Well-told and vivid, BECOMING STILL is deeply engaging on more than one level and much more than just a travelogue.
Becoming Still: A Tale of Inner Reckoning and Wild Places by Sej Saraiya is a traveler’s tale of a journey to unexpected places of beauty and understanding of both the physical and emotional experiences. When the author agrees to join her boyfriend on an off-the-beaten-path trip into the backcountry of Venezuela, she not only discovers a beautiful, less-visited region of the world but new insights about herself and her partner. Her story is engaging and points out the realities of how most tourists experience new places, people, and cultures only superficially.
Stories of traveling to remote and exotic locations and what is encountered there are often the only way many people will ever experience that place for themselves, but this vicarious travel can still be satisfying and inspirational; BEING STILL certainly fulfilled this for me. The author’s writing style, often confessional, often self-deprecating, is warm, easy to read, revealing, and personable. She deftly conveys the feelings she had while traveling, deficit in the local language, through unknown places, perfectly telegraphing her emotions and reactions – unease, alarm, fear, disappointment, and joy – as she and her companions encountered wild terrain and uncertain local conditions without a trusted and reliable safety net.
Seraiya relates her discoveries of the beauty and added value inherent in “slow travel,” the practice of immersing oneself in the life, food, and culture of a new location, choosing fewer destinations in favor of a deeper connection with a place and its people. So many travelers, unable to pick up and go for many reasons, want to make the most of their limited vacation days and dollars, so quick, superficial tourism has become the norm for “once in a lifetime” trips.
I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s descriptions of the sights and included photographs; however, the pictures in my ebook edition were often dark and difficult to see clearly. Many of the sites she visited were remote and required rough transportation with few amenities on arrival, and I empathized with her unease at the more loosey-goosey travel arrangements and accommodations. Her overnight stay at the home in the remote Venezuelan countryside and the odd family dynamics of the host were tense and riveting reading, as were many other incidents on this same trip. I admire the author’s ability to get beyond the strangeness and fear of the unknown and bond with her fellow travelers, hosts, and local people. My only complaint is that the story ended too soon; I wanted more.
I recommend BECOMING STILL to readers of travel stories, especially those who wish to get out on their own, see new places, and meet new people.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.
Fascinating mix of travelogue and memoir of the author's exploration of Mexico's hidden gems for off-the-beaten-path tourists.
Pueblos Mágicos by Chuck Burton is a fascinating mix of travel guide, travelogue, and memoir of the author's free-spirited exploration of the hidden jewels of Mexico's genius tourist industry promotion – the Pueblos Mágicos program. With an easy-to-read style and a wealth of useful information, Burton's work is not only a valuable travel "Idea Book" but also a genuine inspiration to live your best life.
The book begins with an overview of why potential travelers should consider Mexico's interior as a destination and how to have an amazing trip while avoiding the crowds at well-known, overhyped tourist traps and eschewing the same-old, same-old. Having run across the mention of the Mexican government's program, Burton, a part-time expat snowbird living in Mazatlán, has done the research for readers and lays out the history of the promotion, launched in 2001, which includes a growing list of 177-plus small-town destinations. He understands the reticence many foreign travelers have toward vacationing in the country, with its current reputation for corruption and the rampant crime of drug cartels, attributing the hype to the blatant repetition of misinformation and sensationalism on the part of the mainstream media.
From there, Burton highlights his favorite small-town destinations designated as Pueblos Mágicos, discussing why he enjoyed his visit, transportation options, the accommodations he personally used, and the not-to-be-overlooked experiences in the area. Frankly, the variety he presents is astounding, and the many, mostly unknown, sights, experiences, and travel opportunities sound like treasures just waiting to delight.
Burton, a shoestring traveler from the 70s, still journeys in much the same way as he did in his post-university youth, slowly, purposefully, and with an eye to sampling all the local flavors of each new location. He does so by engaging with locals, walking a lot, and achieving fluency in Spanish that few casual visitors will be prepared to attain. However, while encouraging potential foreign travelers to at least try to learn some Spanish courtesies and useful phrases, he assures readers that English has seeped into even the most remote towns and is confident that, with a little effort, you can get by well enough. My only complaint about the book is that there are too few photographs of the wonders described.
I recommend PUEBLOS MÁGICOS: A TRAVELER'S GUIDE TO MEXICO'S HIDDEN TREASURES to readers of travel books, especially those interested in learning more about our southern neighbor.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Literary Life Book Campaigns.
As Close as You Can Get to True Crime While Still Breathing!
For the true crime lover—finally, a travel guide from an award-winning travel journalist and suspense author that gives you the down and dirty on exactly where the major crimes occurred, and where the bodies are buried. For aficionados of paranormal, prison, and tombstone travel, there’s a goldmine of tourism suggestions for you here as well.
Along with summaries of the major crimes committed in New England, you’ll discover where to find the best crime and ghost tours; which hotels and restaurants are former jails, courthouses, or harbor paranormal activity; where infamous criminals are/were jailed, and which venues and attractions might feed your fancy for murder and justice. Reading lists in each chapter will guide you to books expounding on the crimes discussed.. Best of all, suggested itineraries bring all the pieces together to help you traverse New England’s criminal landscape in an organized and entertaining way. Up for a true crime road trip? Let Vacations Can Be Murder be your ultimate travel guide.
Praise for Vacations Can Be Murder:
"The perfect reference book for the U. S. crime traveler. Barclay rounds up a collection of known and obscure crimes, arranged by geographic area, that features museums, cemeteries, hotels, prisons, and private properties. She even offers itineraries, murder tours, a location-specific list of true-crime books, victim resources, and some ghost stories. This travel guide is a gem. Be packed and ready before you start reading because you’ll want to go explore." ~ Katherine Ramsland, author of Darkest Waters, The Nutcracker Investigations, and How to Catch a Killer
Vacations Can Be Murder Trailer:
Book Details:
Genre: True Crime, Travel Published by: Level Best Books Publication Date: March 25, 2025 Number of Pages: 340 Series: Vacations Can Be Murder, Book 1 Book Links:Amazon | Goodreads
Read an excerpt from Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover’s Travel Guide to New England:
This is from the Crime Summaries section of the Connecticut chapter. The actual addresses of these crimes are all included in the Itineraries section of the chapter.
Hartford may be considered one of Connecticut’s most dangerous cities, but its suburbs have seen their fair share of crime over the years.
The Hartford Witch Trials occurred between 1647-1663. In all of Connecticut, there were 43 trials and 16 executions, many in Hartford and three in Wethersfield. On May 26, 1647, Alice (Alse) Young of Windsor was the first to be executed. Servant girl Mary Johnson was the first to confess to witchcraft in Connecticut but was likely coerced by extensive torture. She was executed somewhere between 1648-1650 (reports vary).
In 1839, The Amistad criminal and civil cases were tried at Old Statehouse in Hartford. The case revolved around a mutiny by, and subsequent charging of, 53 Mende African men, women, and children who had been captured and were being transported between Sierra Leone and Havana, Cuba aboard the ship to serve as slaves. The story was the subject of the Steven Spielberg film, Amistad. Several other Connecticut locations connected to the trial can be found at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/travelamistad/visit.htm.
Joseph “Mad Dog” Taborsky was a murderer sentenced to death after a string of brutal robberies and murders in Hartford and West Hartford in the 1950s. He was sentenced twice to be executed for two different crimes, but the first conviction was overturned due to the mental competency of a witness, his brother Albert, testifying against him. (Albert was later declared insane.) In December 1956, a little over a year after his release from prison, Taborsky launched a 14-month murder spree that killed gas station attendant Edward Kurpewski and customer Daniel Janowski, package store owner Samuel Cohn, shoe store customers Bernard and Ruth Speyer, and pharmacy owner John M. “Jack” Rosenthal. The second conviction stuck, and he died in the electric chair in 1960, the last execution in Connecticut until that of Michael Bruce Ross in 2005.
In 2004, Matthew Steven Johnson was convicted of the 2000 and 2001 slayings of three female sex workers he murdered—Rosali Jimenez (33), Aida Quinones (33), and Alesia Ford (37)—who were all found dead in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford. Each of the women had drugs in their system and were found with their bodies stomped upon, strewn with Johnson’s semen, and with their pants pulled down around one leg. Johnson was found guilty and sentenced to three consecutive 60-year sentences at the Cheshire Correctional Institution.
Lazale Ashby became one of the youngest prisoners on Connecticut’s death row for kidnapping, raping, burglarizing, and murdering his neighbor Elizabeth Garcia in 2002, when he was just 18. He was suspected of another Hartford rape, as well.
Ashby has actually been tried and sentenced three times for Garcia’s murder, the final time in 2023, when he confessed to the crime. Now that Connecticut has abolished the death penalty, he’s been sentenced to 46.5 years in prison. In addition, he was convicted and received a 25-year sentence for the 2003 fatal shooting of 22-year-old Nahshon Cohen of Manchester, whose body was found on a street in the city’s North End.
Speaking of Manchester, in August of 2010, the city became the location of a mass shooting at a beer distribution company, Hartford Distributors. Disgruntled former employee Omar Thorton, forced to resign after video evidence revealed he’d been stealing and reselling the company’s beer, fatally shot eight coworkers and injured two others. He then committed suicide on site. Those who knew him cited racism as the reason for his upset, but these allegations were disputed by the firm and not substantiated by the investigation that followed.
William Devin Howell’s rape and murder spree, which started on New Year’s Day in 2003, took place in Seymour, West Hartford, and Wethersfield, as well as New Britain. Triggered by a fight with his girlfriend, Howell succumbed to years-long rape fantasies, Referring to himself as the “Sick Ripper,” he would lure female drug addicts, unlikely to be missed, into his “murder mobile.” There, he would rape them, often videotaping bizarre sex acts, before murdering them and disposing of the bodies in a seldom frequented area behind a strip mall in New Britain which he called his “garden.” He was arrested in North Carolina and plea-bargained his way into a fifteen-year sentence for the manslaughter of Mary Jane Menard. However, new evidence that surfaced while he was already in jail earned him six consecutive life sentences (360 years in prison) to be spent at the Cheshire Correctional Institution.
In 1986 at the Jamaican Progressive League, a club in Hartford’s North End, Bonnie Foreshaw stopped to get a beer and ended up committing a murder that bought her the longest jail sentence ever handed down to a woman in the state. Having endured a lifetime of sexual and spousal abuse, when Hector Freeman offered to buy her a drink and wouldn’t let up when she turned him down, the encounter triggered her. She drew her handgun to fire a warning shot, but Freeman protected himself by using a pregnant woman, Joyce Amos, as a human shield. Foreshaw’s bullet killed her accidently.
Foreshaw spent the majority of her jail time at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic where author Wally Lamb taught a writing class for prisoners. Lamb took up her cause, believing she’d been over-sentenced, and thanks to his help, Foreshaw was granted clemency after serving just 27 years of a 49-year sentence. Once released, she changed her name to Bonnie Jean Cook and helped other ex-convicts adjust to life on the outside until her death in 2022.
All of these murders pale in comparison to the crimes of Amy Archer-Gilligan. While she was charged with five deaths (though only tried for one), she may have killed as many as one hundred. Archer-Gilligan ran the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids in the Hartford suburb of Windsor, where countless older residents were bilked out of money and then poisoned by arsenic, including the murderer’s own husbands. Other locations tied to Archer-Gilligan include Newington, where she and her first husband James Archer lived with John Seymour until he died, and then they transformed the home into Sister Amy’s Nursing Home for the Elderly. In 1917, she was convicted of the murder of Franklin Andrew and sentenced to death by hanging, but she appealed. During a second trial in 1919, she pleaded insanity and was convicted of second-degree murder, earning her a life sentence. In 1924, she was transferred to the Connecticut General Hospital for the Insane in Middletown, where she remained until her death in 1962. The play Arsenic and Old Lace is loosely based on her story.
Also in Hartford, the Circus Fire that killed 168 persons and injured 412-700 others through trampling and asphyxiation occurred on July 6, 1944 (“The Day the Clowns Cried”) and is considered one of the country’s worst fire disasters. The Big Top Tent was coated in paraffin plus gasoline or kerosene for waterproofing; therefore, it was highly flammable. On top of that, some of the exits were blocked by animal chutes. Arson was suspected; others blamed a carelessly tossed lit cigarette. A mentally ill man named Robert Dale Segee, 21, of Circleville, OH, confessed to setting the fire, as well as up to 30 other blazes in Maine, New Hampshire, and Ohio. He later recanted his confession and was never tried in Connecticut. However, Segee was indicted and convicted in Ohio on two charges of arson and served eight out of a four-to-forty-year jail sentence. He died in 1997.
Finally, on May 18, 1988, Billy “Hot Dog” Grant, a bookie who was in charge of Connecticut safe houses for New York’s five families, was reportedly murdered in the parking lot of the Westfarms Mall in Farmington. Grant, who had owned Augie and Ray’s Hot Dog and Hamburger shop in East Hartford, and later the South End Seaport restaurant on Franklin Avenue, was suspected of having given up details of the hiding spot of the brother of a mafia boss. He is supposedly buried underneath a Farmington residence.
***
Excerpt from Vacations Can Be Murder by Dawn M Barclay. Copyright 2025 by Dawn M Barclay. Reproduced with permission from Dawn M Barclay. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Dawn M. Barclay is a veteran travel trade reporter and an award-winning author who writes nonfiction under her own name and fiction as D.M. Barr. Her first nonfiction book, Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodiverse (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) received a starred review from Library Journal, and won the 2023 Lowell Thomas Gold Award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation, Honorable Mention from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (Books that Make a Difference), and first prize in the Maxy Awards. When not writing, she edits for various authors and publishers, creates book trailers, ghostwrites (nonfiction only!), plays competitive trivia, rescues senior shelter dogs, travel, reads, and apparently, drives her family nuts...but they won't admit it, of course, since she knows a lot about murder.
A fun, informative, and useful guide to true crime
persons, places, and events in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Rhode Island, and Vermont.
The first volume of Dawn M. Barclay’s Vacations Can Be
Murder: A True Crime Lover’s Travel Guide to New England appears to be a
pretty comprehensive and useful tool to devise any number of trips to the country’s
northeast for a true crime-themed holiday. Focusing on the states of Connecticut,
Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, the author
provides background information on the region’s dark, criminal past, both
recent events and those from long-forgotten eras, renowned and little-known
outside the area.
The author offers suggestions for places to stay, haunted
restaurants, true crime or ghost tours in the vicinities, and related places to
visit while in the area, such as cemeteries, courthouses, jails, and prisons.
However, one of the most valuable resources is the suggested itineraries with
maps from someone who’s already made the trips to help travelers get the most
out of their trip to the area, a wonderful asset whether you’re familiar with
the area or not. One of my favorite sections for each state, though, is the
list of books featuring the different highlighted stories, so you can read more
in-depth about those that interest you most before you go. The book is so well
done; I hope the author continues to create many more guides that target different
areas of the country.
I recommend VACATIONS CAN BE MURDER to true crime fans who
would like to plan a trip to see some of the more notable locations of past
crimes.
Tour Participants:
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How to Start a Riot in a Brothel in Thailand by Ordering a Beer and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips
LESSER KNOWN TRAVEL TIPS, Book One
by
Simon Yeats
Humor / Memoir / Travel
Publication Date: October 18, 2023
Page count: 216 pages
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SYNOPSIS:
The Lesser Known Travel Tips memoirs are a hilarious series of travel misadventures and dubious personal introspection by Australian author Simon Yeats, who from an early age learned that the best way to approach the misfortunes of this world is to laugh about them.
Simon shares his comedic insights into the unusual and uproarious elements of living life as an Aussie ex-pat and having a sense of Wanderlust as pervasive as the Spanish Flu in 1918 or hordes of Mongols in 12th Century.
From how to keep yourself entertained when unwittingly forced to watch 11 hours of live sumo wrestling in Japan, to surviving heartbreak in India at the hands of a French flight attendant, to 48 hours spent in Nepal that qualify as the funniest most gut-wrenching travel experience since Captain Bligh was set adrift in the Pacific, to his unsuccessful attempts at avoiding going to a brothel in Thailand. From what to do when several people converge to rob you after midnight on a deserted Copacabana Beach, to how to save the Sierra Mountain Range from a wildfire outbreak due to a lack of quality toilet paper, to where not to go in Tijuana when trying to locate the origins to stories of the city’s mythical adult entertainment, to how to save yourself from drowning when caught in a storm while sailing off the California coast. From how to outwit the Italian police while trying to find parking in downtown Genoa, to how to negotiate exploring the Roman ruins of Plovdiv, Bulgaria while on crutches, to how to impress the German Mafia with 80s dance moves, to how to leave a lasting impression on a crowded bar in Gothenburg, Sweden after combining alcohol and antibiotics.
Simon Yeats has gone into the world and experienced all the out of the ordinary moments for you to sit back and enjoy the experience without the need to break a leg, contract Dengue fever, or rupture a pancreas.
Excerpt from How to Start a Riot in a Brothel in Thailand by Ordering a Beer and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips -
My family’s most cherished vacation when we were all kids was a trip we took to the South Island of New Zealand in the southern hemisphere Autumn of 1980. All our relatives live on the north island where my mum and dad both grew up on dairy farms. So, we had already made a trip or two to Auckland in my young life. My parents had emigrated to live in the tropical heat and brutal humidity of the northeast of Australia before any of us kids were born and given a choice in the matter.
There are four of us in my family. An elder brother, an older sister, me, and a younger sister. Each of us is quite different in our personality and our interests. My older sister is the athlete. My younger sister is the diplomat. My brother is the brainiac. Me? Well, I tend to just sit back and let my siblings be in the limelight.
You can imagine me as being the little kid running around in the playground under a mop of red hair being extra polite with all the other kids and no one teasing me at all for having red hair. Something close to that.
But among me and my siblings, none of us ever stole a car and took off for a joy ride. None of us have ever been arrested by undercover police for trying to sell them synthetic crack cocaine we had cooked up in the basement. None of us ever got in trouble for mislabeling someone by using the wrong pronoun. I mean, sure, I once got in trouble for calling my headmaster the C-word, but, other than that small blemish on my record, I considered myself an exemplary student. Our mum and dad were amazing parents to raise us all so well.
We were a very content family growing up in the 70’s and 80’s while living in the sweltering pizza oven, otherwise known as North Queensland. What about central air conditioning? Oh, how entitled and twenty-first century of you to ask. Rubbing an ice cube across the forehead and asking my younger sister to blow against it. Does that count? Central air conditioning? No. There was none. Just like there was extraordinarily little to do in my hometown. Watching paint dry as a kid living in Townsville brought out the same level of unbridled fascination that I now see with adults viewing porn.
The reasoning behind there being nothing to do is obvious. It is not safe to do anything where I lived. Australian country towns are just holding pens for human beings surrounded by a natural species menagerie of death.
How to Start a Riot in a Brothel in Thailand by Ordering a Beer and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips
5 stars!
Full of humor and heart and all the great things that
make life good.
How to Start a Riot in a Brothel in Thailand by Ordering
a Beer, and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips is the first book of author
Simon Yeats’s fun four-set volume Lesser Known Travel Tales, and it is a
spectacular grin-inducing collection of vignettes from his extensive past
wandering the globe. Told with humor and a lot of heart, warts and all, Yeats’s
stories entertain, inspire, and elaborate on his experiences of a life well
lived.
Yeats is a natural storyteller, and each chapter is
introduced with a groan-worthy Dad joke. I was immediately drawn into his
narrative, which starts with a family trip when the author was at the impressionable
age of twelve. His father is a combination of wise and wild, and I easily
commiserated with Simon’s mother about some of the events of the trip. Still,
this family had FUN and created memories to last a lifetime.
Yeats’s experiences are amazingly varied and emphasize his
adventures traveling on a tightly managed budget. Some of his journeys are
financed as part of a job, such as being an international courier, while others
come to be by working at his intended tourist destination. His life is devoted
to fulfilling his wanderlust and subsequently always living away from his
family. As satisfying as his ex-pat life proves, his reunions with family are scenes
of joy and laughter but bittersweet as he ponders all the missed celebrations
and life events of his loved ones. Still, the author has no regrets and has
lived his life to the fullest.
With its amazing stories of travel and self-exploration, I
recommend HOW TO START A RIOT IN A BROTHEL IN THAILAND BY ORDERING A BEER, AND
OTHER LESSER KNOW TRAVEL TIPS to readers of memoirs, biographies, and travel.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.
With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has led were survived.
No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.
How to React When Woken at 3am by Drunk Argentinian Backpackers While Staying in a Youth Hostel and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips
Non-fiction Humorous Memoir
Publication Date: September 10, 2024
Page count: 286 pages
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SYNOPSIS:
Book 4 of the hilarious book series that those in the know will want to read when arriving at Paris airport so they laugh so freaking hard that it will intimidate any suspicious characters looking to abduct them and sell them into the human trafficking game.
Life was not meant to be easy, Simon Yeats’ father used to tell him. Well, it sure as hell was not meant to be this bizarre and witty. Australian ex-pat Simon Yeats shares his stories of travel misadventures and dubious personal introspection with comedic insights into the unusual and uproarious elements of living his life abroad. All while having a sense of Wanderlust as pervasive as Mongol hordes in the 12th century.
From how to negotiate getting abused in Los Angeles when you will only drive at 5 miles/hr., to what to do when locked out of your hotel room in your underwear, to the emotions of attempting the world’s second highest bungee when you have a pathological fear of heights, to how to deal with the trials and tribulations of staying in a youth hostel with travelers who have no respect for the other guests.
Simon Yeats has gone into the world and experienced all the out of the ordinary moments for you to sit back and enjoy the experience without the need to empty your bank account, get squeezed sitting in a middle airline seat, or deal with border security at the Ukraine/Russia boundary.
I stagger out of bed. I am barely able to stand. It is not
the effects of the alcohol in my system, but the ungodly bodily confusion of
being abruptly woken from a rapidly achieved deep sleep. The decline in
physical coordination is no different than pounding six whiskey shots with beer
chasers over a two-hour period and then waking up the next morning with a
massive hangover after passing out in a large coil of rope in the parking lot
of a casino.
My mind swirls fretfully with questions. Is it Con? But why
would he be pounding on the door if he has a room key? Was the self-serve
burrito from 7-11 that far past its due date that he got Salmonella and lost
his mind?
Was it hotel security coming to notify me they found my
wallet on the floor of the front lobby? Surely they would be more discreet at 1
am than to take to my room door like they were Seal Team 6 bursting in on Osama
bin Laden.
Was it Jack the Ripper?
Of the three possibilities, the final one seemed to be the
most probable as I stumbled across my hotel room in my underpants.
I pull open the door to reveal a completely naked man
standing in the hallway outside.
Sweet mother of God!
That was not one of my three options.
REVIEW:
5 stars!
Delightfully and outrageously fun reading!
How to React When Woken at 3AM by Drunk Argentinian
Backpackers While Staying in a Youth Hostel and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips
is the fourth book in author Simon Yeats’s travel memoir series, Lesser Known
Travel Tips, but it is the first one that I’ve read. It won’t be my last! I grinned
so much over his recounting of ill-fated or spontaneous journeys that my cheeks
hurt the next morning.
The author’s writing style is easy to read, self-deprecating,
and filled with humorous insights and commentary on the vast number of
destinations he has visited over the years. Whether traveling for a sporting
event, work, or in pursuit of a lost love, his storytelling is engaging and
absorbing. I had to take a break and looked up to find HOURS had passed by
without me noticing; I had repeatedly decided I needed to read “just one more
chapter.”
This book was fun, the narrative clever, and I was so very entertained.
I recommend HOW TO REACT WHEN WOKEN AT 3AM BY DRUNK ARGENTINIAN BACKPACKERS
WHILE STAYING IN A YOUTH HOSTEL AND OTHER LESSER KNOW TRAVEL TIPS to readers
who enjoy memoirs, travel, and humorous tales of life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.
With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has led were survived.
No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.
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SYNOPSIS:
Hookers and hawkers.
Mosques and mosquitos.
Paul has had enough of Southeast Asia.
He's only here ‘cos it's cheap.
He's on the run from police after leaving Australia.
No, that place wasn't much better either.
Well, it was when he was young.
When his life was full of promise. An up-and-coming boxer. And he had friends. And fun.
Then a bit of bad luck later and he found himself on the run in outback Australia. Paranoid. Hiding from shadows. The heat. The dust. The sweat.
Cigarette in mouth, Paul stood on the hotel balcony and stared nervously out into the hot Cambodian night. He hated Asia. He didn’t know why so many loved it. Of course deep down he knew - cheap holidays. But to Paul, Asia was hell - hot, dangerous and always just a bit of bad luck away from some sort of disaster.
Not much could be seen from his balcony. His hotel was down a small street off the main road that led to the tourist centre of Siem Riep. He could see people drifting down the main road, mostly tourists clutching dollar beers. Directly across from him was the construction site of a new hotel.
Paul took another drag from his cigarette, grabbed his beer off the balcony railing and walked back into the hotel room. He looked at his boots next to his duffel bag. He was sick of those stinky boots. He looked at the grime on the duffel bag. That grime was from India. Indian grime was unique. Black. Oily. Nowhere else that he had been in Asia left that kind of grime. It came mostly off the train floors. As he stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray, he remembered what his feet looked like in thongs at the end of those long train trips - black.
REVIEW:
4 stars!
A young drifter reflects on his past and anxiously awaits
his future.
The Lonely Australian of the Asian Night by Gregorg
Pakis is a compelling short story of a young drifter, quickly approaching
middle-age and who has been hiding out in his Siem Reap, Cambodia, hotel room
to hopefully to fly under the radar of the local authorities and INTERPOL.
Having fled his hometown of Melbourne, Australia, just ahead of the police, who
have an interest in him for mostly petty offenses, he traveled to India and
eventually other Asian cities seeking cheap living conditions and easy marks
for his penny ante thefts and robberies. With a lot of time on his hands, he
reflects on his past and while he clearly recalls his life as taking advantage
of opportunities to profit from others, he fails to dredge up any remorse for
taking the low road.
The author’s writing is compelling and easy reading; I was
absolutely drawn into Paul’s version of self-reflection. The descriptions of
the places he traveled, and his experiences were absorbing and evocative. I
would welcome a longer book with more of this character’s trainwreck of a life
story.
I recommend THE LONELY AUSTRALIAN OF THE ASIAN NIGHT to
readers of crime fiction, travel tales, and literary fiction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gregory Pakis is an Australian author, film-maker, actor and wacky vlogger.
He has written the short story, The Lonely Australian of the Asian Night; the soon to be released horror-suspense novellas, The Regressor and He., and Memoir of a Suburban Hoe-Bo, which is partly an account of when he lived out of a van for ten years in Melbourne.
Gregory Pakis is also the writer / director of the feature films, The Garth Method (2005) and The Joe Manifesto (2013), which have won national and international awards and been distributed through Accent Entertainment, Label, Vanguard Cinema.
Gregory's more informal video projects are the feature documentaries, Garth Goes Hitch-Hiking (2007) and Garth Lives in a Van (2011) which have screened at film festivals in Australia.
More recently, he has created the comedy series, suBURPieS and his Wacky Vlog which can found on his socials.
Gregory has been featured in articles in newspapers, The Age, The Herald Sun, Beat Magazine, Inpress, FILMINK, and the Neos Kosmos. He has been interviewed on radio by the ABC, 3RRR, SYN FM, 3CR.
Nonfiction / Travel Memoir / Personal Memoir / Humorous Publisher: Harbor Lane Book, LLC Publication Date: June 4, 2024 Page count: 196 pages
SYNOPSIS:
With no camping or RV experience, author Sue Ann Jaffarian decided to chuck
her life in Los Angeles for a life on the road in a van. Newly retired from
her long-time career as a paralegal, she got rid of most of her belongings,
packed up her laptop, and embraced a new adventure of traveling the country
and writing full-time, adding travel writing to her career as a popular
mystery novelist.
Not always sunshine and unicorns, her experiences gave her more
self-reliance, a new appreciation of nature, and a love for the quirky,
interesting, and thought-provoking. I Sleep Around chronicles her first two
years on the road and the time leading up to taking this bold step. All
while her friends and family thought she had lost her mind.
PRAISE:
"If you are looking for an engaging travelogue filled with travel suggestions, RV tips and dos and don'ts - then I Sleep Around is it. With a humorous undertone at times, Sue Ann honestly writes about her dream of traveling solo and the challenges, both mechanically with her RV, and psychologically it has been. It's a rewarding tale of living her dream and sharing so others can do the same."
- Kelli Harms, Marketing and PR Manager, Winnebago Industries
Sue Ann Jaffarian is the critically acclaimed author of three mystery
series, various short stories, and novels. In addition to being a writer,
Sue Ann is a full-time RVer, a contributor to Winnebago’s
WinnebaGoLife blog, and a sought-after motivational speaker.
Follow the Publisher on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook -
@harborlanebooks
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