From the acclaimed author of the “wonderfully funny and openhearted” (NPR) Drinking with Men comes a poignant, wrenching, and ultimately hopeful book—equal parts memoir and social history—that follows the author, after a series of tragic losses, to Northern Ireland, where she finds a path toward healing. Rosie Schaap had a solid career as a journalist and a life that looked to others like nonstop fun: all drinking and dining and traveling to beautiful places—and getting paid to write about it. But under the surface she was reeling from the loss of her husband and her mother—who died just one year apart. Caring for them had claimed much of her daily life in her late thirties. Mourning them would take longer. It wasn’t until a reporting trip took her to the Northern Irish countryside that Rosie found a partner to heal with: Glenarm, a quiet, seaside village in County Antrim. That first visit made such an impression she returned to make a life. This unlikely place—in a small, tough country mainly associated with sectarian strife—gave her a measure of peace that had seemed impossible elsewhere. Weaving personal narrative and social history, The Slow Road North is a moving and wise look at how a community can offer the key to healing. It’s a portrait of a complicated place at a pivotal time—through Brexit, a historic school integration, and a pandemic—and a love letter to a village and a culture.

The community of Deadhorse, Alaska (population 25) lies 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, at the northern terminus of the Pan-American Highway, the longest road in the world. Key West, Florida, sits at the southern tip of the Florida Keys, an archipelago of coral islands jutting into the Caribbean warmth of the Mexican Gulf. Between Key West and Deadhorse lies most of North America. Londoner James Anthony decided to drive between the two, adjusting his GPS settings to 'avoid highways, ' letting an inanimate piece of technology guide him left-right through the byways, back roads, country lanes and mountain passes of this vast continent. Along the way, he was serenaded in an African-American Church in Miami; went peanut farming in Georgia; hitched a ferry ride across the Mississippi with moonshine-drinking locals; got drunk with a North Dakotan farmer who had three months to live; survived a haunting in Saskatchewan; was nearly squashed by an irate buffalo in the Northern Rockies; and arrived at the Arctic Ocean just before freeze-up. Part travelogue, history, social commentary, and good-time escapism, The Slow Road to Deadhorse chronicles an Englishman's road-trip through the North America most people never get to see.

NPR “Best Books of 2013” BookPage Best Books of 2013 Library Journal Best Books of 2013: Memoir Flavorwire 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2013 A vivid, funny, and poignant memoir that celebrates the distinct lure of the camaraderie and community one finds drinking in bars. Rosie Schaap has always loved bars: the wood and brass and jukeboxes, the knowing bartenders, and especially the sometimes surprising but always comforting company of regulars. Starting with her misspent youth in the bar car of a regional railroad, where at fifteen she told commuters’ fortunes in exchange for beer, and continuing today as she slings cocktails at a neighborhood joint in Brooklyn, Schaap has learned her way around both sides of a bar and come to realize how powerful the fellowship among regular patrons can be. In Drinking with Men, Schaap shares her unending quest for the perfect local haunt, which takes her from a dive outside Los Angeles to a Dublin pub full of poets, and from small-town New England taverns to a character-filled bar in Manhattan’s TriBeCa. Drinking alongside artists and expats, ironworkers and soccer fanatics, she finds these places offer a safe haven, a respite, and a place to feel most like herself. In rich, colorful prose, Schaap brings to life these seedy, warm, and wonderful rooms. Drinking with Men is a love letter to the bars, pubs, and taverns that have been Schaap’s refuge, and a celebration of the uniquely civilizing source of community that is bar culture at its best.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARDS TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR One woman, one bike and one richly entertaining, perception-altering journey of discovery. In 2015, as the Syrian War raged and the refugee crisis reached its peak, Rebecca Lowe set off on her bicycle across the Middle East. Driven by a desire to learn more about this troubled region and its relationship with the West, Lowe's 11,000-kilometre journey took her through Europe to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, the Gulf and finally to Iran. It was an odyssey through landscapes and history that captured her heart, but also a deeply challenging cycle across mountains, deserts and repressive police states that nearly defeated her. Plagued by punctures and battling temperatures ranging from -6 to 48C, Lowe was rescued frequently by farmers and refugees, villagers and urbanites alike, and relied almost entirely on the kindness and hospitality of locals to complete this living portrait of the modern Middle East. This is her evocative, deeply researched and often very funny account of her travels - and the people, politics and culture she encountered. 'Terrifically compelling ... bursting with humour, adventure and insight into the rich landscapes and history of the Middle East. Lowe recounts the beauty, kindnesses and complexities of the lands she travels through with an illuminating insight. A wonderful new travel writer.' Sir Ranulph Fiennes

"Immensely illuminating and enjoyable account of a road trip along Highway 83 ... Books like [Reynold's] prove that good travel writing remains not only very much alive, but essential."--The Bookseller In Slow Road to Brownsville, David Reynolds embarks on a road trip along Highway 83, a little-known two-lane highway built in 1926 that runs from Swan River, Manitoba, to the Mexican border at Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico. Growing up in a small town in England, Reynolds was enthralled by both the myth of the Wild West and the myth of the open road. This road trip is his exploration of the reality behind these myths as he makes his way from small town to small town, gas station to gas station, and motel to motel, hanging out in bars, drinking with the locals, and observing their sometimes-peculiar customs. Reynolds also wanted to see the country where the Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Comanches, the Apaches, and other native groups lived and died and to look at how their descendants live now. He describes the forced location of the Cheyenne people, discovers the true story of the Alamo, and finds similarities between Sitting Bull's tours and those of the Black

Forget hurrying. Forget putting your foot down and racing through sweeping bends. Forget the understeer (whatever that is). Forget the blur of a life lived too fast. This is a look at taking life slowly. It's about taking the time to enjoy journeys and places for their own sake. It's about stopping and putting the kettle on. Stopping to take a picture. Stopping to enjoy stopping. How are you going to do it? In a camper van or a motorhome, of course. In this book we define the best driving routes around Scotland for camper vans and motorhomes. We show you the coolest places to stay, what to see, what to do and explain why it's special. We meander around the highlands, lowlands and islands of Scotland on the most breathtaking roads, chugging up mountain passes and pootling along the coast. We show you stuff that's fun, often free. We include the best drives for different kinds of drivers; for surfers, wildlife watchers, climbers and walkers. We include the steepest, the bendiest, those with the most interesting bridges or views or obstacles, ferries and tidal causeways. And you don't even have to own a camper van or motorhome – we'll tell you the many places you can rent one to take you on the journey. All of this is interspersed with beautiful photos, handy maps and quirky travel writing from the king of camper vans and motorhomes, Martin Dorey. So if all you want to do is flick through it on a cold day and plan your next outing, you'll be transported (albeit slowly) to pastures, beaches, mountains and highways that make you want to turn the key and go, go, go! We'll take you to see Scotland the slow way. The way it should be seen.

Rose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross—a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea. It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running. They have names for her all over the country: the Girl in the Diner. The Phantom Prom Date. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Mostly she just goes by “Rose,” a hitchhiking ghost girl with her thumb out and her eyes fixed on the horizon, trying to outrace a man who never sleeps, never stops, and never gives up on the idea of claiming what’s his. She’s the angel of the overpass, she’s the darling of the truck stops, and she’s going to figure out a way to win her freedom. After all, it’s not like it can kill her. You can’t kill what’s already dead.

How to harness the power of daily rituals to create a calmer, happier life. We live life in the fast lane. We are over-worked, over-connected and over-stressed, and we compete over how busy and important and sleep-deprived we are. But we don't have to. Brooke McAlary knows first-hand the power of simplifying and living with less. After being diagnosed with postnatal depression, she embraced a more intentional life. Then, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, she had to review her everyday routines – and expectations. She looked for ways to adapt them to fit a life in lockdown, all the while protecting and prioritising her health, energy and passion. In this fully revised edition of Destination Simple, with an entirely new introduction and updates throughout in light of the pandemic, Brooke shows us how to harness the power of daily rituals to change the flow of our busy lives and create lasting, postive change.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY New York Times bestselling author Peter F. Hamilton’s riveting new thriller combines the nail-biting suspense of a serial-killer investigation with clear-eyed scientific and social extrapolation to create a future that seems not merely plausible but inevitable. A century from now, thanks to a technology allowing instantaneous travel across light-years, humanity has solved its energy shortages, cleaned up the environment, and created far-flung colony worlds. The keys to this empire belong to the powerful North family—composed of successive generations of clones. Yet these clones are not identical. For one thing, genetic errors have crept in with each generation. For another, the original three clone “brothers” have gone their separate ways, and the branches of the family are now friendly rivals more than allies. Or maybe not so friendly. At least that’s what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who’d like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he’ll make enough enemies to ruin his career. Yet Sid’s case is about to take an unexpected turn: because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood. The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime. Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster. Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world’s political and economic elite . . . all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Peter F. Hamilton’s The Abyss Beyond Dreams. Praise for Great North Road “A mesmerizing page-turner.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A gripping saga that blends wilderness survival, police procedural, political and social intrigue, and dynastic sf into a mammoth tale featuring believable characters and exceptionally skilled storytelling.”—Library Journal (starred review) “A perfect introduction to [Hamilton’s] gifts for character design, dialogue, and sheer, big-idea-driven storytelling.”—Booklist (starred review) “Compelling and original . . . an awesome novel [with] plenty of action.”—SFRevu “One very compelling and entertaining science fiction novel.”—SF Site “Simply brilliant . . . an astonishing achievement.”—Tor.com

Forget hurrying. Forget putting your foot down and racing through sweeping bends. Forget the understeer (whatever that is). Forget the blur of a life lived too fast. This is a look at taking life slowly. It's about taking the time to enjoy journeys and places for their own sake. It's about stopping and putting the kettle on. Stopping to take a picture. Stopping to enjoy stopping. How are you going to do it? In a camper van or a motorhome, of course. In this book we define the best driving routes around England and Wales for camper vans and motorhomes. We show you the coolest places to stay, what to see, what to do and explain why it's special. We meander around England and Wales on the most breathtaking roads, chugging up mountain passes and pootling along the coast. We show you stuff that's fun, often free. We include the best drives for different kinds of drivers; for surfers, wildlife watchers, climbers and walkers. We include the steepest, the bendiest, those with the most interesting bridges or views or obstacles, ferries and tidal causeways. And you don't even have to own a camper van or motorhome – we'll tell you the many places you can rent one to take you on the journey. All of this is interspersed with beautiful photos, handy maps and quirky travel writing from the king of camper vans and motorhomes, Martin Dorey. So if all you want to do is flick through it on a cold day and plan your next outing, you'll be transported (albeit slowly) to pastures, beaches, mountains and highways that make you want to turn the key and go, go, go!