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Sep 07, 2010

Eden rated it:

I hate that I'm about to compare this book to Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" (and suspect that the author will quickly get sick of that comparison, too) but women (because they are, all) who love "Eat, Pray, Love" will enjoy Fraser's new book, "All Over the Map". Both are stories about unconventional women in their forties who are forced to reconcile the life they've led with the life that's seemingly passed them by. But unlike the rest of us, they get to reconcile whi More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Lynne rated it:

Laura Fraser lived like a traveling minstrel, able to pull up stakes and go just about anywhere in the world her vagabond heart desires, and earn a living writing about it. Sounds like a dream to me, but at middle-age she becomes depressed over the failure to connect with a life-love and start a family. Then while traveling, she suffers a horrific assault that impacts her ability to continue traveling and writing.

I've never understood how a person could live like it isn't serious. I s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 05, 2011

Nicky rated it:

This was an interesting look at a freelance writer's life as she moves beyond 40. The way she weaves some of the experiences she has while investigating stories into reflections that help her move her own life forward is very true to life. I liked her willingness to be open to possibilities and her conviction that we are all able to continue to grow learn change mature.
I did however feel that the author tried to keep the reader at a distance, by often using sort of a story within a story More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Victoria rated it:

Laura Fraser is a twice-published memoir writer and a memoir teacher, with whom I've had the pleasure of learning my craft. In her workshop, Laura encouraged us to take big risks, letting it all hang out in order to tell our unique stories. Teaching by example, Fraser did that and more in her newest memoir All Over the Map, now out in paperback. It's the sequel to her bestselling An Italian Affair.

Fraser's two memoirs chronicle her ten-year relationship with a married Frenchman whom sh More...

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Jul 09, 2010

Kathy rated it:

Laura Fraser's All Over The Map is a funny, witty, sometimes sad but honest review of her life and times. It could be a story about MY life, well, except for the world travel,college and the adventurous Mom! But her trials and tribulations with men and relationships struck a chord with me. Been there, done that. Her insight into the relationships, the whys and wherefores of them, is deeply introspective, completely personal, yet makes you feel you're on the journey with her. Her fears, insecurit More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2010

Denise rated it:

The relatively new genre of memoir of middle aged woman finding herself (usually after divorce) seems almost a second coming of age. These are women disillusioned by the whole struggle of balancing careers, families, and personal growth, looking to lead fuller, more meaningful lives, and always to find their one true love. Laura Fraser fits easily in this category and All Over the Map is the story of her second coming of age.

Laura Fraser is a restless traveler with no roots, running More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 13, 2010

Carol rated it:

I enjoyed reading All Over the Map. It is written in the first person and is an autobiographical telling of a woman’s life after her divorce. She had a dream of finding a good man to marry, children, a house and a career that lets her travel. She already had the wonderful career but it didn’t seem like enough. She desperately wanted a man to have all attributes on her list. She felt that time was running out that the children she wanted so much may never be born. At the beginning of the book, I More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2011

Irene rated it:

I had to let this one marinate for a bit before writing a review. I want to keep this short. Let's see if I can.

I understand why people have compared this book to EPL. It's not much of a stretch: lonely and divorced women of a certain age seeking something in the world, be it love, sex, excitement, inner peace, her spiritual core, or all of the above. I get it. There are some days I panic about waking up one morning and realizing I've missed my opportunity for fulfillment. Hell, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2010

Franchesca rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 19, 2010

Julie rated it:

I hate that this work as well as the prequel, An Italian Affair, are often compared to Gilbert's Eat,Pray, Love. Don't get me wrong, both are endearing tales of a woman's spiritual and emotional growth and enlightenment through journey and experience. However, what I admire about Fraser is her ability to marry the description of her innermost thoughts with her external travels and experiences. Her travel experiences and writing are richly described, peppered with colorful anecdotes and conver More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Sheila rated it:

Loved this. A great memoir of a woman in her forties navigating her single life and exotic travels. She wrote another great memoir "An Italian Affair" about a romance she had in Italy post-divorce in her 30s. She is like the Eat, Pray, Love writer, only less cheesy and more relatable in my opinion.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 14, 2010

Kate rated it:

This is more or less a sequel to an earlier book of Laura Fraser's, An Italian Affair. Approaching her 40th birthday at the beginning of the book, Laura (and she's that kind of writer, to me - I feel I could call her by her first name and be a friend if we met) reaches a new stage with her long term relationship with "The Professor" and has come to want a committed, full time partnership in her life. This book explores the bittersweet quest to find a lasting love while reaching for new More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 17, 2011

Sarah rated it:

This is what Eat, Pray, Love should have been, but missed by a long shot. Put simply, it is one women’s journey through coming to terms with her nomadic life and the consequences it has reaped both good and bad. But as EPL proves, in the wrong hands a story of one’s midlife crisis can easily come across as sappy and forced. Whereas EPL felt like Gilbert decided to set out on a self created mission and therefore had to overwhelm the reader with over the top metaphysical, touchy feely writing, All More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Kristen rated it:

Some will say this is another fortysomething divorcee memoir, and others will criticize Fraser for repurposing her killed journalistic pieces. To them I say, get over it. Anyone who makes a decent living by seeing the world and writing about it deserves a heaping pile of credit. Fraser also happens to be a good, clear writer who is straightforward about her weaknesses and her relative privilege. I could relate to her instincts for both independence and stability, and to her confusion about what More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 12, 2011

Patti rated it:

She really is all over the map and reminds me of myself as my nickname is Gypsy and I travelled for 10 years in Europe (though I've had better luck with men). She's a very open and honest writer, letting us get inside her mind, complete with all the insecurities and thoughts that we normally would not have access to. When I read about her building her own little house in San Miguel, I immediately wanted to go there as it sounds like a little piece of paradise with great supportive people. You go More...

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Aug 05, 2011

Annette rated it:

Sad to say, but I found this book immensely depressing. It followed the theme of wildly popular, "Eat,Pray,Love." Laura's tale paralleled Elizabeth's and both, through travel and writing, found balance. Though the overall tone of this book brought my mood down, I appreciated the glimpse that Laura gave of us of her life and challenges. Particularly, as a woman, I felt that her honesty about her age, position in her life and society was captured and expressed with grace and endearment t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2011

Megan rated it:

Well-written, but hard to identify with our author. She chronicles her 40s and contemplates her lack of a firm relationship and home while still indulging her penchant for wanderlust. She ultimately self-diagnoses pretty well and never gives up trying to improve, which are both admirable and nice to see in the book. She's also likable enough and definitely travels to interesting places, writing some fascinating stories. However, it is a little silly to me that a woman would be practically 50 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 07, 2010

MaryEllen rated it:

The book gets better if you stick with it. The last 1/3 of the book, when Laura learns meditation and stops obsessing over men finally feels like a grown up read. When she finds contentment and puts down some roots in St. Miguel in Mexico, there is finally a serenity in her life. The first 2/3rds of the book are a whine of extended adolescence that almost caused me not to finish it. I'm glad I did. Spirituality is sorely lacking in the memoir and only begins to seep in toward the latter cha More...

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Jul 25, 2011

Stacy rated it:

I was able to identify with the author, who was in her early to mid forties when she wrote this book, in regards to life not quite turning out the way we expect it to and thinking we would be in different places by this time in our lives. She is pulled between a strong sense of wanderlust and wanting to settle down and have someone permanent in her life. Eventually she comes to reallize "that intention has a lot to do with how things turn out, and accomplishments don't always have to involv More...

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Jul 12, 2011

Lisa rated it:

I impulsively bought this book because it was about a travel writer and her travels. I thought it would give me some wonderful descriptions of the places she traveled and thought it might be inspirational in terms of choosing places to travel when I win the lottery one day. hahaha Anyway, it was more about her path to enlightenment about her place in life. Not too exciting. She did describe the places she traveled but it was always in the context of her emotional path in life. So, all in al More...

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Jan 15, 2012

Heather rated it:

What makes this book different from other single woman travels to a foreign land type books (Eat, Pray, Love and Under the Tuscan Sun etc) is that the author doesn't look at foreign countries/people as places that will save her. She appreciates them for their differences-language, food, people, traditions-but doesn't rely on them to fix her problems or make her a better person. Her experiences overseas seemed more real to me than those of the women in the other books-good things definitely happe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 29, 2011

Keisha rated it:

An enjoyable and inspiring read. Much more inspiring than that godawful "Eat, Pray, Love". The author, while whimsical and at times self-righteously stubborn, is much more mature, more sensibly intellectual and keenly aware of her inherent privilege as an Ivy league-educated, white & blonde American female, than that other author.

Some lines from the book that resonated with me:
<spoiler>
"You can't go on buying plane tickets forever, treating your life at More...

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May 07, 2011

Carly rated it:

All Over the Map is a memoir about travel, food, and relationships. The book begins with a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico where the narrator is meeting her French lover, the professor (their relationship was chronicled in her previous memoir An Italian Affair). The Professor tells Laura that he is in love with another woman and in a relationship with her. The rest of the book chronicles the various places around the globe Laura visits (she is a journalist and writes travel pieces for women's magazines) More...

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Sep 09, 2010

Bookventures rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 24, 2010

Heather rated it:

LA BELLA VITA CONTINUA...with Laura's latest fabulous adventure "All Over the Map"!

Laura's first memoir, "An Italian Affair", left me longing for MORE.
More travel, more romance & more comic, heart wrenching, honest tales of a girl finding herself as she moves around the globe in search of love & living life to the max.
"All Over the Map" delivers that & so much MORE!

If you are searching for a summer read that combine More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Angela rated it:

A wonderful tale about coming to terms with the choices we make along the way and living life to its fullest. Fraser may have traveled the whole world living her dream career as a travel writer, but she longs for the quiet stability of a family life in a place she can call home. Throughout her journey, she learns to view her life in a different light and appreciate the richness of the fruits of her decisions.

As a fellow woman writer approaching midlife, I know from experience I c More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2011

Nancis107 rated it:

At first I thought that Laura Fraser was just a whiney midlifer, who, like many of us, has found that life isn't always as expected. As the book progressed I became less critical and became interested in her journey. Ms. Fraser is a witty writer who held my interest. This wasn't LITERATURE, but it was a good, fun read. I would recommend it to someone who is looking for a fast diversion!

As a sidelight, look on her Blog. She has recorded every book she has read. Her blog made me like h More...

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Jun 23, 2011

Amy S. rated it:

I could have been Laura Fraser in another life. When I read about her adventures and her travels, I see a version of myself. She is interesting, fierce, funny and imminently likeable. The path she has chosen, to be single and childless with one house in San Fran and a "jewelbox" of a house in San Miguel is lke one I fantasize about. Especially when the kids are screaming, Im exhausted and I realize I havent been alone in two years. sure she questions her choices but not in a pity pary More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 23, 2010

Katekate rated it:

Fraser succeeded in creating a fun little read. I loved hearing of her travels around the world and her colorful descriptions of meal after meal are indeed mouth-watering. She is very likable and captivating. Yet on the downside, I did find myself wanting a little more from Fraser. At times it felt more like I was sitting in on a rather boring therapy session where Fraser seems to only talk circles and do nothing about it. I'd recommend it, but probably won't ever reread it.

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Jun 02, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

I liked this book and I like Fraser’s writing, it’s enjoyable and insightful. Laura Fraser finds herself in her 40s, a successful writer and very seasoned world traveler, but she’s still not married and settled down. Is something missing and what is a fulfilling life for her? Her story appeals to me as someone with some wanderlust who is settled down in the suburbs with a family. I was inspired by her insights and learning to be comfortable with the choices we make.

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