Traveling Light: A Novel by Lynne Branard

Traveling Light: A Novel.  Lynne Branard. Penguin Publishing Group. January 2017. 320 pp. ISBN #: 9781101989043.

Alissa has entered a rather strange contest to win a storage unit that has been abandoned.  What she finds, ironically, doesn’t seem to surprise her.  Instead she discovers the ashes of a deceased man, Roger Hart, and quickly decides she will return his ashes to his family or hometown.  She also is in need of a change and this strikes her as presenting innumerable possibilities.  No, it’s not the path most would take but it’s certainly an intriguing premise.

Little does she know that her eyes and heart are about to be opened, beginning when a strange young waitress, Blossom, decides to join her on the trip to Texas, as well as Alissa’s three-legged dog.   They discuss families as they travel and Alissa gets to meet some unique characters, like Blossom’s Dad. 

They meet fascinating people, some stereotypical, some odd.  They learn to go with the flow of whatever happens, including when their car starts misbehaving and all of Alissa’s car education helps them figure out what it is but not be able to fix it without help from elsewhere.

Meanwhile the man who abandoned Alissa a few days before the wedding keeps calling her and trying to hook up again.  But Alissa’s stronger, feistier and she’s not giving in to his charm.  Add to that her own father is dating a woman thirty years younger than he is, with two small children. And Alissa makes it clear that she doesn’t want to take over the newspaper her father owns and for which she wrote for a long time. 

What does she want to do?  Repair a boat.  “I don’t want to follow a script anymore…Everybody needs to listen to their own hearts…we should all decide on our own scripts.”  It seems that Alissa has learned to allow life to happen to her instead of directing life along the patterns her family has always followed, even though she really didn’t mind those patterns until now.

This is a quite unusual novel that reminded me of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road story, even though it really isn’t like that for most of the story of Kerouac’s journeys.  One even wonders if this change is because people are different in the West and the South.  One thing for sure is that Alissa and Blossom’s story will have you nodding your head up and down and at times holding still while questioning what has always been accepted.  What would it take for you to totally embrace life in different ways?  Lynne Branard helps the reader to begin his or her own journey, if one dares!

The Traveling Tea Shop: A Novel by Belinda Jones

The Traveling Tea Shop: A Novel.  Belinda Jones. Penguin Group (USA). March 2015. 368 pp.  ISBN#: 9780425279601.

Laurie Davis gets a phenomenal opportunity – the chance to travel up the New England coast with the famous TV cooking star, Pamela Lambert-Leigh, the star of Tea Time With Pamela.  They are both British and totally enchanted with CAKE!  No, it’s not your average, store-bought, boxed style cake but hand-crafted, beautifully decorated and scrumptious-tasting cake, doughnuts, cupcakes or muffins! Yummy!

Laurie’s job is to canvas the best of these bakeries or shops in New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The planned new cookbook will cover each creative space, baking process and a description of what it’s like to taste each unique specialty cake in every location. Laurie will be both assistant director arranging visits and tour guide in the surrounding area of each location they visit. Sounds like a dream vacation, doesn’t it?  Not quite!

Pamela has insisted that her feisty mother, Gracie, be their driver for the project.  Gracie is no doddering, elderly lady but a feisty mother and grandmother.  She had a graced marriage, a fact that inspires Laurie who doesn’t exactly have the greatest love history.  Gracie will be driving a double-decker British bus; only Laurie doesn’t realize that Gracie drives every automobile like she’s competing at the Indianapolis 500 final competition!

Add to the mix that Pamela’s daughter, Ravenna, will be accompanying the group.  Ravenna is a very young woman a/k/a obstinate super-brat, to summarize, so nasty that if it were not for Laurie’s wise, sassy and funny responses, this reader would have quit reading; but Laurie saves the day and engages the reader so cleverly that one wants to keep flipping the pages to see if there’s a chance at redemption for this terror of a daughter.  In many other ways, Ravenna also triggers Laurie’s thoughts about her own troubled relationship with her own sister.

So what mouth-watering, standard or exotic cake will make you determined to travel?  This novel absolutely makes one want to go to each site to see the intriguing and beautiful area and test each delightful dessert?  Although this is a novel, the places and desserts are obviously well-researched and actually exist in reality!  No, it’s not a romance but just a lovely romp in which one gets to visualize and taste the best that New England has to offer!

Highly recommended reading, traveling and tasting!

Journeys on the Silk Road by Morgan & Walters

Journeys on the Silk Road: A desert explorer, Buddha's secret library, and the unearthing of the world's oldest printed book. Morgan and Walters. Lyons Press. September 2012. 336 pp. hardback. ISBN #: 9780762782970.

Here is the account about Aurel Stein, the archaeologist, and his dog, Dash, and their astounding journey across what is known as the Silk Road, a journey traversing China, Tibet, India and more lands.  Funded by the British government, Stein's job was to look for valuable pieces that would add to Great Britain's museum collection; but Stein's interests lay in a different direction.  So he found no difficulty finding enough "gems," figuratively speaking to make his funders happy.  But the rest of the story is magical and adventurous, and Morgan & Walters leave no stone unturned (literally and figuratively) in describing the preparation, journey, and eventual findings that riveted Stein.  Indeed those discoveries are still touching the lives of millions of readers, explorers, adventurers, and tourists, professional and lay included.

The authors describe how Stein's first journeys to Central Asia led him to wonder where the first Buddhist writings could be found and how that religion was transformed as it began in India and evolved into its state in China.  As the journey across deserts and mountains was so vigorous and life-threatening, the authors describe how selective Stein was in choosing his aides.  Sometimes the decisions proved pivotal and once almost disastrous.  The descriptions are so vivid the reader can feel the storms, heat, brutal cold and other forces of nature such as avalanches that defy the imagination but which were survived by Stein and his team.

Stein first is entranced by the artifacts inside Lahore Museum, ancient Buddhist statues, amazingly with decidedly Western features. Then the murder of the Scottish adventurer, Andrew Dalgleish, makes Stein realize what treasures existed so that others would murder anyone seeking to find those treasures.  Soon the competition of others and the need for funding fueled his desire to get moving on this treasure hunt to the mysterious settlement of Loulan that another adventurer, Sven Hedin, had discovered in 1899. The Buddhist images and wooden documents, as well as a form of early paper kindled Stein's fascination and goals.

The book also describes the writings of Xuanzang who taught Buddhism and wrote about these teachings on scrolls, all based on his journeys to India.  This was the gold mine hidden in a cave which Stein was seeking and which he eventually found.

It is impossible to cover all the aspects of this topic for which Stein dedicated his life.  Every chapter of this momentous book is an adventure story that will rivet any reader, whether or not he or she has any interest in this subject. Indeed it reads like adventure fiction as well as historical fiction.  The scholarly reader will be as satisfied as well as the lay reader is with the depth and diverse approaches to this comprehensive subject.  Morgan & Walters have created a classic work of archaeological study that will be relished inside and outside the academic and archaeological world.  Superbly crafted, mesmerizing, and informative! A must read for those who love great books!

Planes, Trains, and Auto-Rickshaws: A Journey Through Modern India by Laura Pedersen

Planes, Trains, and Auto-Rickshaws: A Journey Through Modern India. Laura Pedersen. Fulcrum Publishing. May 2012. 224 pages paperback. ISBN #: 9781555916183.

Laura Pederson has moved in a new direction with this nonfiction account of her interest in and exploration of modern India. Beginning with an explanation of her fascination with India, she humorously relates how the TV show Bewitched with its Dr. Bombay character propelled her to notice there was a difference between Americans naming American Indians, island Indians and India-Indians. It gradually led her to desire to visit this land that unfortunately is only known for its more horrific stereotypes, some of which do exist but which hardly touch on the many faceted nature of this unique country.  So the reader will travel with the author to see just what the truth is.

Laura Pedersen doesn't shy away from the good, the bad, and the ugly in her travels.  However, it is amazing to see how she touches on all the important aspects of Indian culture.  For instance, there are chapters on many cities such as Delhi where the beautiful sites of the Qutub Minar (the world's tallest black minaret) vie with places like the Jain Bird Hospital where birds who are injured from the national pastime of kite flying (bearing little similarity to the American kite flying pleasure) are treated and allowed to heal.  Or perhaps you'd like to visit the gorgeous Taj Mahal which in some places occasionally springs a leak (and romantics call shedding a tear).

There are glorious spas, shopping enough for any shopaholic, and animal resorts.  The diversity of things to do is amazing.  And of course there are the culinary delights which range from fiery to mild Indian dishes to salivate the glands of any food lover!  Or Mumbai with its Standing Babas who vow to never sit or lay down again to work off any bad karma in their past.  Aspects of history are thrown in for good measure, with an assurance that safety measures are as important there as anywhere since the rise of terrorism. Other sections are devoted to little known aspects of the major religions of India as well as a discussion of the benefits and liabilities of the caste system that holds sway in some Indian towns and has been abandoned in more modern cities.  There's even a chapter describing the major Indian political leaders and what they are best and little known for during their careers. And there's so much more than what has been described here!

While there is not a huge depth to these discussions, any reader is bound to both learn and be intrigued by the facets the author does add about each item of discussion.  Any reader enjoying this book just might start to think about adding this to their "bucket list" of places to visit and explore in the near or far future!!! Very interesting and well done, Ms. Pedersen.  You are a writer with many styles of writing to your credit - travel writing is your latest that is so well done!