Customer Reviews

Whose Panties are These? More Misadventures from Funny Women on the Road

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There was only 1 story that actually got me to chuckle. The rest just didn't strike my funny bone but they were interesting to read about. If you like reading travel adventures...this is a good book to pick up. Funny women....not even close.

Some of the stories in this collection are pretty amusing, especially the ones that stick to brevity to relay their humor. Some, however, drag on a little, and a few could have benefited from some revising. And some just made me downright uncomfortable - especially the little story about the woman who gets a giant cockroach stuck in her ear (I guess it's a testament to good writing that it made me skeevy for a few days, thinking about a bug scrabbling away in there!).

All told, though, I enjoyed the book as a little piece of enjoyable quick-reading and would probably pick up another book in the series.

I bought this book when on a cross-country jaunt last year before leaving Seattle. I had finished the books I'd brought with me and now just wanted some short, light-hearted stories about other travelers and their misadventures. I agree with other reviewers in that you don't really want to read these stories all the time, as they get old quickly. However, for times when you just want something to engross you for a while when you're one the road and leave you with some chuckles, it's a good buy. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and look forward to contributing my own misadventures someday. Don't get it if you're expecting some life-changing views on other cultures or travel in general, but get ready to laugh a bit and pass your time with this book in a pleasant way.

For anyone who has had a trip go not exactly as planned, this book will make you laugh--and be glad that your mishaps weren't (relatively) that bad. I loved the story of evading the druglord/mafia in Turkey, and the painful panties problem in Paraguay. It's great to hear these fresh female voices and to hear about their adventures and misadventures. This book is for people who like funny, for people who like travel, who people who like funny travel. A great gift for you girlfriend, sister, mother, and any woman about to go traveling--or in the withdrawal phase of just coming back from a trip.

I love humorous personal essays, and I love travel misadventure sagas. Put them together, and you have the recipe for a hilarious book. Beginning with the title and on through each of the couple of dozen essays, humor and hijinks abound! Read about shopping for undies from the street vendors in India, or getting attacked by a brain-sucking beetle via the ear canal... you'll groan, grab your stomach, and laugh, laugh, laugh. I can't wait to read the other collections by this editor. Fabulous!

Don't bother. This is just some mostly dull travel stories. The title would lead you to believe that these are all humerous but some just seem to fill space. An okay plane read or leave it in the bathroom instead of old magazines. Better yet buy a Bill Bryson travel book. Now those made me laugh out loud.

I read this book immediately after finishing "Sand in My Bra" and that was a mistake. Although I found it slightly better, I've always compared the reading of two alike anthologies back to back to a cup of hot chocolate - sweet and tasty at the beginning, getting slightly boring after a few sips, and finally seeing gritty dregs at the bottom. I believe the scientific explanation for that is too much of a good thing.

That said, I enjoyed the book. The entries selected by the editor did not include the usual "what are these doing in here?" fillers. They were all amusing in their own way. Notice that I said amusing, not gut-busting funny, as one reviewer wrote. Each writer's contribution had its own special charm and was extremely well written.

Why am I so luke warm? Like the hot chocolate, I have probably over endulged and become disinterested. My suggestion would be to read each book, "Bra" and "Panties", separately with some time between. If that is done, I think you'll find each of them charming, amusing, and inspirational. Yes, they inspire you to get out there, have your own experiences, rationalize and find the humor in them, and then share them. These women have done that better than most can do which makes their stories worth chuckling over.

I've rated this book 4-stars because of the material selection and the writing skills that are demonstrated. Being funny is in the eye of the beholder so lay off the hot chocolate and go for a Long Island ice-tea while reading "Panties."

Schuyler T. Wallace

I stumbled upon this book in our local "Booksmart" bookstore. The first story I browsed was entitled "The Big O". I laughed so loud that the owner of the bookstore came to see what was up. I couldn't stop laughing. There are many funny stories, some less funny than others. Overall a great book. Great travel stories, from places I never even heard. Each story is original and well told. A great read, good laughs.

If you want to read about the travel misadventures of several very talented writers, I would highly recommend this book. They are presented in very short vignettes each unrelated to the other but share the common travel theme of misadventure. If you have ever traveled, the strangest things seem to happen spontaneously and this book is full of these types of anecdotes. You can be in Germany getting a Turkish bath (hamam) from Hassan, daydreaming about using him as your personal slave back home, or find your way to a house in Istanbul where a stranger allows you to stay with your Australian traveling companion until you find out that it is occupied by members of the Turkish mafia who won't let you escape. Other stories vary from getting waxed in New York to answering natures call in Yukatan at a public restroom where you had to squat on the rim of the toilet to preserve personal sanitation. You also had to board the bus that was leaving within three minutes. There are a total of 31 stories that kept me captivated and often laughing aloud.

As in any compilation, the quality of the stories ranges from the utterly boring (an 'adventure' of a woman having a Brazilian wax in NYC), through the culturally interesting (the importance of a big behind in certain countries) to the very funny (the effect of Lebanese chicken on women's breasts).

Also, as in most funny books, the jokes get old very quickly with repeated reading.

My advice? Get it from your local library whenever you feel you need the laughs.