Travel & Travel Writing

Even the laziest couch potato will be inspired to embark on a wilderness adventure after flipping through this book. Santella packs the pages with gorgeous photos and helpful camping tips that will be appreciated by novices and seasoned explorers alike. Whether you want to stay local or travel internationally, Fifty Places to Camp will motivate you to make your travel daydreams a reality.  —Jade

This engaging collection of essays about East Asia is written in a style that strikes a near-perfect balance between erudite and poetic, which is no surprise coming from award-winning author and poet Gary Snyder, a long-time practitioner of Zen. The Great Clod is the result of his 20-year love affair with East Asia, from the Pacific coast of Japan to the Great Steppes of Mongolia to the Yellow River of China.  —Aric

Creative Action Network has done a spectacular job in creating this compact book of art and history about our national parks. It can be so easy to forget about or dismiss these pieces of land held in trust, but See America inspires us to care more deeply for (and take greater advantage of) these priceless aspects of our national heritage. Take a look, I promise you’ll enjoy every page.  —Jax

Revisit the epic landscape of the Oregon Trail without having to worry about dysentery (digital or otherwise). Spurred on by his memories and his insatiable desire for adventure, Rinker Buck tackles the still-marked trail with his brother, a dog, and three cranky mules. First-hand experiences paired with historical facts make this book perfect to take along on your own cross-country road trip.  —Rachel

While working at an Alaska oil field, Ken Ilgunas had an idea: what if he hiked the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline from start to finish? Starting in Canada, ending in Texas, and trespassing on private property pretty much the whole way, he did just that. Travelogue, meditation on climate change, and tribute to the people living on the Great Plains, this is a thoughtful, entertaining book.  —Flannery 

Whether you have long been a fan of Annie Dillard or are coming to her for the first time, prepare to be stunned. Dillard has selected essays from a lifetime of work, ranging from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to An American Childhood, to illuminate her observations on the natural world and our very human place in it. Thoughtful, beautiful, harsh, real, fanciful, funny, and all out revealing—both in the ordinary and in wonder. What a gift.  —Melinda

Ferlinghetti’s rich life of world travel provides us the window through which to see this seminal poet, artist, and cultural icon. Peppered with sketches, poems, political commentary, and stream of consciousness observations, his journals span continents and decades, from Cuba in the 1960s to France, Italy, and Latin America at the turn of the century. Adventurous and thoughtful, damning and full of delight, this collection is essentially Ferlinghetti’s long-awaited memoir.  —Melinda

My family is from Alabama, and I have a deep love of the South, so I am thrilled that noted travel writer Paul Theroux has turned his eye to the Deep South for his first American travelogue. Exploring back roads and meeting residents from all walks of life, Theroux paints a warm, vivid portrait of the Southern states that revels in the good without shying away from the bad.  —Flannery

Most famous for his long free solos (climbing with nothing more than shoes and chalk), Alex Honnold takes us on his adventures around the world in his memoir Alone on the Wall. Giving us an inside look at a person operating in such a different plane, on a level of adrenaline that would give most of us a heart attack, Honnold leaves the reader gripping the pages of the book as he describes being alone 2,000 feet off the ground—and off course. His excitement and passion for climbing and exploring will leave you itching to get outside after reading this book.  —Centa

I love transit maps. There’s something about the idea of a map within a map, a secret system of passageways that open up whole worlds for those initiated in their ways, that captures my imagination. This fascinating book compiles transit maps, both current and historical, from all over the world, allowing us to see how the systems have changed and grown. This is a unique book that illuminates the history of public transit.  —Flannery