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San Francisco
I feel like I've been anticipating Jeannette's visit ever since she stopped in the store to hand deliver a copy of her book a little over a year ago, which was really only a couple of months after we opened. She was the first writer to have hand peddled a book to us, which I must say, is the most refreshing antidote to the impersonal rush that holds sway over the book market.
If you've had a chance to look at An Amateur's Guide to the Planet, you know that its do-it-yourself approach to traveling the world is perfectly in synch with Jeannette's do-it-yourself attitude toward publishing and marketing.
The book is in a class by itself in contemporary travel writing. It's not a guide book in the usual sense, nor is it a traditional travelogue.
What Jeannette has managed to do is successfully avoid the trappings of the many genres that define how we experience travel. Her Amateur's Guide does not sell the countries it traverses like products nor is it oriented around the self-absorbed first person characteristic of most travel narratives.
Instead, it is committed to the conscientious traveler who questions what it means to move through the world today with a backpack in search of knowledge and understanding, adventure and fun. And while it offers a critical assessment of the economic and political realities that shape the third world, and the role of travel as an industry within those realities, it does so with a rare optimism that can only come from a genuine concern that transcends that of the good Samaritan.
This is high praise for a book and a writer who deserve it.
George Dobbins
Sacramento, Calif.
Just finished reading your An Amateur's Guide to the Planet. Hard to put it down. I like the format, including the lessons, the conclusions at the end of each adventure, the extensive bibliography, and so much more. You write in a way which makes one feel that one is really with you. I haven't traveled as much as you, but I have been to the Mayan ruins, Polynesia, and spent a week in Santorini, and all over Europe. Well, I just had to write you. Hope you never stop adventuring and writing.
Bruce Rawles
Author
Sacred Geometry Design Sourcebook
Marvelous vivid vignettes for the vicarious visitor!
Thank you for your marvelous book, we're starting the 3rd (Borneo) chapter ... My wife and I like to read aloud before falling asleep, so we've savored your insightful and vivid vignettes of exotic escapes from around the world... thoroughly delightful! We look forward eagerly to each new peek through your fascinating windows on parts of the world we're not likely to see in person any time soon.
An Amateur's Guide to the Planet is truly bargain adventure travel for the vicarious visitor! Your very accessible style makes exploring other cultures and climes a real treat. THANKS for sharing your skillful wordcraft on paper with the rest of us!
Jane Burtnett
Scottsdale, Ariz.
Visited all seven continents before her 40th birthday
Stephany Porter
World traveler
Seattle, Wash.
I found myself torn between laughter and understanding the seriousness of the situation Madagascar faces. I like the fact the chapter ends with a positive outlook and gives credit to the organizations that are trying to help.