Rating: 
Summary: A brave lifestyle, a boring book
Review: Roaming around the world all alone, while brave seemed self indulgent and I couldn't keep from wondering how the author really filled her days. A few ceremonies, a few hikes it seems there should have been a lot more to this book. Perhaps the problems was in the writing and the real story never made it to the pages.
Rating: 
Summary: A few flaws but happy to have read it
Review: Although too invested in convincing us of her saintliness and unceasingly self-congratulatory, nonetheless a good read for her insider/outsider perspective. Her descriptions of Balinese funeral, gift giving, and hygiene practices was especially interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Loved the title, disliked the book
Review: I wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, Gelman has not learned the art of telling a story without giving her judgements on it. I wish she had given the reader some credit to be able to distinguish what characters are sincere and which ones aren't. Instead, she tells us her opinions of these people, leaving the reader no room for interpretation. I felt preached to. With every passing page, I felt more and more resentment toward her style of writing that proclaimed how her choices, her travel style and her friends were far superior to anyone else's.There are many other travel books that do a much better job of allowing the reader to feel a part of the story. Choose one with, perhaps not as good a title, but with better writing.
Rating:
Summary: Good Light Read
Review: I feel this book was a good read for the simple fact that there aren't many books like it (for women). As an aspiring traveller, myself, this book was an easy-to-gobble-up book which provided a dose of inspiration and didn't strain my brain too much. I mean what do you expect from a published children's book author (Rita Golden Gelman).
It was actually a breath of fresh air. I appreciate Gelman's sharing her experiences, which offer importance and relevance to any woman planning to travel to distant countries.
For a good, light read, I recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Terribly Written
Review: It was torture to get through this book, and I must admit I had to speed-read and skip several pages, even chapters, to reach the end. There are several great adventures here, but it's too bad the writing is so poor. Laurie Gough's "Kite Strings of the Southern Cross" is beautifully written, poetic, and obviously written by a gifted writer. Just because a traveler has gone out and seen the world, doesn't mean that traveler should/can write a book about it. Perhaps Rita Gelman should take some writing classes before embarking on further excursions.
Rating: 
Summary: first two sections worth reading
Review: How can a book go from great to terrible so quickly? Rita's story starts out inspirationally, a divorced housewife starting life anew in a small Zapotec village. Rita continues to visit Honduras, Guetemala, and Nicaragua, all during a time of political strife and US interventions. It continues, the reader fascinated, as Rita manages to get a place to stay in Borneo with a famous anthropologist. Then she arrives in Bali, where she stays for many years. The soliloquies are weaker here, the story less detailed, and certainly less interesting. Suddenly, Rita, an exciting journeyer, starts to lose her charm. The story in Bali isn't fleshed out enough to make it come alive. It is difficult to read as Rita goes from intrepid traveller to an overweight senior. As a lifelong exerciser, it was hard for me to sympathise with Rita's admitted difficulties in training for the trek. She writes that she simply couldn't motivate herself. I found myself skipping pages and speed-reading, vainly hoping that the book was going to get good again. It didn't.
Rating:
Summary: if only a capable writer had written this story...
Review: Having been a foreign correspondent in the Galapagos and a guest in the home of Zapotec Indians in a village near Oaxaca, I hoped to find a mix of familiar and unfamiliar adventures in this book. Instead I found an amazingly lifeless and self-absorbed chronology by a tiresome person who gushes one moment about her amazing "spiritual growth" and the next about how her daughter works with celebrities. Rita Golden Gelman professes the ability to embrace many different cultures but isn't above a crude representation of a Thai man's pronunciation of the English R as an L. She holds a German tourist whom she disliked instantly (snap judgments are the rule in this book) up to ridicule for being unprepared for one journey but sees herself as virtually heroic for undertaking an expedition on which her own nearly proudly bad physical condition compels another traveler to lag behind the friends with whom she arrived. The author revels in her certainty that other women, all doubtless unfulfilled in their boring married lives, regard her with envy. And characters in the book come in two flavors: either they adore her, or there's something wrong with them. Moreover, glaring misspellings in at least English (expatriots) and Spanish (buenos tardes) abound, and the author's fascination with herself is exceeded only by her love of a spliced comma. But if she is an embarrassment to professional writers, she is even more a disappointment to readers who might expect better of a story that should not want for adventure but sadly lacks a compelling or sympathetic protagonist.
Rating:
Summary: I wish the nomad would travel back home!
Review: It's rare that I can't finish a book, but this one defeated me. The subject matter should have been interesting (middle aged woman splits up with hubby and travels the world for 15 years) but after a couple of chapters, I started to find Rita irritating. Firstly, she claims that she lived in various communities as a local. However, she wasn't averse to accepting freebies and favours afforded to her simply because she was American (eg the government sponsored trip to Camp Leakey in Borneo). That's fair enough, but obviously a local would never have been offered these opportunities. Secondly, I found the tone of her writing very smug and (dare I say it?) a little too American for me. When others don't share Rita's enthusiasm for herself, she gets quite bewildered. At Camp Leakey, she seemed quite put out when the busy female scientist didn't drop everything to become Rita's new best friend. At this point, I'd had enough. Which is a pity, as I'm sure she had some great adventures. Maybe she should have employed a ghost writer.
Rating: 
Summary: at home in the world as an elder stateswoman
Review: I loved this book; Rita Golden Gelman holds out a promise of the kind of traveler I'd like to be always: gracious, witty, calm and with-it at all times. There is much to admire in her, especially the way that she refuses to cope in conventional ways. I admire the way she sets off to see the world when everyone around her tells her not to. Doing your own thing, walking to the beat of your own drummer and not taking life lying down are all things I believe in and support! As a childfree person, I noted with interest how much easier it was for Ms. Gelman to come into a place and be accepted instantly, simply by virtue of being a parent. I and other travelers would have to rely on our charm and skill to be accepted. In fact, in certain places in the world where motherhood is hardly optional, I have to wonder what the reception would be like as a Western woman who has chosen to be myself and not to fulfill an expected social role. I'm certainly not knocking Ms. Gelman's trading on a tried-and-true inroad to acceptance in a foreign community; I'm noting that as a female traveler, that's an ace that she as the author played very well. Age is another factor that is viewed positively elsewhere in the world, and Ms. Gelman trades on this winningly. In youth-obsessed America, I have to wonder how much we as a culture miss out on by not listening to our elders! Throughout the book it's notable to see Ms. Gelman being viewed as trustworthy because she is an elder in the best sense, as in someone who has attained years and wisdom. I look forward to a time when I am treated as an elder when I travel. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who enjoys travel writing. I'd recommend it to any and all female travelers, especially those of us who like to travel solo. I admire Rita Golden Gelman's taking the path less traveled by; her building of intentional communities and her love and openheartedness show through on every page.
Rating:
Summary: makes you long to travel without a plan
Review: As scary as the thought might be of traveling alone Rita Golden Gelmans experience inspires you to seek out your own adventure and set yourself on a path of self discovery. This book haunted my soul, stirred my dormant need to seek adventure, and put me in a pensive state of mind. You don't just read her book you experience every thought, action, and the moments with her. Her writing style is relaxed and thought provoking. Gelman brings a compassion to the people she visits and takes a part of their worlds with her when she leaves. I loved this book.
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