Travel Year

Not many Brits move to Poland to work in a fish and chip shop. Fewer still come back wanting to be a Member of the European Parliament. In 2016, Ben Aitken moved to Poland while he still could. It wasn’t love that took him but curiosity: he wanted to know what the Poles in the UK had left behind. He flew to a place he’d never heard of and then accepted a job in a chip shop on the minimum wage. When he wasn’t peeling potatoes he was on the road scratching the country’s surface.

Following the breakdown of her marriage, 50-year-old Jacqui Furneaux set off on a seven-year, round-the-world adventure on a 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet. She traveled both solo and with company, covering 42,000 miles and 20 countries. This awe-inspiring and moving book about one woman’s motorcycle adventures is for anyone still holding back from taking a risk and pursuing their dreams.

After 30 years as a mountain rescue volunteer, the author invites the listener to look in on 42 of his search and rescue operations, some of which made international news. As a bonus, two more stories are included just for fun. Most rescue missions end successfully, though sometimes with a patient in need of medical attention, some end sadly. All are interesting.

American Oz is a rollicking, gritty, adventurous story of life in the secretive subculture of traveling carnivals. You'll never see your state fair or street festival the same way again. Comerford writes a bold, inspiring true story of a year working behind the scenes with the colorful characters and legends of carnivals. He shares stories of freaks, a carnival pimp, a tramp gold miner, and the last king of the sideshows.

How does a middle-aged wife, mother, and FBI agent pursue her dream of hiking 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine? Sticks Harsha balances her trekking ambitions against the responsibilities of daily life by hiking the Appalachian Trail in sections, one piece at a time. Across a thirteen-year odyssey, Sticks discovers the best of America: the stunning beauty and diversity of nature, the quaintness of small towns, the quirkiness of fellow hikers, and, above all, the generosity of strangers.

This memoir tells the story of an American English teacher working in a new university in Palestine during a time of political strife and upheaval. Cynthia Yoder describes the joys of life in Palestine, against the backdrop of military occupation and the second intifada, which began soon after she arrived in 2000. Rather than give political analysis, the book gives glimpses into the lives of the Palestinian people the author met. Yoder details the effects of the occupation and describes her journey as a pacifist working amidst violence.

Once upon a time, an American girl moved to a little town in Slovakia, and she fell in love with the country, and with a boy. And then another boy. And then about a dozen boys fell in love with her. Many linguistic and romantic antics ensued, and a happy ending unlike any she could have foreseen.