For the traveler who might not have a yacht????????????just a sense of humor and a spirit of adventure???????????? Stephanie Schorow proves you can still embark on a voyage through the Boston Harbor Islands. A practical guide, complete with camping tips and driving directions, "East of Boston's" droll travelogue takes the measure of these gloriously wild Edens all within sight of the city's skyline. Join Schorow around a campfire for some friendly conversation about pirate treasure, elusive foxes, cross-dressing ghosts, flying Santas and a strange era of spontaneously combusting garbage dumps. And if you are truly brave, perhaps take a sip of the park ranger's Sumac-ade.

Stephanie Schorow, a Boston-area writer, is the author of The Crime of the Century: How the Brink's Robbers Stole Millions and the Hearts of Boston, Boston on Fire: A History of Fires and Firefighting in Boston, and The Cocoanut Grove Fire. She was the editor and project coordinator for Boston's Fire Trail: A Walk through the City's Fire and Firefighting History, published by The History Press. Currently a freelance writer for the Boston Globe, she has worked for the Boston Herald, the Boston office of the Associated Press, the TAB newspaper chain and newspapers in Missouri, Utah and Connecticut. She is an avid hiker and backpacker, clay artist and amateur photographer.