HAVE A LOVE AFFAIR WITH TRAVEL

Evelyn Kelly and her adult daughter, Natalie Kelly, recount their many journeys in this globetrotting guide.

The authors began taking international trips together in 1993, when the two Floridians set off to see 13 European countries in three weeks. Bit by the travel bug, they went on to visit all seven continents, all 50 states, and 88 countries before writing this, their joint travel memoir. In 79 bite-sized anecdotes, set over more than three decades, the Kellys share their most memorable adventures and the lessons they learned. They drank Sour Toe cocktails in Dawson City in the Yukon (advertised as “a shot of whiskey with a fermented human toe inside the glass”) and witnessed a healer cure a man’s headaches with a snap of his fingers in Kathmandu; they also recount a time when Natalie nearly suffered a panic attack while scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef. Sometimes the narration shifts to the authors’ friends, such as Jonathan Pait, a U.S. Marine who writes about indoor snowboarding in Dubai, or Casius Peeler, a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in St. Vincent who describes killing a goat for a friend’s birthday. The authors primarily stick to expected tourist fare, and their accounts of kissing the Blarney Stone, visiting Machu Picchu, and seeing the Mona Lisa are not particularly insightful. However, there are also fictional chapters written from the perspectives of Mark Twain, Lewis and Clark’s dog, and a Key West rooster: “This is a great place to be a chicken because no one can bother you, and you get to have your picture taken a lot…I don’t have to worry about being served as ‘chicken legs’ in a local restaurant.” Each chapter concludes with a “Smart Tip” for would-be travelers, and the book ends with further informational material. Overall, the work is best when it detours into less familiar territory, as when the authors write about the packs of dogs that once roamed Bucharest, Romania, at night, or about Natalie’s possible run-in with the Devil himself on Vilnius’s Hill of Crosses.

A breezy, if not always novel, account of a duo’s international trips.