In his mid-20s, the author sets off with friends for a road trip across Africa, India and other countries in a Toyota 4x4, a camper and a trailer loaded with supplies. At the end of the trip (581 days later) he is hooked on the idea of travel. Never-the-less it would be almost 20 years later before he decided to visit all 196 established countries in the world.
When I first heard about this book I was intrigued. Just thinking about the logistics seemed overwhelming to me. And then there are those countries that our government warns us in no uncertain terms NOT to visit. Cuba, for instance, and any number of other countries currently in turmoil.
Undeterred, the author describes not just the routes he took and the means he used to get visas into some countries but what he finds there. He is intrigued by local cultures and meeting as many local people as possible. He recommends eating local food but found some of them intimidating - such as eating monkey brains from the monkey just killed at his table (in Hong Kong, I believe) or fruit bat pie in Palau.
The author sometimes brags about his attractiveness to the opposite sex but balances those comments with thoughtful remarks on the effects that staffers from humanitarian organizations can have on the local economy. The ability of these workers to pay $60 for a meal in a country where most people don't earn that much in a month drives prices up to the point where local residents, the very people they are there to help, can't afford them. He worries about the effect that radical Islam is having on countries in Africa. Global warming also receives attention as some of the island countries he visits are in danger of being covered completely within a very few years by rising water.
At 345 pages long with small print, this book seemed overwhelming. But by page 10 I was hooked and found myself laughing, shaking my head or nodding in agreement. And when the flight I was waiting to board was cancelled after four hours due to mechanical difficulties, I only had to start reading again to be reminded that there are much worse travel difficulties to have - such as being on a remote island with only one flight out every eight days and not able to find a way to get to the airport...
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In his mid-20s, the author sets off with friends for a road trip across Africa, India and other countries in a Toyota 4x4, a camper and a trailer loaded with supplies. At the end of the trip (581 days later) he is hooked on the idea of travel. Never-the-less it would be almost 20 years later before he decided to visit all 196 established countries in the world.
I first discovered Ms. Willett 12 years ago when I read a paperback by her and I have been a big fan ever since. Her books are similar in tone to those by Maeve Binchy. In her books it is all about the characters. (She even brings in some characters from an earlier book - it took me a while to figure out why this one character seemed so familiar!!!).
In the modern day, Sara is hired to decipher the journal of Mary Dundas, a young woman living in France in 1732 and the daughter of Jacobite exiles. Sara has Aspergers and finds the work of breaking the cipher to be exactly the kind of isolated work that suits her best. Taking up residence in a home near where Mary lived Sara must decide if she is able to surmount the walls that she has built around herself in order to cope with her disorder. Can she trust what she is feeling? Can she find a way to fit into this family that wants to include her?
This book was very entertaining. This book was very scary. And I am afraid that this book was very honest. I have read other books with the same theme - first year interns - but this one had a great balance of humor and drama. A bit unsettling for sure. As a first-year teacher I felt like a fraud. There was a lot of stuff I was supposed to know how to do that I hadn't learned in a classroom. Of course no one was going to die as I learned how to really teach and I wasn't doing it in a 30 hour stretch! It is a little different in a hospital. This book was very readable. Parts of it were funny, parts were sad and parts were appalling. You will never be bored. You will never look at your doctor in the same way.
The subtitle for this book is "How One French Community Saved Thousands of Lives During World War II." And that sums up this book. I love books about history, particularly during the WWII era and if it takes place in France it is even better! I don't remember reading anything else about this central-eastern pocket of France where thousands of people (mostly Jews) were hidden and helped. How did they manage to do this? In the author's words "Nobody asked questions, nobody demanded money. Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated and concealed, but most importantly they welcomed."
