Books to Inspire Your Travels
Building the Columbia River Highway – They Said it Couldn’t Be Done
The gorge cuts through the Cascade Mountains to the sea, leaving little space for man to form a highway. It took one man’s vision to conquer this reluctant piece of real estate and produce the nation’s first scenic highway – meandering past waterfalls, soaring cliffs, and dramatic views. Meet Sam Hill – a one-man force of nature.
Legends & Lore of Cape Cod
Ancient Wampanoag legends like Granny Squannit and Princess Scargo are as familiar as tales of pirates and explorers. Author Robin Smith-Johnson shares historic tales of shipwrecks, murders, hauntings, and more from the Cape.
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables
The book explores L. M. Montgomery’s deep connection to the landscapes of Prince Edward Island that inspired her to write the beloved Anne of Green Gables series. From the Lake of Shining Waters and the Haunted Wood to Lover’s Lane, you’ll be immersed in the real places immortalized in the novels.
The Hidden History of New Orleans
The history of New Orleans is one of contrasts-heroes and villains, catastrophe and celebration, sinners and saints. Ryan Starrett and Josh Foreman offer a dose of history that spans the generations that would be hard to believe if it hadn’t happened in New Orleans.
Gilded: How Newport Became America’s Richest Resort
Newport is the legendary and beautiful home of American aristocracy and the sheltered super-rich. Many of the country’s most famous blueblood families have lived and summered in Newport since the 19th century. The Astors, the Vanderbilts, JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Doris Duke are just a few of the many names who have called the city home.
Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire – A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier
A thrilling, true-adventure tale of the 1810 Astor Expedition, an epic, now forgotten, three-year journey to forge an American empire on the Pacific Coast. See the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest in a new light.
Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad
Much has been written about the overland route for enslaved peoples escaping the antebellum south. The less common route was up the eastern seaboard. Find the hidden stories and places you’ve probably never heard about before.
Théâtre de la Mode: Fashion Dolls: The Survival of Haute Couture
World War II had unexpected consequences. Read the story how the fashion and haute couture industry created a world in miniature and traveled the world to keep their love of fashion alive – and how their creation ended up on display at the Maryhill Museum on the Columbia River Gorge.
American Wilderness: The Hudson River School of Art
More than 40 full-color reproductions of some of their greatest paintings illustrate this historical overview of the Hudson River School of landscape painting and the lives and works of artists who were inspired first by the pastoral Hudson River Valley.
The Jamestown Brides: The Story of England’s “Maids for Virginia”
The story of Jamestown, England’s first real foothold in the New World, was fraught with danger and an extremely high mortality rate. In 1621, fifty-six “young and uncorrupt” women were encouraged to head there.
The Steamboat Era: A History of Fulton’s Folly on American Rivers, 1807-1860
The steamboat evokes images of leisurely travel, genteel gambling, and lively commerce, but behind the romanticized view is an engineering marvel that led the way for the steam locomotive. From the steamboat’s development by Robert Fulton to the dawn of the Civil War, the new mode of transportation opened up America’s frontiers and created new trade routes and economic centers. If you love paddlewheel boats, you’ll enjoy reading this book!
Sons of Providence
Sons of Providence paints a vivid portrait of Colonial life and the early struggles of the anti-slavery movement as we follow these founding brothers from Providence, Rhode Island in their rise to the heights of American commerce and power and from revolution to nationhood.
The Essential Lewis and Clark
A compact version of the actual journals of Lewis and Clark, telling the tales of exploration, adventures, and difficulties of their journey in their own words. Read their own stories while traveling up the Columbia River and staying the winter in Astoria.
Undaunted Courage
By Stephen Ambrose. Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West. The best selling historian and author discusses the courage and tenacity of Lewis and Clark, Thomas Jefferson, and the expanding United States.
Down and Up the Columbia River
This unique book tells the story of Lewis and Clark’s journey along the Columbia River with a pull-out map to help you visualize and even follow along if you are on a drive or ship following the river. It’s unique format and helpful information make it a perfect little guide to have with you.
The Hudson River School: American Landscape Artists
During a fifty-year period, an artistic movement developed in America that was inspired by the wild areas in the vicinity of New York’s Hudson River. While most of these artists did not think of themselves as belonging to a movement, they did share a sense of wonder at the grandeur of the New World’s remarkable scenic wilderness.
Living Landmarks of Chicago
From the man shipped home in a rum barrel to the most dangerous woman in America, Chicago history comes to life in these tantalizing tales. the book goes beyond the what, when, and where to tell the how and why of fifty Chicago landmarks. More than a book about architecture, these are stories of the people who made Chicago and many of its most popular tourist attractions what they are today. Each chapter is a vignette that introduces the landmark and brings it to life These fifty landmarks weave an interconnected tale of Chicago between 1836 and 1932 (and beyond).
History of the Chocktaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians
The author was the son of missionaries and observed the Indians’ heartbreaking removal from Mississippi between 1831 and 1833. Later, he embarked on writing his History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians from the Indians’ point of view. Published in 1899, his history is extremely valuable for his firsthand observations on the removal and later history of the Choctaws and Chickasaws as well as for its material on the Natchez Indians of the lower Mississippi River.
Storied & Scandalous St. Louis: A History of Breweries, Baseball, Prejudice, and Protest
At the turn of the 20th century, St. Louis, Missouri, was the 4th largest city in the country and known for its manufacturing, beer, railroad hub, music, baseball, the World’s Fair, and its romance with the Mississippi. This collection of stories from the headlines includes tales of cholera epidemic, ragtime racism, spiritualism, and fights for women’s suffrage.
Historic Photos of Steamboats on the Mississippi
Steamboats have carved out a very special place in American history, especially along the Mississippi River, where they brought passengers, cargo, mail, entertainment, and news—both good and bad—to the settlements of a new nation. They enabled some of our nation’s major cities to grow and flourish. The historic photographs tell the story of steamboats that plied the Mississippi and the glorious era they symbolized.
All Hell Can’t Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga―Missionary Ridge and Ringgold
In the sequel to Battle Above the Clouds—the book details the dramatic final actions of the battles for Chattanooga: Missionary Ridge and the final Confederate rearguard action at Ringgold, where Patrick Cleburne held Grant’s Federals at bay and saved the Army of Tennessee from further disaster.
Alexander Hamilton & the Battle of Yorktown
The first book in nearly two and a half centuries that has ever been devoted to the story of Alexander Hamilton’s key contributions in winning the most decisive victory the of the American Revolutionary war at Yorktown.You thought you knew the full story of the founding father of the American financial system from Lin Manual Miranda’s Broadway smash hit Hamilton, but Alexander Hamilton and the Battle of Yorktown, October 1781 brings into sharp relief the vital role he played in the most important battle of the American Revolution
Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned
In October 1947, Maine experienced the worst fire disaster in its history. Climaxing months of drought, fires raged across more than 200,000 acres. Nine communities were practically leveled and four others severely damaged. Fifteen people lost their lives. Wildfire Loose describes how the fires started and spread so quickly through rural villages, down Millionaire’s Row in Bar Harbor, and across southern Maine beach resorts.
Signing Their Lives Away
In the summer of 1776, fifty-six men risked their lives and livelihood to defy King George III and sign the Declaration of Independence–yet how many of them do we actually remember? An eclectic group of statesmen, soldiers, slaveholders, and scoundrels signed this historic document–and many strange fates awaited them. Some prospered and rose to the highest levels of government, while others had their homes and farms seized by British soldiers. Complete with portraits of the signers as well as a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence,Signing Their Lives Away provides an entertaining and enlightening narrative for history buffs of all ages.
Run Rose, Run
Every song tells a story. She’s a star on the rise, singing about the hard life behind her. She’s also on the run. Find a future, lose a past. Nashville is where she’s come to claim her destiny. It’s also where the darkness she’s fled might find her. And destroy her.
Careless People
Careless People is a unique literary investigation: a gripping double narrative that combines an unsolved crime and a quest for the roots of America’s best loved novel, The Great Gatsby. Reconstructing the events of that pivotal autumn F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his novel, revealing in the process new ways of thinking about his masterpiece.
Theophilus North: A Novel
The last of Thornton Wilder’s works published during his lifetime, Theophilus North is part autobiographical and part the imagined adventures of Wilder’s twin brother who died at birth. Setting out to see the world in the summer of 1926, Theophilus North gets as far as Newport, Rhode Island, before his car breaks down. To support himself, Theophilus takes jobs in the elegant mansions along Ocean Drive, just as Wilder himself did in the same decade. Soon the young man finds himself playing the roles of tutor, tennis coach, spy, confidant, lover, friend and enemy as he becomes entangled in adventure and intrigue in Newport’s fabulous addresses.
Being Dorothy
1980 has rattled Dorothy Cooper’s world.Disillusioned, she drops off the grid after more than a decade of dedication to The Service, a highly secretive organization. “What happens when you combine a love of Wizard of Oz, Nora Ephron, James Bond movies, and the desire for true faith? You embark on an unforgettable 1980 journey to magical, Mackinac Island.”
The Beach House, a Novel
Twenty years ago, Caretta Rutledge left her Southern roots far behind for a successful career as a businesswoman in Chicago. But an unusual request from her mother—coming just as her own life is spinning out of control—has Cara heading back to the scenic Lowcountry of her childhood summers. Known for her moving characters and emotional honesty, Mary Alice Monroe brings readers a beautifully rendered story that explores the fragile yet enduring bond between mothers and daughters.
Nashville Chrome
1959: the Brown siblings are the biggest thing in country music. They will give rise to the polished sound of the multibillion-dollar country music industry we know today. But when the bonds of family begin to fray, the flame of their celebrity proves as brilliant as it is fleeting. Acclaimed author Rick Bass draws poignant portraits of their lives, lived both in and out of the limelight. Nashville Chrome is the richly imagined story of this forgotten family and an unflinching portrait of an era in American music.
Grant Wood: A Life
Wood was one of America’s most famous regionalist painters; to love his work was the equivalent of loving America itself. In his time, he was an “almost mythical figure,” recognized most supremely for his hard-boiled farm scene, American Gothic, a painting that has come to reflect the essence of America’s traditional values—a simple, decent, homespun tribute to our lost agrarian age.
Call Me Lucky, the Autobiography of Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby, a Spokane WA native: “Call Me Lucky remains one of the most enchanting of all show business memoirs. It not only chronicles, with reasonable accuracy, the life of a central figure in the popular culture of this century, but reproduces the merry, occasionally guileful tone Bing Crosby perfected on radio and in movies. This is Crosby the way he wanted to be known to his adoring public and in all likelihood to himself.”
The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered
A rich portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolution, who, at age nineteen, volunteered to fight under George Washington; a biography that looks past the storybook hero who cast aside family and fortune to advance the aims of liberty and justice.
Alva Vanderbilt: Unlikley Champion of Women’s Rights
A New York socialite and feminist, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was known to be domineering, temperamental, and opinionated. Her resolve to get her own way regardless of the consequences stood her in good stead when she joined the American woman suffrage movement in 1909. Thereafter, she used her wealth, her administrative expertise, and her social celebrity to help convince Congress to pass the 19th Amendment and then to persuade the exhausted leaders of the National Woman’s Party to initiate a world wide equal rights campaign. She often held suffrage meetings at her Chinese Tea House on the grounds of her luxurious Newport mansion, Belmont.
George Washijngton and Benedict Arnold
Fateful turns, choices and escapes from certain death dominate this captivating story of the most compelling figures of the Revolutionary War. When General George Washington appointed Benedict Arnold military commander of the Philadelphia region, military historian Palmer argues, he was not only making one of the worst personnel decisions of his career, but was also creating the conditions for the “Traitor of America” to commit his crime. Stark contrasts and similarities between two men show how their choices informed their destiny. Palmer has a talent for building momentum and suspense, but his most skilled turn is as profiler of the military comrades who would later be foes.
Treacherous Beauty: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold’s Plot
Histories of the Revolutionary War have long honored heroines such as Betsy Ross, Abigail Adams, and Molly Pitcher. Now comes the first biography of one of the war’s most remarkable women, a beautiful Philadelphia society girl named Peggy Shippen. While war was raging between England and its rebellious colonists, Peggy befriended a suave British officer and then married a crippled revolutionary general twice her age. She brought the two men together in a treasonous plot that nearly turned George Washington into a prisoner and changed the course of the war. Peggy Shippen was Mrs. Benedict Arnold.
To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876
An epic history spanning the battlegrounds of the Civil War and the violent turmoil of Reconstruction to the forgotten electoral crisis that nearly fractured a reunited nation, the story dramatically reveals Ulysses S. Grant’s essential yet underappreciated role in preserving the United States.
The Dedicated Dancer: Annie Taylor, the Woman Who Conquered Niagara Falls in a Barrel
An historical novel about Annie Taylor, the brave woman who was the first person to conquer Niagara Falls. Protected only by a specially designed barrel, Annie survived when numerous other people had not done so.
Sacajawea
Captured by her enemies, married to a foreigner, and a mother at age sixteen, Sacajawea lived a life of turmoil and change. Then in 1804, this incredible woman met Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and led them on a quest to find the Pacific Ocean.
My Heaven in Hells Canyon
Growing up in Hells Canyon was one woman’s life in heaven. Meet Violet Shirley and read about her life and experiences in the deepest part of Hells Canyon. The rugged terrain, fickle weather, and animal predators make for interesting reading on a life lived above the rapids of the Snake River.
Birdmen
Birdmen sets the engrossing story of the Wrights’ war with Glen Curtiss against the thrilling backdrop of the early years of manned flight, and is rich with period detail and larger-than-life personalities. For more than a decade, they battled each other in court, at air shows, and in the newspapers. The outcome of this contest of wills would shape the course of aviation history—and take a fearsome toll on the men involved.
Mark Twain: A Life
The life and times of author Mark Twain aka Samuel Clemens. From the Mississippi River, to San Francisco, to global celebrity, Samuel Clemens did it all and observed it all. He became the American voice. Ron Powers’s magnificent biography offers the definitive life of the founding father of our culture.
The Magnificent Life of Marjorie Post
Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. . . . So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. This is the story of an heiress, socialite, collector, and creator of one of the most amazing home museums you’ll find in Washington, D.C.
Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells
Ida B. the Queen tells the awe-inspiring story of a pioneering woman who was often overlooked and underestimated—a woman who refused to exit a train car meant for white passengers; a woman brought to light the horrors of lynching in America; a woman who cofounded the NAACP.
The Truth About Sacajawea
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Capt. George Vancouver
Two of the Northwest Coast’s largest cities and its most prominent island are named after the British explorer, George Vancouver, who is largely unknown despite his unprecedented five-year voyage during 1791-95, probably the longest voyage in European history. Sailing in the wake of his mentor, Captain James Cook, Vancouver investigated much of the North Pacific, confirming once and for all that the rumored Northwest Passage did not exist. His extraordinary expedition was the first to map Puget Sound and named nearly four hundred geographic features from Alaska’s Cook Inlet to coastal Oregon. In the Pacific Northwest he named Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Port Townsend, Bellingham Bay, and more. Learn where those names come from.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Portland
When Peleg Wadsworth built his family home on Congress Street in 1786, he could see the Fore River from his front door. The city grew up around the structure as the Wadsworth-Longfellow family flourished and made history within its walls. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote his first childhood poem there. Young Henry watched his father help craft the Maine Constitution and experienced revolutionary ideals of his home city. Step inside the historic Longfellow House and explore the city that shaped a beloved American poet.
The Andy Warhol Diaries
The spotlight shines on one of the most influential and controversial figures in American culture. Filled with shocking observations about the lives, loves, and careers of the rich, famous, and fabulous, Warhol’s journal is endlessly fun and fascinating. After reading you may want to visit the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh for more!
Chef Regina Charboneau’s Mississippi Current Cookbook
Born and raised in Natchez, Mississippi, Chef Regina has had a noteworthy life, including becoming a key figure in the American food scene in California that happened in the 1980s. This recipe collection includes the diverse food and culinary traditions from the ten states that border the Mississippi River that runs through Natchez. With 200 contemporary recipes for 30 meals and celebrations, and more than 150 stunning photographs.
The Art of Cookery: Early American Recipes
These favorite “receipts” are known to have been used in Virginia households in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Williamsburg Art of Cookery allows modern cooks to offer the same time-tested fare that pleased our ancestors. Discover the differences between early American and modern cooking tastes.
New England Orchard Cookbook
A classic regional cookbook filled with recipes from the orchards and cider mills throughout New England. Many of the featured farms grow more than just the beloved apple––pears, peaches, berries, and more––and over 200 recipes included in this book reflect that bounty. From sweet desserts to savory dinners, the recipes are designed for the home cook. Throughout are features about life and work at the orchards alongside gorgeous photography.
Lake Michigan Cottage Cookbook
This collection of 118 recipes captures the food experiences of the Lake Michigan region, an ultimate vacation destination with hundreds of miles of shoreline and rich food traditions reflecting the bounty of the area’s farms and the lake’s daily catch. Recipes include Helen Suchy’s Apple Cake, Homemade Sheboygan-Style Bratwurst, Chicago’s HBFC Original Fried Chicken Sandwich, Beach House Cheesy Potatoes, and The Cook’s House Crispy Skinned Lake Trout. Delightful photographs of cottage life and classic destinations bring the lakeshore’s flavors and charm to you year-round, wherever you are.
Pike Place Market Cookbook
The Pike Place Market sits in the center the Seattle food scene. With its famous seafood and locally grown produce, it is seven acres of wonderful ingredients and inspiration for the home cook. The author has assembled a collection of recipes that celebrate the essence of Pike Place Market. Included here are Le Pichet’s Salade Verte, Etta’s Mini Dungeness Crab Cakes by Tom Douglas, and the Pink Door’s Linguine alla Vongole. The author has also created recipes that are inspired by ingredients found at the market, such as Spanish Chickpea and Chorizo Stew and a MarketSpice Tea Cake. With gorgeous images of prepared recipes, dazzling ingredients, and scenes of the Pike Place Market, this is the ultimate Seattle cookbook
Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe
Delicious Southern sweets and treats from a Nashville favorite: Renowned for its Southern charm and superb comfort food, the Loveless Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee, serves some of the best desserts below the Mason-Dixon line. Aficionados of country cooking travel from near and far to sample the restaurant’s extraordinary sweets.
