BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
For the well-rounded explorer of life.
I wish I had the focus and fortitude of this guy. This book moves quicker than your average biography too, perhaps a nod to this legendary explorer and the accomplishments he improbably claimed in one lifetime.
From the master, David Grann. I shared this book with my friends and family the second I finished reading it. Go into the rainforest with Percy and his mind-boggling journeys. You’ll be glad you did.
While Alfred Lansing’s Endurance is the classic Shackleton read, South provides insight on the expedition from the man himself. I like reading his words, his cadence, and feeling like I’m inside the mind of the great leader. And I think you will too.
After listening for 17 years while he walked across America, John Francis finally had something to say. With his National Geographic connection, I look up to John and always enjoy hearing him speak too.
A favorite in 2022. Aston and her team of women explorers are true inspirations for anyone interested in pushing themselves beyond what they—or their society— believe might be their limits.
Candice Millard is one of my favorite writers, and this crazy tale of Roosevelt’s journey into the uncharted Amazon is simply gripping. So much right about exploration and SO much wrong.
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EXPLORERS, TRAVELERS & EXPLORATION—INSIDE AND OUT
HONING EXPLORER TRAITS AND STRATEGIES
With slow stretches of typical explorer’s notes, Cherry-Garrard still manages to include beautiful descriptions and perspective from multiple Antarctic team members on the absolute hell they endured (mixed with merry camaraderie).
Ever hold onto your chair while reading worried you might fall? Touching the Void is gripping, deeply personal. There’s a reason it’s sold over 1 million copies. Get it.
Less of a travel memoir than a beautifully written meditation on Drew’s connection with nature and his place within it as a black man. You will be drawn to his home place and not want to leave.
If you want leadership lessons from a great explorer, this is a masterclass. Besides Bruce Springsteen, Shackleton is the only Boss I listen to. ;) A huge inspiration.
Step by step, decision by decision, that’s how explorers achieve their goals. This book has been hugely helpful for me across goal areas, and one I have to revisit again!
I’ve seen this play out on ships and in the field throughout my career: real leaders understand empathy, setting the example, and know that every action is under the scrutiny of their staff.
Yes, another from Simon Sinek. I’ve worked at several mission-driven organizations, and the leaders who follow the lessons in this book were by and large more successful than those who didn’t.
Stop complaining about the weather. Stop complaining about obstacles or failures or things out of your control. The explorer’s mindset is ever-present in this hard-hitting book.
Anything Freya Stark wrote is magnificent. But this transported me to parts of the world I did not know much about. Stark’s ability to invoke every sense in her travels made me feel like I was there.
James Edward Mills is a man on a mission, sharing not only the importance of inclusion in the outdoor industry for that right alone, but because of its affect on environmentalism and conservation as well.
Through his articles and books, Pico Iyer blew open the door to my obsession with travel writing. This is the one that started it all.
These selected travel narratives are intended to make us rethink old or limited definitions of African American agency and narrative voice. They do. None had I come across in general “travel writing” searches before. A great jumping off point to the authors’ larger works as well.
Every word of this book fit into holes in myself I didn’t know I had. From the first paragraph, I was taken—to another continent, country (Ghana), and culture. Planning to read this again this year.
Pico Iyer blew open the door to my obsession with travel writing, and it all started with this book. Read it at your own peril.
For the reader of historical exploration narratives wondering what women were doing while the men got all the funding and attention, The Girl Explorers is the perfect jumping off point. I hadn’t heard of most of the women in the book before reading, and am so glad I do now.
I bought Outsmart Your Brain after Angela Duckworth (author of Grit) praised it on LinkedIn, and the book has helped my brain hurt less while trying to learn.
In Red Dust: A Path Through China author Ma Jian shows a path through everything, really. Unbelievable hardship, personally, and during the 1980s when travel was mostly banned. As a child of the 80s in the US, this story was a big eye opener.
Throughout this entire book I kicked myself for ever complaining about NJ Transit. I can’t imagine being with Monisha on this journey, and yet reading the book, I felt that I was.
From the seed of the idea (a teenager in Togo gets a book about Greenland) to Tete-Michel’s telling of his adventures over ten years just to make it to Greenland, this book is an absolute classic.
Yvon Chounard and Patagonia are models of how to cut through the corporate, capitalist clutter and find a clean (or cleaner) route.
What books would you recommend?
This polar explorer and team captain of the first American Women's Everest Expedition knows a thing or 9 million about leadership. I love Allison’s style, and her insights are second to none.
