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When I think of travel writing, I think of writers wearing cargo pants and pith helmets going to dangerous places so we don't have to. Alternatively, there's the kind of travel writer who wears tuxedos and knows wine and travels to place we'd like to, but can't afford to. There's some of that in this collection, The Best American Travel Writing 2013, edited by Elizabeth Gilbert, but the definition of travel writing becomes much more broad. There's even an article about a trip someone didn't take...
For many of us Fall means being cooped up in offices during the limited daylight hours, swaddling ourselves in layers of fabric and hunching over warm cups of tea. If you are like me, and long for an escape, then you find this time of year the perfect time to fantasize over future vacations in remote locales.What Best American Travel Writing 2013 offers readers is not just a collection of articles, but the feeling of having been there, experiencing the adventure with the author. Elizabeth Gilber...
This was my first time reading something from the 'Best American Series' (a few have sat on my kindle for over two years). I usually enjoy compilations with their inherent advantage of easily addressing and switching topics. However it took me much longer to read this book than it should have--mostly because it didn't capture my attention. Some were interesting but none were amazing--but maybe I am just not that familiar with travel writing? My favorites were: David Sedaris (Dentists Without Bor...
I usually don't read essay anthologies because the writing is uneven. I picked up this one because I enjoy Elizabeth Gilbert's writing and wanted to see what she enjoyed. The essays range from informative and thought-provoking (Colleen Kinder's two walks through Cairo, one in a burka, one in jeans), to humorous (David Sedaris' "Dentists Without Borders") to historical (Rich Cohen's exquisite history of New Orleans). I must have the same tastes as Elizabeth Gilbert! Yeah for me!
This selection of travel essays from 2013 runs the gamut from stultifying to fascinating, with the best being about a hike in Papua New Guinea, white women wearing a niqab in Cairo, dentistry in Paris, an obscure Vietnamese noodle recipe, a Tanzanian quack preacher, and -- best of all -- a grim tale of gold mining in Peru at 18,000 feet elevation. Elizabeth Gilbert edited this collection of The Best American Travel Writing 2013.
Elizabeth Gilbert has put together a marvelous collection of American writing. However, the anthology’s title, THE BEST AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITING 2013, to be known as TBATW in the rest of this review, should probably have TRAVEL removed to more accurately describe its contents.The contributors are fine writers with impressive credentials but only a few are known for their travel writing. Many of the entries do not seem to fit the travel genre, although every one of them is outstanding and I’m glad...
Picked this collection of short stories back up recently to finally finish the ones that I hadn't read back in college. There were some great ones, some surprising ones, and others that dragged. Overall, it was definitely worth the read.
This is a great little collection of essays and memoirs, plenty of gems among them. Many of them are very personal, although there are a few that are straight reporting. We go to little-known parts of the world, meet unusual people, and take part in unique and often demanding life-styles. The anthology covers many different ways of finding one’s place in the world. The first piece is about an Anglo guy traveling to Cuba to be with his wife’s family, and I totally identified with that, having mar...
I think the better name for this particular collection would be great travel reporting. Except for a few essays, this was just plain good journalism, enough of a novelty these days to be definitely worth reading. But the artistry in the writing, the shaping to an interesting point, or taking an idea and cleverly running with it, are only apparent in a few of these - Ian Frazier's piece on the shrinking of the remote, Judy copeland's about learning not to go it alone, Summerland about the familia...
No surprise that Elizabeth Gilbert and I don't really have overlapping styles - I preferred Vollman's choices last year, but my favorite so far were Bourdain's - but she did pick a few really good ones. David Sedaris is awesome, as always, as is Ian Frazier. The names I didn't know that I'll be following now are David Farley, for his story on a mysterious bowl of noodles in Vietnam, Colleen Kinder, for her story on walking through Cairo in a niqab, and Sam Anderson for his story about a failed D...
Some stories are interesting and well narrated, while others were a bit confusing- I wasn't sure what the key point the author was getting at. Overall, some interesting insights from the authors' experiences.
Just ok....
Favorites: Colleen Kinder - Blot Out (available online for free via the google FYI), Lynn Yaeger - Confessions of a Packing Maximalist, Peter Jon Lindberg - Summerland, Marie Arana - Dreaming of El Dorado, Ian Frazier - A Farewall to Yarns."I've also learned the difference between traveling and vacationing, two words that are often used interchangeably but means different things. A vacation typically involves travel, but travel is not always a vacation. Sometimes it's quite the opposite - fraugh...
