Decades before #vanlife would trend, William Least Heat-Moon responded to upheaval in his life by hitting the road in a 1975 Ford Econoline and chronicling the journey. (“A man who couldn’t make things go right could at least go.”) Without a destination, Least Heat-Moon traveled the country on America’s “blue highways”— rural, two-lane roads so-called because of their color in the road atlas. Part memoir and part travelogue, Blue Highways is an exploration of self and community, an enduring reminder that a country isn’t just a place — it’s people.

“Though the events take place more than 40 years ago, the book reads like a search for what currently ails us, because what ailed us then ails us now.” —New York Times

Heads up: Blue Highways travels deep into many rural parts of America in the politically charged post-Vietnam era of the late-1970s, capturing dialects, attitudes, and customs — warts and all.

Check it out at Seattle Public Library. Please consider buying your Bushwick choices with their local bookstore partner, Third Place Books.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and The Bushwick Book Club Seattle.