A Piano in the Pyrenees

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

Bill Bryson · 272 pages

Bill Bryson's second, achingly funny book, retracing his own steps as a student backpacking through Europe, twenty years later.Bill Bryson's first travel book, The Lost Continent, was unanimously acclaimed as one of the funniest books in years. In Neither here Nor there he brings his unique brand of humour to bear on Europe as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet, and journe

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

How Not to Travel the World: Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker

Lauren Juliff · 319 pages

I had no life experience, zero common sense and had never eaten rice. I suffered from debilitating anxiety, was battling an eating disorder and had just had my heart broken. I hoped by leaving to travel the world I would be able to heal myself. Instead, Lauren's travels were full of bad luck and near-death experiences. Over the space of a year, she was scammed and assaulted; lost teeth and swallow

The Ridiculous Race: 26,000 Miles, 2 Guides, 1 Globe, No Airplanes

Steve Hely, Vali Chandrasekaran · 315 pages

Tune in Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries

Tim Anderson

Two Old Fools on a Camel: From Spain to Bahrain and Back Again

Victoria Twead · 315 pages

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World

Eric Weiner · 403 pages

Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier

Uganda Be Kidding Me

Chelsea Handler · 257 pages

In this uproarious collection, the author answers the most frequently asked traveler's questions, hot travel trips, and travel etiquette, none of which should be believed. Wherever she travels, one thing is certain: she always ends up in the land of the ridiculous. Now, in this uproarious collection, she sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers her most absurd and hilarious stori

The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian

Phil Doran · 306 pages

A Book Sense Pick for May 2005, this is the humorous tale of how the author moved— against his will and his better judgment—to Italy with his wife, only to rediscover himself, his marriage, and the importance of getting in touch with his inner Italian.After years of working on a string of sitcoms, Phil Doran found himself on the outside looking in. Just as he and his peers had replaced the older g

Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin

Iris Bahr · 224 pages

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

How to Walk a Puma: My (mis)adventures in South America

Peter Allison · 228 pages

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.

Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour

Rachel Shukert · 312 pages

Traveling from Vienna to Zurich to Amsterdam, Shukert bounces through complicated relationships, drunken mishaps, miscommunication, and the reality-adjusting culture shock that every twentysomething faces when sent off to negotiate "the real world."

The Boat Who Wouldn't Float

Farley Mowat · 243 pages

Backpacked: A Reluctant Trip Across Central America

Catherine Ryan Howard · 278 pages

A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020

David Sedaris · 576 pages

Yoga Bitch: One Woman's Quest to Conquer Skepticism, Cynicism, and Cigarettes on the Path to Enlightenment

Suzanne Morrison · 339 pages

"When Suzanne Morrison decides to travel to Bali for a two-month yoga retreat, she wants nothing more than to be transformed from a twenty-five-year-old with a crippling fear of death into her enchanting yoga teacher, Indra--a woman who seems to have found it all: love, self, and God. But things don't go quite as expected."--Page 4 of cover.

Hokkaido Highway Blues. Hitchhiking Japan

Will Ferguson · 384 pages

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: An Unforgettable Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s

Cornelia Otis Skinner, Emily Kimbrough · 247 pages

Two ingenues "do the Continent" pre-WWII. Skinner takes us from the innocence of youth in the 1920s to the dawn of WWII, replete with all the faux pas and fiascoes you would expect from youth taking Europe on their own in the early part of the twentieth century when innocence still existed and innuendo was unheard of. A great read.

Dave Gorman vs. the Rest of the World

Dave Gorman

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

J. Maarten Troost · 312 pages

The laugh-out-loud true story of a harrowing and hilarious two-year odyssey in the distant South Pacific island nation of Kiribati--possibly The Worst Place on Earth.At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost--who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs--decided to pack up his flip-flops and move

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

Are You Dave Gorman?

Dave Gorman, Danny Wallace · 384 pages