When Matt Crofton slipped into a coma in 2010, doctors told his family and friends to say their goodbyes. It was supposed to be a sad end to a terrible ordeal: Crofton had been rushed to the hospital after sarcoidosis and histoplasmosis attacked his body in what doctors called the perfect storm. They said he had forty-eight hours to live. But Crofton defied the odds by surviving sixteen days in a coma and another six weeks in the hospital. Less than a year later, while battling post-trauma...

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century**At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, sh...

Girl in the Woods is Aspen Matis's exhilarating true-life adventure of hiking from Mexico to Canada—a coming of age story, a survival story, and a triumphant story of overcoming emotional devastation. On her second night of college, Aspen was raped by a fellow student. Overprotected by her parents who discouraged her from telling of the attack, Aspen was confused and ashamed. Dealing with a problem that has sadly become all too common on college campuses around the country, she stumbled th...

"If you're considering taking your first cruise, and even if you've cruised a dozen times, this is a must-read. The humor and candid commentary bring [you] along on a journey that will keep [you] laughing from start to finish."-Jodi Ornstein, managing editor, Porthole Cruise MagazineI simply could not put What Time Is the Midnight Buffet? down once I'd picked it up- read it straight through on a Saturday.-Carolyn Spencer Br...

In his follow-up to the best-selling Ultramarathon Man—which Sports Illustrated called "fascinating" and the New York Times said was "full of euphoric highs"—world-renowned ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes chronicles his unbelievable exploits and explorations in gripping detail. Karnazes runs for days on end without rest, across some of the most exotic and inhospitable places on earth, including the Australian outback, Antarctica, and the Tenderloin District of San ...

A pampered Long Island princess hits the road in a converted bus with her wilderness-loving husband, travels the country for one year, and brings it all hilariously to life in this offbeat and romantic memoir.Doreen and Tim are married psychiatrists with a twist: She’s a self-proclaimed Long Island princess, grouchy couch potato, and shoe addict. He's an affable, though driven, outdoorsman. When Tim suggests “chucking it all” to travel cross-country in a converted bus, Doreen asks,...

If I Cant Be At Your Feet . . . a unique and inspiring account of life through a dogs eyes.Gunther Denali is a rambunctious, well-educated, wise, curious, and creative soul swirled into one vivacious black Labrador Retriever. He encourages us to live each day to the fullest and play as hard as we can because tomorrow is promised to no one. Whether Gunther is fishing for salmon on Lake Michigan, going to a Jimmy Buffett concert, exploring Indiana University...

Brothers often promise to do something together when they 'grow up." Do they always follow through? When war and a Purple Heart Medal alter those promises, should the surviving brother continue? My promise to my brother haunted me for over forty years. Finally, life stopped getting in the way and I set out on the Appalachian Trail to fulfill that youthful promise.Three Hundred Zeroes describes the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) as it meanders for almost 2,200 miles (3,500 km) through some...

"An absorbing, generous, ravishing book by a high priestess of you-have-to-read-this prose." —Cheryl Strayed, author of WildPam Houston, an "early master of the art of rendering fiercely independent, brilliant women in love with the wrong men" (Sarah Norris, Barnes & Noble Review), delivers a novel that whisks us from one breathtaking precipice to the next. Along the way, we unravel the story of Pam (a character not unlike the author), a fearless ...

Welcome to the wacky side of travel. Travel brings with it extraordinary moments—from the whimsical to the hilarious to the downright absurd. At Summit Studios we’ve celebrated many such moments in our bestselling humor series, which includes titles such as Mugged by a Moose and A Beaver is Eating My Canoe. Now in our sixth volume, twenty-six travel and outdoor writers join forces to relate more wacky tales of misadventure. And if there’s one truth that can be glea...

Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers.In No Shortage of Good Days John Gierach takes readers from the Smokies in Tennessee to his home waters in Colorado, from the Canadian Maritimes to Mexico—saltwater or fresh, it’s all fishing and all irresistible. As always he writes perceptively about a wide range of subjects: the charm of familiar waters, the etiquet...

When your life plan explodes, you ask yourself the big questions: What do I really need in life? How can I make my life a work of art? Should I buy a house? Have kids? What is a life? Following in Kerouac and Steinbeck's tire tracks, a 32-year-old, post-breakup Brendan Leonard hits the road in search of healing and a new, post-economic-downturn American Dream. Sleeping in the back of a beat-up station wagon, he seeks answers—and hopefully, the occasional shower—in the postcard-worthy place...