Gina’s Review: The Lost Girls by Jennifer Baggett et al

The Lost Girls
written by Jennifer Baggett, Holly Corbett, Amanda Pressner
published by Harper, 2010

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book:  The Lost Girls is a mix between The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Sex in the City. There were times I laughed and other times I really felt for these women struggling to find themselves during the journey. We have all been there as a twenty-something trying to figure out exactly what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Do you want to stay with your current boyfriend? Do you want kids? Should you find another job? And to be honest, I’m actually jealous the women in this book get to experience life while traveling to different continents. Why didn’t I think of that?

These women experience the good, the bad, and the ugly on their trip as well. They don’t just share the amazing times they have on the road but also the times they feel unsafe. The one thing they keep emphasizing throughout the book is that it’s not always easy for women to travel in countries that don’t see women as America does. Jennifer, Holly, and Amanda travel through Peru, Cambodia, and Africa to name a few. These places are amazing, of course, but the women can also sense the tension. I think that this is something for women to consider before traveling–do your research before you leave.

The only thing I didn’t like about The Lost Girls was that it’s so LONG. The Nook version I read was 473 pages long, and for me, that’s intense. Normally, I don’t mind reading fiction that’s that many pages, but for a travel book, it seemed a bit much. There’s a lot of repetition of feelings. We get it. You felt like sisters by the end of the trip. Also, I wish they’d shared more stories about the sights they saw instead of some of their personal issues. I know this book is about personal growth, but it’s also about traveling, so why not show us more about the places you went?

 

GOLDEN LINES

“We were searching for answers, but as we’d learn along the way, the ones you uncover are rarely those to the questions asked.”

“In order to cope with the pressure, people generally took one of two paths: the first lined with Xanax, therapists, and cigarettes, and the second with Bikram yoga, feng shui, and green tea.”

“Stress became my chronic companion, an ugly, over-caffeinated little goblin that used my chest as a trampoline and my head as a boxing ring and laid off only when I was exhausted enough to pass out.”

 

 

Would I recommend it: I would recommend it to women who want to be inspired to travel or someone like me who has wanderlust.

About the book – from Goodreads: Jen, Holly, and Amanda are at a crossroads. They’re feeling the pressure to hit certain milestones—scoring a big promotion, finding a soul mate, having 2.2 kids—before they reach their early thirties. When personal challenges force them to reevaluate their lives, they decide it’s now or never to do something daring. Unable to gain perspective in fast-paced Manhattan, the three twentysomethings quit their coveted media jobs and leave behind their friends, boyfriends, and everything familiar to travel the globe. Dubbing themselves the Lost Girls, they embark on an epic yearlong search for inspiration and direction.

As they journey 60,000 miles across four continents and more than a dozen countries, Jen, Holly, and Amanda step far outside of their comfort zones, embracing every adventure and experience the world has to offer—shooting blowguns with Yagua elders in the Amazon, learning capoeira on the beaches of Brazil, volunteering with preteen girls at a school in rural Kenya, hiking with Hmong villagers in Vietnam, and driving through Australia in a psychedelic camper van. Along the way, the Lost Girls find not only themselves but also a lifelong friendship. Ultimately, theirs is a story of true sisterhood—a bond forged by sharing beds and backpacks, enduring exotic illnesses, fending off aggressive street vendors, trekking across rivers and over mountains, and standing by one another through heartaches, whirlwind romances, and everything in the world in between.

This candid and compelling memoir will speak to anyone who has ever felt the desire to spread her wings and discover the world with her best friends by her side