Scratching the Surface: Impressions of Planet Earth from Hollywood to Shiraz

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Summary: Jeff Greenwald is one of my favorite writers but..
Review: if you have read his other books, you will have read about half of these stories already.

Rating:
Summary: A Globe for All Seasons
Review: Jeff Greenwald is the kind of traveler most people rightly want to be--insouciant, funny, compassionate and cyncal at the same time. He's seems to have been just about everywhere (I'm sure he'd scoff at that), and seen it all, but most of all one gets from his writing a special sense of hope. He clearly loves the world and all its inhabitants--and in the manner in which the whole wild and poignant panoply of life pains and delights him, he brings the reader to their own natural place of wonder. Even better (I've read three of his other books), I always find myself Greenwalded into an eddy of determination not only to make my own next trip real, but when I'm on it, to be a better observer and a better participant in the magic all about me.