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Life Is a Trip: The Transformative Magic of Travel
A guide to show how cultural travel will change how you see the world.
115 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2010
34 people are currently reading
702 people want to read
About the author
Judith Fein
13 books18 followersJudith Fein lives to leave. An award-winning travel journalist, she is either on the road or on her computer. She has contributed to more than 100 international publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, National Geographic Traveler, the Jerusalem Post, Hemisphere, Islands, New Mexico Magazine, Travel Age West, Organic Spa, and Spirituality and Health. She is the author of the acclaimed book, LIFE IS A TRIP: The Transformative Magic of Travel.
Judith has been a keynote presenter for many conferences, including the Adventure Travel Trade Association, and Tedx San Miguel de Allende. She is a frequent guest on broadcast media, was a regular contributor to The Savvy Traveler for six years, and has been heard on the BBC, All Things Considered, and Marketplace. With her photojournalist husband Paul Ross, she teaches public speaking and creativity as applied to writing, PR and Marketing.
Judith is the co-founder and executive editor of the award-garnering experiential travel blog www.YourLifeisaTrip.com, which has more than 125 contributors. She blogs about travel for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today, and occasionally she and Paul Ross take open-hearted people on very unusual trips. In her LBTW (Life Before Travel Writing), Fein ran a theatre company in Europe, lived in Africa, and then worked as a Hollywood screenwriter, playwright, and theatre director in the U.S.A.
Like a modern-day Marco Polo or Ibn Batuta, Fein has traveled from Mog Mog to Vanuatu, trained as assistant to a Mexican healer, purchased a camel in Tunisia, danced with spirits in Brazil and a Mayan elder in Quintana Roo, dragged her husband to consult with a Zulu sangoma in South Africa, swum with beluga whales, had a private audience with the High Priest of the Ancient Israelite Samaritans, appeased the mischievous jinns in Morocco, and eaten porcupine, albeit not with relish, in Vietnam.
Judith has been a keynote presenter for many conferences, including the Adventure Travel Trade Association, and Tedx San Miguel de Allende. She is a frequent guest on broadcast media, was a regular contributor to The Savvy Traveler for six years, and has been heard on the BBC, All Things Considered, and Marketplace. With her photojournalist husband Paul Ross, she teaches public speaking and creativity as applied to writing, PR and Marketing.
Judith is the co-founder and executive editor of the award-garnering experiential travel blog www.YourLifeisaTrip.com, which has more than 125 contributors. She blogs about travel for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today, and occasionally she and Paul Ross take open-hearted people on very unusual trips. In her LBTW (Life Before Travel Writing), Fein ran a theatre company in Europe, lived in Africa, and then worked as a Hollywood screenwriter, playwright, and theatre director in the U.S.A.
Like a modern-day Marco Polo or Ibn Batuta, Fein has traveled from Mog Mog to Vanuatu, trained as assistant to a Mexican healer, purchased a camel in Tunisia, danced with spirits in Brazil and a Mayan elder in Quintana Roo, dragged her husband to consult with a Zulu sangoma in South Africa, swum with beluga whales, had a private audience with the High Priest of the Ancient Israelite Samaritans, appeased the mischievous jinns in Morocco, and eaten porcupine, albeit not with relish, in Vietnam.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
January 30, 2011
The reasons why we who are travelers do so are probably as varied as we are. Just as the places to which we travel and the ways in which we travel can differ widely, no doubt, so do the resulting experiences. I, too, am a traveler, and for me, the travel experience is always transformative. I have never gone on a journey that doesn’t simultaneously become an inner journey. As I cross physical terrain, so do I cross internal, that is, spiritual terrain in some way at the same time. I never come home the same person as when I left.
For this reason, I was fascinated to read Judith Fein’s Life is a Trip. The title alone clued me in to our similar approach to travel. I suspected these 14 stories would tell of the author’s trip, of course, but also how that trip changed her as a person.
One can travel in luxury, and plan far ahead and for most all possible and imaginable consequences. Travel agents can secure our accommodations, buy our tickets, insure our comfort, arrange most every moment of our traveling days … if we so choose. Or, we can travel wildly, with open mind and heart, ready to see whatever we can see and embrace whatever comes with open arms. This would be Judith Fein.
Fein is curious. She “lives to leave,” she says, and never does research on a place beforehand. The occasional discomfort of travel does not intimidate her; in fact, she seems to seek it out. These travel stories take her to North Vietnam, Turkey, Guatemala, New Zealand, Istanbul, Nova Scotia, Micronesia, Mexico, Israel, Spain, Newfoundland and San Diego. She travels not just to see place, but to delve deeply into local culture, acquaint herself with the residents, and involves herself in their lives as much as possible. A favorite thing to do is to get herself invited to weddings and funerals, since these are occasions that she feels show her best what a culture is all about.
“The difference between being a tourist and a traveler is that a traveler is open to unplanned experience and doesn’t have her nose stuck in a guidebook, tracking down famous sites. She ventures out from behind glass windows (in hotels and touring buses) and meets people. She connects. The difference between a traveler and a travel journalist is that the latter is always searching for stories. But it occurred to me that any traveler can travel like a journalist—looking for cues and clues, diving into new cultures, and coming home with great stories and new ways of responding to life.”
Being a spiritual seeker, Fein makes a point of connecting with healers, wise and holy persons, those who seem to have some deeper connection than most to enlightenment. If not in person, she finds the experience that is more intense than the every day. So, in one story, she attends a funeral in Micronesia, where she is stunned to witness one person after another speaking about the deceased not in flowery eulogy, selecting only positive memories, and if none are available, creating them—but quite the opposite. Funeral attendees express ill feelings, even anger, hurt caused them by the deceased. Intrigued, she pays close attention so as to learn the reasons.
“At first I was shocked. Can’t they just leave the dead in peace? I wondered. But I said nothing, sitting and listening to the wailing and the talk. And the more I thought about it, the more I began to understand. During a Mog Mog funeral, people are expected to air all of their feelings about the deceased person publicly, so the negative emotions don’t fester. The bad feelings are expressed, rather than repressed, and then they are buried along with the body. At a funeral, people unleash their true feelings, but speaking ill of the deceased outside of this context is taboo. And it is forbidden to bad-mouth the dead person once he is lying in his final resting place.” (pg. 28)
What a wonderful discovery! In this alone is summed up so much of the value of travel outside of our home territory. Suddenly, we see new and different ways to cope with global experiences. Whereas in our American culture, good people tend to have the most well attended funerals, one would guess that among the Mog Mog, those who have done most evil in their lives might have the most crowded funerals, as one after another get bad feelings off their chests. Such funerals may even be motive to live better lives, it seems, as who would want a parade of spitting and fuming funeral attendees. Either way, the day ends with all ill feelings buried. There is something to learn here …
In another story, Fein travels to a Mexican prison. She looks again beyond the surface, looking for the heart of the matter. Here, too, she learns something of value that could be shared with other cultures.
“Behind every criminal face is a human who was once a bouncing baby, gurgling with glee, and aching to be loved. Then, something happened. Each story is different, provocative, sad, and disturbing. Needs were denied or not met, the environment was violent or cruel or indifferent, and feelings with no healthy outlets were expressed in unspeakable acts … What interests me is getting a glimpse into a criminal’s heart and finding a place, however tiny, where there is authentic feeling and sensitivity. To my mind, this is where hope for healing, rehabilitation, and redemption lie.” (pg.46)
As any traveler sooner or later learns, understanding—of oneself and others, of persons and place—comes through stories. Fein goes deep into place to find the people, and goes deep among the people to find the story. She is willing to deal with whatever comes along her way in order to dig out that story. From that story, then, comes her own transformation. Or magic, if you wish. And from her sharing these stories in Life is a Trip comes connection with readers, letting the stories ripple out among all to spread that magic.
Adding visual delight to fine stories are the black and white photographs taken by photojournalist Paul Ross, who is Fein’s husband and frequent travel companion. His photography doesn’t just illustrate Fein’s stories. These photos add another dimension to the reading experience.
Judith Fein is a longtime columnist for Spirituality & Health magazine and a contributor to nearly 100 other publications over her writing career, in addition to acclaimed Hollywood screenplays.
An interview with the author, along with photos by Paul Ross, will appear in the upcoming Spring 2011 issue of The Smoking Poet (www.thesmokingpoet.com).
For this reason, I was fascinated to read Judith Fein’s Life is a Trip. The title alone clued me in to our similar approach to travel. I suspected these 14 stories would tell of the author’s trip, of course, but also how that trip changed her as a person.
One can travel in luxury, and plan far ahead and for most all possible and imaginable consequences. Travel agents can secure our accommodations, buy our tickets, insure our comfort, arrange most every moment of our traveling days … if we so choose. Or, we can travel wildly, with open mind and heart, ready to see whatever we can see and embrace whatever comes with open arms. This would be Judith Fein.
Fein is curious. She “lives to leave,” she says, and never does research on a place beforehand. The occasional discomfort of travel does not intimidate her; in fact, she seems to seek it out. These travel stories take her to North Vietnam, Turkey, Guatemala, New Zealand, Istanbul, Nova Scotia, Micronesia, Mexico, Israel, Spain, Newfoundland and San Diego. She travels not just to see place, but to delve deeply into local culture, acquaint herself with the residents, and involves herself in their lives as much as possible. A favorite thing to do is to get herself invited to weddings and funerals, since these are occasions that she feels show her best what a culture is all about.
“The difference between being a tourist and a traveler is that a traveler is open to unplanned experience and doesn’t have her nose stuck in a guidebook, tracking down famous sites. She ventures out from behind glass windows (in hotels and touring buses) and meets people. She connects. The difference between a traveler and a travel journalist is that the latter is always searching for stories. But it occurred to me that any traveler can travel like a journalist—looking for cues and clues, diving into new cultures, and coming home with great stories and new ways of responding to life.”
Being a spiritual seeker, Fein makes a point of connecting with healers, wise and holy persons, those who seem to have some deeper connection than most to enlightenment. If not in person, she finds the experience that is more intense than the every day. So, in one story, she attends a funeral in Micronesia, where she is stunned to witness one person after another speaking about the deceased not in flowery eulogy, selecting only positive memories, and if none are available, creating them—but quite the opposite. Funeral attendees express ill feelings, even anger, hurt caused them by the deceased. Intrigued, she pays close attention so as to learn the reasons.
“At first I was shocked. Can’t they just leave the dead in peace? I wondered. But I said nothing, sitting and listening to the wailing and the talk. And the more I thought about it, the more I began to understand. During a Mog Mog funeral, people are expected to air all of their feelings about the deceased person publicly, so the negative emotions don’t fester. The bad feelings are expressed, rather than repressed, and then they are buried along with the body. At a funeral, people unleash their true feelings, but speaking ill of the deceased outside of this context is taboo. And it is forbidden to bad-mouth the dead person once he is lying in his final resting place.” (pg. 28)
What a wonderful discovery! In this alone is summed up so much of the value of travel outside of our home territory. Suddenly, we see new and different ways to cope with global experiences. Whereas in our American culture, good people tend to have the most well attended funerals, one would guess that among the Mog Mog, those who have done most evil in their lives might have the most crowded funerals, as one after another get bad feelings off their chests. Such funerals may even be motive to live better lives, it seems, as who would want a parade of spitting and fuming funeral attendees. Either way, the day ends with all ill feelings buried. There is something to learn here …
In another story, Fein travels to a Mexican prison. She looks again beyond the surface, looking for the heart of the matter. Here, too, she learns something of value that could be shared with other cultures.
“Behind every criminal face is a human who was once a bouncing baby, gurgling with glee, and aching to be loved. Then, something happened. Each story is different, provocative, sad, and disturbing. Needs were denied or not met, the environment was violent or cruel or indifferent, and feelings with no healthy outlets were expressed in unspeakable acts … What interests me is getting a glimpse into a criminal’s heart and finding a place, however tiny, where there is authentic feeling and sensitivity. To my mind, this is where hope for healing, rehabilitation, and redemption lie.” (pg.46)
As any traveler sooner or later learns, understanding—of oneself and others, of persons and place—comes through stories. Fein goes deep into place to find the people, and goes deep among the people to find the story. She is willing to deal with whatever comes along her way in order to dig out that story. From that story, then, comes her own transformation. Or magic, if you wish. And from her sharing these stories in Life is a Trip comes connection with readers, letting the stories ripple out among all to spread that magic.
Adding visual delight to fine stories are the black and white photographs taken by photojournalist Paul Ross, who is Fein’s husband and frequent travel companion. His photography doesn’t just illustrate Fein’s stories. These photos add another dimension to the reading experience.
Judith Fein is a longtime columnist for Spirituality & Health magazine and a contributor to nearly 100 other publications over her writing career, in addition to acclaimed Hollywood screenplays.
An interview with the author, along with photos by Paul Ross, will appear in the upcoming Spring 2011 issue of The Smoking Poet (www.thesmokingpoet.com).
August 11, 2016
Judith Fein does not let grass grow under her feet. She, like her husband, enjoy travel and experiencing what this world has to offer. In this book, Life Is A Journey, Judith shares 14 journeys where she learns from other cultures about their families, death, measuring success, faith, overcoming trauma, and forgiveness.
I have always enjoyed traveling and experiencing the world. As a child, I experienced California and Alaska as we have relatives in both areas. Once married and the kids were old enough to enjoy traveling, as a family we went to Florida, Mexico, Costa Rica, California (a couple of times), Haiti, an awkward experience in the Bahama's..... (a story for another time), and then eventually and most recent Honduras, Al and I and then our college son Justin.
I love to see how people live, how they do life day to day, the sights the smells.... the culture. I too have a bit of the "Judith Fein" bug
In well written chapters, Judith shares 14 experience around the world. Places I would LOVE to experience, but most likely, I will experience them through shared stories, and books like this. From stories like Tales Of The Tomb Of Israel (breathtaking...really), to a Mexican Prison, Forgiveness in Vietnam, funeral in Micronesia just to name a few.
What I enjoyed most about this read is that the stories are not only about the places, sites, food, and cultural experiences, BUT about the people. I loved reading how a kindergarten teacher of Israel prayed for a husband and found him at age 40 and a Maya woman from Guatemala never gave up on her impossible dream to come and visit the United States (and succeeded against all odds!).
This is a book I will look to again.... when I feel I need a little cultural inspiration. The variety of the chapters were interesting, captivating, and delightful.... they left me thinking of people I would never meet, but thanks to Judith Fein.... feel I have.
If you enjoy books about people, travel and culture, I suggest in your travels you pick up a copy of this book.
I have always enjoyed traveling and experiencing the world. As a child, I experienced California and Alaska as we have relatives in both areas. Once married and the kids were old enough to enjoy traveling, as a family we went to Florida, Mexico, Costa Rica, California (a couple of times), Haiti, an awkward experience in the Bahama's..... (a story for another time), and then eventually and most recent Honduras, Al and I and then our college son Justin.
I love to see how people live, how they do life day to day, the sights the smells.... the culture. I too have a bit of the "Judith Fein" bug
In well written chapters, Judith shares 14 experience around the world. Places I would LOVE to experience, but most likely, I will experience them through shared stories, and books like this. From stories like Tales Of The Tomb Of Israel (breathtaking...really), to a Mexican Prison, Forgiveness in Vietnam, funeral in Micronesia just to name a few.
What I enjoyed most about this read is that the stories are not only about the places, sites, food, and cultural experiences, BUT about the people. I loved reading how a kindergarten teacher of Israel prayed for a husband and found him at age 40 and a Maya woman from Guatemala never gave up on her impossible dream to come and visit the United States (and succeeded against all odds!).
This is a book I will look to again.... when I feel I need a little cultural inspiration. The variety of the chapters were interesting, captivating, and delightful.... they left me thinking of people I would never meet, but thanks to Judith Fein.... feel I have.
If you enjoy books about people, travel and culture, I suggest in your travels you pick up a copy of this book.
March 21, 2012
LIFE IS A TRIP is an amazing must-read for people of all ages! "Travel is a Zen activity that can lift me out of my inner life into engagement with the world around me." I love this quote! This book is intense, interesting, and presents a side of travel very different from the usual tourist highlights. It will open your heart and mind and transform you by the connection with others, in exotic and not so exotic unusual places. Be open to your own vulnerabilities and strengths and gather new insights. Different cultures will enrich your life as you see beneath the surface and are one with the people. I enjoyed this journey so much that I intend to read it again in case I missed a vital message.
February 25, 2013
After reading many works of worldly explorations this year, this is the first travelogue I have not enjoyed. It was basically a bunch of newspaper articles put together with some sort of intended moral lesson at the end. It made me feel as if she was trying to say "look how culturally experienced I am compared to you." Plus she was whinney and a wuss in most of the stories she writes about. Like packing up and staying in hotels if her guest's place wasn't accomadating enough. I believe going through all the rough patches is part of the adventure, but she sought to avoid them. I would not recommend this book, turn around and immediately continue searching.
August 12, 2016
Enjoyed this nonfiction collection of essays more than I thought I would (read it for work). Sometimes sweet, sometimes insightful, sometimes a little to neatly wrapped up thus received a bit of an eye roll, Fein's experiences as a seasoned traveller is perfect for a bit of armchair travelling.
January 4, 2013
I enjoyed the words of wisdom Judith Fein shared that were gained from her travels throughout the world. It is always good to be reminded how much we gain from our own encounters with people whose lives and cultures are different from ours.
May 11, 2023
This short book is a collection of 14 travel articles from different places around the world: Vietnam, Turkey, Istanbul, Spain… to just name the ones where I’ve myself travelled to. I started with mixed feelings around this book, as I disliked the first stories and then started really appreciating the book. I especially adored “Searching for forgiveness in Vietnam” and “In a Mexican prison”.
I have to say that I found Judith quite annoying in some stories (she has only packed gear or clothes that were not suitable for her destination, she couldn’t be bothered to do certain things, do what she was told, or she was complaining that she needed more comfort…?) but also I felt very touched by some of the stories she recalls.
As a traveller myself, I did really enjoy reading about different places, cultures, traditions, trying to see the world from another person’s perspective. “To me, the most powerful and direct way to get involved with history is through travel: wherever I go, I learn about the people who live there and where they came from” p110.
Travelling is for me a way to be more present, to focus outward (meeting new people, seeing new places, eating new food, finding a hotel for the night, thinking where to go to the next day…) to then refocus inward. I have never gone on a journey that hasn’t simultaneously become an inner journey. Travelling puts you right where you belong, in the here and now, where you can leave at home personal and professional problems from the past, at least for a bit, and only focus on enjoying the present. Travelling has changed me in so many ways, because of all of that and of all the new challenges and opportunities encountered on the road and this book sums it pretty well.
I have to say that I found Judith quite annoying in some stories (she has only packed gear or clothes that were not suitable for her destination, she couldn’t be bothered to do certain things, do what she was told, or she was complaining that she needed more comfort…?) but also I felt very touched by some of the stories she recalls.
As a traveller myself, I did really enjoy reading about different places, cultures, traditions, trying to see the world from another person’s perspective. “To me, the most powerful and direct way to get involved with history is through travel: wherever I go, I learn about the people who live there and where they came from” p110.
Travelling is for me a way to be more present, to focus outward (meeting new people, seeing new places, eating new food, finding a hotel for the night, thinking where to go to the next day…) to then refocus inward. I have never gone on a journey that hasn’t simultaneously become an inner journey. Travelling puts you right where you belong, in the here and now, where you can leave at home personal and professional problems from the past, at least for a bit, and only focus on enjoying the present. Travelling has changed me in so many ways, because of all of that and of all the new challenges and opportunities encountered on the road and this book sums it pretty well.
August 12, 2017
Debo admitir que tomé este libro por la portada (así soy) y no me arrepiento. Tengo Debilidad por los libros de viajes, no esos que son simples guías de qué encontrar, sino esos que te explican por qué ese lugar es especial, por qué su historia vale la pena y cómo el autor del mismo vio su vida transformada gracias al simple hecho de llegar allá.
Judith Fein recopila las experiencias más trascendentales de su vida como reportera de viajes en Life is a Trip y en cada crónica refleja el profundo impacto que tiene el viajar y conectarse con personas diferentes, en distintos niveles. Acá hay historias de cansancio físico, lugares mágicos, momentos de angustia, instantes de iluminación o lugares que dan mucho más de lo que el visitante espera. Si quiere sentir fascinación por la vida de nuevo, si se siente en la oscuridad y quiere ahogarse en sus penas, tal vez este libro le sirva de recordatorio de que el mundo no es solo la burbuja en la que vive en este momento. Hay cosas maravillosas y sorprendentes pasando allá afuera.
Judith Fein recopila las experiencias más trascendentales de su vida como reportera de viajes en Life is a Trip y en cada crónica refleja el profundo impacto que tiene el viajar y conectarse con personas diferentes, en distintos niveles. Acá hay historias de cansancio físico, lugares mágicos, momentos de angustia, instantes de iluminación o lugares que dan mucho más de lo que el visitante espera. Si quiere sentir fascinación por la vida de nuevo, si se siente en la oscuridad y quiere ahogarse en sus penas, tal vez este libro le sirva de recordatorio de que el mundo no es solo la burbuja en la que vive en este momento. Hay cosas maravillosas y sorprendentes pasando allá afuera.
November 3, 2019
Interesting inspiring perspective
I found Judith Fein’s stories well-written and engaging. I really couldn’t put it down even though each story can stand alone. It makes me want to reach more outside my comfort zone at home and when I travel. There is so much to learn and experience if we open ourselves to different people and cultures. So much growth to be had. And she expresses this incredibly through her own experiences and observations! Thankful.
I found Judith Fein’s stories well-written and engaging. I really couldn’t put it down even though each story can stand alone. It makes me want to reach more outside my comfort zone at home and when I travel. There is so much to learn and experience if we open ourselves to different people and cultures. So much growth to be had. And she expresses this incredibly through her own experiences and observations! Thankful.
January 14, 2018
I wanted to like this book. I normally can read travelogues all day and get jazzed up for my next adventure. I just felt very disconnected to the author and her stories; she struck me as having a condescending nature towards those she met in other countries. I found myself disliking her and her mannerisms which sullied my feelings on the book.
December 18, 2016
A thought provoking and informative travel memoir. In each assignment the author gives one a feeling a being there, experiencing and seeing things that the everyday traveller probably wouldn't get to see. A book to open one's eyes to what is out there in our amazing world.
September 21, 2018
Note to self: I think this is the best of these anecdotal travelogues-which-lead-to-self-knowledge. She doesn’t gush, she tells compelling stories, she guides you engagingly through her observations and subsequent strategies.
July 14, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this little travel book. It was quick and easy to read and took me to places and experiences I would not have been.
I sort of lived vicariously through Judith and enjoyed the ride.
I sort of lived vicariously through Judith and enjoyed the ride.
January 30, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Inspiring and educational
March 13, 2017
I finally finished it! I saw this in a book shop while traveling, and couldn't find it at B&N or anywhere, finally bought it, and after all that it's just ok. Each chapter is a different anecdote so there's not one cohesive story. I guess it's because I'm just not a fan of short stories. It took me forever to finish. I am going to look into the history of the Acadians more, so there's that. Maybe if you find this book just skip to the last story first. That was the best. LOL
February 26, 2017
I have very ambivalent feelings towards this book. It's more a collection of travel articles rather than a book. Some of them left me speechless, some touched me, some bored the hell out of me. My impression is that at times the author tries too hard to sound like a journalist, with her posh language and the morals which you find at every story's ending. I thought I'd enjoy this book more but maybe I just expected it to be different - I was eager to learn more about the life of a travel journalist, the obstacles etc. Also the stories often were too esoteric and spirtual for me (especially the healing women part). The repetitions of words also made me cringe (I got it, you had to schlepp yourself everywhere) Still I don't regret reading it as I learned things about places, cultures and people in the world I never heard about before.
August 13, 2012
This is a terribly written book. It was also a disappointment. I read it hoping to be inspired by travel's potential for transformation, but instead it was anecdotes of her life lessons from people and cultures around the world, with the lessons applied at home. Her personality drove me nuts, too--she was at times clueless as well as inflexible, and it's a wonder she makes a living as a 'travel journalist.' Otherwise, I will say this: this book gave me the second most serendipitous experience of my time here (the outer islands of Yap state). Each chapter is preceded by a picture from the place, and I flipped the page to see a boat pulled by men, and thought, "Hm, that could be a scene from here--maybe it's somewhere in Oceania." UM, the chapter was about an island two islands away from where I'm staying. Wow. Of all the places in the world, she took the ship to the outer islands to witness a funeral (and complained about a 14 hour ride on it...try 3 to 4 days, lady! Or 6, if you're going all the way out). I almost didn't finish this book, but I'm glad I stuck it out for that surprise.
May 19, 2017
I was really disappointed in this book. I discovered it on Goodreads (I think) just before leaving for Puerto Rico, my first solo trip in 3 years (since getting married and having a baby). I had such high hopes that it would affect me the way reading Eat Pray Love had when I went to London years ago. And it started out strong. But after the introduction each essay came across so preachy. I felt that there was a lot of telling, not showing. I didn’t feel connected to the author or any of the experiences or people she’d encountered in her travels. While I saved a few interesting quotes, overall I’m disappointed that I actually PAID for this book instead of borrowing it from the library. I had nothing better to do on my flight home though, so I finished it anyways. (Also, there were several minor but glaring typos and errors that grated on my nerves so badly that I nearly didn’t finish it.)
May 16, 2013
I really enjoyed this book as an account of Fein's fresh perspective into lesser known cultures and remote locations, while fully respecting each host and home for its uniqueness and the benefits it has brought to her life. Fein's tone is often patronizing and sometimes borders on sanctimonious, which I think is a result of her strong desire to remain respectful and appreciative of others, but given the experiences of the audience generally drawn to travel literature, I am not convinced this tone is necessary. Despite the writing style, I thoroughly enjoyed Fein's adventures, and understand the value of learning universal lessons across culture and language. A good read if you have a travel bug but no pending vacation plans.
September 22, 2015
I have a very different idea of "transformative magic" than whoever titled this book. Fein's stories are thin at best, as if racing toward their own conclusions. In a story about struggling to find a religious experience, when she finally finds one, it lasts a single brief paragraph before the story moves on. Other stories are slightly more engaging, but that's where the impact ends. Fein's grander thoughts on travel are wise and inspiring - she tells you why she travels and what she gets from it eloquently. But you have to take her word for it, because those experiences don't show in her stories.
March 6, 2011
I got this book at B&N in the travel essays section. 14 stories of remote destinations traveled to by this author - Micronesian island of Mog Mog; work habits of the good witches of central Mexico, North Vietnam, Turkey, Guatemala. I am reading the chapters at random and whenever. Not a book to read cover to cover in one sitting (at least for me). It's 110 pages long. The website for judith & her husband is: www.globaladventure.us in case anyone wants to check it out. Her husband is her photographer for her travels.
May 20, 2015
Travel journalism at its best. This book illustrates what I have purported for years--that the mind doesn't know the difference between what is real and what is imagined. My greatest advertisement for the critical role reading plays in our lives. (If you want a moral slant--be very careful about what you read...). Thus I now feel like I've met all the glorious friends of this sensitive and eloquent author in her deep travels in Nova Scotia, Guatemala, Jetusalem, Istanbul, and even San Diego. A gem of a book.
November 27, 2015
A good, short book about traveling and how traveling can be a pilgrimage in itself. I liked the spirituality links to traveling. Overall though, the stories are too short. The beginning - the first chapter is pretty bad actually - the trip with the Maori from New Zealand and those three families almost made me put the book away. Not really impressed.
December 20, 2016
Written well enough, but I hate the way she dabbles in various religious practices without any direction. I'm not inspired to become a medicine woman nor do I find inspiration to travel the way she must. Too disconnected. No theme aside from the idea that if you leave the beaten tourist path there will be interesting discoveries which isn't much of a revelation.
February 5, 2011
Ugh. Do not want. I should have put it down after page ix, "The difference between a traveler and a tourist..." She saw some cool things, to be fair. Neat stories. But then she drags some sappy self-helpy new-agey moral out of them. Skip this.
October 2, 2014
I enjoyed reading most of the book but I lost interest more towards the end few chapters! For a few chapters though it does feel you are there where the chapter is taking place so it's well written in that case!
October 10, 2015
While the essays were interesting and she clearly loves what she does, the booked failed to inspire me to travel. When I read about other places and cultures, I want to end the book wanting to visit the places described.
July 14, 2011
Awesome stories. This inspired me to travel more. Not that I need much inspiration to travel!
August 26, 2011
Incredible travel stories about the power of people, cultures and history. Despite the annoying amount of typos, this book is definitely for those with the soul of a traveler.
Read
February 25, 2016(on my kindle)
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