Big Balls Better: Essays on Courage and Culture Shock [Kindle Edition]

David Axelrod

David Axelrod (Author)

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(Author), Arianne Traurig (Editor), Chrissy Wallace (Illustrator)

Book Description

With savvy wordplay, irresistible candor, and bull-horn-sharp wit, 27-year-old travel writer and social commentator David Axelrod recounts five seriocomic sagas from his global quest for glory, adventure, and self-actualization.

Fear, in this dazzling debut, comes in many forms. In rural Mexico, its uppercut may knock you unconscious. On the dunes of Namibia, it crawls on six legs. In cobblestoned Pamplona, it’s a labyrinth you can’t escape, on Cape Town’s violent streets, it slings a butcher’s knife and might spit in your eye, and under Miami’s neon facades, it seeps into the lungs like asbestos fibers. The panoply of miscreants Axelrod meets will restore your faith in insanity: an art addict with tequila for blood, a panhandler who plays mind tricks, and a boss so bad you might never work another day.

This exuberant coming-of-age romp, full of harrowing and hilarious thrills, will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. It will jolt you out of the ordinary and transport you to the remotest corners of the world. Most of all, it will make you discover what it means to live with courage.

It’s time to grow up and grow a pair. The bigger, the better.

Product Details

• File Size: 11131 KB
• Print Length: 73 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: 2STRAWS Media (June 12, 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00KYC5WPW
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray:
  Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,097 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the title throw you, this book makes you laugh and think at the same time. September 1, 2014

By The Kindle Book Review

Format:Kindle Edition

I received this ebook free via the Kindle Book Review in exchange for an honest review.

No, not that David Axelrod (the President's Senior Advisor), and don't worry. This book has nothing to do with sex, despite the title. As the name suggests, it's a series of five essays based on the author's trips to various places around the globe. Essay one discusses the time he and his friend went to Mexico and decided to use his friend's boxing skills as a way to impress the locals and get to see the "real" side of San Juanico, Baja, Mexico. I could imagine my brother and cousin doing something like that, so I was cracking up the entire time I read it. Essay two deals with Axelrod's various encounters with exotic bugs. Again, been there and done that, maybe not in exotic locales but my home state has some pretty nasty critters! The San Fermin (running of the bulls) festival in Pamplona, Spain is the subject of essay three. My cousin did that, almost got gored, watched another guy get gored, then came home and asked us not to tell my aunt. Funny how she knew anyway! An encounter with a creepy homeless guy while a student in South Africa is the subject of essay four. No matter how much you feel badly for them, some homeless people can be quite scary, no matter where you are in the world. Finally, essay five details Axelrod's year in Miami as he tries to exist as a claims processor in a corrupt law firm while living in a city that is as known for its gangsters as it is for its sports teams--Miami. I'll leave you to figure out how the title fits in.

This book is one of my rare experiences with reading travel essays and I was very much surprised. The title threw me off, and I wondered for a moment if I wasn't going to be subjected to some guy's memoirs of conquest. What I got instead was a fast-paced, entertaining read that made me laugh but also made me think at the same time. If that was Axelrod's intent, he accomplished it. This is a 5-star.
Annette Ranald, Kindle Book Review Read more ›

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly entertaining, transporting read July 7, 2014

By Josh Havekost

Format:Kindle Edition

I really enjoyed reading this collection of short stories. Axelrod's creativity and wordplay remind me of my favorite author (also from Seattle) Tom Robbins.

Big Balls Better doesn't let you just fly through stories of another's travels, but makes you chew on sentences and make use the highlight feature on the Kindle. Hope to see more from him soon.

5.0 out of 5 stars A different kind of travel book June 18, 2014

By Peter Wise

Format:Kindle Edition

I really enjoyed David Axelrod’s five very funny, well-written tales of journeys to strange and difficult places. As a traveler myself, I admire his courage diving into a variety of unusual, challenging situations, and taking us, the readers, along with him. My two favorite stories were "Cyclops of Rosebank" for it’s hilarious but touching portrait of a challenging neighbor (and neighborhood) in Cape Town, South Africa, and "Magic City Mystique" for its portrait of a young man living and learning during a year in sleazoid Miami. I was left with the urge to travel more, and to be braver about jumping into the local culture, whatever the consequences.