Adventure Travel Memoirs

Updated June 6, 2026
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Wild : from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Strayed, Cheryl
Paper Book
NATIONAL BEST SELLER * Oprah's Book Club 2.0 selection. * A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again. A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the...
We came, we saw, we left : a family gap year
Wheelan, Charles J.
Paper Book
Charlie Wheelan and his family do what others dream of: They take a year off to travel the world. This is their story. What would happen if you quit your life for a year? In a pre-COVID-19 world, the Wheelan family decided to find out; leaving behind work, school, and even the family...
Spirit run : a 6,000-mile marathon through North America's stolen land
?lvarez, No
Paper Book
In this New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, the son of working-class Mexican immigrants flees a life of labor in fruit-packing plants to run in a Native American marathon from Canada to Guatemala in this "stunning memoir that moves to the rhythm of feet, labor, and the many...
The Sun is a Compass : A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds
Van Hemert, Caroline
Paper Book
For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the...
A walk in the park : the true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paper Book
* Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature * Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Air Mail, Smithsonian Magazine, and Financial Times "A...
A walk in the woods : rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Bryson, Bill.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The classic chronicle of a "terribly misguided and terribly funny" (The Washington Post) hike of the Appalachian Trail, from the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body  ...
Wandering in strange lands : a daughter of the Great Migration reclaims her roots
Jerkins, Morgan
Paper Book
One of TIME's 100 Must Read Books of 2020 and one of Good Housekeeping's Best Books of the Year "One of the smartest young writers of her generation."--Book Riot From New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing Morgan Jerkins, a powerful story of her journey to...
Eat, pray, love : one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia
Gilbert, Elizabeth
Paper Book
One of the most iconic, beloved, and bestselling books of our time from the bestselling author of City of Girls and Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert. Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love touched the world and changed countless lives, inspiring and empowering millions...
The ride of her life : the true story of a woman, her horse, and their last-chance journey across America
Letts, Elizabeth
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER .The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion presents a "heartwarming and engaging folk-hero biography" (Kirkus Reviews) of a woman who fulfilled her lifelong wish to see the Pacific Ocean by riding...
The lost city of the Monkey God
Preston, Douglas J.
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Named one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and National Geographic. An acclaimed journalist takes readers on a true...
In a sunburned country
Bryson, Bill.
Paper Book
Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion up, down, and over the Appalachian Trail (well, most of it) resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. Now he has traveled across the world and all the way Down...
Nowhere for very long : the unexpected road to an unconventional life
Madia, Brianna
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * USA TODAY! BESTSELLER In this beautifully written, vividly detailed adventure memoir, a young woman chronicles her travels across the deserts of the American West in an...
Tracks
Davidson, Robyn
Paper Book
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Robyn Davidson's opens the memoir of her perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company with the following words: "I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know...
Leave only footprints : my Acadia-to-Zion journey through every national park
Knighton, Conor
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A delightful sampler plate of our national parks, written with charisma and erudition."--Nick Offerman, author of Paddle Your Own Canoe From CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Conor Knighton, a behind-the-scenery look at...
Welcome to the goddamn ice cube : chasing fear and finding home in the great white north
Braverman, Blair
Paper Book
A rich and revelatory memoir of a young woman reclaiming her courage in the stark landscapes of the north. By the time Blair Braverman was eighteen, she had left her home in California, moved to arctic Norway to learn to drive sled dogs, and found work as a tour guide on a glacier in...
The adventurer's son : a memoir
Dial, Roman
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER  "Destined to become an adventure classic." --Anchorage Daily News Hailed as "gripping" (New York Times) and "beautiful" (Washington Post), The Adventurer's Son is Roman Dial's extraordinary and widely acclaimed account of his two-year quest to unravel...
Call you when I land : a memoir
Vargas, Nikki
Paper Book
"I absolutely loved it. It's so good. So real and heartfelt and funny and rich with life." -CHERYL STRAYED * A Real Simple Book Club Pick * Hudson Bestseller *  Winner of the 2024 Bessie Award * A RECOMMENDED READ FROM: Good Morning...
Lands of lost borders : a journey on the Silk Road
Harris, Kate
Paper Book
"Lands of Lost Borders carried me up into a state of openness and excitement I haven't felt for years. It's a modern classic."--Pico Iyer A brilliant, fierce writer, and winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize, makes her debut with this enthralling travelogue and memoir of her...
Mother, nature : a 5,000-mile journey to discover if a mother and son can survive their differences
Jenkins, Jedidiah
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the author of To Shake the Sleeping Self . . . "Exquisitely written and completely compelling . . . As Jedidiah Jenkins traces a 5,000-mile route with his wildly entertaining mother, Barb, he begins to untangle the live wires of a parent-child...
Dogtripping : 25 rescues, 11 volunteers, and 3 RVs on our canine cross-country adventure
Rosenfelt, David.
Paper Book
David Rosenfelt'sDogtripping is moving and funny account of a cross-country move from California to Maine, and the beginnings of a dog rescue foundation When mystery writer David Rosenfelt and his family moved from Southern California to Maine, he thought he had prepared for...
The last ride of the Pony Express : my 2,000-mile horseback journey into the Old West
Grant, Will
Paper Book
USA Today bestseller!  Cowboy and journalist Will Grant takes us on an epic and authentic horseback journey into the modern West on an adventure of a lifetime, boldly illuminating both our mythic fascination with the Pony Express, and how its spirit...
Walking the Amazon : 860 days --one step at a time
Stafford, Ed.
Paper Book
From the star of Discovery Channel's Naked and Marooned comes a a riveting, adventurous account of one man's history-making journey along the entire length of the Amazon--and through the most bio-diverse habitat on Earth.  Fans of Turn Right at Machu Piccu and readers of...
No summit out of sight : the true story of the youngest person to climb the seven summits
Romero, Jordan
Paper Book
Jordan Romero climbed Mount Everest at age thirteen--and he didn't stop there. In this inspiring young adult memoir, he tells how he achieved such great heights. On May 22, 2010, at the age of thirteen, American teenager Jordan Romero became the youngest person to climb to the...
Life lived wild : adventures at the edge of the map
Ridgeway, Rick
Ebook
A life worth living is lived at the edges where it is wild At the beginning of his memoir Life Lived Wild, Adventures at the Edge of the Map, Rick Ridgeway tells us that if you add up all his many expeditions, he's spent over five years of his life sleeping in...
Walking to listen : 4,000 miles across America, one story at a time
Forsthoefel, Andrew
Paper Book
A memoir of one young man's coming of age on a journey across America--told through the stories of the people of all ages, races, and inclinations he meets along the way. Life is fast, and I've found it's easy to confuse the miraculous for the mundane, so I'm slowing down,...
A Paris year : my day-to-day adventures in the most romantic city in the world
MacLeod, Janice
Paper Book
Part memoir and part visual journey through the streets of modern-day Paris, France, A Paris Year chronicles, day by day, one woman's French sojourn in the world's most beautiful city. Beginning on her first day in Paris, Janice MacLeod, the author of the best-selling book, Paris Letters,<...
No barriers : a blind man's journey to kayak the Grand Canyon
Weihenmayer, Erik
Ebook
"More than an incredible adventure story . . . a beautiful book about family and finding a way to achieve more than you ever thought possible." --Brad Meltzer, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lightning Rod Finalist, Colorado Book Award<...
All the way to the tigers : a memoir
Morris, Mary
Audiobook
One of NPR's Best Books of the Year   From the author of Nothing to Declare, a moving travel narrative examining healing, redemption, and what it means to be a solo woman on the road.   In February 2008, a casual...
Turn right at Machu Picchu : rediscovering the lost city one step at a time
Adams, Mark
Audiobook
What happens when an unadventurous adventure writer tries to re-create the original expedition to Machu Picchu? In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and "discovered" Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artifacts and...
The River of Doubt : Theodore Roosevelt's darkest journey
Millard, Candice.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait--the bestselling author of River of the Gods brings us the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth. ...
Travels with Charley : in search of America
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers   To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light--these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to...
Notes from a small island
Bryson, Bill.
Paper Book
The sex lives of cannibals : adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
Troost, J. Maarten.
Paper Book
At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost--who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs--decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of...
Ghost rider : travels on the healing road
Peart, Neil.
Ebook
Within a ten-month period, Neil Peart lost both his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, and his wife, Jackie. Faced with overwhelming sadness and isolated from the world in his home on the lake, Peart was left without direction. This memoir tells of the sense of personal devastation that led him on a...

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