Travel

Writer Joe Kane. In 1985, Kane, who had been a freelance writer living in San Francisco, was asked to follow the first attempt to navigate the entire Amazon River, starting in the Andes of Peru and ending in the Atlantic Ocean. Kane was going to follow the group at intervals, publicizing their progress for the American and European press.

Writer Ian Frazier is known primarily as a humor writer for The New Yorker magazine. His new book, Great Plains, is describes a history of the region through Frazier's own trips driving 25,000 miles in a criss-cross of the area, and hours of research in the New York's Public Library.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the German author's new book, about his travels to Calcutta. Frustrated with the industrial revival of the two Germanies, Grass goes abroad to learn about other models of national identity.

Tim Cahill writes for Outside and Rolling Stone about his adventure traveling. His humorous columns have been collected in a new book called A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg. Cahill joins Fresh Air to talk about some of his more memorable trips.

Book critic John Leonard says that V.S. Naipal's book about his travels in the American South reflects a tourist's mindset. The author's sentimental perspective prevents him from seeing the complicated race and class issues that shape the region.

The British author and travel writer recently passed away. His acclaimed books include Songlines, a semi-fictional account of the myths that structure the lives of Australia's aborigines, and the travel book In Patagonia.

Essayist Paul Gruchow has a new collection of essays called The Necessity of Empty Places, which celebrates the American wilderness. Rejecting the macho, survivalist approach to confronting nature, Gruchow sees the wilderness as a place of meditation and discovery.

The fiction writer sought adventure, so he followed the Equator around the world. His new book describes the different cultures, colonial vestiges, and natural phenomena of his various stops -- many of which the locals described as the "middle of nowhere."

Jane and Michael Stern are a husband-and-wife food-writing duo who travel the country to find the best regional food. Their work has spanned twenty years and several books. Their latest is called A Taste of America.

Writer Paul Theroux. Since his first book, Waldo, was published in 1966, Theroux has written prolifically. His extensive travels have taken him through Africa, Asia and Central America, and a central theme of his work is the ironic examination of the clashing and mingling of Western and Third World cultures. Theroux's newest book, Riding the Iron Rooster, is an account of his travels by train through China.