Reviewed by Geree McDermott for Readers' Favorite

If you love reading and visiting book stores, you’ll love Bob Eckstein’s Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores - True Tales and Lost Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Book Lovers. It is a delightful description of many distinctive bookstores worldwide, complete with anecdotes from and about famous visitors as well as from the bookstores’ owners and employees. We, the readers, join Mr. Eckstein on his global book tour for a brief yet intriguing and insightful glimpse of some of the world’s most interesting, most unusual, oldest, and fabulous bookstores. We discover bookstores that have been in the same location for centuries, others that are on wheels, and one that floats, one that serves food and drink and gives away free books, while still others allow patrons to sleep in the aisles.

Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores has exceptional watercolors of each bookstore, painted by Mr. Eckstein. The anecdotes about each bookstore are fun to read, surprising, and memorable. Although Mr. Eckstein chose not to include the many ‘bookstore cat stories’ he heard, as a cat lover as well as a book lover I would have enjoyed reading at least one cat story. But I choose not to hold that against Mr. Eckstein and Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores because I absolutely love the concise artistic tour of bookstores around the world. The unique perspective offered by Mr. Eckstein motivates me to plan a lengthy around the world sojourn so I can experience Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores myself.

Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

Australian Memories: Discover Aussie Land and the Mysterious Red Center by Ndeye Labadens is the first installment in a series featuring the author’s adventures through Australia. From the natural beauty of its lovely locales to fun activities like outdoor concerts, from the exquisite and gorgeous cafés of laid back cities to the glitz of high rise establishments, from the song of birds to the buzz of busy cities, the author reserves surprises for readers, unveiling hidden and somewhat not-so-noticeable gems of Australia. Here is a book that allows readers to get a feel of the culture, a glimpse of social interaction, and a good idea of Australian hospitality.

Told in an exciting and ebullient voice, this book combines elements of a great memoir with adventure to inform and entertain readers, opening their eyes to the wonders of Australia. Although the prose isn’t exceptional, it is friendly and the reader can feel the excitement as the author leads them on her adventures from Sydney to Tasmania, to Alice Springs, to Kakadu, to Darwin and to Melbourne. The narrative is punctuated with breathtaking images of touristic moments, fascinating sites, and landscapes. The author offers a feel of the Australian culture that tourists and visitors to Australia will find interesting and helpful. Australian Memories: Discover Aussie Land and the Mysterious Red Center by Ndeye Labadens can be read as an adventure of a tourist or an outsider’s view of the country. I found it engaging and surprisingly entertaining. This is one of the books to read if you are looking for fun ideas and information about Australia.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

A Camino of the Soul: Learning to Listen When the Universe Whispers is a non-fiction inspirational memoir written by Katharine Elliott. The author and her husband were successful hotel executives who seemed to have the perfect life. Their home overlooked the Puget Sound, they could travel and enjoy the finer things in life, and three loving dogs graced their lives. Things started to change when they learned that his mother's cancer had progressed to the point that she could no longer live on her own. Rather than see her move to an assisting living facility in Germany, they traveled there for a visit with her, but also with the hope that she would agree to move in with them. She did, and the two women, who had once been ill at ease with each other, became the best of friends. Sis, as she was known to her family and friends, would become one of Elliott's angels after she passed on, a warm and guiding presence who would look out for Elliott, supporting her throughout the moves and crises, and eventually the breakup of her twenty-year marriage. Several years before that break, Elliott had begun seeking a more spiritual connection to life, and she accepted that she was meant to walk the Camino. She didn’t know the reason why or how that ambition came to grab hold of her, nor did she question it, and that historic spiritual walk would change her life.

Katharine Elliott's non-fiction spiritual memoir, A Camino of the Soul: Learning to Listen When the Universe Whispers, is a beautifully written and joyful account that held me in rapt attention as I was reading. Elliott's writing is smooth and compellingly honest, and one can't help but feel that she is speaking directly to her readers. I loved reading about how she and Sis went from being wary and unwilling in-laws to becoming dear friends who reveled in their time together, and I found her descriptions of the process of her and her husband's move to Europe to be fascinating. But I'm an avid hiker; so I would have to admit that my primary interest in reading this memoir was to hear about the author's experiences on her Camino, and she came through with flying colors. I had wondered about her taking the trek on her own and loved the serendipity that surrounded her with hale and hearty companions. And yes, I'm glad she listened to her sister's advice to write. She does a grand job of it, and I'm looking forward to more memoirs of her other walking experiences. A Camino of the Soul: Learning to Listen When the Universe Whispers is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Gisela Dixon for Readers' Favorite

Lost, Kidnapped, Eaten Alive! True Stories from a Curious Traveler by Laurie McAndish King is a non-fiction travel memoir about Laurie’s adventures in various countries around the world. Laurie’s travels take her across continents as we hear about her adventures in Africa, Europe, North America, and more. The stories are depicted as short anecdotes, and each city or country has a short chapter dedicated to it. In a sense, it is not a sequential re-telling of a travel itinerary, but instead snippets of memories and experiences that were formed in a particular place. Some of these tend to be humorous such as lion watching on foot in Botswana while others are downright dangerous, such as the time she was almost kidnapped or worse in Tunisia. At the end of the book, Laurie provides a recap of why she travels and her inspiration, along with questions that can be discussed in a reading group.

Lost, Kidnapped, Eaten Alive! True Stories from a Curious Traveler is an adventurous read and has a fun, light-hearted feel to it. Despite the author being in some apparently dangerous situations, the vibe that I got from this book was one of a carefree attitude and freedom. Born in rural America, Laurie discusses her own journey a bit and her love of travel. The writing is crisp and fun, but the only criticism I had was it seemed almost a bit frivolous at times. It left me wondering if there was anything deeper in these travels than fun. I would have liked to see attention drawn to some serious things such as human trafficking, gender bias against women in many countries, the unique challenges one faces as a woman solo traveler, and such things in some depth as well. Still, I found it an entertaining book, overall.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Destination Earth: A New Philosophy of Travel by a World-Traveler is a nonfiction travel reference guide written by Nicos Hadjicostis. Bored with his everyday life, the author set off to discover the world, a continuous voyage that took him 6.5 years to complete and allowed him to discover the peoples and experience the cultures of 70 countries on six continents. This journey was to be a learning experience for Hadjicostis, who had no way of knowing quite how intensive and illuminating becoming a world-traveler could be. While carefully planning his routes, both in-country and in preparation for the next destination, Hadjicostis worked a flexibility into his travel scheme, allowing for both the serendipitous and the mundane. Extra time would be allotted, as necessary, to further study places of significance or take opportunities to interact with the native people he was visiting in a fuller capacity. Other situations demanded times of rest, a day or more depending upon the intensity of the journey at that point. His experiences as a world-traveler showed him a world that could be seen as simply one large country comprising the entire earth and its occupants, as well as an infinitely varied cosmos where all of the marvels of the universe would be revealed to the patient and intrepid explorer.

Hadjicostis includes a sample Around-The-World Journey plan based upon his experiences and philosophy in his first Addendum. He sets out the factors that he based his decisions on in selecting the countries to be highlighted, including geographical features, size, history and culture. He uses those factors to describe a sample exploration of Europe based on the core countries selected, as well as selected portions of other countries to be included as well. Natural wonders, events and festivals are also included in the planning stages. His second addendum, A Glimpse into the Actual Days of a World-Traveler, illustrates how a long-term traveler’s time is spent on “actual travel, the day-to-day and long-term planning, study, errands and rest stops.”

I’ve long been a dedicated armchair traveler and was intrigued by Nicos Hadjicostis’ challenge to take that interest in world travel and turn it into something infinitely more personal, alive and vital. Destination Earth does just that. I particularly enjoyed the interspersed nature of his book which alternates his main narrative with a selection of essays on particular places or his experiences on the road. His premise, that “we are all extraterrestrials on earth” is an attractive and compelling one, and his accounts of how he interacted with the land, its peoples and their cultures are fascinating. The author also offers plenty of practical advice and knowledge for those who would shrug off the armchairs and vicarious experiences of other places via documentaries and travel books and experience the thrill of the unknown for themselves. His narrative is beautifully written, and his subject, the world, lovingly explored and shared with the reader. Destination Earth: A New Philosophy of Travel by a World-Traveler is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Tracy Slowiak for Readers' Favorite

In a simply delightful memoir penned by author Lisa Fleetwood, Destination Dachshund: A Travel Memoir - Three Months, Three Generations and Sixty Dachshunds, readers will be treated to a fun, funny, heartwarming and even an educational retelling of the travels of the Fleetwood family through 15 countries. The family, with teenagers and in-laws participating in the journey, leave for their epic trip just days after their beloved dachshund, Coco, passes away. While in Russia, they spot two engaging dachshunds, both wearing winter coats, and that spurs a new family game. With the search on for dachshunds across their travels, the family experiences are recounted with humor and love, and a great deal of history thrown in as well.

I very much enjoyed Destination Dachshund: A Travel Memoir. Author Lisa Fleetwood has done a wonderful job in telling the story of her family's amazing adventure in an engaging style that will keep readers turning the pages from the start all the way through until the very end. This book is full of history, and information is provided about each of the family's stops on their trip that many will find informative and interesting. I highly recommend this book to any reader who enjoys memoirs, travelogues, history, who has a love for pets, or who is just looking for a great read in general. I certainly hope that author Lisa Fleetwood would consider writing another book in the future. With her obvious talent, it's sure to be an excellent read!

Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite

Walking to Woot by Jackie Chase is a highly entertaining and informative non-fiction narrative, an unusual tale of how travelling dangerous paths together can create a powerful bond between mother and daughter. When the author and her daughter decide to travel to the unfamiliar landscapes of the jungles of New Guinea, it seems like just another adventure. Little did they know that they’d be travelling into a completely new world and age, and that they’d meet weird people and face untold challenges. Their contact with nature, the encounter with a different culture, and the dangers they overcome open their eyes to new realities and awaken a new form of life they haven’t known until then. It will be interesting to see how the experience of a four-week trip into the uncharted parts of New Guinea helps mother and daughter to deepen their love for each other and to discover their hidden strengths and gifts.

Jackie Chase combines great writing with photography to take readers away from their familiar terrain and into a world that is both primitive and virgin. The images speak powerfully of the mode of life of people inhabiting places they visited, painting the kind of world readers who have watched The Gods Must Be Crazy will be infinitely attracted to. It is most interesting to see how the protagonists of this beautiful and hilarious tale fit into the entire scenario. Readers will watch them handle physical challenges, cultivate courage, build self-confidence, reach out to make friends, and learn to accept that people can be different and that there is some beauty in that difference. You’ll laugh and learn as you read Walking to Woot, a most hilariously engaging book. I have never read anything like it before.

Reviewed by Charles Remington for Readers' Favorite

Jonathan Tindale spent a while living in New Zealand, housed in a dilapidated caravan located in the remote South Island countryside that New Zealanders call the wop-wops. Some considerable time later, long after his return to his native UK, he received a scrappy manuscript which, strangely, had been sent by that very same caravan. It consisted of diary entries, which he had written during his stay, linked together with observations, interpretations and information added by the caravan - additions which it had based on the many years spent travelling the New Zealand road system and its observation of the various occupants it had carried. Jonathan has decided to publish the manuscript under the title Squashed Possums, Off the Beaten Track in New Zealand, a book which provides much information about this unique southern hemisphere nation and the nature of its indigenous caravans. There is historical detail, much valuable information on the people, the flora and unusual fauna of the islands, together with some vivid descriptions of the stunning countryside, and harrowing accounts of caravan living during the deep midwinter southerly storms.

Part travelogue, part memoir - I enjoyed this book immensely. The unusual juxtaposition of viewpoints, with the author’s diary entries coupled to observations from the caravan in which he lived, gives the narrative an easy pace. A great deal of information is imparted and absorbed in a light, digestible way. One could easily see the technique used in Squashed Possums applied to other situations with boats, cottages, homes or even castles speaking about their histories and commenting on the lives and antics of their occupants. Jonathan Tindale has produced an excellent work which I would highly recommend.

Reviewed by Roy T. James for Readers' Favorite

Kilimanjaro Diaries by Eva Melusine Thieme is about climbing the highest mountain on an entire continent and the highest free-standing mountain in the world. The preparations for this trip, starting with an internet survey, began well in advance, including practicing with climbing boots for the last three months before the trip. The trip passed through dark forest and inhospitable trails and followed a route with good success rate: The Machame Route – also called Whiskey Route. The book mentions an eerie silence there for company, though that is a bit disquieting; concentration is fully on the climb. On the sixth day of their climb, they spot ‘Congratulations! You are now at Uhuru Peak 5895 M A.M.S.L.Tanzania’ and take a return route only used for the descent.

Kilimanjaro Diaries by Eva Melusine Thieme gives a vivid description of the planning behind the trip, specially the ‘pee’ problem and its solutions. The diary closes with an interesting situation; I certainly won’t be envious of it. This book also contains information regarding a packing list and tips on routes and climbing seasons, as well as many web links, making it a good reference material for this trip. An interesting, educative and fun filled narrative replete with adventure.

Reviewed by Ryan Jordan for Readers' Favorite

Fourteen: A Daughter's Memoir of Adventure, Sailing, and Survival by Leslie Johansen Nack is a deeply emotional and moving story about the coming of age of our narrator and author who had to deal with the divorce of her parents, the abuse by her father, and being forced to grow up entirely too soon to protect herself and see the grittier side of the world. It is well told and has an approachable and easy-going narrative style that is very compelling, and I found the story easy to sink into and enjoy. It was almost like reading pure fiction, and occasionally I had to stop and remind myself that this is a non-fiction account of the author's life and the obstacles she had to overcome.

There are some moments that were difficult to read past, but I found myself rooting for the author to have everything work out in her favor. There were scenes, like when her mother came to visit the boat and her dad became aggressive about her complaints about accommodation, that are very well-written and truly bring the characters to life. This is an enticing memoir, and Leslie is writing another story about her family, a sort of de facto sequel that is sure to be just as enjoyable, so I look forward to reading more by her. Fourteen: A Daughter's Memoir of Adventure, Sailing, and Survival by Leslie Johansen Nack is an excellent memoir about the life and trials of a young woman struggling to overcome many obstacles that children aren't usually expected to face. Great memoir! I really enjoyed it.