Best American Travel Writing 2009

The best place stories are also human stories. If there are no people in them, no real-life characters, place stories will feel free-floating and listless. That's why you've got to read Best American Travel Writing 2009 with selections by Simon Winchester. There are lots of great stories in there -- in particular an essay by Bronwen Dickey about the mighty, 57-mile-long Chattooga, "The Last Wild River.'' The essay, which originally appeared in the Oxford American's Best of the South issue, combines gorgeous landscape description, great characters, humor and ecology, along with reflections about wilderness and wildness.