Product Description

A travel journal following a woman's year long journey from the daily obligations of her family as she explores new horizons and rediscovers herself in places such as Paris, Oxford and Milan.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1244986 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Wanderlust
'Anyone has who travelled alone can empathize…The reflective commentary accompanying her voyage of self-discovery reveals a warm and enthusiastic individual'

Wanderlust
'Anyone who has travelled alone can empathize…The reflective commentary accompanying her voyage of self-discovery reveals a warm and enthusiastic individual'

Good Book Guide
'Her writing is charming in its honesty and attention to detail...A read that vibrates with enjoyment'

Customer Reviews

Excellent read
Having booked my first trip (with my loved one) to Paris I was recommended by a friend to read this book.
After raising her children on her own and carved out a successful career as a Journalist Alice Steinbach realises that she is wanting to find who she really is and not just someones mother or employee.
Alice decides to embark on a contemporary "Grand Tour" stopping off in Paris, London, Oxford, and Italy ( Venice, Florence etc.)
The tales of her life whilst living in these european cities is funny, heartwarming and thought provoking.
Alice has a wonderful ability to create images with her words and really brings places to life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, light and maybe rambling in places but never the less an absorbing read about someones journey in this life.

Moving, Honest and Beautifully Written Travel Memoir
Alice Steinbach's "Without Reservations" is a beautifully written book dealing with the twin notions of travel and memoir.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with The Baltimore Sun newspaper, Steinbach writes of the year she left her daily routines behind and traveled to Europe. No agenda, no plans, no real reservations. Interspersed with postcards the author wrote to herself (to remind her of the revelations and experiences), the author writes of a type of spiritual as well as professional journey.

The title, Without Reservations, is a play on words. For while the book is ostensibly a travel piece, it is also incredibly candid and forthright.

This is a book for anyone seeking to rediscover their memories, evaluate their choices, give context and meaning to their lives. It's beautifully written and powerfully insightful.

A beautiful combination of travel writing and journal.
This is a beautiful book. Its presentation makes it a pleasure to look at and the language of description is a delight to the mind. It tells of the travels of Steinbach. Divorced, and with her two sons grown up, she decides to take a six month sabbatical from her work as a journalist in the USA. Her aim is to discover who she is, away from family, work and daily life. At the same time she plans to discover various cities: Paris, London, Oxford, Milan and Venice.

As she travels the book provides an insight into these places and into the character of Steinbach herself. There is also a view of the lives of the people she meets along the way, not least the Japanese gentleman who comes to play such an important role. A combination of personal journal of self discovery and travel guide, the book will delight anyone who enjoys the simple pleasure of people watching.

Almost poetic in some of her descriptions, the book itself is beautifully presented with postcards Steinbach sent home to herself. The text is also interspersed with stamps of the countries visited.

This is not a book with a story where something specific happens, and yet each day we read of all that does happen. We join Steinbach on her travels, seeing what she sees, taking a coffee with her in a Parisian square, enjoying a bowl of pasta in an Italian village; we see people and places through her eyes and just as she learns much about herself during her travels, so we are challenged to do the same.

Whether you enjoy travel writing or people watching, autobiography or poetry, read this!