Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures: Funny Women Write from the Road (Travelers' Tales Guides)

This collection of funny stories is not just for women! It's a fun book to take on vacation and to read aloud to your traveling companion. I particularly enjoyed "The Aunties," by Anne Lamott, as she describes the inner voice battling thoughts on her middle-aged body while standing next to a group of teenagers at a beach side bus stop. A quick, fun read that will keep you laughing and appreciating the fine batch of women writers presented in this anthology. Michele Cozzens is the author of IIt's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club

I picked this book up on a recent trip to San Francisco to read on the plane home to Texas. All I can say is, don't read this book on a plane unless you know the person sitting next to you WELL - it had me laughing hysterically (and loudly). Fortunately, I was sitting with my husband... The only possible drawback is that it really does deal mostly with things that women can relate to. From explaining a gynecological problem in a foreign language to being the less-than-perfect body on the beach with bikini clad babes, it definitely speaks to the woman traveler. As for me - I could definitely relate. Buy it for your next plane ride!

Absolutely hilarious to anyone who has had any type of travel misadventure. From fear of flying to worries about what you'll look like in your swimsuit, these journeys, written by women, will crack you up. If you've ever tried to fit in while traveling, read this! If you've ever had some bad laundry experiences while traveling, read this! It's worth the journey to the bookstore!

The title piece in this pocket-sized anthology of humorous travel pieces by women features Christine Nielsen stressing over costumes for a week at Burning Man, a festival "based on creative self-expression." Originating in San Francisco, the event has grown so big it's now held in the Nevada desert where showering is just a means to cake up with a thicker layer of dust and a major highlight is the topless bicycle parade of 4,000 women. I identified more with the sidebar piece by Jennifer L. Leo, describing her coma-stress response to a hearty call for Naked Basketball.Other pieces focus on more mundane female conundrums like underwear with tired elastic (yikes!) menstrual surprises (even worse!), sanitary facilities, euphemisms in foreign languages, attempting to pass unnoticed in a chador in Kuwait, finding a book in a French airport with a teenager in tow, dealing with the runs, bad hair days in Hong Kong. Ellen Degeneres does a piece on fear of flying and Adair Lara packs for the fantasy person she expects to become halfway around the world. There are men, like Germaine W. Shames' eloquent Mexican lover, though not so many as you might expect in an anthology by women. There may be more pieces on squeezing excess flesh into bathing suits.Mostly these are good-natured women finding the funny side of mishaps in places as far flung as the red-light district in Bangkok and the 50-pound sack race in small-town Nevada. There are plenty of laughs and - a side benefit - some handy warnings on what not to do when traveling.

Enjoyed the book. Heard some of the authors read last night at a local travel bookstore; went home and read some more. It's light-hearted; some of the essays, inevitably, are better than others. One, by Leslie Quinn, is especially delightful. It takes place in a French airport, as she and her thirteen-year-old daughter are about to fly home. Leslie desperately wants to leave her daughter with all their luggage and dash to a bookstore to make a last-minute book purchase for the flight back to the U.S.; the daughter resists being left alone. The conflict is told in wonderful, funny and understated dialogue--but what I found especially moving was the way the mother alternately viewed her daughter as both old enough to....and then, as a child. Underneath my laugh-out-loud enjoyment, I found myself moved by this subtle portrait of a mother coping with a daughter coming of age.