Now that summer is officially over, and I spend most of my waking hours sequestered in a classroom, I seek out travel books so that at least my mind can pretend it is somewhere else. Usually, I am attracted to exotic travel tales, so at first I was not that impressed that Alice Steinbach chose to spend her six months abroad in western Europe. I could not imagine what exciting adventures she could get into in England, France, and Italy, but as I read on Alice explained that the point of her trip was not to discover a crazy adventure but to rediscover the adventurer she used to be before life and responsibilities took over. As a divorced woman with two grown children, Alice decided that she had reached a point where she could go out and find the woman she used to be. Traveling along with Alice was like sitting down and taking some good life lessons from a wiser, older woman. I saw that in her fifties, she was dealing a lot with looking back at the past, at those who she had lost throughout her life, and reconciling those loved ones with the new people she was meeting in her travels. A bittersweet element came out. A big lesson that I try to learn is to say yes to more things than you say no to. Just the other day, as I was taking a walk around the corner from my parents house, I stopped in front of a large McMansion. Its garage was open, and a lady sitting on a lawn chair was barbequing something that smelled delicious. In all my years of growing up in Plainview, I had never seen someone bbq in front of their house. Practically no life happens out front. The food smelled so good, so even though I just had dinner, and I never do things like this, I called out, "It smells really good."
"What?" the lady called back.
"It smells really good," I called back.
"Come," she said waving the spatula. "Come get something to eat." It was with this last sentence that I heard her thick accent and felt things made more sense. I wondered what country she was from, where they make really good bbq and talk to their neighbors. Was I the first neighbor to ever greet her. It was possible in Plainview.
And then I said, "No. No thank you." and I continued walking around the block. The no was a reflex action based on too many demands too many times in too many days. I hated that reflex action. Like Alice, I want to say yes. I want to wander around again and hopefully next time join this woman for a bbq.

If you've read everything else on your bookshelf, you might reach for this book, but be prepared. It's a 278-page self-congratulatory journal of a woman that can't eat even one meal alone. She spends all of her travel time making instant deep friendships that are forgotten as soon as she moves to the next city, all the while congratulating herself on how bold she is for talking to other tourists. Once you leave the section on a particular city she's visited, you can't remember a single amazing thing she saw or did, because she spends the whole time debating such amazingly stupid dramas as how adventurous she is for wearing espadrille sandals. Give me a break. My mother is more adventurous on a bad day.

Based on the summary the book sounded amazing for someone like me, who aspires to travel everywhere! To me this book seems like a pre-cursor or more mature version of a 2006 (I think?) book entitle Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Parts of this book were a bit slow to me & while it is supposed to be a documentary of Steinbach's life with some advice worked in, I found certain parts hard to relate to. Specifically, Steinbach constantly refers to her childhood memories & imagines relatives of her past in her [then] present situations. I am 25 so am not @ the same point she is/was, which is why I'd say this book is more "mature". I just could not connect MY family/MY emotions with HER relatives & HER personal memories.

Nonetheless, there are some wonderful life lessons that anyone, of any age, can take away from this book. Likewise, Steinbach artfully mixes in traveling advice. Last, I liked that she covered typical, popular cities (i.e. Paris) for traveling but also undiscovered, off-the-beaten-path cities as well! I would recommend this and/or read again, just not a favorite.

Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach looked like a good book as I strolled through Barnes n Noble bookstore one afternoon. So I bought it and couldn't wait to get home and start reading it. I think I got maybe halfway through it before the sheer boredom nearly knocked me out. I have several issues with this book and I'm going to address all of them.

First, I am 30 years old. The writer of this book is potentially in her 40s or 50s and I wasn't too interested or excited by her lifestyle. Separated with kids is not appealing to me. There was not even a remote stitch of sensualness to her character - to me, it was reading the boring travels of a middle aged woman - and sometimes, it felt like she was already in her 70s.

Second, no one I know travels to Europe and just walks into cafe's and meets and makes friends that easily. As much as I'd like to talk to others, I'm also very careful when I'm in a foreign country. I found it hard to believe that she made all these perfect friendships everywhere she went.

Third, the Japanese man she had a "relationship" with. It was never outright stated whether they had sex and most of the time she spent describing scenery when they were together. A virtual sleep fest. Again, this made the author appear to be in her 70s.

Fourth, once she left Paris - I tried to continue reading on for the London and Italy journeys but I must admit the lack of dialogue and overall lack of interest kept me from doing this. She spent eight pages being ill and talking about that...and I was bored to tears.

I recently travelled for business and brought the book with me in the hopes I could finish it on the plane. I could barely read through it and had wished instead that I bought a glossy magazine. As I exited the airport, I threw the book away. $14.95 ill spent dollars and I refuse to tolerate that.

I will not buy anything further from this author.

This was one of those books that I did not want to end. I enjoyed hearing about the author's travels and her experiences. I found her to be interesting and curious about the places and the people she encountered. She shared her experiences and her feelings in an intimate and friendly way. I look forward to reading her other books.