When asked if I would like to host Rita Golden Gelman’s online book tour, I was honored to be a part of this Gutsy woman’s amazing life. She is all about connecting with people from around the world, and in her own words she says, “I opened my life to otherness; it becomes addictive. I still have no fixed address and hardly any possessions.”
I discovered her book, Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at large in the World, after returning from a year of adventures and personal growth in Belize, Central America. I can relate to what Gelman says about having hardly any possessions being addictive, as I experienced this with my own family in Belize. Having less gave me time, something I learned to value as more meaningful than having stuff. The time to connect with family and friends.
Gelman’s latest book: Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World is a moving anthology of essays that celebrates traveling, connecting, and eating around the world. Also included are more than 30 travel-inspired, taste-tested and author-approved recipes.
Many of you are familiar with Karen van der Zee’s blog: Life in the Expat Lane. She has four amusing stories published in Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World. One of her tales, “Wild for Worms,” starts off, “I had planned to eat worms tonight, but instead I’m facing a hamburger and fries. I am not amused.” Talk about a hook to get you reading. Another tale entitled, “Cow Feet Soup for Breakfast,” brought back memories of when my sons were so hungry one day, they ordered a bowl of cow foot soup on their way home from school in Belize. My sixteen-year-old said, “Mom, you should have seen the hoof. It was right there in the middle of the bowl covered in hair.”
In the opening chapter of her book: Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World, Gelman explains that the profits and author royalties are going to a special fund to send high school graduates from the slums in New Dehli to vocational schools. Gelman says, “Most young people are taken out of school as they are old enough to contribute to the family income by working in construction for one or two dollars a day.” This reminds me of the young caretaker we had in Belize who told my teenage sons he quit school at thirteen, and worked in the sugar cane plantations to put food on the family table. My boys learned more from listening to this young Belizean, than any lecture I could give on how lucky they are to have an education.
After suggesting Rita Golden Gelman’s book to my book club circle of friends, they decided to select it for our next meeting. I hope you will read it too. Please share with others and remember to connect.
Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World- From the author of the international bestseller, Tales of a Female Nomad, Female Nomad and Friends is a moving anthology of essays that celebrates traveling, connecting, and eating around the world. Also included are more than 30 travel-inspired, taste-tested and author-approved recipes.
Rita Golden Gelman is the author of Tales of a Female Nomad and more than seventy children’s books, including More Spaghetti, I Say!, a staple in every first grade classroom. As a nomad, Rita has no permanent address. She is currently involved in an initiative called Let’s Get Global, a project of US Servas, Inc, a national movement designed to bring the gap year to the United States. Learn more at www.letsgetglogal.org
We invite you to join us on the Female Nomad and Friends virtual tour. The full schedule can be seen at http://bookpromotionservices.com/2010/05/17/female-nomad-tour. You can learn much more about Rita Golden Gelman and her work on her website –www.ritagoldengelman.com
Sounds like a fascinating book! And the kind of lifestyle I led before marriage and kids.
And Miss Footloose always has good tales to share!
Sounds like a must read. And I am glad it the money is going to a non-profit that would keep girls in school.
@LadyFi
I know. it would be nice to take off to foreign countries whenever I could. I would love to try living as a female nomad around the world.
@Rayna
Yes, I agree. In her book, Rita Golden Gelman says she has succeeded in sending several kids to further their education after high school.
I have to read this. And the cover looks so amazing!
Sonia,
Great review, and thanks for the plug 😉
I am happy that my stories in the book will be used for a good purpose: raising funds for the education of Indian kids.
Karen van der Zee aka Miss Footloose
I know of people who pick up and globe-trek around the world. I honestly don't know how they do it? How do they pay for food, lodging, transportation and what do they do when things go wrong? Still, I know people who do such things and I find it remarkable.
by the way blogger/daughter Kara tells me she wants to visit Vietnam next.
She sounds like an amazing and inspiring woman with an incredible lifestyle. Thanks for sharing this with us.
@ Lori, I think you'll enjoy these short entertaining tales.
@ Karen Van der Zee aka Miss Footloose. Please keep entertaining us with your humor and excellent writing.
@Robert
You know, it's cheaper to eat simple food, like the locals in third world countries. Also Rita talks about Servas, a non-profit with hosts around the world who are interested in meeting you at no cost. Check out: http://joomla.servas.org/content/blogcategory/41/76/
@Jeanie,
I would love to live like she does.
It sounds like a book I would enjoy. It is always fun reading books about travel through someone else's eyes.
BTW.. I have added a link to your blog here at my blog: http://annsreadingcorner.blogspot.com
This is the blog I post on most days now. It is the one I enjoy most, anyway.
@Gramma Ann
Thanks for the link. I sent you the Life in the Expat Lane link, from Miss Footloose if you haven't seen her blog yet. She is a fantastic author with lots of humorous, entertaining stories.
I wish I had the gumption to make these types of move, but I'm too constrained by job and marriage and financial security to be that brave. But I can always read the book!
She sounds like an amazing woman — certainly she thinks the things I often think. Sounds like a book very much worth reading.
The big question: can you do the kinds of things she considers when you are firmly anchored in your own world? Do you have to be a nomad to do this?
BTW, congratulations, Sonia, on being asked to host this.
Traveling and learning from around the global it helps to make you a better person in thinking and judjing
I am looking forward to reading this book for book club. I am especially looking forward to her thoughts on things. With the exception of clothing, and perhaps some replacement dishes, i really can't think of anything I need. "Where would I put it?" is the thought that comes to mind these days. Pam