Non-Fiction to Take You Away
By Portico
By Portico
We at Portico love how the power of the written word can transport us to faraway places—even those that no longer exist. Here are some of the non-fiction books we've been indulging in, in an effort to let our minds take us far away from the confines of these familiar four walls due to coronavirus.
Life with Picasso
Carlton Lake and Françoise Gilot
$18.95 $17.62Francoise Gilot was twenty-one when she met then sixty-two-year-old Pablo Picasso. Over the next ten years, the young painter became Picasso’s lover and mother to two of his children. Gilot’s recounting includes tales about his many friends (Matisse, Braque, and Giacometti—to name a few), as well an intimate look behind the curtain of the famous artist’s life.
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Bill Browder
$18.99 $17.66Bill Browder brings us an exploration of Russia that reads so insanely, you’ll think it has to be made up—but it’s all true! This is the story of a Chicago-born financier who is determined to prove corruption at the Kremlin. Ultimately, this book proves that real life is indeed often more outrageous than fiction.
To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret
Jedidiah Jenkins
$17.00 $15.81Upon quitting his dream job, Jedidiah Jenkins takes us along on his sixteen-month bicycle ride from Oregon to Patagonia. His question along the way: What makes a life worth living? As we traverse the terrain alongside Jedidiah, we’re challenged to reflect on everything from adventure and identity to defining adulthood and living without regret.
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
J. Maarten Troost
$17.00This memoir is a fascinating and sometimes hilarious account of a man’s year on a remote South Pacific island. At age twenty-six, Maarten Troost moved to Tarawa where he didn’t discover the island paradise of his dreams, but rather deadly bacteria, stifling heat, toxic fish, sea lice, alarmingly large critters, and a cast of characters.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Bill Bryson
$8.99 $8.36Bill Bryson offers us an intimate glimpse into hiking the Appalachian Trail. From silent forests and towering mountains to sparkling lakes, Bryson not only explains the ecology and history of the trail, but introduces us to those he meets along the way—both human and animal. All in all, a great read when you’re longing for the great outdoors.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
Jon Krakauer
$16.95 $15.76Journalist and mountaineer Jon Krakauer shares his first-hand account of the May 1996 Mount Everest disaster. The storm that descended on May 10 and 11 ultimately killed five and left Krakauer and other survivors guilt-ridden. Don’t plan to de-stress with this nail-biter.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Cheryl Strayed
$18.00 $16.74This classic from Cheryl Strayed, was the basis for the movie of the same name that starred Reese Witherspoon in 2014. This is a tale of life and loss on Strayed’s 1,100-mile solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, a testament to the healing power of literally just continuing to put one foot in front of the other.
The Monk of Mokha
Dave Eggers
$18.00 $16.74Dave Eggers takes us to Yemen and its often overlooked central role in the history of coffee. Yemeni-American Mokhtar Alkhanshali, living and raised in San Francisco, heads to his ancestral homeland to resurrect the ancient art of Yemeni coffee, but finds himself in the middle of a civil war.