Take Me with You: A Round-The-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home

"Someday, when I'm rich, I'm going to invite someone from my travels to visit me in America". Brad Newsham was 22 years old and travelling through Afganistan when he wrote this in his diary. 14 years later, he's a taxi driver in San Francisco. He's not rich, but he has never forgotten his vow. This book is the compelling account of his 3 month journey through the Philippines, India, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa as he searches for the right person - someone who couldn't afford to leaver their own country, let alone holiday in the West. Newsham's story will change the way you think about your life and the lives of those you meet when you travel.

This is the type of adventure I wish I made, and the story I wish I had written about it.It's the story of a San Francisco taxi driver who wants to see the world, and share his place in it with a stranger. To do so, he maps a journey through the Phillipines, India and Africa, in search of the perfect guest. The story has all the elements of a great travel yarn: A purpose beyond the journey itself, well written details of exotic lands, a descent into our shared humanity, and a self-deprecating sense of humor.I'm inspired to travel! I may not invite someone back with me, but I'll certainly look for a new adventure to undertake.If you like Tony Hawks, you'll love Brad Newsham.

In search of a new book to read, I was listening to a weekly book review on National Public radio. Take Me With You was mentioned, I bought it, and it did. Newsham knows how to travel and how to bring you along for the ride. He does not sit back and just look at where he is going, he gets close to the people, the land and the cultures. How refreshing for the reader to just sit back and be taken along for a great trip around the world. One thing that was obvious in the book was that Brad is a seasoned traveler and has little or no fear of strange cultures and people. Highly recommended!

While reading Take Me With You, I sometimes felt as if I were evesdropping or looking into a private conversation. In out of the way places and big cities, Newsham takes the time to get to know some incredible personalities. I realized that there are like-minded people living all over the world. Environmental concerns, family issues and dreams and desires being a major part of our lives. Whether you own half of Kenya or a 1,400 sq foot apartment in Portland, Oregon, we're all the same.Newsham tells the truth about travel. The great expectations, the letdowns, and the surprises. The feeling of dread when you realize that your trip is almost over, and soon you'll have to board the airplane back to your normal life. Everyone at some point wishes they could chuck everything, pick up a backpack and head out into the overlooked parts of the world. When that time comes in my life, I will look for Newsham's most recent book.Not since reading the Neverending Story when I was 11 years old have I been so totally engrossed and captured by a particular book. Keep up the good work Mr. Brad Newsham, I hope you sell a million copies!

I'm not a big reader of travel books, but if they're all this good I think I may have to become one. I was charmed from the beginning by the book's premise: an off-duty cab driver wandering the world with something special in his pcket, a magical gift he is going to give away to a complete stranger. And then I was repeatedly charmed and touched by Newsham's interactions with the people he tucked so vividly between the covers of this spellbinding book. And the scenery! I've always wanted to see the animals in Africa and now I feel like I have, feel like I've slept in a tent on the edge of the Serengetti with hyenas and lions and elephants lurking in the bush. I feel like I've stood beside the flaming funeral pyres on a dark night on the banks of the Ganges and watched bodies being cremated and the ashes and remains pushed into the river. I feel like I've stood at the southern tip of Africa and listened to the waves of the Atlantic Ocean crash up on one side of me and the waves of the Indian Ocean on the other. I feel like I went around the world and came back a different person.