Thalia Zepatos, A Journey of One's Own (1992)

Although this book was written before 9-11, before email became common-place, before cell phones & Skype, it has some great information for any single traveler, & some especially useful information for a woman traveling alone. There is an updated version that was published in 2003.

The book includes lists of travel resources, ideas for working while traveling, reasons why you should go off into the world alone, & why it's not as scary as you may think, as well as travel tales from women who've done it.

One of the stories told it like it is: "A man I met on the plane flying to the South Island offered to give me a ride to the hostel. I accepted, but was on my guard the whole way, wondering if he would take me down a dark road & rape me. But no, he delivered me to the door, shook my hand & said, 'Have a nice holiday.' Coming from the United States, it was hard to orient myself to a place where I was really safe - I wasn't used to that."

Another passage said, "Your chances of getting robbed with a weapon are much lower outside the US."

Wow! We, living in the US, are constantly told that we're "free", that we're "safe" here. But we're really not, are we?

Other resouces that I plan to check out are:
Transitions Abroad Magazine
US Servas Committee

The last sentence in this book reads:
"If I could say one final word, it would be 'Go.' "
I will.

Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007)

An unfortunately ugly, socially inept Dominican-American boy goes through life wondering when he'll ever get laid. The first half of the story is told from the perspectives of several different characters, the second half from the perspective of Oscar's best friend, who isn't really that good of a friend after all.

I was looking forward to reading this book, especially after reading Díaz's Drown, which I really enjoyed. But I found myself forgetting about this book when I wasn't reading it. When I did think about it, I had to struggle to remember the plot. One of the merits of this book was that it is wrought with footnotes, an unusual feature in novels. The footnotes offer true (yet biased) tidbits from the Dominican Republic's history. It's a sort of historical fiction that sometimes reads as a straight history book.

My friend Ryan had advised that I read Watchmen before reading Oscar Wao, in order to understand the novel easier. Oscar was definitely interested in graphic novels, anime, role-playing games, etc., but I'm not sure that Watchmen was ever specifically mentioned in this novel. Though I'm glad that I read Alan Moore's graphic novel, it's definitely not a prerequisite to Oscar Wao. However, I do think that a good companion to this book would be In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.

Julie Jaskol & Brian Lewis, City of Angels (1999)

I'm a sucker for great illustrations, & this book has them!

Each page highlights a different landmark or neighborhood in & around Los Angeles, making sure to cover many of the different cultures represented in the city, from China Town & the Mariachi Plaza, to the Watts Towers & the Getty Center. The illustrations are packed with colorful images, in a Where's Waldo sort of way. (Can you find the angels on each page?)

This would be a great gift for any child - or adult - who lives in or plans to visit our second largest city.