A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller

This book was a terrible disappointment. I generally love Mayes' writing but found her rather insufferable in this selection. Much duller than her other books, it also shows a fairly nasty side of Mayes that I didn't like. Throughout the book she goes on rants about how things aren't up to her standards, leaving rental homes that had already been paid for because of tacky decor or because it was closer to a busy road than she would like. On top of that, and more grating to me was her constant berating of other people she encountered. She and Ed would giggle over some woman's choice of attire, this one being so out of fashion, that one looking like a sofa. The descriptions of overweight people was particularly galling. Describing one show more mother as an "albino hippopotamus" and depicting in detail her rolls and bulges because she dared to wear a white bathing suit in public - how dare she! There was one endearing chapter in which they visit Fez (although Ed was sick throughout this visit so perhaps without an audience to share her Mean Girl giggles with, she's less obnoxious). Unfortunately the Fez chapter was a mere 30 pages of 417. Not nearly enough to save the book from itself. I come away from this one really displeased with the author. I won't be reading more of her work. show less

Your enjoyment of this book will largely depend on how much you like the things Frances Mayes likes -- food, flowers and antiquities, to name a few. The locales she and her husband visit are varied, but she spends most of her words for those interests. Very much a diary, including friends in the telling, it's theme is quite loose, finding yourself in other places. Unlike her previous works, she shows a nasty side here, with unkind (and unnecessary) comments about the passengers on a cruise she took.

I honestly did not think I would make it through this book. It sounded like an interesting and informative read, but it did not turn out to be so. I started thinking that reading about other people’s travels is perhaps just not that entertaining, but then I recalled that I have read other travelogues without being bored to tears. It was just something about this particular book. For starters, this “year in the world” is really just various vacations and trips to get together with friends, not a cohesive one-year plan such as Elizabeth Gilbert’s in Eat Pray Love. There are few transitional passages so one moment you’re reading about Greece, the next Italy, and then again back in Greece without any introduction into these forays show more to help you make sense of it all. This may be a product of the abridged version I read, but I do not know. As other reviewers have pointed out, it seems like the most important thing to Mayes is eating. You would think after traveling to more than seven countries, there would be something more interesting to write about then ‘we stopped in a coffee place and had an espresso’ (not a verbatim quote, but indicative of her style). All of this food talk *might* have been okay if it had been discussed as cultural products and given some fleshed out description other than a simple repetition of the menu. The author occasionally gives some historical details, which are more in line with what I expected, and she discusses gardens in the U.K., which I personally enjoyed as gardening is an interest of mine. She also sometimes refers to ancient myths or to poetry and literature and while this is somewhat interesting, I think it says more about Mayes than about the countries she visits (particularly the latter). Mayes also talks a lot about protection from “the evil eye” and other superstitious thoughts and again, I think this says more about her than anything else. A small detail that bugged me was Mayes would frequently bestow highest praise on a particular town by saying, “I could live here.” When you start saying this over and over again, I think it’s time to find a new descriptive phrase. That Frances Mayes could live somewhere means nothing to me, the general reader. It would have been better for her to actually think about why she could consider living there and then describe those reasons. And while I usually appreciate listening to an audiobook read by the author, Mayes’s voice was monotone and nearly put me to sleep. All around, not an enjoyable reading experience. This book reads more like someone’s personal journal published without any editing beforehand to make it readable for others. show less

Staccato - No story, Just Description - And yet, this book resonates in my life. I feel like I found a kindred spirit, a mentor perhaps.

It's not just a travel book, but a philosophy of life, or perhaps a guide to writing. Mayes describes travel as a quest.

"Cultural analysis had begun. What makes them the way they are? That question is at the tap-root of my travel quests. How do place and character intertwine? Could I feel at home here? What is home to those around me? Who are they in their homes, those mysterious others?"

And, I see now that,

"The transforming angel: you go out, far out, and when you return, you have the power to transform your life. Roads always lead to Rome/Home."

An Amazon review I wish I'd read before I bought this book summarized my opinion of Mayes' travel writing: the writer criticized the discrepancy between the title and the substance:

"A year spent unmoored -- from home and errands and work and the ties that bind -- would have yielded a very different sort of book from this. These trips -- house rentals, hotel stays, even a cruise -- represent a series of vacations, instead of the year-long quest that the title promises."

In short, it's neither a *year* in the world nor a year truly *in* the world - a series of vacations bookended in real life aren't truly a year in the world any more than cruises and four-star hotels are an honest way of experiencing another locale.

Mayes shows us "rich" show more travel, rich in the sense of expense and not experience -- time spent sampling hotels, food, art, all the finer things, but not time intermingling, exploring. I bought this book while becoming aware of the prickles of my own wanderlust and was very disappointed by how little Mayes seemed to fit her own descriptor of "passionate traveler," but then, our ideas of travel are different.

It's true that she writes beautifully, lyrically, but I'm not interested in what she has to say. show less

Book on CD read by the author
3.5***

Subtitle: Journeys of a Passionate Traveler

I was not a great fan of Under the Tuscan Sun, so I’m not sure why I had this on my TBR. But a prompt to read a travel book brought this one to the forefront and I’m glad that I decided to try it.

Mayes recounts her many adventures traveling across Europe and Northern Africa from her home base in Tuscany. This was not one great adventure, but separate trips she and her husband took over time. Mayes shares their experiences as they roam through the British Isles, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Morocco, France and other areas of Italy. Her passion for travel certainly comes through loud and clear!

I particularly enjoyed the way she wrote about food. I show more could practically smell and taste the dishes, and I was constantly hungry for “more.” I also enjoyed the personal glimpses she gave of local citizenry or of fellow travelers. I was reminded of the adventures my husband and I had in his many years in international business; especially the surprise meals we had when we’d enter a restaurant and leave the selection up to the staff. We never had a bad meal doing this and enjoyed some truly spectacular ones (even when we didn’t know what we were eating).

The audiobook I got from the library was read by the author, but it was an abridged version of the book. (There is a full-length audiobook version, narrated by Cassandra Campbell.) I’m glad I had the text handy to fill in the blanks. However, reading of one adventure after another became repetitive. I think this book is best enjoyed as a collection of short stories that one reads a few at a time, rather than trying to do the whole thing in one fell swoop. show less

Not a fan of this one, so it's not becoming a part of my library! While I was a fan of Mayes, I found her 'me, me, me' style in 'A Year in the World' tiresome and leaving a lot to be desired. Yes, she provides a lot of details about her destinations. Yes, her style is still eloquent and readable. But her rather frequent whining about relatively minor or to-be-expected details of their accommodations, surroundings, etc. is tiresome and smacks of entitlement. Which she is free to express but certainly detracts from the book!