A Woman's Passion for Travel: True Stories of World Wanderlust (Travelers' Tales) (Paperback)

by Marybeth Bond (Editor), Pamela Michael (Editor) "HERE'S WHAT I LOVE ABOUT TRAVEL: STRANGERS GET A CHANCE TO amaze you..." (more)
Key Phrases: Woman's Passion, San Francisco, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Spanning the emotional and physical globe and cutting a wide swathe of sensibilities, these stories conduce and cajole readers to hit the road, to discover what's out there in the world beyond them, and to ultimately discover themselves. The writers — including Frances Mayes, Anne Lamott, Pam Houston, Jo Ann Beard, Candace Dempsey, and Ann Jones — travel with such evocative attentiveness that the reader is brought along every vivid step of the way — to a peaceful Spanish church, a Laotian boat, a Tunisian desert, and to "a field of wildflowers . . . like colored marbles" in Umbria.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Travelers' Tales (November 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932361146
• ISBN-13: 978-1932361148
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #571,721 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Woman's Passion for Travel, July 17, 2007

By	Tami Brady "Whole Health Therapist" (Calgary, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

A Woman's Passion for Travel: True Stories of World Wanderlust is a collection of forty-two travel experiences as written by various women. These stories educate, inspire, and entertain readers with the lessons learned and situations survived by these adventurous world travelers.

This book is separated into five sections: Passion for Travel, Some Things To Do, Going Your Own Way, In the Shadows, and The Last Word. Passion for Travel contains twelve articles. All of the articles in this section are written by women who travel because of their passion or with a great deal of passion. Stories range from the hilarious Looking for Abdelati (that follows the author through an obstacle course of misunderstandings and extremely strange experiences to the house of Abdelati) to the heartwarming Guardians of the Dark (that shares the power of the female bond as the author and her young daughters spend time in Mexico).

The second section of this book, Some Things To Do contains twelve articles. The title of this section suggests that it might contain articles that reveal great things for women to do while traveling. However, as I read many of these articles I often felt both horrified and strangely proud of these women as they not only survived but also thrived in these difficult situations. I think this section should have been called Some Things Not To Do, the title of one article, Scorpion Hunting, probably says it all.

Going Your Own Way, the third section, also contains twelve articles. This section is full of inspiring tales of women who used travel to remake and renovate their lives. Some of these accounts are fall on the floor hilarious, like the Lushes (best described as wine, women, and song) and Toiletopia (where the author speaks at an interesting conference). Others such as Italian Affair and Three's a Crowd are inspiring and touch the reader deeply as these women find embark on a new chapter of their lives.

In the Shadows is a little shorter than the previous sections, containing only five articles. These articles remind us about the dangers of traveling alone in foreign countries and the realities of life for women around the world. My favorite article in this section was Where is the Girl Who Speaks English? This article poetically and tastefully demonstrates the realities of life for women in many countries while sliding in a little grain of hope.

The Last Word contains the final article My Mother's Boots. I think this is an apt article to end this book. Not only does this article provide a powerful image of the female traveler but it also illustrates a continuation between our mothers and us as adventures and passionate travelers.

A Woman's Passion for Travel: True Stories of World Wanderlust is entertaining and inspirational. This book leaves the reader with a renewed sense of purpose. The reader is also inspired to be more adventurous, more confident, more willing to be themselves.