Here are 2 books that The Polar Bear Expedition fans have personally recommended if you like The Polar Bear Expedition. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Desert Solitaire

Franz Douskey Author Of Sinatra and Me: The Very Good Years

From Franz's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Franz's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Franz Douskey Why Franz loves this book

Edward Abbey relates another segment of his life where he fights Civilization. Abbey leaves Albuquerque home to find work as a forest ranger in Moab, Utah. He loves the desert and rapidly learns that the government plans to build a four-lane road through the Arches.

Abbey calls this progressive improvement for Industrial Tourism. The desert preservers fight the developers, as well as the Atomic Energy Commission, which encourages a wild scramble for uranium in Utah and Colorado. Then there is an accidental double murder, the paranoid local cattle rancher, and Abbey’s embittered assistant, Viviano. So, it goes.  

Will the four-lane highway cut through the desert, will the murderer or murderers be found, will Moon Eve, a runaway horse who escaped ten years ago, be rescued, will Edward Abbey, naked as Adam in the Bible, lost in a dreamlike existence, remember that he is distinct from the surrounding trees?  

Desert Solitaire…

By Edward Abbey ,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked Desert Solitaire as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'My favourite book about the wilderness' Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

In this shimmering masterpiece of American nature writing, Edward Abbey ventures alone into the canyonlands of Moab, Utah, to work as a seasonal ranger for the United States National Park Service.

Living out of a trailer, Abbey captures in rapt, poetic prose the landscape of the desert; a world of terracotta earth, empty skies, arching rock formations, cliffrose, juniper, pinyon pine and sand sage. His summers become spirit quests, taking him in search of wild horses and Ancient Puebloan petroglyphs, up mountains and across tribal lands, and down the…


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Book cover of The Rosewood Penny

The Rosewood Penny by J.S. Fields,

2023 Queer Indie Award Nominee!

The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.

On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…

Book cover of A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Jack Rathmell Author Of How the Rhino Lost His Horn

From my list on navigating a world you're not cut out for.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve felt like a fish out of water for most of my life. My mom’s English and my dad’s from Pennsylvania, so growing up it was always difficult to figure out who I was, where was “home.” So I always felt uneasy and self-conscious about not fitting in, wherever I happened to be. I always felt vaguely homesick for somewhere else. Reading was one way I could escape, travel was another, more literal way. Which is how I ended up in South Africa, where I eventually got my master's in journalism/international politics. (And my adventures there, of course, led to my book.)

Jack's book list on navigating a world you're not cut out for

Jack Rathmell Why Jack loves this book

I loved this book because it shows that the setting/particulars of the “journey” don’t actually matter.

It’s all about the author’s voice, perspective, and, in this case, their sense of humor. If these aspects are unique and engaging, it doesn’t matter where they went, or if you have any interest in seeing/doing those things for yourself.

I’ve always felt like I can resonate more with people that are willing to admit their fallibility, and even draw attention to/make light of it. To just how ignorant or clumsy or hapless or cowardly they are. I think that always makes for a better, more human story, a better connection with the reader.

On top of all this, I have a soft spot for the Appalachian Trail, since it crosses through Pennsylvania, only a few miles from where I grew up.

By Bill Bryson ,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked A Walk in the Woods as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of "Notes from a Small Island" and "The Lost Continent" comes this humorous report on his walk along the Appalachian Trail. The Trail covers 14 states and over 2000 miles, and stretches along the east coast of America from Maine in the north to Georgia in the south. It is famous for being the longest continuous footpath in the world. It snakes through some of the wildest and most specactular landscapes in America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas.


Book cover of Desert Solitaire
Book cover of A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

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