United States Audiobooks | Travel

Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields: Discovering America's Hallowed Ground

TRAVEL THROUGH A PIVOTAL TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY Jeff Shaara, America’s premier Civil War novelist, gives a remarkable guided tour of the ten Civil War battlefields every American should visit: Shiloh, Antietam, Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, New Market, Chickamauga, the Wilderness/Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg/Appomattox. Shaara explores the history, the people, and the places that capture the true meaning and magnitude of the conflict and provides • engaging narratives of the war’s crucial battles • intriguing historical footnotes about each site • photographs of the locations–then and now • detailed maps of the battle scenes • fascinating sidebars with related points of interest From Antietam to Gettysburg to Vicksburg, and to the many poignant destinations in between, Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields is the ideal guide for casual tourists and Civil War enthusiasts alike.

Jeff Shaara (Author), Robertson Dean (Narrator)

Audiobook

Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings

Jonathan Raban is about to sail alone from Seattle to the Alaskan Panhandle, following an ancient sea route rich in history, riddles, and whirlpools. It's the perfect setting for Raban's prodigious intellect, eloquence, and eye for detail. Passage to Juneau is not a travel thriller; the trip is hazardous, but that's not the point. Instead, Raban takes us on a journey of contemplation, literature, lore, mythology, and science. We learn about the canoe culture of the Northwest Indians; the British ship Discovery, which traveled the same route in 1792; and the physics of waves and turbulence, to name just a few of his far-ranging topics. And, as Raban finds himself in ominously personal waters (his father's illness, his own marriage, the daughter he left behind) it's also a journey of the heart.

Jonathan Raban (Author), Jonathan Raban (Narrator)

Audiobook

Noa Noa

Paul Gauguin war der erste europäische Künstler, der auf der Suche nach der Ursprünglichkeit des Lebens und der Kunst das Abendland verließ und sich einer 'primitiven' Kultur zuwandte. In 'Noa Noa' schildert der Maler sein Leben auf der Südseeinsel Tahiti, dem Land seiner Sehnsucht. Achim Höppner, mit Ausbildung an Kunstakademie, Universität und diversen Theatern, ist Mitbegründer und langjähriger Leiter des 'Theater in der Kreide' TIK in München-Neuperlach. Er arbeitet als Regisseur, Bühnenbildner, Dramaturg und Schauspieler. Zur Zeit ist er vorwiegend mit Studioarbeit für Synchron, Hörspiel, Feature, Roman- und Lyriklesungen beschäftigt.

Paul Gauguin (Author), Achim Höppner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Spaziergang durch San Francisco: Ein Hörvergnügen mit O-Tönen und Musik

San Francisco ist aufregend und abwechslungsreich. Eine faszinierende Stadt mit einem ganz besonderen Klang: das Rattern und Klingeln der Cable Cars, die Seelöwen am Pier 39, die Stimmen der Händler in Chinatown. Matthias Morgenroth hat auf seiner Stadterkundung mit dem Mikrofon die verschiedensten Klänge San Franciscos eingefangen und vor allem viele Gespräche mit den Bewohnern geführt: Tom und Mary erinnern sich an den Summer of Love, Laurie berichtet vom Zusammenleben der verschiedenen Kulturen und vom Nachtleben in Castro. Jim gibt Ausflugstipps für eine Fahrradtour, Robert zeigt ihnen seinen Diamond Room an der Columbus Ave., halb Galerie, halb Museum, und Braumeister Allen steigt mit ihnen in der San Francisco Brewery in seinen Braukeller. Eine sinnliche Alternative zum konventionellen Reiseführer mit vielen Geschichten, Klängen und Musik.

Matthias Morgenroth, Ulrike Winkelmann (Author), Henning Freiberg, Ingrid Gloede (Narrator)

Audiobook

Spaziergang durch New York: Ein Hörvergnügen mit O-Tönen und Musik

Die Stadt, die niemals schläft! Sofort hat man sie im Ohr: die Betriebsamkeit in der Wall Street, die Sirenen der Ambulances, den Strand von Long Island und das Rattern der Subway. Klänge, Musik, Bericht und viele Interviews mit New Yorkern schaffen ein lebendiges Stadtporträt, mit dem man vom Sofa aus die Metropole erleben kann: John erzählt von dem geschichtsträchtigen Greenwich Village, der russische Taxifahrer Alexander erinnert sich an seine erste Schicht, und Pernell Thomas beschreibt das quirlige Leben in der Bronx und spricht über das Leben in New York nach den Anschlägen vom 11. September. Ideal zur Einstimmung und Vorbereitung oder für das sehnsüchtige Erinnern auf dem heimischen Sofa. Fernweh garantiert.

Reinhard Kober, Ulrike Winkelmann (Author), Henning Freiberg, Ingrid Gloede (Narrator)

Audiobook

California Characters: An Array Of Amazing People

For forty-six years, Charles Hillinger journeyed around the world writing human-interest stories for the Los Angeles Times. He also helped to create and produce special features for the popular NBC television show Real People. From this work comes California Characters, a collection of stories of intriguing, eccentric, or simply amazing individuals profiled by Hillinger. Many of these people have strange occupations, live solitary lives in remote locations, or collect, build, or design an assortment of odd things. Characters like Down the Road Dugan, Sweetwater Clyde, Dr. Tinkerpaw, Spaceship Ruthie, and Warmly Ormly will delight, amuse, and perhaps inspire the listener with their tales and reasons why they've chosen to live the lives they do. "Climb aboard and join Chuck on his incredible odyssey throughout the Golden State as he revisits this wonderful cast of colorful characters. Take my word, you will be enchanted with every story that follows."-Otis Chandler, former publisher of the Los Angeles Times

Charles Hillinger (Author), Dennis McKee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Assassination Vacation

Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With "Assassination Vacation," she takes us on a road trip like no other--a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage. From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue--it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and--the author's favorite--historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are lighter diversions into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.

Sarah Vowell (Author), Conan O'brien, Dave Eggers, Jon Stewart, Sarah Vowell, Stephen King (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.

Jr. Roy Blount, Roy Blount, Roy Blount Jr. (Author), Paul Boehmer (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

The Lost Continent

In an ageing Chevrolet Chevette, he drove nearly 14,000 miles through 38 states to compile this hilarious and perceptive state-of-the-nation report on small-town America. From the Deep South to the Wild West, from Elvis' birthplace through to Custer's Last Stand, Bryson visits places he re-named Dullard, Coma, and Doldrum (so the residents don't sue or come after him with baseball bats). But his hopes of finding the American dream end in a nightmare of greed, ignorance, and pollution. This is a wickedly witty and savagely funny assessment of a country lost to itself, and to him. Travel through small-town America with Kerry Shale's popular BBC Radio 4 reading of Bill Bryson's comic travelogue.

Bill Bryson (Author), Kerry Shales (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic: A "Walk" in Austin

Kinky Friedman, the original Texas Jewboy, takes us on a rollicking, rock-and-rolling tour of his favorite city: Austin. Maybe you want to know which restaurant President Bush rates as his favorite Austin burger joint. Or maybe you want a glimpse of Willie Nelson’s home life (hint: Willie plays a lot of golf). Perhaps you want to get the best view of the Mexican free-tail bats as they make their nightly flights to and from the Congress Avenue Bridge. Or maybe you’re itching to learn the history of a city that birthed Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and countless other music legends. It’s all here in The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic, the slightly insane, amazingly practical, and totally kick-ass guide to the coolest city in Texas by none other than Kinky Friedman. This ain’t no ordinary travel guide, neither. “Like most other busy cities these days, Austin is not very effectively traversed by foot,” Kinky explains. “You must understand that ‘a walk in Austin’ is primarily a spiritual sort of thing.” As might be expected from this politically incorrect country-singer-turned-bestselling-mystery-author, the Kinkster’s tour includes a bunch of stuff you won’t ?nd in a Frommer’s guide, from descriptions of Austin’s notable trees and directions to skinny-dipping sites to lists of haunted places and quizzes and puzzles. So put on your cowboy hat and your brontosaurus-foreskin boots and head down south with the only book you need to get to the big heart of this great city. From the Hardcover edition.

Kinky Friedman (Author), Kinky Friedman, Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic: A

Kinky Friedman, the original Texas Jew boy, guides readers through the sights, sounds, food, and various and sundry oddities of his favorite Texas city. Known for live music and food, Austin is also the home of Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a number of other music legends. In this slightly insane and surprisingly practical guide to the coolest city in Texas, you ll find out which restaurant President Bush thinks is the best burger joint; you ll get a glimpse of Willie Nelson's home; and the best view of the Mexican free-tailed bats as they make their nightly flights to and from the Congress Avenue Bridge. This newest addition to the Crown Journeys series includes quizzes, puzzles, and bits of personal history you won't find in a Frommer's guide.

Kinky Friedman (Author), Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

Audiobook

United States Audiobooks in Travel