[.ca] A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller (ISBN 0767910060)

I tried but this is brutal:
The problem with this is I found her husband's comments far more interesting when she quoted him. Basically, the wrong person wrote this book. I gave up halfway through the second country (Portugal after Spain) she visited as the writing bored me beyond belief. It just seemed that she made no effort to meet interesting people. She also seemed to have swallowed a dictionary which is a killer for me as it just makes the writer sound pretentious. Shame this travel book blows as the places the writer visits are ones I'm totally interested in.

Mayes' misses:
This book is not as charming as her previous output. Mayes' is too much in evidence and complains too much. For a traveller, she doesn't seem to do her research. Why else would she end up in so many lodgings that are shabby, dark or generally not up to spec? The tone of the book is not upbeat. She worries that she and Ed won't be able to afford to live without their jobs - which they decide to leave as she explains in the preface. This from an author who has sold so many books and movie rights! In addition, Mayes spends much of her time describing the places she visits in a moanng way - where are the quaint settings she longs for? The world moves on but Mayes seems to wish that the imagined way of life from the past should be available to her. One questions why 'the rest of the world' should remain static so she can enjoy it. Finally, she commits an egregious error by placing Wales in England. How did the editor miss that mistake?