Around the world, the owners of private islands have chosen to rent out their properties, delightfully fulfilling many childhood fantasies in the process. After seven years of research we have compiled a list of fifty exceptional islands, each of which is well worth the trip for just a few days, a week or even longer. Whether a tropical island in the Pacific, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, or the Indian Ocean, a lighthouse on the coast of Croatia, Norway or France, or an island in a lake in Canada or the United States, these places are not just the incarnation of a multimillionaire’s dream. They are open to the public – they are open for you.

From the idealism of Moore's Utopia to the ease of Gauguin's Tahiti, islands fuel the imagination. This title presents the many types of private islands, from Canadian lake isles to Pacific atolls. It lets you discover a world of islands with castles as well as properties owned by celebrities like Johnny Depp and Richard Branson.

“The essential public good that Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and now Cameron sell is not power stations, or trains, or hospitals. It’s the public itself. it’s us.” In a little over a generation the bones and sinews of the British economy – rail, energy, water, postal services, municipal housing – have been sold to remote, unaccountable private owners, often from overseas. In a series of brilliant portraits the award-winning novelist and journalist James Meek shows how Britain’s common wealth became private, and the impact it has had on us all: from the growing shortage of housing to spiralling energy bills. Meek explores the human stories behind the incremental privatization of the nation over the last three decades. He shows how, as our national assets are sold, ordinary citizens are handed over to private tax-gatherers, and the greatest burden of taxes shifts to the poorest. In the end, it is not only public enterprises that have become private property, but we ourselves. Urgent, powerfully written and deeply moving, this is a passionate anatomy of the state of the nation: of what we have lost and what losing it cost us – the rent we must pay to exist on this private island.

The timeless classic and beloved story of a wild horse’s gentle filly—winner of a Newbery Honor! On the island of Chincoteague, off the coasts of Virginia and Maryland, lives a centuries-old band of wild ponies. Among them is the most mysterious of all, Phantom, a rarely-seen mare that eludes all efforts to capture her—that is, until a young boy and girl lay eyes on her and determine that they can’t live without her. The frenzied roundup that follows on the next Pony Penning Day does indeed bring Phantom into their lives, in a way they never would have suspected. Phantom would forever be a creature of the wild. But her gentle, loyal filly Misty is another story altogether . . . “A thrilling and long-to-be-remembered tale.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Drama Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, from Bram Stoker's novel Characters: 6 male, 2 female 3 Interior Scenes An enormously successful revival of this classic opened on Broadway in 1977 fifty years after the original production. This is one of the great mystery thrillers and is generally considered among the best of its kind. Lucy Seward, whose father is the doctor in charge of an English sanitorium, has been attacked by some mysterious illness. Dr. Van Helsing,

Get swept away to the beautiful and breezy Isle of Palms with New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe’s return to her “exceptional and heartwarming” (Publishers Weekly) Beach House series, set in South Carolina’s lowcountry. Two women. One summer. One very special beach house. Cara Rutledge rents her quaint cottage on Isle of Palms to Heather Fordham for the entire summer. As beautiful as the Isle of Palms is, Heather’s anxiety keeps her indoors with her caged canaries as she paints birds for postage stamps. Eventually, however, the shore birds—and a man who rescues them—lure her outside. As the summer progresses and Heather begins to blossom, Cara’s life reels with sudden tragedy. She wants only to return home but Heather refuses to budge from her sanctuary. As everything around the ladies is coming apart, they discover they can only rely on each other. Now, the two women who don’t really know each other are forced to live together and support each other as they navigate the next chapter of their lives. Featuring Monroe’s signature “lyrical, emotional, and gripping” (RT Book Reviews), Beach House for Rent demonstrates the power and strength of female friendships.

The Ultimate Belize Bucket List is more than a compilation of exciting things to see and do in Central America’s fastest growing tourism hotspot. Offering an insider glimpse into the nation’s most coveted and awe-inspiring experiences, it goes beyond the clichés often presented in travel guidebooks and reveals the hidden gems that make this country particularly special. Get the secrets to taking your Belize adventure to the next level with local expert tips that will ensure your trip to this extraordinary destination is an unforgettable one.

The village of Eagle is a small town with a big smile. Located within the southern Kettle Moraine Forest and a large prairie, the town is identified by its yellow, smiley-faced water tower. Eagle's modern history began in 1836, when three prospectors came across an expansive prairie with a large bald-headed eagle hovering over it. The early pioneers settled in small communities that blurred into the neighboring towns of Ottawa, North Prairie, Mukwonago, East Troy, and Palmyra. In 1851, the railroad made Eagle Centre the metropolis, thus stifling Jericho, Palestine, Melendy's Prairie, and Eagleville. Eagle was nearly named Diamond City when it became known that a diamond had been discovered there in 1876. The 1900s saw a transition from wheat and sheep to dairy farming and then to crops of corn and soybeans. Some land was returned to nature as the Kettle Moraine State Forest, and others turned into housing developments and industrial parks. The 21st century brought the acceleration of urban sprawl to once rural areas.

Named a Best Gift Book/Best Travel Book of the Year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, House Beautiful, Business Insider, The Daily Beast, Forbes, Fodor’s, The Points Guy, Seattle Times, and more “This is the comfort food of travel books. . . . This book will sweep you off your feet.”—New York Times Book Review “Gorgeous . . . breathtaking . . . spectacular.”—Publishers Weekly Patricia Schultz curates the world. When she published the original 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, she created not only a new kind of travel book but also a new way of thinking about our experiences and interests. Now Schultz captivates our hearts in the same compelling way her original book spoke to our minds. Moving from eloquent word to breathtaking image, she takes us on a visual journey of the best the world has to offer, and as we turn the pages and pore over these images, we feel it all: joy, curiosity, awe, passion, nostalgia (if we’ve been there), inspiration (because we want to go), and a profound and transforming sense of how lucky we are to live in a world filled with such beauty and wonder—to see tributaries of mist curling over the Great Wall, elephants grazing on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater, the sun setting on the wild coast of Donegal, masked whirling dancers at a festival in Bhutan. The book itself is a thing of beauty, an oversize feast of more than 1,000 all-new photographs and 544 pages, every spread and page designed to showcase these mesmerizing photographs and hold just enough of Schultz’s lively text that we know why it is we’re looking at them. It is a perfect gift for every traveler, every fan of the original, every dreamer whose Instagram feed is filled with pictures of places near and far.