Expeditions

ATLAS OBSCURA
Author:Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton

A dense (nearly 500 pages) richly documented ultimate explorer's guide to more than 700 hidden marvels, events and curiosities around the world.

DEAD WAKE
Author:Erik Larson

The last voyage of the Lusitania, the passenger liner sunk by a German torpedo in 1915; by the author of “The Devil in the White City.”

SULLY
Author:Chesley B Sullenberger III with Jeffrey Zaslow

A memoir by the pilot who performed the successful emergency landing of a plane with 155 passengers on the Hudson River in 2009. The basis for the movie.

WILD
Author:Cheryl Strayed

A woman’s account of the life-changing 1,100-mile solo hike she took along the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995. A 2014 movie.

BARBARIAN DAYS
Author:William Finnegan

This Pulitzer Prize-winning surfing chronicle and memoir by a New Yorker writer celebrates a lifelong obsession.

THE INVENTION OF NATURE
Author:Andrea Wulf

The life of the visionary German explorer, scientist and naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt.

THE WRIGHT BROTHERS
Author:David McCullough

The story of the bicycle mechanics from Ohio who ushered in the age of flight.

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA
Author:Nathaniel Philbrick

The sinking of the New England whaleship Essex in 1820, by a sperm whale. The basis of the movie.

THE OREGON TRAIL
Author:Rinker Buck

The author and his brother travel 2,000 miles by mule and wagon from Missouri to Oregon.

PACIFIC
Author:Simon Winchester

A biography of the Pacific Ocean.