In 2015, Michael Smith set out on a remarkable mission and became the first person to fly solo around the world in an amphibious plane. This is the often funny, occasionally terrifying and always inspiring story of that trip, and how it came about. With limited flying experience, no support team and only basic instruments in his tiny flying boat, the Southern Sun, Michael risked his life to make modern aviation history. His adventures include an unexpected greeting by Special Branch on his arrival in the UK, a near-death experience while leaving Greenland, and a wondrous journey up the Mississippi. Showing a very Australian ingenuity and openness to experience, Michael worked his way around the globe. In seven months he made eighty stops in twenty-five countries, visiting many unusual places and, more often than not, encountering the kindness of strangers. ‘Great Aussie spirit in a good old-fashioned, seat-of-the-pants adventure’ —Dick Smith ‘The blue-sky dreaming of Walter Mitty, the resourcefulness of Phileas Fogg and – dare I say it? – the over-confidence and geniality of Mr Toad in a flying machine. Surely these literary figures were the inspiration for such an adventure. A marvellous exploit and wonderfully told.’ —A.J. Mackinnon, author The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow Michael Smith was named Australian Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year in 2016. He is also one of Australia’s last independent metropolitan cinema operators, after he restored and re-opened the beloved Sun Theatre in Yarraville, Melbourne.

Recently there has been a seemingly endless stream of books praising the glories of ancient and modern Rome, fretting over Venice's rising tides and moldering galleries, celebrating the Tuscan countryside, wines and cuisine. But there have been curiously few writings that deal directly with Italy as the country of origin for the grand- and great-grandparents of nearly twenty-six million Americans. The greatest majority—more than eight out of ten—of those American descendants of immigrant Italians aren't the progeny of Venetian doges or Tuscan wealth, but are the diaspora of Southern Italians, people from a place very different than Renaissance Florence or the modern political entity of Rome. Southern Italians, mostly from villages and towns sprinkled about the dramatic and remote countryside of Italian provinces even now tourists find only with determination and rental cars. In Under the Southern Sun: Stories of the Real Italy and the Americans It Created, journalist Paul Paolicelli takes us on a grand tour of the Southern Italy of most Italian-American immigrants, including Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, Sicily, Abruzzo, and Molise, and explores the many fascinating elements of Southern Italian society, history, and culture. Along the way, he explores the concept of heritage and of going back to one's roots, the theory of a cultural subconscious, and most importantly, the idea of a Southern Italian "sensibility" – where it comes from, how it has been cultivated, and how it has been passed on from generation to generation. Amidst the delightful blend of travelogue and journalism are wonderful stories about famous Southern Italian-Americans, most notably Frank Capra and Rudolph Valentino, who were forced to leave their homeland and to adjust, adapt, and survive in America. He tells the story of the only large concentration camp built and run by the Fascists during World War II and of the humanity of the Southerners who ran the place. He visits ancient seaside communities once dominated by castles and watchtowers and now bathed in tanning oil and tourists, muses over Matera—what is probably Europe's oldest and most unknown city – and culminates in a fascinating exploration of how one's familial memory can influence his or her internal value system. This book is a celebration of Southern Italy, its people, and what it has given to its American descendants.

Christian Beamish, a former editor at The Surfer’s Journal, envisioned a low-tech, self-reliant exploration for surf along the coast of North America, using primarily clothes and instruments available to his ancestors, and the 18-foot boat he would build by hand in his garage. How the vision met reality – and how the two came to shape each other – places Voyage of the Cormorant in the great American tradition of tales of life at sea, and what it has to teach us.

University dropout Michael Smith built a multimillion-dollar business fitting out movie theatres around the world, before restoring Melbourne's Sun Theatre and becoming one of the country's last independent cinema operators. After a business deal went bad, and shaken by how close he had come to being wiped out, Smith took an even bigger risk- to become the first person to fly solo around the world in an amphibious plane, retracing the 1938 Qantas, Imperial and Pan Am flying boat routes between Sydney, Southampton and New York. With limited flying experience, no support team and only basic instruments in his tiny single-engine flying boat, the Southern Sun, Smith risked his life to make modern aviation history. His adventures include an unexpected greeting by Special Branch on his arrival in the UK, a near-death experience while leaving Greenland, and a journey up the Mississippi, landing on the river and sleeping on sandbanks at night. He made eighty stops on his flight around the globe, exploring cities and communities, as well as visiting some seventy cinemas. All along the way Smith was updating his online journal, cheered on by more than 50,000 followers. Smith's historic flight lasted seven months, and took him from Australia to East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Crete, Croatia, Italy, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, the United States, Japan and the Philippines, before finally returning to Australia. This is the incredible story of his journey.

If you want a holiday that's hassle-free, virtually pre-paid, and that lets you see lots of places while only needing to pack and unpack once, then you should try a cruise. This best-selling book is the cruise industry bible: it gives you all the information you need to choose the right cruise for you. Meticulously updated every year by cruise expert Douglas Ward, it is divided into two main parts: the first helps you work out what you're looking for in a cruise holiday and how to find it; the lively text and colour photographs describe every aspect of life on board, including safety, the highs and lows of the cruise experience and how to save money. The second part contains unbiased reviews and fascinating detail of almost 300 ocean-going cruise vessels, and grades them on service, food, entertainment and facilities, using an internationally recognised ratings system.

"A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere" is a historical account of the Baudin expedition to the coast of Australia. The voyage on two ships included about 24 scientists and researchers on board, an unprecedented number for those times. The journey was famous for its numerous discoveries. "A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere" by naturalist Francois Peron was one of several reports on the expedition. This book is most renowned for the Freycinet Map of 1811, the first published map showing the complete outline of Australia.

David Hunt tramples the tall poppies of the past in charting Australia's transformation from aspiration to nation - an epic tale of charlatans and costermongers, of bush bards and bushier beards, of workers and women who weren't going to take it anymore. Girt Nation introduces Alfred Deakin, the Liberal necromancer whose dead advisors made Australia a better place to live, and Banjo Paterson, the jihadist who called on God and the Prophet to drive the Australian infidels from the Sudan 'like sand before the gale'. And meet Catherine Helen Spence, the feminist polymath who envisaged a utopian future of free contraceptives, easy divorce and immigration restrictions to prevent the 'Chinese coming to destroy all we have struggled for!' Thrill as Jandamarra leads the Bunuba against Western Australia, and Valentine Keating leads the Crutchy Push, an all-amputee street gang, against the conventionally limbed. Gasp as Essendon Football Club trainer Carl von Ledebur injects his charges with crushed dog and goat testicles. Weep as Scott Morrison's communist great-great-aunt Mary Gilmore holds a hose in New Australia. And marvel at how Labor, a political party that spent a quarter of a century infighting over how to spell its own name, ever rose to power. 'Makes you wish David Hunt had been your history teacher. Laugh-out-loud funny and you'll actually learn something.' —Mark Humphries 'An entertaining and instructive historical romp through the formative period of Australian nation-making with a colourful cast of rhymesters, revolutionaries, rebels, racists, reprobates and rabbits.' —Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, The Australian National University 'Once again, David Hunt uses his sharpened wit to chisel away at misconceptions from Australian history leaving us with the cold, hard truth of how our nation came to be.' —Osher Günsberg 'Australian history told intelligently, but with more humour than ever before ... Girt Nation is fabulous storytelling, putting meat on the bones of the national story.' —The Weekend Australian