The Best Women's Travel Writing 2005
Edited by Lucy McCauley
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 Travelers' Tales
ISBN: 1932361189

True Stories From Around The World.

So you think women just travel? Well, they don't - as they travel they're writing madly, about all sorts of things hilarious & horrible, fatuous & frantic.

Here are 30 tales from the four corners of the globe - isn't that a silly oxymoron - that tell of strangers in strange lands, rocky relationships & clashing cultures.

So, pack your bag & grab your hat & get ready to see the world through the eyes & relationships of these intrepid travelers -- & while not all are first class writers, each has a fascinating tale to tell.

& to wet your appetite here are a few titles:
It Takes a Village to Please My Mother from Kathryn Kefauver in Laos: gratitude alights on a frustrated daughter.
The Making of My Maman from Collette O'Connor in France & the USA: Who was this chic, seventy-something woman whom the author once called “Mom”?
The Devil and Hare Krishna from Laurie Gough in Malaysia: Sometimes without warning a traveler can fall off the path.
Where Size Matters from Wendy Wright Soref in Senegal: Booty is in the eye of the beholder.
A River Runs Through Me from Marisa Lopez: Navigating the “chakras” of India's landscape, a seeker stumbles onto the dark side.
Highland Remedy from Fran Palumbo: A world-weary traveler restores her spirit on a detour to Scotland.
Wild Olives from Jennica Peterson: A traveler learns a lesson deep in the Moroccan desert.
Outback Overview from Kari J. Bodnarchuk: In the hinterlands of Australia, the mail doesn't arrive in high water - but it gets there eventually.
A Bridge Across Sand from Germaine W. Shames in Israel: Fate leads a wounded spirit off the beaten track to healing.
Where Boys Grow Up To Be Girls from Laura Fraser: In Samoa the author encounters the ubiquitous fa'afafine - men who live “in the way of a woman.”
Clicking in Greece from Mija Riedel: Worry beads act as an ancient codex for “be here now.”

As Mary Morris, world class travel writer & novelist, says in her Introduction: “The collection in your hands inaugurates a new yearly series...[offering] a wide range of stories and voices of young women entranced by a foreign place for the first time, as well as seasoned travelers reconnecting with places they'd love in their youths... there are tales of romance, as well as accounts of spiritual journeys in which women connect with places within... a woman who kayaks alone 600 miles to Timbuktu...” (P.xvii)

Like the proverbial box of chocolates, you never quite know what you'll be getting as you set out with The Best Women's Travel Writing 2005, & I LOVE the stamps!

More from Travelers' Tales:
Shitting Pretty
A Mother's World
It's A Dog's World: True Stories of Travel with Man's Best Friend.
Testosterone Planet: True Stories from a Man's World
Whose Panties Are These?: More Misadventures from Funny Women on the Road, & many more!
(09/25/05)

Rebecca