Wide-Open World by John Marshall

Voluntourism is becoming a popular way for people to spend their vacations.  At times it can help lower the financial burden of taking an exotic location, or if it doesn't fill that purpose, it's a good way to feel like you're helping and making a difference with your time.  Any of these reasons are good reasons for participating though, as is all the lessons you'll learn yourself while helping out in a foreign (or even domestic) locale.  Wide-Open World is actually John Marshall's story about how he and his family took six months to volun-tour around the world.

Marshall had a solid job, two kids in high school, and a wife that was a little bit of a dreamer.  Sensing his family growing apart, they came up with a plan to travel around the world for six months.  But had to do it on a budget.  Enter the world of voluntourism.  They planned out different locations they would go to volunteer, pay for airflights and boarding there, and that would help them get around the world.  On average they spent about a month at each places with varying degrees of time spent being a tourist in between them.  They volunteered at an animal rescue, WOOFED around at farms in New Zealand, taught English in Thailand and spent some time at an orphanage in India, among other things.  At each they did a different type of volunteering and all had their own tasks.

Marshall seems to be pretty honest about his family.  Despite his daughter saying she'd destroy his book if he wrote something unflattering about her, I have to say, he did paint her as being kind of spoiled.  But also learning, she was pretty much a typical American teenager, which can be an unflattering description anymore.  His son was a little more quiet, he didn't seem to have as much of a connection with him as he did his daughter, so while he's present in the book, he's not as much of a standout description.  And his wife.  It's clear that he loved her but that she was a free spirit and maybe they weren't so great of a match when it came down to it.  All the people they met (except the ones that rented their house while they were gone) seemed to be excellent as well and I really enjoyed reading the descriptions of the children in the orphanage, the different families they stayed with in New Zealand, and the spiritual leaders in India.  I was also pretty amused by the actions of the monkeys at the first stop in their trip.

The book introduces a pretty neat concept.  How many people would just quit and risk everything to do this with their family?  It took some planning (although not as much as you think), some bravery, and a willingness to try the unknown.  It does help that the kids were mostly grown and they were not in a lot of debt.  But the book makes this traveling seem approachable for most anyone.  The variety of places was nice as well as it showed all different types of volunteering.  The only thing I didn't really like about this book was probably the drama between the author and his wife.  It wasn't blatant, but it was continuous through the book.  But since this was a memoir I can't fault it too hard for that as he was telling about his life and how he and his family fared on the trip.  Another interesting feature about this book was that it featured three epilogues.  Ok, so two were actually just chapters, but they told of what happened after the trip, and then what happened after that, and then finally something actually called the epilogue followed.  It was more that before publication things that were relevant kept happening so the author included them.

A very interesting book, especially if you like volunteering or have wanted to find a way to travel around the world.  It introduces a lot of concepts that most won't even know existed let alone thought possible that they could do.

Wide-Open World
Copyright 2015
325 pages

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine Program**

Margarita Wednesdays by Deborah Rodriguez

Maybe if I had read the author's first book I would have been more charmed by this one.  Certainly the author was genuine and had done some off the beaten path type of things with her life.  But I just couldn't find a connection or really appreciate the story she had to tell.

Having lived in Afghanistan and then leave abruptly when her son is threatened with kidnapping, Rodriguez finds herself back in the states struggling to make sense of what happened.  She stays for awhile with a friend turned a little more until he decides he's had enough of the relationship.  And then it's off to Mazatlan Mexico where she buys a little house and settles down to try to pull the pieces of her life together.  Here she makes new friends but still feels as if something is missing, and with personal problems, family problems, and other problems, peace sometimes seems unobtainable.

Rodriguez can be pretty blunt about herself at times.  Especially when it comes to her choices in men.  She is very frank about all her mistakes there.  And her two sons, while seemingly important to her, actually feature very little in her life.  Yes, one comes and lives with her, but that's when she starts describing him in detail and showing a sense of caring.  She has a lot of drama.  And it gets tiring.  You want to just shake her and say why do you keep doing this to your life?  The other characters she describes nicely though and she usually has something nice to say about almost all of them.

This book is drama.  It's disguised by the fact that it's about moving to Mexico and becoming part of the community there.  But really it's about Rodriguez's personal struggles and how she tries to overcome them.  Mexican culture is a second, although through her interactions with her son's married family help bring the culture to the reader.  She also mentions her first book a lot and that gets a little tiring.   After about the fifth mention, it's like, "ok, you have a book about the beauty school you started in Afghanistan.  That's fantastic, and wonderful for those women, but you've told me this before."  It's obvious she's very proud of it, but redundant after awhile.

This is an ok memoir.  A little too much drama for me and not enough description of everything else.  I'm sure those who read the first book though will find it much more absorbing.

**This book was won in a Goodreads Giveaway**

Margarita Wednesdays
Copyright 2014
276 pages

A Field Guide to Happiness by Linda Leaming

*This book was received through the Amazon Vine Program*

Bhutan, a country that many have heard about but few have really given in-depth study to.  Which is amazing considering their practices as a country.  Measuring how well they're doing by happiness rather than money.  But it's a country worth getting to know and so this memoir/lessons book is one that opens the door a little wider on Bhutan.

A Field Guide to Happiness is part memoir, part lessons in how to live life happier.  That's not to say that you have to move to Bhutan to achieve the things outlined in this book, it just shows how the author learned these lessons in life while living in the country and following their way of life.  Each chapter has a small lesson and ties into an experience or story from the author's personal life.

I never really felt as if I actually knew the author or her husband.  Which is strange because she did describe both of them, but it wasn't in-depth and I just didn't feel any kind of connection.  And the people of Bhutan were just described in general ways, there was never much of a chance to get to know any of them in-depth as individuals, just as a collective.  She wasn't mean or unkind in her descriptions, just brief, and you can tell she really does love her adopted country.

The whole book can be described as brief.  I get that it was supposed to be in snippets as a lesson format to impart some of the wisdom she learned in Bhutan, but it just felt like large journal entries that were mixed with a self-help book.  The writing was clear, good even, but again, that sense of connection just wasn't there for me.  I don't know if it was the format or the briefness of the chapters, but I just couldn't bury myself into it.  On the positive side though, I like that for her lessons she tried to include snippets of her life in Bhutan.  Especially the descriptions of how the people of Bhutan share and the way they treat property there.  Everyone is striving to be a better person (in general) and that's a commendable way to live.

I enjoyed the book mostly but wish it would have been something I could have immersed myself in.  I think anyone who enjoys self-help, discovery memoirs will probably enjoy it though.  I would definitely consider reading the author's other book on Bhutan.

A Field Guide to Happiness
Copyright 2014
232 pages

Russian Tattoo by Elena Gorokhova

*This book was received through the Amazon Vine Program*

I read "A Mountain of Crumbs" and really enjoyed it.  So I was interested in seeing where the rest of Gorokhova's life went after she came to the United States on the arm of her new (stranger) husband.  Having studied English for most of the time she was in Russia, it is still quite the transition to a new culture.

In her previous memoir, Elena meets a young American man who says he will marry her and have an "open" relationship in order to bring her to the United States.  She isn't sure what she's signing up for, but quickly realizes that he is not the man she had thought he might be and that she is lonely and unsure of how to act in this new country.  Eventually they fall apart and she is able to meet another man who will become her husband and the father of her child.  As she transitions into a way of life here, her mother still worries about her though and eventually she has worries of her own as a mother that she must overcome in order to be more at peace with her life.

Elena was very much a worrier in this book.  She worried about everything.  And I can't say that I blame her.  She had a lot going on and felt very out of place and didn't have the support she apparently needed when she first moved.  Her first husband seemed distant and cold, but we are just getting her side of the story.  I do wonder if she ever reimbursed him the money he spent in bringing her to the United States, but I suppose at this point it doesn't matter.  Her mother was not as strongly written in this book either.  She was a sideline, a strife that was dealt with sometimes, and an endearing mother in others that the author recalled fondly. The same goes for her sister who is briefly mentioned.  Her husband gets a lot of detail though (the 2nd one) and I felt that he really was a good person.

I wasn't as engrossed in this one as I was the first.  It was somehow both lengthy and too short all at once.  The parts I wanted more detail on (transition to life in America, customs, etc.) there just didn't seem to be enough of, and those I didn't really care about (family members Dr. appointments) there was quite a bit of.  I thought her interactions with her family were interesting, but didn't need to know every kind of Dr. her mother had appointments at.  I was also surprised at how little time was spent on her daughter as I expected that to be a larger part of the book.  Really, the best detail though was her description of encountering a hamburger for the first time.  It made an impact and showed just how different life in the Soviet Union is from here.

I can't say that it was an exceptionally strong 2nd memoir, but it certainly was expressive writing.   It does what a memoir should; bring you the life of the writer.

Russian Tattoo
Copyright 2014
315 pages

Nine Hills to Nambonkaha by Sarah Erdman

Sometimes I'm sorely disappointed when I read a Peace Corps memoir because it is all about the person and includes little to no information about the place and people they volunteered with.  This one is vastly different from that.  Erdman tells little of herself but instead opens up the village of Nambonkaha to you and introduces you to some of its people.

Erdman is selected to be a health worker in the village of Nambonkaha as her Peace Corps assignment.  For two years, she will work to bring better practices to the village and improve health there.  She chooses to do this through the women of the village by introducing baby weighings and vaccination programs.  She also focuses on AIDS education.  But she just introduces and actually uses the villagers to enact the change on the village and uses a variety of local people to accomplish these tasks.

I actually still don't feel as if I know much about Erdman.  Well, aside from the fact that she did a good job as a volunteer.  I know more about her village.  Because those are the people she described in the book.  You feel as if you especially know the ones she was close with.  The boys she taught to read, the women she interacted with on a daily basis, the nurse she worked with at the clinic.  All of these people she described the good and bad on (although mostly good) and took great care to outline their personalities.  It's what made this book worth reading.  Because she took the time to know who she was working with rather than focusing on herself.  And she is very non-judgemental, despite the practices that she abhors and witnesses.

That being said, this book is a long read because it is very detailed.  While I enjoyed getting to know all the aspects of village life and the challenges there were to overcome in the education of healthcare, I felt as if things were very repetitive and drawn out.  It was helpful that there was a glossary at the end for some of the translations and words specific to the village.  There were several times I had to look up just what an object was so I could understand it in context.  I also would have loved to see some pictures of the village and its people, so I could put faces to names.

If you enjoy Peace Corps memoirs or travel writing I think this will be a very good book to read.  It details the experience, not the person writing it, and is one of the more honest accounts I've seen.

Nine Hills to Nambonkaha
Copyright 2003
322 pages

Travels with Casey by Benoit Denizet-Lewis

Travels with Casey; one immediately compares the title to the Travels with Charlie written by Steinbeck.  And that's kind of the point.  The author thought about that classic book and then decided to do his own spin on it.  Take his dog on a trip around the country in an RV, but instead of learning about the people, he wanted to learn about the dogs of the country.

Denizet-Lewis never really felt connected to his dog.  Sure he took care of Casey well, made sure he had everything he needed, but he always felt as if maybe Casey didn't want to be his dog.  There just wasn't a connection with him despite several years together.  So on a writing assignment he decides to pack it up and see if being stuck in an RV together will do anything for that connection.  Along the way he'll stop at various points in the US known for Dog Shows, unique dog parks, dog people, and other such things relating to dogs.

Despite this being a book about dogs, Denizet-Lewis encounters several different people as well.  From the guy who will stop at nothing to find a lost dog, to the guy who lives with wolf-dogs, people can be just as different as dog breeds.  Some of them he describes as a bit crazy, but he takes care to show the goodness that they all have and the common bond of dog ownership.  These are all people, that for various reasons, are obsessed with their dogs or helping dogs.  And it's nice to read about that sometimes when there's so much on the news that points to the other directions.  For himself, Denizet-Lewis tells you all about his flaws, but he comes across as a genuinely likable guy. 

I liked the pace of this book.  While there were sections I would have liked to read more on (Best Friends Animal Sanctuary) I think overall the different snippets were enough to keep the book moving along and interesting.  I enjoyed all the different things related to dogs that he found on his travels and didn't know about some of the others (dog shaped hotel, etc.).  The only part I didn't really like was that so much of his personal life and drama invaded the book.  I think it's probably more of a memoir/dog travel book and while there was nothing particularly out there, I guess I just expected it to be more about the dogs and less about his personal anguish.  It was a mix between.  Again, that doesn't mean this book was poorly written, it just wasn't what I expected based on the title.

For those that like memoirs and books about dogs this is probably going to be a good read.  It has enough whimsy mixed with enough serious topics to keep it interesting.

**This book was won in a Goodreads Giveaway**

Travels with Casey
Copyright 2014
309 pages

Wanderlust by Elisabeth Eaves

I'd love to travel, I'm somewhat scared of commitment.  These are the things that make me readily identify with the author of this book.  Even though in reality I'm nothing like her.  While she's out traveling the world, I've never been out of the country (unless you count the Canadian side of Niagara Falls).  While she bounces from relationship to relationship and seemingly doesn't care about sticking with one person at a time, I'm a serial monogamist.  So why on earth am I so drawn to her life?

Eaves decides during college that she needs to travel.  Her boyfriend at the time goes all over the world and it inspires her to do more with her life.  She bounces along from Egypt, to Yemen, eventually finishing up college and going on to other relationships, to New Zealand, Australia, and other places.  She has a few more boyfriends, goes back to school again, and travels to a few more countries.  She never stops moving.  And this book tells of all that moving, although it mostly focuses on her relationships.

The relationships in this book are somewhat shallow.  Eaves herself admits love to several different men, sometimes at the same time, and it makes it hard to know whether what she was feeling was deep or authentic.  Not that I'm to judge, I'm sure you can love multiple people on that level, but with the ease that she separates herself from some of these relationships, it calls it into question.  For herself, we recognize that she doesn't want to be held down.  That she likes the freedom of travel and that she seems to enjoy having superficial relationships that she can easily be freed from.  She's very solitary in a way.

I enjoyed most of this book's descriptions of travel.  Towards the end it was more about her relationships, and I would have liked to have more detail on the countries she was staying in.  It seems that she sacrificed the part about travel for the part about social and her somewhat controlling boyfriend in the latter part of the book.  Granted, she was in France, which she didn't think was terribly exciting, but I'm sure there were some positive things about it and some beautiful sights.  Overall though, I thought the book moved fast and that it kept me fully engrossed in what was happening.

I enjoyed this book, although I recognize not everyone may agree with the way that Eaves travels or her relationships.  I found it an interesting, non-conformist way of living life.

Wanderlust
Copyright 2011
301 pages

The Shark God by Charles Montgomery

Montgomery went in search of magic.  Well actually he just wanted to trace his ancestor's footsteps, but then his mission quickly became the unknown and magic once he was in Melanesia.  This book, rather than be on comparative religion and travel like I thought it would be, actually read more as a memoir (although to be sure there is religion and travel included).

As a young boy, Montgomery discovered journals from his missionary ancestor and the stories contained within fascinated him enough that he wanted to retrace those steps in history.  Armed with his savings account and a little bit of knowledge on writing in the travel industry, he flies out to the islands in the Pacific to meet with the locals and see if there is any traditional religion left or if everyone had converted to Christianity.  What he found was a surprising mix between the two and a people divided by their beliefs.

While Montgomery fully fleshes himself and his beliefs in the book, I couldn't help but feeling that the local people were left more two-dimensional.  They all had a personality quirk that set them off but their true description was in their religion and that seemed to be what defined them.  Their actual personal lives, hopes, and dreams we never heard much about and so it made it hard to care about their other beliefs.  Mongomery at least was interesting in his own thought exploration and it was interesting to see the goals of his travels change as he progressed through the islands.

The premise was a good one.  He wanted to see what those before him had seen and how the missionaries' work had changed the islands.  But then he started wanting to see the magic side and the customs that the native people gave up in favor of Christianity.  He puts in a lot of detail, but I do think that it starts to get repetitive and drawn out after awhile. Every person's story seemed the same and I felt like I was reading about the same person over and over again.  There were a few standouts; mainly about the missionary Patterson and some of the older stories and I did enjoy those parts of the book.  As for the other stories though I would rather have read more about the landscape and less about the people's betel nut habit.

An ok book.  It has a lot of interesting points from an anthropological standpoint but it presents it in a way that can be quite dry at times.

The Shark God
Copyright 2004
370 pages

The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton

Coyotes are generally considered a nuisance.  Not a pet.  So when Stockton adopts an orphaned coyote, she doesn't quite know what she's getting herself into.  But she's willing to try.

Stockton fell in love with Wyoming while driving across the country on her vespa.  After seeing it, she knew that was where she had to end up and so found a small rental and a way to make a living and moved.  She quickly met the acquaintance of a local land manager/rancher and ends up renting property off of him in addition to dating him.  And then he decides to give her a coyote puppy.  Something made him save it out of all the other ones he was putting down for his job and Stockton decides to raise it.  The book covers the first year of the the pup Charlie's life and the different challenges Stockton faces in raising him.

Stockton is pretty open about her life and the people around her.  Even her boyfriend she gets pretty candid about.  Telling when she's upset with him or the personal aspects of his life.  But she does the same for herself as well.  Charlie gets the most description of course, and since he's the star of the show that just makes sense.  I enjoyed reading about his personality and his antics, and even his bad quirks.  Stockton took a long look at herself to see why she might be having troubles with him and wasn't afraid to admit her mistakes and failing and try to do something about them; which is admirable.

This book moves kind of slow for only covering a year.  A lot of time is spent on Charlie as a puppy and during the times where he and Stockton were having personality conflicts.  I find it interesting, but honestly would have preferred to hear a little more than that year as the last third of the book just seemed to be about her struggles with him and it barely got to being better before the book was ended.  I suppose this is due to the timeline she had to write it in, but I wish they would have let her have a little more time to expand on the story.  Otherwise the description is good, the pictures are lovely and adorable and I really did enjoy reading Charlie's (and Stockton's) story.  The only warning I would give is that there is quite a bit of description about coyote killings.  It's reality unfortunately, but if you can't handle that kind of stuff, don't read the book.

If you like animal stories this is a good one.  Stockton does a great job with Charlie and it's a pleasure to see the pictures and read the book.

The Daily Coyote
Copyright 2008
287 pages

My Home Sweet Rome by Sari Gilbert

I am an armchair traveler.  So I do my traveling through books from people who either live in or have visited all the places I want to go.  Enter Rome.  A city with a lot of history, art, and delicious food, it's definitely a stop for most travelers.  But Gilbert takes it a little further.  She lives in Rome, and has done so for decades, giving her an experience that most have not had.

While in college, Gilbert moved to Rome to continue her schooling and then pursue a career in journalism.  Fond of Rome and the opportunities it offered to her, she stayed and worked for several newspapers and as a freelance journalist.  This offered her the chance to talk to many important people, cover interesting stories, and just appreciate all that Rome had to share.  In this book she also talks about Roman/Italian lifestyles, history, government and a myriad of other topics. 

Gilbert is a very honest narrator.  She doesn't hold back on any topics, including those of her own personal life.  Which can be disconcerting at times.  She's also very honest about the people she meets and has relationships with.  I actually wondered at times if she had changed people's names as to avoid getting them angry, because she is brutally honest.  But it offers a very clear look at Italy and some of its people and their habits.  And Gilbert knows a lot of people because of the line of work she is in, so it's just not neighbors and friends, but also politicians and some celebrities that she writes about in this book.

I can honestly say that I enjoyed most of this book.  I found the information on the politics, history, lifestyle and many other topics fascinating.  What I didn't find so fascinating was the amount of detail given to her romantic exploits.  While some was useful for seeing how Roman lifestyles worked, others were just a bit gratuitous and detracted from the book as a whole.  But, since I could just skim past those sections it didn't bother me too bad.  She does put a lot of detail in and I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the food.  It made me want to just make a plate of pasta and find a good hunk of cheese to gobble down.  Maybe a glass of wine too.  And now I'm hungry.  Some time is given to the landscape and scenery of Italy and Rome too, although I would have definitely enjoyed hearing more about it as I'm sure the same level of detail would have been given in the writing.

Definitely an interesting book on living in Rome.  It offered a unique perspective from someone who's been living a Roman life for awhile and isn't afraid to tell it how it is.

**This book was received as a free advanced reader's copy**

My Home Sweet Rome
Copyright 2013
328 pages

A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena De Blasi

This is a love story more than a travel story.  And not all of those thousand days are spent in Venice.  I actually read the sequel to this book "A Thousand Days in Tuscany" before I read this book.  I really don't think it matters what order you read them in though.

De Blasi was in Venice for a job.  With a few friends she was scoping out some wine bars, working on an article.  When she goes to leave though she's told by the owner that she has a phone call.  It turns out to be a man who has admired her from afar.  Many phone calls later she agrees to meet him, and this stranger becomes a new journey in life for her.

Peter, I mean Fernando, looks like Peter Sellers.  No really, De Blasi reminds us of this nearly ever chapter.  He seems sullen and moody to me and I'm not sure what the attraction is, but she seems to like him well enough.  De Blasi herself really likes the physical things in life.  Food, fabric, and other such novelties.  Which I can't blame her for.  I'm obsessed with the same things myself.  And I think she's brave for leaving most everything behind to live somewhere else, although I do think it was a little foolhardy.  I would have liked to hear more about the other people they interacted with, but it didn't get beyond little snippets on anyone else.

So there actually wasn't much of Venice described.  There was some, and a lot of description about food, but overall this was a love story and the story of how she met her husband.  Not what I was expecting but at least the small amount of travel and food kept me through it. I did like the descriptions of the food, De Blasi definitely deserves her spot as a food writer as she is able to write about food in an evocative way.  You can almost taste it.   It's a small book, and the back of it actually has a bunch of recipes and a section on what to do in Venice.  There's also a reading group section. 

Not a book for those looking to learn about Venice I think, but if you want a little love story with some food, this is probably going to be up your alley.

A Thousand Days In Venice
Copyright 2002
272 pages

A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena De Blasi

This is a book about food.  Really.  Ok, well maybe it's a book about Italian culture too.  But there's a lot of food in it.

Three years after marrying her husband in Venice, Marlena is apprehensive when they sell everything and move to Tuscany.  Here they have no job, are renting a house, but they quickly become adapted to village life and make a few friends.  One of these is a man who used to live in their house long ago and is a great source of help on projects from making a bread oven to harvesting grapes.  And of course, the entire time that they're living there, there is a lot of food and cooking going on.

Marlena describes her husband in favorable terms most of the time.  But does share that he has a quicksilver aspect of his personality which gets him gloomy.  In fact, most of the Italian men Marlena encounters (and one Russian) seem to have this trait.  She herself, while the narrator, doesn't go beyond describing herself in terms of clothes and the food she's eating.  She is very focused on clothes.  In fact, the person who gets the most description is probably Barlozzo, the man who used to live in their house.  He is kind of a funny character but seems to have a good heart.

I'm not sure where the thousand days part of this book came into play.  It seems to span only a year.  I'm guessing it was just a naming convention passed on from one of her other books.  I loved all the descriptions of the food (and the recipes included are mouth watering as well).  It was really that part of the book that shined.  She had good material to work with though with all the local produce and markets.  The actual renovation of the house and grounds I wasn't as interested in.  But her stories of the people in the village were good and you really cared about what happened to the people and how their lives were going.

A nice book about travel/living in Italy in the Tuscany region.  I'm sure most who enjoy other such books will take to this one with no problem.  It seems to fit that whole genre of woman moves to Tuscany and finds love and food.

A Thousand Days in Tuscany
Copyright 2004
325 pages

Sideways on a Scooter by Miranda Kennedy

This book reads more as fiction than non-fiction to me.  I don't know why.  Maybe it's just the tone.  But Kennedy's experiences in India are interesting, but not life like.  Even though it is real life.  Maybe it's just me.

Having parents who had done some traveling and were unconventional in their own right, Kennedy moves to India in her twenties where she hopes to make a living as a journalist.  While there, she experiences the culture of her city, sees the struggles that women still have in a not-quite-modern-yet India, and makes a few friends of her own that come from very different backgrounds.

This isn't really a book about Alexander.  Sure she tells you about her life in India and the apartment she has and a few personal details, but the majority of the book are about the ladies that she makes acquaintances with.  There's Geeta, the somewhat modern but longing for a traditional marriage, friend of Alexander's.  In complete contrast is Parvati, who dresses traditional but holds very non-traditional views and practices.  There's her maid Radha who may do the cleaning but has a lot of pride in her family.  And several others who all have different experiences as women living in India.

This book meanders with no clear path except time.  It spans a couple of years and jumps around in detail.  Conversations are done in full detail while months can drift by in just a few sentences.  And I think that's what made it feel like fiction to me.  I enjoyed reading about the women Kennedy met but I do wish more detail would have been given to the part of India that she stayed in as far as scenery and more vivid food descriptions.  But it was still a good read.  It has a nice pace and a lovely way of describing the people in it.

I wouldn't call this a book on India.  Or even a travel book.  But it is a book about a bunch of different women and their lives and happens to be set in India.

Sideways on a Scooter
Copyright 2011
342 pages

Chasing Chaos by Jessica Alexander

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine Program**

It's easy to glamorize Aid work.  I mean, you're out there helping people, pretty selfless work right?  Well, yes and no.  As Alexander describes it, Aid work is like any other, you get paid for doing a job, the setting is just a little different and the stresses are different.

Originally in advertizing, Alexander goes back to school after the death of her mother and begins work in the Aid field.  During her decade of working she goes to places like Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Darfur.  While there her jobs range from managing a camp, researching demobilized child soldiers, and taking interviews.  She also takes time to describe the personal lives of Aid workers and what they do in their off hours.  The frustrations that they have and the good that they do find in their work.

Alexander is a straight forward narrator.  She doesn't pull punches and she doesn't sugar coat things.  In fact, she almost makes the life of an Aid worker sound downright dreary.  A job that no one but the insane would want to do.  Or at least, that's how her descriptions come across to me.  The people she work with all seem stressed out and eager for vacation, and don't seem to find much joy in their work.  There are a few that do, but honestly, it was hard to tell what drew these people to the field in the first place.

I actually enjoyed most of the stories that she had that were about the work itself.  There were a lot of varied things and I learned way more than I ever knew before about Humanitarian Aid.  But the tone was certainly not upbeat or approachable.  I'm not saying it should have been, after all, some horrible things are discussed in this book.  But the amount of disdain Alexander and other Aid Workers have for the other relief groups out there (the non-professional ones) is kind of disheartening.  You'd think if they were doing such a bad job or making things worse it would be better to organize something to share that kind of information with them rather than being disgusted with them.  I don't know, it just sort of put me off the book.  Luckily though the pace of the book is relatively fast and you don't have time to dwell on any one topic.

This was interesting but not what I expected.  I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to other than people who are interested in Humanitarian Aid.

Chasing Chaos
Copyright 2013
377 pages

R

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci

The name of this book is what makes you want to read it.  Anything with spaghetti in the title is a must read.  However, this memoir I only felt luke-warm about, and that won't cook a noodle in any hurry.

Giulia is unlucky in love.  Not even dating until her early twenties, she falls for a series of men who just aren't quite what she needs.  And she's obviously not what they need either as they don't offer to make things permanent.  And this is in spite of her good cooking, active personality, and want of a decent relationship.  As she travels the years she dates several people, and each have their own quirks and good, but they also have some flaws too.

Giulia isn't afraid to point out everything she does wrong when it comes to dating.  She says she falls too fast, tries too hard, and goes after people who are interested in her, not necessarily those she is interested in.  She just wants that relationship.  The men she meets are interesting.  I can't say that I would have been attracted to any of them, too broody and not enough work ethic in some of them.  Most of them were able to cook though, so that's a plus.  Since it's Giulia's memoir, we get a somewhat biased view of them though so it's hard to tell what their true personalities may be, although it seems like she tried to be fair.

As memoirs go, this one was actually kind of depressing.  There's so many failed relationships that if you're single and having trouble in the dating realm yourself you start despairing of ever getting a good date.  Or a date for that matter.  Because you certainly don't want to go with whatever's interested regardless of your feelings.  Giulia's relationships she does have actually last for long periods of time (at least the 3 and 1/2 that she really focuses on in the book) so the breakups are more traumatic too.  One thing that really irritated me about the book (and this may just be my personal preferences) is the constant talk about music and how certain music was edgy and people liking bands before they were popular.  If the music's good, who cares about the when and why?  Not a huge deal, but whenever I encounter it in a book it rubs me the wrong way.  Aside from that though, the writing was smooth and progressed at a good pace.

This was an ok memoir.  It's very much a story of dating and a little bit about food (there are recipes).  If you really like drama this will be a good book to read and if you like food, stick around for those recipes.

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti
Copyright 2009
273 pages

Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody

It's hard to believe that this was non-fiction.  It was so horrific that you didn't want it to be real.  But it is, and it is a very alarming view of what can happen when culture's crash and the relative power that women have in other countries.

Betty Mahmoody had an unsuccessful first marriage that gave her two sons.  She wasn't looking for more when she met an Iranian doctor nicknamed Moody (if that isn't foreshadowing I don't know what is).  Despite herself she fell in love and they eventually married, and had a daughter named Mahtob.  All wasn't perfect in their marriage and when a proposed trip to his home country came about, Betty had to agree.  What began as a two week trip turned into a nightmare that lasted almost two years.  Once in Iran, Moody trapped Betty and Mahtob there and began trying to make them follow Islamic laws regarding women and beating them when they didn't do what he wanted.  Desperate for escape, Betty found herself in a country that required the permission of her husband before she could do anything.

Was everyone believable in this book?  I certainly think so.  When people complain that this book presents a biased view of Iran and Iranian men it's important to look at the fact that Betty did not encounter a large amount of people while she was in Iran.  And it would make sense that Moody would only allow her to interact with people who thought the same was as him.  The majority of people she met outside of his influence were ones that were willing to help her.  So I think that that shows she didn't believe all people in Iran were like Moody and his family.  Betty herself reaccounts some harrowing details which must have been very painful to share.  I find her brave and admire that she didn't take the easy way out and leave her daughter behind.  She did everything she could, and suffered much, to guarantee she and her daughter's return to America.  Moody is obviously not presented in a positive light in this book, although Betty does share all the positive things that made her fall in love with him in the first place.  He sounds like a typical abuser; wonderful until he has full control and then tyrannical.

If you're sensitive to harsh topics and violence, this is not a book for you.  Betty tells all and she suffers a number of beatings and a lot of oppression by both her husband and some of his family.  As said before, some will say this is not a fair book to Iran and its culture, but we aren't talking about what the entire country did to Betty, just a subset and most of those from one family.  With the cultural differences and the patriarchal society, it's true enough to say that this happened the way it did because of where Betty was.  She could have been abused in America, but not as easily kept prisoner.  I thought the pace of the book was done quite well and while most of it was done in a standard timeline, bits and pieces and flashbacks went back to show signs of Moody becoming unstable even while still in the States and why Betty made the choice she did to go to Iran with him.

I can't quite call this book inspiring because it is horrific.  But it shows a brave woman and the fight she had to keep her daughter.  Should this book warn away marriages to men from Islamic countries?  I don't think so, but the reader should bear in mind that other cultures have different rules, although really, it's the individual that can become an abuser regardless of what country they hail from.

Not Without My Daughter
Copyright 1987
420 pages

Not In Kansas Anymore by Christine Wicker

I wanted to give this book five stars just because the author used the word "kairos" in it. But sadly I had to actually review it on all of its merits, not just the particular use of a word. And having read Wicker's "Lily Dale" I had high expectations going into this book that just weren't fulfilled.

Not In Kansas Anymore attempts to explain how magic is invading America (or maybe already has been completely submersed in the culture). Wicker travels around the country attending parties of vampires, meetings of hoodooists, ceremonies of Wiccans and talking to people who have some kind of belief in magic, magical beings, or spiritualism outside of the realm of mainstream religions. Throughout the book she intersperses history telling the tale of the founder of Wicca, several notable historical figures who dabbled in alchemy or other magical pursuits, and the persecution of those associated with magic. But in reality, most of this book read like a memoir telling of Wicker's own experiences and her feelings towards the different types of magic.

This book is Wicker-centric. That means she is telling you how she feels about the magic and how she experiences it. While at the same time telling you she's a skeptic and doesn't believe anything about it. Since I thought this was going to be more following her line of work as a journalist, it wasn't something I expected because I figured she'd just report on what she observed and not inflict her own bias on the information. She also seeks out some really strange characters in all of these magical realms. It's not the everyday people that you would actually be curious about how they like magic, but rather the ones that dress in full goth or parade themselves as magical beings. I more wanted to hear about the secretive ones. Still, she does get some good stories out of these outrageous people.

This book didn't change any of my thoughts on magic, spiritualism and other such things. Since I read it as a memoir and history book it just didn't provide evidence for me one way or the other because I wasn't sure of the validity of the narrator. The writing in this book was very choppy compared to some of her other works too. It bounced all over the place. Instead of being laid out in chapters such as "Hoodoo", "Vampires", etc. it was laid out in themes such as "Weird Looking People" or "Werewolves Just Want To Have Fun." Ok, so those sound like they are about a specific thing, but really hoodoo pops up in nearly every chapter as does Wicca and a few other things. There's no streamlining too it and it's disorienting. I would have preferred she separate her subject so we don't get used to reading about one thing, then start reading about another, and then all of a sudden we're back to the first thing again. And the subtitle of the book "A Curious Tale of How Magic Is Transforming America" is a bit misleading because it had more history and things that happened in previous decades than what is going on in the more recent decades (aside from Wicker's own experiences that is).

Lily Dale was a great book. This one was not. I can't say that I enjoyed it very much and I was really hoping too as the premise sounded intriguing. It won't put me off of Wicker's books entirely, but I really hope any future ones are more written like Lily Dale than Not In Kansas Anymore.

Not In Kansas Anymore
Copyright 2005
264 pages + sources

A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova

Ok, we're going to ignore the fact that I thought this was a food memoir because of its cover. That's what I get for not actually reading the description. But I like regular memoirs too, so that wasn't a deal breaker for me. And this one, a tale of growing up in Russia, has some very interesting memories in it.

Elena Gorokhova was born to a Physician mother and her third husband. Her mother, having gone into the medical field as it was deemed a reliable profession, has a series of unfortunate marriages which results in two kids. Elena, and her sister Marina. Elena grows up in a typical Russian household (not quite peasant but not the highest class of society either) and from an early age has an interest in the English language. This combined with her sister's desired profession of acting provides her mother with quite a few fits as she'd rather have them be in the medical field or engineers. Still, they follow their dreams and Elena follow the path of learning English only to have it present her opportunities that might not have existed otherwise.

Since this is a memoir we get Elena's opinions on all her family with her bias. Her sister, she obviously adored and admired, I can't recall too much bad being said about her. Elena definitely seemed to look up to her. Her mother, she was a bit harsh on. Several times in the book she mentions wanting to get away from her mother, but yet I don't feel as if we ever had the reason fully explained. She didn't agree with some of Elena's choices, but no huge fights or other disagreements are shown to back up that relationship. Regardless, her mother sounds like a wonderful woman and accomplished a lot with her life. I found her part of the book the best. Elena's father was a bit more distant but he seemed doting and despite not really wanting kids, he clearly loved Elena. Other people move in and out of her life and appear in stories, but aren't given the kind of description her immediate family is. Excepting one marvelous uncle that she meets on vacation.

As a memoir, this one is fairly standard. The author has a different spin because she grew up in Russia, so to an American reader there is a lot of interest and difference when compared to growing up anywhere else. Just the thought of queuing up for toilet paper is amazing to me, but it was a reality for Elena. But she does spare a lot of the troubling aspects and focuses more on funny stories about teaching English or her vacation near Turkey, or random things like that. The history and Russian politics is more told through her mother's story, which is a shorter part of the book. Despite having all these different aspects though, I found the pace of the book kind of slow. The stories, while showing Elena's life, stretched on a bit too much and could have been made more concise. It wasn't that I wasn't interested in them. I was in the beginning, but when they stretched into describing different kinds of alcohol and other random details, it lost my attention a bit. And I wish we would have had a little more than the short epilogue on her adjustment to life in America. You can definitely tell that she studied English extensively though, in my opinion, this book is flawless in language except for normal things that any English writer would do.

I would probably give this book 3.5 stars. Elena clearly led an intriguing and unconventional (by American standards anyway) life and I just wish that we would have had the opportunity to learn more about certain areas of her life than read the massive amount of detail that was spent on others. However, the parts about her mother were excellent and definitely the best part of the book.

A Mountain of Crumbs
Copyright 2009
305 pages

To Be A Runner by Martin Dugard

I'm always looking for something to inspire me into liking running. I run, I can't say I particularly enjoy it all the time, but I always feel like I've accomplished something after a run. So, enter all the running books I can find for helping with that inspiration. This one had an interesting title "To Be A Runner: How Racing Up Mountains, Running with the Bulls, or Just Taking on a 5-K Makes You a Better Person."

We start the book with how Dugard got into running through his parents. Then we jump ahead to some of the races he's done and his eventual entry into coaching cross-country. In fact, most of this book is about his coaching and his runners and what they do. But he intersperses it with musings, stories about when he wasn't running, stories about injuries, and a few different races (including one that sounds like the original Tough Mudder).

Dugard is very self-focused. This book is about him and I'd call it more a memoir than a running book. Sure, there was a lot of running, but it was more about Dugard running than running in general. He mentions coaching cross-country because of his kids, but we don't really hear to much about his kids in the book. And the same with his wife, she's mentioned here and there, but it's usually just her telling him to go running when he's cranky.

I found some useful tidbits in this book. Like not tracking my time while running and it might make it more relaxing. I'm going to start leaving my tracker on silent and just enjoy my run (although music will still be a must). And I learned the names of several interesting sounding races that might be a goal someday. But I also got to learn of Dugard's disdain for runners like myself. It's kind of clear from his description that I'd more be considered a non-runner rather than part of the elite. But that's ok, I'm likely to never encounter the man so I'll just keep doing my thing. He's a good writer, very eloquent and the story flows nice. It does jump around a bit in terms of topic, but I didn't think it was distracting.

A decent book about running. It has some interesting topics and some not so interesting stories. But I still think it's worth a read.

To Be A Runner
Copyright 2011
235 pages

Chickens in the Road by Suzanne McMinn

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine program**

I greatly enjoyed this memoir. Partly because it reminded me some of my own life, and partly because I liked the descriptions of farm life and animal stories. And I never even knew there was a blog that it came out of, I'll definitely be checking that out.

After a divorce, McMinn packs up her kids and moves to West Virginia, right in the area that her father grew up. For the first year or so, they live in a slanted house that is rural, but not a farm. And after meeting a man she calls "52", they eventually buy a farm and forty acres out in the middle of nowhere and she starts her farm dream. She starts adding animals and discovers that there is a lot of work to running a farm. And even more when relationships aren't all you thought they would be.

McMinn is living a dream. I'm very envious of her. I've always wanted my own farm and to have animals and chickens. And I did once, but I ended up with someone much like 52 and that dream got put on hold as a result. So that's why I feel a kinship to McMinn. She's experienced the same as what I have. 52, while originally nice, started becoming emotionally and verbally abusive as soon as they bought the house. When she wrote about what he said it could have been taken right out of my life, down to the same type of words. It was a little scary actually. And it drove me nuts that she tried to overlook things that he did because love is blind sometimes. She does meet a lot of good people though. Just the townsfolk and neighbors that she has are often characters and lend a helping hand whenever needed.

I enjoyed hearing about her farm life and the animals she took care of. She has some great stories. But this book could have also been called "Escape from 52" because that was just as much of the plot. And she writes it very well. I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know what happened and how she dealt wit him. A lot of suspense there. This is a memoir in every sense of the word, not just a homesteading book. Although it had those elements as well. And there is a nice little section in the back with craft instructions and recipes. And a section in the middle with a lot of great pictures.

An inspiring book and one that rekindles my want of a farm someday. It's nice to know that people can make dreams happen, even if they have to face some obstacles to get there.

Chickens in the Road
Copyright 2013
294 pages