What’s in it
Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.
24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorLaughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad
Firoozeh Dumas · 240 pages
In the bestselling memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounted her adventures growing up Iranian American in Southern California. Now she again mines her rich Persian heritage in Laughing Without an Accent, sharing stories both tender and humorous on being a citizen of the world, on her well-meaning family, and on amusing cultural conundrums, all told with insights into the universality of the
American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China
Matthew Polly · 359 pages
Growing up a ninety-pound weakling tormented by bullies, Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become a fighter like in his favorite 1970s TV series, Kung Fu. Later, Matthew decided to pursue this quixotic dream: he dropped out of Princeton to spend two years training with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism. Expecting to find a
I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany
Mark Greenside · 244 pages
Author and teacher Mark Greenside recounts his struggles to fit into the life of a small Celtic village in Brittany.
Double Cup Love
Eddie Huang · 218 pages
"As he entered adulthood (of sorts), Huang began to wonder just how authentic his Chinese identity really was, a dilemma that grew more acute as he contemplated proposing marriage to his all-American (well, all-Italian-American) girlfriend. So he enlisted his brothers Emery and Evan and returned to the land his ancestors had abandoned. His immediate goal was to sample the best food in China, from
Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China's Other Billion
Michael Levy · 242 pages
An irreverent account of the author's experiences as a Jewish-American Peace Corps volunteer serving in rural China describes his observations about the lives of China's interior populations and their complex relationships with local traditions and the rapid changes of modernization.
Almost French: A New Life In Paris
Sarah Turnbull · 320 pages
A delightful, fresh twist on the travel memoir, Almost French takes us on a tour that is fraught with culture clashes but rife with deadpan humor. Sarah Turnbull's stint in Paris was only supposed to last a week. Chance had brought Sarah and Frederic together in Bucharest, and on impulse she decides to take him up on his offer to visit him in the world's most romantic city. Sacrificing Vegemite f
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away
Bill Bryson · 381 pages
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
A Year in Provence
Peter Mayle · 207 pages
In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January's frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glo
The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca
Tahir Shah · 362 pages
My Life in France
Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme · 344 pages
Julia Child singlehandedly created a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the coun
This Is Not A Drill: Just Another Glorious Day In The Oilfield
Paul Carter · 241 pages
Adrenaline junkie, oil rigger, motorbike fanatic, madman... Paul Carter, author of Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm A Piano Player in a Whorehouse is back with more (mostly) good clean stories of life on the rigs.Carter writes as if he has ADD, careering through his life on oil rigs in exotic locations. He won't win the Booker, but his yarns burn with anarchic energy... in a word,
Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag
Michael Tonello · 272 pages
The Hills is Lonely
Lillian Beckwith · 255 pages
Delightful memoir of a retired schoolteacher who went crofting on a remote Hebridean island and fell in love with the place and its people.
Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan
Bruce Feiler · 321 pages
Learning to Bow has been heralded as one of the funniest, liveliest, and most insightful books ever written about the clash of cultures between America and Japan. With warmth and candor, Bruce Feiler recounts the year he spent as a teacher in a small rural town. Beginning with a ritual outdoor bath and culminating in an all-night trek to the top of Mt. Fuji, Feiler teaches his students about Ameri
A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020
David Sedaris · 576 pages
For Fukui's Sake: Two Years In Rural Japan
Sam Baldwin · 210 pages
My Korean Deli: Risking It All for a Convenience Store
Ben Ryder Howe · 304 pages
A former senior editor of "The Paris Review" recounts his participation in a family effort to buy and run a Korean convenience store for his in-laws, a pursuit that raised issues about work and family while he shuttled between two divergent cultural arenas.
Dan and Phil Go Outside
Dan Howell, Phil Lester · 224 pages
Dan Howell and Phil Lester avoiders of human contact and direct sunlight actually went outside. Travelling around the world on tour, they have collected hundreds of exclusive, intimate and funny photos, as well as revealing and captivating side notes, to show the behind-the-scenes story of their adventure. Fans of the YouTubers Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) will love th
The Making of The African Queen, or: How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind
Katharine Hepburn · 129 pages
This volume recalls the adventures of Katharine Hepburn, John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, and Lauren Bacall during the grueling, on-location filming of The African Queen which prove to be as entertaining and unforgettable as the film classic itself. Includes 45 behind the scenes photos. Hepburn recalls her experience of making this popular film, revealing her emotional highs and lows during the filmi
The Seven Good Years
Etgar Keret · 181 pages
"The seven years between the birth of Etgar Keret's son and the death of his father were good years, though still full of reasons to worry. Lev is born in the midst of a terrorist attack. Etgar's father gets cancer. The threat of constant war looms over their home and permeates daily life"--
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
Robert M. Sapolsky · 305 pages
The author offers a memoir of his two decades in the field studying Kenyan baboons as he describes the members of the baboon troop and their behavior and his interaction with the neighboring Masai tribe.
Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, And 3 RVs On Our Canine Cross-Country Adventure
David Rosenfelt · 278 pages