A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism

Slavenka Drakulic’s “A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism” is a playfully composed book of essays, each specific to a different European country’s experience with communism. The narrator varies is each story, but is always an animal, a la “Animal Farm”. This satire educates while it entertains, enabling the reader to understand what life …

Uganda Be Kidding Me

Irreverent and lacking cultural sensitivity, Chelsea Handler does not disappoint in her take on a travelogue, documenting her ridiculous stories from various global travels. She is hilarious and inappropriate and not for the uptight. I love her and would recommend any of her books to nearly anyone!

The Spider’s House

Paul Bowles is generally a recommended author for those traveling to Morocco. “The Spider’s House,” however, was painfully dry for me. Originally written in French, the translation in this particular edition was difficult to follow and the story itself not very gripping. I never finished this book and wouldn’t recommend it.

Endurance – Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage

“Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” by Alfred Lansing is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of world exploration or Antarctica. Written based on primary documents (letters, journals) of the men who joined Shackleton on his quest explore Antarctica, the book follows the journey and unlikely survival of this expedition team. It’s non-fiction that reads …

Maya’s Notebook

Maya’s Notebook by Chilean author Isabel Allende is a read that will pull at your emotions. Maya is a young woman who, after hitting rock bottom with drugs and prostitution in Las Vegas, is sent by her Chilean grandmother to stay with her friend, an elderly man on a small island off the coast of …

Turn Right at Machu Picchu

I highly recommend Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams for anyone traveling to Machu Picchu and especially to those hiking the Inca Trail! The author recreates the original journey Bingham made to the ancient site in the early 1900s. Weaving the history of the exploration itself with that of the ancient Quechua people …

Song of the Open Road – Walt Whitman

AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune; Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Strong and content, I travel the open road. The earth—that is …