Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents by Elisabeth Eaves: Book Review and Giveaway

After reading Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents, I can tell you that Elisabeth Eaves lived up to my high expectations, capturing perfectly what it was like to experience the luxury of being young, beautiful (or in my case, sort of pretty), and free, traveling the world on a moments whim. I just to live that sort of life, and I can’t even begin to tell you how happy this book made me, as I’m stuck in my broken down body, without a car, or even a job to get me out of the house much these days. I always love going on an adventure, even if it is just one in my own mind.

I couldn’t help but remember what it was like in my own twenties, not being stuck in one spot in the real world, traveling (on a much smaller scale than her) as a flight attendant, working as a cocktail waitress, Cabana girl and bartender in Las Vegas, and visiting my Navy friend on every base he was stationed at. Unlike Eaves, I barely traveled the world, so I was quite impressed (and, undoubtedly fascinated) with her ability and fearlessness to travel to 5 continents in 15 years. I was completely engrossed in Elizabeth’s memoir, reading about her in exotic destinations such as Spain, where she worked as a nanny for a summer, or while she was living in Cairo, sailing to Fiji, working as a deckhand in New Zealand, backpacking across Australia, working as a diplomatic intern in Karachi, visiting Yemen, and hiking on a dangerous trail in New Guinea.

Eaves hits the nail right on the head when she wrote the following about what traveling is:

“Travel is life-changing. That’s the promise made by a thousand websites and magazines, by philosophers and writers down the ages. Mark Twain said it wad fatal to prejudice, and Thomas Jefferson said it made you wise. Anais Nin observed that “we travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” It’s all true. Self-transformation is what I sought and what I found.”

Her story is poignant, powerful, slightly disturbing, and exceedingly well-written. It isn’t your typical story of a girl falling in love while traveling the world–although, there are plenty of romantic encounters, and several painful partings. Wanderlust is the story of a girl slowly turning into a woman, discovering the world, before she learns to truly discovers herself.

I call it the perfect summer read, for those who want to experience a little exotic danger, infatuation, and desire, things most of us don’t get to experience in our own day-to-day lives all too often. As someone who once suffered from Wanderlust myself, I am thrilled to have been able to review this book, as well as host a giveaway. Eaves has triggered so many of my own travel memories, which is always a wonderful thing to relive and remember. If you can’t go out on your own adventure this summer, why not treat yourself to an adventure in your mind for a much more affordable price?

To purchase Wanderlust, visit Amazon.com now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Elisabeth Eaves is the author of Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping, and her travel essays have been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing, The Best Women’s Travel Writing, and A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures from Around the World. Her writing has also appeared in numerous publications, including Forbes, Harper’s, the New York Times, Slate, and the Wall Street Journal, on subjects ranging from lobbyists to lap dancing (but not in the same story). Eaves received a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and has lived all over the world. Born and raised in Vancouver, she lives in New York City.

WANDERLUST GIVEAWAY – 1 LUCKY WINNER

RULES:

**Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

**No P.O. boxes, please.

**Must include your email in your comment, unless you signed in to leave a comment with your “real” email.

**All comments must be separate to count as separate entries. For example, if you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, leave 2 comments, one with your Facebook name, and one with your Twitter name. Or, if you posted about the giveaway on your blog, leave 5 comments, all with the link to your giveaway.

**Please read the additional rules here.

HOW TO ENTER:

**Mandatory Entry: Go to Elisabetheaves.com or her Tumbler site, and tell me what fun or interesting thing you noticed there.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook. Make sure to leave your Facebook name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook and share a link on your wall with the following comment I entered The Girl from the Ghetto’s Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents by Elisabeth Eaves book giveaway here http://bit.ly/oPD3lD. Make sure to leave a comment below with a link to your Facebook profile message, or at least with your Facebook name.

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+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following RT @NerdGirlBlogger Enter the book #giveaway for Wanderlust by @ElisabethEaves here http://bit.ly/oPD3lD. You can tweet 4x a day (Once every 6 hours) for even more chances to win. Make sure to leave a link to your tweet in a comment below.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Subscribe to my blog via email or Feedburner.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Enter one of my other current giveaways and tell me which one.

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+1 MORE ENTRY: Add Wanderlust to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Comment here and tell me why you need to win this giveaway! Do you have Wanderlust, or love to travel? Do you enjoy reading in general, or, do you just love winning free stuff?

+5 MORE ENTRIES: Write about this giveaway on your own blog. Make sure to post a link to http://thegirlfromtheghetto.wordpress.com, and leave me 5 copies of your link via comment here.

Contest ends Thursday, July 14, 2011 at midnight. Good luck to you all!