The Risks of Sunbathing Topless: And Other Funny Stories from the Road

A frisky and fun collection of women's essays on the perils of traveling-inspired by editor and contributor Chynoweth's desire ""to write about the unvarnished truth, with all its freakish strangers, stained shirts and missed connections""-this volume should appeal to those who like their armchair traveling mixed with a good dose of humor. Though too many of the 22 essays detail trips turned wrong by medical traumas or boyfriend woes, several of them stand out for their precise, illuminating glimpses into the way women confront difficult situations when they're far from home. In ""Hamil's House of Fun,"" for example, Kay Sexton gives a dry recounting of the nine days she spent dancing on a table in a German beer hall so that she and her husband could afford to stay in a youth hostel through the icy week of Christmas. Mara Voorhees's saga of training for a triathalon while she was on vacation in Russia regales readers with anecdotes about how she dodged Russian swim matrons and found her way into parks closed for ""prosushka, or 'a thorough drying out.'"" And journalist Hannah Bloch's remembrance of spending New Year's Eve 1999 covering a hostage situation in Afghanistan-where she enjoyed ""a happy and unlikely reunion with reporter friends made possible by the Taliban and a rotten gang of terrorists""-provides an engrossing, backstage look at the mechanics of political reporting. This fine collection would make a welcome addition to any woman's carry-on bag.