Bad Tourist

September 1, 2020
Roberts has spent decades circling the globe, chasing experience, understanding, and identity. This book is the culmination of her young adulthood on the move. She chronicles her first marriage, her divorce, the string of one-night stands she used to soothe the ensuing loneliness, and her journey to partnership with her current husband. Abroad, she visited Mexico, Peru, India, Greece, Prague, Puerto Rico, and more. In the U.S., she attended Burning Man, skied the avalanche-prone Sierra, and spent a summer in Disney's utopian Celebration village. Every adventure is marked by the people she meets or the companions she brings along. She flies to her mother's tourist-trap hometown in Britain to visit her 90-year-old grandmother, who enjoys the company of a 45-year-old lover. She drinks expensive wine on the Sugar Ray tour bus with a friend from college. She learns to stop defining herself through the male gaze; to stop mistaking a savior complex for empathy; and to enjoy her life head-on. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert and Cheryl Strayed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2020

In this different kind of travel memoir, Roberts (creative writing, Sierra Nevada Univ.; Almost Somewhere) admits to being a bad tourist (committing cultural gaffes, for example) in various locales ranging from England, Ireland, and Scotland, to Greece, India, Mongolia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Ecuador, and Peru. The work is organized into categories, including "Sights," "Sleeping," "Eating & Drinking," "Spas & Beauty Treatments," "Activities, Festivals & Special Events," "Getting There & Away," and "Dangers & Annoyances," with the author's deeply personal and sometimes cringe-worthy vignettes spanning 2002-18. Roberts has a poet's ear for lyrical prose, but reading her mundane and sometimes graphic revelations, especially about her interactions with imperfect strangers, feels like peeking at an older sister's diary. Here, readers can let go of their expectations and immerse themselves in unfiltered thoughts and a complicated love life, here and abroad. VERDICT Travelers who enjoy intrepid experiences, with strong language, will savor this book.--Elizabeth Connor, Daniel Lib., The Citadel, Military Coll. of South Carolina, Charleston

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