Travel Books

Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey

William Least Heat-Moon

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Editorial Review:

About a quarter century ago, a previously unknown writer named William Least Heat-Moon wrote a book called Blue Highways. Acclaimed as a classic, it was a travel book like no other. Quirky, discursive, endlessly curious, Heat-Moon had embarked on an American journey off the beaten path. Sticking to the small places via the small roads--those colored blue on maps--he uncovered a nation deep in character, story, and charm.
Now, for the first time since Blue Highways, Heat-Moon is back on the backroads. ROADS TO QUOZ is his lyrical, funny, and touching account of a series of American journeys into small-town America.

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

Matt Weiland, Sean Wilsey

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Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the bestselling editors of The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup comes an American road trip in book form: original writing on all 50 states by 50 of our finest novelists, journalists, and essayists

Inspired by the example of the legendary WPA American Guide series of the 1930s and '40s, now 50 of our foremost writers have produced original pieces of reportage and memoir that capture the 50 states in our time, creating a fresh portrait of America as it lives and breathes today.

At turns poignant and funny, and always insightful, these 50 writers tell us something lasting and revealing about each state through personal memory or contemporary reporting that captures the essential qualities that make each state its own. With an array of revealing facts and figures comparing the 50 states in a range of surprising measures (toothlessness, military enlistment, suicide), State by State is more than an anthology: It is a classic American road movie in book form.

Featuring original writing on all fifty states

Alabama by George Packer
Alaska by Paul Greenberg
Arizona by Lydia Millet
Arkansas by Kevin Brockmeier
California by William T. Vollmann
Colorado by Benjamin Kunkel
Connecticut by Rick Moody
Delaware by Craig Taylor
Florida by Joshua Ferris
Georgia by Ha Jin
Hawaii by Tara Bray Smith
Idaho by Anthony Doerr
Illinois by Dave Eggers
Indiana by Susan Choi
Iowa by Dagoberto Gilb
Kansas by Jim Lewis
Kentucky by John Jeremiah Sullivan
Louisiana by Joshua Clark
Maine by Heidi Julavits
Maryland by Myla Goldberg
Massachusetts by John Hodgman
Michigan by Mohammed Naseehu Ali
Minnesota by Philip Connors
Mississippi by Barry Hannah
Missouri by Jacki Lyden
Montana by Sarah Vowell
Nebraska by Alexander Payne
Nevada by Charles Bock
New Hampshire by Will Blythe
New Jersey by Anthony Bourdain
New Mexico by Ellery Washington
New York by Jonathan Franzen
North Carolina by Randall Kenan
North Dakota by Louise Erdrich
Ohio by Susan Orlean
Oklahoma by S.E. Hinton
Oregon by Joe Sacco
Pennsylvania by Andrea Lee
Rhode Island by Jhumpa Lahiri
South Carolina by Jack Hitt
South Dakota by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
Tennessee by Ann Patchett
Texas by Cristina Henríquez
Utah by David Rakoff
Vermont by Alison Bechdel
Virginia by Tony Horwitz
Washington by Carrie Brownstein
West Virginia by Jayne Anne Phillips
Wisconsin by Daphne Beal
Wyoming by Alexandra Fuller

and an afterword on Washington, D.C.: A Conversation with Edward P. Jones

Assassination Vacation

Sarah Vowell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 135 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

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.

In a Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 409 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bill Bryson follows his Appalachian amble, A Walk in the Woods, with the story of his exploits in Australia, where A-bombs go off unnoticed, prime ministers disappear into the surf, and cheery citizens coexist with the world's deadliest creatures: toxic caterpillars, aggressive seashells, crocodiles, sharks, snakes, and the deadliest of them all, the dreaded box jellyfish. And that's just the beginning, as Bryson treks through sunbaked deserts and up endless coastlines, crisscrossing the "under-discovered" Down Under in search of all things interesting.

Bryson, who could make a pile of dirt compelling--and yes, Australia is mostly dirt--finds no shortage of curiosities. When he isn't dodging Portuguese man-of-wars or considering the virtues of the remarkable platypus, he visits southwest Gippsland, home of the world's largest earthworms (up to 12 feet in length). He discovers that Australia, which began nationhood as a prison, contains the longest straight stretch of railroad track in the world (297 miles), as well as the world's largest monolith (the majestic Uluru) and largest living thing (the Great Barrier Reef). He finds ridiculous place names: "Mullumbimby Ewylamartup, Jiggalong, and the supremely satisfying Tittybong," and manages to catch a cricket game on the radio, which is like

listening to two men sitting in a rowboat on a large, placid lake on a day when the fish aren't biting; it's like having a nap without losing consciousness. It actually helps not to know quite what's going on. In such a rarefied world of contentment and inactivity, comprehension would become a distraction.

"You see," Bryson observes, "Australia is an interesting place. It truly is. And that really is all I'm saying." Of course, Bryson--who is as much a travel writer here as a humorist, naturalist, and historian--says much more, and does so with generous amounts of wit and hilarity. Australia may be "mostly empty and a long way away," but it's a little closer now. --Rob McDonald

French Milk

Lucy Knisley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Charming Paris Mother/Daughter Travelogue 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The Glass Castle author Jeannette Walls once told me that memoir should be universal, and I've kept that in mind ever since when I read them. What I think she meant is that while a memoir is specific to the storyteller in the details, anyone should be able to relate to it, somehow. As I read Lucy Knisley's French Milk, I was struck by her storytelling, but also her age, use of photography, and that I could never write such a book, though I too have traveled to Paris with my mother.

The fact that her divorced parents are on good terms, a fact she casually drops in, resonated with me, especially when her father comes to join them for a brief visit during their six-week trip. This would never happen in my divorced family, and it made me, briefly, jealous--again, this goes back to Walls's maxim; my life circumstances may not be the same as Knisley's, but hers caused me to reflect on my own. She also exhibits a particular pride and faith in her work (with the occasional doubts), one that I still struggle with in my early thirties. Her dedication to her art and the creation of this book are apparent. Other moments are brief but powerful, such as going up the Eiffel Tower on a particularly windy day, where Knisley writes, "You could feel the tower move in the wind and see the birds blown off course."

I was torn as to the value of the photographs she included; at first, I thought there was something unfair about it, but then I came upon one of her kissing a wall and realized there was no other way to capture that moment, at least, not so thoroughly. The photos are used sparingly, without comment, filling in gaps in her story, fleshing them out and creating what feels more like an intimate scrapbook than a memoir, albeit an accessible one.

French Milk is a travelogue, and as such, sometimes the details of each meal become less interesting toward the end. But it's Knisley's personality, and little details that make this book so charming, whether it's the odd characters she meets or her feeling low on a particular day or railing against a piece of bad art, going so far as to name the artist, who's made a rendition of Paris Hilton, by name.

I finished the book a bit jealous of Knisley's closeness with her mother, and impressed that she managed to finesse both the details and the bigger picture, a portrait of a young woman just starting out in "the real world," but taking a detour to a city full of pastries, lush dinners, cemeteries, art and adventure before she does so. French Milk will appeal to Americans who've, like Knisley, fallen for Paris, and those looking to recapture their college traveling days. As for me, I'm giving a copy to my mom, and hope that our travels are as fruitful.

Editorial Review:

Through delightful drawings, photographs, and musings, twenty-three-year-old Lucy Knisley documents a six-week trip she and her mother took to Paris when each was facing a milestone birthday. With a quirky flat in the fifth arrondissement as their home base, they set out to explore all the city has to offer, watching fireworks over the Eiffel Tower on New Year's Eve, visiting Oscar Wilde's grave, loafing at cafés, and, of course, drinking delicious French milk. What results is not only a sweet and savory journey through the City of Light but a moving, personal look at a mother-daughter relationship.

Blue Highways: A Journey into America

William Least Heat-Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 114 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

First published in 1982, William Least Heat-Moon's account of his journey along the back roads of the United States (marked with the color blue on old highway maps) has become something of a classic. When he loses his job and his wife on the same cold February day, he is struck by inspiration: "A man who couldn't make things go right could at least go. He could quit trying to get out of the way of life. Chuck routine. Live the real jeopardy of circumstance. It was a question of dignity."

Driving cross-country in a van named Ghost Dancing, Heat-Moon (the name the Sioux give to the moon of midsummer nights) meets up with all manner of folk, from a man in Grayville, Illinois, "whose cap told me what fertilizer he used" to Scott Chisholm, "a Canadian citizen ... [who] had lived in this country longer than in Canada and liked the United States but wouldn't admit it for fear of having to pay off bets he made years earlier when he first 'came over' that the U.S. is a place no Canadian could ever love." Accompanied by his photographs, Heat-Moon's literary portraits of ordinary Americans should not be merely read, but savored.

One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey (Annivers

Sam Keith, Richard Proenneke

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 104 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very inspiring book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book to read. I believe everyone will enjoy this and the story of this amazing person. Easy to read diary-like story of Dick Proenneke's 16-month life alone in a beautiful wilderness of Alaska. Page by page you'll be thrilled to continue on reading and it even gets better at the end. You'll probably stand up and clap your hands to this amazing man.

The Journey 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

One Man's Wilderness; ..... Well written, entertaining , I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure in beautiful Alaskan Wilderness .....

Preserving Alaska's Wonders 4 out of 5 stars.
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Preserving Alaska's Natural Wonder

Based on the 1960's journals kept faithfully by Dick Proenneck, an archetype of the Sierra Club's advocate, this book presents an amazing story with glorious color photographs. "I don't think a man knows what he can do until he is challenged," p. 211) concludes the man who hewed out a log cabin single handedly in the wilderness. This is a succinct statement of Proenneck's motivating philosophy of personal achievement. Readers follow his non-boastful narrative of trial and error during a remarkable 18-month sojourn in wild Alaska. His survival odyssey (physical and emotional) presents him as the quintessential Mountain Man.

Satisfied to rely on Nature to supply his basic needs (and more contemporary items being flown in at irregular intervals by a cheerful bush pilot, faithful Babe, Proennecke realizes his dreams of carving out a pioneer life in the wilderness near Twin Lakes. Several chapters are quite long but fall into natural, timely categories. I am always interested in How-to descriptions involving caareful planning and manual labor, so I found the BIRTH OF A CABIN chapter fascinating. Even many of his actual tools were made by his own hands, as he started from scratch; his rustic creation is now part of a State Park which tourists may admire 40 years later. The cabin, fireplace and chimney, and cache-on-stilts all bear testimony to his skill and craftsman dedication--proving that a determined man can carve out a hearth after his own heart.

A conscientious chronicler of his own activities (and thoughts) Dick used both his still and movie cameras to capture the cabin in various stages of completion, as well and the flora and fauna of the relatively unspoiled Alaska. With tongue-in-cheek humor he shares his attempts (successful and otherwise) to peacefully interact with the curious or persistent creatures who tried to share his digs and provisions. He seems to feel that critters are a lot like some people-- drawing stoic or amusing conclusions about his attempts to coexist. His gripes with the callousness of humans (seasonal hunters, flown in to bag moose, caribou and Dall sheep) indicate his deep awareness of the fragility of an environment and man's duty to preserve it intact as much as possible--not only out of respect for the animals that inhabit the area, but for future generations of tourists and residents. When he was flown out after his 18-month odyssey he realized that many of the smaller creatures would suffer Hand-Out withdrawal, now that Dick's Welfare was about to dry up. Hats off to a pioneering environmentalist who made us all Aware of Alaska's potential.

Sept. 2, 2008

Editorial Review:

To live in a pristine land . . . roam the wilderness . . . build a home. . . . Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. Here is a tribute to a man who carved his masterpiece out of the beyond.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away

Bill Bryson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 228 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the world of contemporary travel writing, Bill Bryson, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods, often emerges as a major contender for King of Crankiness. Granted, he complains well and humorously, but between every line of his travel books you can almost hear the tinny echo: "I wanna go home, I miss my wife."

Happily, I'm a Stranger Here Myself unleashes a new Bryson, more contemplative and less likely to toss daggers. After two decades in England, he's relocated to Hanover, New Hampshire. In this collection (drawn from dispatches for London's Night & Day magazine), he's writing from home, in close proximity to wife and family. We find a happy marriage between humor and reflection as he assesses life both in New England and in the contemporary United States. With the telescopic perspective of one who's stepped out of the American mainstream and come back after 20 years, Bryson aptly holds the mirror up to U.S. culture, capturing its absurdities--such as hotlines for dental floss, the cult of the lawsuit, and strange American injuries such as those sustained from pillows and beds. "In the time it takes you to read this," he writes, "four of my fellow citizens will somehow manage to be wounded by their bedding."

The book also reflects the sweet side of small-town USA, with columns about post-office parties, dining at diners, and Thanksgiving--when the only goal is to "get your stomach into the approximate shape of a beach ball" and be grateful. And grateful we are that the previously peripatetic Bryson has returned to the U.S., turning his eye to this land--while living at home and near his wife. Under her benevolent influence, he entertains through thoughtful insights, not sarcastic stabs. --Melissa Rossi

The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate

Michael Wallis

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The best-selling author of Route 66 and a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer celebrate America's first transcontinental highway in all its neon glory.

It began in 1913 with a glorious new highway—stretching across 3,389 miles and 13 states—that connected the bright lights of Broadway with the foggy shores of San Francisco. It was a magnificent and meandering road that enticed millions of newly motoring Americans to hop into their Model Ts and explore the fading frontier. The Lincoln Highway. It was the road of Gettysburg, Pretty Boy Floyd, Notre Dame, the Great Salt Lake, and the Gold Rush Trail. Once a symbol of limitless potential, it is now undergoing (as Route 66 did twenty years ago) a miraculous revival. With hundreds of new and rare photographs provided by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Michael S. Williamson, this ode to a bygone era guides us across the true spine of the country, exploring vintage diners, Art Deco buildings, and funky roadside attractions, all waiting to be discovered. 300 color illustrations.

Hamburger America: One Man's Cross-Country Odyssey to Find the Best Burgers in the Nation [DVD]

George M. Motz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

George Motz is an American Hero! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I love this book! I've been obsessed with Hamburger America since I saw the documentary on the Sundance Channel. The documentary makes most of the content tackling similar subjects on the Travel Channel, Food Network, History Channel, etc., seem like insipid, dumbed-down crap. It is beautiful to watch the small-time, low-key purveyors of American tradition talk about the simplicity of what they do. The book is a great read, with beautiful photographs and loving tributes to a vanishing America that's rapidly becoming standardized, corporate-ized,bland-ized, Wal-Martized, Starbucksized, Bush-ized, and stupid-ized. I keep it on my bedside.

I am tempted to take off a star because this sampling of American tradition was actually printed IN CHINA! Nothing against the Chinese, but this seems sad, in a way.

Reading the book and watching the video makes me hungry, but if you eat enough of this stuff, it will probably kill you.

Editorial Review:

Whether you're an armchair traveler, a serious hamburger connoisseur, or a curious adventurer up for a road trip, Hamburger America will be your guide to reclaiming this precious slice of Americana. No other food says “America” like the hamburger, and documentary filmmaker George Motz has made it his personal mission to save our nation's unique burger identity. He has traveled across the country in search of the best burger joints - those that have survived outside the fast-food mainstream - and has documented their rich histories and one-of-a-kind taste experiences. This edition of the book includes George Motz's 1 hour documentary “Hamburger America” that profiles 8 burger joints across the USA.