Essays & Travelogues Audiobooks | Travel

Tortillas to Totems: Motorcycling Mexico, the USA, and Canada - Sidetracked by the Unexpected

Sam Manicom’s dynamic fourth book is an enticing yet frequently challenging motorcycle journey across the dramatic landscapes of Mexico, the United States and Canada. Sam’s partner Birgit is no longer a novice motorcyclist – riding through southern Africa and South America turned her into a rider capable of facing any challenge. But Sam was worried. As they arrived into North America they had been travelling around the world by motorcycle for six years and he was beginning to think that North America was going to be easy; too easy in fact. Were all the challenges of travel in the developing world countries going to be missing? Sam couldn’t have been more wrong. Samuel Johnson wrote, ‘The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them how they are.’ After all, aren’t these some of the main reasons for going travelling? To experience as many different things and ways of life as possible? To discover new and wonderful things, but also to have preconceived ideas challenged. This true life story has more twists and turns than a Rocky Mountain Pass, and more surprises than anyone could expect. As it did them, at times it could challenge you too. Woven into this surprising story are canyons, cowboys, idyllic beaches, bears, mountains, Californian Vineyards, gun-toting policemen with grudges, glaciers, exploding volcanoes, dodgy border crossings and some of the most stunning open roads that a traveller could ever wish to see.

Sam Manicom (Author), Sam Manicom (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Robert MacFarlane's The Old Ways, a major new book from one of Britain's finest nature writers about landscape and the human heart. Read by Roy McMillan. In The Old Ways Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove-roads and sea paths that form part of a vast network of routes criss-crossing the British landscape and its waters, and connecting them to the continents beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the ghosts and voices that haunt old paths, of the stories our tracks keep and tell, of pilgrimage and ritual, and of songlines and their singers. Above all this is a book about people and place: about walking as a reconnoitre inwards, and the subtle ways in which we are shaped by the landscapes through which we move. Told in Macfarlane's distinctive and celebrated voice, the book folds together natural history, cartography, geology, archaeology and literature. His tracks take him from the chalk downs of England to the bird-islands of the Scottish northwest, and from the disputed territories of Palestine to the sacred landscapes of Spain and the Himalayas. Along the way he walks stride for stride with a 5000-year-old man near Liverpool, follows the 'deadliest path in Britain', sails an open boat out into the Atlantic at night, and crosses paths with walkers of many kinds - wanderers, wayfarers, pilgrims, guides, shamans, poets, trespassers and devouts. He discovers that paths offer not just means of traversing space, but also of feeling, knowing and thinking. The old ways lead us unexpectedly to the new, and the voyage out is always a voyage inwards.

Robert MacFarlane (Author), Roy McMillan (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Own Magic: A Reappearing Act

Read by the author. Despite what appeared to be a glamorous existence full of globetrotting adventures, behind the scenes, Anna Kloots felt invisible in her own life. Consumed by a relationship that left no space for her own desires, she chose to reframe the end of her marriage as an opportunity to begin again. Now, for every woman searching for her voice, Anna shares her story of starting over by trusting the magic that was always within. Anna’s innate sense of adventure and love for the unknown led her to move abroad, travel to eighty countries around the world, start a business, and marry a magician, all before her midtwenties. From the outside, her jet-setting lifestyle alongside her husband looked perfect. But as she explored deeper, and let each destination challenge, change, and shape her, Anna began to realize that perfection was just another illusion. Though she appeared to have all the freedom in the world, in reality, she was trapped inside a box, slowly disappearing. When her marriage ended, Anna decided to use her unhappy ending as a chance for a new beginning. Following Anna’s extensive travels from the bustling streets of Jaipur to the canals of Venice to the desert of Dubai, My Own Magic is a true coming-of-age story about a woman rediscovering the magic that was always inside her. Anna’s memoir is proof that travel can transform you, inspire you, and even save you.

Anna Kloots (Author), Anna Kloots (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Voyage of The Beagle

The Voyage of the Beagle - or, to give it its full title, Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage Round the World of H.M.S. Beagle Under Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. - is much more than merely an account of Darwin's scientific observations in his 1831-36 travels across the globe: it is fine travel writing in its own right. The Voyage of the Beagle foreshadows Darwin's life-changing On the Origin of Species, in its constant intellectual quest. Darwin - still only in his early twenties - never just accepts what he sees, but wants to understand it; he shares his thinking in clear, entertaining, witty, even lyrical writing. Read and abridged by highly-acclaimed evolutionist and writer, Richard Dawkins.

Charles Darwin (Author), Richard Dawkins (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bucket to Greece: Volume 1

When our hero, Victor, needs a pseudonym to avoid embarrassing his wife after deciding to pen a book about up-sticking to Greece, he dusts off his original name of V. D. Bucket, the name he was stuck with after being abandoned in a bucket as a baby. As Victor adapts to his adopted homeland, he battles an obsession with the exacting hygiene standards he demanded during his illustrious career as a public health inspector, against the rather less exacting standards of rural Greece. His attempts to master the complexities of the language lead to a number of embarrassing misunderstandings. Crossing paths with the local undertaker, Spiros, was a stroke of good luck for Victor and Marigold, since Spiros just happened to have a house to sell in the charming Greek mountain village of Meli. Of course Spiros didn't explain the strange arrangement of an Albanian living in the stone shed at the bottom of the garden, or mention the old lady's next door filthy habit of burning plastic every morning. He also failed to mention his late uncle had plunged to his death from the roof terrace, but did a wonderful job of selling them on the spectacular views.

V.D. Bucket (Author), David Vickery (Narrator)

Audiobook

Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreci

There are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the world-from altesse to zierfandler-but 80 percent of the wine we drink is made from only 20 grapes. In Godforsaken Grapes, Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss. Stemming from his own growing obsession, Wilson moves far beyond the "noble grapes," hunting down obscure and underappreciated wines from Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, France, Italy, the United States, and beyond. In the process, he looks at why these wines fell out of favor (or never gained it in the first place), what it means to be obscure, and how geopolitics, economics, and fashion have changed what we drink. A combination of travel memoir and epicurean adventure, Godforsaken Grapes is an entertaining love letter to wine.

Jason Wilson (Author), Jonathan Horvath (Narrator)

Audiobook

I Left My Tent in San Francisco

It's 1989, and Emma and her best friend Dee head to the USA to make their fortune. But completely inept and virtually unemployable, they discover that they can't even get a job in McDonald's.Forced to travel from California to New York with only pennies in their pockets, they bounce from scrape to scrape, surviving on their wits and the kindness of strangers. Bad luck and misfortune throw everything their way - snakes, earthquakes, black magic and incontinent dogs. They even get kidnapped by a sex-crazed midget in a Ferrari. This never happened to Jack Kerouac.A startlingly honest and ridiculously funny book, I Left My Tent in San Francisco tells the miraculous story of how the hapless pair made it back alive to tell the disastrous tale.

Emma Kennedy (Author), Emma Kennedy (Narrator)

Audiobook

Korea - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide To Customs & Culture

Apart from the headline-making politics, not much is known in the West about the Korean people and their ancient culture. Yet those who visit Korea, whether North or South, find a land of great interest. The Koreans, when not constrained by politics or other considerations, are friendly and sociable, and the peninsula has areas of outstanding natural beauty. The South's cities, if not always beautiful, are vibrant and alive. The North, while very different, is complex and fascinating. The standoff between the two countries of the Korean Peninsula is a legacy of the Cold War and a potential flashpoint for future conflict. Despite a brief thaw in relations a few years ago, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the north, a secretive single-party socialist state with a centralized industrial economy, conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south meanwhile, a free-market democracy, has become a rising economic power and, in 2010, became the first former aid recipient to join the OECD Development Assistance Committee. This new, updated edition of Culture Smart! Korea looks at the changing social and economic situation and provides real insights into thinking and behavior in both countries. It indicates the pitfalls to avoid and introduces listeners to some of the many delights of the Korean peninsula.

James Hoare (Author), Charles Armstrong (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

A CLASSIC FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF UNDER MAGNOLIA Frances Mayes, whose enchanting #1 New York Times bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun made the world fall in love with Tuscany, invites us back for a delightful new season of friendship, festivity, and food, there and throughout Italy.

Frances Mayes (Author), Frances Mayes (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Tent, the Bucket and Me

For the 70s child, summer holidays didn't mean the joy of CentreParcs or the sophistication of a Tuscan villa. They meant being crammed into a car with Grandma and heading to the coast. With just a tent for a home and a bucket for the necessities, we would set off on new adventures each year stoically resolving to enjoy ourselves. For Emma Kennedy, and her mum and dad, disaster always came along for the ride no matter where they went. Whether it was being swept away by a force ten gale on the Welsh coast or suffering copious amounts of food poisoning on a brave trip to the south of France, family holidays always left them battered and bruised.But they never gave up. Emma's memoir, The Tent, The Bucket and Me, is a painfully funny reminder of just what it was like to spend your summer holidays cold, damp but with sand between your toes.

Emma Kennedy (Author), Emma Kennedy (Narrator)

Audiobook

How Blue is My Valley

Humorous travel book about moving to France from IPPY and Global Ebook Award Winner Jean Gill 'Laugh out loud ... this autobiography from Welsh writer and photographer Jean Gill tells the tale of her first year in Provence - complete with challenging situations and thought-provoking musings. Jean takes readers on a tour of the beautiful Drome area, painting such a vivid picture of the fields of lavender, sunflowers and olive trees that you could almost be there with her.' - Living France Magazine The true scents of Provence? Lavender, thyme and septic tank. There are hundreds of interesting things you can do in a bath but washing dishes is not one of them, nor what writer Jean Gill had in mind when she swopped her Welsh Valley for a French one. Keen to move out of the elephant's stomach, that stew of grey mists called weather in Wales, she offered her swimming certificate to a bemused Provencale estate agent and bought a house with good stars and its own spring-water. Or rather, as it turns out, a neighbour's spring-water that is the only supply to the kitchen, which, according to the nice men from the Water Board, is emptying its dirty water directly and illegally onto the main road... and there's worse ... But how can you resist a village called Dieulefit, `God created it', the village 'where everyone belongs'. Discover the real Provence in good company ... Watch the trailer youtube.com/watch?v=o_Rrn4CGw5A..

Jean Gill (Author), Jan Cramer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans

“Betcha I can tell ya / Where ya / Got them shoooes. / Betchadollar, / Betchadollar, / Where ya / Got them shoooes. / Got your shoes on your feet, / Got your feet on the street, / And the street’s in Noo / Awlins, Loo- / Eez-ee-anna. Where I, for my part, first ate a live oyster and first saw a naked woman with the lights on. . . . Every time I go to New Orleans I am startled by something.” So writes Roy Blount Jr. in this exuberant, character-filled saunter through a place he has loved almost his entire life—a city “like no other place in America, and yet (or therefore) the cradle of American culture.” Here we experience it all through his eyes, ears, and taste buds: the architecture, music, romance (yes, sex too), historical characters, and all that glorious food. The book is divided into eight Rambles through different parts of the city. Each closes with lagniappe—a little bit extra, a special treat for the reader: here a brief riff on Gennifer Flowers, there a meditation on naked dancing. Roy Blount knows New Orleans like the inside of an oyster shell and is only too glad to take us to both the famous and the infamous sights. He captures all the wonderful and rich history—culinary, literary, and political—of a city that figured prominently in the lives of Jefferson Davis (who died there), Truman Capote (who was conceived there), Zora Neale Hurston (who studied voodoo there), and countless others, including Andrew Jackson, Lee Harvey Oswald, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Jelly Roll Morton, Napoléon, Walt Whitman, O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe, Earl Long, Randy Newman, Edgar Degas, Lillian Hellman, the Boswell Sisters, and the Dixie Cups. Above all, though, Feet on the Street is a celebration of friendship and joie de vivre in one of America’s greatest and most colorful cities, written by one of America’s most beloved humorists. Also available as a Random House AudioBook From the Hardcover edition.

Jr. Roy Blount, Roy Blount, Roy Blount Jr. (Author), Jr. Roy Blount, Roy Blount, Roy Blount Jr. (Narrator)

Audiobook

Essays & Travelogues Audiobooks in Travel