Explore our curated collection of travel & adventure book reviews and recommendations.
Susanna Janssen's memoir recounts her 1979 solo leap into South America — trading her Sacramento apartment and part-time jobs for an unscripted continental adventure with a fellow young woman traveler, long before GPS, smartphones, or the internet could cushion the fall. Blending near-disaster, cultural immersion, and humor, the book has drawn praise from Midwest Book Review and a chorus of fellow authors for going well beyond travelogue territory.
Jul 14, 2026
Birkenstocks in the Cordillera: A Journey Home Through the Philippines' Northern Highlands is a self-published travel memoir by LJ Baqutoy, released in April 2026 as the opening entry in the Travel Memoir of Shared Discoveries series. The book chronicles Baqutoy's personal journey through the Cordillera region of the northern Philippines, framing travel as a form of homecoming and cultural discovery. This review is based on the book's content as described by the publisher and its published record; it does not reflect hands-on use or a firsthand read.
Jul 8, 2026
Three Sticks is a self-published coming-of-age fantasy novel — the first in a planned three-book series — written by David R Anderson, illustrated by Tim Cleary, and edited by Steve Anderson. Told through the eyes of Sten, a self-conscious seventeen-year-old half-elf navigating a childhood injury, village life, and an unexpected journey into the Wild, the book draws on Anderson's decades of love for the genre, rooted in his Dungeons & Dragons-playing teenage years in small-town Minnesota. Reader reactions on Amazon point to an entertaining cast, a well-paced plot, and a tone that balances heroic adventure with humor and heart.
Jul 15, 2026
The Dragonet Prophecy launches the Wings of Fire series with five young dragons — raised in secret and enlisted against their will to end a war they never chose — delivering a fast-paced adventure built on friendship, loyalty, and the weight of unwanted destiny.
Aug 4, 2026
K. Lang-Slattery's Wherever the Road Leads chronicles the two-year, 39,000-mile journey she and her then-husband Tom undertook in a Volkswagen microbus across four continents between 1971 and 1973 — a genuine adventure in marriage, endurance, and discovery, brought to life with personal photographs, maps, and the author's own illustrative drawings.
Jul 15, 2026
Education of a Wandering Man is Louis L'Amour's final completed work — a memoir in which the celebrated author of more than 100 books reflects on the unorthodox, experience-driven education that shaped him, from riding the rails as a hobo to sailing as a merchant seaman, all while pursuing a lifelong, voracious hunger for reading and self-improvement. This review is based on the book's contents and published reception; it does not represent hands-on use or application.
Aug 3, 2026
Be Ready When the Luck Happens is a #1 New York Times bestseller in which Ina Garten — the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, and beloved Food Network personality — charts her remarkable journey from a difficult childhood through her unexpected rise as a culinary icon. Named a Best Book of the Year by critical coverage, Time, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Town & Country, the memoir reveals that the effortlessness Garten projects on screen was hard-won through decades of courage, tenacity, and well-timed risk. Available as an unabridged audiobook narrated by Garten herself, with a release date of October 1, 2024 from Random House Audio, it runs 8 hours and 47 minutes.
Jul 7, 2026
Tom Dymond's debut travel memoir, Hooked on the Horizon, chronicles the round-the-world voyage of two young men and their small sailboat, Blue Eye — a journey that tests them with Atlantic storms, Red Sea pirates, and the subtler challenge of their own restless minds. Published by Hardstone House in August 2021, the book has drawn enthusiastic reader praise for blending genuine adventure with self-reflective humour, and is the first entry in The Sailing Blue Eye Around the World Series.
Jul 27, 2026
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life is a self-help and wellness guide by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles that draws on interviews with centenarians in Okinawa — one of the world's recognized Blue Zones — to explore the Japanese concept of ikigai, or "reason for being," as a framework for a longer, more meaningful life. A multimillion-copy international bestseller published by Penguin Life, the book synthesizes lessons on diet, movement, community, work, and purpose into an accessible format praised by Publishers Weekly for its use of lists, charts, and illustrations. This review is based on the book's contents as described by published sources, not hands-on application.
Jul 15, 2026
Sophie Matterson's The Crossing is a memoir about a thirteen-month solo journey undertaken in 2020, during which the Brisbane-based adventurer walked 4,750 kilometres across Australia with five wild camels — Jude, Delilah, Charlie, Clayton, and Mac — from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Byron Bay in New South Wales. Published by Allen & Unwin, it is a candid account of endurance, self-discovery, and unexpected love, and it earned Matterson the 2022 Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award.
Jul 14, 2026
Steinbeck's travelogue recounts his 1960 road trip across the United States in the company of his standard poodle, Charley — a journey driven by the Nobel laureate's conviction that a writer who earns his living depicting America ought to know it firsthand. This review is based on the book's published record and critical reception, not hands-on use or reading.
Jul 7, 2026
K. L. Walther's The Summer of Second Chances (Deluxe Edition), published by Sourcebooks Fire on May 5, 2026, is a young adult contemporary romance following Olivia, a teenager who travels to Martha's Vineyard and, guided by a box of her late grandmother Annie's photos and memories, begins to open her heart to Connor — a boy from her past — while navigating grief and the fear of losing what she loves most. A follow-up from the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Summer of Broken Rules, it blends romance, family, and a light mystery into a summer-set coming-of-age story aimed at readers aged 14–18.
Jul 24, 2026Search
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