‘The Lunatic Express’ by Carl Hoffman, An Encouraging Read for Local Travelites

This article was published by our friends at thetravelword, who have agreed to its republication here. View the original article on their blog. By Cynthia Ord If local travel means putting oneself in the shoes of a local, then travel writer Carl Hoffman has earned status as an expert local travelite with a compelling story to tell. In his latest book, The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World via Its ...

Books on Greenland

Greenland inspires some truly beautiful writing - to prepare for your trip, I suggest three must reads. This Cold Heaven - 7 Season's in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich is about an Amercian's woman's seven year relationship with Greenland.  While at time she romances the hunter's lifestyle, her descriptions of the high North are stunning and captivating.  She is writing a new book called the Empire of Ice, the photos on her website worth browsing. Smila's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg is probably the best known book about Greenland; it was also made into a movie, which while enjoyable ...

Girl On the Rocks

Girl on the Rocks: A Woman's Guide to Climbing with Strength, Grace, and Courage By Katie Brown Our friend and international rock climbing superstar Katie Brown has published a book designed to teach and inspire women and girls who are new to the sport of rock climbing, want to delve more deeply into it, or are just curious about climbing but may be intimidated. It covers topics from the very specific physical side of the sport, to the more mental and psychological challenges that climbing presents.  Katie's humor ...

All the Pretty Horses

Cormac McCarthy completely mesmerizes with his dark and laconic prose in All the Pretty Horses.  Although this book takes place in Texas and Mexico in 1948, it captures the beauty, paucity, and unforgiving nature of life at the hands of wildness and almost eerily applies to any time when you feel a horse under you.  Don’t be surprised if you can’t put this book down, as McCarthy gasps imagination and harshness into a vivid landscape and cast of characters.  Available here.

Water: The Causes, Costs, and Future of a Global Crisis

Caldecott is a United Nations Environment Programme biologist where he focuses on "environmental disaster management." Reading his book on a recent flight from San Francisco to Mexico City got me thinking about oceans in a way I hadn't before. Often I read about global environmental crises and get the sense that the problems are too vast and overwhelming for me to engage with on a very meaningful level. What can I really do about cleaning up the world's oceans? Well, a lot as it turns out. ...

Arctic Grail

Sir William Edward Parry and Roald Amundsen were just two of the larger-than-life characters competing to be the first to the North Pole in the 1800s.  It's a history book but you'll probably forget that as you tear through this dramatic tale of polar expeditions.  A Canadian newspaperman before he began writing longer works, author Berton brings a journalist's flair for reportage and readability to his famous book. Parry's repeated attempts to discover the Northwest Passage - a sea route through the ice of the Arctic Ocean along the ...

Give-Back Solution

  We got this message from Paul Joss, of Building Bridges Coalition.  "Susan Skog is a talented author and also represents the humanitarian organization Engineers without Borders in the Building Bridges Coalition.  She has written a new book entitled "The Give-Back Solution" about people putting their time and talents to work volunteering around the globe.  The book features a section about the Building Bridges Coalition and some BBC member organizations and also shares many real-life stories of volunteer experiences.  She will be promoting the book around ...

Riding the Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean

A Guide to Fifty Extraordinary Adventures for the Seasoned Traveler One of the best travel books to cross our desk in 2008," according to the Wall Street Journal, this book was co-authored by Off the Radar friend and colleague Shannon Stowell of the Adventure Travel Trade Association and Don Mankin. The collection of travel stories also includes chapters on Bhutan and India written by Off the Radar's Christina Heyniger.  The form followed in ...

The Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux

Many people have called this book timeless, and it does definitely feel as relevant and present today as it must have to readers in the 1970s. Theroux's journey begins in Boston and takes him to Patagonia by nearly every form of vehicular conveyance possible, including trains, planes and trucks.  Jouncing along on the train today is certainly not as difficult as it sometimes was in Theroux’s day,  but reading this book will add dimension and perspective to your experience.  We loved Theroux’s descriptions of ...

Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez

Our October 2008 photo contest was a shot from La Recoleta cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  It is here where Eva Peron, better known as Evita, was finally buried.  Santa Evita, tells the fascinating story of the life of her corpse.  After she died of cancer at the age of 33, her husband, Juan Peron had her body embalmed by a  renown Spanish embalmer.  He had arranged to have a grand memorial built to commemorate her life, but he was overthrown by ...

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism

Thomas Kohnstamm’s Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? is fast-paced, funny, and honest memoir about the not-so-glamorous life of a Lonely Planet travel guide writer in Brazil. Readers will enjoy Kohnstamm’s fresh and edgy writing style as he takes them along on his race to meet an impossible editorial deadline while facing many scandalous and compromising adventures along the way. The book generated a great deal of controversy when ...

Lost in Mongolia: Rafting the World’s Last Unchallenged River by Colin Angus

Colin Angus describes himself as a "full-time adventurer," who is dedicated to completing incredible feats in the most remote locations. In his second book, Lost in Mongolia, he recounts his five-month journey down the Yenisey River in Mongolia. With two companions, Angus takes on this 5,500 km river during the only time of year when it isn't frozen over. What ensues is a tale fraught with flash floods, inhospitable weather, and comical and frightening run-ins with a host of characters including the Mongolian military, Russian mob bosses, and local fisherman. ...

Hearing Birds Fly: A Nomadic Year in Mongolia by Louisa Waugh

This is the story of a British journalist who spends a year teaching English in the remote mountains of Western Mongolia. She recounts her experiences and explains how this life-altering experience changed her perspective of the people and the country. Hearing Birds Fly is an excellent introduction to the lives of the Mongolian people who live in this remote area and the timelessness of their existence. Waugh effectively explores the ...

Decade of the Wolf: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone by Douglas W. Smith and Gary Ferguson

The extermination of the wolf in most of United States in the same decade that they are reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park makes for an extraordinary story. Smith and Ferguson provide a fast-moving, insightful read about the legacy of the wolf in our country. They discuss why the issue of wolves is so divisive, how the plan to bring them back into Yellowstone was formulated and executed, and offer a fascinating account of how the reintroduction of the wolves into Yellowstone has revitalized the ...

Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison

Peter Allison left Australia at 19 to backpack through Africa. What started as a one-year vacation turned into seven years of guiding safaris, and a truckload of experiences to share. In each stand-alone chapter, he tells his stories in the comfortable, warm and entertaining manner that puts you right next him around the campfire. Allison describes hilarious interactions with his customers, and brings his experiences in exotic African locations to life, but is at his best when he’s reflecting on the magnificent ...

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah was a 13-year old boy in 1993 living in Sierra Leone when he was forced into the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) after his village was burned to the ground. Over the next two years, Beah and the other boys lived in starvation mode, and spent their time watching Rambo movies, sniffing cocaine mixed with gunpowder, and committing mass slaughter. Most child soldiers don’t ever make it out of these situations alive, but with some luck, fortitude, and the grace of the UNICEF, ...

Greyhound Diaries

This year we heard about all kinds of unconventional travel, and how people use travel not only to explore beautiful landscapes, but also draw attention to issues such as environmental conservation and poverty. Singer/songwriter and friend since undergraduate days in upstate N.Y., Doug Levitt, brings us another wonderful example of the Unconventional Issue-Oriented Adventure. Trading in his successful gig as a journalist working in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Iran several years ago, Doug recently completed his second tour through the wilds of America, mixing with the locals while traveling ...