10 Best Massachusetts Travel Guides Books

A NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, USA TODAY, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER “[A] diverse and enlightening book . . . The 99% Invisible City is altogether fresh and imaginative when it comes to thinking about urban spaces.” — The New York Times Book Review ” Here is a field guide, a boon, a bible , for the urban curious. Your city’s secret anatomy laid bare–a hundred things you look at but don’t see, see but don’t know. Each entry is a compact, surprising story, a thought piece, an invitation to marvel. Together, they are almost transformative. To know why things are as they are adds a satisfying richness to daily existence. This book is terrific, just terrific.” –Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff , Grunt, and Gulp ” The 99% Invisible City brings into view the fascinating but often unnoticed worlds we walk and drive through every day, and to read it is to feel newly alive and aware of your place in the world. This book made me laugh, and it made me cry, and it reminded me to always read the plaque.” –John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All The Way Down A beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, from the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean? Or stopped to consider why you don’t see metal fire escapes on new buildings? Or pondered the story behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships? 99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs. Now, in The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design, host Roman Mars and coauthor Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout, The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them.

Filled with helpful travel tips and beautiful National Geographic photography, this expert guide showcases the best experiences in the top national, state, and city parks throughout North America. In the sequel to the best-selling 50 States, 5,000 ideas , National Geographic turns to the United States’ and Canada’s most pristine–and adventure-filled–national, state, and city parks with 5,000 ideas for the ultimate vacation. Showcasing the best experiences, both obvious and unexpected, each entry in this robust guide provides an overview of the park, detailed travel advice, fascinating facts, insider knowledge about wildlife, and expert tips for hiking, biking, camping, and exploring. From the geysers of Yellowstone National Park to the Everglades’ Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail and the stunning peaks of Banff and Jasper in Alberta, each page will fuel your wanderlust. Plus, explore the natural beauty tucked away in cities like New York’s Central Park and Boston Commons, and find bonus parks with day-trip suggestions to nearby neighbors. Top 10 lists throughout highlight best-of destinations for river trips, monuments, panoramic views, beaches, and more. This comprehensive book provides all the inspiration and information you need to plan your next park visit–and make it a memorable one.

A Los Angeles Times Bestseller 2020 NPR’s Book Concierge Staff Pick Is there life after baseball? Starting from this simple question, The Wax Pack ends up with something much bigger and unexpected–a meditation on the loss of innocence and the gift of impermanence, for both Brad Balukjian and the former ballplayers he tracked down. To get a truly random sample of players, Balukjian followed this wildly absurd but fun-as-hell premise: he took a single pack of baseball cards from 1986 (the first year he collected cards), opened it, chewed the nearly thirty-year-old gum inside, gagged, and then embarked on a quest to find all the players in the pack. Absurd, maybe, but true. He took this trip solo in the summer of 2015, spanning 11,341 miles through thirty states in forty-eight days. Balukjian actively engaged with his subjects–taking a hitting lesson from Rance Mulliniks, watching kung fu movies with Garry Templeton, and going to the zoo with Don Carman. In the process of finding all the players but one, he discovered an astonishing range of experiences and untold stories in their post-baseball lives, and he realized that we all have more in common with ballplayers than we think. While crisscrossing the country, Balukjian retraced his own past, reconnecting with lost loves and coming to terms with his lifelong battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Alternately elegiac and uplifting, The Wax Pack is part baseball nostalgia, part road trip travelogue, and all heart, a reminder that greatness is not found in the stats on the backs of baseball cards but in the personal stories of the men on the front of them.

This compelling and inspiring book, now in a deluxe paperback edition, shows how one person can work wonders. In Mountains Beyond Mountains , Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tracy Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who loves the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it. In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Kidder’s magnificent account takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.” At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb “Beyond mountains there are mountains”-as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too. ” Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with a force of gathering revelation,” says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr notes, “[Paul Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it.”

Discover local adventures in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut with Moon New England Hiking. Inside you’ll find: * 150 Outdoor Getaways including easy day hikes and multi-day backpacking trips * Diverse Hiking Options from breathtaking seaside walks in Coastal Maine to challenging backcountry treks in the Berkshires * Find Your Hike: Choose from strategic lists like the best spots for a swim, high-elevation vistas, New England oddities, and hikes with nearby breweries, plus a breakdown of the best hikes for each season * The Top Outdoor Experiences: Cool off under a cascading waterfall, pick wild blueberries from a meadow, and take in views of endless autumnal foliage. Take a dip in the ocean after scaling the cliffs in Acadia or meander through shorebird habitats in Rhode Island. Visit a replica of Thoreau’s cabin at historic Walden Pond, enjoy a peaceful afternoon on a secluded trail, and marvel at the Boston skyline from afar * Nearby Fun: Relax after your hike at a local brewery, find a nearby campground, or stop for lunch at a mom n’ pop eatery * Essential Planning Details: Each hike is described in detail and marked with round-trip distance and hiking time, difficulty, terrain type, elevation gain, and access points * Maps and Directions: Easy-to-use maps, driving directions to each trailhead, and details on where to park * Full-color photos throughout * Expert Advice: Seasoned hikers Miles Howard and Kelsey Perrett reveal their experienced insights, local secrets, and honest opinions of each trail * Tips and Tools: Advice on gear, first aid, protecting the environment, and getting park passes, plus background information on climate, landscape, and wildlife Whether you’re a veteran or a first-time hiker, Moon’s comprehensive coverage and local expertise will have you gearing up for your next adventure. Exploring the region by car? Check out Moon New England Road Trip.

Do you think you ‘re the ultimate New England Patriots superfan? Do you have a buddy who can ‘t stop talking about Tom Brady? Do you want to learn about the history of the best franchise of the last two decades? Even if those don’t apply to you, The Ultimate New England Patriots Trivia Book is the best book to learn about the New England Patriots’ team history. This trivia book is packed with interesting facts about the Patriots from cover to cover, taking you from the playing fields of the Boston suburbs to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. In this book, you ‘ll discover the answer to: * Who wore number 12 before Tom Brady entered the scene for the Patriots? * How many touchdowns did Rob Gronkowski catch from Tom Brady? * Where did star receiver Julian Edelman attend college? * Who quarterbacked the Patriots to their first Super Bowl appearance? * When did the Patriots move into their stadium in Foxboro? Whether you are a Patriots fanatic hungry for more information about the team, an NFL superfan craving knowledge about the teams in the league, or just someone who enjoys learning new, interesting facts to learn new things, this book is right up your alley. You will not be disappointed while discovering the world of the New England Patriots, both past and present, so just crack open the book, sit back, relax, and enjoy the wave of knowledge.