Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures: Funny Women Write from the Road (Travelers' Tales) (Paperback)

~ Jennifer L. Leo (Editor), (Introduction) "According to my mother, these are just a few of the terrors that await me when I arrive in South America..." (more)
Key Phrases: herbal girl, Burning Man, San Francisco, Albertan Brothers (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Travel writer Leo has collected 28 short and snappy travelstories bursting with exuberant candor and crackling humor sure toleave readers feeling that to not have an adventure to remember is agreat loss indeed. Many of these bite-size reminiscences chroniclepersonal ordeals endured in places with unfamiliar amenities,languages and/or cultures. For example, Christie Eckardt's elasticallychallenged underwear falls down in a Muslim country; Kathleen Meyer(How to Shit in the Woods) writes about-what else?-"thissubject... which seems to be overwhelmingly mine"; and Anne Lamott isjealous of younger backsides on the beach. The gems of the bunch areNancy Bartlett's "Panic, in Any Other Language," describing anembarrassing incident in an opulent Italian swimsuit boutique;Christine Michaud's "Chador Etiquette," on her well-intentioned butdisastrous attempt to wear a chador (a large black cloak and headcovering) to a Kuwait shopping mall; and Christine Nielsen's titlestory, which manages, completely by her description of participatingin it, to endear readers to the annual Burning Man project in theNevada desert, a "crazy celebration of life's diversity andcreativity." Some of the stories are on the lengthy side, but as awhole, the anthology will definitely light a fire under, as thededication states, "all the women who sit at home or behind theirdesks bitching that they never get to go anywhere."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Button your blouse, here comes a sandstorm of laughs!

Travel isn't always what we dream it will be, but oh, the stories that follow. Share in the hilarious, bizarre, and unforgettable misadventures of 29 women whose trips went comically awry. From Australia to Zambia, up Nepal's mountains and along Mexico's beaches, the true stories in this collection will make you laugh, groan, and sympathize with these travelers who took a trip on the lighter side.

Lose your panties on a city street in Abu Dhabi with Christie Eckardt

* Dodge beer bottles and punches with Alison Wright as she serves up brew at a wild pub in Australia

* Enjoy the nutty nitty-gritty of Burning Man in the Nevada desert with Christine Nielsen

* Feel the delicious freedom to be fat in Tahiti with Sandra Tsing Loh

* Turn beet red with Kate Crawford in Paris, locked out of her boyfriend's apartment in a t-shirt and nothing more

* Toss your cookies with Deborah Bear as she tests alternative seasickness remedies on a Pacific voyage

Including stories by Anne Lamott, Ellen Degeneres, Sarah Vowell, Margo Kaufman, Sandra Tsing Loh, Adair Lara, and many more...

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Travelers' Tales; 1 edition (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885211929
• ISBN-13: 978-1885211927
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158,959 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out loud hysteria!, September 5, 2005

By	Pamela Pailes "drama mama" (Corpus Christi, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked this book up on a recent trip to San Francisco to read on the plane home to Texas. All I can say is, don't read this book on a plane unless you know the person sitting next to you WELL - it had me laughing hysterically (and loudly). Fortunately, I was sitting with my husband...

The only possible drawback is that it really does deal mostly with things that women can relate to. From explaining a gynecological problem in a foreign language to being the less-than-perfect body on the beach with bikini clad babes, it definitely speaks to the woman traveler. As for me - I could definitely relate. Buy it for your next plane ride!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Light-hearted fun with some witty subtext, May 23, 2003

By	Joan Lester "Author" (Berkeley, CA. USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Enjoyed the book. Heard some of the authors read last night at a local travel bookstore; went home and read some more. It's light-hearted; some of the essays, inevitably, are better than others. One, by Leslie Quinn, is especially delightful. It takes place in a French airport, as she and her thirteen-year-old daughter are about to fly home. Leslie desperately wants to leave her daughter with all their luggage and dash to a bookstore to make a last-minute book purchase for the flight back to the U.S.; the daughter resists being left alone. The conflict is told in wonderful, funny and understated dialogue--but what I found especially moving was the way the mother alternately viewed her daughter as both old enough to....and then, as a child. Underneath my laugh-out-loud enjoyment, I found myself moved by this subtle portrait of a mother coping with a daughter coming of age.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointed, January 14, 2004

By A Customer

Out of the 28 stories in this book, I found only about 5 to be well-written and humorous. The majority of the rest consisted of stories about intimate bodily fluids and functions that just happened to occur on foreign soil, and frankly, I found them disgusting and boring. After a while, I started skipping stories entirely after reading the first paragraph or two and seeing where they were headed. I was very disappointed.

If you enjoy travel narratives, a much better compilation of women's stories can be found in "A Woman's Passion for Travel" edited by Marybeth Bond & Pamela Michael. Although that book doesn't claim to be a collection of funny stories, "Sand in my Bra" really isn't a collection of funny stories, either.