A Travel Junkie's Diary

July 2, 2018
Bennett (Peking to Paris) rollickingly recounts her 10 years of driving around the globe with her husband, Bernard. They got hooked on long-distance driving after they participated in a 7,800-mile road rally in 2007 that took them from Peking to Paris. Since then the pair have driven the “back country roads” of China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Siberia, and Tibet. Bennett arranges her travels by topic rather than date, beginning with “Blastoff,” in which she describes a drive through India during which she and her husband received a blessing from a Brahmin priest who smeared turmeric paste on their windshield for good luck. In “Borders,” she describes offering sweets to belligerent Bolivian border guards with the hope of softening their attitudes, and in “Eating,” she experiences grueling intestinal pains in China and then realizes she hadn’t washed her hands before eating. In “Etiquette,” Bennett and her husband experience driving in India (“mesmerizing and horrifying at the same time”), during which they learn the rule of the road that states one must honk before passing—especially when passing long lines of trucks with no side mirrors. This is an exhilarating journey.

July 1, 2018
These are not your average road trips. After completing a 7,800-mile trek by car in 35 days, as Bennett previously recounted in Peking to Paris (2013), she and her husband spent 10 years traveling through some of the world's most extraordinary places. Mostly driving, though occasionally traveling by boat or even camel, the pair has journeyed through places as varied as India, Myanmar, China, Argentina, Iran, and Ethiopia, to name only a few of the jaunts they highlight here. Along the way, they get caught in a Saharan sandstorm, inadvertently desecrate a Buddhist monastery, and discover what it really means when a policeman offers to settle the matter after a car crash in India. Instead of the thrills, though, Bennett travels to seek everyday moments where she can connect with people whose lives are vastly different from hers. Bennett's chatty style enlivens this enjoyable travelogue, cleverly grouped into themes instead of chronological accounts. While the couple faces the many challenges of life on the road, they are richly rewarded by what their experiences allow them to become.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)