I read pretty much what I write: travel narratives and travel memoirs. Narratives are about the place, much more than the writer. Memoirs are all about the writer and her internal life. I’ll keep updating this page.

Travel Narratives

Really, almost anything by Tony Horwitz, including,

Horwitz, Tony. One for the Road. Vintage Books, 1999. About his trip through Australia.

Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic:Dispatches from an Unfinished Civil War. Vintage, 1999. This really was a best-seller about Civil War reenactors.

Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America. Picador, 2009. I mention this book in Forests, Alligators, Battlefields, saying that my travels are like his, except with less booze.

Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster. Anchor, 1999. I’m very realistic that I could never have gone up Mt. Everest. I also loved Into the Wild.

Tidwell, Mike. Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast. Vintage Reprint Edition. 2010.

I discovered this book at Barataria in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana and mention him in FAB. Now I could see doing his adventure, hopping on and off shrimp boats in the LA Bayou.

Travel Memoirs

Davis, Jennifer Pharr. Called Again: A Story of Love and Triumph. Beaufort Books, 2015. Her record setting walk on the A.T. that was just broken. She lives in Asheville.

Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Vintage Books, 2015. I wanted to shake her but I enjoyed it and understood why it was a best seller.

Watkins, Andra. Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace.  Andra walked the whole Natchez Trace Parkway while her father provided the logistics. Funny!

Biography

Harlan, Will. Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island. Grove Press, 2015. Fascinating story about Carol Ruckdeschel who lives in Cumberland Island National Seashore.
I know Will and he blurbed my book.

Montgomery, Ben. Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail. I don’t know about her saving the A.T. but she certainly gave it a lot of prominence. She walked it the first time when she was 67 years old.

Fiction

Sharyn McCrumb, King’s Mountain. About the battle of Kings Mountain in SC, one of the parks I’ve visited several times. She writes such a beautiful backstory about the leaders of both sides.