by Lois Joy Hofmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A companionable, if occasionally overwrought, tale of adventure.
A recounting of a couple’s voyage by boat from France to California.
Hofmann writes that she and her husband, Günter, left their biotech company after what she describes as a “traumatic coup,” and, as a result, they felt compelled to reassess their lives. Instead of a conventional retirement, they chose adventure and decided to circumnavigate the world by boat—a trip that would ultimately take eight years and would land them in 62 countries. The author and her husband commissioned the building of a 43-foot Catana—“the Rolls Royce of catamarans”—in France, and took courses in sailing and navigation. They encountered frustrating delays in the construction and delivery of their vessel, but eventually set sail from Canet, France, in 2000, intending to end their first voyage in San Diego. (This debut is the first of three volumes that, taken together, document the trip in its entirety.) Over the course of their travels—with memorable, thoroughly described stops in Morocco, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, and many other locations—the two wrestle with tumultuous weather, injury, and mechanical malfunction. The threat of crime reared its head when another couple was robbed at knife point in Costa Rica. While in Mexico, their laptop broke down, and the accumulation of troubles caused Hofmann to have a dispirited meltdown. But she recovered her stride and returned with renewed commitment to their expedition. The book is an eclectic hybrid of multiple genres, including travelogue, personal memoir, and photo essay, and it can even be understood as inspirational self-help when Hofmann reflects deeply on the lessons she learned at sea. The work is illustrated with gorgeous color photography throughout, and sidebars furnish interesting cultural and historical information. That said, the overall aesthetic of the work—which is large and glossy, like a coffee-table book—is still a bit cramped; there’s so much stuffed onto to the pages that it sometimes feels visually chaotic. Hofmann’s prose is always lucid, although she’s inclined toward melodramatic theatricality: “Tomorrow, we must enter that turbulent Strait again, then to the sea beyond. Only God knows what I will find out there.”
A companionable, if occasionally overwrought, tale of adventure.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9845493-2-0
Page Count: 266
Publisher: PIP Productions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
More by Lois Joy Hofmann
BOOK REVIEW
by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
Share your opinion of this book
More by Ludwig Bemelmans
BOOK REVIEW
developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
BOOK REVIEW
by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
BOOK REVIEW
by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
Share your opinion of this book
More by Charlayne Hunter-Gault
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.