Broadway Books

Bill Bryson is not a hiker. That's what makes this book work. His attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail with his old friend Stephen Katz is equal parts comedy, natural history, and honest reckoning with the American wilderness. Bryson is funny in a way that never undermines the seriousness of the landscape he's walking through.

David Roberts investigates the 1934 disappearance of a 20-year-old artist and wanderer in the Utah canyonlands. Ruess walked into the desert and never came back. Roberts traces the life and weighs the theories, but the mystery endures — which is probably how Ruess would have wanted it.

J. Maarten Troost moved to the South Pacific with his wife and wrote about what he found — kava ceremonies, shark-infested waters, colonial history, and the absurdity of a pale Westerner trying to fit in. Funny and self-aware.