If ever there were a season that needed true-life adventure, it’s this one. Enter ROAM: Wasn’t Built in a Day—now in a handsome hardcover edition—Guy Van Cleve’s exuberant, big-hearted chronicle of going farther and feeling more. The new format lands just as readers crave stories that trade doomscrolls for daylight and daring. (Hardcover pub date: 28 August 2025.)
Van Cleve, a modern-day Mark Twain, writes with riverboat wit and trail-guide wisdom, spinning 19 vivid episodes (“The Good Wife and the Alligator,” “Snake Handling for Amateurs,” “Chickens and Pigs on a Plane”) into a single throughline: wonder is a discipline, and courage can be kind. The hardcover’s durable build invites gifting and re- reading. It’s exactly the sort of book that lives on a coffee table until it nudges someone to book a ticket, lace the boots, or simply take the long way home.
Early praise has spotlighted the book’s rare mix of adrenaline and uplift. As Elliott W. Wislar, CEO of Clearbrook and author of Voyage to Victory, puts it, ROAM is “superb action-adventure without violence… the never-ending passion to live life to the fullest.”
Djuan Rivers, former VP of Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, calls it “inspiring, heartfelt, and unforgettable.”
The book has appealed to professional aviators and explorers worldwide, with Olga E. Custodio, Lt. Col. (Ret) first Latina U.S. military pilot and author of Flight of Fortitude, stating that the book “beautifully captures the spirit of pushing beyond limits, whether in the sky, at sea, or within ourselves,” while Mario McGee, owner and chief pilot of Bario Aviation in San Antonio, Texas, recommends it to “instill a passion for seeing the world and reinvigorating all the senses.” Finally, international correspondent Claudia Cataldi asserts that ROAM “speaks to the universal desire to wander, to learn, and to live with courage. …Open, read on a rainy day to let the sun in!” Adventure literature has always reminded us how alive ordinary days can feel. ROAM does it with warmth, humor, and a reporter’s eye for the human moment. As shelves fill with noise, this is the signal.
ROAM is available from Waterstones, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Booktopia, Hudson
Booksellers, Walmart, Chapters/Indigo, Strand Books, and numerous indie bookstores.
ROAM (Hardcover) Launches: A Modern-Day Mark Twain for Right Now