Tourism History

Stories provide the connective tissue of the South. The intrepid Pamela Petro drives from the Carolinas to the Appalachians to the Atlantic seaboard, from Virginia's valleys to Louisiana's swamps to meet the mesmerizing guardians of its history: the storytellers, who often double as local, or national, treasures. A gifted listener, Petro records how stories originate as well as how they are passed down. She paints vivid portraits of the tellers while compiling tales about Jack the trickster, boo-hags and plat-eyes, ghosts, and singing turtles.

In war zones witnessing widespread conflict, what makes life at all worth living? When chaos becomes a way of life in places where religion and violence intersect, what do people hold on to? If religious belief is, as Christopher Hitchens argues, the cause of wars and genocide, then is faith the cure?

For years, British journalist Cash Peters trekked around Europe and America visiting some of the tackiest attractions in the world for his hugely popular public-radio series, The Bad Taste Tours. But a guy can only take so much. Now, as Peters prepares to leave his travel-reporting days behind forever, he takes us along on some of the more ridiculous journeys and adventures of his career.

It's been 2,000 years after most Jews were exiled from Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land, and two generations since the Holocaust led to the founding of modern Israel. Still, small yet resilient Jewish communities continue to endure and thrive around the world - sometimes in the most unlikely places, and often in the face of extreme persecution. Journalist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein has spent two years of her life uncovering the hidden beauty of these largely forgotten Jewish enclaves.

Every journey has its stories. Beginning with Enid Blyton and childhood in the Isle of Purbeck, Peter Fiennes embarks on a unique exploration of Britain. He follows in the footsteps of some our greatest writers, tracing the paths recorded in their books, journals and diaries, and looks for the country they knew. How much has time changed us? And has it been for better, or worse? Are we trapped in the past?

Peaks and Lamas is one of the classic early 20th-century accounts of travelling in the Himalayas on the borders of Tibet. It describes two journeys in the 1930s, one physically active and one more of spiritual investigation. It starts as the title suggests, as a mountaineering adventure, when a group of English climbers set out to climb unconquered peaks in the Himalayas. The audiobook ends with a warning of the deleterious effect of Western culture on traditional art and values and an idealistic polemic on education.

Imagine following Jesus along the road, listening in on his conversations and gleaning from the lessons He taught in the holy places He traveled. Join author Wayne Stiles as he walks in the steps of Jesus: through Bethlehem, Samaria, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Galilee and beyond. Experience the places where Jesus met a lonely woman in Samaria, a den of hypocrites in the Temple, a Jerusalem Pharisee still searching for truth, fishermen with a sea of false expectations and a hometown ashamed of Him.

In Blues City, Ishmael Reed, one of our most brilliant essayists, takes us on a tour of Oakland, exploring its fascinating history, its beautiful hills and waterfronts, and its odd cultural juxtapositions. He takes us into a year in the life of this amazing city, to black cowboy parades and Indian powwows, to Black Panther reunions and Gay Pride concerts, to a Japanese jazz club where a Lakota musician plays Coltrane’s "Naima".

Mientras arremolinas tu Malbec argentino rojo violáceo en tu copa y disfrutás de su aroma profundo, sabor afrutado y textura suave en tu paladar, sería fácil pensar que todo siempre ha estado bien en el mundo. Un éxito entre la crítica, un goleador en las calificaciones de la competencia internacional, la uva de exportación de vino líder del quinto productor de vino más grande del mundo y una fiesta anual dedicada el 17 de abril, el Malbec tiene calidad de estrella. Pero su presencia refinada y resplandeciente en tu copa bien podría no haberlo sido nunca.

Did you know the Olmecs might have been the first people to introduce writing? The first people who managed to elevate themselves to civilized life were the Olmecs. But they remain relatively unknown. In this new captivating history audiobook, you will discover the truth about the earliest known civilization in America.

Egan leads us on an unconventional, freewheeling tour: from America's oldest continuously inhabited community, the Ancoma Pueblo in New Mexico, to the high kitsch of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where London Bridge has been painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone; from the fragile beauty of Idaho's Bitterroot Range to the gross excess of Las Vegas, a city built as though in defiance of its arid environment.

In Hope and Glory, Stuart goes in search of the places, people and events of the century we have just left behind that have shaped the look and character of modern Britain. From the death of Victoria to the demise of New Labour, he takes a single event from each decade of the 20th century that offers up a defining moment in our history and then goes in search of its legacy today.

What is visible to the naked eye has been exhaustively raked over; in Underground London, acclaimed travel writer Stephen Smith provides an alternative guide and history of the capital. It's a journey through the passages and tunnels of the city, the bunkers and tunnels, crypts and shadows. As well as being a contemporary tour of underground London, it's also an exploration through time.

What do famous people love to do during their free time in Los Angeles? Angelenos and other notables have their rituals that connect them to the city in a unique way: favorite restaurants, museums, beaches, parks, markets, landmarks, haunts, and hideaways. The activities are as diverse and eclectic as the city itself. My City, My Los Angeles gives listeners something truly unique - a chance to experience LA the way the city's most notable luminaries do.

Cheryl flies sick patients from rural areas to emergency medical treatment in cities; Sue is often the only one between life and death for her patients in the Kimberley; Ricky trades city comforts to connect with kids through sport in remote communities while Eileen overcomes great challenges to protect remote land for generations to come - these are some of the characters who embody the spirit of the Outback.Inspiring, stirring and touching by turn, these people draw on enormous personal reserves to preserve Outback values for the future of all Australians.

The Darkest Jungle tells the harrowing story of America's first ship canal exploration across a narrow piece of land in Central America called the Darien, a place that loomed large in the minds of the world's most courageous adventurers in the nineteenth century. With rivals from England and France days behind, the 27-member U.S. expedition landed on the Atlantic shore at Caledonia Bay in eastern Panama to begin their mad dash up the coast-hugging mountains of the Darien wilderness.

This eye-opening personal history tells the story of an American college professor's 20-year engagement with a thriving Africa rarely encountered by Western visitors, including an extraordinary connection to poets across the continent. At once adventurous, spiritual, political, dreamlike, and humorous, Joining Africa is a unique documentary of a journey through the continent, including an intense five-year encounter with economically struggling but culturally fertile Eritrea. The Africa presented here is neither a postcolonial study nor an exotic tourist destination.

In this thrilling road trip from "Peking to Paris", a woman tries to save her car, her marriage, and her confidence from breaking down. In May 2007, leaving China’s Great Wall is Car 84, one of 128 antique autos racing in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. It’s guided by one Dina Bennett, the world’s least likely navigator: a daydreamer prone to carsickness, riddled with self-doubt, and married to a thrill-seeking perfectionist who is half-human, half-racecar. What could possibly go wrong?

In My American Revolution, Robert Sullivan investigates the true history of the crossing of the Delaware, its down-home reenactment each year for the past half a century, and - toward the end of a personal odyssey that involves camping in New Jersey backyards, hiking through lost "mountains", and eventually some physical therapy - he evacuates illegally from Brooklyn to Manhattan by handmade boat.

Countering the conventional narrative that Florida's tourism industry suffered during the Great Depression, this book shows that the 1930s were the starting point for much that characterizes modern Florida's tourism. David Nelson argues that state and federal government programs designed to reboot the economy during this decade are crucial to understanding the state today.