destinations Classic Memoirs Offer Armchair Escapes and Therapeutic Trip Planning Tools Use our writers’ favorite books to inspire your next getaway By Linda T. Kennedy
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Anna Bedell, a writer at Prince William Living, decided if author Elizabeth Gilbert could spend a year traveling and writing the New York Times Best Seller Eat, Pray, Love, she could do something similar with two weeks in Paris. "I also booked a flight to Paris, and I'm going August 14 for 2 weeks on a solo trip," Bedell said in a text message to her friend with news about a difficult life change. Bedell's message about going to Paris had a sober tone rather than one of excitement; the trip would be for recovery. "I'm going to find myself in Paris," Bedell said, planning to model her agenda after something similar to the activities in Gilbert's book. In Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert chronicles how she chose Italy, India, and Indonesia as her destinations to recover from a divorce. She gained self-awareness through experiencing the food, romance, and dedicated meditation and prayer in those countries.
"Anna in Paris, Vignettes Du Jour"
Like Gilbert, Bedell recorded her trip and compiled a memoir, "Anna in Paris, Vignettes Du Jour," photos and brief stories that illustrate the personal illuminations she experienced. While she hasn't published her memoir yet, Bedell says it's an invaluable record of a time she overcame a difficult period. "Somewhere along the line I realized I had put everyone else
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in my life first, and going to Paris was a start towards putting myself first," she said. Bedell credits Gilbert's book with providing her with the best travel guide she needed to plan her recovery journey. "Each day there, I did something to focus on one of my senses just like Gilbert did in her book," said Bedell. "I ate in little bakeries and small cafes to taste life again; I lingered, and searched my soul in beautiful museums, and I fell in love with the streets of Paris." Eat, Pray, Love is available at booksellers and Amazon.
They Rose Above It by Bob Considine
The best way to travel and work simultaneously is to become a reporter — at least that's what Prince William Living Writer Linda Kennedy thought when she chose journalism as a career. Yet while she has yet to make it outside the United States — she has historical journalist Bob Considine's book They Rose Above It to take her around the world. Like a hidden cafe off the beaten path of a famous tourist destination, known more by word of mouth than on the map, Considine's journalist's memoir is a rare book and an armchair travel gem back into some of the world's most historical moments. The book, published when Considine died in 1975, starts by taking readers to the Space Center in Houston. "Did you ever fall into an elevator shaft on the U.S.S. Hornet
