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Post by Dominique on Oct 18, 2008 2:48:18 GMT -5
What are your favourite memoirs about traveling?
I've really been into them lately, last month I read 90-Day Geisha by Chelsea Haywood which was about a girl doing 90 days of hostessing in Japan, which was enjoyable and interesting but could have been written better.
Right now I'm reading Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah McDonald which is excellent so far and is the memoir of an Australian radio journalist who moves to India to be with her boyfriend who is the ABC's correspondent over there. I'm only about 40 pages in and totally hooked!
I plan to read more books about traveling over my coming holiday as an incentive to save to go overseas again so I would love any recommendations!
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Bina
First novel published
Posts: 2,472
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Post by Bina on Oct 18, 2008 6:24:38 GMT -5
First thing that comes to mind is Bill Bryson I also liked As Told at the Explorers Club by George Plimpton and a friend told me to read No touch monkey by someone called Halliday but I haven´t read that yet so no guarantess.
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Halie
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
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Post by Halie on Oct 18, 2008 10:00:09 GMT -5
13 Little Blue Envelopes. It's cute.
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on Oct 19, 2008 9:03:51 GMT -5
Jennifer L. Leo's books are really fun to read! She publishes collections of stories about funny misadventures that happen to female travellers
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zeldafitzgerald
Collection of short stories bought by Random House
ancora imparo
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Post by zeldafitzgerald on Oct 26, 2008 22:27:24 GMT -5
I love all of Bill Bryson's books as well. They're all excellent, but my favorite is probably "Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe." I've been wanting to read "Holy Cow" too - glad you're enjoying it Dom! I'll have to pick up a copy. Other than Bill Bryson though, I haven't read a lot, which kind of surprises me to think about, considering how much I love traveling, and memoirs.
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Post by ItalianLaneGirl on Nov 3, 2008 21:18:45 GMT -5
I love all 3 travel memoir books by Marlena de Blasi (A Thousand Days in Venice, A Thousand Days in Tuscany and The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria). She writes with ease and I love her descriptions of the food and people of Italy.
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Post by Dominique on Feb 22, 2009 4:33:52 GMT -5
I just put A Thousand Days in Tuscany on reserve I thought I'd add a few I've enjoyed lately to this thread. A Season in Red by Kirsty NeedhamAmazon description: When journalist Kristy Needham heads to Beijing to work at a Chinese newspaper as a “foreign expert,” she has studied the language and the history but has no idea what life in China will really be like. As this compelling story reveals, she soon learns that Communist slogans, transvestite nightclubs, SARS scares, and militant teams of tourist handlers are just a few of the disparate elements of everyday life in China that she must navigate. From being constantly asked if she is a spy to maintaining her integrity at a government-controlled paper, Needham is caught in a nation haunted by its past and surging toward the future. Through wry, journalistic observations, this vivid memoir offers an enlightening, hilarious, and sometimes scary outsider’s take on contemporary China and its rapidly changing culture. Almost French by Sarah TurbullWhile travelling Europe an Australian woman meets and falls in love with a French man, then moves with him to Paris. It has lots of funny anecdotes and describes a lot of the cultural differences between France and Australia.
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Post by Dominique on Apr 30, 2009 5:06:47 GMT -5
Ok latest ones in my travel reading:
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - do NOT recommend. It started off just ok, a bit annoying in parts but still readable, but as soon as she hit India it became so contrived and annoying that it was just awful.
Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson. Really enjoyable. Ferguson hitchhikes across the length of Japan following the cherry blossums. He didn't go to the most popular tourist spots like Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima but went to heaps of cities and towns I knew nothing about. There were lots of little tidbits about Japan that I didn't already know as well which was cool. Also the stuff he goes into about experiencing Japan as individuals through moving with them by hitchhiking and getting to talk to them etc was interesting.
Ferguson has a few other books out that I might try, apparently he's "Canada's number one humourist"? Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada sounds good, apparently he's written a bunch of other non-travel books about Canada too.
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on May 3, 2009 11:00:01 GMT -5
I actually don't know much about Ferguson and I've never read any of his books, I should do something about that... I've realized lately that many of us living in Quebec don't know much about English Canadian humorists because our market is already so saturated with French ones. "Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw" is an interesting title, to say the least! ;D
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