Adventurous Memoirs
These aren't just ordinary personal accounts. They're packed with adventure.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
For reasons even he didn't understand, Bill Bryson decided in 1996 to walk the 2,100-mile Appalachian trail. Winding from Georgia to Maine, this uninterrupted 'hiker's highway' sweeps through the heart of America's most beautiful and treacherous terrain. Accompanied by his infamous crony, Stephen Katz, Bryson risks snake bite and hantavirus to trudge up unforgiving mountains, plod through swollen rivers and yearn for cream sodas and hot showers.
Into Thin Air: a Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
"Into Thin Air" is the definitive, personal account of the deadliest season in the history of Mount Everest--told by acclaimed journalist and bestselling author of "Into the Wild" and "Eiger Dreams," Jon Krakauer...When he reached the summit in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in over 57 hours and was reeling from oxygen depletion. Twenty other climbers were pushing for the summit, and no one had noticed the clouds filling the sky.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered, and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State--and she would do it alone.
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
By the time she turned thirty, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern, educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want--a husband, a house in the country, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love and the complete eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be. To recover from all of this, Gilbert took a radical step.
A Moveable Feast: the Restored Edition by Ernest Hemingway
Published Posthumosly in 1964, "A Moveable Feast," Ernest Hemingway's classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, remains one of his most beloved works. Since Hemingway's personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined and debated the changes made to the text before publication. Now this new special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author intended it to be published...This restored edition brilliantly evokes the exuberant mood of Paris after World War 1 and the unbridled creativity and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In "Under the Tuscan Sun," she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.
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