Powered by a book like {foo}
Recommendations based on The Places in Betweenby Rory Stewart
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town
by Paul Theroux
An exploration of Africa, from the ancient wonders of the Nile to the modern marvels of the Cape.
In Dark Star Safari the wittily observant and endearingly irascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train. In ... (Goodreads)
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time
by Greg Mortenson
A man's mission to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan to promote peace.
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard Anyone who despairs of the individual’s ... (Goodreads)
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
by Jon Krakauer
A gripping narrative of the 1996 expedition on Mount Everest that resulted in tragedy.
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. ... (Goodreads)
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
by Steve Coll
A detailed account of the CIA's involvement in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to the events leading up to 9/11.
The news-breaking book that has sent shockwaves through the Bush White House, Ghost Wars is the most accurate and revealing account yet of the CIA's secret involvement in al-Qaeda's evolution. It won ... (Goodreads)
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson
A humorous account of a man's attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, reflecting on the beauty and history of the American wilderness.
The book starts with Bryson explaining his curiosity about the Appalachian Trail near his house. He and his old friend Stephen Katz start hiking the trail from Georgia in the South , and stumble in ... (Wikipedia)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by Katherine Boo
Explores the lives of the people living in Mumbai's slums and the harsh realities they face.
From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the ... (Goodreads)
From Beirut to Jerusalem
by Thomas L. Friedman
A journalist's account of the Middle East, from the civil war in Lebanon to the first Palestinian intifada.
This extraordinary bestseller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the Middle East. Thomas L. Friedman, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for international ... (Goodreads)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
Exploration of the modern food chain, examining the impact of food choices on our health and the environment.
What should we have for dinner? The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire , how we answer it today, at ... (Goodreads)
King Leopold's Ghost
by Adam Hochschild
A harrowing account of the colonization of the Congo and the exploitation of its people.
In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a ... (Goodreads)
Zeitoun
by Dave Eggers
A man's struggle to survive and reunite with his family amidst the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Abdulrahman Zeitoun grew up in Syria. After a few years of apprenticeship in the Syrian port city of Jableh , Zeitoun spent twenty years working at sea as a muscleman, engineer and fisherman. During ... (Wikipedia)
The Great Railway Bazaar
by Paul Theroux
A travelogue of a four-month journey by train from London to Tokyo, exploring the cultures and people encountered along the way.
First published in 1975, Paul Theroux's strange, unique, and hugely entertaining railway odyssey has become a modern classic of travel literature. Here Theroux recounts his early adventures on an ... (Goodreads)
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
by Erik Larson
A family's struggle to cope with the darkness of Nazi Germany, as seen through one man's courage.
The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from ... (Goodreads)
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall
A thrilling exploration of the Tarahumara tribe and their superhuman running abilities.
Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does ... (Goodreads)
Dispatches
by Michael Herr
A journalist's account of the Vietnam War, depicting the brutality, confusion and chaos of the conflict.
Written on the front lines in Vietnam, Dispatches became an immediate classic of war reportage when it was published in 1977. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches ... (Goodreads)
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
by Anne Fadiman
Exploring the cultural divide between the Hmong people and the medical establishment.
Lia Lee was born in 1982 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, ... (Goodreads)
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by Lawrence Wright
A comprehensive study of the rise of Al-Qaeda and its role in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on ... (Goodreads)
The Shadow of the Sun
by Ryszard Kapuściński
An epic account of a journey through Africa, navigating the continent's diverse cultures and politics.
In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. From the early days of independence ... (Goodreads)
City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
by William Dalrymple
Exploration of Delhi's vibrant culture, history and people over the course of a year.
Sparkling with irrepressible wit, City of Djinns peels back the layers of Delhi's centuries-old history, revealing an extraordinary array of characters along the way-from eunuchs to descendants of ... (Goodreads)
Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
by Hampton Sides
An exploration of the westward expansion of the United States, recounting the lives of those who lived it.
A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won - a Sweeping Tale of Shame and Glory, In the fall of 1846 the venerable Navajo warrior Narbona, greatest of his people’s chieftains, looked down ... (Goodreads)
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
by Jon Krakauer
The inspiring story of a professional athlete and soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.
The bestselling author of, Into the Wild,, Into Thin Air, and, Under the Banner of Heaven, delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man’s haunting journey. Like the men whose epic ... (Goodreads)
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
A humorous and unflinching account of life in restaurant kitchens, exploring the culture and camaraderie of the culinary world.
A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute ... (Goodreads)
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller
An autobiographical account of a white family in Rhodesia, struggling to survive in a war-torn land.
Alexandra Fuller's book tells the story of her family of white Zimbabwean tenant farmers in the years before and after Independence. These are not the wealthy landowners demonised by the present ... (Wikipedia)
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
by Piers Paul Read
Story of a group of Uruguayan rugby players who survive a plane crash in the Andes and must fight to stay alive.
On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the forty-five original passengers and crew, only sixteen made it off the ... (Goodreads)
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
by Nicholas D. Kristof
Examining the global struggle of women and how to empower them in the face of oppression.
From two of our most fiercely moral voices, a passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. With Pulitzer ... (Goodreads)
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
by Tracy Kidder
A story of one man's journey to fight poverty, illness, and injustice around the world.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, ... (Goodreads)
Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart
by Tim Butcher
An exploration of the Congo River, tracing its past and present history.
A compulsively readable account of a journey to the Congo — a country virtually inaccessible to the outside world — vividly told by a daring and adventurous journalist. Ever since Stanley first ... (Goodreads)
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama
An exploration of the Obama family history, tracing the threads of identity and race.
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New ... (Goodreads)
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
by J. Maarten Troost
A humorous memoir of a couple's misadventures while living on a remote island in the Pacific.
In the book Troost described how he and his girlfriend Sylvia adjusted to life on the remote small island in the South Pacific, and built a life for themselves there. Troost described the unusual ... (Wikipedia)
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
by Peter Hessler
A memoir of a Peace Corps volunteer's two-year stay in a small Chinese town on the Yangtze River, exploring the culture and history of the region.
In the heart of China's Sichuan province lies the small city of Fuling. Surrounded by the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, Fuling has long been a place of continuity, far from the bustling ... (Goodreads)
Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan
by Greg Mortenson
True story of a man's determination to promote peace and education in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
From the author of the #1 bestseller Three Cups of Tea , the continuing story of this determined humanitarian's efforts to promote peace through education. In this dramatic first-person narrative, ... (Goodreads)
