STARRED REVIEW
June 2022

4 epic travel books to read with your book club

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These true stories of national park-hopping and continent-traversing will inspire reading groups.
STARRED REVIEW
June 2022

4 epic travel books to read with your book club

Feature by
These true stories of national park-hopping and continent-traversing will inspire reading groups.
June 2022

4 epic travel books to read with your book club

Feature by
These true stories of national park-hopping and continent-traversing will inspire reading groups.
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Following a breakup with his fiancée, “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent Conor Knighton sought distraction in travel. He spent a year touring the nation’s 63 national parks, and in Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park, he provides a funny, fascinating account of his trip. Knighton, who started his trek at Acadia National Park in Maine, shares hilarious anecdotes from the road and provides insights into the history of the park system. Reading groups will enjoy digging into themes of nature, conservation and the allure of travel.

In The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America, Elizabeth Letts chronicles the extraordinary travels of Annie Wilkins. In 1954, Wilkins learned that she had only a few years to live. Determined to see the Pacific Ocean, a lifelong dream of hers, the 63-year-old set out on her horse, Tarzan, riding from Maine to California and attracting national attention along the way. Letts brings Wilkins’ adventures to vivid life in this unforgettable book.

Mark Adams’ Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier is a spirited tribute to one of America’s most idiosyncratic states. Inspired by Edward H. Harriman’s famous 1899 exploration of the Alaskan coastline, Adams (Turn Right at Machu Picchu) traveled the same route as Harriman and his crew. He documents the ways in which Alaska has changed in the intervening years and crosses paths with an array of colorful characters, providing astute observations about environmentalism, Alaskan history and the oil industry in the process.

Kate Harris was a Rhodes scholar studying at Oxford and MIT when she set out to travel the Silk Road by bike, an excursion she recounts in Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road. Harris, who had long dreamed of exploration, was accompanied by her best friend, Mel. Together, they cycled their way into Turkey, India, Nepal and China, traveling for nearly a year. Harris mixes history, geography, travel writing and personal reflection to create a richly detailed narrative that’s a testament to the transformative power of travel.

Leave Only Footprints
By Conor Knighton
Crown

ISBN 9781984823557

Lands of Lost Borders
By Kate Harris
Dey Street

ISBN 9780062846662

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Get the Books

The Ride of Her Life

The Ride of Her Life

By Elizabeth Letts
Ballantine
ISBN 9780525619321
Tip of the Iceberg

Tip of the Iceberg

By Mark Adams
Dutton
ISBN 9781101985120
Leave Only Footprints

Leave Only Footprints

By Conor Knighton
Crown
ISBN 9781984823557
Lands of Lost Borders

Lands of Lost Borders

By Kate Harris
Dey Street
ISBN 9780062846662

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