It is the Seventies. Ed Macale is thirty plus and soon to be divorced. He suddenly quits his secure job and home and escapes from the routine of suburban England to realise his long held dream of going to America. Ever since he was a kid he was inspired by seeing colourful images of that big country in the cinema. Now he is finally able to take a life-changing trip and on his own terms. With his personal possessions in a bag and only four contacts to stay with, he hitchhikes westward across the vast varied landscape on historic Route 66 to California. It is an exciting experience as he hitches rides, a couple of over thousands of miles, meets a diverse collection of fellow travellers and passes through the most spectacular countryside he has ever seen: it is the romance of the road. Immersing himself into the exciting and existential footloose culture of the road he recaptures the journeys of the thirties migrants and the beat authors and hippies of the post war generation. This is Eds story of the events and his feelings about them as he explores and experiences a different country for the first time.

It is the Seventies. Ed Macale is thirty plus and soon to be divorced. He suddenly quits his secure job and home and escapes from the routine of suburban England to realise his long held dream of going to America. Ever since he was a kid he was inspired by seeing colourful images of that big country in the cinema. Now he is finally able to take a life-changing trip and on his own terms. With his personal possessions in a bag and only four contacts to stay with, he hitchhikes westward across the vast varied landscape on historic Route 66 to California. It is an exciting experience as he hitches rides, a couple of over thousands of miles, meets a diverse collection of fellow travellers and passes through the most spectacular countryside he has ever seen: it is the romance of the road. Immersing himself into the exciting and existential footloose culture of the road he recaptures the journeys of the thirties' migrants and the beat authors and hippies of the post war generation. This is Ed's story of the events and his feelings about them as he explores and experiences a different country for the first time.

Driving with strangers is an ambitious, timely and intellectually eclectic contribution to how we think about mobility, the rationale behind its different forms and why our philosophy of travel and societal structures are closely related. The book uses a century of hitchhiking across contrasting national contexts to understand the relationship between sharing the road, political economy and social structure. Purkis offers a 'vagabond sociological perspective', which explores power within a society, as seen from the kerbside. This is outlined using a series of theoretical touchstones, central to the history of hitchhiking: relative levels of freedom, trust, human nature, 'gift' or 'experience-based' economics, risk, cooperation, empathy and ecology. Drawing on progressive sociological and critical anthropological traditions the book builds a different vision of social structures, political-economy and human capability to help empower those fighting ecological apocalypse and societal breakdown.

This fascinating tale of the author's cross-country hitchhiking journey is a captivating look into the pleasures and challenges of the open road. As the miles roll by he meets businessmen, missionaries, conspiracy theorists, and truck drivers from all ages and ethnicities who are eager to open their car doors to a wandering stranger. This memoir uncovers the hidden reality that the United States remains hospitable, quirky, and as ready as ever to offer help to a curious traveler. Demonstrating how hitchhiking can be the ultimate in adventure travel—a thrilling exploration of both people and scenery—this guide also serves as a hitchhiker's reference, sharing the history behind this communal form of travel while touching on roadside lore and philosophy.

At 16, Kaufman dropped out of high school and started hitching across America in an effort to see the most birds in a year. "Kingbird Highway" is a unique coming-of-age story, combining a lyrical celebration of nature with wild adventures and some unbelievable characters.

It had never been done before. Not in 4000 years of Japanese recorded history had anyone followed the Cherry Blossom Front from one end of the country to the other. Nor had anyone hitchhiked the length of Japan. But, heady on sakura and sake, Will Ferguson bet he could do both. The resulting travelogue is one of the funniest and most illuminating books ever written about Japan. And, as Ferguson learns, it illustrates that to travel is better than to arrive.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” – NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.