Overall I enjoyed armchair traveling with Anthony Bourdain. The book is arranged alphabetically and offers quotes from Bourdain on his thoughts of the country and the places he ate. The collaborator Laurie Woolever worked with Bourdain and often fills in. Some countries also include essays written by others who traveled with him. I really enjoyed the essays written by his brother. However I found most of the getting there information unnecessary. That information is readily available online and will often become out of date quickly. I would rather have read more about the country and food by either Bourdain , those that traveled with him or the people who lives he impacted after his visit. There are sketches that illustrate the book but photographs would have been nice. The book was well written and very easy to read. Enjoy the armchair world tour.. . ..

This travel guide was awe inspiring. Anthony Bourdain got to see the most beautiful destinations and was such a beautiful person. All fans of his and all fans of travel should read this.

Loved this, I adored Anthony Bourdain, and this book reminded me of the humor he had and the pleasures to be found traveling, he continues to be sorely missed, and this read was one to treasure,

I would love to have finished this book, but it was removed from my device and archived before I finished it. As a follower of Anthony Bourdains cooking and travel adventures the loss of him to our world leaves a hole. I do look forward to purchasing the book and finishing it when it is published. I had to give it a star rating in order to submit this review. This is an incomplete star/review.

Let me put it out there, “World Travel: An Irreverent Guide” by Anthony Bourdain and Laura Woolever was one of my most anticipated travel guides coming out this year. I was counting down the days until its release in October, excited to read more about Anthony Bourdain’s insights on the world. So you couldn’t believe my excitement when I got my hands on an early copy of this guide for this review.

Until reading “World Travel: An Irreverent Guide”, I have never laughed while reading a travel guide. I’m an information junkie and I love travel guides. But they’re usually not this entertaining.


About World Travel: An Irreverent Guide

“World Travel: An Irreverent Guide” is less practical and more of an inspiration guide to some of Bourdain’s favorite places. This is a guide designed for Bourdain super fans and those inspired by his way of travels. It is full of wit, entertaining antidotes, and sprinkled with useful tips throughout. This is the type of book you keep on your bedside table. It’s the type of book you pick up from time to time to whisk you away to a new destination. It is full of inspirational tidbits that will encourage you to deep dive into the destination. This is a starting point that does not just show you the top of things to do in each destination. Rather it shows you how to experience these places a little further and a little fuller, just as Bourdain did.

Honestly, when I saw the title of this book with Anthony Bourdain printed boldly on the cover, I jump to the conclusion that this book included new writing by Bourdain himself. Perhaps there is something in the vault, something that had yet to be released, his last thoughts and words. Yet that wasn’t the case. While I was a bit disappointed at first because I allowed myself to hope for the impossible, I quickly began to appreciate this book for what it is.

This book encompasses a collection of Bourdain’s thoughts on each destination, in the form of quotes from his television series. While it doesn’t include new writing, it strings together bits and pieces of previous work to tell his story of each destination. The co-author meticulously chose quotes of Bourdain and added in additional practical information about each destination. Unless you have watched every episode of every Bourdain series, you probably haven’t memorized these quotes and destinations. And if you do have all these episodes memorized, I’m guessing that you love Anthony Bourdain so much that you will enjoy seeing these quotes and destinations presented in a new way.

It is not the most practical guide book. Rather it is an inspiring guide, whether you are deciding where to travel or want to experience some armchair travel. But that is why I love it! It has some practical bits of information and gives the reader some insight into how they could actually make a trip to that destination possible. (Where the destination is, how to get that, and all the good stuff.) But, more importantly, it’s interesting. For the most part, practical information changes all the time. It’s better to search for it online, where it can be updated more frequently.

This book took me a while to get through. I’m still reading and re-reading some chapters. It’s not that “World Travel: An Irreverent Guide” is uninteresting. It is actually too interesting. Every time I read a chapter, I find myself subsequently researching the destination and streaming the episodes that are highlighted in each chapter.

I really enjoyed this guide. However, my only issue about this guide book is that it is not really a book authored by Anthony Bourdain. It is a book about Anthony Bourdain and inspired by his travels. While he may have had insight into the structure of this book before his passing, this book is truly written by Laura Woolever. It is unfortunate that her byline is after Anthony Bourdain’s as she is the true author and sourced quotes from Anthony Bourdain’s previous works.

Anthony Bourdain's death left a void in the world of food adventure.  He has been mourned by many.  This book, however, provides a chance to celebrate Mr. Bourdain, the foods he ate and the places he went.  Starting with Argentina and progressing through the alphabet to Viet-Nam, this charmingly illustrated (with many line drawings) book offers riches to the reader.  Fans of Mr. Bourdain will be excited to see this one.  Credit to Laurie Woolever who clearly helped enormously to get this book out.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

As a lover of anything Anthony Bourdain, I wanted this just because his name was on the cover. Essentially it's just a guide book with information cherrypicked from his various tv shows. Although it contains his quotes, his essences and coolness don't translate onto the pages. Each city contains airport information, an excerpt from his show, and a few restaurants. The book wasn't bad but I wouldn't recommend it. Overall, it was disappointing but I did like the illustrations.

I received this book from NetGalley.

Having read other titles by Bourdain I looked forward to this book. To my disappointment it felt like it was entirely to light on Bourdain and too heavy on the tour book aspect. Short snippets of Anthony Bourdain quotes were followed by travel info. about the airport, the ground transport, the restaurants still in operation since he had visited. Not really what I expected.

“All of us, when we travel, look at the places we go, the things we see, through different eyes. And how we see them is shaped by our previous lives, the books we’ve read, the films we’ve seen, the baggage we carry.” Anthony Bourdain

A little over two years after his death, Anthony Bourdain is still teaching us about tasting and traveling with an open mind and fervent curiosity. As the month of his birth and death, June is considered a month to honor Bourdain and his legacy. My social media feeds have been filled with tributes to him by fellow chefs, journalists, and friends. His legacy is long-reaching in its impact on how we eat, how we travel, and what we value. His last book project will be hitting the shelves in October. It is billed as a travel guide, but for me, it read more like a love letter from Bourdain to all the places that changed him as an eater and person throughout his life. Written with his longtime assistant Laurie Woolever, the writer who also co-authored his last cookbook Appetites, it’s called World Travel: An Irreverent Guide.

“Maybe the world could use another travel guide, full of Tony’s acid wit and thoughtful observations and a few sly revelations of the mysterious contours of his battered heart, stitched together from all the brilliant and hilarious things he’d said and written about the world as he saw it.” Laurie Woolever

Do not buy this book to use as a travel guide. Buy this book to, just for a moment, immerse yourself once again in Bourdain’s gorgeously unapologetic prose. If you are familiar with his shows, you have heard this material before. That does not make it less impactful. Bourdain’s casual use of expletives and reverence for place and ingredients jump off the page. The best part for me though, was the inclusion of personal essays that give insight into Bourdain and his life. These interruptions to the narrative reveal the impact Bourdain had on the people in his life.

“Lyon brought out Tony’s softness. Lyon likes to see itself as “the gastronomical capital of the world,” and, whether justified or not, there is no question that the city takes its food very seriously. This is what humbled Tony, the city’s reverence for the meal.” Bill Buford on Lyon with Tony

“We got the food bug, the travel bug, and the understanding that you could hang out with people from foreign countries, and learn things, and take pleasure in coming to understand them. This is where it all started.” Christopher Bourdain on their first trip to France

“Through my work, I’m developing creative content that’s centered on Korean culture. Everything I do is through that lens now. Tony was the person who unlocked that for me. He helped me realize what I want to do as a creative person, and as a person, period. He fundamentally changed me.
Thank you, Tony.” Nari Kye

These are some words from a few of the essays, but a picture of Anthony Bourdain begins to emerge from these snippets. He was generous. He was respectful of traditions. He was adventurous from an early age. He also recognized his position as teller of the stories of the places he traveled to and acknowledged his privilege and responsibility to get it right. The book reveals the tremendous research Bourdain did before each location. It is filled with bits of history and politics of places such as Kenya where he outlines the nascent days of hunter-gatherers, to the oppressive British Colonialism, finally to the burgeoning middle class and multilingual professional sector. Each country and city highlighted has this backstory information, but also offers advice on where to stay, where to eat, and what to do while there. The book does cover places Bourdain went for his shows, but also contains updated information on all of the restaurants, hotels, and off-the-beaten-path places.

I bookmarked some of these stops for my own future travels. Like his insight on hotels in France…
“Me, I always stay at L’Hotel in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés. A very discreet joint known for being a love shack to the tragically hip for ages. Even more important, it has the necessary distinction of having had famous people die there. In 1900, the author Oscar Wilde kicked the bucket in room 16. . . . This was his last base of operations for a legendary three-year bender that ended badly.” With that description how can you not check in here?

Or this nugget on how to get around in London…
“Something you should know—never take a minicab, only black cabs. Black cabs have a meter. You know how much you’re paying. Plus, not only do they know where they’re going, but they know alternate ways to get there. Minicabs, they pretty much charge whatever the hell they like, and the likelihood that they know where they’re going is remote in the extreme.”

And to seal the deal on his greatness, he has bookstore recommendations. My bookish heart is full, and can’t wait to check this spot out.
“It’s not all beef, muscle cars, and classic cocktails in LA. There’s a particular pleasure to be found at Book Soup...Their every shelf is personally curated by the well-read staff. They have an amazing and esoteric collection of unsurpassed LA-related weirdness. A great and rare pocket of wonderful and strange and beautiful. And they’re a major stopover for all the heavy-hitting authors to read.”

Then he hit me with a spot in Georgia close to my heart, The Clermont Lounge. It is seedy. It is dark. It is a stripclub. It is must-do when in Atlanta. Bourdain thought so too...

“The best, the finest, the most uniquely weird and wonderful beloved Atlanta institution, is the Clermont Lounge. This place should be a national landmark. The most beloved institution in the entire city, a place of Renaissance-era beauty and erotic and sophisticated nightlife, where the shots flow out in tiny, plastic cups. It’s not like other strip clubs. It’s operating on a whole other level.”


As fun as this guide is, there is a greater message to Bourdain’s words and life. He knew he was the voice for the cultures he visited and he took his role as their storyteller seriously. He recognized he may be the only voice these stories may have. He acknowledged this perhaps best in an interview with CNN about the Kenya episode of Parts Unknown, “Who gets to tell the stories? This is a question asked often. The answer, in this case, for better or for worse, is, ‘I do.’ At least this time out. I do my best. I look. I listen. But in the end, I know: it’s my story, not Kamau’s, not Kenya’s, or Kenyans’. Those stories are yet to be heard.”

Anthony Bourdain’s offered us a view into places and people many of us will never see up close. He allowed us into his private world of exploration. He irrevocably changed the way we tell stories about food and travel.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a devoted Bourdain fan, I was excited to read Ms. Woolever's compilation. My expectations were probably misplaced, because World Travel is more like a world travel guidebook for Bourdain devotees, and quite difficult to follow in galley form. I will use this book as a source when looking for an adventure abroad or even close to home, a reminder of high points in Mr. Bourdain's journey, and who wouldn't want to pop in and follow AB's footsteps if in the vicinity? I'm personally grateful for Ms. Woolever's work creating this book, and ever and always grieve the lose of Anthony Bourdain's eyes to go where I have not gone before.

I would have loved reading the book being a huge fan of Bourdain. But I neither could download it nor send it to my kindle. Even after I asked Netgalley for an alternative. The star rating is only for the publisher and doesn*t reflect a review of the book

I'm perfectly aware that I'm rating this book fueled by wistfulness for the voice of a man who always showed the best of the world and its food. Because I would have probably not even finished reading it if almost any other name were attached to this 'travel guide'.
It began as a nugget of an idea and several hours of initial planning and discussion between Bourdain and Laurie Woolever, a writer/editor who had collaborated with Bourdain on previous books, a year before Bourdain's passing.
Sadly, laying out what places he wanted to talk about and giving a general idea of what to talk about in each place seems to be his only contribution. This is more of a greatest hits journal of Bourdain's travels over the many years of making television. It's laid out by country and city and it does give you basic information on how to get somewhere and move around once there, but the bulk of the book is mostly quotes taken directly from the shows. Things an avid binger of No Reservations, The Layover, and Parts Unknown already knows.
One of the things that flesh out the page count are essays from people he traveled with. These are the parts that I found most interesting. I would read an entire book of nothing but fellow chefs, family members, fixers, and collaborators writing about the experience of visiting places with someone as enthusiastic (albeit grumpily) about visiting places and eating well.
Overall, it's not actually a travel guide (irreverent or not) and it's not really a Bourdain book beyond being a collection of his quotes, but it does remind a fan of how great visiting parts unknown and having no reservations about eating there is a great way to live.

The world lost a treasure when Anthony Bourdain passed. His food writing, travel expertise, and general irreverence are always delightful. However, this book is like a set of appetizers when you crave a full meal. It does a little bit of a lot of things - some pull quotes from Bourdain's episodes, some essays eulogizing him, some travel information with pricing/addresses/telephone info. It isn't comprehensive enough to be a standalone travel guide to any location, but you could easily use it to get general travel ideas or ideas of what Bourdain episode to watch and then dive into a different guidebook or a main episode from there. I was left a bit hungry, although it does well given that we don't have the man himself.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The travel and food worlds feel a little less bright without Anthony Bourdain, but this book is like getting to hear from him one last time.

This is a love letter to travel, culture, food, and all that goes with it! Anthony Bourdain, with his extensive travel history has the experience and storytelling ability to allow this to be the quintessential guide to travel. You get a glimpse into how he researched places for a trip, actual travel experiences, information about each place, the people there, and of course, the food. What I loved about this book was how it was broken out by country and then the cities in that country. You can skip around through this book based on your interest and that makes it an appealing travel guide. If you like personal anecdotes and travel information above and beyond just the stark facts, information that gives you a picture of the look, feel, and taste of a place, then you'll enjoy this book. This is a great tribute to Anthony Bourdain's life and travel!

This book is a patchwork quilt, putting together stories and remembrances. It reads as much more of a travel guide than his other works. I like the choices that Woolever made. The destinations are interesting and dynamic. I think those who've read Bourdain's books will be surprised, but not unpleasantly so.

This has less “story” than I wanted. I hope that it isn’t just a way to make money on Bourdain, as it was not the tone I would normally expect.

I really enjoyed this book. My wandering heart discovered so many different countries...and cities within those countries that I'd never considered before. Mr. Bourdain's honest reviews which are littered with colorful language (hints the Irreverant part of the title....I love it!) you can really picture yourself there, enjoying different dishes, drinking fabulous wines, and even staying in family owned establishments going back decades. I only wish Mr. Bourdain was still with us to add more insights and stories.

In the foreword, Laurie Woolever discusses the one and only planning meeting she and Bourdain were to have to set up the format and content of a new book- one year before Tony’s death.
As you travel back in time, sharing the stories of Bourdain’s world wide culinary and other escapades with his crew, friends, chefs and brother, his words are bolded - swooning, wisecracking, praising, irreverent words you would probably recognize anyway as only his.
These destination reviews are small bites, not a meal, but taken as a whole, Laurie Woolever has brought it all together as a grand feast and Bourdain legacy. It’s a travel taste of how, where, when, why, what and who. He did his research, traveled, told us what it was all about, and left it up to us.

I enjoyed it. Fans of Anthony Bourdain will get a book they aren't expecting. It is more of a travel guide. I wonder how different it would be if Bourdain had been alive to finish it.