The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do
Humour, tragedy, realism and, of course, a happy beginning—this memoir has it all. I don’t know why I didn’t read this sooner.
Anh Do is a comedian who travelled to Australia at the age of two via a refugee boat from Vietnam. This memoir tells the story of his family and his experiences growing up as an Asian-Australian.
This book came highly recommended by so many people. It has earned multiple awards and accolades and has consistently been on the bestseller list since it was first released. I decided to find out for myself what the hype was all about.
Do’s family escaped Vietnam on a tiny boat in the 70s during the war. They went through all sorts of hardships—running out of food and water, running into pirates—before they made it to Malaysia and then finally Australia. When they arrived here, they didn’t have much and Do was pretty much raised by a single mum from the time he entered high school. The Happiest Refugee charts Do’s growing up, his beginnings as a comedian, and how he finally finds success, all with the support of his loving family.
I managed to read most of the book during my lunch hour. It is so easy to read, and Do’s narrative captured me from the first page…and I kept going and going.
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HipsterMattic by Matt Granfield
Matt Granfield’s adventures are eyerollingly funny with just the right touch of irony. But be careful. You might find a little bit of yourself in there.
One day, Matt Granfield’s girlfriend breaks up with him because ‘you don’t even know who you are!’ She also says a bunch of other things, but this is the one he takes to heart. He decides to make something of himself…by becoming the ultimate hipster. What follows is a hilarious satire through one man’s quest to be cool—no matter how.
What is a hipster? The term hipster is based on the word ‘hip’, which once upon a time referred to people in the know, or the cool kids who always did everything first. Nowadays it’s more of a derogatory term because while I firmly believe that everyone has a tiny bit of hipster in them (if only by definition) no one wants to be called one. These days they can be found in skinny jeans— the men wear skinnier jeans than the women—drinking black coffee and wearing vintage clothing.
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The Mango Orchard by Robin Bayley
A charming, entertaining and very easy to read. Perfect for the summer (if we had one!).
When Robin Bayley was little, his grandmother would regale him with stories about her father, who had gone to work in a weaving factory in Mexico. His adventures seemed so fantastical and amazing. Now an adult facing a crossroads in life, Bayley decides to set out and trace his grandfather’s steps, back to the mill near a small town near the river somewhere in Mexico. Along the way he ends up in places he doesn’t expect—Colombia, for instance!—he meets an interesting cast of characters, he falls in love, and in the end what he finds is more than he expects.
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How Now Brown Frau by Merridy Eastman
If you like funny, heartfelt memoirs, this one is for you. Meredith Eastman seems to have lived out her dream—successful career, great guy and a lovely family—and it’s always lovely to see that come true for someone.
At 41, Merridy Eastman had accepted that she would be single (and happy) for the rest of her life. Then she meets a lovely German while visiting Europe. A year later—also preggers—she moves to Bavaria to be with him and start a new life together. This is the story of her adventure.
I have to admit this book caught my eye based on the title alone. In real life I say ‘How now brown cow?’ to people instead of ‘What’s up?’ sometimes, a legacy of my school days when they had Hershey’s Brown Cow commercials. I read the back blurb and the first chapter and, always a sucker for funny travel memoirs, I got it.
Eastman, a former Play School presenter, writes a comedic, sometimes bittersweet tale of what it’s like to uproot yourself to a new country, learn a new language and fall in love with the country and its people, even if you can’t understand what they’re saying.
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Anonymums by Anonymous
A stocking filler for any mum struggling to remember who she was before she had kids or who one day realises she has a brand preference for cleaning sponges. Anonymums reveals some of our unspoken insecurities and fears with charm, wit and honesty.
The premise of this non-fiction book is simple. In an attempt to rediscover who they are outside of their roles as mother, wife and housekeeper, three mums agree to complete a dare and reveal a truth of the others’ choosing each month for two months. On the third month, they assign themselves a Big Dare. All the while, they reflect on their experiences and share it with the other two…and now with us.
Anonymums doesn’t try to be more than it is, and that’s its charm. Mums A, B and C—they remain anonymous to us—do things that any woman with kids, a husband and a mortgage may be prepared to do. As mid-life crises go, theirs are fairly inexpensive, harmless and non-fattening.
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Affection: a memoir of love, sex and intimacy by Krissy Kneen
Sometimes you find a book impossible to put down, not because of what it says about the world, but because of what it knows about you. Affection is that kind of book.
In Affection, Krissy Kneen intersperses past and present in brief but intense vignettes that readers of her blog, Furious Vaginas, may recognise. And yet the story flows—and does so lyrically, beautifully and at times enigmatically.
It begins with a playful tease—Kneen is bound, at her own request, in the middle of an otherwise perfectly domestic Sunday morning. ‘And that was just the sex part,’ she breaks off cheekily.
Kneen describes her childhood in Blacktown (NSW) and her teen years in Gladstone (Qld) almost always framed against the discovery of sexual pleasure—lying on the carpet, in a crawl space under the house, under her grandfather’s desk, on the beach—and her memories burst with texture.
When she leaves home to study in Brisbane, Kneen’s sexual exploration becomes more uninhibited and more complicated.
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Swept: Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
A book for anyone with a sense of adventure, whether you’re an armchair traveller or someone who wants to see more of the world.
While working overseas in San Francisco for a year, Australian girl Torre DeRoche meets a hot Argentinian in a bar. Their romance is meant to be just a temporary thing, but somehow she ends up sailing around the South Pacific with him, despite a complete fear of sailing. Will their love survive the open water?
I first heard of the fearful adventurer by following a series of links and connections via Twitter. DeRoche’s book had not yet been published, but her story seemed so interesting. I immediately tried to get the ending out of her via Twitter but no, I was not allowed to kill a fairy and had to wait for the book to come out. When it did, I promptly downloaded the book, loaded it on the Kindle on my iPhone and, mid-book, left my phone on a bus…but not before skipping to the ending and killing a fairy!
What I love most about this book is that it combines two of my passions—travel and romance.
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Chasing the Devil: On Foot through Africa's Killing Fields by Tim Butcher
Someday, when these countries have become whole again and the world remembers that they can be beautiful, I might find myself there, gazing out of their harbour, chilling with a beer. In the meantime, I’m content to let Butcher do all the walking.
In 2009, Tim Butcher set out to retrace Graham Greene’s journey, from his book, Journey without Maps, wherein which he walked from Sierra Leone to Liberia (with a bit of Guinea in between). Through his travelogue he recounts the history of both countries, the effects of war, as well as some vignettes from his time as a war correspondent.
I first discovered Butcher years ago, when I read his book, Blood River, about journeying to the mouth of the Congo. I was, at that time, looking for more books/travelogues on Africa and was happy to try his book out. I thought it was extremely well written and was moved enough to buy the next one when it came out.
The thing about Butcher’s books is that they don’t make you want to travel to where he’s been. On the contrary, they usually make me want to do the opposite.
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Lunch in Paris: A Delicious Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard
Well-written, poignant, and romantic. Each chapter comes with a few recipes, most of which feature in the story. I loved it all.
In line with Travel Tuesday (#traveltuesday) on Twitter, Wandergurl will review a travel book once a month.
Elizabeth Bard met her Frenchman at a conference, and later met up with him in Paris. On their first date, she slept with him before dessert. Thus begins Lunch in Paris, a beautiful story of romance, Paris, growing up and learning how to be an adult.
And, of course, there’s the food. All the glorious food. Each chapter comes with a few recipes, most of which have been described as part of the story.
And I really loved the romance:
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Vroom by the Sea by Peter Moore - Australian edition
An entertaining read about an enchanting part of Italy not always covered in travel books.
In line with Travel Tuesday (#traveltuesday) on Twitter, Wandergurl will be reviewing a travel book once a month.
Peter Moore is one of my favourite travel writers. I discovered him on a trip to Sydney in 2002, prompting me to return home with all his books at that time. He’s exceedingly funny and has a tendency to get himself into hilarious situations. When I found out that this book was released on Kindle, I just had to get it.
This book is a sequel of sorts to Vroom with a View, a book he wrote about travelling around Italy on a Vespa for his 40th birthday. This time around he takes a Vespa around southern Italy, partly to contemplate his impending fatherhood. There’s no need to read the previous book, as lord knows I didn’t remember much of it before reading this one. He does a good job of explaining any previous references.
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