Top Travel eBooks

A Short History of Nearly Everything eBook by Bryson, Bill

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

Bill Bryson is one of the world's most beloved and bestselling writers. In A Short History of Nearly Everything, he takes his ultimate journey&#8212;into the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer. It's a dazzling quest, the intellectual odyssey of a lifetime, as this insatiably curious writer attempts to understand everything that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. Or, as the author puts it, "...how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also what happened in between and since." This is, in short, a tall order.To that end, Bill Bryson apprenticed himself to a host of the world's most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take subjects like geology, chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people, like himself, made bored (or scared) stiff of science by school. His interest is not simply to discover what we know but to find out how we know it. How do we know what is in the center of the earth, thousands of miles beneath the surface? How can we know the extent and the composition of the universe, or what a black hole is? How can we know where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out?On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating, eccentric, competitive, and foolish personalities ever to ask a hard question. In their company, he undertakes a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only this superb writer can render it. Science has never been more involving, and the world we inhabit has never been fuller of wonder and delight.<hr>&#8220;Stylish [and] stunningly accurate prose. We learn what the material world is like from the smallest quark to the largest galaxy and at all the levels in between... brims with strange and amazing facts... destined to become a modern classic of science writing.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;THE NEW YORK TIMES&#8220;Bryson has made a career writing hilarious travelogues, and in many ways his latest is more of the same, except that this time Bryson hikes through the world of science.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PEOPLE&#8220;Bryson is surprisingly precise, brilliantly eccentric and nicely eloquent... a gifted storyteller has dared to retell the world&#8217;s biggest story.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;SEATTLE TIMES&#8220;Hefty, highly researched and eminently readable.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;SIMON WINCHESTER, THE GLOBE AND MAIL&#8220;All non-scientists (and probably many specialized scientists, too) can learn a great deal from his lucid and amiable explanations.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;NATIONAL POST"Bryson is a terrific stylist. You can&#8217;t help but enjoy his writing, for its cheer and buoyancy, and for the frequent demonstration of his peculiar, engaging turn of mind.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;OTTAWA CITIZEN&#8220;Wonderfully readable. It is, in the best sense, learned.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;WINNIPEG FREE PRESS<hr>

Assassination Vacation eBook by Vowell, Sarah

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

"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 all kinds of lighter diversions along the way 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. "

A Moveable Feast eBook by Hemingway, Ernest

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

"You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil." Begun in the autumn of 1957 and published posthumously in 1964, Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast captures what it meant to be young and poor and writing in Paris during the 1920s. A correspondent for the Toronto Star, Hemingway arrived in Paris in 1921, three years after the trauma of the Great War and at the beginning of the transformation of Europe's cultural landscape: Braque and Picasso were experimenting with cubist forms; James Joyce, long living in self-imposed exile from his native Dublin, had just completed Ulysses; Gertude Stein held court at 27 rue de Fleurus, and deemed young Ernest a member of rue gnration perdue; and T. S. Eliot was a bank clerk in London. It was during these years that the as-of-yet unpublished young writer gathered the material for his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, and the subsequent masterpieces that followed. Among these small, reflective sketches are unforgettable encounters with the members of Hemingway's slightly rag-tag circle of artists and writers, some also fated to achieve fame and glory, others to fall into obscurity. Here, too, is an evocation of the Paris that Hemingway knew as a young man - a map drawn in his distinct prose of the streets and cafs and bookshops that comprised the city in which he, as a young writer, sometimes struggling against the cold and hunger of near poverty, honed the skills of his craft. A Moveable Feast is at once an elegy to the remarkable group of expatriates that gathered in Paris during the twenties and a testament to the risks and rewards of the writerly life.

Bicycle Diaries eBook by Byrne, David

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

The iconic musician presents a behind-the-handlebars view of the world's cities.

A Russian Journal eBook by Steinbeck, John

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

Steinbeck and Capa's account of their journey through Cold War Russia is a classic piece of reportage and travel writing. Just after the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, Pulitzer Prize ' winning author John Steinbeck and acclaimed war photographer Robert Capa ventured into the Soviet Union to report for the New York Herald Tribune. This rare opportunity took the famous travelers not only to Moscow and Stalingrad ' now Volgograd ' but through the countryside of the Ukraine and the Caucasus. Hailed by the New York Times as ""superb"" when it first appeared in 1948, A Russian Journal is the distillation of their journey and remains a remarkable memoir and unique historical document. What they saw and movingly recorded in words and on film was what Steinbeck called ""the great other side there ' #the# private life of the Russian people."" Unlike other Western reporting about Russia at the time, A Russian Journal is free of ideological obsessions. Rather, Steinbeck and Capa recorded the grim realities of factory workers, government clerks, and peasants, as they emerged from the rubble of World War II. Through it all, we are given intimate glimpses of two artists at the height of their powers, answering their need to document human struggle.

Climbing the Equator - Adventures in the Jungles and Mountains of Ecuador eBook by Shulman, Neville

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

Creatures from another time, volcanic mountains five million years old, Indian tribes surviving from the pre-Inca period, jungles and rainforests: Ecuador has all this and more. Only in its Galapagos Islands did Charles Darwin discover such a variety of extraordinary fauna that on his return to England he wrote his groundbreaking On the Origin of Species. With a philosophical yet humorous approach, Neville Shulman provides an in-depth background to Ecuador and its diverse peoples and tells intriguing stories of spectacular creatures and exotic flora, many not found anywhere else in the world. Neville Shulman is the author of Some Like It Cold and Zen Explorations in Remotest New Guinea. He is a Fellow of the Explorers Club and of the Royal Geographical Society.

At the Edge of Ireland eBook by Yeadon, David

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

In recent years, Ireland has enjoyed a newfound prosperity as Europe's most affluent nation. But tucked away in a far corner of the so-called ""Celtic Tiger,"" that other enduring and authentic country—that small, hidden place of simple magic and romance—still exists. Acclaimed travel writer David Yeadon and his wife, Anne, set out to find it.

On the Beara Peninsula of southwest Ireland, the Yeadons discovered their own ""little lost world,"" an enticing Brigadoon of soaring mountain ranges and spectacular coastal scenery, far removed from the touristic hullabaloo of Dublin, Killarney, and the Ring of Kerry. Here is the fabled ""Old Ireland,"" alive and well with music seisuins, hooley dances, and seanachai storytellers—a haven for searchers, healers, artists, and poets hardy enough to have braved the same narrow and winding mountain roads that keep the package-tour coaches out.

Bursting with color and life, At the Edge of Ireland is an intrepid wanderer's celebration of a magical, unspoiled, and unforgettable Éire.

8 Men and a Duck: An Improbable Voyage by Reed Boat to Easter Island eBook by Thorpe, Nick

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

Even with the wind on our side and all eight of us pulling, we had never yet managed to change the complex sails....Now we had to pull against the full force of the wind, in a storm, in the middle of the night.... So begins Nick Thorpe's unlikely journey to sail 2,500 miles from northern Chile to Easter Island on the Viracocha -- a boat made of reeds. Captain Phil Buck's desire to test the waters in this pre-Incan boat was twofold: to reopen the controversial migration theories of Thor Heyerdahl, who sailed his boat the Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 1947, and to have one heck of a time in the process. With a crew that includes a tree surgeon, a jewelry salesman, and two ducks, Thorpe embarks on an unnerving Pacific voyage that is by turns fierce and farce: from the bungled phone call that triggered a naval rescue alert to the constant race against the inexorable sinking of the soggy hull. A story of high tides and even higher stakes, 8 Men and a Duck is a tale of friendship, fate, and the unlikely distances people will travel for true adventure.

Coming into the Country eBook by McPhee, John

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

An unforgettable account of Alaska and Alaskans

Berserk in the Antarctic : Sailing to the World's Most Uninhabitable Continent eBook by Mercy, David

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

Three men in a boat - as never seen before..."This is suicide!" Manuel screamed frantically. So begins David Mercy's amazing true story of his journey to Antarctica in a 27-foot sailing boat. After a year travelling through South America to Tierra del Fuego, the only continent he had never visited beckoned to him across treacherous waters. Ships booked for scientific expeditions wouldn't take him, and tourist cruises didn't appeal. Then he saw a little boat in the harbour, its name inscribed on the hull with short lengths of black electrical tape: Berserk. Joined by the boat's young Norwegian owner and an Argentinian newlywed, he set sail with little idea of the tumultuous storms, mishaps and emergencies that loomed on a Shackleton-style voyage to the world's coldest, most dangerous and inaccessible continent. He brilliantly recounts their experience of the endless pounding of wind and waves, the bleak darkness, and the delicate balance of personalities where a mutiny was always in the air.

Culture Shock! Hawaii eBook by Massey, Brent

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

Product Description CultureShock Hawaii is a refreshing and insightful guide that will help you make Hawaii your home. Affectionately called the 'Rainbow Islands' by Mark Twain, the 50th state of the USA is well known by many but little understood by those who have only surface knowledge of its geography and its people. This book delves into the historical and cultural background of the various ethnic groups on the islands and guides you on how to relate with them, breaking down cultural barriers and fitting into their intricate society. Learn what 'ohana' means to the native Hawaiians, how Confucian teachings influence the values of the Chinese, what to expect at the Filippino Fiesta and Parade, and how to give a banzai toast at a Japanese wedding. Packed with useful advice and insightful tips, the book will help you tap into the practical aspects of living and working here, including how to have barbecues Hawaiian style! CultureShock Hawaii is the essential guide that will benefit anyone who wants to survive and succeed on the lovely islands of Hawaii. About the Author Brent Massey is a full-time, professional freelance writer. He lived in Japan for three years and experienced culture shock in Japan and reverse culture shock when returning to the US. He is married to a Japanese woman, so he isn't a stranger to crossing cultural boundaries. In the summer of 2004, he moved from his hometown in Colorado to Hawaii. Living in Hawaii, he was surprised to experience culture shock (again!) and saw the need for a book helping newcomers understand and adapt to the unique customs of Hawaii, which is heavily influenced by Asian culture, especially that of Japan. Brent Massey has a post-bachelors certificate in Asian Studies, a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science and has done extensive research on Hawaii's culture. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Japanese government Monbusho scholarship for his research proposal on foreign culture, international relations and personality type. Brent loves being abroad and has travelled throughout Asia and Europe. Some of the countries he has visited are Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and Myanmar. He is very excited and enthusiastic about CultureShock! Hawaii because there is so much cross-cultural information the public has yet to read about living in Hawaii.

An Odd Odyssey:California to Colombia by bus and boat, through Mexico and Central America eBook by Short, Glen David

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

An Odd Odyssey:California to Colombia by bus and boat, through Mexico and Central America

Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny eBook by Dash, Mike

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

From the bestselling author of Tulipomania comes Batavia's Graveyard, the spellbinding true story of mutiny, shipwreck, murder, and survival.It was the autumn of 1628, and the Batavia, the Dutch East India Company's flagship, was loaded with a king's ransom in gold, silver, and gems for her maiden voyage to Java. The Batavia was the pride of the Company's fleet, a tangible symbol of the world's richest and most powerful commercial monopoly. She set sail with great fanfare, but the Batavia and her gold would never reach Java, for the Company had also sent along a new employee, Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a bankrupt and disgraced man who possessed disarming charisma and dangerously heretical ideas.With the help of a few disgruntled sailors, Jeronimus soon sparked a mutiny that seemed certain to succeed -- but for one unplanned event: In the dark morning hours of June 3, the Batavia smashed through a coral reef and ran aground on a small chain of islands near Australia. The commander of the ship and the skipper evaded the mutineers by escaping in a tiny lifeboat and setting a course for Java -- some 1,800 miles north -- to summon help. Nearly all of the passengers survived the wreck and found themselves trapped on a bleak coral island without water, food, or shelter. Leaderless, unarmed, and unaware of Jeronimus's treachery, they were at the mercy of the mutineers.Jeronimus took control almost immediately, preaching his own twisted version of heresy he'd learned in Holland's secret Anabaptist societies. More than 100 people died at his command in the months that followed. Before long, an all-out war erupted between the mutineers and a small group of soldiers led by Wiebbe Hayes, the one man brave enough to challenge Jeronimus's band of butchers.Unluckily for the mutineers, the Batavia's commander had raised the alarm in Java, and at the height of the violence the Company's gunboats sailed over the horizon. Jeronimus and his mutineers would meet an end almost as gruesome as that of the innocents whose blood had run on the small island they called Batavia's Graveyard.Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Batavia's Graveyard is the next classic of narrative nonfiction, the book that secures Mike Dash's place as one of the finest writers of the genre.

Catfish and Mandala eBook by Pham, Andrew X.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and a wonderful, eye-opening sense of adventure

Contrails eBook by Thompson, Roger

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 54:11:24 GMT

In the last year of his career as an American Airlines captain, Roger Thompson met a man who claimed military experience identical to his own. The man was an imposter, but the incident inspired Contrails, a collection of aviation stories spanning Mr. Thompson