Bored by chick lit and misery memoirs?
Had it with housework, carpools, cubicle politics?
Women of America, three words: hit the road.
by Sarah Kemble Knight
A New England business-woman's 1704 horseback journey from Boston to New York yields the first U. S. road-trip book. Still among the best, thanks to Kemble's high spirits and sardonic eye.
by Sarah Margaret Fuller
Touring the Great Lakes in 1843, a hard-to-please Transcendentalist melds reportage, diary, verse, and rant into travelogue both inner and outer. (Her personal low points: swampy, dull Chicago, pop. 7,000; and Niagara Falls, which looked exactly like the postcards.)
by Martha Summerhayes
An Army wife becomes the first white woman at Fort Apache once she follows her husband from Boston through the "glittering misery" of the frontier Southwest, where she must survive giant tarantulas, sandstorms, raids by Geronimo, and a harrowing solitary childbirth.
by Brooke Kroeger
A doorstop biography of the Victorian celebrity journalist who circled the world in 72 days, traveling by steamer, camel, rickshaw and private train. Her luggage: one overcoat, one dress, a notebook, and a bag of gold around her neck.
by Zitkala-Sa, edited by P. Jane Hafen
A bi-racial musician/writer journeys from South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation to Manhattan — and back. Opera composer, schoolteacher, political gadfly, proud pagan: Bonnin battles injustice and indifference but never gives up, or gives in.
by Frances Hamerstrom
Inspired by their grad-school professor Aldo Leopold, biologists Fran and Frederick Hamerstrom escape Eastern blueblood upbringings to save Wisconsin's endangered birdlife. After Hammy's death, Fran carries on alone: witty, eccentric, impassioned. Don't miss her recipe for pie crust (secret ingredient: bear lard.) A great globe-trotting naturalist; an even greater love story. See also Mice in the Freezer, Owls on the Porch, a delightful joint biography of the pair.
Flashlight Worthy
Recommending books so good, they'll keep you up past your bedtime. more...
About Anne Matthews
As Anne Matthews, I taught journalism at Princeton and NYU and wrote three nonfiction books: Wild Nights: Nature Returns to the City; Bright College Years (a New York Times Notable Book); and Where The Buffalo Roam (a Pulitzer finalist.) As Dana Hand, I collaborate with Will Howarth on fiction and film. Our first historical novel is Deep Creek. To learn more, please visit our web site.
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