More Sand in My Bra: Funny Women Write from the Road, Again! Edited by Julia Weiler and Jennifer L. Leo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I saw this on the shelf at Waterstone's in Oban, I knew I had to buy it. Back in Corvallis, my co-editor at CALYX, Lill Ahrens, had had a story published in the first collection, Sand in My Bra. And I knew that she had a second story published in this recent collection.
I figured I could get her to autograph it when I got to Corvallis. Meanwhile, Andy and I were heading to Italy for two days and I needed a travel book to read on the plane.
No better choice! Lill is an incredibly funny woman and a great writer, and so are all the other writers included in this anthology of women's humorous travel writing. This is the perfect book to have along while travelling, during those moments on the bus, train, or airplane when there's nothing to see out the window.
I laughed so much, and I had to read little bits out loud to Andy. There was the squeamish lady preparing a raw octopus salad for her boyfriend, and the fat ladies who couldn't find any boots that fit over their calves. There was a crazy, boozy Thai tour guide, lots of misplaced underwear, some flirtation and, of course, sex acts going on behind too-thin walls.
Lill's story recalled a visit to a Safari amusement park ride in Korea, during which the bus is attacked by lions. I swear, I've had nightmares about that kind of thing. Driving slowly through a wild animal park at night... starving vicious carnivores trying to break through the doors... not my idea of fun.
One story that especially appealed to me was the one where the woman gets swept away in a massive running crowd in Sydney, Australia, as she discovers that she's in the middle of a 14-k race. Not prepared in the least to run 14 kilometers, nevertheless she keeps going and eventually gets to the end, having bonded with her running mates along the way. It was one story in the collection that made me think, That would be kind of fun.
Maybe I have a strange sense of fun. But while I enjoyed these stories, I didn't actually relate to most of the narrators or the situations they were in. Perhaps I'm not much of a traveller. It was still fun to read about the many things that can go awry while travelling, those "live and learn" moments that seem much more humorous long after the fact.
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