Travel Audiobooks | LoveReading

J.M. Synge, one of the greatest English language playwrites of the 20th century, immortalized the Aran Islands and its people with vivid written portraits that are among the greatest in modern literature. Synge's vibrant language and earthy themes breathtakingly capture the folklore and way of life that has since perished on these remote northen islands. As an aspiring writer in 1897, Synge was commanded by William Butler Yeats to, "Go to the Aran Islands. Live there as one of the people themselves; express a life that has never found expression." Synge captures his first four visits to the islands in this magical book. However, their influence continued to permeate his work, including The Playboy of the Western World. Filled with the exuberant energy of an artist coming into his own, The Aran Islands provides an unforgettable look at a land that holds Ireland's ancestral language, culture and uncorrupted heart. Synge's lyrical glimpses into the past, coupled with Donal Donnelly's rich, lilting voice transports listeners to these tiny Emerald Islands.

J. M. Synge, J.M. Synge (Author), Donal Donnelly (Narrator)

Audiobook

Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans

"Betcha I can tell ya / Where ya / Got them shoooes. / Betchadollar, / Betchadollar, / Where ya / Got them shoooes. / Got your shoes on your feet, / Got your feet on the street, / And the street's in Noo / Awlins, Loo- / Eez-ee-anna. Where I, for my part, first ate a live oyster and first saw a naked woman with the lights on. . . . Every time I go to New Orleans I am startled by something." So writes Roy Blount Jr. in this exuberant, character-filled saunter through a place he has loved almost his entire life-a city "like no other place in America, and yet (or therefore) the cradle of American culture." Here we experience it all through his eyes, ears, and taste buds: the architecture, music, romance (yes, sex too), historical characters, and all that glorious food. The book is divided into eight Rambles through different parts of the city. Each closes with lagniappe-a little bit extra, a special treat for the reader: here a brief riff on Gennifer Flowers, there a meditation on naked dancing. Roy Blount knows New Orleans like the inside of an oyster shell and is only too glad to take us to both the famous and the infamous sights. He captures all the wonderful and rich history-culinary, literary, and political-of a city that figured prominently in the lives of Jefferson Davis (who died there), Truman Capote (who was conceived there), Zora Neale Hurston (who studied voodoo there), and countless others, including Andrew Jackson, Lee Harvey Oswald, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Jelly Roll Morton, Napoléon, Walt Whitman, O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe, Earl Long, Randy Newman, Edgar Degas, Lillian Hellman, the Boswell Sisters, and the Dixie Cups. Above all, though, Feet on the Street is a celebration of friendship and joie de vivre in one of America's greatest and most colorful cities, written by one of America's most beloved humorists.

Jr. Roy Blount, Roy Blount, Roy Blount Jr. (Author), Paul Boehmer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans

“Betcha I can tell ya / Where ya / Got them shoooes. / Betchadollar, / Betchadollar, / Where ya / Got them shoooes. / Got your shoes on your feet, / Got your feet on the street, / And the street’s in Noo / Awlins, Loo- / Eez-ee-anna. Where I, for my part, first ate a live oyster and first saw a naked woman with the lights on. . . . Every time I go to New Orleans I am startled by something.” So writes Roy Blount Jr. in this exuberant, character-filled saunter through a place he has loved almost his entire life—a city “like no other place in America, and yet (or therefore) the cradle of American culture.” Here we experience it all through his eyes, ears, and taste buds: the architecture, music, romance (yes, sex too), historical characters, and all that glorious food. The book is divided into eight Rambles through different parts of the city. Each closes with lagniappe—a little bit extra, a special treat for the reader: here a brief riff on Gennifer Flowers, there a meditation on naked dancing. Roy Blount knows New Orleans like the inside of an oyster shell and is only too glad to take us to both the famous and the infamous sights. He captures all the wonderful and rich history—culinary, literary, and political—of a city that figured prominently in the lives of Jefferson Davis (who died there), Truman Capote (who was conceived there), Zora Neale Hurston (who studied voodoo there), and countless others, including Andrew Jackson, Lee Harvey Oswald, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Jelly Roll Morton, Napoléon, Walt Whitman, O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe, Earl Long, Randy Newman, Edgar Degas, Lillian Hellman, the Boswell Sisters, and the Dixie Cups. Above all, though, Feet on the Street is a celebration of friendship and joie de vivre in one of America’s greatest and most colorful cities, written by one of America’s most beloved humorists. Also available as a Random House AudioBook From the Hardcover edition.

Jr. Roy Blount, Roy Blount, Roy Blount Jr. (Author), Jr. Roy Blount, Roy Blount, Roy Blount Jr. (Narrator)

Audiobook

Notes From China

"Two hundred years ago China's imperial rulers sensed a threat to a past-oriented society in the dynamism of the West and tried to frustrate foreign entry."- Foreign Devils ... "Today, one cannot escape the impression that if only it were not for world pressures Maoist China like that of the Ming and the Manchus would be happier if it could withdraw into the broad isolation of the Middle Kingdom." - Ping-Pong ... Just one year after China's long-closed doors reopened to the West in 1971, Barbara Tuchman journeyed through its cities and countryside drawing the human face on this inscrutable giant. "A creative writer's sense of drama and a scholar's obeisance to the evidence." -New York Times

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Rita Knox (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Lost Continent

In an ageing Chevrolet Chevette, he drove nearly 14,000 miles through 38 states to compile this hilarious and perceptive state-of-the-nation report on small-town America. From the Deep South to the Wild West, from Elvis' birthplace through to Custer's Last Stand, Bryson visits places he re-named Dullard, Coma, and Doldrum (so the residents don't sue or come after him with baseball bats). But his hopes of finding the American dream end in a nightmare of greed, ignorance, and pollution. This is a wickedly witty and savagely funny assessment of a country lost to itself, and to him. Travel through small-town America with Kerry Shale's popular BBC Radio 4 reading of Bill Bryson's comic travelogue.

Bill Bryson (Author), Kerry Shale, Kerry Shales (Narrator)

Audiobook

Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague

From the critically acclaimed bestselling author of Bee Season comes a travelogue through the magical and historic city of Prague - a city of vast beauty and wonderfully intimate detail. In Time's Magpie, Myla Goldberg uses her eye for the wonder of tiny objects and everyday things to put us in touch with the essence of this haunting and fantastical place. Goldberg takes us through the city's historic streets, some eerily transformed by the devastating flood of 2002; to Lunapark, home to bumper cars, go-carts, and a discomfiting array of Technicolor confections; and through Strahov Monastery, where the cabinets of curiosity display everything from butterfly specimens to a supposedly real jabberwocky. We attend an anti-war protest in Old Town square and watch the skateboarders do tricks on a ramped marble pedestal that once held a statue of Lenin.

Myla Goldberg (Author), Myla Goldberg (Narrator)

Audiobook

Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii

The Huck Finn of foreign correspondents provides a colorful account of old Honolulu, the island nobility, the City of Refuge on the Kona coast, and the active volcano of Kilauea. These selections of Mark Twain's newspaper dispatches are both charming and informative. The light touch of the great humorist is seldom missing as he reveals the "loveliest fleet of islands that lie anchored in any ocean." This recording evokes the historical era with the eye of a verbal artist and the voice of the performing artist. "Those who treat themselves to these blustery, spirited letters will experience a journey in every sense of the word...A reminder of why Twain's legacy has endured."--Publishers Weekly

Mark Twain (Author), McAvoy Layne (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic: A "Walk" in Austin

Kinky Friedman, the original Texas Jewboy, takes us on a rollicking, rock-and-rolling tour of his favorite city: Austin. Maybe you want to know which restaurant President Bush rates as his favorite Austin burger joint. Or maybe you want a glimpse of Willie Nelson’s home life (hint: Willie plays a lot of golf). Perhaps you want to get the best view of the Mexican free-tail bats as they make their nightly flights to and from the Congress Avenue Bridge. Or maybe you’re itching to learn the history of a city that birthed Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and countless other music legends. It’s all here in The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic, the slightly insane, amazingly practical, and totally kick-ass guide to the coolest city in Texas by none other than Kinky Friedman. This ain’t no ordinary travel guide, neither. “Like most other busy cities these days, Austin is not very effectively traversed by foot,” Kinky explains. “You must understand that ‘a walk in Austin’ is primarily a spiritual sort of thing.” As might be expected from this politically incorrect country-singer-turned-bestselling-mystery-author, the Kinkster’s tour includes a bunch of stuff you won’t ?nd in a Frommer’s guide, from descriptions of Austin’s notable trees and directions to skinny-dipping sites to lists of haunted places and quizzes and puzzles. So put on your cowboy hat and your brontosaurus-foreskin boots and head down south with the only book you need to get to the big heart of this great city. From the Hardcover edition.

Kinky Friedman (Author), Kinky Friedman, Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous Style From the Heart of Italy

I always imagine each of the signoras who lived in this house—where she shelled peas, rocked the grandchild, placed a vase of the pink roses. Now I would like to take one of these women back to my house in California to show her how Bramasole traveled to America and took root, how the doors there are open to the breeze from San Pablo bay and to the distant view of Mount Tamalpais, how the table has expanded and the garden has burgeoned… The “bard of Tuscany” (New York Times) now offers a lavishly illustrated book for everyone who dreams of integrating the Tuscan lifestyle—from home decoration and cooking, to eating and drinking, to gardening, socializing, and celebrating—into their own lives. When Frances Mayes fell in love with Tuscany and Bramasole, millions of readers basked in the experience through her three bestselling memoirs. Now Frances and her husband, In Tuscany coauthor Edward, share the essence of Tuscan life as they have lived it, with specific ideas and inspiration for readers stateside to bring the beauty and spirit of Tuscany into their own home decor, meals, gardens, entertaining and, most important, outlook on life. In her inimitable warm and evocative tone, Frances helps readers develop an eye for authentic Tuscan style, with advice on how to: • Choose a Tuscan color palette for the home, from earthy apricot tones to invigorating shades of antique blue. • Personalize a room with fanciful door frames, unique painted furniture, and fresco murals. • Cultivate a Tuscan garden, adding fountains, vine-covered pergolas, and terra-cotta urns among the herbs and flowers • Select the best Italian vino. (Frances describes lunches at regional vineyards and imparts tips for pairing food and wine.) • Create an atmosphere of irresistible, anytime hospitality—a casa aperta (open home). • Make primo finds at local antiques markets. (And to help truly bring Tuscany home, shipping advice and market days for several Tuscan towns are included.) • Set an imaginative Tuscan table using majolica and vintage linens. • Enjoy the abundant flavors and easy simplicity of the Tuscan kitchen, with details on everything from olive oil and vino santo to pici and gnocchi, plus special homegrown menus and recipes. • Make the most of a trip to Tuscany, visiting Frances’s favorite hill towns, restaurants, small museums, and other soothing places. With more than 100 photos by acclaimed photographer Steven Rothfeld (including several of the Mayes’s California home and its Tuscan accents), twenty-five all-new recipes, and lists of resources for travelers and shoppers, Bringing Tuscany Home is a treasure trove of practical advice and memorable images.

Edward Mayes, Frances Mayes (Author), Frances Mayes (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere

Susan Orlean has been called “a national treasure” by The Washington Post and “a kind of latter-day Tocqueville” by The New York Times Book Review. In addition to having written classic articles for The New Yorker, she was played, with some creative liberties, by Meryl Streep in her Golden Globe Award—winning performance in the film Adaptation. Now, in My Kind of Place, the real Susan Orlean takes readers on a series of remarkable journeys in this uniquely witty, sophisticated, and far-flung travel book. In this irresistible collection of adventures far and near, Orlean conducts a tour of the world via its subcultures, from the heart of the African music scene in Paris to the World Taxidermy Championships in Springfield, Illinois–and even into her own apartment, where she imagines a very famous houseguest taking advantage of her hospitality. With Orlean as guide, lucky readers partake in all manner of armchair activity. They will climb Mt. Fuji and experience a hike most intrepid Japanese have never attempted; play ball with Cuba’s Little Leaguers, promising young athletes born in a country where baseball and politics are inextricably intertwined; trawl Icelandic waters with Keiko, everyone’s favorite whale as he tries to make it on his own; stay awhile in Midland, Texas, hometown of George W. Bush, a place where oil time is the only time that matters; explore the halls of a New York City school so troubled it’s known as “Horror High”; and stalk caged tigers in Jackson, New Jersey, a suburban town with one of the highest concentrations of tigers per square mile anywhere in the world. Vivid, humorous, unconventional, and incomparably entertaining, Susan Orlean’s writings for The New Yorker have delighted readers for over a decade. My Kind of Place is an inimitable treat by one of America’s premier literary journalists. From the Hardcover edition.

Susan Orlean (Author), Susan Orlean (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic: A

Kinky Friedman, the original Texas Jew boy, guides readers through the sights, sounds, food, and various and sundry oddities of his favorite Texas city. Known for live music and food, Austin is also the home of Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a number of other music legends. In this slightly insane and surprisingly practical guide to the coolest city in Texas, you ll find out which restaurant President Bush thinks is the best burger joint; you ll get a glimpse of Willie Nelson's home; and the best view of the Mexican free-tailed bats as they make their nightly flights to and from the Congress Avenue Bridge. This newest addition to the Crown Journeys series includes quizzes, puzzles, and bits of personal history you won't find in a Frommer's guide.

Kinky Friedman (Author), Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

Audiobook

On The Road With Charles Kuralt

Charles Kuralt's classic bestseller is now on audio! On The Road With Charles Kuralt Featuring Charles Kuralt with an introduction by Wallace Kuralt "To read the front pages, you might conclude that Americans are mostly out for themselves...but you can't travel the back roads very long without discovering a multitude of gentle people doing good for others with no expectation of gain or recognition." In this collection of short audio essays, Charles Kuralt takes us from the countryside to the big cities to introduce us to the fascinating people and places that only he could find. Kuralt captures the humor and compassion of ordinary people leading extraordinary lives. From the best selling book On The Road With Charles Kuralt, these classic stories represent Kuralt's defining, and perhaps finest, work. Never before released on audio, this collection ensures that his unforgettable voice will be heard by generations to come.

Charles Kuralt (Author), Charles Kuralt (Narrator)

Audiobook