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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
I've really enjoyed every book I've read by Eric Hansen. This one is a collection of short stories and it helps if you've read his other books before this one.
Journal Entry 2 by Wings details...RiWings details... from Cincinnati, Ohio USA on Monday, December 17, 2007
Not only was this book entertaining, it had a surprising amount of heart. I was really touched by several of the vignettes. I also really appreciated reading about his adventures in Indonesia where I spent a semester of college. I will definitely be searching out more books by Eric Hansen!
The title caught my eye and it turned out to be a hilarious, endearing, and surprisingly touching personal travel memoir. I love his writing style and sense of humor. What a neat life!
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Very good. Non-fiction. Stories from his world travels. Funny, quirky, poignant.
Eric Hansen is a born storyteller. In this collection of travel essays, he paints beautiful, moving portraits of people he has met on his voyages: for example, a cat loving women who befriends a homeless woman, a Russian émigrée who lives in the ghetto and cooks for royalty, dying people who taught him about life in Mother Teresa's hospice in Calcutta and so on. Highly recommended for those who enjoy travel literature and storytelling
These stories were suprisingly touching. He writes honestly about his own less-than-ideal feelings and choices and describes the people in the stories with vivid and frank vignettes. But even where some humor is found in cultural differences, Hansen writes with recognition and celebration of difference rather than just poking fun. The author seems to have collected these stories from a lifetime of travel and travel writing. Some of the stories seem to have been written many years after the events described, which added a bit of a whistful nostalgia to some of them. I will definitely look for more books by this author.
This book was just pure fun. Hansen drinks intoxicating kava with native islanders, helps a widower search for the diamond ring his dead wife lost during a plane crash, and visits with a bird watcher who loves to take exotic dancers out on hunts.
Enjoyed the opening story about the homeless woman and the ballerina and the story that contributed the title.