Nature, Travel & Geography

Newscaster John Boel offers a new collection of 39 personal stories focused on his lifelong passion for fishing with his family. Through a series of beloved memories and 80 included photographs, he discovers that escaping to go fishing is the thread that binds five generations of the Boel family.

A well-researched love letter to the unique history, eclectic architecture, Olmsted-designed parks, friendly residents and way of life still alive today in the Ashland neighborhood of Lexington, Kentucky.

Always evocative and relatable, this is the definitive collection of Mark Reese's columns and personal essays about his favorite pastimes: hunting, fishing, enjoying the outdoors, and observing nature in all its wonder.

Through over 160 poignant images taken by the most talented photographers who call the area home, author and small-town ambassador Kim Huston shares her love affair with Bardstown, Kentucky, a place that USA Today and Rand-McNally called "the most beautiful small town in America." The book brings the town to life and takes readers from the picturesque downtown to the verdant farmland with many stunning never-before-published aerial views.

Author Neal O. Hammon precisely details the route that pioneer Daniel Boone took to carve a route through the Kentucky wilderness for land-seekers. Hammon touches on interesting stories, the successes and failures, and the unintended consequences of Boone's journey — for which we all are richer. In the words of Richard Taylor, former Kentucky Poet Laureate, "Hammon's meticulous, stubborn research makes him the dean of living Kentucky frontier historians."

Author Sue Ballard provides a thoroughly researched, fictionalized autobiography of frontiersman Daniel Boone's wife, Rebecca Bryan Boone, a woman who deserves tribute for her role in carving new homes and new lives in the primitive and dangerous Kentucky wilderness. Ballard's description of Rebecca's day-to-day life is accurate in each detail, from raising their many children, farming, and kitchen work, to her hourly prayers and waiting in loneliness for the return of her trailblazing husband. A must-read for all who love early American and Kentucky history.

Louisville, Kentucky's recent history has no more unforgettable moment than April 3, 1974 — the day a disastrous tornado tore a path of destruction across the city of Louisville and its metro area. This new softcover edition commemorates the 40th anniversary of that fateful day in Louisville's history.

For over a quarter-century, popular television host and producer Dave Shuffett has traveled thousands of miles across Kentucky, interviewing people and photographing places that showcase what is unique and extraordinary about the beloved Bluegrass State. Here he shares over 100 pages of his favorite photographs and essays from those travels, opening our eyes and our hearts to the rich heritage, fascinating people, colorful culture and pure natural beauty of the Commonwealth.

The first official surveys west of the Appalachian mountains were made in 1774 by John Floyd, a 24-year-old Deputy Surveyor of Fincastle County, Virginia. Over the next nine years, Floyd surveyed 206,000 acres, became a civic leader in a central Kentucky settlement, and carried on continuous correspondence that gives today's readers a window into frontier life that is informative, authoritative, and insightful. This is an important and neglected source that adds to our understanding of this critical period in the formation of what was to become the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Starting from a small stream in a Pennsylvania woodland, this illustrated educational book follows the seasons of river life along three connected rivers: the Allegheny during spring, the Ohio during summer and the Lower Mississippi during fall. A great addition to children's literature about rivers and river life.

Esteemed philanthropist Isaac Wolfe Bernheim's most enduring legacy is the 14,500-acre Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, KY. After 80 years, his dream of creating a place to "gladden the soul and please the sight" has long been realized, with thousands of annual visitors finding inspiration in the forest's miles of trails, formal gardens, visitor center, events and all facets of wild land. Here, for the first time and in 280 gorgeous, full-color pages, the story of the forest and the man behind it unfolds.

A perfect guide to simple, convenient and low-cost nature excursions, all in the Louisville area. Whether you're looking for an hour's walk or a day's hike, this book offers a family-friendly guide to over 30 natural areas and over 50 miles of walking paths and hiking trails, complete with detailed descriptions of venue amenities and natural features. Photographs throughout.

Praised for its innovative landscape design, Louisville's Waterfront Park was, just 25 years ago, covered by an industrial brownfield wasteland of scrapyards, sand and gravel operations, warehouses, asphalt plants and railroad tracks. This beautiful full-color coffee table book tells the great success story of the Park's transformation and how the vision was achieved.

Beginning with bands of hunters and gatherers foraging for food, join revered archaeologist Donald Janzen on a 10,000-year journey to explore prehistoric Native American life in the Falls of the Ohio River region. With a variety of illustrations and artifacts, Unearthing the Past provides compelling revelations about what lies beneath the streets and subdivisions of our 21st century hometown.

Grady Clay's wide-ranging radio essays known as "Crossing the American Grain" have been a staple on Louisville's NPR station, WFPL, for many years. In this comprehensive volume, Clay has collected the best of those commentaries, discussing visual and cultural landscapes, urban design and more with the incisive insight that has made his radio shows so captivating.

Through historic photographs, maps, log books, diaries and recollections, Rick Bell re-creates, in thrilling detail, the magnitude of Louisville's worst natural disaster which, 70 years ago, put two-thirds of the city under water.

This small but crucial guide shows you in easy-to-understand language how to identify and treat a range of common travel maladies, especially useful for adventure travelers. The book also addresses more general issues to help you get the most out of your journeys.