"Travel Mania is a godsend. It's the perfect way to imagine I'm a seasoned traveler, without having to leave the comfort of my living room couch. Gershowitz who responds to the suggestion 'let's go' by packing her bags, hasn't quite turned me into a travel junkie, but she has hooked me on reading about a woman who just can't sit still."
-Charles Salzberg, two-time Shamus Award nominee and author of Second Story Man

"I loved the vignettes of Gershowitz's life in far-flung places: Cairo, Singapore, a rodeo in Wyoming, climbing Kilimanjaro, on an elephant in Thailand. I was there with her, as she struggled with misadventures, found unexpected friends, or tested herself in places so utterly foreign that she needed to find something new within her to survive and thrive. That's what I valued most of all about this book: Gershowitz is a wonderful companion and excellent storyteller. Travel Mania will help you appreciate how traveling the world is one of the best ways to find out who you really are."
-Sergio Troncoso, author of A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son and Nobody's Pilgrims

"Prepare to be swept around the world in the capable and enthusiastic company of KG. You will climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, 'poli-poli', eat the famous-for-its-revolting-smell durian in Malaysia, trek through a scirocco in the Sahara, watch bribes being passed on Moscow sidewalks, ride a felucca on the Nile, and spend New Year's Eve in Saigon. Wherever she goes, Karen is an astute observer and willing experimenter. You are in for a treat."
-Christine Lehner, author of What to Wear to See the Pope and Absent a Miracle

"No 'guided' tour here. The only fitting description is: page-turner. Karen gives us wondrous-whether white-knuckled or resplendent-nuggets. Her own growth as a global citizen winds through the decades and essays and leaves me wishing I might have trailed along at least a few times. I'm already looking forward to dipping in repeatedly, and without booking a single flight."
-Carolyn Lieberg, author of West with Hopeless and Calling the Midwest Home

"Karen Gershowitz suffers from the only traveler's disease that's fun to have and be around: the compulsion toward travel itself. This book is full of terrific stories, revealing with richness and particularity not just places and people, but the traveler herself-complicated and often conflicted, comforted by certain traveling companions and people met on the road, driven to distraction by others, but never daunted, never able to resist the pull of another journey. This book was a delight to me during these times of shutdown and is an inspiration for the times to come."
-Lon Otto, author of A Nest of Hooks, Cover Me, and A Man in Trouble

"Alone or in the company of others, Gershowitz navigates the world with an open heart and a sense of adventure. This collection covers impressive ground, and whether she's rocking out with Moroccans to the Blind Boys of Alabama, struggling up the slopes of Kilimanjaro, or doing business in Asia, her sharp eye brings the wonders of the world in focus."
-Marilyn Johnson, author of Lives in Ruins and This Book Is Overdue!

"A witty, insightful romp through a lifetime of travel that reads like a sit-down with a friend. You'll want to curl up and greedily gulp down