First published in 1900, Joshua Slocum''s autobiographical account of his solo trip around the world is one of the most remarkable -- and entertaining -- travel narratives of all time. Setting off alone from Boston aboard the thirty-six foot wooden sloop Spray in April 1895, Captain Slocum went on to join the ranks of the world''s great circumnavigators -- Magellan, Drake, and Cook. But by circling the globe without crew or consorts, Slocum would outdo them all: his three-year solo voyage of more than 46,000 miles remains unmatched in maritime history for courage, skill, and determination.

Sailing Alone Around the World recounts Slocum''s wonderful adventures: hair-raising encounters with pirates off Gibraltar and savage Indians in Tierra del Fuego; raging tempests and treacherous coral reefs; flying fish for breakfast in the Pacific; and a hilarious visit with Henry ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume?") Stanley in South Africa.A century later, Slocum''s incomparable book endures as of the greatest narratives of adventure ever written.

As a park warden in the national parks of Canada''s Rocky Mountains, Sid Marty came to know that beautiful and treacherous landscape as few men or women do. He was a mountain climber, rescue team member, firefighter, wildlife custodian, and adviser to tourists, adventurers, and people passing through. At all times, he was an acute observer of human and animal behaviour. In these pages he records with wry wit and bitter insight true stories of heroism and folly drawn from life in the high country.

Marty writes vividly about a land and a way of life that are increasingly endangered. The visceral energy of his prose compels attention. This is a compulsive, alarming, and often hilarious read.

It was crazy. It was unthinkable. It was the adventure of a lifetime.

When Don and Dana Starkell left Winnipeg in a tiny three-seater canoe, they had no idea of the dangers that lay ahead. Two years and 12,180 miles later, father and son had each paddled nearly twenty million strokes, slept on beaches, in jungles and fields, dined on tapir, shark, and heaps of roasted ants.

They encountered piranhas, wild pigs, and hungry alligators. They were arrested, shot at, taken for spies and drug smugglers, and set upon by pirates. They had lived through terrifying hurricanes, food poisoning, and near starvation. And at the same time they had set a record for a thrilling, unforgettable voyage of discovery and old-fashioned adventure.

"Courageous . . . Exciting and always immediate." -- The New York Times Book Review


From the Paperback edition.

A scintillating memoir of a year spent in Delhi by one of the best young writers at work today.

Alive with the mayhem of the present and sparkling with William Dalrymple?s irrepressible wit, City of Djinns is a fascinating portrait of a city.

Watched over and protected by the mischievous, invisible djinns, Delhi has, through their good offices, been saved from destruction many times over the centuries. With an extraordinary array of characters, from elusive eunuchs to the last remnants of the Raj, Dalrymple?s second book is a unique and dazzling feat of research. Over the course of a year he comes to know the bewildering city intimately, and brilliantly conveys its magical nature, peeling back successive layers of history, and interlacing innumerable stories from Delhi?s past and present.

In his most delightful foray into the wonders of Proven&#231al life, Peter Mayle returns to France and puts behind him cholesterol worries, shopping by phone, California wines, and other concerns that plagued him after too much time away.

In Encore Provence, Mayle gives us a glimpse into the secrets of the truffle trade, a parfumerie lesson on the delicacies of scent, an exploration of the genetic effects of 2,000 years of foie gras, and a small-town murder mystery that reads like the best fiction. Here, too, are Mayle''s latest tips on where to find the best honey, cheese, or chambre d''hìte the region has to offer. Lyric, insightful, sparkling with detail, Encore Provence brings us a land where the smell of thyme in the fields or the glory of a leisurely lunch is no less than inspiring.

An American writer and his wife find a new home-and a new lease on life-in the charming sixteenth-century hill town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

When Los Angeles novelist Tony Cohan and his artist wife, Masako, visited central Mexico one winter they fell under the spell of a place where the pace of life is leisurely, the cobblestone streets and sun-splashed plazas are enchanting, and the sights and sounds of daily fiestas fill the air. Awakened to needs they didn't know they had, they returned to California, sold their house and cast off for a new life in San Miguel de Allende. On Mexican Time is Cohan''s evocatively written memoir of how he and his wife absorb the town''s sensual ambiance, eventually find and refurbish a crumbling 250-year-old house, and become entwined in the endless drama of Mexican life. Brimming with mystery, joy, and hilarity, On Mexican Time is a stirring, seductive celebration of another way of life-a tale of Americans who, finding a home in Mexico, find themselves anew.

To go beyond the legacy of revolution, religious fundamentalism and veiled women and find the real people of Iran, a young Canadian dons the cloak of Islam. The result of Alison Wearing''s journey is a warm, funny and shocking collection of riveting portraits and stories about the generous, irrepressible people she met. With a novelist''s love of language and eye for detail, she takes the reader into the homes and hearts of people whose spirit, intelligence and laughter enlighten and impress. Beautifully written, engaging, fascinating at every turn, Honeymoon in Purdah reveals an Iran rarely seen by Westerners and leads this exceptional bestselling young writer across new literary borders.

Armed with equipment and advice from 22 SAS, Hereford, and accompanied by three trackers, Redmond O'Hanlon, the naturalist, and James Fenton, the poet, set out on a long river voyage into the interior of a tropical jungle hoping to reach the Tiban massif. At once funny and knowledgeable, Redmond O'Hanlon's account of how they battled with insects, discomfort and setbacks is a hugely entertaining and informative adventure story in the best tradition of the world's great travel classics.

Roads to Santiago is an evocative travelogue through the sights, sounds, and smells of a little known Spain-its architecture, art, history, landscapes, villages, and people. And as much as it is the story of his travels, it is an elegant and detailed chronicle of Cees Nooteboom''s thirty-five-year love affair with his adopted second country. He presents a world not visible to the casual tourist, by invoking the great spirits of Spain''s past-El Cid, Cervantes, Alfonso the Chaste and Alfonso the Wise, the ill-fated Hapsburgs, and Velzquez. Be it a discussion of his trip to the magnificent Prado Museum or his visit to the shrine of the Black Madonna of Guadalupe, Nooteboom writes with the depth and intelligence of an historian, the bravado of an adventurer, and the passion of a poet. Reminiscent of Robert Hughes''s Barcelona, Roads to Santiago is the consummate portrait of Spain for all readers.

At the age of twenty-two, William Dalrymple left his college in Cambridge to travel to the ruins of Kublai Khan?s stately pleasure dome in Xanadu. This is an account of a quest which took him and his companions across the width of Asia, along dusty, forgotten roads, through villages and cities full of unexpected hospitality and wildly improbable escapades, to Coleridge?s Xanadu itself. At once funny and knowledgeable, In Xanadu is in the finest tradition of British travel writing. Told with an exhilarating blend of eloquence, wit, poetry and delight, it is already established as a classic of its kind.

-- Thirty insightful, exotic tales from contributors including Mary Morris, Barbara Wilson, and Los Angeles Times travel columnist Susan Spano

The idea of a journey unfettered by the presence of others is too daunting for most travelers. Not so the women of A Woman Alone. These contemporary pioneers savor the ultimate freedom of solo travel in these funny, thrilling, occasionally terrifying, ultimately transformative stories of navigating some of the most unusual, and not always woman-friendly, destinations on the globe.

On the Edge is a collection of heart-pumping adventures from some of the world''s best travel writers. By foot, by vehicle, by animal, these travellers have ventured far off the beaten track: Jeff Greenwald becomes lost in the Persian Gulf on a rat-infested ship; William Dalrymple meets security guards in a forbidden area of China; and Eric Newby clings to the rigging of a sailing ship during a hurricane.