AMERICAN VACATION challenges you to leave behind your familiar background and carries you 12,000 miles into the Wild West. It trades your usual city streets for 170 miles of hiking through 7 types of natural landmarks. You will climb from 260 feet below sea level up to 14,000 feet of altitude. Starting in The Land of Lincoln, you will experience a 45-day tour across 19 states at times asking yourself whether you have left the earth and landed on a different planet. You will ride along to discover 33 national, state, and tribal parks and corners of paradise hidden deep within the North American landscape. You will laugh and empathize with Raluca whenever she has to overcome her fears and limits, like climbing down rugged rocks in Spooky Gulch or reaching the summit of Mount White. As a vivid slice of Raluca’s travel experience, this book stands witness to a small fraction of this world's flawless beauty, which has taken hundreds of millions of years to perfect. American Vacation. 12,000 Miles Into the Wild West is Raluca Barbu's fifth book, the first four having been published in her home country, Romania. It is a travel book about the most iconic Western landmarks, seen through the eyes of a Romanian writer. It is in many respects one-of-a-kind because no other Romanian author has traveled and written about the American West. It provides a foreign writer’s take on the American landscape and tourism through the eyes of a former citizen of a communist country. It is a homage given both to the beauty of the American outdoors and to the way nature is respected and preserved by the authorities and visitors. What makes American Vacation special is the travel narrative that Raluca has brought back as a literary genre. In a world of Google reviews, travel blogs, and vacation guides she manages to shine a light on the lost art of travel memoirs. Praise for American Vacation. 12,000 Miles Into the Wild West "I thoroughly enjoyed American Vacation -- from destination to destination, and cover to cover. Interesting and informative in a framework of armchair travel, the book is so much more. It provides the reader, at times, an opportunity to reflect about the amazing landscapes, large and small, that are America, and about us, as their caretakers. It is insightful, funny, charming -- and a tribute to Nature and the tourists and park rangers who care about wild places. When I'd finished the last page and closed the cover, I couldn't help but smile...feeling quite positive and hopeful! Perfect gift book all around." Donna Blomquist (LaSalle Public Library, IL) "This read is a Mobil Travel Guide, and a Travels With Charley: In Search of America (John Steinbeck) without the dog, in one book. If you are going on a trip in America to the West and Pacific Coast it is a must read. If you are staying home it is also a must read for the positive message. The Author sees America's parks as rich in beauty - good enough to eat and kind travelers along the way gladly share the feast. This Book belongs in your Beach Bag or Hiking Backpack for a delightful educational summer read." Lynn Sanders "This book was a wonderful read! I was expecting it to be a travel book of experiences and to my delight it was so much more. As I was reading I was seeing the beauty through her eyes and even though I have been to many of those places it was great having her perspective and outlook. I felt like I was right there with her hiking and exploring all the beauty that our great western states have to offer. Time to put on my hiking boots and go explore some more. Great book." Evan Czarnik "American Vacation is an epic journey wrapped in a love story! Told from a non-American perspective, this book provides unique insights and sheer delight in the American experience. Each chapter takes you on an adventure capturing the joy and awe of new discoveries. I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful use of language and whimsical animal encounters along the way. American Vacation will leave you eager to plan your own trip across the vast, amazing, United States of America. Grab your cup of coffee, and get ready to take off into the great American West!" Christina Roemer-Goldstein (Wauconda Area Library, IL) Visited places during the American Vacation: Whitaker Point, AR; Pedernales Falls State Park, TX; The Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, TX; South Llano River State Park, TX; Caverns of Sonora, TX; White Sands National Monument, NM; Devil’s Bridge, AZ; Cathedral Rock, AZ; Slide Rock State Park, AZ; Glen Canyon Recreational Area, UT & AZ; Lake Powell, UT; Horseshoe Bend, AZ; The Petrified Forest National Park, AZ; Canyon de Chelly, AZ; Four Corners Monument, AZ; Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, AZ; Grand Canyon, AZ; Antelope Canyon, AZ; Coral Pink Sand Dunes, UT; White Pocket, AZ; Vermilion Cliffs Natural Monument, AZ; Buckskin Gulch, UT; Zion National Park, UT; Kanarra Falls, UT; The Subway slot canyon, Zion Wilderness, UT; The Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, UT; Snow Canyon State Park, UT; Bryce Canyon, UT; Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UT; Dry Fork Slot Canyon, UT; Peek-a-boo Canyon, UT; Spooky Gulch, UT; Devil’s Garden Outstanding Natural Area, UT; Capitol Reef National Park, UT; Goblin Valley State Park, UT; Canyonlands National Park, UT; Dead Horse Point State Park, UT; Arches National Park, UT; Valley of Fire State Park, NV; Death Valley National Park, NV; Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, CA; Mount White summit, CA; Mono Lake, CA; Mammoth Lakes, CA; Yosemite National Park, CA; Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, CA; Moro Rock, CA; Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery, CA; Garrapata State Park, CA; Point Pinos Lighthouse, CA; Pigeon Point State Historic Park Light Station, CA; Drive-Through-Tree, Leggett, CA; Living Chimney Tree, Phillipsville, CA; Redwood National Park, CA; Heceta Head Lighthouse, CA; Cape Perpetua, Siuslaw National Forest, CA; Kalaloch Tree Root Cave and Beach, WA; Hall of Mosses, Olympic National Park, WA; Cape Flattery, WA; Rainier National Park, WA Narada Falls, WA Reflection Lake, WA; Palouse Falls State Park, WA; Glacier National Park, MT; Yellowstone National Park, WY; Mount Rushmore National Memorial, SD; Badlands National Park, SD

In this next bestselling title from Mark Teague, Ike's plans for a peaceful cruise with Mrs. LaRue are thwarted when their neighbor, Mrs. Hibbins, falls suddenly ill. While she recovers, Mrs. LaRue is taking her cats on a weeklong road trip vacation. Ike is beside himself and quickly takes up his pen to tell us why! Join award-winner Mark Teague on this romping road trip across America. Readers can follow along on the maps of the U.S. that span the endpapers. Teague drives us to the story's satisfying conclusion, and we are left with one profound question: Can cats and dogs really be friends?

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers and Beach Read comes a sparkling novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ The Skimm ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ The Wall Street Journal ∙ Chicago Tribune ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ Business Insider ∙ Real Simple ∙ Frolic ∙ and more!

New York Times bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates and contributor to NPR’s This American Life Sarah Vowell embarks on a road trip to sites of political violence, from Washington DC to Alaska, to better understand our nation’s ever-evolving political system and history. Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other—a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage. From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue—it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and—the author’s favorite—historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.

"It is no secret that America is the No Vacation Nation. Our vacations nowadays consist of nothing more than a few long weekends a year...when we're not on staycations. Workplace stress and burnout in America are at all-time highs. That Americans are over-caff einated and sleep deprived is not surprising given that our work-leisure balance is so severely lopsided. Depression is epidemic. Chalmers' estimates that these seemingly isolated, yet wholly interconnected cultural data points cost the U.S. economy a trillion dollars a year in lost productivity...and may be shortening the life spans of Americans too! But it wasn't always like this in America...and it surely doesn't have to be either. A stunningly well-researched book, offering readers an explanation of why Americans are suffering from an acute case of Vacation Deficit Disorder...and what the unintended consequences mean to every American couple, parents, families, workers, bosses, and our nations economy. It explains clearly why Americans dont travel...and why they really should! What really makes humans happy; and offers profound insight into how the lucky few Americans who do take vacations can enjoy them better and reap their life-enhancing benefits. And it passionately explains how all Americans would benefi t from his 4% Solution prescription. This book offers a compelling American centric cultural narrative that explains in great detail and with erudite analysis just who stole our vacation.

The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century.

“A heartfelt exploration of one man’s psychic deterioration and the slim reed of hope to which, miraculously, he still clings” from the author of Want Not (Los Angeles Times). Sometimes the planes don’t fly on time. Bennie Ford, a fifty-three-year-old failed poet turned translator, is traveling to his estranged daughter’s wedding when his flight is canceled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengers in the purgatory of O’Hare airport, he watches the clock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated, irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he starts to write a letter. But what begins as a hilariously excoriating demand for a refund soon becomes a lament for a life gone awry, for years misspent, talent wasted, and happiness lost. A man both sinned against and sinning, Bennie writes in a voice that is a marvel of lacerating wit, heart-on-sleeve emotion, and wide-ranging erudition, underlined by a consistent groundnote of regret for the actions of a lifetime—and made all the more urgent by the fading hope that if he can just make it to the wedding, he might have a chance to do something right. A margarita blend of outrage, wicked humor, vulnerability, intelligence, and regret, Dear American Airlines gives new meaning to the term “airport novel” and announces the emergence of major new talent in American fiction. “Begins as a scathing letter of complaint from a stranded traveler en route to his estranged daughter’s wedding but quickly evolves in to a personal and surprisingly astute rant about life’s challenges.” —Parade Magazine “Refreshingly snappy and sassy.” —The Washington Post

An entertaining cultural history of the American family vacation during the height of its popularity from 1945 to 1973. Reveals the ways in which the ritual of the family road trip, for most middle-class Americans became a way of defining what it meant to be (and become) American.

"I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to." And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country.

This book introduces a thematic approach to social history that connects the past to the daily lives of students. Historical overviews of vacation and manners spanning from the ancient world to twentieth century United States provide detailed context for the teacher, emphasize issues related to social class, sex and gender, and popular culture, and examine the methods of social historians. Four unique primary source sets, reading guides, and essential/compelling questions for students are provided that encourage inquiry learning and the development of critical literacy skills aligned with the Common Core Standards for Literacy and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. Each themed chapter includes suggestions for extending each theme to current events, the local community through placed-based education, and across content areas for interdisciplinary instruction. The final chapter provides guidance on how to research additional historical themes, locate relevant primary sources, and prepare themed lessons and units.