Somehow, I keep moving. I love going places and I love reading about explorers, itinerants, migrants, wanderers, and lost souls on the move. Looking for Redfeather started out as my National Novel Writing Month novel; the first draft, written in a mad dash during November 2007, when I was on the road, promoting my novel, Star-Crossed, a novel that also involves traveling. Looking for Redfeather was inspired by members of my own family—young people bent but not broken, malcontents on a mission, seeking something, but what? Published in 2013, it's a 21st century-coming-of-age road story, my tongue-in-cheek homage to Jack Kerouac, and the runaway teen still hiding out in my old soul.
On the Road is the mother of all 20th-century American road trips. It’s a mad rush West, an impetuous quest for life and friendship, as experienced by the protagonist, Sal Paradise. This is Kerouac’s episodic account of his own restless relationships among transients who question, postpone, reject, or can’t afford the post-World War II American dream of house, spouse, car, career, and kids. What I love about this iconic American road story is Kerouac’s authenticity, his thirst for life, his human fallibility, his truth.
The legendary novel of freedom and the search for authenticity that defined a generation, now in a striking new Pengiun Classics Deluxe Edition
Inspired by Jack Kerouac's adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naivete and wild ambition and imbued with Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed…
In the late 1960s, the author and his son ride a motorcycle across the Northwestern United States. At first it seems like a random, rambling sort of journey, but we soon discover Pirsig is on a mission to reconcile or reunite with a dark persona from the past, a man he calls Phaedrus. Persig uses the road trip as a framing device for his harrowing mental, emotional, and philosophical journey, and he takes us through some winding passages and desperate didactic encounters along the way, building tension like a thriller while giving a discourse in philosophy, questioning the meaning of insanity, and damning conventions of institutionalized academics.
Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing to inspire millions. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, the book becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. Resonant with the confusions of existence, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a touching and transcendent book of life.
If On the Road is a mad rush for connection, Blue Highwaysis a thoughtful professor’s journey on America’s back roads—represented by blue lines on 20th-century road maps. Much like John Steinbeck did twenty years earlier with his Travels with Charlie, William Least-Heat Moon takes to the road to discover 20th century America, reflecting the spirit of place and people, and how they are interconnected. Contrasted with Jack Kerouac—an impetuous young man thumbing his way across America on the “red line” highways—this mature writer explores the “blue line” back roads in his 1975 Ford Econoline van. Of English, Irish, and native Osage heritage, William Least-Heat Moon gives us an observant “deep map” American road trip worth taking.
Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map -- if they get on at all -- only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation…
What are Americans like today? In the spirit ofTravels with Charley, George Zeigler made his own journey in the early 21st century, retracing Steinbeck’s literary journey to rediscover his country. In the process, the Wyoming-based writer gives us not only a 21st-century road memoir, but a literary biography of America’s 1960 Nobel Laureate author. Gregory Zeigler explores the country to discover who Americans are today, and to pay homage to the great 20th-century novelist, John Steinbeck. “As for me, I got to know Steinbeck well and had one hell of an adventure following his tracks around the country,” Zeigler says. Makes me want to do the same.
Inspired by Travels with Charley, Gregory Zeigler celebrated the 50th anniversary of renowned Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck's storied trip. In 2009, Zeigler and his dog Max drove and camped 15,000 miles over nine weeks, exploring the country and determining what Americans are like today. Travels With Max offers a retrospective on Steinbeck and his work, as well as an insightful, humorous and upbeat perspective on modern America. Steinbeck's Travels with Charley will celebrate it's 60th anniversary in 2020.
I’m a huge fan of Dave Eggers’ writing and Heroes of the Frontierwas a bumpy back road into the wilds of Alaska and straight to my literary heart. His protagonist is a single mother on the lam from her ex-husband and leaving behind her profession, lost to a lawsuit. In spite of the character’s desperation, Eggers makes me laugh, he makes me cringe with embarrassment, he makes me feel like these characters are family. Like a real road trip, I sometimes found myself wondering Are we there yet? But I forgive him for the extra miles and all that time behind the wheel—the adventure and Eggers’ insights into contemporary American society were worth it.
'The mirror image of Eggers's brilliantly dystopian The Circle... [A] state of the nation novel, cleansing the spirit and lifting the heart' Guardian
A hilarious and heart-warming misadventure through modern America: it's time for the family vacation...
Josie's life is falling apart - lawsuits raining down, her business down the drain and a feckless husband long gone - so she gathers up her two kids and lights out for the wilderness. The Alaskan wilderness, to be specific.
This is a story about the trip of a lifetime. It involves one battered old RV,…
Fifteen-year-old Ramie Redfeather leaves Cheyenne with music in his pocket and his thumb in the air. He’s looking to find his father, a man he’s never met. Ramie gets a ride with Chas Sweeney, a seventeen-year-old driving a “borrowed” Cadillac Eldorado with Maryland tags, who happens to be passing through Cheyenne, on his way to Denver, running away from the wreckage that is his world, sixteen hundred miles away. In Denver, Ramie and Chas meet Mae B. LaRoux, an enchanting young singer from Baton Rouge. LaRoux, who struggles with a learning disability, is on a mission to become a professional musician. The three runaways band together and set out on a fast-paced road trip to get LaRoux to the Austin Music Festival, looking for Ramie’s father on the way.
I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives.
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.
The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…
