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A review by novelvisits
At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe by Tsh Oxenreider
4.0
My Thoughts: I listened to At Home in the World and loved hearing the author tell her own story of her family’s travel adventure and her examination of what it means to find home. Oxenreider and her husband, Kyle, were no strangers to world travel and living in other countries. They met fresh out of college in Kosovo where she was teaching English and he was helping to rebuild homes. After marrying and having a child, they moved to Turkey where they lived for three years and had their second baby. Having lived in Bend, Oregon for several years and adding a third child to the mix, the Oxenreiders again felt that itch to travel. This is a smart couple in that they’d planned ahead for a future of travel. Both had jobs they could do remotely, they already home-schooled their kids and they’d saved money for just such an adventure.
Traveling for the better part of a year with a 9, 6 and 4-year old would sound like a nightmare to many of us. Not the Oxenreiders. They wanted to share the world with their kids, to make them global citizens and they did just that. I’m not one to travel on a budget, but still I admired how this couple planned ahead and found unique out-of-the-way places to stay. Their choices not only saved money, but gave the family more than tourist experiences in the places they visited. They stayed in some countries for weeks and others for days, following the path of summer/spring along the way. With only a backpack apiece, Tsh and Kyle taught their children what was truly valuable. They left me wishing I’d taken my own kids on more adventuresome journeys when they were young.
Along their trek, Tsh came back to the idea of home over and over again. What is home? What makes one feel at home? Where is home? How important is home? I loved her examination of home because home can mean so many different things to different people. For some it’s a place, to others a feeling, and to still others it’s people. The longer Oxenreider traveled with her family, the more important the idea of home grew for her. By the end, home was everything.
I highly recommend At Home in the World to anyone who enjoys traveling, world cultures or family. I found her journey inspiring. Grade: B+
Original Source: https://novelvisits.com/mini-reviews-nonfiction-edition/
Traveling for the better part of a year with a 9, 6 and 4-year old would sound like a nightmare to many of us. Not the Oxenreiders. They wanted to share the world with their kids, to make them global citizens and they did just that. I’m not one to travel on a budget, but still I admired how this couple planned ahead and found unique out-of-the-way places to stay. Their choices not only saved money, but gave the family more than tourist experiences in the places they visited. They stayed in some countries for weeks and others for days, following the path of summer/spring along the way. With only a backpack apiece, Tsh and Kyle taught their children what was truly valuable. They left me wishing I’d taken my own kids on more adventuresome journeys when they were young.
Along their trek, Tsh came back to the idea of home over and over again. What is home? What makes one feel at home? Where is home? How important is home? I loved her examination of home because home can mean so many different things to different people. For some it’s a place, to others a feeling, and to still others it’s people. The longer Oxenreider traveled with her family, the more important the idea of home grew for her. By the end, home was everything.
I highly recommend At Home in the World to anyone who enjoys traveling, world cultures or family. I found her journey inspiring. Grade: B+
Original Source: https://novelvisits.com/mini-reviews-nonfiction-edition/