Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve been traveling since age seventeen when I boarded a plane and headed to Europe on my own. Over the next three years I lived in London, took weekend jaunts across the continent, and became completely bitten by the travel bug. Since then, Iā€™ve traveled to more than 95 countries. Iā€™ve lost and gained friends and lovers and made a radical career change so that I could afford my travel addiction. Like my readers, I am an ordinary person. Through travel Iā€™ve learned courage and risk-taking and succeeded at things I didnā€™t know I could do. My goal in writing is to inspire others to take off and explore the world.


I wrote

Wanderlust: Extraordinary People, Quirky Places, and Curious Cuisine

By Karen Gershowitz,

Book cover of Wanderlust: Extraordinary People, Quirky Places, and Curious Cuisine

What is my book about?

Karen Gershowitz is officially a travel addict; one with more than ninety countries under her belt. In these engaging stories,ā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Notes from a Small Island

Karen Gershowitz Why did I love this book?

Shortly after it was first published, I picked this book up in the bookstore at Heathrow on my way home from a business trip. I spent the entire flight glued to it and laughing out loud.

This was Brysonā€™s first travel book and one that changed my perception of what travel writing could be. It is perceptive, irreverent, and focuses on the small, often quirky, details that make travel so interesting. I am now a huge fan of all of Brysonā€™s books, but this was the one that got me hooked.

By Bill Bryson,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Notes from a Small Island as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1995, before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire to move back to the States for a few years with his family, Bill Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of the nation's public face and private parts (as it were), and to analyse what precisely it was he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite; a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow namedā€¦


Book cover of Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle

Karen Gershowitz Why did I love this book?

I think of myself as an adventurous traveler, but Dervla Murphy travels in a way that I would never even consider.

So, itā€™s a pleasure to sit in a comfortable chair and read about places Iā€™ll never visit and people who Iā€™d love to meet, but never will. Murphy writes so vividly I feel as though I am right beside her as she fends off wolves, struggles to drag a bicycle uphill through mountain snow, and shares tea with nomads.

This was her first book and every book that follows is equally compelling.

By Dervla Murphy,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Full Tilt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Braving hunger, heat exhaustion, unbearable terrain and cultures largely untouched by civilization, Dervla Murphy chronicles her determined trip through nine countries, through snow and ice in the mountains and miles of barren land in the scorching desert. Full Tilt is a highly individual account by a celebrated travel writer based on the daily diary Murphy kept while riding through Yugoslavia, Persia, Afghanistan, over the Himalayas to Pakistan and into India. Murphy's charm and gracious sensitivity as a writer and a traveler reveals not only civilizations of exotic people and places but the wonder of a woman alone on an extraordinaryā€¦


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Book cover of Crossing: A Chinese Family Railroad Novel

Crossing by Lisa Redfern,

Crossing is a vividly human re-imagining of the love, sacrifices, and accomplishments that two Chinese brothers - American Immigrants - experience as they travel to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad. 

Book cover of Into the Heart of Borneo

Karen Gershowitz Why did I love this book?

What happens when an out-of-shape, stay-at-home book reviewer is talked into trekking into one of the most remote parts of the world?

Misadventures abound in the jungle, terrifying at the time but hilarious in retrospect. This is one of the books I use for inspiration when I am considering venturing into unusual, distant areas of the globe. It demonstrates that anyone with the will to do it can explore, survive, enjoy, and even see the humor in outrageous situations.

By Redmond O'Hanlon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Into the Heart of Borneo as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The story of a 1983 journey to the center of Borneo, which no expedition had attempted since 1926. O'Hanlon, accompanied by friend and poet James Fenton and three native guides brings wit and humor to a dangerous journey.


Book cover of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze

Karen Gershowitz Why did I love this book?

I read this book while cruising on the Yangtze River at the time the Three Gorges Dam was being built. It gave me insights into the people residing alongside the Yangtze whose lives were about to be irrevocably altered.

Hessler writes in a way that is compelling and brings the reader along with him as he learns about the Chinese language, people, and customs. Heā€™s since written additional books about China that delve even deeper into the society. But this is the book to read first.

By Peter Hessler,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked River Town as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Peter Hessler went to China in the late 1990s, he expected to spend a couple of peaceful years teaching English in the town of Fuling on the Yangtze River. But what he experienced - the natural beauty, cultural tension, and complex process of understanding that takes place when one is thrust into a radically different society - surpassed anything he could have imagined. Hessler observes firsthand how major events such as the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to the mainland, and the controversial consturction of the Three Gorges Dam have affected even the people ofā€¦


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Book cover of Betting on Bernie: A Memoir of A Marriage

Betting on Bernie by Martha Marks,

Bernard Marks and Martha Alford met by chance. The odds were long that they would hit it off. That wasnā€™t in the cards theyā€™d been dealt at birth. But, as gamblers in love, they rolled the dice. And then they worked hard, took risks, caught lucky breaks, built satisfying careers,ā€¦

Book cover of The Solace of Open Spaces

Karen Gershowitz Why did I love this book?

This book of essays are meditations on her life in Wyoming. Part travelogue, part memoir, it drew me in with its gorgeous language, evocative images, and insights into a landscape and lifestyle about which I knew nothing. 

Erlich is a filmmaker, and her descriptions of people and places are as vivid as any Iā€™ve ever seen on film or read in any book. 

By Gretel Ehrlich,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Solace of Open Spaces as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A collection of transcendent, lyrical essays on life in the American West, the classic companion to Gretel Ehrlich's new book, Unsolaced

"Wyoming has found its Whitman." -Annie Dillard

Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the first in a series of documentaries when her partner died. Ehrlich stayed on and found she couldn't leave. The Solace of Open Spaces is a chronicle of her first years on "the planet of Wyoming," a personal journey into a place, a feeling, and a way of life.

Ehrlich captures both the otherworldly beauty and cruelty of the naturalā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Wanderlust: Extraordinary People, Quirky Places, and Curious Cuisine

By Karen Gershowitz,

Book cover of Wanderlust: Extraordinary People, Quirky Places, and Curious Cuisine

What is my book about?

Karen Gershowitz is officially a travel addict; one with more than ninety countries under her belt. In these engaging stories, she brings readers along as her companions as she explores, laughs, and marvels at the richness of other cultures. Whether sheā€™s picking through the worst meal ever in the wilds of Tanzania, eating a transcendent strudel in Vienna, meeting locals in an isolated opal mining hamlet in Australiaā€™s outback, or learning to make noodles in a Chinese village, she invites you to share in her experiences.

Whatever kind of traveler you are, novice or experienced, or even if you prefer sitting in your armchair, these stories will transport you deep into other ways of living in the world; and, hopefully, inspire you to set out on your own journeys!

Book cover of Notes from a Small Island
Book cover of Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle
Book cover of Into the Heart of Borneo

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Interested in Wyoming, China, and Borneo?

Wyoming 51 books
China 663 books
Borneo 20 books