Brownmiller, feminist author and a network television newswriter during the Vietnam era, recounts her journeys in Vietnam in the grand tradition of Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene, combining reportage, memoir, and adventure in a portrait of a people and a country we have fought but never known. Her descriptions of her encounters with Buddhist monks, Hanoi nightlife, and Saigon markets are interspersed with political insights on the country's history and current situation. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

A father and son travel across North America in a pick-up truck--talking, laughing, fighting, and bonding. After years of thinking he'd never have kids, Lee Gutkind became a father at forty-seven and, following his divorce, soon found himself taking over more and more of the primary care responsibilities for his son, Sam. As one of a growing number of "old new dads" (recent studies have shown that one in ten children are born to fathers over forty), Gutkind realized that he faced challenges-both mental and physical-not faced by younger dads, not the least of which was how to bond with a son who was so much younger than himself. For the past five years, Gutkind's approach to this challenge has been to spend several weeks of every summer "truckin'" with Sam, a term they define as a metaphor for spontaneity, a lack of restriction: "Truckin' means that you can what you want to do sometimes; you don't always need to do what's expected." What began as long, cross-country journeys in a pick-up truck, including one memorable trip up the Alaska-Canadian Highway en route to a writer's conference in Homer, Alaska, have in more recent years ranged farther afield, to Europe, Australia, and Tibet. Whether listening to rock and roll music, entertaining themselves with their secret jokes and code words, fishing for halibut, or fighting over tuna fish sandwiches and how best to butter one's toast, Lee and Sam have learned to respect one another. In the process of their travels and their adventures, Lee has also come to grips with the downside of middle age and the embarassment of "senior moments," while Sam has inevitably begun to assert himself and shape his own life. Interspersed with Sam's own observations and journal entries, Truckin' with Sam is an honest, moving, and often hilarious account of one father's determination to bond with his son, a spontaneous travelogue that will appeal to old dads, new dads, and women who want to know more about how dads (and sons) think and behave.

A memoir of spiritualism and self-discovery from the acclaimed, award-winning author At fifty, Alix Kates Shulman, author of the celebrated feminist novel, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen , left a city life dense with political activism, family and literary community, and went to live alone on an island off the coast of Maine. On a windswept beach, in a cabin with no plumbing, power, or telephone, she found that she was learning to live all over again. In this luminous, spirited book, she charts her subsequent path as she learned not simply the joys of meditative solitude, but to integrate her new awareness into a busy, committed, even hectic mainland life. “A ten-year voyage of discovery . . . Shulman's honesty and sense of inquiry carry us with her all the way--could even, if we were willing, change our lives.” — San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

"Borderline Citizen is part travelogue, part memoir, part reportage, and part exploration of the unique shards of international territory cut from their "motherlands," as well as people whose sense of patriotism or nationalism has been strengthened or cut adrift by circumstance and history"--

Embark on a thrilling journey through the heart of Tibet with "Trans-Himalaya, Vol. 2 (of 2): Discoveries and Adventurers in Tibet" by renowned explorer Sven Hedin. This meticulously prepared republication offers a rare glimpse into early 20th-century exploration of the Trans-Himalaya region and its surrounding landscapes. Delve into Hedin's detailed accounts of his travels in Tibet and China, encountering remote cultures and navigating challenging terrains. Experience the adventure firsthand as Hedin documents his discoveries, providing invaluable insights into the geography, history, and culture of this fascinating region. "Trans-Himalaya" is a testament to the enduring allure of exploration and the spirit of adventure. Perfect for readers interested in the history of travel, the geography of Asia, and the captivating life of Sven Hedin, this volume offers a unique and timeless perspective on a world that continues to inspire awe and wonder. A classic work of travel literature, this book offers an unparalleled window into a bygone era of discovery. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

A wise, witty, and humane autobiography filled with a passionate curiosity about the people--and meaning--of America. "One Man's America is at once a stirring account of a young immigrant becoming an American, a personal history of the major milestones of the late twentieth century, a fascinating insider's view of the most widely read news magazine in the world, and a warm and loving family saga. Here also is the remarkable success story of a boy driven from his native Vienna by the Nazis and returning years later as an ambassador; of a copy boy who rose to become editor of "Time magazine. During his long and distinguished career in journalism, Grunwald knew, befriended, and feuded with some of the greatest figures on the world stage, from Whitaker Chambers and Marilyn Monroe to John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger to Ronald Reagan and Fidel Castro. But the immense power his position allowed him was tempered by a fierce desire to know everything he could about the mores and folkways of the whole United States, Main Street bankers and student radicals alike, through whom he sought to understand the heart of his adopted country. "One Man's America is, above all, a hymn to the ever-turbulent, ever-changing land of America.

Verslag van de zoektocht van de auteur naar sporen van zijn mysterieuze grootvader Heshel Melamed, rabbijn in een Litouws dorp.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the pueblos of the Southwest frequently inspired Anglo-American visitors to express their sense of wonder and enchantment in biblical references. Frank Hamilton Cushing's first account of Zuni pueblo described a setting that looked like "The Pools of Palestine." Drawn to the Southwest, Mabel Dodge imagined "a garden of Eden, inhabited by an unfallen tribe of men and women." There she was attracted to Tony Luhan, a Taos Indian who looked "like a Biblical figure." When historian Jerold Auerbach first saw Edward S. Curtis's early twentieth-century photograph Taos Water Girls , he realized that "here, indeed, was the biblical Rebecca, relocated to New Mexico from ancient Haran, where Abraham's faithful servant had journeyed to find a suitable wife for Isaac. Rebecca with her water pitcher is as familiar a biblical icon as Noah and his ark or Moses with the stone tablets. Curtis had recast her as the archetypal Pueblo maiden." Explorers in Eden uncovers an intriguing array of diaries, letters, memoirs, photographs, paintings, postcards, advertisements, anthropological field studies, and scholarly monographs. They reveal how Anglo-Americans disenchanted with modern urban industrial society developed a deep and rich fascination with pueblo culture through their biblical associations.

Praise for Coming Together, Coming Apart ""Interesting conversation is Israel's most ingratiating commodity, and this is an especially interesting one. To read Coming Together, Coming Apart is to be engaged in an ongoing dialogue with one of Israel's most thoughtful observers--an American who made Israel his home, despite its imperfections and dangers. Gordis's conversational narrative is irresistible."" --Alan dershowitz, author of The Case for Israel ""Whether describing a walk through Jerusalem in snow, a hike in the desert, or a farewell family drive to the Gaza settlements, Gordis manages to capture the essential details that tell us the larger meaning of our Israeli lives. There is much irony in this book, and also anger, especially against those who unfairly judge Israel in its most desperate and noble times. Most of all, though, this book is the chronicle of a love story--of an immigrant family in Jerusalem falling in love with Israel and, through that love, discovering the strength to cope with life on the front lines of a jihadist war. As a fellow Jerusalemite, I feel a profound debt to Gordis for explaining what it means to raise a family in the middle of a terror zone, and the courage that average Israelis instinctively display in maintaining the pretense of normal life. Those of us who share his passion are fortunate to be so well represented by this book."" --Yossi Klein Halevi, Foreign Correspondent, The New Republic

Amy Sedaris meets Woody Allen in an uproarious memoir of self discovery. In her critically acclaimed memoir Dork Whore, Iris Bahr finally lost her virginity in the summer between high school and Brown University. In this book, she’s ready for love a year later—but not much wiser. Through all of her uproarious capers, she tries to reconcile her craving for mindblowing sex with her desire for a meaningful relationship—all in an attempt to become an adult. Sort of.

Norman Levine's Canada Made Me , first published in England in 1958, is a bitter, critical reassessment of the moral and cultural values of Canada. His account of his three-month journey from Halifax to Ucluelet, a fishing village on the west coast, is an unconventional portrait of Canada's underbelly. The book ends with the words: `I wondered why I felt so bitter about Canada. After all, it was all part of a dream, an experiment that could not come off. It was foolish to believe that you can take the throwouts, the rejects, the human kickabouts from Europe and tell them: Here you have a second chance. Here you can start a new life. But no one ever mentioned the price one had to pay; how much of oneself you had to betray.' Canada Made Me was regarded as so controversial that it did not appear in a Canadian edition until 1979. Critical opinion, however, has slowly swung around to the point the book was recently described in the Globe and Mail as a `laconic classic'. For this new edition Norman Levine has written an introduction which traces the book's publishing history and reputation.

After more than thirty years as an expatriate, Irma Kurtz gave in to her growing curiosity about her American roots and set off on a grand adventure to explore 'the most baffling of all places' - by Greyhound bus. Taking only the barest necessitites for travel, she entered the vast network of America's bus routes and a seething, fleeting world of brief encounters and changing landscapes.

The Harz Journey is a travel narrative that blends personal reflections with observations about nature and society. The author embarks on a journey through the Harz Mountains, where he explores the liberating power of nature and its contrasts with urban life. As he departs from a university town, he reflects on its peculiar dynamics and the academic culture, emphasizing the tensions between intellectual pursuits and the natural world. His journey is marked by humor, lyricism, and social commentary, highlighting the complexity of human experience. Through vivid descriptions of the landscape, Heine reveals the richness of his encounters with both people and nature. The narrative is not only a travelogue but also a philosophical exploration of the individual's relationship with the world around them, infused with wit and poetic insight. His observations challenge conventional social norms, offering a thought-provoking journey that transcends mere physical travel. The work remains an important reflection on the tensions between intellectual life and the natural environment.

A kaleidoscopic memoir of a 35-year love affair with mysterious, exotic Haiti. The dialogue the author conducts with this beleaguered island is rich with surprising revelations and startling juxtapositions. "The best all-encompassing explanation of this . . . tragic island country that I have read".--Digby Diehl, Playboy.

Time in Africa: Flying and Fun from 1963 to 1983 covers 20 amazing years of David Price’s life as a pilot, working primarily in Africa. Although filled with personal adventures and humorous anecdotes, Time in Africa is much more than an autobiography. It is also an amazing glimpse of a time in aviation before computerized flight controls and when some older planes were still made of plywood and canvas. Having flown planes such as a DC3, Dove, Comet 4, Viscount, B737 and B707, the author shares stories of near disaster, having to make mechanical repairs and adjustments while flying—including once with a fire ax, and landing and taking off in the desert without a runway. Adding further interest to these stories is the setting: Libya, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Zambia, Guinea, and Nigeria in their early days of independence post colonization. A natural storyteller, David portrays what life was like in Africa—both for the privileged Whites and the native Blacks—along with providing insight into the politics and attitudes of the time. From starting an airplane with car batteries strapped to a baggage trolley to having to put out a charcoal fire started in the aisle of a plane to brew a cup of tea, it is clear that there were few dull moments during David’s time as a pilot in Africa. It is also evident that he enjoyed every minute there, as will his readers as he takes them back to an amazing place in an interesting time.

The true life story of Michael Elihu Colby and his childhood days at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel. His grandparents Mary and Ben B. Bodne had traded their southern oil fortune for the legendary but faded Algonquin and restored the hotel's former glory. Their efforts led to a remarkable renaissance and attracted an overflow of celebrities from the ridiculous to the sublime. Michael weaves a vivid tapestry of encounters with glittering Broadway and Hollywood celebrities in a kaleidoscopic memoir of illustrious figures-some on a meteoric rise, some in tragic decline-while he found his own place in the topsy turvy world of the Broadway theatre and musicals. Nearly 200 rare photographs and illustrations, a Bibliography, Appendixes, and an Index.

Since 1987, with the publication of his groundbreaking book, now classic, Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, Marc H. Ellis has been touring the world with a prophetic global message of peace and justice, and especially in relation to Israel and Palestine. During these tours, Ellis has kept journals describing his encounters, some of which are deep and decisive, others of which are funny, even absurd. Traveling Jewish is rarely neutral. In a hybrid format-diary, journal, memoir-with stunning photographs, we follow Ellis as he embarks on a tour of the Philippines, and then back home to San Francisco, Houston, Tallahassee and Chicago.

El Norte Grande of Chile is the world's driest desert, a vast, barren expanse where a person can live an entire lifetime without ever feeling a single drop of rain, where rivers vanish into the sands and trees are all but unknown. But this forbidding landscape has many stories to tell an observant, inquisitive traveler. Someone like Ariel Dorfman. Renowned as a poet, essayist, novelist, and playwright, he combines eloquence, passion, and personal experience with a sure sense of place and a keen eye for the telling detail that brings history to life -- for this account of his journey through the desert is also a chronicle of modern Chile. Like an archaeologist, he sifts through shards of memory to recreate a world that no longer exists but still casts a long shadow over his native land. Ghosts are at the heart of his tale, from the ruined boomtowns where great nitrate fortunes were built to the seaside prison where Dorfman's old friend Freddy Taberna spent his last night before being executed in 1973 after the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government. In these pages, long-abandoned mining communities are summoned up in their glory days, when the mansions of mineral millionaires were built on the punishing labor of workers forever in hock to the company store. Nor are these the only ghosts. In this sweeping book, Dorfman also examines the oldest mummies in the world, visits an observatory at the top of the world that scans the light from long-dead stars, and sifts through the remains of indigenous villages buried under tons of sand. Skillfully interweaving present and past, memoir and meditation, fascinating history and colorful family lore, Desert Memories gazes across the seeming emptiness of el Norte Grande, finds a complete and compelling world, and conjures it up with the kind of elegant simplicity that only the most sophisticated of travelers can achieve.

In 1825 Captain Francis Bond Head retired from the army to take up a post with a mining company to survey and report on mining opportunities in Chile and Argentina. This mission earned him the nickname "Galloping Head" as a result of his travels back and forth across the continent and gave him the material for this book, which was much admired by Charles Darwin on his own journey from ocean to ocean six years later.