Sleeping Around: A Couch Surfing Tour Of The Globe by Brian Thacker

Everyone else on the table immediately began taking part in a rapid-fire conversation where the only words I could understand were 'si' and 'no'. 

'What are they talking about?' I asked Juan (who, other than Luis Alfredo, was the only one who spoke English). 'They are talking about what's happening on the TV show Lost'. 

Yes, it really is a small sad world sometimes.

What sort of person offers up their couch to a complete stranger from the other side of the world? And how can said stranger be sure that the owner of the couch is not a weirdo? This title sets out on a couch surfing tour of the globe to discover how and why kipping on someone's floor has become the hippest way to travel.

In an age of cheap airfares and porous boarders, where almost every corner of the globe, from Azerbaijan to Zambia, is open for tourism, going in to someone's home is probably the last authentic travelling experience. - Brian Thacker

I had this book on my kindle to read for a few years now. I was hesitating because I didn't want it to make me jealous about all the travelling I'm not doing at the moment. I finally opened it when I was in the mood for a book that would take me everywhere, and I'm glad I did because it was exactly what I was looking for.

Couch-surfing sounds like a fantastic way to see new places, and I'm sorry that I didn't know about the websites used in the book in my 20's so I could have had a go at it too! I feel like I wouldn't be a very good couch guest now because 1) I don't think I'd be able to drink enough anymore; 2) I'm not used to 'roughing' it anymore. I like my 5-star hotels (ok, 4 star is usually within my budget) and comfy king sized bed; and 3) although I haven't checked, I don't know if many of the hosts on there would like a whole family including an energetic toddler, coming to stay. 

Thacker's journey sounded fun and interesting, and the writing describing his travels was witty, just like yo'd expect from an Aussie. I googled most of the places visited, to see what he was describing, and I have now added Siquijor, Phillipines, to my wanderlust wish list!

One thing really stood out for me reading about his experience, how globalised the world is coming - it sounds like global brands have made it to even the far reaching places - the same TV shows, fast-food restaurants, and clothing brands pop up almost everywhere.

I enjoyed this book, almost enough to make me consider hosting travelling guests once my child is a bit older and less likely to disturb guests sleep (for those who aren't already out partying).

Read my review on Goodreads

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

“It is not so incomprehensible as you pretend, sweet pea. Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard. It can be light as the hug we give a friend or heavy as the sacrifices we make for our children. It can be romantic, platonic, familial, fleeting, everlasting, conditional, unconditional, imbued with sorrow, stoked by sex, sullied by abuse, amplified by kindness, twisted by betrayal, deepened by time, darkened by difficulty, leavened by generosity, nourished by humor and “loaded with promises and commitments” that we may or may not want or keep.

The best thing you can possibly do with your life is to tackle the motherfucking shit out of it.” 

Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice. 
Tiny Beautiful Things brings the best of Dear Sugar in one place and includes never-before-published columns and a new introduction by Steve Almond.  Rich with humor, insight, compassion—and absolute honesty—this book is a balm for everything life throws our way.

I have never highlighted so many paragraphs in one book before. 

The advice given by 'Sugar' is so raw and real, and even though the situation she is replying to might not apply to my life, there were so many things I want to remember because they touched a cord with me and I want to keep them for my future self, or so I can pass them on to someone I know at some stage. 

The words that I would use to describe this book are: Motivating, Passionate, and Heartwarming.

• Motivating: it made me feel like I should get off my butt and stop reading to sort my life out. Be a better friend, be a better Mum, stop feeling sorry for myself.
• Passionate: her advice is blunt and direct and she says it like it is. You can read the honesty in her words clearly, and you get the sense that the responses stems from the same talks she might give herself in the mirror every now and then - they are words she lives by herself.
• Heartwarming: you can tell there is a genuine care behind her responses. Even when she is telling someone to pull their head in, it is done in such a caring way that it makes you genuinely want to comply because she makes you feel like it is the right thing to do.

I wish I knew of an advice column like this one to read when I was a teenager! It would be interesting to see my 'sister life' and see if it would have helped me navigate my younger life with less angst and confusion.

After finishing this book it makes me want to read even more from Cheryl Strayed (I have already read Wild)

Wild Connection: What Animal Courtship and Mating Tell Us about Human Relationships

"Animals don't feel badly about who they are, and unless animals are hunting or being hunted by predators, they don't spend their lives trying to look like or be something they are not. Maybe we can take our cues from them. I mean, have you ever seen a squirrel trying to act like a swan to get the girl next door? Not likely. Squirrels spend their time perfecting everything about being a squirrel. So, for all you squirrels out there, if you find that you are more squirrel than swan, your best bet is to embrace those acorn hoarding instincts in you and just be the very finest squirrel you can be."

Wild Kingdom meets Sex and the City in this scientific perspective on dating and relationships.

A specialist in animal behavior compares the courtship rituals and mating behaviors of animals to their human equivalents, revealing the many and often surprising ways we are both similar to and different from other species.

What makes an individual attractive to the opposite sex? Does size matter? Why do we tend to "keep score" in our relationships? From perfume and cosmetics to online dating and therapy, our ultimate goal is to successfully connect with someone. So why is romance such an effort for humans, while animals have little trouble getting it right?

Wild Connection is full of fascinating and suggestive observations about animal behavior. For example, in most species smell is an important component of determining compatibility. So are we humans doing the right thing by masking our natural scents with soaps and colognes? Royal albatrosses have a lengthy courtship period lasting several years. These birds instinctively know that casual hook-ups are not the way to find a reliable mate. And older female chimpanzees often mate with younger males. Is this the evolutionary basis of the human "cougar" phenomenon?

Fun to read as well as educational, this unique take on the perennial human quest to find the ideal mate shows that we have much to learn from our cousins in the wild.

This book is the best example of interesting, intellectual and hilarious. I loved reading it because I learnt lots of interesting facts that I can easily retell to friends and family, and it still made me chuckle in every single chapter.

It covered a diverse range of animal species, but there were still some interesting parallels to human relationships and behaviours. 

This was one of those books that I kept on my bedside table and picked up in between other books to read a few more chapters at a time. 

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

“The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so profound to me that summer—and yet also, like most things, so very simple—was how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing I least wanted to do. How there was no escape or denial. No numbing it down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay. As I clung to the chaparral that day, attempting to patch up my bleeding finger, terrified by every sound that the bull was coming back, I considered my options. There were only two and they were essentially the same. I could go back in the direction I had come from, or I could go forward in the direction I intended to go.” 

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone.
Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wildpowerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her. 

I love travel books - hearing about new places I've never been to, remembering places I have already seen, sharing experiences with others during their travels. 

Before I started reading this book, I thought it would be a pretty standard travel book, someone visits somewhere and writes about what they saw, who they met, and a little complication they have to overcome, such as a lost passport or a tropical illness etc. I guess in essence this book does cover those things, but what surprised me was that there is a deeper story that makes it much more compelling to read. 

Straight away the prologue lets you know exactly what it's all about. It finished in such an uplifting and mysterious was that I was hooked straight away, and I couldn't  wait to hear more about her story - how she ended up hiking the PCT, things that happened while she was there, and what happened after.

Another thing that surprised me, was hearing her describe her Mum's battle and loss to cancer. I've heard people talk about themselves or a loved one getting sick and then either surviving or dying, but I am lucky to be quite naive about what happens in between the diagnosis and end result, so this was the first time I had actually ever heard or thought about it too much. Strayed spoke about the effects of her Mum's cancer treatment (on both her Mum physically, and for herself emotionally) in detail but still respectfully, so you could tell she really loved her Mother very much.

By the end of this book I was ready to go on an adventure myself, or at least think about what kind of 'great achievement' I could do in the future!