Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman, by Alice Steinbach
From the bn.com site:
Finding her identity increasingly tied to her settled, routine life, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alice Steinbach sought to rediscover herself, to leave everything behind for a while. Impulsively, Steinbach decided to fly to Europe, alone, to “get back into the narrative” of her life. In her wonderful book, Without Reservations, Steinbach tells the story of her adventures as an independent woman traveler in France, England, and Italy. Capturing her trip in beautiful, insightful postcards written to herself, which are included in the book, Steinbach reaches toward an understanding of her long-lost inner self. Delving into the historical background of each place she visits and evoking literary spirits at every turn, Steinbach is a great writer and tour guide rolled into one.
Doesn’t that sound wonderful? I would give anything to have the means and the nerve and the time to travel around Europe for a year. But then I would almost give anything to have a week off work, so don’t go by me.
This was a beautifully written book that transitioned seamlessly from memoir to travelogue and back to memoir again. Ms. Steinbach wrote so eloquently that I could see the places she visited and almost hear the voices of the people she met. I would recommend this to anyone who loves to travel, has a desire to get away from their daily lives for a while, or simply wants to experience Europe vicariously through these pages. The only disappointment in this book was that it had to end.
My next book, that I’m already unable to put down, is Ms. Steinbach’s follow-up memoir, called Educating Alice. For it, she took two years off and traveled the world, taking classes and learning about anything she found interesting. I can already tell, just a few pages in, that I am going to love it just as much.
