découvrent un éden sauvage, d’une beauté saisissante, où ils choisissent d’établir leur campement. Dans cet habitat naturel préservé, les hippopotames sillonnent encore les rivières et les éléphants se nourrissent des fruits des arbres.

In the late nineteenth century, close diplomatic relations existed between the United States and Russia. All that changed when George Kennan went to Siberia in 1885 to investigate the exile system and his eyes were opened to the brutality Russia was wielding to suppress dissent. Over ten months Kennan traveled eight thousand miles, mostly in horse-drawn carriages, sleighs, or on horseback. He endured suffocating sandstorms in the summer and blizzards in the winter. His interviews with convicts and political exiles revealed how Russia ran on the fuel of inflicted pain and fear.

In February 2019, award-winning writer Alex Roddie left his online life behind when he set out to walk 300 miles through the Scottish Highlands, seeking solitude and answers. In leaving the chaos of the internet behind for a month, he hoped to learn how it was truly affecting him - or if he should look elsewhere for the causes of his anxiety. The Farthest Shore is the story of Alex’s solo trek along the remote Cape Wrath Trail.

This is a testimony of faith, a story of how Jesus found Dawn, steeped in trauma and drug abuse, at the age of sixteen. Her walk of faith was not linear. She gives an honest and unfiltered look into the messy walk of a believer in Christ. Her story is one of hope. Despite all the odds, she became the person that no one would have thought possible. Her life story shows that every promise and word of God does prove true. No matter how far we stray back out into the "wilderness," he will still come for us.

An epic memoir from a man whose life is defined by exploration and innovation, The Sky Below re-creates some of the most unforgettable adventures of our time. From dramatic, high-risk spacewalks to author Scott Parazynski's death-defying quest to summit Mount Everest - his body ravaged by a career in space - listeners will experience the life of an elite athlete, physician, and explorer.

From well-known nature and adventure writer Dan Koeppel, whose work has appeared in Audubon and National Geographic Adventure, comes this true story of one bird watcher's incredible achievements.

As a scout, I needed all my five senses and every faculty of my mind at highest efficiency at all times. There is nothing that sharpens a man’s senses so acutely as to know that bitter and determined enemies are in pursuit of him night and day. In many lines of endeavor, errors may be repeated without fatal results, but in an Indian or savage war, or in a bitter feud, one little slip entails the “absent” mark forever against a man’s name. Solitude intensifies the perceptions. The herd with a thousand eyes trusts itself to a solitary sentinel with only two.

Memoirs of a Real Crocodile Hunter is my true story—one of adrenaline, survival, and a life shaped by Africa’s wildest frontiers. I’m a UK-based author who has spent years confronting the most feared predator on the continent: the Nile crocodile. What started as a peaceful fishing trip on the Shire River nearly ended in tragedy when I came face-to-face with a massive croc stalking me through the reeds. That moment changed everything.

This is an incredible story of adventure, human ingenuity, persistence, and resilience that shows firsthand what it is to adventure as a woman in the most dangerous of circumstance, what it is to be truly alone in the wild, and why someone would challenge themselves with an expedition others would call crazy. For Marquis, her story is about freedom, being alive and wild by nature.

How does a middle-aged wife, mother, and FBI agent pursue her dream of hiking 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine? Sticks Harsha balances her trekking ambitions against the responsibilities of daily life by hiking the Appalachian Trail in sections, one piece at a time. Across a thirteen-year odyssey, Sticks discovers the best of America: the stunning beauty and diversity of nature, the quaintness of small towns, the quirkiness of fellow hikers, and, above all, the generosity of strangers.

Après un coup de tonnerre du destin, Édouard Cortès choisit de se réfugier au sommet d'un chêne, de prendre de la hauteur sur sa vie et notre époque effrénée. À presque quarante ans, il embrasse femme et enfants, supprime ses comptes sur les réseaux sociaux et s'enfonce dans une forêt du Périgord pour un voyage immobile. Là, dans une cabane construite de ses mains, il accomplit son rêve d'enfant : s'enforester, rompre avec ses chaînes, se transformer avec le chêne, boire à la sève des rameaux.