Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents

 The first half focuses a lot on her travels studying and working abroad but as the book goes on, it becomes less about her adventures and more about her lovers.

I can relate to Elisabeth’s search for her sense of self and figuring out what she wants to do in life. I enjoyed reading about the different places she visits like Egypt and Papua New Guinea! It was nice to experience her adventures while sitting at home.

She drove me a little crazy with her handling of relationships but we’ve all been young and made mistakes. The one thing I didn’t like is her views of being non monogamous in relationships-she says the pre tech era “gave permission to cheat” and only because of the tech boom, people suddenly “don’t have implicit permission to do anything” in long distance relationships. She lacks some serious respect for people and tries to validate cheating but she is at least self aware enough to question why she cheats instead of just ending things.

The second half wasn’t as enjoyable as it jumped around and confused me at times. Also this was the half where she tries to make excuses for infidelity and it becomes more about that and less about her travel adventures.