On the bookshelf, #2008-04

Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman, by Alice Steinbach

This is the follow-up memoir to Without Reservations. From the bn.com site:

This funny and tender book combines three of Alice Steinbach’s greatest passions: learning, traveling, and writing. After chronicling her European journey of self-discovery in Without Reservations, this Pulitzer Prize—winning columnist for the Baltimore Sun quit her job and left home again. This time she roamed the world, taking lessons and courses in such things as French cooking in Paris, Border collie training in Scotland, traditional Japanese arts in Kyoto, and architecture and art in Havana. With warmth and wit, Steinbach guides us through the pleasures and perils of discovering how to be a student again. She also learns the true value of this second chance at educating herself: the opportunity to connect with and learn from the people she meets along the way.

Throughout the book, Alice traveled to many different countries to learn whatever it was that interested her. I enjoyed tagging along to Cuba, Japan, the Czech Republic, and Scotland as well as revisiting England, Italy and France with her. The thing I took away from both books was her ability to find kind souls and companions along the way. I found myself trying to remember how she sought people out and what she did to encourage conversations with strangers, things at which I’m not particularly adept.

Although I enjoyed this book very much, I did like the first better. In the first book, Alice seemed to be enjoying whatever the day brought her and exploring unknown streets and shops on a whim. In the second, she had a deliberate schedule and purpose. Maybe in my current state of mind, that whimsy just appeals to me more.