The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba
10 best books like The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba (Dervla Murphy): Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean, Somebody's Heart Is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa, The Water in Between: A Journey at Sea, Fishing in Utopia, Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece, Along The Enchanted Way: A Romanian Story, The Robber of Memories: A River Journey Through Colombia, Last Seen in Lhasa: The story of an extraordinary friendship in modern Tibet, The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule, Tigers in Red Weather: A Quest for the Last Wild Tigers
Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean
| Author | Alex von Tunzelmann |
| ISBN | 0805090673 |
The Caribbean crises of the Cold War are revealed as never before in this riveting story of clashing ideologies, the rise of the politics of fear, the machinations of superpowers, and the brazen daring of the mavericks who took them on
During the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson,...
| Author | Tanya Shaffer |
| ISBN | 1400032598 |
“It's my life, and if I want to run from it I can,” quips Tanya Shaffer. An incorrigible wanderer, Shaffer has a habit of fleeing domesticity for the joys and rigors of the open road. This time her destination is Ghana, and what results is a transformative year spent roaming the African continent....
The Water in Between: A Journey at Sea
| Author | Kevin Patterson |
| ISBN | 0385498845 |
Wise, funny and beautifully written, The Water in Between is an inspiring-and cautionary-tale for anyone who has ever wanted to escape into another life.
A stint in the army and a broken heart lead Kevin Patterson, who has never sailed before, to buy a 37-foot sailboat. He recruits a more experienced...
| Author | Andrew Brown |
| ISBN | 1862079951 |
King Canute in the story allowed the flooding tide to splash about his ankles to show his courtiers the limits of power and authority. There are broader tides to human affairs that wash over kings and queens as much as commoners. Andrew Brown's book is a record of how those broader waves and currents washed...
Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece
| Author | Patrick Leigh Fermor |
Roumeli is not to be found on present-day maps. It is the name once given to northern Greece—stretching from the Bosporus to the Adriatic and from Macedonia to the Gulf of Corinth, a name that evokes a world where the present is inseparably bound up with the past.
Roumeli describes Patrick...
Along The Enchanted Way: A Romanian Story
| Author | William Blacker |
| ISBN | 0719597900 |
When William Blacker first crossed the snow-bound passes of northern Romania, he stumbled upon an almost medieval world. There, for many years he lived side by side with the country people, a life ruled by the slow cycle of the seasons, far away from the frantic rush of the modern world. In spring as the...
The Robber of Memories: A River Journey Through Colombia
Magdalena, a river that courses through the heart of Colombia, connects a violent past with the country’s uncertain present. British writer Michael Jacobs struggles to reconcile his love for the land and its people with the dangers that both still present.
Determined to eliminate modern...
| Author | Claire Scobie |
| ISBN | 1846040051 |
Some go to Tibet seeking inspiration, others for adventure. The award-winning journalist, Claire Scobie, found both when she left her ordinary life in London and went to the Himalayas in search of a rare red lily. Her journey took her to Pemako, where few Westerners have set foot and where the myth of...
A legend, a land once seen and then lost forever, Thule was a place beyond the edge of the maps, a mystery for thousands of years. And to the Nazis, Thule was an icy Eden, birthplace of Nordic “purity.” In this exquisitely written narrative, Joanna Kavenna wanders in search of Thule, to Shetland, Iceland,...
Tigers in Red Weather: A Quest for the Last Wild Tigers
| Author | Ruth Padel |
| ISBN | 0802715443 |
Poet, writer, and descendant of Charles Darwin, Ruth Padel set out to visit a tropical jungle and wildlife sanctuary in India-- and her visit turned into a remarkable two-year journey through eleven countries in search of that most elusive and most beautiful animal: the tiger. Armed with her grandmother's...
| Author | Ella Maillart |
| ISBN | 1406719269 |
Forbidden Journey is the awe-inspiring story of Ella Maillart and Peter Fleming's trip from Peking in China to Srinagar in India, crossing hostile deserts and high Himalayan passes this travel book is full of accounts of the people who inhabited this wild and vast land, living in a way that had not changed...
Brazil's Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Struggle for Democracy
| Author | Dave Zirin |
| ISBN | 1608464334 |
"You have to read David Zirin to believe him, and if you read him, you will believe him."Jack McCallum, senior writer, Sports Illustrated
"I once said Dave Zirin was the best young sportswriter in the US. I was wrong. He's simply the best."Robert Lipsyte
The people of Brazil celebrated...
Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge
| Author | John Gimlette |
| ISBN | 0307272532 |
Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana are among the least-known places in South America: nine hundred miles of muddy coastline giving way to a forest so dense that even today there are virtually no roads through it; a string of rickety coastal towns situated between the mouths of the Orinoco and Amazon...
| Author | Arthur Grimble |
| ISBN | 0140095179 |
The funny, charming, and self-deprecating adventure story of a young man in the Pacific. Living for thirty years in the Gilbert & Ellis Islands, Grimble was ultimately initiated and tattooed according to local tradition, but not before he was severely tested, as when he was used as human bait for...
| Author | Alma Guillermoprieto |
This is a great book about the culture and evolution of Samba. Set in Rio de Janeiro, this books follows the year long preparation for Carnival by the world-renowned Samba school, Manguiera. It's definitely a must read if you are trying to learn more about samba, carnival or Brazilian culture. It had...
The Crossing Place: A Journey Among the Armenians
| Author | Philip Marsden |
| ISBN | 0006376673 |
After centuries of prominence as a world power, Armenia has withstood every attempt during the 20th century to destroy it. With a name redolent both of dim antiquity and of a modern world and its tensions, the Armenians founded a civilization and underwent a diaspora that brought many of the great ideas...
Lost and Found in Russia: Lives in the Post-Soviet Landscape
| Author | Susan Richards |
| ISBN | 1590513487 |
After the fall of communism, Russia was in a state of shock. The sudden and dramatic change left many people adrift and uncertain—but also full of a tentative but tenacious hope. Returning again and again to the provincial hinterlands of this rapidly evolving country from 1992 to 2008, Susan Richards...
Short Walks from Bogota: Journeys in the New Colombia
For decades, Colombia was the 'narcostate'. Now travel to Colombia and South America is on the rise, and it's seen as one of the rising stars of the global economy. Where does the truth lie?
Writer and journalist Tom Feiling, author of the acclaimed study of cocaine The Candy Machine, has journeyed...
Eleven Minutes Late: A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain
| Author | Matthew Engel |
| ISBN | 0230708986 |
Britain gave railways to the world, yet its own network is the dearest (definitely) and the worst (probably) in Western Europe. Trains are deeply embedded in the national psyche and folklore—yet it is considered uncool to care about them. For Matthew Engel the railway system is the ultimate expression...
| Author | Hugh Thomson |
| ISBN | 0753826941 |
'Try this tequila oil, Hugito. Just as the alcohol hits your stomach, the chilli will as well and blow it back into your brain. It will take your head off.' Explorer Hugh Thomson takes on Mexico.
It's 1979, Hugh Thomson is eighteen, far from home, with time to kill - and on his way to Mexico. When...
Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border
| Author | Colm Tóibín |
| ISBN | 0330373587 |
This book was originally published as Walking Along the Border in 1987. It was republished in 1994 with a new title, and without the photographs. I suppose the new title was intended to draw readers interested in Northern Ireland, as well as to reflect that this book is more than a travelogue. Toibin,...
After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti
| Author | Edwidge Danticat |
| ISBN | 0609609084 |
In After the Dance, one of Haiti’s most renowned daughters returns to her homeland, taking readers on a stunning, exquisitely rendered journey beyond the hedonistic surface of Carnival and into its deep heart.
Edwidge Danticat had long been scared off from Carnival by a loved one, who spun...
Watching the Door: Drinking Up, Getting Down, and Cheating Death in 1970s Belfast
| Author | Kevin Myers |
| ISBN | 1593762356 |
Kevin Myers was a young, wide-eyed, and naive outsider thrust into the thick of the conflict in Northern Ireland as it teetered on the brink of civil war. Quickly absorbed into the local community and privy to the secrets of both the Protestant and Catholic paramilitaries, Myers gained a unique perspective...
