The Little Travel Book With the Big Ole Offensive Title

So, one time when the Russkie and I were chillin' (let's be honest, I'm 99.9% sure we were having brunch), she told me she was reading a great travel memoir. My ears perked up. I was like, "Oh???" Then she told me the title and I was like, "Whoa........"

Then she was like, it's totally so much better than it sounds. And I was like, ok, I'm so going to have to borrow it.

What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman

For those of you who are still reading this post, let me just echo the Russkie: it's better than you would think. Newman is a comedy writer who spent her twenties and thirties watching all of her friends get married and have kids. When they started to, as she put it, "lap her" (meaning they divorced and were then remarrying and having more kids while she was still single) she decided she needed to take up traveling.

Here's the thing. The introduction of the book makes it seem like all she did in foreign countries was sleep around indiscriminately. Which can be done right here in the US of A and doesn't require travel. But give it 25 pages. She's a comedy writer, after all, and her quips about friends and family and lessons learned while abroad are hilarious. One of her good friends is Russian and I got enough jokes and material to use on the Russkie for the next 6 months.

Caveat: If sleeping around is one of those things that ruins a story for you, don't read this. If it's one of those things that you can just disregard and still enjoy the story (<--- Jesus is so proud of me right now), then this one is worth the read.

In bigtime contrast to the title, Newman doesn't criticize her friends for getting married and having kids. She gets a tad feminist at times, but mainly it's to make the point that women shouldn't be treated differently (i.e. worse, weird, inferior) for making the same stupid decisions that some men make. Stupid belongs to all genders. Lucky us.

Enjoy!