All Over the Place

"All Over the Place" is a travel book, except that the travel is at least as much internal as it is external.  Geraldine DeRuiter has transformed her popular blog, The Everywhereist, into a book that chronicles her trajectory from unemployment to travel blogger to brain-tumor-survivor to someone who's come to understand her family, her marriage, and herself.  Well, at least a little bit better than she did before.

As she freely admits at the beginning of the book, this isn't the kind of travel writing that explains to you how to save money in Sweden or avoid food poisoning in Fiji.  Instead, it's the kind of travel writing where the trips serve as jumping-off points for musings on the meaning of life.  If that sounds heavy, stuffy, or boring, it's not: DeRuiter's zany sense of humor comes bubbling out irrepressibly at every juncture, whether she's describing her mother's attempt to bring a pickax through airport security shortly after 9/11 (I may have cried a little during that scene, I laughed so hard), or the difficulties she and her husband face to preserve the happy state of their marriage under the pressure of her recovery from brain surgery and his inhumanly long work hours.  There are also stories of her semi-successful attempts to understand her parents, both immigrants to the US, by returning to their original or adopted hometowns in Italy and Germany, as well as various alcohol-fueled bathroom mishaps in restaurants and hotels.  Although the madcap adventures are presented in non-chronological order, the book's trajectory traces a gentle arc from 20-something Geraldine's neuroses to 30-something Geraldine's slightly calmer and more accepting approach to life, as she comes to the important realization that getting lost is not the worst thing that can happen to you, and sometimes it might take you where you really need to go.  In turns heartwarming and hilarious, "All Over the Place" is one of the best travel books I've read in a long time.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a review copy of this book.  All opinions are my own.

All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft by Wendy Kopp isn't your typical travel book. It is an unconventional travel memoir filled with mishaps and laughter along the way. The author doesn't quit her job, she gets fired. This sets her off on her misadventures in travel and life.

Wendy is traveling with her friend Kati to Italy. They end up sick in their vacation but learn something along the way. They see a beautiful area of Italy.

In this memoir Wendy meets the love of her life, and no, not in Italy, in Seattle. This memoir is filled with interesting characters. Such as the author's mother, who takes a pick ax aboard a plane; who gets them out of being strip searched.

Wendy does not know directions to save her life so she often gets lost. Despite this, at her husband's advice she starts a travel blog and goes with her husband, Rand, on his work trips.

This is not your everyday travel book. If you are looking for a laugh or a journey that is filled with misadventure and lessons learned, this book is for you.

I highly recommend this book and would give it five out of five stars. I think it is great for a laugh and a new look at travel. It is filled with life lessons and truths found along the way. Maybe getting lost isn't so bad.

All Over the Place had me laughing so hard at times that I had tears streaming down my face.  Geraldine DeRuiter has written a travel memoir unlike any other travel memoir that I have read, and the result is fabulous.  She writes about both her travels around the world and her own internal journey through brain cancer, spousal trouble, and dealing with her hilarious mother (more hilarious when you are not the one having to deal with her I am sure).  DeRuiter manages to cover numerous destinations that I have now added to my list of places to see while telling absolutely hysterical stories about her time in each place.

My favorite stories were the one about her mom bringing a pickax through airport security and the time she and her husband went to Italy to meet her relatives and see the towns her grandparents grew up in.  I laughed so hard at a section of the Italy story that I had to put the book down for a few minutes to recover.   I also love that she is completely prepared for a zombie apocalypse.

The book ends with the following sentence about traveling which will stay with me for a long time: “Even if you don’t end up where you planned, you still might end up somewhere great.”   This is a great motto to keep in mind when taking a trip, but even more broadly to remember in our day-to-day lives.  I also have to mention that I was so excited to see in the Acknowledgements that DeRuiter shares my obsession with Hamilton.  I was not aware of her blog but plan to locate it and start following it.

I am so glad I read this book and highly recommend to everyone.  Thanks to PublicAffairs and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a beautiful surprise was reading this book. After the first page I was already thinking "I need to buy this book for my daughter". After the second page I was thinking: "I'm buying this book as a Christmas present to all my friends." It was like that, all throughout the book. The only time I stop reading was to think on who  I can give or recommend this book. I was first hooked because it is so funny. Laughing out loud funny. But it gets even better, there are fantastic live lessons on learning to love/understand your family and yourself and coping with some  tough things like a brain tumor.
It was a delight to feel the love the author has for her husband and vice versa.
I cried (happy cry) all through the end of the book, but probably because the subject hit home or maybe not. I guess I won't know until I talk to someone else that have read this book. 
I think this book was perfect. Great beginning, fantastic ending.
I'm so exited to have discover such a terrific author.

Geraldine deRuiter is the writer behind The Everywhereist, a funny and quirky travel blog. She started writing about her travel, and often her ineptitude in accomplishing it, after losing her job to the recession and thus was free to accompany her husband, a workaholic SEO entrepreneur, to his various conferences and speaking engagements throughout the U.S. and around the world. Her self-deprecating sense of humor and unlimited openness about her mistakes and wrong turns coupled with her helpful insights and surprisingly deep meditations and observations on life, love, and the world we live in make it clear why the blog is as popular as it is.

I'm not familiar with her blog though, and I sometimes shy away from travel memoirs if they're too shlocky or chick lit-y. I worried this one might have the potential to be so, thanks to the martini on the cover and "true love" in the subtitle. How wrong I was.

I'm also never looking for funny books, I think it's a sign of great writing when an author makes you laugh in the course of their storytelling, but I hate a try-too-hard comedic book. Luckily, this avoids that too (mostly) and actually managed to be laugh-out-loud funny in several parts. The petty theft incident referred to in the subtitle, at a sanrgia-soaked dinner in Spain, is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Maybe because it's so strangely relatable

I was also completely mistaken in thinking this would be mainly travel-centric, it was not.  I should've known when early on, she professed that her enemy is everyone's favorite (at least, grudgingly accepted) bland and organized travel book guide author Rick Steves. Travel certainly figures in, but much is about DeRuiter's family and stories from her personal life, making it much more a collection of memoirist's essays than a standard travel memoir.

The combination is just right - she manages to explain that elusive, near-magical ability of the right kind of travel at the right times in the right (also sometimes the wrong) places - to help you learn more about yourself and where you came from and the people you were born to and found along the way. 

In her disclaimer, Geraldine quickly disabuses us of any notion we might have that she, a well-liked travel writer, will give us a useful travel book.

So if this book by a travel writer is not about travel or about finding romance somewhere along the road, then where does that leave us? These last six years have taught me a great number of things, though being able to read a map is not one of them...I have learned about my family and myself, about losing my job and brain tumors and lost luggage and lost opportunities and just getting lost, in countless terminals and cabs and hotel lobbies around the globe.

What she does write is a book that showcases her quirks, her flaws perceived and otherwise, and her strategies or lack thereof as she navigates the post-employment landscape, figuring out what and where exactly her place in the world is supposed to be. It's a struggle many of us can relate to, and it helps that she's an easy, vastly readable writer, with a bold sense of humor and a warts-and-all mentality about her decisions and experiences.

Believe it or not, I didn't realize that my journeys...were going to lead to all this introspection about and understanding of the people closest to me. At the start, my plan was to eat a lot of cake and do my best not to cause any international incidents.

In all honesty, can any of us really hope for anything more in our travels? With all that can go wrong, I think not. (see: her Air France experiences, which gave me secondhand anxiety, although that might be because I have the same fiery hatred for one airline and its demonic employees flown straight out of hell, but it's American Airlines.)

Although a joke here or there occasionally goes too far (please never refer to a baby's "tiny vagina" even if it's your own, and can we please call a moratorium on any mention ever again of the zombie apocalypse? Is it some kind of hipster literary keyword? She's better than that and we're all better than that! Let's not use that tired, crutch of a joke anymore! As a generation we're going to look back on this and regret it! Now I've bitched and let's never speak of this stupid zombie apocalypse joke ever again.)

But for the most part, she annotates her experiences and stories with lines that both poke fun at her choices with the wisdom of hindsight and introspection while still subtly acknowledging that she'd do the same all over again, if given the chance: "...it's always a good idea to spread your drunken grief across two continents, if you can."

In a secondhand way, the more you read of her experiences makes you think about your own. And there's a familiar comfort in much of what she says, in words both clear and sentimental, about figuring out life and yourself even if you're attempting it all without a map. Making lots of wrong turns are ok. It happens. Keep going, and don't forget to fall in love with your hometown while you're at it.

"That said, getting lost isn't the worst thing in the world: If you are trying to find yourself, it's a great place to start."

All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft by Geraldine DeRuiter
This memoir, was written with a lot of humor, which had me laughing out loud at times. Even during her hard times, she tried to make light of her situations.
Even though this was labeled a travel book, it is not your normal travels book, as the authors stories are more about how she reacted to the places she went, about her internal fears and inadequacies, more than  about the descriptions of the countries. After losing her job, she started a blog and decided to travel with her husband who traveled a lot for work. 
What I loved about this story was the love the author and her husband have for one another, and his acceptance of her quirkiness, and his ability to go with the flow.. 
Well written with great tales of family get-togethers, and of her need for a closer connection with her father, mother, brother and extended relatives. This story takes us on a comical, yet also serious journey to reconnect with not only herself, and her husband, but also that of her extended family. 
I would definitely recommend this book.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Perseus Books Group, Public Affairs Books for the ARC of this book.

All Over the Place is a great book!  It's an hysterical read, and I found myself laughing out loud throughout the book, especially since her stories are so relateable.  We've all been sick in a hotel room or stuck in an unfamiliar city with no clue where to go, and if you've missed out on these experiences, you can live them through Geraldine DeRuiter's stories.  This is not your average travel book with recommendations on where to stay or eat, but more of a memoir of her adventures.  

Geraldine lets you into her head as she travels with her beloved husband and starts her blog, The Everywhereist.  You see the good, the bad, and the ugly of their love story, marriage and travel adventures.  She manages to tell even the most personal and difficult stories with humor and wit, including her journey through a brain tumor and its aftermath.  

The book is set in chapters that each tell a different story, but it never felt disjointed and I looked forward to the next adventure.  The descriptions of the places she goes made me want to book a plane ticket!  The story of her Italian mom as she takes her pickax through airport security left me in tears of laughter.  You'll love the story set in Barcelona and the one set in Italy, where she tries to find her relatives in a small Italian village.

Geraldine is terrified of getting lost, but in the end she finds that "not all who wander are lost".  She reminds me of my own mother, who frequently got lost and told me "just look at what you would have missed if we hadn't gotten lost!"

I highly recommend this book for both actual and armchair travelers.

Oh, my God. Any book that makes me laugh so hard on a plane that I snort, and the people in front of me turn around to see what's wrong - well, that's a good book. And you should read it. DeRuiter is more or less me, and her husband is, without a doubt my husband, B. She gets into trouble, he rescues and loves her. This book is about the travels, but it's as much about her relationships with her various family members and especially her husband. The hysterical combines with the poignant to make a wonderfully balanced book that you want to read again and again. 5/5 stars.

This book was just what I expected as a long-time fan of The Everywhereist blog - humorous and heartfelt.  Geraldine doesn't explore a particular culture in depth or quit her job to move to France; instead, she expresses how travel has influenced her life, helping her to make sense of her relationship with her family, her husband, and herself.  It's full of outlandish (couldn't believe what airport security found in her mother's purse) anecdotes, self=deprecating humor, and honest admissions about herself and her anxiety.  Her honesty and unpretentiousness (spell check is telling me this is not a word, but I'm going with it) are part of what makes her blog so special and the same can be said of this book.  Read it if you plan on traveling this summer, if you always eat dessert, or if you just love a good love story (who doesn't?).

First of all I was totally drawn to this book by its beautifully designed, eye catching cover!  Judging a book by its cover has got me into trouble in the past.  However I am happy to report this was not the case with All Over the Place.  Until I started reading it I was unfamiliar with Geraldine's blog, The Everywhereist,  but have since checked it out and joined her mailing list.  Yes, I am officially a fan!
If you are looking for a standard travel memoir this may not be the book for you.  However if you want to experience traveling through the eyes of Geraldine you are in for one hell of a good ride.  Side splittingly funny and deep and meaningful all at the same time.
My favorite quote from the book is "Sometimes you can’t see the path you’re on. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one". 
Read it, recommend it to friends.  You will not be disappointed.

Thank you to PublicAffairs and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the ‘travel book’ I never knew I needed.  Geraldine is a storyteller who is good at making you laugh, mostly by telling you about how she messed up.  I felt like a kindred spirit.  Sort of an anxiety themed Namaste:  The neurotic mess in me honors the neurotic mess in you.  This was another one of those books I learned the hard way not to read in bed after my Husband was asleep.  Trying to suppress my laughter just made my entire body shake, which in turn shook the bed and woke him up.  Oh well.

While Geraldine talked about traveling a lot, most of the book was not focused on it.  This was no meticulous guide to finding the best flight prices or highest rated restaurants, and she was very up front about this not being that kind of book.  Travel was generally the canvas on which she painted her stories.  This is a ‘travel book’ that is really a fun and funny installment for a memoir.  I hope she writes more volumes.

While most of this book was funny there were some poignant parts.  These made the funny parts even more funny, just as they do in life.  I am definitely going to follow her blog, Everywhereist.com.  This is a book that will live on my electronic bookshelf so I can read a chapter whenever I need a giggle.  Pick it up, read it, love it.  I did.

This is a travel book, sure, but it's also a loose manual for living, and under Geraldine's tutelage, one feels ok living exactly as one is: haphazardly but fully, embracing that your plans can be undone in the blink of an eye, or they can work out to the letter, but ultimately you'll get somewhere regardless.  Her familial relationships with her husband and mother and father drive the heart of this, as well as her extremely well-placed, zany sense of humor.  A fun, different read and a great new nonfiction voice!

It's very rare that an author can combine a personal memoir with travel and do it right. 
This is one of those books. 
It's worth the purchase just to read the chapter about the author's mother in the TSA security line!
Well done!