From Captain George Vancouver to Muriel “Curve of Time” Blanchet to Jim “Spilsbury’s Coast” Spilsbury, visitors to Desolation Sound have left behind a trail of books endowing the area with a romantic aura that helps to make it British Columbia’s most popular marine park. In this hilarious and captivating book, CBC personality Grant Lawrence adds a whole new chapter to the saga of this storied piece of BC coastline. Young Grant’s father bought a piece of land next to the park in the 1970s, just in time to encounter the gun-toting cougar lady, left-over hippies, outlaw bikers and an assortment of other characters. In those years Desolation Sound was a place where going to the neighbours’ potluck meant being met with hugs from portly naked hippies and where Russell the Hermit’s school of life (boating, fishing, and rock ’n’ roll) was Grant’s personal Enlightenment—an influence that would take him away from the coast to a life of music and journalism and eventually back again. With rock band buddies and a few cases of beer in tow, an older, cooler Grant returns to regale us with tales of “going bush,” the tempting dilemma of finding an unguarded grow-op, and his awkward struggle to convince a couple of visiting kayakers that he’s a legit CBC radio host while sporting a wild beard and body wounds and gesticulating with a machete. With plenty of laugh-out-loud humour and inspired reverence, Adventures in Solitude delights us with the unique history of a place and the growth of a young man amidst the magic of Desolation Sound.

The author describes her experiences rafting down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon

Through the pain and depression of a long hospitalisation, Grayson discovers the inner strengths and resources that man possesses.

A wise, passionate account of the pleasures of traveling solo In our hectic, hyperconnected lives, many people are uncomfortable with the prospect of solitude. Yet a little time to ourselves can be an opportunity to slow down, savor, and try new things, especially when traveling. Through on-the-ground reporting, insights from social science, and recounting the experiences of artists, writers, and innovators who cherished solitude, Stephanie Rosenbloom considers how traveling alone deepens appreciation for everyday beauty, bringing into sharp relief the sights, sounds, and smells that one isn't necessarily attuned to in the presence of company. Walking through four cities--Paris, Florence, Istanbul, and New York--and four seasons, Alone Time gives us permission to pause, to relish the sensual details of the world rather than hurtling through museums and uploading photos to Instagram. In chapters about dining out, visiting museums, and pursuing knowledge, we begin to see how the moments we have to ourselves--on the road or at home--can be used to enrich our lives. Rosenbloom's engaging and elegant prose makes Alone Time as warmly intimate an account as the details of a trip shared by a beloved friend--and will have its many readers eager to set off on their own solo adventures.

In Five-Twelfths of Heaven, Silence Leigh discovered that she was not only unusual, as a female pilot, but that impossible thing, a female magus. Her unique abilities make her the only person capable of reaching Earth, humanity's original home, now sealed behind a mysterious barrier — but first she must learn to use her new-found talents. As the Hegemon's men close in on her and her husbands and teacher, she must make a dangerous bargain: undertake an impossible rescue mission in exchange for a vital map. If she succeeds, she may be able to save Earth. If she fails…

"Oh, if there were someone to tell us the history of that subtle feeling called solitude," mused the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In The Greatest Escape, David Balcom answers that call, showing that solitude is an inevitable--yet vital and exciting--facet of our existence with a long, tumultuous past. He travels back in time to trace the spirit flights of shamans; wanders in the mountains of China, listening to the poetry of recluse scholars; visits the forests of India to participate in the dialogues of ancient sages; explores the wisdom of early Greek philosophers, Christian hermits, and Sufi mystics; and illuminates the role of solitude in the lives and writings of modern poets and intellectuals from Petrarch to Thoreau. Covering a broad swath of history, Balcom introduces us to powers and resources in solitude that are drowned in the clamor of modern life. He concludes that the experience of solitude can be creative, joyful, enlightening, sometimes all three at once--and that the perennial "fruits of solitude" are open to everyone. "Here," he writes, "is an apology for and a guide to the greatest of all escapes."

Years after losing his lower right leg in a motorcycle crash, Robert Kull traveled to a remote island in Patagonia's coastal wilderness with equipment and supplies to live alone for a year. He sought to explore the effects of deep solitude on the body and mind and to find the spiritual answers he'd been seeking all his life. With only a cat and his thoughts as companions, he wrestled with inner storms while the wild forces of nature raged around him. The physical challenges were immense, but the struggles of mind and spirit pushed him even further. Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes is the diary of Kull's tumultuous year. Chronicling a life distilled to its essence, Solitude is also a philosophical meditation on the tensions between nature and technology, isolation and society. With humor and brutal honesty, Kull explores the pain and longing we typically avoid in our frantically busy lives as well as the peace and wonder that arise once we strip away our distractions. He describes the enormous Patagonia wilderness with poetic attention, transporting the reader directly into both his inner and outer experiences.