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Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

by Alice Steinbach

Paris Dear Alice, Each morning I am awakened by the sound of a tinkling bell. A cheerful sound, it reminds me of the bells that shopkeepers attach to their doors at Christmastime. In this case, the bell marks the opening of the hotel door. From my room, which is just off the winding staircase, I can hear it clearly. It reminds me of the bell that calls to worship the novice embarking on a new life. In a way I... (more)

Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

by Frances Mayes

Frances Mayes, whose enchanting #1 New York Times bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun made the world fall in love with Tuscany, invites us back for a delightful new season of friendship, festivity, and food, there and throughout Italy. A companion volume to Under the Tuscan Sun , Bella Tuscany is Frances Mayes's passionate and lyrical account of her continuing love affair with Italy. Now truly at home there,... (more)

YEAR IN PROVENCE

by Peter Mayle

Enjoy an irresistible feast of humour and discover the joys of French rural living with Peter Mayle's bestselling, much-loved account of "A Year In Provence". Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious two hundred year-old farmhouse in the Luberon Valley and began a new... (more)

The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples

The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples

by Shirley Hazzard, Francis Steegmuller

Born in Australia, Shirley Hazzard first moved to Naples as a young woman in the 1950s to take up a job with the United Nations. It was the beginning of a long love affair with the city. The Ancient Shore collects the best of Hazzard’s writings on Naples, along with a classic New Yorker essay by her late husband, Francis Steegmuller. For the pair, both insatiable readers, the Naples of Pliny, Gibbon, and Auden... (more)

My Love Affair With England : A Traveler's Memoir

My Love Affair With England : A Traveler's Memoir

by Susan Allen Toth

Journalist and memoirist Susan Allen Toth brings her special England vivdly to life as she recalls her many trips there over the years, where she explored the countryside, traveled both second-class and in luxury, theatre-hopped, hunted for ghosts, and honeymooned. Humorous, bittersweet, and wonderfully eccentric, this is a delightful remembrance to be savored by those who love to travel or just dream of it. "I... (more)

Neither Here nor There

Travels in Europe

by Bill Bryson

Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies -- in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the... (more)

Notes from a Small Island

An Affectionate Portrait of Britain

by Bill Bryson

"Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain-which is to say, all of it." After nearly two decades spent on British soil, Bill Bryson-bestsellingauthor of The Mother Tongue and Made in America-decided to returnto the United States. ("I had recently read," Bryson writes, "that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another,so... (more)

In a Sunburned Country

by Bill Bryson

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods . In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest,... (more)

Homage to Barcelona

by Colm Toibin

This title is a personal and carefully research account of Barcelona, from its founding to its huge growth in the 19th century. The author covers the city's: history; art and architecture; great churches and museums; cafes; port life; restaurants and fashionable nightclubs.

Under the Tuscan Sun

At Home in Italy

by Frances Mayes

Frances Mayes--widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer--opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. In sensuous and evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. An accomplished cook and food writer, Mayes also creates dozens of delicious seasonal recipes... (more)

Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

by Rita Golden Gelman

“I move throughout the world without a plan, guided by instinct, connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous opportunities.” —From the Preface Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with... (more)

Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain (Vintage Departures)

Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain (Vintage Departures)

by Chris Stewart

Driving Over Lemons is the contagiously entertaining account of one couple's beginning a new life as they turn a rundown peasant farm in southern Spain into a home. When Chris Stewart first sees El Valero, he's willing to overlook its lack of electricity, running water, or access road. Assured that he's bought "a paradise for pennies," he phones his wife, Ana, still in England, whose enthusiasm is a little... (more)

Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone

Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone

by Mary Morris

Traveling from the highland desert of northern Mexico to the steaming jungles of Honduras, from the seashore of the Caribbean to the exquisite highlands of Guatemala, Mary Morris, a celebrated writer of both fiction and nonfiction, confronts the realities of place, poverty, machismo, and selfhood. As she experiences the rawness and precariousness of life in another culture, Morris begins to hear echoes of her own... (more)

Route 66 AD

by Tony Perrottet

The ancient Romans were responsible for many remarkable achievements—Roman numerals, straight roads—but one of their lesser-known contributions was the creation of the tourist industry. The first people in history to enjoy safe and easy travel, Romans embarked on the original Grand Tour, journeying from the lost city of Troy to the Acropolis, from the Colossus at Rhodes to Egypt, for the obligatory Nile cruise to... (more)

England for All Seasons

by Susan Allen Toth

Susan Allen Toth's love affair with England is a long and happy one. Now, with England for All Seasons, she will entice even an experienced London visitor into exciting new adventures, from sharing the most scenic London bus routes to bargain-hunting to out-of-the-way places and personal walking tours of eccentric museums. With whimsy and a trenchant eye, she also traverses the country outside London: the... (more)

England as You Like It

by Susan Allen Toth

"Tucked into the deep hills of western Dorset, just off the major tourist routes across England, Chedington is so small that its handful of cottages doesn't even appear on some large-scale maps. Here, far from crowds that haunt Blenheim Palace, Stonehenge, Stratford-upon-Avon, or Haworth, I find the England of my dreams--quiet, pastoral, and sometimes endearingly eccentric...." Join Susan Allen Toth as she takes... (more)

Jaywalking with the Irish

by David Monagan

David Monagan is a restless, middle-aged father of three who for years has dreamed of relocating from the USA to Ireland, the land of his forebears. In his elegantly written, often hilarious narrative, Monagan describes his family's evolving struggle to come to terms with life in a strange land. The result is an honest, heartfelt and penetrating portrait of a contemporary Ireland that is so often portrayed... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: travel essay

Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

by Alice Steinbach

Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

by Frances Mayes

YEAR IN PROVENCE

by Peter Mayle

The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples

by Shirley Hazzard, Francis Steegmuller

My Love Affair With England : A Traveler's Memoir

by Susan Allen Toth

Neither Here nor There

Travels in Europe

by Bill Bryson

Notes from a Small Island

An Affectionate Portrait of Britain

by Bill Bryson

In a Sunburned Country

by Bill Bryson

Homage to Barcelona

by Colm Toibin

Under the Tuscan Sun

At Home in Italy

by Frances Mayes

Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

by Rita Golden Gelman

Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain (Vintage Departures)

by Chris Stewart

Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone

by Mary Morris

Route 66 AD

by Tony Perrottet

England for All Seasons

by Susan Allen Toth

England as You Like It

by Susan Allen Toth

Jaywalking with the Irish

by David Monagan