Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Review: The Lost Girls

The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World.The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World. by Jennifer Baggett, Holly Corbett, Amanda Pressner is a travel memoir written by three girlfriends who leave their lives in the Big Apple behind to travel the world for a year on a trip where they learn about different cultures, languages and customs. However, their most important lessons are the power of taking chances, the gift of self-discovery and the grace of great friendships.

Jen, Holly and Amanda are each firmly entrenched in the rat race of New York City working long hours and struggling to advance their careers; at the same time, however, they are approaching thirty and beginning to get restless.  As they face their quarter-life crises, they decide to take the trip of a lifetime together and travel around the world.  Their list of destinations is impressive and includes Bali, India, Peru and Kenya.

My thoughts
The chapters of the book alternate between Holly, Jen and Amanda as they chronicle their adventures in each destination - some destinations are told from the perspectives of all three girls while other destinations are told only from one girl's perspective.  The alternation gives the reader a well-rounded experience of each destination and the trip as a whole; however, at times, it seemed superfluous to have each girl recount their observations.  Their points of view were not remarkably different from each other so it wasn't always necessary to hear each girl's experiences of a particular destination.  The book is over 500 pages long and I feel it could have been shortened by about 100 pages without my losing very much of the girls' adventure.

This minor quibble with the length, however, in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the travel memoir - I loved seeing these destinations through their eyes.  I am an avowed travel addict and am most happy when I enter an airport, passport in hand.  As I read through the memoir, I found myself adding destinations to that mental list of "must see" places - for example, I definitely want to go to Peru and Kenya.  I have also been to many of the places the girls traveled to  -Vietnam, Bali, India, Cambodia and Thailand - it was such a thrill to relive those trips by reading about the destinations in this memoir!

The book, however, is more than a collection of city guides and tales of adventure in far-flung destinations.  It is really a story of how these three women took risks and left the safety of jobs and boyfriends behind to see a bit of the world and ensure they seized the chance to live life to the fullest.  Their commitment to turning their backs on the security of lives lived according to plan is what most inspired me about these women  - I am not sure I could to it which is why I admire it so much. Oh and one more thing - they have inspired me to take a trip to New Zealand!  Take a look at the blue sky in this picture below and you will understand why!



Credit: The Lost Girls





I read this book as part of the TLC Book Tour - check out the site for a list of other tour hosts and links to their reviews.  Thank you to Harper Collins for providing a copy of the book for review.

13 comments:

  1. This sounds like something I would love. But I have to agree that 500 pages is quite a commitment! Glad it was good!

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  2. Traveling is my absolute favorite thing to do...if only it didn't cost so much! I think that's why I enjoy travel memoirs such as this one. If it's well written, I can easily place myself in the shoes of the traveler. Plus, I love being able to add new destinations to my To Be Traveled list :)

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  3. This sounds like such a fun book! I've been a little skeptical in reading other reviews -- it sounded a little bit too Eat, Pray, Love for my tastes, possibly. But it sounds more a like a friendship story, and I like the idea of an adventure to throw away security and see what happens. Onto the TBR pile it goes :)

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  4. I definitely admire these women; it takes some serious cahones to leave everything you know behind, all your comfort, to go on an adventure like this.

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  5. oh i love travel memoirs! i love traveling, i just wish i had the chance to do it more often. you should also add Croatia to your list of travel places. i've never been there. but when i ran across this website (http://www.hellomagazine.com/travel/201104155270/plitvice/national-park/croatia/1/) i just knew i had to go there!

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  6. This one sounds good. I like the idea of alternating narrators in non-fiction too!

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  7. I do enjoy books that teach me something about far away places; sounds like this is one I would enjoy.

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  8. I don't think I could do this either but I do admire and envy those who can.

    I'm glad you enjoyed the book - thanks so much for being a part of the tour!

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  9. Thanks for this review. I am always looking for books that take me away ( http://lexisjen.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/anywhere-but-here/ ) I'm adding this one to the ever-expanding TBR list.

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  10. I'm glad you enjoyed this! I enjoyed this travel memoir too, more because it wasn't a result of a mid-life crisis. Plus I wish it was shorter, there were some parts that felt repetitive.

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  11. I agree with you - the book could have been shorter without losing any of its zest but it was a great read anyway!

    BTW, expect an email from me with Bali questions! :)

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  12. This sounds great--a little armchair travel from grey old east coast. I'm pottering around with a 3rd novel--very early stages--at the moment and toying with the idea of multiple perspectives or switching points of view. I never know if that confuses readers or adds to the narrative interest? Choices, choices ...

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  13. I wanted to read this one and then passed. I did like reading all the reviews (yours too)though.

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