Tag Archives: travel

Women World Travelers: Call You When I Land & The Catch Me if You Can

1 Nov

Call You When I Land
by Nikki Vargas
Available next Tuesday is Nikki Vargas’s Call You When I Land, an interesting travel memoir which should delight fans of Eat, Pray, Love. Nikki Vargas, an immigrant from Columbia, is in her late 20’s and although to her friends and family she looks like she has achieved the dream, a successful advertising career and sweet French fiancé, but she feels trapped by both and desires to have the freedom to travel and see the world. Set across the globe including Panama, Columbia, Argentina, France, Indonesia and New York the book captures not only her physical journey, but also her life journey in finding a second chance at love and finding a way to merge her work life with her desire to see the world, first getting comped hotels and flights with a small travel blog that then inspires her to think bigger and create the first major feminist female centered travel publication. The memoir is cleverly broken into three sections Turbulence, Changing Pitch, and Landing that reflect her experience. This should resonate with other millennials who may struggle with finding a way to balance their dreams and the realities of life.

The Catch Me if You Can
by Jessica Nabongo
Nikki may have seen a lot of countries that I’m envious of but Jessica Nabongo has literally seen the entire world having been to all 195 countries. In 2019, she became the first black women to have gone to all the UN recognized countries. The Catch Me if You Can covers her top 100 memorable visits including places like Japan, South Africa, Tonga, Peru and North Korea. She captures not only some of the hot sightseeing spots, and delicious native cuisines, but also the people and cultures she encounters on her journey. I enjoyed the audiobook, which she reads herself and feels like a good friend giving you the highlights of their vacation or work trips. The one thing I found was that because she is trying to cover so many places sometimes she only has a short time at destinations and I was left wanting to hear more about them. I learned a lot of interesting details about the world such more pyramids are not found in Egypt, but in Sudan. Nabongo has an especially interesting perspective about African countries being an Ugandan-American.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Take a Virtual Vacation with these Travel Shows on Hoopla Digital

7 Mar

After a stressful day, sometimes I find it can be hard to shut off my brain, at those times I often find it comforting to read a book, but another favorite way to unwind is by watching a travel show and drifting off to sleep imagining my own virtual vacation.  Here are a couple shows that Hoboken Library Resident Card Holders can check out from Hoopla and take a relaxing virtual trip, no passport required.

The Kimchi Chronicles

kimchi-chronicles.jpeg
The Kimchi Chronicles stars Marja Vongerichten who was the daughter of a Korean woman and an American GI who was adopted by Americans, but returned to Korea to find her birth mother.  The Kimchi Chronicles moves between showing Marja sampling mouthwatering food and experiencing Korean culture while exploring Korea with friends and relatives, and her and her talented French husband Jean Georges creating Korean-inspired dishes back home.  Several of their celebrity friends, including Hugh Jackman and Heather Graham, make appearances in some episodes.  I enjoyed how each episode focused on a different ingredient such as pork or areas such as Seoul.  If you are like me and can’t get enough of Korean delicacies check out a previous post were I discussed Edward Lee’s Korean/Southern Fusion Cookbook/Memoir, Smoke and Pickles.

Café Secrets – Season 1 and Season 2


Café Secrets is a charming series about the Café culture in New Zealand with popular Kiwi food writer and former café owner, Julie Le Clerc.  Each episode features recipes from the café owners as well as some of Julie’s own café classic recipes.  The series is a bit heavy on product placement, but this didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the show.  I appreciated that the series explored not just the cafés, but also the local communities, with Julie taking part in local events from participating in a fashion show to helping out in a community garden.  Those looking for more New Zealand travel/cooking shows may want to check out New Zealand with Nadia Lim (the Masterchef New Zealand winner travels and cooks her way around her native country) and Cook the Books (featuring a variety of New Zealand Cookbook authors, including Julie Le Clerc in one episode).

The Shelbourne Hotel – Season 1 and Season 2


The Shelbourne Hotel is a Dublin landmark which recently celebrated its 190th birthday.  The TV series gives a behind-the-scenes looks of the running of the hotel as it celebrates holidays like St. Patrick’s Day, has special events like a historic tasting menu, and hosts celebrities like a Rugby team.  From living through my own renovations at the library and at home it was interesting to see how the hotel coped with their own restoration of their historic structure.  The show portrays the hotel in a very positive light so don’t expect juicy gossip, but it is perfect for those looking for a quaint virtual trip.

-Written by Aimee Harris, Head of Reference

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