Travel Tips Audiobooks | Travel

The Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed

'Athletes in any sport stand to learn from Larsen's methods, and Futterman turns in a fluent yarn reminiscent of Plimpton and McPhee.' --Kirkus Visionary American running coach Bob Larsen assembled a mismatched team of elite California runners . . . the start of his decades-long quest for championships, Olympic glory, and pursuit of 'the epic run.' In the dusty hills above San Diego, Bob Larsen became America's greatest running coach. Starting with a ragtag group of high school cross country and track runners, Larsen set out on a decades-long quest to find the secret of running impossibly fast, for longer distances than anyone thought possible. Himself a former farm boy who fell into his track career by accident, Larsen worked through coaching high school, junior college, and college, coaxing talented runners away from more traditional sports as the running craze was in its infancy in the 60's and 70's. On the arid trails and windy roads of California, Larsen relentlessly sought the 'secret sauce' of speed and endurance that would catapult American running onto the national stage. Running to the Edge is a riveting account of Larsen's journey, and his quest to discover the unorthodox training secrets that would lead American runners (elite and recreational) to breakthroughs never imagined. New York Times Deputy Sports Editor Matthew Futterman interweaves the dramatic stories of Larsen's runners with a fascinating discourse of the science behind human running, as well as a personal running narrative that follows Futterman's own checkered love-affair with the sport. The result is a narrative that will speak to every runner, a story of Larsen's triumphs--from high school cross-country meets to the founding of the cult-favorite 70's running group, the Jamul Toads, from national championships to his long tenure as head coach at UCLA, and from the secret training regimen of world champion athletes like Larsen's protégé, American Meb Keflezighi, to victories at the New York and Boston Marathons as well as the Olympics. Running to the Edge is a page-turner . . . a relentless crusade to run faster, farther.

Matthew Futterman (Author), René Ruiz (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia

The Great Railway Bazaar is Paul Theroux's account of his epic journey by rail through Asia. Filled with evocative names of legendary train routes; the Direct-Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Delhi Mail from Jaipur, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Hikari Super Express to Kyoto and the Trans-Siberian Express; it describes the many places, cultures, sights and sounds he experienced and the fascinating people he met. Here he overhears snippets of chat and occasional monologues, and is drawn into conversation with fellow passengers, from Molesworth, a British theatrical agent, and Sadik, a shabby Turkish tycoon, while avoiding the forceful approaches of pimps and drug dealers. This wonderfully entertaining travelogue pays loving tribute to the romantic joys of railways and train travel.

Paul Theroux (Author), Frank Muller (Narrator)

Audiobook

Stranger in the Forest

Outfitted with a pair of ratty sand shoes and a knapsack full of trade goods, Eric Hansen set off to cross the rainforest of Borneo, one of the last places on earth largely untouched by Western civilization. For seven months Hansen hunted wild pig, gathered roots, and lived among tribes whose longhouses were still decorated with the headhunting swords of their ancestors, completing one of the great adventures of our time.

Eric Hansen (Author), Richard Poe (Narrator)

Audiobook

50 Shades Of The USA: One woman's 11,000 mile cycling adventure through every state of America

'Just then, a train of thought rumbled into motion and a soft voice asked me a question. It was almost a whisper. ‘What are you doing here?’ it said. ‘You are building a career, Anna,’ came the reply from another more sinister voice. ‘But are you building a life?’ said the soft voice again. And for that I had no answer.' Disillusioned with corporate London life and with no previous experience as a long-distance cyclist, Anna decides to clamber atop a beautiful pink bicycle (named Boudica) and set out on an 11,000-mile journey on her own, through each and every state of the USA. Dodging floods, blizzards and electrical storms, she pedals side by side with mustangs of the Wild West, through towering redwood forests, past the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains and on to the volcanos of Hawaii. Along the way, she meets record-breaking grandmas, sings with Al Green at a gospel service and does her best to avoid becoming a grizzly bear's dinner. 50 Shades of the USA is a down-to-earth, heartfelt and hilarious account of an adventure through a country well-known, but far less well-understood. It is a stunning tale of self-discovery told through the eyes of a woman who couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to life, and more to America too.

Anna Mcnuff (Author), Anna Mcnuff (Narrator)

Audiobook

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

Last Days of the Bus Club

It's two decades since Chris Stewart moved to his farm on the wrong side of a river in southern Spain and his daughter Chlöe is preparing to leave for university. We find Chris, a local literary celebrity, using his fame to help his old sheep-shearing partner find work on a raucous road trip; cooking a TV lunch for visiting British chef, Rick Stein; and, most movingly, visiting famine-stricken Niger for Oxfam.

Chris Stewart (Author), Chris Stewart (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Peregrine

David Attenborough reads J. A. Baker's extraordinary classic of British nature writing. The nation's greatest voice, David Attenborough, reads J. A. Baker's extraordinary classic of British nature writing, The Peregrine. J. A. Baker's classic of British nature writing was first published in 1967. Greeted with acclaim, it went on to win the Duff Cooper Prize, the pre-eminent literary prize of the time. Luminaries such as Ted Hughes, Barry Lopez and Andrew Motion have cited it as one of the most important books in twentieth-century nature writing. Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J. A. Baker spent long winters looking and writing about the visitors from the uplands - peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons and waders that share the desolate landscape with them.

J. A. Baker (Author), David Attenborough, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart (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

Love With a Chance of Drowning

City girl Torre DeRoche isn't looking for love, but a chance encounter in a San Francisco bar sparks an instant connection with a soulful Argentinean man who unexpectedly sweeps her off her feet. The problem? He's just about to cast the dock lines and voyage around the world on his small sailboat, and Torre is terrified of deep water. However, lovesick Torre determines that to keep the man of her dreams, she must embark on the voyage of her nightmares, so she waves good-bye to dry land and braces for a life-changing journey that's as exhilarating as it is terrifying. This sometimes hilarious, often harrowing, and always poignant memoir is set against a backdrop of the world's most beautiful and remote destinations. Equal parts love story and travel memoir, Love with a Chance of Drowning is witty, charming, and proof positive that there are some risks worth taking. "A funny, irresistibly offbeat tale about the risks and rewards of living, and loving, with an open heart." - Kirkus Reviews

Torre DeRoche (Author), Candice Moll (Narrator)

Audiobook

Two Old Fools - Olé!

Never believe that life in a tiny Spanish mountain village is predictable. Vicky and Joe have finished fixing up their house and look forward to peaceful days enjoying their retirement. Then the fish van arrives, and instead of delivering fresh fish, disgorges the Ufarte family. The peace of El Hoyo is shattered. Packed with badly behaved humans and animals, irreverent humour and sunshine, 'Two Old Fools - Olé!' will make you laugh out loud.

Victoria Twead (Author), Jilly Bond (Narrator)

Audiobook

Walk Quietly: 58 Tips to Help You Prepare to Walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain

Planning to walk a Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain? This is the book for you. A collection of tips to help you plan, prepare, train, shop for, and walk the famous Camino de Santiago written by someone who spent 7 weeks walking the Via de La Plata route of the Camino de Santiago. You'll learn what gear you'll need, how to choose the right boots and break them in properly. You'll discover the best ways to Condition yourself to walk the Camino de Santiago. You'll discover what to wear on the plane and then to have in your pockets when you arrive in Spain. You'll be ready for a "typical" day on the Camino and you'll also be prepared for some of the changes that are coming your way, too. Plus, there are dozens of gorgeous photos taken in Spain by the author during his Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. Buon Camino!

Gregory A. Kompes (Author), Jeremy Arthur (Narrator)

Audiobook

MH370: Mystery Solved

On March 8th, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, with 239 people on board, disappeared into the dark of the night, never to be heard from again. The disappearance of MH370 has been described as the 'greatest mystery in the history of aviation'. Despite the efforts of an international investigation team, and millions of dollars spent searching the ocean bottom for the wreckage site, no one has been able to determine what really happened. Until now... For this book, three professional accident investigators, each with decades of real-world experience in crash dynamics, examined the available evidence. The results of their work reveal the actual sequence of events, and what really happened to MH370. This book uses plain language, easy to understand schematics, and clear photos of the actual wreckage to bring the evidence to life. Even those with little or no aviation connection will be able to understand and appreciate the validity of this eye-opening analysis. You will see that the official investigation was deficient. They missed, or misinterpreted, crucial evidence that was available on the recovered wreckage pieces. Therefore, they used incorrect assumptions about what was happening onboard MH370 when they calculated the boundaries for their search zones. This book will reveal why the multi-million dollar ocean bottom search efforts had almost no chance of success. You will be guided through a basic investigation and analysis process to show what caused MH370 to disappear from radar, and to fly on an unexplained and mysterious track that led to the southern Indian Ocean. Many people have presented theories to try to explain the MH370 disappearance. This book shows you a basic investigation framework where theories that are based on speculation and guesswork can be invalidated. You are left with only one scenario that is totally based on confirmed facts. The known and indisputable evidence fits with only one chain of events, and that is the chain of events presented by the author. With this book, the mystery of MH370 has been solved.

Larry Vance (Author), Mike Manz (Narrator)

Audiobook

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