Adventures Outside My Comfort Zone
From Woodstock to the Okavango. How a bookworm turned flower child turned healthcare executive found joy in traveling the world.
Structured in a series of essays and anecdotes, this memoir tells the story of a small-town Pennsylvania girl who stretched her horizons, tested her limits, and traveled all over the globe.
This first of two volumes follows author Sherry Knowlton and her husband Mike’s post-college tour of America in their hippie van; it describes regular hikes of the Appalachian and Rocky Mountain backcountry; and, driven by a love of wild animals, Sherry and Mike are beckoned to Africa again and again.
These essays address topics as diverse as modes of transportation, wild animal encounters, Indiana Jones moments, and people met along the way. They also include practical travel tips gained through firsthand experience.
Augmented by stunning photos by Knowlton and her husband, Beyond the Sunset is a love letter to all those explorers with a nine to five job and a zest for travel.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:
“I love this book. Sherry Knowlton shares some amazing stories that a life of travel brought her way, and these were not ordinary adventures that she and her husband Mike experienced over the years. Coming from the travel industry myself, I found reading Beyond the Sunset both calming and exciting – a perfect escape from the times we have endured the past few years. I highly recommend it and can’t wait for more. Sherry, keep traveling and sharing your stories.” – Steve Cox, a founder of International Expeditions and CEO of Conservancy Travel
"Beyond the Sunset is an exhilarating read... The stories are interspersed with beautiful photographs from the trips too. Lush with sensory detail and brimming with diverse travel experiences, Beyond the Sunset is bound to appeal to seasoned and unseasoned travelers alike." –Independent Book Review
★★★★★ “Whether recounting an unforgettable journey that took her to Woodstock for the famous music festival in the 1960s… or trekking through Indian forests searching for elusive tigers, she recounts adventures with a flair and talent that made me feel almost like I was a part of the journey. .. Whether you are an armchair traveler or one who seeks more adventure, Knowlton's memoir is sure to impress.” - Manhattan Book Review
★★★★- “Beyond the Sunset… is exquisitely written by award-winning author Sherry Knowlton. She takes readers on an adventure across the world. From the national parks of the U.S. Virgin Islands to the pristine waters of the Puerto Rican coast and far beyond, Knowlton recounts the details of each destination with clarity… Her expertise, gift with words, and amazing photographs all contribute immensely.” - San Francisco Book Review
“Readers of Sherry Knowlton’s Alexa Williams books will not be surprised to learn she’s an inveterate traveler. As I read her new travel memoir, Beyond the Sunset, I was struck by how much Knowlton’s writing reminded me of Delia Owens’. While Owens established herself as a nonfiction conservation writer before breaking into fiction, Knowlton began as a novelist and now demonstrates her formidable skills and extensive knowledge in her first travel memoir. I can hardly wait to see where Knowlton will take me next. Whether it’s in fiction or non-fiction, I’m sure I’ll she’ll leave me engaged, entertained, and better educated about the world.” - Gerri Almand, Author of The Reluctant RV Wife, Home Is Where the RV Is, and Running from Covid in our RV Cocoon
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Publish Date: September 13, 2022
Imprint: Sunbury Press
Genre: TRAVEL / Essays & Travelogues
You might also like ...
-
Failure Factory$22.95- How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprive Tax...- How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprive Taxpayers and Students of a Future - “Educational institutions have evolved into a new bureaucracy. Chris Papst demonstrates the courage to challenge pow...
-
Surviving Hitler, Evading Stalin$19.95One Woman’s Remarkable Escape from Nazi Germany...One Woman’s Remarkable Escape from Nazi Germany The peaceful farm life of a teenage girl in Germany is abruptly upended when WWII comes knocking at her family’s door. One month before her sixteent...
-
Black Clover$22.95Murder in a Small Pennsylvania Town and a Fami...Murder in a Small Pennsylvania Town and a Family's Fight for Justice — Carl Wade Ryder—brother, son, and all-around good person—was murdered on August 5, 2006. Blood was found at his home in Fra...
-
Feather White$24.95A 1970s Memoir: Commercial Fishing Out of Provi...A 1970s Memoir: Commercial Fishing Out of Provincetown and the Backwoods Counterculture Movement in Nova Scotia From the decks of off-shore scallop boats in the North Atlantic to the backwoods of t...
-
Family Declassified$22.95Uncovering My Grandfather's Journey from Spy to...Uncovering My Grandfather's Journey from Spy to Children's Book Author — Why do people keep deep secrets about their lives and ancestry? In Family Declassified, Katherine Fennelly applies her exp...
-
Roaring Tigers$19.95The History Of Southern Columbia Football High ...The History Of Southern Columbia Football High school football has been played in Pennsylvania since the late-1800s. The rich tradition of Pennsylvania scholastic football has produced legendary p...
-
Unbridled Dreamer$19.95Hemingway and the Rise of Modern Literature, Vo...Hemingway and the Rise of Modern Literature, Volume 1 The Modern Movement in art was an authentic response to a much-changing world. The rapid industrialization and urbanization of western society ...
-
Call Sign Dracula: My Tour with the Black Scarves: April 1969 to March 1970$22.95Call Sign Dracula provides an outstanding, valu...Call Sign Dracula provides an outstanding, valuable and worthy in-depth look into the life of a US Army Infantry soldier serving with the famed 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One) in Vietnam. ...
-
Affective Memories$34.95This is the riveting, brutally honest story of ...This is the riveting, brutally honest story of a man’s struggle to make something of himself in the theater. Coming from meager circumstances in the Ozark Mountains, he fights his way up the shaky ...
-
Back From Battle$22.95The Forgotten Story of Pennsylvania’s Camp Disc...The Forgotten Story of Pennsylvania’s Camp Discharge and the Weary Civil War Soldiers It Served In the final year of the American Civil War, a special Union Army post was constructed just outside P...
-
Covey$19.95A Stone’s Throw from a Coal Mine to the Hall of...A Stone’s Throw from a Coal Mine to the Hall of Fame Stanley Coveleski’s life was a story of triumph and tragedy. He was born in the Coal Region town of Shamokin, PA in 1889, the eighth child of P...
-
Gentleman Jake$24.95The Success and Tragedy of the Deadball Era’s G...The Success and Tragedy of the Deadball Era’s Greatest First Baseman The life story of Jake Daubert, who left the coal mines of Pennsylvania to become a two-time major league batting champion. Jake...
-
My Name is Staszek Surdel$16.95The improbable true story of a nine-year-old Po...The improbable true story of a nine-year-old Polish boy’s Holocaust survival This biography traces the Holocaust through the eyes of young Nathan Poremba and examines the difficult emotional and ph...
-
Roaring Tigers 2nd Edition$34.95- The History Of Southern Columbia Football - ...- The History Of Southern Columbia Football - High school football has been played in Pennsylvania since the late 1800s. The rich tradition of Pennsylvania scholastic football has produced legenda...
-
I Refuse to Kill$24.95Share in Francesco Da Vinci's dramatic transit...Share in Francesco Da Vinci's dramatic transition from bystander to nonviolent activist, and witness the triumphs and tragedies of the '60s. At the risk of a 5-year prison term, Francesco Da Vin...
-
Dave McNally$22.95- The Montanan Who Revolutionized Baseball - W...- The Montanan Who Revolutionized Baseball - What lies ahead for a boy growing up in Billings, Montana, in the 1950s, who lost his father during combat in World War II? Can he realize the dream of...
-
Days of Reckoning$31.95Players Punching Their Ticket Out of Pittsburgh...Players Punching Their Ticket Out of Pittsburgh during the Barney Dreyfuss Era Since the dawn of baseball disputes between players and management have always existed. A glorious period of diamond ...
-
City of Brotherly Blood$19.95- My Political Adventure of Power, Corruption ...- My Political Adventure of Power, Corruption and Redemption in Philadelphia - Mike Stack was born to power and followed his father and grandfather into the ring of fire of Philadelphia politics....
-
Baseball Under the Palms II$27.95The History of Miami Minor League Baseball - 19...The History of Miami Minor League Baseball - 1962 - 1991 ~~~ Following an epic failure of the International League’s Triple-A Marlins (1956-60), baseball made its triumphant return in 1962, spearhe...
-
There is Something About Rough and Ready$19.95by Knorr, Troutman, Moran, Baum, Hipple, & ...by Knorr, Troutman, Moran, Baum, Hipple, & Adams+ A History of the Village at the Heart of the Mahantongo Valley The little village of Rough and Ready in Upper Mahantongo Township, Schuylkill C...
-
Celebrating Sensitives$22.95by Laura Palmer -- What We Can Learn From Histo...by Laura Palmer -- What We Can Learn From Historic Sensitive Persons about being an Empowered Empath -- Welcome to the wonderful world of being sensitive! Being a Highly Sensitive Person can be...
-
Just Like Me Volume 2$19.95Volume 1 was Baseball Almanac's favorite read o...Volume 1 was Baseball Almanac's favorite read of 2021 When the Pros Played on the Sandlot Ever wonder what your favorite ballplayer’s childhood was like? Kelly G. Park is at it again with the secon...
-
Somebody Else’s Dream$19.95Dakota, the Buoys & Timothy The year 202...Dakota, the Buoys & Timothy The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the disturbing song “Timothy.” Banned by radio stations and called "the worst song ever recorded," its lyrics about ca...
-
Against the Ice: The story of December 1776$11.95by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Seri...by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Series A wintry December 1776 forced General Washington’s army to struggle against the ice, snow, sleet, and wind as well as against Hessian and British s...
-
The Amazing Life and Loves of Lady Marjorie Fetter Goossens$14.95... and startling revelations on the scandal th...... and startling revelations on the scandal that destroyed the magnificent career of Sir Eugene Goossens III, Australia’s most celebrated Classical Orchestra Conductor by Glenn N. and Barbara L. H...
-
The Traveler's Guide to Chincoteague and Assateague$24.95The Islands of Chincoteague and Assateague are ...The Islands of Chincoteague and Assateague are travel destinations like no other. Many visit these islands on Virginia’s Eastern Shore to see the wild ponies made famous by the children’s classic ...
-
Finding Sisters$16.95How One Adoptee Used DNA Testing and Determinat...How One Adoptee Used DNA Testing and Determination to Uncover Family Secrets and Find her Birth Family Where does she come from? Who are her genetic parents? Who is she? Does she even want to know...
-
Bows, Bullets, and Bears$11.95Frontier Pennsylvania Series Jack Armstrong die...Frontier Pennsylvania Series Jack Armstrong died violently along the Juniata River in early 1744. Armstrong was a rough-and-tumble frontier trader whose sharp business practices antagonized one Ind...
-
Just Like Me Volume 1$19.95Baseball Almanac's favorite read of 2021 When t...Baseball Almanac's favorite read of 2021 When the Pros Played on the Sandlot Did you ever wonder what “your” childhood heroes’ childhood was like? I did, so I decided to find out. Just Like Me: Whe...
-
The Foreman's Boys$19.95The Story of Civilian Conservation Corps, Compa...The Story of Civilian Conservation Corps, Company 1333, Camp S-63, Poe Valley ~~ Employment prospects for many were bleak at the height of the Great Depression. For unmarried recent high school gr...
-
Traders, Travelers, and Tomahawks$11.95by John L Moore Frontier Pennsylvania Series As...by John L Moore Frontier Pennsylvania Series As he traveled across the Pennsylvania Frontier in 1743, naturalist John Bartram didn’t know what to expect when he accepted an invitation to spend the ...
-
Deadball Mayhem$29.95- Scoundrels, Scandalous Behavior, and Tragic E...- Scoundrels, Scandalous Behavior, and Tragic Events - Mayhem and tragedy prevailed throughout baseball’s Deadball Era. Throughout the 1890s and Deadball Era, noteworthy events occurred, cementing...
-
Deals, Danger, Destiny$24.95Think a Renaissance Man is a thing of the past?...Think a Renaissance Man is a thing of the past? Think again. Better yet, read the day-to-day adventures of John LaCasse, whose 25-year career as a Seattle yacht broker brought him into deals with b...
-
W.G. - The Opium-addicted Pistol Toting Preacher Who Raised the First Federal African American Union Troops$16.95The United States in the mid-1800s boiled with ...The United States in the mid-1800s boiled with conflict and promise. The bloody Civil War raged. A ruminating President sat in the White House. William Gould Raymond (“W.G.”) was as complicated as ...
-
1780: Year of Revenge$11.95by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Seri...by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Series 1779 was the fifth year of the American Revolution, and many Iroquois Indians living in western New York sided with the British. Their war parties ...
-
Murder at Killbuck Island$11.95by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Ser...by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Series One Sunday in 1782, white vigilantes suddenly appeared at a camp of Delaware Indians on an island in the Allegheny River near Fort Pitt in western...
-
Pioneers, Prisoners, and Peace Pipes$11.95by John L Moore Frontier Pennsylvania Series Hi...by John L Moore Frontier Pennsylvania Series Histories can be two-dimensional; these contain information strung along timelines. Other histories are three-dimensional, fleshing the basics out with ...
-
Scorched Earth: General Sullivan and the Senecas$11.95by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Seri...by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Series Throughout 1778, Iroquois war parties repeatedly raided the frontiers of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. In 1779, General George Washington...
-
Dead Letters: Delivering Unopened Mail from a Pennsylvania Ghost Town$19.95by Jessica Weible Delivering Unopened Mail from...by Jessica Weible Delivering Unopened Mail from a Pennsylvania Ghost Town On assignment for a small-town newspaper in rural Pennsylvania, rookie reporter, Jessica Weible, meets Joan Swigart, a cre...
-
Tories, Terror, and Tea$11.95by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Seri...by John L Moore Revolutionary Pennsylvania Series With the sesquicentennial of the American Revolution on the horizon, Tories, Terror, and Tea delves deeply into contemporary accounts of the times ...
-
Forts, Forests, and Flintlocks$11.95Frontier Pennsylvania Series As the officer in ...Frontier Pennsylvania Series As the officer in charge at Hyndshaw’s Fort in the Pocono Mountains, Captain John Van Etten knew that few Indian war parties raided the settlements during the snowy win...
-
Slices of Americana$14.95A road trip through American baseball history W...A road trip through American baseball history With a tankful of gas and a passion for baseball history, Jason Love hits the road to discover some of the most and least famous baseball sites in Amer...
-
Pennsylvania Oddities Volume 2$16.95by Marlin Bressi If a Hall of Fame existed for...by Marlin Bressi If a Hall of Fame existed for Pennsylvania criminals, 19th century outlaw Red Nose Mike would have been inducted with the greatest of ease. After he was hanged in 1889, the blood-...
-
Pennsylvania Oddities Volume 1$16.95by Marlin Bressi Researcher and author Marlin B...by Marlin Bressi Researcher and author Marlin Bressi has compiled a panoply of unsolved mysteries and unusual happenings throughout the history of the Keystone State. From unsolved mysteries, headl...
-
Rivers, Raiders, and Renegades$11.95by John L Moore Frontier Pennsylvania Series As...by John L Moore Frontier Pennsylvania Series As the Delaware Indians moved west through Pennsylvania during the 1700s, they carried with them tribal memories of the day they first met people from E...
-
Unclaimed Valor$24.95-- The History of the One Hundred and Thirtieth...-- The History of the One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry -- In August 1862, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania quickly responded to President Lincoln’s request for mo...
-
Lew$19.95The Life and Times of the Author of Ben Hur -- ...The Life and Times of the Author of Ben Hur -- An analytical and deeply rich historical biography of a great American author who is little known or remembered today. Lew Wallace, a fascinating and...
-
Keystone Tombstones - Volume 1$19.95Biographies of Famous People Buried in Pennsylv...Biographies of Famous People Buried in Pennsylvania Joe Farrell and Joe Farley explore the cemeteries (and pubs) of Pennsylvania in search of interesting graves and stories about the interred. Incl...
-
Warriors, Wampum, and Wolves$11.95by John L Moore Frontier Pennsylvania Series In...by John L Moore Frontier Pennsylvania Series In April 1753, frontier missionary David Zeisberger prepared for a month-long voyage up the Susquehanna River’s North Branch by walking along the river ...
Recently Viewed Products
I was immediately hooked on this book, as Sherry's small town life experiences mimicked my own. I felt like she was writing from my perspective and I wanted to continue to see where we were going next. My husband and I also share a love for travel, like Sherry and Mike. We often joke that it's one of the few things that we share in common and enjoy doing together. Our travel experiences bond us deeply. This book provided a roadmap to exciting places that we will consider going to in the future. Whether you have the travel bud to go in person or prefer a hot beverage and good book to take you to faraway places, you must read this book!
I really loved reading Beyond the Sunset - Volume 1. I don't have the opportunity to travel as much as I would like to so I enjoyed reading about the author's adventures in every part of the world. The way the book is compiled is nice too - You can pick it up and read a little bit at time or in one sitting. I can't wait to read Volume two of Beyond the Sunset. Thanks to the author for sharing her worldly experiences with me. This is a must-read for anyone with a little adventure in their soul.
I love this book! On the surface, Beyond the Sunset by Sherry Knowlton is a delightful personal narrative of the author’s travel experiences. In the precise, straightforward style well known to readers of her Alexa suspense novels, Ms. Knowlton vividly describes the adventures, sites, people and animals she has encountered on her many trips all over the world. But what really comes through are the subtle impressions of WHY the author, and by extension so many of us, love to travel. Without bragging or preaching, she articulates the joys of expanding our horizons, learning new things, meeting people, sitting shoulder to shoulder with a person whose culture, customs and language are so different from our own, experiencing that which we have only seen in photographs or our imaginations. Whether we are interested in actually doing what she has done or traveling to the places she has been is not the point – the beauty of this book is that it gives voice to those of us who are subject to wanderlust no matter where we may venture.
Since I haven't been able to travel, the next best thing is to go on a journey with a book. Sherry delivered. Her memoir with photos and detailed descriptions took me to multiple countries and cultures, as if I'd been there myself. Her authenticity about scary and out-of-comfort zone experiences put me at ease. From the African safari to the South American jungle, it was a great way to spend my August taking in the sounds, smells and tastes - all described so superbly that even virtually I was with her and her husband on their adventures.
I gave a copy to my daughter so she could experience the adventures, too. I look forward to reading her second volume of Beyond the Sunset.
Obviously, I think Sherry Knowlton is an interesting storyteller or I would have not read all five of her mysteries, and her first attempt at non-fiction does not disappoint. Of course, it is easier to tell an interesting story when you have so many jammed-packed true adventures to write about. This book amazes me on various levels. One, how does a person in leadership roles in government and private industry find the time to travel to so many places? Two, how does someone find so many unusual and interesting places to visit? Three, how does anyone remember in such detail all the unique experiences encountered on so many trips?
Sherry and her husband Mike are certainly the adventurous types, and their adventures are presented so well in this book by Sherry's writing and photographs taken by both of them. I found it interesting that while some of their encounters/activities would definitely be out many peoples' "comfort zones," they take it in stride with perhaps only a "wow that was sort of dangerous" afterthought. Of special interest to me was how Sherry describes all the animals they observe, and the beauty of the land they are visiting.
This book is a delightful read. It has given me an insight into many locations I will never visit, but now feel I know something about. I am so looking forward to Volume 2.
Customer Reviews