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They Only Eat Their Husbands: Love, Travel, and the Power of Running Away
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After a lover threatens to kill her, twenty-six-year-old Cara Lopez Lee runs away to Alaska. There, she finds herself in a complicated love triangle with two alcoholics: Sean, the martial artist, and Chance, the paramedic. Nine years later, sick of love, she runs away again, this time to backpack alone around the world. They Only Eat Their Husbands is a memoir about this y
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Kindle Edition, 346 pages
Published
October 14th 2014
by Conundrum Press
(first published November 15th 2010)
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I've read many memoirs, but it's rare when an author really opens up and divulges her innermost insecurities. Cara Lopez Lee never leaves a question unanswered and brings the reader right into her roller coaster world of abandonment, commitment phobic/alcoholic boyfriends, and her colorful surroundings. I have to admit that I was looking forward to her world travels more than her story set in Alaska. But I found myself devouring the latter! Her Alaskan love triangle was so intense in its dark an
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In social situations, I often see myself as the last planet in our solar system. Like the theoretical Planet X, I revolve around the periphery, I take longer than anyone else to get around, and, even if I’m part of their system, no one else knows for certain whether I exist.
It takes three things to make a good memoir: interesting life experiences, deep insight (see above excerpt), and the ability to narrate with eloquence and honesty. In They Only Eat Their Husbands (a reference to a certain spe ...more
It takes three things to make a good memoir: interesting life experiences, deep insight (see above excerpt), and the ability to narrate with eloquence and honesty. In They Only Eat Their Husbands (a reference to a certain spe ...more

Cara Lopez Lee penned a memoir for the adventurous women of my generation who have sought romantic love as the antidote to loneliness. More poignantly, her writing speaks to women forging their own journey to inner-strength and self-worth. Her story reads like a juicy dish of dysfunctional relationships and intrepid world travels from living in Alaska, trekking Nepal's Annapurna Circuit, to wandering ancient and picturesque villages in Italy and Spain. Lopez Lee takes you off the beaten path and
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THEY ONLY EAT THEIR HUSBANDS is a memoir that carries the reader on two journeys. The first is a physical adventure: a travel log, if you will, around the planet. The other adventure is just as captivating. We follow the author in her quest to understand herself.
Cara Lopez Lee learns the hard way, as we all did, about what it means to be in love. About what it means to be treated well by a partner. About what it means to love herself.
Alaska, Europe, the Himalayas. Cara has a number of amazing ...more
Cara Lopez Lee learns the hard way, as we all did, about what it means to be in love. About what it means to be treated well by a partner. About what it means to love herself.
Alaska, Europe, the Himalayas. Cara has a number of amazing ...more

I met Cara Lopez Lee at a writing workshop she conducted at the Denver Woman’s Press Club in the fall of 2014. She’d recently released her memoir “They Only Eat Their Husbands,” and was using a few excerpts from the book as jumping-off points to get participants writing about their own travel-related growth experiences. The workshop was excellent. Lopez Lee has a style that’s confident, approachable and relatable. Her exercises were easy to get into, and they provided the inspiration I was looki
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I really enjoyed this book and didn't want to put it down. My favorite parts were the stories of Cara's upbringing and what she learned about herself while traveling. My favorite line was this one, by a character named Zeph: "You are someone who becomes lost among familiar things and can only find your way among unfamiliar things. ... It is difficult for people like us to say this place is home or that place is home."
However, I did get bogged down in the Alaska relationships. Although the couple ...more
However, I did get bogged down in the Alaska relationships. Although the couple ...more

I am so grateful for books like this one in my life! What a pleasure to read and I will certainly be telling friends to pick it up as well. Aren't you just curious about the title? You have to read about halfway through the book to find out that little mystery. By that time, you will be hooked by her sense of adventure and maybe even a little envious at some of the adventures she was brave enough to have. I could not put this book down, which is strange because it's not a mystery of any kind. I
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There is some great writing in They Only Eat Their Husbands, Cara Lopez Lee's travel and relationship memoir. I dog ear pages of books when a passage strikes me as particularly memorable or well constructed (never library books or borrowed books, please don't judge), but stopped in the first chapter because I realized I would have to dog ear the entire book. An insightful read - Lee isn't afraid to lay it all out there, from her sex life to a troubled childhood to farts. Single women will find h
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Even though I feel like I came to understand this author and her story, I felt frustrated by her inability to choose healthy male relationships and her angst over deciding between two men of which neither was good to or for her. The world travel parts were interesting, she is a good writer with excellent descriptions and vocabulary. She says she found herself in the end through this travel. I didn't see it. Not enough of an epiphany or details about how for me.
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I found it difficult to read the beginning chapters with Cara’s back story, but became deeply involved with her coming-of-age chapter, “Sheer Madness,” when she was hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. Many people run away from their problems, but few attain the insight Cara achieved in her physical and spiritual travels.

This is an inspiring book about a woman's search for a meaningful life, which takes her literally around the world. The author has an adventuresome spirit, both internally and externally, and her prose is lovely. Highly recommended.
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Cara Lopez Lee is the author of the memoir They Only Eat Their Husbands. Her stories have appeared in such publications as The Los Angeles Times, Manifest-Station, and 50-Word Stories. She’s a winner of The Moth StorySlam and performs in many L.A. storytelling shows, including Unheard L.A., Two Truths and a Lie, and The Otter Story Hour. She’s a book editor and writing coach. She was a TV journali
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“The purpose of my life is not to get what I want. The purpose of my life is to become who I am.”
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“Running away is vastly underrated.”
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