Johnson Expeditions

Earth Day, 2020

 

We like a good yarn and I’m sure you do as well. Mountaineering? Seafaring? Travel and the natural environment? Browse below for our suggestions on the best of the best.  In keeping with my background as an outdoor educator and training as a historian, we specialize in narrative non-fiction that inspires (or at least terrifies). Of course, you may order most anything in print—just use the "Search" button at the top of this page.

 

This little shop is a pandemic project. For those of us in the travel business, 2020 was… an adventure. Nearly all means of travel, including the ships we charter, along with planes, trains and automobiles, were shut down. All except one. I was reminded that when my grandfather and dozens of extended family members ran the largest bookstore in New England for over 100 years, their logo was a ship—because “you can travel the world in a boat or a book."

 

For us, the dry-docking of ships occasioned a turn back toward that other time-tested means of traveling the world—the engagement of mind and imagination through reading. 

 

Will you let us serve as your guide? -KEJ

 

 

“An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered."  – GK Chesterton

Freedom Climbers: The Golden Age of Polish Climbing
The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors
Everest 1922: The Epic Story of the First Attempt on the World's Highest Mountain
The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life
The Hunt for Mount Everest
The Moth and the Mountain: A True Story of Love, War, and Everest
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day
Conquistadors of the Useless
Alone on the Wall (Expanded)
Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival
The Mountain of My Fear and Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative
True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna
Beyond the Mountain
Psychovertical
Into the Great Emptiness: Peril and Survival on the Greenland Ice Cap Escalante's Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest The Mountain of My Fear and Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative
Johnson Expeditions

David Roberts

Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World
A Voyage for Madmen
Around the World in 80 Years: The Oldest Man to Sail Alone around the World - Twice!
Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (Updated)
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
The Journals of Captain Cook
The Log from the Sea of Cortez
The Last Whalers: Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
The Magic of Swatchways
The Saga of Cimba: A Journey from Nova Scotia to the South Seas
In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War
Johnson Expeditions

Nathaniel Philbrick

Bad Friday
The Johnstown Flood
Young Men and Fire: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition
The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History
When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
The Children's Blizzard
Wave
The Man Who Caught the Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras
The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet
The Storm of the Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West
Johnson Expeditions

Timothy Egan

Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War
Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings
The Moth and the Mountain: A True Story of Love, War, and Everest
Wind, Sand and Stars
West with the Night: A Memoir
The Wright Brothers
The Right Stuff (Second Edition, Revised)
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters
Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air
Rocket Boys: A Memoir
There's No Place Like Space: All about Our Solar System
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race
Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings
Five Weeks In a Balloon: Illustrated
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West The Wright Brothers 1776
Johnson Expeditions

David McCullough

Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope
999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors
Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon
Flyboys: A True Story of Courage
The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
No Greater Glory: The Four Immortal Chaplains and the Sinking of the Dorchester in World War II
Rowing Against the Current: On Learning to Scull at Forty
Nature's Grace: America's Veterans and the Healing Power of Nature
Affluenza: How Overconsumption Is Killing Us--And How to Fight Back
How We Know What Isn't So
The Wisest One in the Room: How You Can Benefit from Social Psychology's Most Powerful Insights
Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes... and How to Correct Them: Lessons from the Life-Changing Science of Behavioral Economics
The Narnia Code: C. S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens
Armed Servants: Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations (Revised) (Revised)
Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the Genius of Leadership
Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia
Scientific Method in Brief
Leisure and Spirituality: Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Perspectives
Icarus in the Boardroom: The Fundamental Flaws in Corporate America and Where They Came from
True Paradox: How Christianity Makes Sense of Our Complex World
In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692