Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft
by Geraldine DeRuiter
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Published: 2017
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Genre: Humor, Memoir, Travel
Hardback: 288
Rating: 5
First sentence(s):
The problem with writing a book ostensibly about travel is the people automatically assume it falls into one of two categories:
1. It is somehow informative.
2. It involves a button-nosed protagonist nursing a broken heart who, rather than watching The Princess Bride while eating an entire five-gallon vat of ice cream directly out of the obtainer while weeping (like a normal person), instead decides to travel the world, inevitably falling for some chiseled stranger with bulging pectoral muscles and a disdain for wearing clothing above the waist.
Some people are meant to travel the globe, to unwrap its secrets and share them with the world. And some people have no sense of direction, are terrified of pigeons, and get motion sickness from tying their shoes. These people are meant to stay home and eat nachos.
Geraldine DeRuiter is the latter. But she won't let that stop her.
Hilarious, irreverent, and heartfelt, All Over the Place chronicles the years Geraldine spent traveling the world after getting laid off from a job she loved. Those years taught her a great number of things, though the ability to read a map was not one of them. She has only a vague idea of where Russia is, but she now understands her Russian father better than ever before. She learned that what she thought was her mother's functional insanity was actually an equally incurable condition called "being Italian." She learned what it's like to travel the world with someone you already know and love--how that person can help you make sense of things and make far-off places feel like home. She learned about unemployment and brain tumors, lost luggage and lost opportunities, and just getting lost in countless terminals and cabs and hotel lobbies across the globe. And she learned that sometimes you can find yourself exactly where you need to be--even if you aren't quite sure where you are.
Jane Austen sighting:
If Jane Austen were alive today, she'd be forced to have Mr. Darcy and Lizzie get together in the first twenty-five pages (also, Darcy would be into sadomasochism).
-chapter 2, page 29
Zombie sighting:
And sometimes I think about the zombie apocalypse.
-chapter 4, page 70
My two-bits:
I inhaled this book ;-) with its tips on life, love and dash of travel.
FYI: Discovered this book while listening to podcast that featured this author's husband. Funny how you can find book recommendations from unusual places.
