Anything by Mark Kurlansky!
It’s been a long time since I read Blue Highways, but I remember enjoying it quite a bit. I kind of misinterpreted the OP title as 'recommend a nonfiction book about a vacation, not to read on a vacation, and this is what first came to mind, despite it being more ‘travel’ than ‘vacation’. But I think it fits the OP still. I like to read books about travel when I’m traveling.
Hijack – the source of the White Nile is still not settled.
The Kagera River, which flows into Lake Victoria near the Tanzanian town of Bukoba, is the longest feeder river for Lake Victoria, although sources do not agree on which is the longest tributary of the Kagera, and hence the most distant source of the Nile
Brian
I blame it on the rain.
Beck Weathers should never have been on that mountain at his age or his Lasik condition…they breed em tough in Texas.
Blind, left for dead in an open tent overnight in the death zone he staggers into camp on his own and still manages to crack a joke.
I was in tears as I read about the expeditions leaders conversation with wife also from the death zone. 
Krakauer is an incredibly evocative writer. OP will not go wrong with that read.
As I said upthread when the book was first mentioned, I’ve read it and everything else by Krakauer. He’s one of my favorites.
Ah missed that. You should enjoy David Quammen then. This thread has been useful to me as well.
Yeah, me too. Like I said, I’ve already downloaded a book based on a recommendation here, but I like to keep it going because it’s got some great ideas.
Another fund book is Motoring with Mohammed, it’s about a guy who was moving a private yacht for the owner when he became shipwrecked off the coast of Yemen. He ended up burying a lot of his stuff including his journals and most of the book is him trying to get back to the island to retrieve it, but by this time Yemen is having a civil war.
Let me echo anything by Bill Bryson.
The book I’m reading now, “The Guns of August” by Barbara Tuchman is very enlightening about the beginning of World War One. Then as now, no lack of arrogance and stupidity among the higher ups.
Any book by Quammen is a good choice.
The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives by Adam Smyth 2024
Longitude by Dava Sobel 1995
Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder 1998
The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was Named by John Keay 2000
Charlatan by Pope Brock 2009
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin 2010
I’ve red everything by her as well. My favorite is “A Distant Mirror.”
If you’ve already read all of Krakauer’s books then chances are you’ve already read it, but i’d recommend Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
I went ahead an ordered a copy- thanks.
Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization [sand, iron, copper, lithium, oil, and salt]. Combines science, history, mining, manufacturing, politics, culture, the present and the future, something for everyone. Very readable, too.
“Longitude” and “Charlatan” are great!
“Longitude” is about the standardization of time zones (and other related things) and “Charlatan” is about John Brinkley, who said he was a doctor but probably wasn’t, and most likely killed who knows how many men by implanting goat testicles into their own bodies, under very unsterile conditions. Brinkley also led to border radio stations, which was a whole 'nother story altogether.
I was at dad’s and had the book with me and suddenly he was reading it and said he’d give it back after he was done. Luckily it was a reread for me so I didn’t have to suffer while I waited.
I’m generally more into fiction, but I did enjoy Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.
Also, not sure it qualifies (WTF is a “nonfiction novel”?) but I also liked Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.
Based heavily upon real events, with details and other characters fictionalized.
So, a good choice- imho.
Thanks all, I’m enjoying Hampton Sides Blood and Thunder, but we’re so frie after a day on the water, I only read a couple of pages before falling asleep.