For all of us that have dead Mothers this is a love letter written for the author's Mother. Over a series of travels the author documents her amazing trips to all the places her Mother wanted to go. I can relate as my Mother never got the opportunity to travel either. This is a great travel account yes but its also written with love and remembrance.

Braver Than You Think: Around The World On The Trip of My (Mother’s) Lifetime - Maggie Downs

Rating 5 / 5 Stars

**Thank you to Netgalley, Counterpoint, and of course, Maggie Downs for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Braver Than You Think was born out of suffering and grief. In 2010, Downs took an inexpensive trip to places her mother had always wanted to see but was now suffering from the late stages of Alzheimer’s. A reporter from Palm Springs and newly married, Downs starts her journey with her new husband, Jason as a form of Honeymooning. But then the changes come and Jason returns to work. Maggie is left to make her way through South America, Asia, and Africa - all on her mother’s bucket list. Braver details her experiences filled with low budget living, paying for food via volunteering, and solo travel thoughts.

While at a yoga retreat in Egypt, her mother passes. She describes those she had come to know trying to help her through the pain. After returning for the funeral, she sets off for more adventure - but were they for her or her mother? Was she escaping from some deep-seated thoughts?

Downs writing is exceptional and flows perfectly - something I enjoy when reading about traveling. The funny and lively moments mix with the deep and sad ones focused on her mother’s illness and death.

All in all, this book fulfilled everything it set out to do.

As a traveler, I will be picking this up again in the future. It seems to be a book that can mean different things to a person at different stages of their life.

I do not know if I would have the bravery to take the trip that Maggie Downs took over the course of 1 year. In this time of Covid-19 and social distancing, this book satiated a bit of my wanderlust. It reminded me a little of The Yellow Envelope by Kim Dinan. I enjoyed learning more about some of the places I've never thought about visiting before.

First, I really liked the title of this book and I thought it was appropriate for the story. I loved reading about the travel and how it read like a travel memoir. This took us a lot Of places that had meaning in the world and for her and her mother. I believe this was more about learning more about yourself, honor, and bravery. I would definitely read something else by this author and I would recommend this to a friend

I really enjoyed this book. Maggie Downs is an engaging writer, and it's a fast read that does a good job transporting you to different places. I also appreciated her own reflections on her family, mother's illness, and growing up. I have also been fortunate to engage in long-term travel and it captures the rootlessness and inspiration that comes from those experiences. However, I have two major issues to bring up. Firstly, Maggie volunteers at a number of different NGOs/non-profits during her travels. I don't know about the specific non-profits and think that it's possible volunteer ethically with rescued animals, but overwhelmingly, I want people to know that voluntourism is a dangerous practice and overall very bad. I wanted Maggie to make that clear for potential people that wanted to follow in her footsteps, but unfortunately she did not. Secondly, I've traveled to the majority of places Maggie goes and she far overstates some of the danger in some of them. I understand that this was for dramatic effect but it did rub me the wrong way. However, these minor flaws did not take away from my enjoyment of the book overall, and would recommend it for anyone interested in reading travel memoirs.

Downs' memoir explores her grief as her mother descends into late-stage Alzheimer's disease. Knowing her mother cannot finish her own bucket list, and that there are destinations they will not visit together as they'd hoped, she sets off on a year-long excursion that takes her to several continents. The memoir is written chronologically for the most part, but as people and places bring her mother to mind, she reflects organically on the person her mother was and their close relationship.

Many travel memoirs have a whiff of entitlement or can feel flighty, but Downs' book is weighted with more gravitas, both because of her mother's illness and in how she approached her travels. Downs traveled on a limited budget and often stopped to volunteer along the way. There is also a balance between visiting touristy locales and less-visited spots such as genocide memorials in Rwanda. Downs never shies away from sharing her negative experiences, either, whether in facing illness, danger, or grief. I found the ending a but rushed, but all in all, this a very approachable and compelling memoir and I hope to read more from Downs in the future.

In this combination travel book and memoir, author Maggie Downs expertly weaves together the story of her mother's death from Alzheimer's with her year long journey around the world to deal with her grief. She frames the journey as a trip to places her mother would have wanted to go if she could, but this is clearly Maggie's own journey through the pain of losing her mother over a ten year period.

Maggie's journey is both exciting and gritty. The book begins with sky diving and gets more exciting. She travels first to Peru and Bolivia, then heads off to South Africa, Northeast Africa, and Egypt. She lives the life of a backpacker - living on little money, staying in youth hostels and awful hotels, and volunteering to do difficult work with monkeys and elephants. At one point, she accepts a gig as a radio host of a country music station and fakes a Southern accent.

This is one of those books I stayed up way too late reading on several occasions. My only criticism of the book is that it got to be a little anticlimactic after her mother inevitably dies from Alzheimer's. And the only thing that gets her back home for good is jury duty???? However, the first 80% of the book was so good, it gets a five star rating from me! Highly recommended.

When Maggie considered her mother lost to Alzheimers, she quit her journalist job, left the country with her brand new husband, and then continued on without him on a journey through 16 more countries. Along the way she describes all she encounters, from the people, flora, fauna and her own thoughts - colorfully, honestly and with humor. Downs is a remarkable travel writer, I loved her descriptions of places I've been as much as those I haven't yet.

Maybe if I weren't living overseas for the last four years, a continent away from my parents and siblings and their issues and losses, and feeling wracked with guilt about it, maybe then I'd be able to read this and enjoy the beauty of it more. But as it is, I'm afraid I've projected my own guilt onto Maggie, fixated not on her own adventures but rather about her sister and father who are left behind, dutifully visiting the mother slowly disintegrating in Ohio. I can't say for a fact what I would do in her place, if my mother were dying of Alzheimers, so I do feel bad judging her for taking off. But after her mother died and she wrote about that loss so searingly and eloquently I forgave her. "Though we will continue after she's gone, our family will only be the remains of something that once was. We will always yearn to be whole again." She writes with the same veracious conviction about how hard marriage can be. And I feel strongly that her final message for those worried about inheriting Alzheimers is a beautiful one, "Jason and I decided risk was a better path than regret."

Braver Than You Think: Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother’s) Lifetime by Maggie Downs is a travel memoir. Maggie is anticipating a grieving process as her mother nears the end of her life due to Alzheimer's disease. She decides to take a year of her life and travel in honor of her mother to all the places her mom had wanted to visit. Maggie is not really emotionally prepared for the hardships of travel at the beginning of the trip. There are times of joyful insight and other times of deep despair during Maggie's travels. "In the midst of chasing life, I'll have discovered I am mortal, decidedly so, and that has to be enough. I will be fragile, I will be sorrowful, I will be wounded, and I will be capable of finding pinpricks of light among the darkness."
Many times Maggie wrestled with the knowledge that her mother had to linger for ten years with this debilitating disease. I enjoyed reading about the places she visited. I was surprised that many of the areas Maggie stayed were places which had been war-torn and harbored sadness among the people, such as Rwanda. Some destinations were not a pleasure trip for sure!
I loved her descriptions of the approach at Macchu Picchu. Her experience listening to the prayers and hymns on the top of Mount Sinai was beautifully written. A touching tribute to the love she has for her mother.
Publication Date: May 12, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Absolutely beautiful a book that brought me to tear.s Maggie Downs quits . her job and honors her mother who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. by traveling to places in the world her mother always dreamed of visiting..Have tissues nearby when you read this moving travel memoir.#netgalley#catapult books.

I looked forward to reading this book. This is the author’s memoir of the trips she took, trips that she and her mother had dreamed of experiencing. Before I started the book I imagined, “Oh how splendid. I will get to be an arm-chair traveler. I hope we go to Paris, Florence, Sydney, maybe even Moscow or Budapest. Little did I know…”

Turns out that Ms. Down’s adventures were amazing. She went to places I would never have dream of going. She began in South America with a hike (not a bus ride) to Machu Picchu, and then on to Bolivia and Venezuela. Then, all on her own, she was off to Africa, South Africa, Rwanda and Uganda. Then she followed the Nile to Egypt and Jordan. India beckoned next, which led the author to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam Nam, and Korea including the DMZ where she could see N.Korea. She stayed in hostels, and had incredible experiences with people whoever she went. She also volunteered and worked with elephants, monkeys, as well as tutoring young women. She even hiked to see the Mountain Apes in Rwanda. I’m not a brave traveler like she was, but I would love to see those families of apes.

Ms. Downs had a successful career in journalism. Why did she leave her job, and new husband to travel the world? Because of her mother. She and her mother were close, and when she was a young girl, they would both read the National Geographic from cover to cover each month and dream of all the wonderful places. Tragically, her mother suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s for ten years. Ms. Down’s journey was in honor of her mother. She would see and experience what her mother could not.

The book is beautifully written and balanced. There is enough detail about each locale- the sights, sounds, colors, tastes…but not too much. There are flashbacks to her mother’s story- just the right amount. We learn and feel the author’s pain, worries, sorrows, joys, but are not overwhelmed. We are inspired, but not lectured to.

Ms. Down learns from her adventures. In a beautiful moment, she sees that perhaps her mother had lived a fulfilling life after all. That the journey was for herself and her future. A mesmerizing and emotional story that I highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and Counterpoint Books for an advance review copy. This is my honest review.

Downs is indeed brave, doing something I have only dreamed of doing. She quits her job, sells her things and embarks on a one woman trip around the world. The trip is bittersweet as Downs visits the place her Alzheimer stricken mother has only dreamed of; Egypt, India, Bolivia and more. The story of her travels is woven with her coming to terms with the loss of her mother, and I had to put the book aside a couple of times because losing a parent is something I am also struggling with. This beautiful travel memoir is a love letter to Downs’s remarkable mother and her indomitable spirit, something she has obviously passed on to her daughter