A follow-up to the national bestseller An Embarrassment of Mangoes, Ann Vanderhoof and her husband navigate the Caribbean on a sailboat, discovering local culture in each tiny port, and collecting sumptuous original recipes along the way.Spices and herbs are the heart and soul of Caribbean cooking, adding more to the pleasures of the table here than perhaps anywhere else. In The Spice Necklace, award-winning food and travel writer Ann Vanderhoof e...

Under the Tuscan Sun meets the wide-open sea . . . An Embarrassment of Mangoes is a delicious chronicle of leaving the type-A lifestyle behind—and discovering the seductive secrets of life in the Caribbean.Who hasn’t fantasized about chucking the job, saying goodbye to the rat race, and escaping to some exotic destination in search of sun, sand, and a different way of life? Canadians Ann Vanderhoof and her husband, Steve did just that.In t...

What if you quit your job . . .Sold everything . . .and bought a small hotel on the beach . . .South of Cancun, Mexico and down a long narrow road ending in turquoise blue water, you will find Soliman Bay. Here is where most peoples dreams are found, a small bay, white sand and palm trees, and a reef just offshore full of colorful fish. If you are visiting, the dream looks real, but if you intend on staying the locals have one bit of advice - guard your sanity.

When UK-born Australian author Sue Williams first got the travel bug, it took her across Africa, South and Central America, China and India. Travelling by every means imaginable - from converted garbage truck to banana boat, 'punted' railway wagon to the passenger seat of a racing driver's sports car - she survives adventures that range from the hilarious to the horrific.At various times travelling solo, with a companion and as part of a dysfunctional group, Sue encounters perils as...

“It was the best of dreams, it was the worst of dreams, it was an age of consulting the nautical experts, it was the age of landlubber foolishness, it was the epoch of determination, it was the epoch of despair, it was the season of hurricanes, it was a spring of beachcombing…”If you dream about chucking it all away and sailing toward an island life, read this firstRenee and Michael didn’t have any boating experience and when their...

Happier Than A Billionaire: The Sequel continues the journey of one couple’s adventures in Costa Rica. Follow the author and her husband as they move to the beach to build their dream home. Although the seafood is fresh and the sunsets are golden, it doesn’t take long for Nadine to find that this process won’t come easy, even when living in one of the prettiest places on earth.In the midst of it all, Nadine entertains her parents and mother-in-law, kayaks crocodile...

Have you ever dreamt of cashing in your chips and escaping to a tropical paradise? Faced with an imminent divorce, this non-fiction novel chronicles how Jimmy Lassiter does just that, taking the reader through liquidating the marital assets, purchasing a yacht, and sailing 'Down to the Tropical Sun'. Along the way he will experience two hurricanes, fall in love again, and embark on a new career delivering yachts.

TWO PLANE TICKETS, NO PLAN, ONE DREAM Happier Than A Billionaire shares one couple's celebration of risking it all for the dream of living a happier life. In this humorous and witty account, Nadine Pisani shares what it is like to follow her dream of quitting her job and starting a new life under the sunny skies of Costa Rica. Along the way, she finds reliable utilities are not that reliable, quirky neighbors are unavoidable, and tackling red tape takes the ...

One minute you're relaxing by the pool in a luxury Thai resort and the next you're a gringo with a donkey on an isolated island off Brazil!When Tony and his wife Sue were caught in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami that devastated hundreds of thousands of lives, they wanted more than to return to the rat race of suburban life, they wanted to 'live the dream'. After careful consideration, or possibly in a moment of insanity, they decided that the dream was to run a guest house on a remote...

This is the true story of a trip to the beach that never ends. It's about a husband and wife who escape civilization to build a small restaurant on an island paradise -- and discover that even paradise has its pitfalls. It's a story filled with calamities and comedy, culinary disasters and triumphs, and indelible portraits of people who live and work on a sliver of beauty set in the Caribbean Sea. It's about the maddening, exhausting, outlandish complications of trying to live the simple l...

An alluring, evocative summer voyage on the Mediterranean and into the enchanting seaside towns of France and Italy by a young American chef aboard an Italian billionaire couple’s spectacular sailing yacht.Having begun his cooking career in some of New York’s and San Francisco’s best restaurants, David Shalleck undertakes a European culinary adventure, a quest to discover what it really means to be a chef through a series of demanding internships in Provence and th...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND A TIMELESS CLASSIC FROM THE AUTHOR OF UNDER MAGNOLIAFrances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. In evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. Mayes also creates dozens of delicious seasonal recipes from ...