Here is your chance to explore new destinations around the world without leaving the comfort of your home! Go off the beaten path with these travelers, expats and volunteers as you learn more about Nepal, Thailand, France, Spain, Egypt, Scotland, Greece, the United States and Australia!
Featured in this post are non-fiction memoirs, travel guides and travelogues written by Paulo Abreu, Jennifer S. Alderson, EJ Bauer, Jill Dobbe, Margaret Halliday, Marjory McGinn, Nicola McGunnigle, Paul Russell Parker III, Gus Pegel and Pamela Jane Rogers.
Travel By Book is a Facebook group for authors and readers who enjoy being transported to other destinations via fiction and non-fiction. If you enjoy reading books that take you places, consider joining us!
in Traveling mode: The unbearable lightness of a journey around the world by Paulo Abreu
How would you behave if your days were a flow of circumstantial decisions? How would you feel if your decisions had no real value or significance?
Long-term traveling momentarily transforms your life into a flow of insignificant decisions that free you to fully engage with the world. This creates the necessary lightness for what I call the Traveling Spirit. But, stay in the Traveling Spirit for too long and this lightness becomes unbearable. As human beings, we need a purpose in our life.
Not all of us have the opportunity to let go and travel for long periods of time. That’s why I invite you to sit back, turn on your traveling mode and join me in the unbearable lightness of my journey around the world.
I will make this personal. Let me show you the world through my eyes. Together we will climb active volcanoes. Trek on glaciers. Survive whitewater rafting on great rivers. Scuba dive the great oceans. Visit magical and spiritual places. See the world’s architecture. Taste exotic food. Experience different cultures. Visit World Heritage Sites. Volunteer. Make new friends. See wildlife. Drive on the greatest roads. Fall in love. Be astonished by breathtaking scenery. Relax on beautiful beaches.
Buy it now on Amazon.
Notes of a Naive Traveler: A Nepal and Thailand Travelogue by Jennifer S. Alderson
“I never thought I would have reason to say to someone, ‘Sorry I’m late, it took longer to dismember the goat than originally planned.'”
Part guidebook on culture and travel, part journey of self-discovery, this travelogue takes you on a backpacking adventure through Nepal and Thailand and provides a firsthand account of one volunteer’s experience teaching in a Nepali school and living with a devout Brahmin family.
Trek with me through the bamboo forests and terraced mountaintops of eastern Nepal, take a wild river-rafting ride in class IV waters, go on an elephant ride and encounter a charging rhinoceros on jungle walks in Chitwan National Park, sea-kayak the surreal waters of Krabi, and snorkel in the Gulf of Thailand. Join me on some of the scariest bus rides you could imagine, explore beautiful and intriguing temples, experience religious rituals unknown to most Westerners, and visit mind-blowing places not mentioned in your typical travel guides.
Notes of a Naive Traveler is a must-read for those interested in learning more about – or wishing to travel to – Nepal and Thailand. I hope it inspires you to see these amazing countries for yourself.
Buy it now on Amazon. This memoir is also part of the Adventures in Backpacking box set – now on sale for $2.99!
From Moulin Rouge to Gaudi’s City by EJ Bauer
When Elizabeth receives a diagnosis of breast cancer, she reassesses her life’s to-do list. Having always suppressed her travel longings, she opens her neglected ‘someday’ ledger and takes a much closer look at the contents. After an opportune invitation from a friend to meet in Paris, and her sister’s enthusiastic agreement to be part of the adventure, a plan begins to take shape. Join the Australian trio as they savour the sights of France and Spain, where no trip is complete without a morsel of local cuisine and a sip of something sparkling.
Buy it now on Amazon.
Kids, Camels, & Cairo by Jill Dobbe
Traveling across the globe to work in an international school in Cairo, Egypt, was not exactly the glamorous lifestyle I thought it would be. I cherished my travels to the Red Sea, delighted in visiting the Pyramids, and appreciated the natural wonders of the Nile River. However, I also spent days without electricity or internet, was leered at by rude Egyptian men, breathed in Cairo’s cancerous black smog, and coaxed school work from rich, apathetic students.
Why the heck did I do it?
So I could experience the unexpected, explore the extraordinary, and bask in the thrill of adventure!
Whether you’re a traveler or not, you will be astounded at this honest and riveting account of learning to live in an Islamic society, while confronting the daily challenges of being an educator in a Muslim school.
Buy it now on Amazon.
Good Vibrations: a Story of a Single 60s Mum by Margaret Halliday
Margaret Halliday’s second book, Good Vibrations: a Story of a Single 60s Mum tells the poignant tale of her harrowing and often hilarious experience of unmarried motherhood in pre-Abortion Act Scotland.
17-year-old Margaret’s Glaswegian romance results in unplanned pregnancy and heartbreak but she battles on overcoming all obstacles which will make you laugh, cry and sometimes scream.
Buy it now on Amazon.
Things Can Only Get Feta: Two journalists and their crazy dog living through the Greek crisis by Marjory McGinn
After an Arctic winter, a British recession, and a downturn in the newspaper industry, two journalists and their dog embark on an adventure in the wild and beautiful southern Peloponnese in 2010.
A perfect plan, except for one thing – Greece is deep in economic crisis. And if fiscal failure can’t overturn the couple’s escapade in rural Greece, perhaps macabre local customs, a scorpion invasion, zero dog-tolerance, and eccentric expats will.
This is a humorous and insightful journey through one of the last unspoilt regions of Greece. It is full of encounters with warm-hearted Greeks who show that this troubled country still has heroes, if not euros.
The story of Marjory, Jim, and their dog Wallace’s adventures in southern Greece continue in the next two books: Homer’s Where The Heart Is and A Scorpion In The Lemon Tree.
Buy it now on Amazon. It’s 99 cents (UK only) during August 2018!
Four Seasons in Nepal: Inside stories of hope and empowerment in a developing nation by Nicola McGunnigle
It’s not your everyday family adventure, packing up to live in one of the world’s poorest nations. But in the wake of the devastating 2015 earthquake, Nicola took a leap of faith, heading to Nepal to work with NGO International Nepal Fellowship, her family in tow.
Not letting challenges get in the way of contentment, she shares everyday moments of living life with restricted electricity and unclean water, in the midst of political instability, which resulted in country-wide fuel and gas shortages. Moved by the resilience of the nation, the family were welcomed into Nepali culture and generous hospitality, despite the obvious additional hardships around them.
Through her eyes as a volunteer, Nicola paints uplifting scenes of committed Nepali staff who work to empower the poorest and most marginalised in Nepal. Through work, travel and everyday encounters, the reader journeys through each season of learning, challenges, hardship and reward.
Buy it now on Amazon.
Cape Lookout Lighthouse by Paul Russell Parker III
Enjoy a stunning view of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. This iconic lighthouse; located on an undeveloped barrier island, is not only a treasured part of North Carolina’s maritime history but a treasured part of the nation’s maritime history as well.
Tourists have enjoyed visiting this diamond patterned lighthouse on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast, and now so can you with this fun look at the gem of the Cape Lookout National Seashore.
Buy it now on Amazon.
From Australia to Germany: The Ultimate Overland Adventure by Gus Pegel
A true story of a fifteen year old, who traveled in a Postie van 4-wheel drive from Melbourne, Australia to Stuttgart in Germany with two others. Crossing the vast expanse of the Australian outback to Perth in Western Australia, where they caught a container ship and sailed via Singapore to Sri Lanka and India, and from there, continued overland crisscrossing India up to Pakistan, all the way to Europe via Turkey and what was then Yugoslavia.
This book gives an account of the journey, with all its ups and downs. It is not a tourist guide, but a detail of the things they experienced along the way… many of which most tourists would never see.
From Australia to Germany will be enjoyed by those who love to travel along back roads and off beaten paths. Get your copy and go on a 4×4 adventure!
Buy it now on Amazon.
Greekscapes Illustrated Journeys with an Artist by Pamela Jane Rogers
A twist of fate sends this American artist to Greece on a painting workshop in 1982. After a luxurious swim in the Aegean, an epiphany in an olive grove inspires her to continue her life’s journey with art – and either mend her broken marriage or end it. Her mission is to learn from her past and resurrect faith in her intuition and her love of art.
Yearly art workshops abroad give unparalleled inspiration for her painting for seven more years, ending with a devastating loss. The dark curtain lowers when her mentor leaves the earth.
Divorce and plans for a secure future as an interior designer are put in motion as a foreign light continues to beckon; the generous culture, peals of laughter, the people, nature’s landscapes, the olive trees, the mountains, the turquoise sea, the light, the epiphany… the most exhilarating moments of her 40 years have all been in Greece! Can living there allow the serenity she seeks? Most everyone agrees – it’s irrational for a middle-aged woman on her own with minimal financial resources to simply follow her heart. Maybe it’s only a dream, yet isn’t it worth a try?
With courage, hope, and a sense of humor she journeys forth from her unfulfilled past to “trust in the process” of art and life on a Greek Island. Will the enchantment last?
Pick it up between 14-21 August for 1.99 on Amazon UK or Amazon US (Kindle Countdown)!
