Notes from My Travels

Notes from My Travels
Author: Angelina Jolie
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1416592016

From actress and activist Angelina Jolie comes the personal journals she compiled while performing humanitarian relief efforts in such countries as Sierra Leone and Tanzania, Pakistan and Cambodia. When award-winning actress Angelina Jolie took on a radically different role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), she was determined to document everything she witnessed and experienced. Here are her memoirs from her journeys to Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Ecuador, where she lived and worked and gave her heart to those who suffer the world’s most shattering violence and victimization. Here are her revelations of joy and warmth amid utter destitution...compelling snapshots of courageous and inspiring people for whom survival is their daily work, and candid notes from a unique pilgrimage that completely changed her worldview—and the world within herself.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself

I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2008-05-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0767931181

A classic from the New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body. After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens—as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item. Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended if at times bemused love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.

How to Travel with a Salmon

How to Travel with a Salmon
Author: Umberto Eco
Publisher: HMH
Total Pages: 259
Release: 1995-09-15
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 0547540434

“Impishly witty and ingeniously irreverent” essays on topics from cell phones to librarians, by the author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum (The Atlantic Monthly). A cosmopolitan curmudgeon the Los Angeles Times called “the Andy Rooney of academia”—known for both nonfiction and novels that have become blockbuster New York Times bestsellers—Umberto Eco takes readers on “a delightful romp through the absurdities of modern life” (Publishers Weekly) as he journeys around the world and into his own wildly adventurous mind. From the mundane details of getting around on Amtrak or in the back of a cab, to reflections on computer jargon and soccer fans, to more important issues like the effects of mass media and consumer civilization—not to mention the challenges of trying to refrigerate an expensive piece of fish at an English hotel—this renowned writer, semiotician, and philosopher provides “an uncanny combination of the profound and the profane” (San Francisco Chronicle). “Eco entertains with his clever reflections and with his unique persona.” —Kirkus Reviews Translated from the Italian by William Weaver

Notes from a Small Island

Notes from a Small Island
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2015-06-02
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0062417436

Before New York Times bestselling author Bill Bryson wrote The Road to Little Dribbling, he took this delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation of Great Britain, which has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie’s Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey.

Notes from the Burning Age

Notes from the Burning Age
Author: Claire North
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2021-07-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316498858

“ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ IN RECENT YEARS. THOUGHT PROVOKING, IMAGINATIVE AND PACKS A HELL OF AN EMOTIONAL PUNCH.” —Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time From one of the most imaginative writers of her generation comes an extraordinary vision of the future… Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age—a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven's world, such material must be closely guarded so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated. But when the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he's willing to go to save this new world—and how much he is willing to lose. “A riveting tale of subterfuge and deadly self-indulgence” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) from award-winning author Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age puts dystopian fiction in a whole new light. Also by Claire North: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Touch The Sudden Appearance of Hope The End of the Day 84K The Gameshouse The Pursuit of William Abbey

The Book of Marvels and Travels

The Book of Marvels and Travels
Author: Sir John Mandeville
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2012-09-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0199600600

In his Book of Marvels and Travels, Sir John Mandeville describes a journey from Europe to Jerusalem and on into Asia, and the many wonderful and monstrous peoples and practices in the East. A captivating blend of fact and fantasy, Mandeville's Book is newly translated in an edition that brings us closer to Mandeville's worldview.

Travels with My Aunt

Travels with My Aunt
Author: Graham Greene
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1412849012

The story of Henry Pulling, a retired and complacent bank manager, who meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time at what he supposes to be his mother's funeral. She soon persuades Henry to abandon his dull suburban existence to travel her to Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay. Through Aunt Augusta, one of Greene's greatest comic creations, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society; mixes with hippies, war criminals, and CIA men; smokes pot and breaks all currency regulations.

Vagabonding

Vagabonding
Author: Rolf Potts
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2002-12-24
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0812992180

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • With a new foreword by Tim Ferriss • “Vagabonding easily remains in my top-10 list of life-changing books. Why? Because one incredible trip, especially a long-term trip, can change your life forever. And Vagabonding teaches you how to travel (and think), not just for one trip, but for the rest of your life.”—Tim Ferriss, from the foreword There’s nothing like vagabonding: taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. In this one-of-a-kind handbook, veteran travel writer Rolf Potts explains how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Now completely revised and updated, Vagabonding is an accessible and inspiring guide to • financing your travel time • determining your destination • adjusting to life on the road • working and volunteering overseas • handling travel adversity • re-assimilating back into ordinary life Updated for our ever-changing world, Vagabonding is an indispensable guide for the modern traveler.

My Travels by Canoe

My Travels by Canoe
Author: William V. McNaull
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 518
Release: 2005-10-07
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1477172971

The story begins with the author as a child getting an unwitting education in the ways of moving water by playing in the creek that flowed by his boyhood home. The McNaull residence was located between a railroad embankment and a highway which were confining borders for a kid growing up. Finally aging and being permitted beyond these barriers lead to the discovery of canoeing. The first trials and errors of boating and a slow advance to different types of canoe trips are covered in the text. Then a birthday gift of a Pennsylvania stream map changed the authors canoe plans to give them some direction, and a goal to complete all of the canoeable waterways in the state was formed. At first the aim to do all of the creeks was not too seriously taken, but as the blue lines on the map were filled in, this indicated that it could be achieved. The pursuit of a lot of little creeks and unrecorded ones finally led to completion of the goal over thirty-three years of paddling. The struggle to complete the most difficult creek was a high point in the game, and a ten yard escape from going over a thirty foot waterfall was an event the author would never forget. The adventures of the course taken on tide waters, in swamps, through industrial zones, of hazards encountered, wildlife, and severe weather conditions are spread throughout the writing. Memories of the twenty-two canoes and kayaks used and of the large ships that his canoe had been up close to on the Delaware River and Lake Erie are mentioned for the record. The voyagers, who traveled with the author on unknown creeks and on week-long river journeys, brought life to the activities of the day. Some of the many interesting people met along the highway of water are included in the writings. In the end the author reviews some of the good and bad practices of canoe sport with the hopes of improving establishment thinking throughout the canoe-kayak fraternity. -William V. McNaull