King
Dean
Skeletons on the Zahara - A True Story of Survival
Little Brown
2005
0316835145
320p.
adventure
An account of an actual shipwreck of an American trading vessel at Cape Bojador on the west African coast about 1815. The crew suffers from incredible thirst is captured enslaved and after further adventure wandering with their captors in the western
Sahara desert are ransomed through the intervention of a British consul and much good will from one of the capturers. Not all of the natives come off as savages some are very honorable. Their life-style is explored at length. This is a survival tale.
An early version of it was a favorite read of President Abraham Lincoln.
Moorhouse
Geoffrey
The Fearful Void
Three Rivers Press
1988
0517571145
288p.
The author plans and executes to the limit of his ability a walking trip across the Sahara Desert from west to east including a stop at Timbuctu (sp?). A great read if you are considering a hike in a hot dry place. A very interesting traveling tale.
Gilpin
Vincent
The Good Little Ship
Sutter House. Litiz Pennsylvan
1975
0-915180-01-4
(orig pub 1952 and reprinted 1961) 64p. - Co-published and distributed by Harrowood Books. Box 397.
boatbuilding
This book includes lines drawings for Presto a 41 ft (overall)10 ft. 6 in. beam ketch which draws 2 ft. 6 in. with the centerboard up. and for the Good Little Ship 35 ft. (overall) 10 ft. 6 in. beam which draws 2 ft. 6 in with the centerboard up.
The author owned the Wabun and is intimately familiar with these lightweight shallow draft Presto class cruising sailboats. He was a friend of Commondore Munro who designed them and popularized the design in Florida at the turn of the century.
This is a delightful book full of good common sense.
Buehler
George
Buehlers Backyard Boatbuilding
McGraw-Hill
1991
0-07-158380-7
371p.
Buehler espouses a common sense approach to boat design and building. No magic here - just common sense. The author does assume access to lumber in dimensions and quality which may not be available in 2006 or at least not in south Texas.
His advice on wood materials is probably more appropriate in the Pacific Northwest and some places in Northeast USA.
Gerr
Dave
The Elements of Boat Strength - for Builders. Designers and Owners
International Marine/McGraw-Hi
2000
0-07-023159-1
368 p.
This book is an in depth study. Includes graphs. charts etc. leading to an understanding of what it takes to build a strong boat.
The Nature of Boats
pub
19__
isbn
- - __p.
This book is an in depth study.
Hereshoff
L. F.
The Compleate Cruiser
(originally published 1952 )- __p.
This book includes a great deal of common sense about cruising boat design - from one of the great designers of the 20th Century.
Nichols
John
The Milagro Beanfield War
Henry Holt
1974
0-805063749
(first published in 1974 by Hold Reinhart and Winston) - -456p.
fiction
A work of fiction. This book describes the clash of cultures between modern subsistance farmers and land developers in northern New Mexico. It is full of humor and describes the Taos. New Mexico area of the early 1970s - remember it is a work of fiction.
This is the first of a trilogy of books on the area. I believe it is the best of the three. It was made into a movie in 1988 produced and directed by Robert Redford. This movie is a good translation from the book. Read the book / see the movie.
Smith
Martin Cruz
Havana Bay
Books on Tape
1999
0-7366-5186-1
10 CD audio disks - 67 min. long - Random House, Inc - Books on Tape
Russian investigator Arkady Renko travels to Cuba to investigate the disappearance/death of a friend. Set in post Cold War Cuba, the Cubans have no love for Russians.  This novel has many plot twists, and reveals the authors view of life in Cuba, and the
post USSR Russia.  It is read by Edward Lewis, who entertains wonderfully with Russian and Cuban Spanish accents, even for the female parts. - An entertaining mystery.
Alexander
Caroline
The Bounty - The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
Viking
2003
0-670-03133-x
maps. b&w illustrations -- 491 pages.
history
A tour de force of the Mutiny on the Bounty story. Examines the players - sometimes 2 generations back and follows these peoples lives after the court marshal or escape. There are a few surprises here. It was a very worth while -listen- in my case.
It is a large book. Bligh does not come out the heavy and Fletcher Christian does not come off unscathed in fact recent interpersonal difficulties on Pitcairn Island have roots back to the original settlement.
Penguin Audiobooks
1-14-280030-9
10 cassettes (unabridged).
The history of the Bounty incident. Very well done.
Antier
Jean-Jacques
Charles de Foucauld - Charles of Jesus
Ignatius Press. San Francisco
1977
0-89870-756-0
359p. indexed.
Biography of Charles de Foucauld French Army Officer who served in N Africa. He later became intensely religious and set up a hermitage in Tamanrasset in mountains of central Algeria. He was involved in French colonialization of N Africa and outside the
of this biography one can glean a lot of information on European influence in north Africa. De Foucauld was eventually killed by a group who thought that they could re-take north Africa from the French while they were distracted by WWI.
His hermitage still exists in Tamanrasset.
Crawford
Stanley
Mayordomo - chronicle of an acequia in northern New Mexico
University of New Mexico Press
0-826309992
231p.
A non-fiction book which won a Western Writers Award. The writer was elected to the office of mayordomo or ditch master of an acequia or irrigation ditch in northern New Mexico. This book describes the cycle of 1 year as a mayordomo. (ditchmaster)
It is filled with humanity and insight on how ancient democratic structures function in a rural enviornment. - It is a very good read.
Horwitz
Tony
Blue Latitudes - Boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before
Henry Holt and Co. NY
2002
0-8050-6541-5
index bibliography maps on endpages - 480p.
The author follows Captain Cook and asks how he is remembered in places where he visited and lived in his youth. Interestingly in some places he receives little response and in others hostility. The book examines Cook and his life and works.
In some places this is a lighthearted read then you realize that you have learned something fairly painlessly.
Kent
George O.
Bismark and his times
Southern Illinois Univ Pr.
1978
0-8093-0859-0
184p. indexed. extensive bibibliography
Biography and times of Otto von Bismark. If you ever wonder why your German forefathers left Germany during the great migration of the 1870s here lies some of the answer. To build the German nation out of a group of principalities and stave off what was
Austria and Russia Bismark warred threatned war and did a wide variety of underhanded deals. In the end he was successful in uniting Germany into a unified country at a cost. This is an academic book. It reads like one. If you have interest in the ti
Lawrence
T. E.
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
192_
(paperback ed.)(orig pub _ 192?) - __p. indexed.
WWI in Arabia. Palestine. Syria. This is the longer version of the story. the shorter version being Revolt in the Desert which I have not read.
Manchester
William
A World lit only by fire - The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age
Little. Brown Co.
1992
0316545317
index - 320p.
Another very readable work of history. This one covering the end of the Medieval and beginning of the Renaissance. Manchester is not an expert in this time period. His expertise is in more modern history nontheless his approach is fresh and very readable
This was another terrible time for the western world which civilization lived through. If you read this book start at the very beginning and read the preface forward etc. before launching into the rest of the book.
Poolman
Kenneth
The Speedwell Voyage - A tale of piracy and mutiny in the eighteenth century
Naval Institute Press
1-55750-693-0
190p. indexed.
History of a freebooting trip around the world including a stop at Juan Fernandez Is. and raiding Spanish towns and vessels in the Pacific along S. American and N. American coasts. George Shelvocke was one of the major leaders.
Rice
Edward
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton - the secret agent who made the pilgrimage to Mecca discovered the Kama Sutra and ...
Charles Scribners. NY
1990
0-684-19137-7
522p. Index. illus. maps
Richard Burton joined the Indian Army (the East India Co. Army) and served in what is now Afganistan. He visited Mecca posing as a Muslim. With John Speke attempted to find the source of the Nile and had may other adventures.
Souhami
Diana
Selkirks Island
Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Lond
2001
0-297-64385-1
246p. index. illus.
The story of Alexanser Selkirk who was marooned on the Juan Fernandez Is. off the coast of Chile in 1704. Perhaps not scholarly but readable and thorough. It has good endnotes.
Sverin
Tim
In Search of Robinson Crusoe
Basic Books
0-465-07689-x
or 0-465-07699-8 - - 333p.
Tracks the Robinson Crusoe story to islands other than Juan Fernandez off the coast of Chile. Has a very interesting bits of information on the Moskito coast in Central America and other islands in the Caribbean.
Thomas
Lowell
With Lawrence in Arabia New enlarged edtion
Doubleday
1967
LCCN 66-24339
(orig pub Century Co. 1924) - 320p.
World War I in Arabia and what is now Israel and Syria. This edition came out about the time of the Lawrence of Arabia movie and has an extra Forward written showing 40 years of perspective on the events.
Tuchman
Barbara W.
A Distant Mirror - the calamitous 14th Century
Knopf (a Borzoi Book)
maps. pictures. index - 720p.
A very readable work of history. Written from a French perspective it is refreshing as most of the historical work we Americans read is from an English or American perspective. It covers one of the more horrific centuries in western history and shows
how civilization muddled through despite its problems.
Wallach
Janet
Desert Queen - The extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell - Adventurer. Advisor to Kings. Ally of Lawrence of Arabia
Anchor/Random House
0-385-49575-7
(orig pub Doubleday 1996) - 419p. indexed.
Fascinating history of an interesting life and of the living history of Arabia Mesopotamia Syria and Iraq. Gertrude Bell was the English official who drew the map of modern Iraq and caused 3 administrative areas which were previously (before WWI) Turkish
to be defined as a modern country and separate from Arabia and Syria.
Masson
Jeffrey M.
Slipping into Paradise - Why I live in New Zealand
Ballantine
2004
0-345-46614-4
p 248 has glossory of terms, maps, few pictures
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson came to settle in New Zealind. He was raised in USA and lived in Canada, England, Ceylon, and Israel. He is most comfortable in New Zealand and states his reasons. It is child friendly, very egaletarian etc.
He met and talked with Edmund Hilary and others.  The book includes an itinerary of recommended travel.
J. Masson is a psychologist by training.
Weddle
Robert S.
Spanish Sea - The Gulf of Mexico in North American Discovery 1500--1685
Texas A and M University Press
197_
0-89096-211-1
index - 300+p.
This book is not an easy read. It is slow stylistically but it is incredibly detailed and well documented. If you have any serious interest in this part of the world in this time period. Read this book.
Wills
Gary
St. Augustine
Penguin Putnam
4 CDs.
An interesting look at a Father of the Church and Christianity in north Africa shortly after the major pagan persecutions.
Dillard
Annie
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Harper's Magazine Press
0-06-095302-0
paperback edition by Bantam 1975. there are other editions. - _p.
nature
Pulitzer Prize winner for general non-fiction in 1975. Natural and philosophical explorations which follow natural events during a year lived in a cabin at Tinker Creek. This is excellent writin very well worth reading.
OHanlon
Redmond
In trouble again - a journey between the Orinoco and the Amazon
Random House - Vintage
0-679-72714-0
273 pages. Map, Index, Bibliography, pen and ink sketches of animals
OHanlon leads a small expedition in remote southern Venezuela seeking wildlife in the Nebulina highland area approaching it from San Carlos de Rio Negro.  It is up river travel - doing it the hard way.
He loses his English companion, who bails out of the second half of the expedition going up the Rio Casiquiare and overland to visit some fierce Yanomami.  As per his custome OHanlon reports on the dynamics of the expedition members as well as
the practical matters.  His bibliography is wonderful.
No Mercy a journey to the heart of the Congo
Alfred A. Knopf NY
1997
0-679-40655-7
462 p. B&W pictures - maps
Redmond OHanlon travels with Lary Shaffer from USA and Marcellin Agnagna a minor govt. minister of Congo (Brazzaville) from Brazzaville up the Congo and Ugangi Rivers to Impfondo and west to lake Tele. This is the full tale of a small expedition.
All details are revealed from dealing with governemt beaurocracy and the military in a -peoples republic- to the social structures of the people and the individual quirks of the members of the party. There is considerable discussion of the natural
history encountered as well as the history of the people from the late 1800s to present.  Nobody is spared all the clay feet are discovered and discussed. This is not a book for the squeamish. It discusses reality on the ground. It ends suddenly.
Trawler
Redmond OHanlon travels on a fishing trauler in the North Sea in winter looking for the experience of being out in a winter storm of hurricane strength.  He finds his experience. He travels with a fisheries officer whose job is to examine the catch and
the by-catch - those fish caught and thrown back.  As is his style OHanlon describes his situation and the people with whom he shares it.  Considerable discussion on the natural history of various fish is included in the narrative.
McAlister
Wayne H.
Natural History and Enviornment Life on Matagorda Island
Texas A and M Univ. Press
1-58544-338-7
Notes drawings maps. Index - 244p.
A personal recollection of a college professor and wife who after retiring from teaching took up a job with the National Wildlife Service on Matagorda Island living there some 10 years.
Warner
William E.
Beautiful Swimmers - Watermen. Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay
Penguin (orig. pub. Little Bro
1-14-00-4405-1
paperback - drawings. maps - 256p.
Pulitzer prize winner in 1977 and very deservedly so. Follows the life cycle of the blue crab whose scientific name translates from the Latin as beautiful swimmer. This is excellent writing very well worth reading.
Brown, Jr.
Tom
Tracker
Berkley Books. NY
0-425-10133-9
229p.
outdoors
The first book where Tom Brown describes how he learned to track and live outdoors from his friends Apache grandfather. He lives in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Case files of the Tracker - true stories from Americas greatest outdoorsman
0-425-18755-1
190p.
Five case stories plus an introduction.  Not all end happily.
Hardymet
Christina
Captain Flint's Trunk
_
ransome
Good writing about the background to Arthur Ransoms childrens works.
Kendall-Price
Claire
In the footsteps of the Swallows and Amazons - 19 illustrated walks in Arthur Ransome country
Wildcat Publishing. England
1993
0-9521186-0-2
112p.
Describes 19 trails - walks - in the Lake District of England where Arthur Ransome lived and set many of his books.
Ransome
Arthur
Swallowdale
J. B. Lippincott Co.
1931
Recommended as great childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. This story set in the Lake District in England.
Winter Holiday
1933
Recommended  as great childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. This story set in the Lake District in England.
Coot Club
1934
Recommended as grat childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. This story set in England.
Peter Duck
1932
Recommended as great childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. Set in the Atlantic Ocean
The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome
Century Publishing
1985
0-7126-0726-9
(first by Jonathan Cape 1976- index - 368p.
Arthur Ransome. author of the Swallows and Amazons and other childrens books involving sailing and childhood adventure lived a very interesting life himself. He was in Russia when the revolution broke out and found himself thrust into being a foreign cor
He met knew most of the revolutionaries but was himself a-political. He married Evangenia Trotskys secretary and had many sailing adventures with her in the Baltic. Read this book along with Hugh Brogans excellent biography of Ransome
to get to know the full man.
Swallows and Amazons
1930
Recommended  as great childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. This is the first story in the series. It is set in the Lake District in England.
The Picts and the Martyrs
1943
Great Northern?
1947
Recommended as great childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. Set in Scotland.
Missee Lee
1941
Recommended as great childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. Set in China.
The Big Six
1940
Recommended as great childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. Set in Southeastern England.
Pigeon Post
1936
We didn t mean to go to sea
1937
Recommended as great childrens adventures. Still very readable after all these years. The Swallows accidentally sail from England to Holland..
Secret Water
1939
Delaney
Frank
Simple Courage - A true story of peril on the sea
Random House NY
2006
1-4000-6524-0
300p.
sailing adventure
This is the story of Captain Kurt Carlson - and the freighter Flying Enterprise. The ship was sailing from Hamburg Germany to New York in December 1951 and encountered a strong storm system in the North Atlantic. This storm system sunk several ships.
After being hit by a rogue wave the Flying Entertrise hull cracked and cargo shifted. The engines refused to work (lube oil would not pump at the extreme angle). The ship was dead in the water and taking on water in an Atlantic winter storm.
Other vessels stood by and the few passangers and crew were ordered to abandon ship. Carlson stayed aboard and when the salvage tug Turmoil eventually arrived assisted in the attempted salvage. The second officer on the tug Kenneth Dancy managed to j
Hughes
Lee
The Biggest Boat I could Afford - sailing up the U.S. Coast in a dingy
Sheridan House
1-57409-192-1
- photos. map - 304p.
Hughes manages to buy Frank Dyes Wanderer probably the most fameous dingy in modern times. transports it from Canada to southern Florida then sails from there to the Canadian border.
Ladd
Stephen
Three Years in a Twelve-Foot Boat
Seekers Press
0966933737
- map - 390p.
The author designs and builds Squeek a 12 ft cold molded wooden boat. He sails down the Missouri River and Mississippi River then takes a steamer to Panama. From the west coast of Panama he sails down to Columbia goes inland and eventually heads down one
of the major rivers deciding to head out the Orinoco to the Carribbean. From there he island hops back north including sojourns in Haiti. Cuba and an outpost of the Bahamas back to Florida and USA.
Adventure in the raw often as much concerning the people he meets as the places or process.
Leighton
Kenneth M.
Oar and Sail - an odyssey of the west coast
Cornerstone Press, Smithers BC
0-9684043-2-4
153p
Small boat - Morag Anne - (14 ft.) traveling on the west coast of Canada.  A great little read.
Mackinnon
A. J.
The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow - a Mirror odyssey from north Wales to the Black Sea
1-57409-152-2
drawings. maps - 355p.
Mackinnon acquires a Mirror dingy at the school where he is teaching. He resigns and sails rows poles the dingy which he named Jack de Crow west along a river. Then crosses England through the canal system and across the English Channel.
He enters the European canal system and works across France. Germany and into eastern Europe to the Black Sea. The story is told in a very engaging style and before it is over there are true adventures.
Mohlke
Matthew
Floating Down the Country - a 79 day adventure down the Mississippi from its source at Lake Itasca to New Orleans
Lone Oak Press. Red Wing. MN
1-8883477-49-2
256p.
Day-by-day adventure of a canoe trip down the full length of the Mississippi. Interesting to cross reference this trip with many others down the same route at different times in history.
As per the authors card -Huck Finn meets Jack Kerouac in a canoe adventure down the Mississippi River. Has website www.floatingdownthecountry.com
Raban
Jonathan
Passage to Juneau - a sea and its meanings
Pantheon
0-679-44262-6
435p.
Raban sails from Seattle to Juneau Alaska. His write-up is full of thoughtful insights and historical tidbits. In the middle of the trip his father dies and he interrupts the voyage to deal with the funeral - in England - then returns to the voyage
and completes it. It is an excellent read. - I recommend any of Rabans works as good reads.
Old Glory - A Voyage Down the Mississippi
Vintage book (reprint)
1998
0-37570100-1
(orig pub by Simon and Schuster in 1981) - maps - 409p.
Raban buys a 16 foot outboard motorboat and travels the length of the Mississippi from Minnesota to Morgan City Louisanna (where the Mississippi would go if the Corps of Engineers let it have its way.) This is one of his earlier tales of travel in USA.
Travel was done in the late 1970s. Being English he offers a non-natives views on what he sees. Raban is an excellent travel writer and is always readable.
Slocum
Joshua
Sailing Alone Around the World
Century
1909
(currently available from Sheridan House) - sketches. map - _p.
The classic tale of a lone voyage around the world in his 30 ft sloop Spray. Lived and told by the man who made the voyage through Straits of Magellan and around the Cape of Good Hope not through the canals.
Testa
Serge
500 Days
Trident Press
0731648498
216p.
Serge sailed Acrohc Australis a very specially built 12 ft. boat around the world. Well written. Common sense and good humored.
Applebome
Peter
Scouts honor -a fathers unlikely foray into the woods
Harcourt
0151005923
330 p.
scouting
Applebome follows three years as an adult in his boys Boy Scout Troop - first in the south - then in NY State. A thoroughly interesting study of Boy Scouting - its history and current state.
Hillcourt
Baden-Powell - the two lives of a hero
G.P. Putnams Sons, NY
1964
LCCN = 64-24263
457 pages, illustrated with photos and some of BPs sketches, sketch map of Mafeking
scout
This is an authorized biography which was written with the assistance of Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, BPs wife, who was some 30 years younger than BP.  It covers his whole life from birth, death of his father when he was quite young and his mother marrying
again. His step father died when he was still fairly young and his mother managed the family affairs skillfully, holding the family together.  All the boys went on to live significant lives.  BP had a military career in the British Empire in India,
South Africa and at home in Ireland and England.  His book on -Scouting- for the military became very popular & was used with youth. He re-wrote it for boys and founded and later fostered what is now the Boy Scout movement. This is a positive book.