From the #1 travel magazine in the country, a collection of travel tales from some of today's finest writers Travel writing maintains its seemingly endless popularity, and this volume offers a particularly transporting body of work, pairing exotic locales with writers of the highest caliber: Russell Banks writes on the Everglades, Francine Prose explores the secrets of Prague, Robert Hughes takes us on a tour of Italy, and more. From the most beautiful gardens to visit in Japan to the best free things to do in Provence, this book is as enlightening as it is entertaining. Whether off to the other side of the globe or to their favorite reading chair, wanderers of every sort will find this book truly indispensable. Other featured writers and places include: Nik Cohn on Savannah Philip Gourevitch on Tanzania Shirley Hazzard on Capri Pico Iyer on Iceland and Ethiopia Nicole Krauss on Japan Suketu Mehta on the Himalayas Edna O'Brien on Bath Patricia Storace on Provence and Athens James Truman on Iran Gregor Von Rezzori on Romania Edmund White on Jordan Simon Winchester on Mount Pinatubo William Dalrymple on his pilgrimage to Santiago John Julius Norwich on the Vatican Jan Morris on Hawaii

When a Chinese monk broke into a hidden cave in 1900, he uncovered one of the world’s great literary secrets: a time capsule from the ancient Silk Road. Inside, scrolls were piled from floor to ceiling, undisturbed for a thousand years. The gem within was the Diamond Sutra of AD 868. This key Buddhist teaching, made 500 years before Gutenberg inked his press, is the world’s oldest printed book. The Silk Road once linked China with the Mediterranean. It conveyed merchants, pilgrims and ideas. But its cultures and oases were swallowed by shifting sands. Central to the Silk Road’s rediscovery was a man named Aurel Stein, a Hungarian-born scholar and archaeologist employed by the British service. Undaunted by the vast Gobi Desert, Stein crossed thousands of desolate miles with his fox terrier Dash. Stein met the Chinese monk and secured the Diamond Sutra and much more. The scroll’s journey—by camel through arid desert, by boat to London’s curious scholars, by train to evade the bombs of World War II—merges an explorer’s adventures, political intrigue, and continued controversy. The Diamond Sutra has inspired Jack Kerouac and the Dalai Lama. Its journey has coincided with the growing appeal of Buddhism in the West. As the Gutenberg Age cedes to the Google Age, the survival of the Silk Road’s greatest treasure is testament to the endurance of the written word.

2020 Banff Mountain Book Competition Finalist in Adventure Travel In Journeys North, legendary trail angel, thru hiker, and former PCTA board member Barney Scout Mann spins a compelling tale of six hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2007 as they walk from Mexico to Canada. This ensemble story unfolds as these half-dozen hikers--including Barney and his wife, Sandy--trod north, slowly forming relationships and revealing their deepest secrets and aspirations. They face a once-in-a-generation drought and early severe winter storms that test their will in this bare-knuckled adventure. In fact, only a third of all the hikers who set out on the trail that year would finish. As the group approaches Canada, a storm rages. How will these very different hikers, ranging in age, gender, and background, respond to the hardship and suffering ahead of them? Can they all make the final 60-mile push through freezing temperatures, sleet, and snow, or will some reach their breaking point? Journeys North is a story of grit, compassion, and the relationships people forge when they strive toward a common goal.

How do you encompass all the worlds of the imagination? Within fantasy’s scope lies every possible impossibility, from dragons to spirits, from magic to gods, and from the unliving to the undying. In Fearsome Journeys, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan sets out on a quest to find the very limits of the unlimited, collecting twelve brand new stories by some of the most popular and exciting names in epic fantasy from around the world. With original fiction from Scott Lynch, Saladin Ahmed, Trudi Canavan, K J Parker, Kate Elliott, Jeffrey Ford, Robert V S Redick, Ellen Klages, Glen Cook, Elizabeth Bear, Ellen Kushner, Ysabeau S. Wilce and Daniel Abraham, Fearsome Journeys explores the whole range of the fantastic.

Rosalind McKnight was one of the first, and most successful, researchers to work with Robert Monroe and The Monroe Institute in Virginia. She spent eleven years doing research in a laboratory setting. With the help of Monroe and his Hemi-Sync technology that put her into altered states of consciousness, she explored and reported on various levels of non-physical reality. Her first book, Cosmic Journeys, described a visitation that she had in her earlier life by an energy form that she calls Radiant Lady. When Radiant Lady first appeared forty years ago, she said nothing, leaving McKnight wondering about the purpose of her visit. In 2003, Radiant Lady suddenly reappeared, announcing to McKnight that they had a mission to accomplish together. Radiant Lady acts as "tour guide" into other dimensions where McKnight meets non-physical energies who share their own personal experiences of the dimensions which they inhabit. Written for every soul on the planet, these unforgettable adventures emphasize that all of us have angels and spirit guides waiting to help us discover the inner workings of the multiple worlds in which we exist and to which we will all one day journey.

Written by women for women, this book includes daily meditations for an entire year, facilitating daily spiritual discipline by offering daily readings and questions as a starting point for reflection, prayer, and journaling.