DISCLAIMER:
This review is *intentionally* not written in our usual format. This book is
different and therefore requires a different review.
For an exciting guest post by Alistair McGuinness with real pictures from his travels, keep following Readers' Muse!
For an exciting guest post by Alistair McGuinness with real pictures from his travels, keep following Readers' Muse!
TITLE: Round the
Bend
AUTHOR: Alistair McGuiness
GENRE: Travel,
Adventure Travel, Living & Working Abroad
HOW WE GOT THIS BOOK:
we got this book as a part of a virtual authors book tour.
GIST:
From
Luton to Peru to Ningaloo, a Search for Life After Redundancy
Three
things happened simultaneously. The lioness charged, Alistair fled across the
parched savannah and his wife screamed for him to run faster. Stuffed deep
inside his tattered rucksack was a guidebook containing advice on what to do in
wildlife emergencies, which he planned to read if he survived the next thirty
seconds. Future plans to climb Kilimanjaro, teach English in the Amazon and
live in Australia were temporarily forgotten as he turned to face the pouncing
lioness, thinking back to the words of advice from his mother-in-law. “Don’t do
anything silly, and look after Francine.” From deep underground in a remote
Bolivian mine to the scorched Australian outback, Round the Bend is an
adventure travel story. It explores the turbulence of redundancy, the
excitement of travel, the anguish of leaving home and the challenges of
starting a new life in Australia.
REVIEW:
It is not every day that one comes
across such an unique book. Round the bend shattered all my expectations I had
in a typical book of such genre. It is an open, clear and straightforward
journal, a record of experiences in travel.
Listening to first hand experiences
from far off relatives who went on wild safaris has always been a pastime of
mine, and this book seemed just like that. The author has managed to capture in
words the thrill of the jungle, the roads, the climate and the people. There is
a little of everything in this little book.
From self deprecating casual style of
writing to the inevitable descriptive phrases, the book has every element to
keep you in its hold. The best experience can be obtained by realizing that
this book is, indeed, a travelogue and not a piece of fiction.
Split second decisions and long
thought out conclusions are all used simultaneously in this thrilling tale. Along
the travel of Alistair to Australia, we learn not only about exotic countries,
we also learn about learning to move out of base, learning to take split second
decisions, learning to appreciate life and finally, learning to deal with life
by its horns!
The only wanting thing in the book is
a lag in certain places could have been reduced.
Go for this if you like to have
adventures in your armchair. It doesn’t get more descriptive than this!
Readers’ Muse rates this at 4.2/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alistair
grew up in the UK in a town called Luton, which lies 30 miles north of London.
Family holidays were spent in County Donegal, Ireland, staying with his
Grandmother in their large family home where she had once raised fifteen
children.
It was
these annual trips that made Alistair realise his Great Uncles were Seanachaís
(Irish story tellers). After a few pints of Guinness in the family bar, brothers
Barney and Francis would entertain the evening crowds with their recitations of
life in rural Ireland. As their rustic voices carried across the crowded room,
Alistair would watch and listen as the animated tales mesmorised the overseas
visitors.
44 countries
and four decades later, Alistair now calls Australia home and in the tradition
of Great Uncles Barney and Francis, loves to recite stories. He lives between
the beach and the forest with his wife, two young boys and a fun puppy called
Peppi. After decades of adventurous escapades Alistair is calming down and has
decided to write more and bungee jump less!
He works
as a Business Improvement Specialist and has just spent three years as a fly in
fly out employee at a remote iron ore mine site in Western Australia. As a
trainer and facilitator, he has worked in Europe and Australia and is
passionate about helping people and organisations to become successful.
A fun
family day for Alistair would be fishing from the local jetty with his boys,
taking the puppy for a walk along the beach at sunset and cooking a scrumptious
curry in the evening with his wife.
An ideal
adventurous day for Alistair would be a days walking and scrambling in the Lake
District with friends, followed by a visit to a village pub nestled deep in the
English countryside.
FORMATS AVAILABLE: Print
& eBook, 256 pages
BOOK LINKS:
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:
Thanks for taking part in the tour. I'm glad you enjoyed Round the Bend so much!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for reviewing my adventure travel book and I hope you enjoyed the Guest Post. It was lots of fun to write. I tried extremely hard to ensure that my travelogue (Round The Bend) was not just another book about faraway places. I am still crafting the art of story telling, but feel that I owe my Great Uncles a favour as they were traditional story tellers from Ireland and knew how to entertain a crowd!
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