The Best Women's Travel Writing 2009: True Stories from Around the World [Paperback]

Faith Adiele (Author), Lucy McCauley (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Best Women's Travel Writing | Publication Date: February 1, 2009

This best-selling, award-winning series presents the finest accounts of women who have traveled to the ends of the earth to discover new places, peoples — and themselves. The common threads connecting the stories are a woman’s perspective and lively storytelling to make the reader laugh, cry, wish she were there, or be glad she wasn’t. From breaking the gender barrier on a soccer field in Kenya to learning the art of French cooking in a damp cellar in the Loire Valley to hitchhiking through Mexico in the 1960s, the points of view and perspectives are global and the themes eclectic, including stories that encompass spiritual growth, hilarity and misadventure, high adventure, romance, solo journeys, stories of service to humanity, family travel, and encounters with exotic cuisine.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lucy McCauley's travel essays have appeared in such publications as The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times, Harvard Review, Science & Spirit, and Salon.com. She is series editor of Best Women's Travel Writing, and editor of three other Travelers' Tales anthologies - Spain (1995), Women in the Wild (1998), and A Woman's Path (2000), all of which have been reissued in the last few years. In addition, she has written case studies in Latin America for Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and now works as a developmental editor for publishers such as Harvard Business School Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Travelers' Tales; Original edition (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932361634
• ISBN-13: 978-1932361636
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born of a Nordic-American mother and a Nigerian father, Faith Adiele was raised as the sole African girl on a farm in the Pacific Northwest. After flunking out of Harvard, she shaved her head, took a vow of silence, and moved into the forest, becoming Thailand's first black Buddhist nun. She then won a fellowship to Nigeria, where she met her father-originally thought killed in the Biafran War-and siblings for the first time. A second trip inspired the PBS documentary "My Journey Home." A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Nonfiction Writing Program, she has worked as a community activist and diversity trainer, and lectured and taught writing all over the world. She is hard at work on a second memoir about 3 generations of family on 3 continents.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally A Book of Travel Writing That Lives Up to It's Title, May 16, 2009

By 

Legend of a Cowgirl (Park City, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best Women's Travel Writing 2009: True Stories from Around the World (Paperback)

Many of women travel books state that the writing are humorous, but the stories aren't funny. Others have women lamenting over how she looks in a bathing suit or a romantic breakup, neither of which has anything to do with the place they're visiting or the people they meet. Thankfully this book only has one story that fit the second fault stated above. It's "Homecoming Istanbul" by Banu Francoise Hummel.

The other essays are wonderfully descriptive and expressive stories of each woman's interactions with the people, cities, countries, and sites. I got a sense of the sensations and experiences that the writers were trying to convey.

I felt the sogginess, sexiness and coldness of the rains in France, Mexico and Scotland; the gritty sand in the Taklamakan desert; again coldness in Italy; fear in the Amazon and Botswana; and learned that there are many different types of trips in Jamaica.

Each story was so delightful (except the one written in Turkey) that I couldn't wait to read the next one. These stories inspired me to want to go to places I never considered before, which a true travel book should instill in it's readers.

Great job to all the essayists and the editor, Lucy McCauley.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A country-by-country chapter listing makes it easy to locate experiences specific to different nations, July 18, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best Women's Travel Writing 2009: True Stories from Around the World (Paperback)

This outstanding collection of travel experiences offers a solid travel literature piece of true stories from women around the world, and makes for a 'must' pick for any library catering to travelers or including women's issues in the mix. A country-by-country chapter listing makes it easy to locate experiences specific to different nations and lends to the browsing interest of an outstanding literary collection of experiences.