Cindy Burnett (Thoughts from a Page)'s Reviews > All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft

All Over the Place had me laughing so hard at times that I had tears streaming down my face. Geraldine DeRuiter has written a travel memoir unlike any other travel memoir that I have read, and the result is fabulous. She writes about both her travels around the world and her own internal journey through brain cancer, spousal trouble, and dealing with her hilarious mother (more hilarious when you are not the one having to deal with her I am sure). DeRuiter manages to cover numerous destinations that I have now added to my list of places to see while telling absolutely hysterical stories about her time in each place.

My favorite stories were the one about her mom bringing a pickax through airport security and the time she and her husband went to Italy to meet her relatives and see the towns her grandparents grew up in. I laughed so hard at a section of the Italy story that I had to put the book down for a few minutes to recover. I also love that she is completely prepared for a zombie apocalypse.

The book ends with the following sentence about traveling which will stay with me for a long time: “Even if you don’t end up where you planned, you still might end up somewhere great.” This is a great motto to keep in mind when taking a trip, but even more broadly to remember in our day-to-day lives. I also have to mention that I was so excited to see in the Acknowledgements that DeRuiter shares my obsession with Hamilton. I was not aware of her blog but plan to locate it and start following it.

I am so glad I read this book and highly recommend it to everyone. It is a quick read that I finished in one sitting. Thanks to PublicAffairs and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.