Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman by Alice Steinbach
Alice Steinbach had me at hello.  I knew as soon as I read her introduction that I was really going to love this book.  And I wasn't disappointed.

Having worked for twenty years as a successful Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and after sending her two sons off to college, Steinbach decided she was tired of deadlines and the daily grind.  She wanted to travel, and write about it. So she quit her job at the Baltimore Sun and set out on a year and a half long journey as a student of the world.

Many people read books to escape, and what a journey Steinbach takes us on.  For if you have ever wanted to learn to cook at The Ritz in Paris, meet a geisha, study Renaissance art in Florence, or dance in a Havana cafe, but can't make the trip, this is the next best thing.  It's inexpensive, you still get to sleep in your own bed, and you don't have to worry about what to pack.

At first glance, a book about someone else's travels may seem as appealing as your aunt's vacation photos.  But Steinbach makes this fascinating by letting us delight in her penchant for going where no tourist has gone before.  Through back alleys, employee-only elevators, and small towns, she shows us the world not found on a postcard.  And you genuinely care for this woman who lets us peek into her own private life, chronicling letters and meetings with a Japanese man she has begun a relationship with, and coming to terms with the loss of loved ones. 

Steinbach describes scenes in such detail you feel as though you are present.  Can you feel that breeze on the veranda in Florence?  Even her annoyance at a passenger sitting next to her on a flight to Italy is charming and funny.  She tells it all, the good and the bad, the lonely times and the times she reveled in her ability to do what she wanted.  She doesn't leave us with a dull moment.

Steinbach also reinforces the joy of traveling alone - free to do as you please, when you please. Some of us won't even eat in a restaurant alone.  But revealed to us is a strong, independent, passionate woman; a divorcee who certainly has no need to marry again, and judging by her dancing in Havana, certainly doesn't need a man around to have a good time. But most wonderful about her is her delicate nature and the fact that she is undeniably a lady throughout. 

Happy travels!

About the Author: Alice Steinbach was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for her work at the Baltimore Sun.  Currently a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, she has also taught journalism and writing at Princeton University, Washington and Lee University and Loyola College.  She lives in Baltimore.
Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman