Walking Memoirs

Based on years of investigative reporting and unprecedented fieldwork, Walking the Bowl immerses readers in the daily lives of four unforgettable characters: Lusabilo, a determined waste picker; Kapula, a burned-out brothel worker; Moonga, a former rock crusher turned beggar; and Timo, an ambitious gang leader. These children navigate the violent and poverty-stricken underworld of Lusaka, one of Africa’s fastest growing cities.

In February 2019, award-winning writer Alex Roddie left his online life behind when he set out to walk 300 miles through the Scottish Highlands, seeking solitude and answers. In leaving the chaos of the internet behind for a month, he hoped to learn how it was truly affecting him - or if he should look elsewhere for the causes of his anxiety. The Farthest Shore is the story of Alex’s solo trek along the remote Cape Wrath Trail.

Celebrated for both his novels and memoirs, Don J. Snyder is also the recipient of a James Michener Fellowship. A story of love and dedication, Walking with Jack chronicles Snyder’s dream to caddie for his son Jack's pro golf tour debut. At nearly 60, Snyder left Maine for Scotland - the birthplace of golf - where he learned the game and earned his spot as a full-time caddie. His journey would finally coincide with Jack’s own struggles in one of the PGA’s toughest qualifying events.

Sarah Hepburn is a writer, storyteller, and consultant who is passionate about living a life of clarity, calm, and confidence. In Walking Forward, she shares her proven process to help calm the noise and navigate life's chaos by using habits with intention. She combines relatable stories and inspiring lessons learned along with actionable tools to create routines that work for you and your family.

Without a map, navigate by the stars. Susan Tweit began learning this lesson as a young woman diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that was predicted to take her life in two to five years. Offered no clear direction for getting well through conventional medicine, Tweit turned to the natural world that was both her solace and her field of study as a plant ecologist.

As an All-American at Ohio State and All-Pro linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ryan Shazier was living his best life while excelling at the game he loves, a game that has given him so much. But then Ryan was forced to redefine success. Suddenly, it was no longer measured by tackles or sacks, but by purpose and faith.

In May 2006, armed only with a small rucksack and a staff, Tony Kevin, an overweight, sedentary, 63-year-old former diplomat, set off on an eight-week trek across Spain. But this was not just a very long walk — it was a pilgrimage. From Granada, in the southeast, to Santiago de Compostela, in the far northwest, Tony followed the Via Mozarabe and the Via de la Plata, two of the many pilgrim trails that crisscross Spain and Portugal and that all lead to a single destination.

Christiana Mara Coelho was born into extreme poverty in Brazil. After spending the first seven years of her life with her loving mother in the forest caves outside São Paulo and then on the city streets, where they begged for food, she and her younger brother were suddenly put up for adoption. When one door closed on the only life Christiana had ever known, a new one opened. As Christina Rickardsson, she’s raised by caring adoptive parents in Sweden, far from the despairing favelas of her childhood. Accomplished and outwardly “normal”, Christina is also filled with rage over what she’s lost....

Sprawling and illuminating, Dan Gretton’s I You We Them is an unprecedented study of perpetrators of crimes against humanity: the “desk killers” who ordered and directed some of the worst atrocities of the last century. From Albert Speer’s Nazi complicity to Royal Dutch Shell’s role in the murder of the Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Gretton probes the depths of the figure “who, by giving orders, uses paper or a phone or a computer to kill, instead of a gun.”

In Walking through Fire, Nawal El Saadawi, author of Woman at Point Zero and one of the Arab world’s greatest writers, tells the story of the later years of a life which shaped an iconic voice in global feminism. Covering her life in Nasser’s then Sadat’s and Mubarak’s Egypt, we learn about Saadawi’s experience of marriage and motherhood, and we travel with her into exile after her life was threatened by religious extremists. Filled with warmth as well as critical reflection, this book reveals the later years of a remarkable life dedicated to the fight for justice and equality.

Imagine giving up everything you own and walking across the country... for 28 years? Meet Peace Pilgrim, who crossed the U.S. on foot seven times with only the clothes on her back to spread her message of peace. From 1953 to 1981, she lived off the land and the kindness of those she met. Whenever trouble came her way - whether blizzards or black eyes - her sole response was love.

Suffering from severe neck and back injuries, Kerry was unemployed and housebound, struggling with depression and even thoughts of suicide. He went from cycling over 600 miles a month to becoming a prisoner in his own home. In the face of unbearable pain and overwhelming panic, he persevered, and along the way, met an adorable yard dog named Max. This is their remarkable, inspiring story.

Since his time on Hildasay, Chris’s adventure has only gotten wilder. No one was more surprised than Chris when, in November 2020, he had an unlikely (seemingly destined) encounter with fellow adventurer Kate. The two turned out to be kindred spirits and – even more astonishingly – Kate made the bold decision to join Chris on the walk of a lifetime. Day in, day out, as they trekked the coastline down from Scotland together, their relationship grew, and soon the couple were thrown in at the deep end when their first child – baby Magnus – arrived.

Walking Gentry Home tells the story of Alora Young’s ancestors, from the unnamed women forgotten by the historical record but brought to life through Young’s imagination; to Amy, the first of Young’s foremothers to arrive in Tennessee, buried in an unmarked grave, unlike the white man who enslaved her and fathered her child; through Young’s great-grandmother Gentry, unhappily married at fourteen; to her own mother, the teenage beauty queen rejected by her white neighbors.

You probably know the story of the late Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to serve as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. You might not recognize the name of her husband, Charlie Soap, yet his role as a Native community organizer is no less significant. Last One Walking charts for the first time the life and work of this influential Cherokee.

Growing up in abject poverty, terrorized by a boarder who lived in the root cellar, Athena Demetrios repressed the memories, thrusting her into a downward spiral of melancholy and despair. Transcendence and healing would come through reliving the horrors of her past through hypnotic regression. A powerful spiritual experience opened doors into other dimensions, which began an odyssey where truth became stranger than fiction.

Joel Dahmen overcame the loss of his mother to cancer only to fight the disease himself. Through it all, he was a survivor and never lost sight of his dream of playing on the PGA Tour. In August 2016, Dahmen gained the right to chase the dream for real, but learned quickly that staying on the tour may be harder than getting there. Geno Bonnalie is also a dreamer who lives life with a special zest. He believes in Joel so much that he gave up a safe and secure lifestyle to become his caddie. Together, the two small-town kids face an uphill battle seeking success on golf’s biggest stage.

In this intimate memoir, Perry A. Ulander chronicles with powerful clarity the bewildering predicament he confronted and the fellowship and guidance that transformed him during the year he served as an American GI in the jungles of Vietnam. Conveying with unadorned precision the harrowing experiences that shattered his core beliefs, Ulander also captures the camaraderie and humor of his platoon, the hostility between "lifers" and draftees, the physical hardships of reconnaissance missions, and the unrelenting apprehension underlying everyday life.

This is the American autobiography of a Yogi. The superb, exciting, powerful story of one man's struggle and joy in following one of the greatest Himalayan yogis of the century.

Francesco Clark was a 24-year-old with a bright future when he went to the Hamptons for the weekend. A nocturnal dive into the pool's shallow end changed everything. Paralyzed from the neck down, doctors announced that he'd never move from his bed or breathe without assistance. But Francesco fought back....