An amusing read that will have you longing to pack your bags
586577
At the age of 41, and experiencing something of a mid life crisis, writer Rachael Weiss decided to leave behind her life in Australia and move permanently to Prague, lured by the thought of "cobbled streets, midnight-blue evenings, snowflakes and cheap beer".  In the end she would last three years and the book charts her journey from giddy adoration for all things Prague to disenchantment with the communist bureaucracy, unfriendly locals and her inability to find a well paying job.

Weiss has a chatty writing style and a gift for anecdotes.  The first half of the book is particularly strong.  It catapults the reader into the Czech capital and is frequently amusing.  Gradually over the second half of the book Weiss becomes a little - dare I say it? - whiney and I got tired of hearing about her frustrated libido.  But overall the book strikes a good a balance between a travelogue and a personal memoir and it definitely had me longing to revisit Prague.

If you've enjoyed this book, I recommend Penelope Green's trilogy about living in Italy (start with&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/When-in-Rome-Chasing-la-dolce-vita/dp/B00GW4RI6M/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">When in Rome: Chasing la dolce vita</a>] and also Sarah Turnbull's story about moving to Paris:&nbsp;].

I understand that Weiss is now living in Dublin and I hope that there will eventually be a book about her experiences there!  She's a fun writer.
1208971
I am about halfway through this book and find myself continually chuckling over it. I also find myself reading whole passages aloud to my friends who haven't read it yet. This is a delightfuly entertaining story that anyone who has traveled at all - or gone to college -- should get a kick out of.
1855315
Annie Proulx has created a intimate portrait of hog farms and Texas Panhandle dwellers that will make you wince and/or  laugh out loud. It's a very leisurely read. Poke along and thoroughly enjoy the engaging Bob Dollar and a cast of colorful characters that prevent his success at Global Pork Rind, all for his own good. The obstinate Panhandlers love their land despite its harshness, and their lives despite their obstacles, causing you to admire them against your will. The local dialect is so ably captured that you'll remember "bob wire" long after you've finished reading. Forget what the critics may have said  - this novel is a gem.
1972188
Tony Slater's book is an ideal `travelogue' and another of those perfect antidotes to those who think that living a life of volunteering abroad is a cheap and easy way to see the world. The book opens with him chasing an escapee and it continues in much the same vein. The escapees in question though are rescued animals at an animal shelter in Ecuador. His writing captures your imagination immediately and paints a picture of a world I'm unlikely to see that is so vivid, that I feel I have been there with him, every step of the way. I sweated up and down the mountains, I avoided being eaten by the Jaguar, I too chased an unruly teenage bear around an enclosure and I felt every one of the blisters, the scratches and the bites he received; I loved every minute of it, laughing my way through the Spanish misunderstandings, the adventures, the encounters with locals (both human and animal), in fact as a result if I ever find myself in Ecuador, I will definitely visit the Santa Martha Animal Refuge (I have no intention of climbing into a bear enclosure though). I am really looking forward to his next book as I want to find out what happened next!
4358390
A great read--for anyone who travels, has traveled or thinks they might want to explore some corner of the world.  This is a fast and funny read that I found constantly making me think about my own experiences and what it means to be "from" somewhere.  I have never lived in Dubai, but I've visited and this drew a picture of life there that I found realistic and entertaining.  But it's not just a book about being foreign; it's about what it means to be a single woman today and how our friends become our family.  The story made me wince at times (remembering my own faux pas), cry a little (with joy), but mainly just made me laugh out loud.
2856592
I usually pick out a book based on the recommendations of people I know or just leafing through magazine book reviews. I hardly ever 'judge a book by it's cover' but I have to admit I'm guilty of this cardinal sin of literature from time to time. Reading this memoir, I may have to reconsider the rule. It was a fun and easy read. I hate the cliche  but I literally couldn't put the book down. Every account has you turning to see what adventure will he come across next. It's as if you are with a group of friends and everyone is recollecting their crazy dating stories. The other thing that really stood out for me was the author's sense of humor. He has a knack for bringing out humor in the most unexpected times, it catches you off guard and has you cracking up, so be careful where you read this book.  This book is truly a guilty pleasure and my new justification for selecting a book by it's cover.
418473
This is not the typical travel book: no recommended hotels, restaurants or places to see. Instead, this is a very amusing book of the experiences of Alexander Hammond in his business travels around the globe. You will meet an Egyptian tailor who rushes out a suit in an hour and supplies an Armani label; a Chanel clad NY business exec who exudes cool and power until she deals with flatulence issues; and Russian apparatchiks in 1980s who do deals for US cigarettes. You can admire Mr. Hammond's intrepid spirit as he warily goes into a cage with a tiger to get the ultimate travel photo. You can also visit some of the more exotic clubs in Thailand or Brazil, such as the "Girlyboy Club" which caused Mr. Hammond to flee. Whether you have 250,000 miles on your frequent traveler accounts or someone who is an armchair traveler, you will enjoy this book.
869447
So take a skeptical homebody psychiatrist and throw her on a careening bus with an optimistic adventuring psychiatrist and what do you get?  A fabulous, faceted read that keeps the chuckles coming.  The book is not only hilariously sarcastic, but also offers a sensitive look into the lives of two people reconnecting and prioritizing and just being brave and up for something new.  Doreen makes no excuses for the person she is (a "Queen from the Island of Long") and pet lovers out there will truly appreciate the hijinks involving pets on a bus!  And because Doreen is cerebral, the book isn't just a bunch of silly, funny travel notes; there is depth and conscious contemplation that gives the reader something meaty to hold onto.  Enjoy!
2927317
I loved Girl Talk. Julianna Baggott's sense of humor is just great. The winding path that this book took me on was a hilarious escape from reality. I savored my reading time, never wanting the story to end. The characters were fun, interesting, weird, goofy and easy to identify with. The plot is just twisted enough to be fiction, yet so convincing it feels like  real life. Baggott has done a great job on this first book. I can't wait to read more of her work.
181226
This book is a real life memoir of the author as a young college student on his travels in the US and abroad. His ability  to make you feel like you are sitting across the table from him while he relays a story or event he experienced, make this book a pleasant and entertaining read. I found myself easily finishing it in one sitting. His ability to see humor in life's small details and his insight on the lessons he carries away from them are thought provoking and will have you laughing as you follow along with his adventures.
3473382
From the first page, you will probably find yourself flying through this book roaring with laughter as fast as Quin drops $1,000 on a spontaneous shopping trip, speeds down an empty highway or downs a shot or two or three. Filled with amusing one-liners, barhopping galore and random encounters with a cast of characters across the country, Quin's book is very entertaining. Her honed, journalistic-like observation skills and wisecracks take center stage during her many trips with friends, excursions to the ER and bevy of run-ins with male suitors. Amidst the craziness, the adventure is rounded out with a touch sentimentality and Quin's determination to use her talents to the fullest extent.
2222661
Like all other anthologies of travel stories, WANDERLUST's collected essays will each have a purely subjective appeal based on the predilections of the reader. For me, the thirty-some tales in this book follow a normal distribution curve. My criteria for judging any on-the-road reminiscence are that it be sufficiently descriptive to make me want to visit the place myself (or not), and preferably contain lighthearted elements. (If one can't see the humor in mishaps far from home, he/she will certainly go nuts.) Thus, a few are terrific; a few are positively dismal; and most are just OK. Therefore, my three-star rating. It didn't help that there's no table of contents, a fact that I found annoying for no reason that I can logically defend.
First, let me mention some of the best of the lot. Susan Hack's lament ("Tampax Nightmares") on the pitfalls to finding tampons in Third World countries, and Yemen in particular, was hilarious. (Here, I guess I must admit to being an Insensitive Male.) The essay by Mary Roach ("The Last Tourist In Mozambique") on her interview with that island's President, during which transcendental meditation was discussed and practiced, left me with little doubt as to why that country is in such a wretched condition. Don George's recollection of the family vacation ("Conquering Half Dome") with wife and two kids simply reinforced my intention never to attempt the feat myself - I'm sufficiently afraid of heights. While reading Lucy McCauley's "Expatriate, With Olives", I could feel the sun in my face and the olives in my hand as she stripped the latter from their branches in southern Spain. When Simon Winchester drives a Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit across Europe ("Romance In Romania"), the reaction this magnificent car elicits in a young woman in a dingy Romanian border town is positively poignant. Laura Fraser's getaway to the island of Ischia ("Italian Affair") is, perhaps, what the rest of us can only dream about during a normal day's silent desperation.
Of course, there's the other end of the curve. Wendy Belcher's treatise ("Out Of Africa") examining the opening lines and themes common to a number of travel books on Africa was so excruciatingly ho-hum that I couldn't finish it - the only chapter so dishonored. Barry Yeoman's overwhelming need ("Embraced In Spain") to be adopted by the local crowd in Cdiz, in spite of his nervous stutter and half-out-of-the-closet gay lifestyle, verges on the pathetic. (The fact that he was unconditionally accepted by a group of locals makes for a warm and fuzzy, politically correct ending. But, it was hard to care.) David Downie's record ("Philosophy Au Lait") of the low drama in a Parisian philocaf was so much trivial prattle. (But, then, my shallow character has never concerned itself with life's deeper meanings.) Finally, Karl Greenfeld's self-absorbed jaunt through angst ("Fear, Drugs, and Soccer In Asia") left me hoping he would just snap out of it.
There were quite a few "just OK" chapters, but I'll let you discover those for yourself. Indeed, someone else reading WANDERLUST will likely observe a distribution curve much different than mine - perhaps one skewed to the 1-star or 5-star end of the scale. For me, there was enough good stuff between the covers to make the book ultimately enjoyable. In the end, that's all I really ask.
3104828
This is a unique take on a travelogue by an entertaining, thoughtful and observant author. Reading it feels like spending an enjoyable evening with an old friend who can always make you laugh, telling you stories about the places he's been. Michael Bissell is no stranger to writing, as the author of a long-term blog, and a twitter content writer (from "Mad Men" on twitter), and he brings this experience to this, his first full-length book. "Mundane Journeys" left me with a feeling that I understood the world a little better than I had before, but more importantly, it also left me with an urge to go find out more, for myself. I look forward to his next one.
3773317
If you've ever been curious about what it's like to visit many of Europe's hot spots, you'll love this book.

Jadie Peregrine is tired of her boring office job. She desperately wants to break into writing full-time, but so far she's had little luck. The city of Boulder, CO that she lives in is just not prime dating ground either - she's had nothing but miserable dating experiences. What she wants to do more than anything is take off and travel through Europe. But how can she afford it? While pondering this very question, she is suddenly hit with an idea: what if she were to travel the world and write a book on the differences and similarities of dating in other cultures and countries?

Jadie manages to get the time off from work and gather her best friend Tate, and together they head to Europe, starting in London. What follows is plenty of adventures, meeting men, interviewing locals on dating customs, and soon Jadie has found someone she thinks may be the man of her dreams. Tate meanwhile doesn't seem to be thrilled with the men she encounters, although many of them are nice. Will she find someone she likes? Will Jadie manage to write the book she planned? Will she discover dating in other countries is the same as dating in Colorado?

I loved The Girls' Global Guide to Guys. It was a fun way to go along with the characters to the many countries and cities they explored. Author Theresa Alan is very descriptive when portraying many of the foods the characters ate and the atmosphere of the many different places. Several chapters of the book are devoted to following the characters around to different places, but it soon heats up after that. Jadie was great as a main character - she was funny, realistic and smart.

The only downside to the novel was that the plot was a tiny bit unrealistic at times.

Overall, however, I highly recommend this novel to all chick lit fans and to anyone who has ever thought about taking a trip abroad. This is a wonderful and fun read not to be missed!
681631
For anyone who has been disgruntled by American Airlines' massive service disruption recently and the general malaise of the flight industry as a whole, this is a dexterously comic and surprisingly poignant first-time novel that will resonate. Jonathan Miles, a freelance magazine writer who has an enviable job as the cocktails columnist for The New York Times, has penned a story that takes the form of an exasperated and ultimately cathartic 180-page letter of complaint from Benjamin ("Bennie") Ford, a passenger demanding a full refund of $392.68 as he remains stranded at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, a concentration of congestion aptly described as "the sacrificial goat of air travel". What has triggered his scathing indictment is that a cancelled flight has meant he will miss the chance to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding.

The situation is complicated by the fact that his daughter is gay, that the wedding is really a commitment ceremony and that he hasn't seen her since she was an infant. The reasons for the dysfunctional nature of the relationship are delved into by the sharp-tongued author as Bennie reveals himself as an alcoholic ex-poet and ex-bartender from New Orleans, the product of a schizophrenic painter mother and a Polish immigrant who ended up becoming an exterminator. He went through two failed marriages and now cares for his mother in a New York apartment as he earns a living as a translator of Polish fiction. Bennie's translation-in-progress is called "The Free State of Trieste", and it runs parallel with his own story. Miles goes back and forth between the epic tale of an injured Polish soldier in the aftermath of World War II and Bennie's own frustrating saga.

What is most relatable in the book is the way the author covers the expected inconveniences of flying, whether it's the burden of post-9/11 security or the idle time chatting with fellow stranded travelers. The minutiae of Bennie's experience can start to feel repetitive at times, but I have to admit the best  parts of the book are Bennie waxing philosophically as he rants to the poor American Airlines customer service agent to whom his letter is directed. Sometimes it comes across like a more thoughtful and thought-provoking version of Neil Simon's&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Out-of-Towners/dp/B0000AUHQ1/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Out-of-Towners</a>. But more than that, what Miles does especially well is take a well-worn literary archetype - the bad father and husband seeking forgiveness - and turned him into a fresh, complex character worth discovering. The brief story evolves into a direction that is both bittersweet and satisfying, no small feat for a rookie novelist with obvious talent to burn.
2841489
This is one of those books that would make for great beach reading, or perhaps by the side of the pool, sipping an ice-cold alcoholic beverage or maybe a glass of red wine. In fact, while reading, I was driven to grab a bottle of red, a loaf of bread and dish of olive oil and seat myself outside in the sun. Such a setting only enhances the sensory enjoyment of the writing and the apparent loveliness of the area it describes. Peter Mayle writes with a lot of humour and insight about a (somewhat) idyllic year in Provence, surrounded by a cast of oddly attractive characters, and his occasionally mentioned wife, who although is much a supporting "character" is clearly at one with the author in his exploration and sense of adventure.

Provence is one of those places that I dearly hope to visit one day, and this book only served to increase my appetite for the culinary and cultural pleasures that await me when I finally do. While not overly romanticizing the area with endless accounts of excessive eating and drinking and seamless and memorable experiences with "the locals" (in fact many such contacts with the tradesmen, local people and tourists are frustrating and exhausting), for this reader, a desire to mimic the author and move to an 18th century farm house and do major renovations remains undiminished. Well, at least in my dreams. Until then, I have this book.

Mayle is a hero to many, I am sure, who secretly harbour the desire to do as he and his wife did, and throw their all into making a fantastic life for themselves in an unfamiliar and exotic location. Whether it is Provence or somewhere else, such abandon is attractive and begs to be emulated.

A fun read, instantly enjoyable, and transporting in its descriptions of the food, the wine, the people and the spirit of Provence.
3174556
Hocknells debut novel takes us on a journey through Europe  past and present  as his central character, Ben Ferguson-Cripps, attempts to hunt down missing historian, Thomas Foxe. Ben is the rather cynical, world-weary author of a mildly popular blog, who has produced his first novel (just like Thomas Hocknell) to very faint acclaim (hopefully less like Thomas Hocknell). Since sales of his novel are so poor, Ben accepts a job working for his old friend, Scott Wildblood, owner of the mysterious Life Assistance Agency, which offers an improbable and rather ridiculous range of services including finding soul mates, arranging hits, and bonsai trimming.

Scott and Ben take on the task of locating the aptly-named Mr. Foxe, who leads them a merry dance across Europe. They are closely tailed throughout this enterprise by two thugs who desperately want to get to Mr. Foxe before they do. So far so good.

Unfortunately, these thugs are employed by the Psychic Society and are intent on preventing ordinary folk from straying into the occult; they're hunting Mr. Foxe because the latter is retracing the steps of Dr. John Dee, an Elizabethan angel summoner. Mr. Foxe, himself, has more than a passing interest in scrying (communing with angels), alchemy and the secret of eternal life. And thus the novel passes into the realms of the fantastical and frankly ridiculous.

Having said that, there are, however, wonderful things about this novel. Firstly, its chock full of very funny, laugh-out-loud one liners that Im still sniggering about such as, He pulled a face like Morrissey playing downwind from burgers, or like finding a late tent pitch at Glastonbury and waking up on the main stage. Hocknell is a skilful writer: he is a keen observer of the idiocies of modern life  the pub full of hipsters will live long in my memory, for example. He is also, without doubt, capable of really good thriller writing  the twists and turns of the plot are cleverly worked and often surprising. But best of all is Jane Dees diary which is touching and sensitive and brings 1500s London and Prague convincingly to life. Hocknell is also good at conveying the same modern day cities, albeit with a tendency to focus on the rather seedy underbelly  the grotty hotels and transport traumas.

Its such a shame that Hocknell hadnt absorbed the essential truth that less is more. I think he has just tried to put too much into this first novel. Its an impossible combination of genres  comedy, thriller, fantasy, historical. His undoubted skill as a thriller writer is undermined by the comedy; scenes that should have you wincing and holding your breath end up making you laugh. He could have gone with the thriller and historical element together and ditched the comedy or, alternatively, have settled for a comic novel with acute observation of modern life. In my opinion, the fantasy would be best left out altogether  but then I always think that.

Ill bet Hocknells next book is more limited in genre and probably just brilliant.