What do you think?
Rate this book
Take Me with You: A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home (Travelers' Tales Footsteps
"Someday, when I am rich, I am going to invite someone from my travels to visit me in America." Brad Newsham was only 22 when he scribbled this note in his journal with "only an immature sense of the staying power of ideas." Years later, this casual prophecy came true, and Newsham documents the events that led up to it in Take Me with You. This is the sweet story of his 100-day journey through the Philippines, India, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, as he seeks just the right person to bring to America. The book covers a wide geography not just of land, but also of spirit. "Brilliant, sharp, unswerving travel writing by a man skilled at letting the scales fall from his eyes; it is a memoir of travel seen through time and resolve - in short, a wonderful book." - Herbert Gold, author of Bohemia, Daughter Mine, and Best Nightmare on Earth
376 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Brad Newsham
5 books18 followersIn Brad's words:
I was a miserable student, and for my last year of high school, in hopes of a turnaround, I was sent to Principia Upper School in St. Louis, Missouri, a school for the sons and daughters of Christian Scientists. At graduation (1968) the only college that accepted me was Principia College, in Elsah, Illinois. I decided to go there instead of to the Vietnam War, and in 1972 I was sent out into the world with a degree in history and sociology and without a clue about what to do with the rest of my life.
For several months I worked as an asphalt paver, for several more I drove a touring concert harpist around the United States, and then in 1973 I went off for what I thought would be a quick peek at Europe. Instead I wandered for seven months (Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan), an experience that forever changed my life.
Between 1974 and 1982 I bounced between Colorado, Idaho, and Arizona, and between jobs as a dishwasher, school bus driver, construction worker, waiter, underground molybdenum miner, and small town newspaper reporter. In 1977, in Idaho, two friends and I built a log house on 60 of the most beautiful acres of land I've ever seen. (I sold my share long ago, but the house is still in great shape, and one of my friends has lived there ever since).
My first wife, Beverly, and I married in 1980, and in 1982 took a six-month trip around the world (Hong Kong, Thailand, India, USSR, Greece). Afterwards we moved to San Francisco, where I found work as a secretary at Wells Fargo Bank. When the marriage fell apart in 1984, I took a consolation lap around the world (Japan, China, the Trans-Siberian Railroad), and then spent nine months holed up in a tiny apartment in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, writing a manuscript about my trip. In 1985 I started driving a taxicab and quickly grew to love it - I've been at it for seventeen years and counting. In 1989, Random House published my manuscript - All the Right Places.
In 1988-89, I took another trip around the world and then - in San Francisco and during eight months in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico - wrote my second book, Take Me With You. In 1995 I married Rhonda Gillenwaters, and in 1996 we welcomed little Sarah Newsham into our lives. I've been an at-home dad and weekend cabdriver ever since.
I was a miserable student, and for my last year of high school, in hopes of a turnaround, I was sent to Principia Upper School in St. Louis, Missouri, a school for the sons and daughters of Christian Scientists. At graduation (1968) the only college that accepted me was Principia College, in Elsah, Illinois. I decided to go there instead of to the Vietnam War, and in 1972 I was sent out into the world with a degree in history and sociology and without a clue about what to do with the rest of my life.
For several months I worked as an asphalt paver, for several more I drove a touring concert harpist around the United States, and then in 1973 I went off for what I thought would be a quick peek at Europe. Instead I wandered for seven months (Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan), an experience that forever changed my life.
Between 1974 and 1982 I bounced between Colorado, Idaho, and Arizona, and between jobs as a dishwasher, school bus driver, construction worker, waiter, underground molybdenum miner, and small town newspaper reporter. In 1977, in Idaho, two friends and I built a log house on 60 of the most beautiful acres of land I've ever seen. (I sold my share long ago, but the house is still in great shape, and one of my friends has lived there ever since).
My first wife, Beverly, and I married in 1980, and in 1982 took a six-month trip around the world (Hong Kong, Thailand, India, USSR, Greece). Afterwards we moved to San Francisco, where I found work as a secretary at Wells Fargo Bank. When the marriage fell apart in 1984, I took a consolation lap around the world (Japan, China, the Trans-Siberian Railroad), and then spent nine months holed up in a tiny apartment in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, writing a manuscript about my trip. In 1985 I started driving a taxicab and quickly grew to love it - I've been at it for seventeen years and counting. In 1989, Random House published my manuscript - All the Right Places.
In 1988-89, I took another trip around the world and then - in San Francisco and during eight months in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico - wrote my second book, Take Me With You. In 1995 I married Rhonda Gillenwaters, and in 1996 we welcomed little Sarah Newsham into our lives. I've been an at-home dad and weekend cabdriver ever since.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
October 18, 2007
This book is actually written by the father of one of my former students and is a real delight. He travels all the way through Asia, India, etc. to discover someone to
invite back to America to stay with his family. He is a reflective, funny, honest, and descriptive writer. Brad is also fun to read because he is a local Bay Area writer and super nice. I am happy to lend it to anyone. I was so excited to read wondering who the special one would be?
invite back to America to stay with his family. He is a reflective, funny, honest, and descriptive writer. Brad is also fun to read because he is a local Bay Area writer and super nice. I am happy to lend it to anyone. I was so excited to read wondering who the special one would be?
April 20, 2008
Although I could appreciate Newsham's reports of his travels in search of a stranger to invite back to the US, I found myself increasingly irritated by his tendency to 'waffle' and his, at times, superficial response to the third world people and places he visits.
I also became more and more annoyed at his plan to invite a person to the US - his motives didn't seem very clearly delineated to me, and smacked of self-aggrandizement. I often found myself thinking, 'If he really wants to help someone in the third world, perhaps he could have stayed on at Mother Theresa's for more than a day, or sponsored a child in Kenya rather than writing a book about his quest'.
Still, some of Newsham's observations have rekindled my own travel bug - and I've once again started saving in order to 'hit the road'!
I also became more and more annoyed at his plan to invite a person to the US - his motives didn't seem very clearly delineated to me, and smacked of self-aggrandizement. I often found myself thinking, 'If he really wants to help someone in the third world, perhaps he could have stayed on at Mother Theresa's for more than a day, or sponsored a child in Kenya rather than writing a book about his quest'.
Still, some of Newsham's observations have rekindled my own travel bug - and I've once again started saving in order to 'hit the road'!
June 20, 2011
For some reason, I read this book in a day. There is no excuse for that. I don’t know how I got through this book so quickly as it was just okay and it was nearly 400 pages! I was in Kaikoura and I didn’t have a TV, but that is all! Anyway, this book was about a Dude right before one of his novels was published and he took a bunch of money and travelled the world in hopes of meeting someone to invite back to the US and that it would change their life for the better and mean a lot to them. He travelled to a lot of 3rd world places and it was all an interesting read about them. Usually I am not really all that much into reading about that, but this book wasn’t too bad. Probably the only thing I didn’t really like was the timing. I always read the masthead before I read the book so I get an idea of the timing that this book takes place and I think this book was originally published in 2000 and then in paperback in 2002 or something. So it’s not the newest book. He talked about S. Africa a lot and apartheid, which to me, seem to have been around for most of my life. But it was a huge issue in that chapter and when I finally got to the epilogue, it mentioned something along the lines of it taking nearly 10 years for the person that the author chose to come to America, to finally make it and he arrive in 1999 or something. So all the contents of this book took place nearly my lifetime ago. I wish I had known that going into at least the S. Africa chapter, as that one talked about ongoing political issues within that country. Another epilogue, which was written for the paperback edition, mentioned September 11th, which I always find interesting. Like if it took so long for the person to get to America before September 11th, imagine how long it would have taken them after! All in all, a very interesting read.
Grade: C+
Grade: C+
November 7, 2021
Take Me With You: A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home is two books in one. It’s a beautifully-written, warm-hearted journey from The Philippines to India and then down the east coast of Africa. Brad Newsham travels easy. On a budget. He’s affable, adaptable, amiable. He fills notebooks with colors, scenes, smells, food, and musings.
For those who read All The Right Places, Brad Newsham’s earlier adventure (Japan, China, and Russia) you know Newsham is in search of real people, new experiences, fresh encounters, and new ideas. Newsham wants to lose himself, as all good travelers like to do. And he reflects on the life and world he left behind. Newsham, a veteran San Francisco cab driver who also wrote the brilliant volume Free Ride, has a special affinity for his fellow hacks. Newsham plans 100 days and a daily budget of $25 for the journey that is told in Take Me With You. Trains and buses (and cheap cab rides, too) here we come.
But Take Me With You is also a search. Newsham has this idea to meet and invite one individual (someone who otherwise would never have the opportunity to travel) to visit the United States for one month—on his dime.
This seemingly simple notion has complications. In a rural train station in India, Newsham writes: “In my more grandiose moments I had viewed my trip as a glimmer of hope in a grim world: if I couldn’t fix all the world’s problems, or even my own, I could at least add some small joy or surprise or delight to someone else’s life,” he writes. “But the need I saw in the New Jaipalghuri station overwhelmed my vision, reduced my plan to a frivolity—a lotto. The aspirations of these people were far more immediate and practical than a trip to America. A five-rupee rickshaw fare, a masala dosa, a lumpy bedroll, thank you.”
Newsham is a pea-size pinball in a machine the size of, well, the planet. He bounces about with an easy stride, soaking in moments, relishing conversations, taking opportunities when they come—and fully aware that his process is the very definition of random.
“I like to think that every human life is significant, each equally valid. But I could see no rebuttal to the nagging suggestion that these desperate lives were, like my own, quite pointless. What on Earth was I doing in the new Jaipalghuri train station? And wasn’t it grossly unfair that I had a first-class ticket out, while these people were condemned to stay and rest up for another day dominated by the struggle for food? Surely they were human the same way that I was. Surely each of them had some niggling physical problem. Surely each hurt and felt and braced against life the same way that I and everyone I knew in America did. Maybe they had some Indian philosophy, some matrix of beliefs on immortality, afterlife, karma, luck, that allowed them to make sense of it all. But there was no way I could imbue the scene in front of me with higher meaning. In my own intellectual matrix, hunger trumps philosophy every time.”
This keen awareness of the underlying hubris, the appearance of white savior, the appearance of “playing God” adds another layer to the journey.
“So was this whole thing, as usual, all about me? Of course it was. Is a truly unselfish act an actual impossibility? Falling on a hand grenade in a crowded foxhole—now that, I thought, might be a genuine act of unselfishness. But maybe the unselfish act can be performed only on impulse. Maybe the act of considering or planning one—as I certainly had—automatically contaminates it.”
As he travels, Newsham reveals his plans to precious few. He slowly starts accumulating a list of candidates. Going into the book, you might assume that the selection happens mid-way through but (spoiler alert) all of Take Me With You is devoted to the search. (The paperback edition includes an epilogue about the chosen individual’s exhilarating trip to the United States; it certainly could have generated a full-book sequel. In other words, read the paperback! And Newsham recounted how the relationship later went south in a thoughtful piece he wrote for Afar.)
So Newsham isn’t merely traveling, he’s planning to change someone’s life or at least give them a peek at another way of life.
The nature of the project might weigh heavy on Newsham as he travels, but it doesn’t impact his ability recount the side-trips, the moments, the people—a Filipino mountain guide, an office worker in Zimbabwe, a donkey-riding teenager in Egypt, a shopkeeper on the slopes of Tanzania, a translator from Cairo. Take Me With You becomes a series of thoughtful portraits of everyday life. Newsham keeps an eye out for those with less (particularly in India) and how they stitch their lives together, make them work. And he regularly wonders about fate.
Here he is in the township of Tembisa, north of Johannesburg, with a guide from a local church (Ian):
“From afar it is tempting, even easy, to romanticize or trivialize a country’s problems. Surely, thinks the optimist, goodness will prevail. Over time, hearts will change, equitable systems will develop. Things will work out. But a quick dash of Tembisa will sober up the most bubbly optimist. Can hope exist, I wondered, in a place awash in trash, a place whose population keeps increasing exponentially? As we rolled through Tembisa’s depressing scenery, saying little to each other, I imagined Ian must be thinking a version of my own thought: Thank God I don’t live here.”
Sterling prose, an eye for detail that never grows tired, and a fascinating project with pure generosity at its heart, Take Me With You is terrific armchair travel. A big bonus: it will make you appreciate everything you’ve got.
For those who read All The Right Places, Brad Newsham’s earlier adventure (Japan, China, and Russia) you know Newsham is in search of real people, new experiences, fresh encounters, and new ideas. Newsham wants to lose himself, as all good travelers like to do. And he reflects on the life and world he left behind. Newsham, a veteran San Francisco cab driver who also wrote the brilliant volume Free Ride, has a special affinity for his fellow hacks. Newsham plans 100 days and a daily budget of $25 for the journey that is told in Take Me With You. Trains and buses (and cheap cab rides, too) here we come.
But Take Me With You is also a search. Newsham has this idea to meet and invite one individual (someone who otherwise would never have the opportunity to travel) to visit the United States for one month—on his dime.
This seemingly simple notion has complications. In a rural train station in India, Newsham writes: “In my more grandiose moments I had viewed my trip as a glimmer of hope in a grim world: if I couldn’t fix all the world’s problems, or even my own, I could at least add some small joy or surprise or delight to someone else’s life,” he writes. “But the need I saw in the New Jaipalghuri station overwhelmed my vision, reduced my plan to a frivolity—a lotto. The aspirations of these people were far more immediate and practical than a trip to America. A five-rupee rickshaw fare, a masala dosa, a lumpy bedroll, thank you.”
Newsham is a pea-size pinball in a machine the size of, well, the planet. He bounces about with an easy stride, soaking in moments, relishing conversations, taking opportunities when they come—and fully aware that his process is the very definition of random.
“I like to think that every human life is significant, each equally valid. But I could see no rebuttal to the nagging suggestion that these desperate lives were, like my own, quite pointless. What on Earth was I doing in the new Jaipalghuri train station? And wasn’t it grossly unfair that I had a first-class ticket out, while these people were condemned to stay and rest up for another day dominated by the struggle for food? Surely they were human the same way that I was. Surely each of them had some niggling physical problem. Surely each hurt and felt and braced against life the same way that I and everyone I knew in America did. Maybe they had some Indian philosophy, some matrix of beliefs on immortality, afterlife, karma, luck, that allowed them to make sense of it all. But there was no way I could imbue the scene in front of me with higher meaning. In my own intellectual matrix, hunger trumps philosophy every time.”
This keen awareness of the underlying hubris, the appearance of white savior, the appearance of “playing God” adds another layer to the journey.
“So was this whole thing, as usual, all about me? Of course it was. Is a truly unselfish act an actual impossibility? Falling on a hand grenade in a crowded foxhole—now that, I thought, might be a genuine act of unselfishness. But maybe the unselfish act can be performed only on impulse. Maybe the act of considering or planning one—as I certainly had—automatically contaminates it.”
As he travels, Newsham reveals his plans to precious few. He slowly starts accumulating a list of candidates. Going into the book, you might assume that the selection happens mid-way through but (spoiler alert) all of Take Me With You is devoted to the search. (The paperback edition includes an epilogue about the chosen individual’s exhilarating trip to the United States; it certainly could have generated a full-book sequel. In other words, read the paperback! And Newsham recounted how the relationship later went south in a thoughtful piece he wrote for Afar.)
So Newsham isn’t merely traveling, he’s planning to change someone’s life or at least give them a peek at another way of life.
The nature of the project might weigh heavy on Newsham as he travels, but it doesn’t impact his ability recount the side-trips, the moments, the people—a Filipino mountain guide, an office worker in Zimbabwe, a donkey-riding teenager in Egypt, a shopkeeper on the slopes of Tanzania, a translator from Cairo. Take Me With You becomes a series of thoughtful portraits of everyday life. Newsham keeps an eye out for those with less (particularly in India) and how they stitch their lives together, make them work. And he regularly wonders about fate.
Here he is in the township of Tembisa, north of Johannesburg, with a guide from a local church (Ian):
“From afar it is tempting, even easy, to romanticize or trivialize a country’s problems. Surely, thinks the optimist, goodness will prevail. Over time, hearts will change, equitable systems will develop. Things will work out. But a quick dash of Tembisa will sober up the most bubbly optimist. Can hope exist, I wondered, in a place awash in trash, a place whose population keeps increasing exponentially? As we rolled through Tembisa’s depressing scenery, saying little to each other, I imagined Ian must be thinking a version of my own thought: Thank God I don’t live here.”
Sterling prose, an eye for detail that never grows tired, and a fascinating project with pure generosity at its heart, Take Me With You is terrific armchair travel. A big bonus: it will make you appreciate everything you’ve got.
May 29, 2010
Enjoyable travelogue, and the person Newsham selects to bring back to the US is the one I was rooting for. But he chooses at the very end, and there's no follow-up. In fact, Newsham spoke to my book club last week and admitted that he couldn't find a publisher to back the writing of the rest of the story.
July 5, 2012
This is an excellent book! Brad travelled to many places that I have no plans to go - plus he did it very frugally - so it was interesting to read about his adventures. It sounds like he met a lot of interesting people along the way with the goal of inviting someone to his home for a month.
November 29, 2007
I love that this is a true story of travel, and a guy with a mission to unite the world! I would love to get into a cab with this guy, since he seems to be from SF!
May 31, 2010
There are a lot of mediocre travel memoirs out there, but this one is really good. Highly recommended.
September 26, 2009
The author travels the world to find someone to invite home to America. This is my favorite travel book - I have recommended it to several people.
January 12, 2010
The ending is the best part of this book.
October 8, 2022
Brad Newsham, a taxi driver from San Francisco, became addicted to travel when he was a young man. In his middle years, he sets off on a 100-day journey around the world, aiming to visit several countries in Asia and Africa that have been on his bucket list. But he also has a plan: He wants to seek out an individual to invite back to the United States, a person to whom he can give back some of what travel has given to him.
Newsham proves to have a good eye for detail, calling out the unusual (the Indian man in Calcutta who speaks English like a Black man from Detroit), the endemic (poverty everywhere), and the ironic (a Middle Eastern man in a "Walk Like an Egyptian" T-shirt), in the colorful locations he visits. He is also self-reflective enough to consider his own place in the human equation. How does his presence help or hurt the people he meets? What privileges does he carry with him and how can he hold them gently? What can he learn about his own life from interacting with people who have drastically different experiences than his own? The best scenes are ones where he realizes how little he knows about a country or culture, and finds himself forced to reevaluate his assumptions - a conversation with government workers at a visa office in Kenya is a key example.
Take Me With You is necessarily episodic, with Newsham bouncing from one location to another in a series of short chapters. He meets a faith-healer in the rural parts of the Philippines, volunteers time at Mother Teresa's home for the destitute and dying, hangs out with youthful entrepreneurs in Egypt, visits remote villages on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro, and spends time on the hippy island paradise of Lamu. All the while he examines each person he meets and interviews to consider whether they would be someone he would want to spend a month with in the US, wondering how they would react to the size, noise, and materialism of Western culture.
If the book has a flaw, its in the triumphalism of the final section. Newsham and others lavish their guest with gifts and opportunities when they are in the US, calling up the shades of colonialism and paternalism. Although the guest seems grateful, one wonders whether they really felt that they needed the assistance. Perhaps they felt their life was fine before Newsham's intervention - or maybe they feel like they won the lottery.
The journey in Take Me With You could be that of any of hundreds of Western nomads, stretching their dollars by sleeping in cheap hostels so that they can see the world. Fortunately, Newsham's memoir goes a step further than mere description to reflect on how our global world interacts, and how his travels change him. I only wish we had a similar book to explain how the visit to the US changed his guest.
Newsham proves to have a good eye for detail, calling out the unusual (the Indian man in Calcutta who speaks English like a Black man from Detroit), the endemic (poverty everywhere), and the ironic (a Middle Eastern man in a "Walk Like an Egyptian" T-shirt), in the colorful locations he visits. He is also self-reflective enough to consider his own place in the human equation. How does his presence help or hurt the people he meets? What privileges does he carry with him and how can he hold them gently? What can he learn about his own life from interacting with people who have drastically different experiences than his own? The best scenes are ones where he realizes how little he knows about a country or culture, and finds himself forced to reevaluate his assumptions - a conversation with government workers at a visa office in Kenya is a key example.
Take Me With You is necessarily episodic, with Newsham bouncing from one location to another in a series of short chapters. He meets a faith-healer in the rural parts of the Philippines, volunteers time at Mother Teresa's home for the destitute and dying, hangs out with youthful entrepreneurs in Egypt, visits remote villages on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro, and spends time on the hippy island paradise of Lamu. All the while he examines each person he meets and interviews to consider whether they would be someone he would want to spend a month with in the US, wondering how they would react to the size, noise, and materialism of Western culture.
If the book has a flaw, its in the triumphalism of the final section. Newsham and others lavish their guest with gifts and opportunities when they are in the US, calling up the shades of colonialism and paternalism. Although the guest seems grateful, one wonders whether they really felt that they needed the assistance. Perhaps they felt their life was fine before Newsham's intervention - or maybe they feel like they won the lottery.
The journey in Take Me With You could be that of any of hundreds of Western nomads, stretching their dollars by sleeping in cheap hostels so that they can see the world. Fortunately, Newsham's memoir goes a step further than mere description to reflect on how our global world interacts, and how his travels change him. I only wish we had a similar book to explain how the visit to the US changed his guest.
July 7, 2023
An interesting read with a formatting of chapters that were easy to pick up and put down, spanning a range of countries/areas that normally don't get talked about. The author, when writing in an informative view rather than a personal bias, wrote about the history of the country in a captivating way. The book excelled when it was describing the scenery/landscapes and created an immersive evocative picture of what was around him. The scenes in the Banaue with Tony were my favourite.
Even with a view that it was set in the past, lots of the writing on topics like colonialism felt very off and the constant mentioning people's ethnicities for no reason was jarring. It felt very "white savior" in nature and the constant overly judgemental thoughts were a lot. While he is inviting someone for a month and it should be someone he wants to spent time with, reading how this stranger was "too grim and too aggressive" direct quote despite living through a revolution and was stuck working a bad job should've been left to inner thoughts rather than on paper. The author would talk about the hardships these people were facing yet would be overly critical and weirdly judgy when anyone was negative about their life. While the purpose of the book was to invite someone home, he spent most of the book regretting having to do it and SPOILER ALERT:
-
-
(He ends up putting the names of the four people who actually answered his letter into a draw and that's how he chooses. {One of his choices to invite to America is a teenager.} The entire decision is given 3 pages compared to the rest of the book DESPITE BEING THE REASON FOR THE BOOK. There's a small epilogue saying that the author didn't have much money + got married so the chosen guest was waiting for several years and the final line of the book is that the guest was finally packing their bags. While it is about the journey and "magic of travel", there was so much build up for nothing.) Plus some spelling errors scattered throughout.
Like I said in the beginning, a compelling premise but I wish it was a different author who had the idea and execution.
Even with a view that it was set in the past, lots of the writing on topics like colonialism felt very off and the constant mentioning people's ethnicities for no reason was jarring. It felt very "white savior" in nature and the constant overly judgemental thoughts were a lot. While he is inviting someone for a month and it should be someone he wants to spent time with, reading how this stranger was "too grim and too aggressive" direct quote despite living through a revolution and was stuck working a bad job should've been left to inner thoughts rather than on paper. The author would talk about the hardships these people were facing yet would be overly critical and weirdly judgy when anyone was negative about their life. While the purpose of the book was to invite someone home, he spent most of the book regretting having to do it and SPOILER ALERT:
-
-
(He ends up putting the names of the four people who actually answered his letter into a draw and that's how he chooses. {One of his choices to invite to America is a teenager.} The entire decision is given 3 pages compared to the rest of the book DESPITE BEING THE REASON FOR THE BOOK. There's a small epilogue saying that the author didn't have much money + got married so the chosen guest was waiting for several years and the final line of the book is that the guest was finally packing their bags. While it is about the journey and "magic of travel", there was so much build up for nothing.) Plus some spelling errors scattered throughout.
Like I said in the beginning, a compelling premise but I wish it was a different author who had the idea and execution.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 7, 2021
Mr. Newsham is a dedicated and devoted traveller. He spent his youth hitchhiking the cheap trails and never lost his wanderlust. This book reveals a keen, probing mind as he spends 100 days traipsing through the Third World, hobnobbing with everyone he meets along the way and rhapsodizing in mesmeric prose about his surroundings.
Mr. Newsham's 100-day memoir is also an accurate window into the various aspects of the shifting cultures around him. E.g., UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES do you get out of a safari vehicle to walk through the bush even if the camp is just a 100 years in front of you. Calcutta is a human cesspool of poverty, filth and despair and travel for women through a Third World country is fraught with hazards at the hands of human males. In fact, it's the latter case that kept jolting me out of the wondrous web Mr. Newsham was spinning.
For the most part, Mr. Newsham is very alert to cultural differences, the horrors of racism and the problems that arise out of culture clashes. He writes from the viewpoint of the white American male and its undeniable privileges. He spends little time or consideration on the plight of women. When a woman recounts how she and a female friend were assaulted by 50 Egyptian men (because the women were without male companions) at a party celebrating a baby's birth, he only adds how a man he spoke to thought some German women he met were prostitutes.
Where was his compassion for her? Where are his attempts to connect with other women? Why does he post his questions only to his male hosts? Then again, perhaps he feared that such an offer to a lone female might be misconstrued as that of a sexual predator...
The seclusion of women comes up very rarely in his travelogue and female readers will feel this lack keenly. But, other than that, this book shows a sharp mind, a psyche open to possibilities and an eager body of someone who was determined to follow the open road wherever it might take him.
Mr. Newsham's 100-day memoir is also an accurate window into the various aspects of the shifting cultures around him. E.g., UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES do you get out of a safari vehicle to walk through the bush even if the camp is just a 100 years in front of you. Calcutta is a human cesspool of poverty, filth and despair and travel for women through a Third World country is fraught with hazards at the hands of human males. In fact, it's the latter case that kept jolting me out of the wondrous web Mr. Newsham was spinning.
For the most part, Mr. Newsham is very alert to cultural differences, the horrors of racism and the problems that arise out of culture clashes. He writes from the viewpoint of the white American male and its undeniable privileges. He spends little time or consideration on the plight of women. When a woman recounts how she and a female friend were assaulted by 50 Egyptian men (because the women were without male companions) at a party celebrating a baby's birth, he only adds how a man he spoke to thought some German women he met were prostitutes.
Where was his compassion for her? Where are his attempts to connect with other women? Why does he post his questions only to his male hosts? Then again, perhaps he feared that such an offer to a lone female might be misconstrued as that of a sexual predator...
The seclusion of women comes up very rarely in his travelogue and female readers will feel this lack keenly. But, other than that, this book shows a sharp mind, a psyche open to possibilities and an eager body of someone who was determined to follow the open road wherever it might take him.
May 15, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this book although it seems in some ways a throwback to an era long passed. It was published just before the tragic events of 9/11. In fact, Newsham wrote his epilogue just 10 days before that infamous day. He is clearly very passionate about travel and encountering people during his sojourn. He writes "The being needs travel--new sights, new people, new experience--the way the body needs food, touch, an occasional soak in a backwoods hot spring."(p. 139) As passionate as he is about travel, he is not so naïve to think that he occupies a privileged position as a foreigner and an American. On a bus trip to Jaipalghuri he witnesses locals trying to retrieve bus that crashed off a cliff killing over 20 passengers. When Newsham expressed surprise that there was no mention of the crash which occurred several days ago, a local replied to him dryly, "Is not news. Only if tourists die. No tourists here. Indians only." Newsham always keeps this in mind through his travels.
His experience in a South Africa that had only recently shaken off the chains of apartheid was very telling for he observed many remnants of the old mentality from the neighborhood of Mayfair West to the grumpy Jack O'Doyle.
All in all this is a great travel book and Newsham's observations and reflection at each stop of his journey leads me to believe that this would be a great book for my students to read before they study abroad. The next challenge, of course, is finding students who still read books!
His experience in a South Africa that had only recently shaken off the chains of apartheid was very telling for he observed many remnants of the old mentality from the neighborhood of Mayfair West to the grumpy Jack O'Doyle.
All in all this is a great travel book and Newsham's observations and reflection at each stop of his journey leads me to believe that this would be a great book for my students to read before they study abroad. The next challenge, of course, is finding students who still read books!
July 8, 2019
An inspirational tribute to the world we should be living in today.
Touches on the Apartheid. At this point for me Africa/South Africa wasn't my favourite part of the book. The beginning of this book up until India was exquisite. You could feel the enthusiasm and inspiration radiating from Brad Newsham in the early part of the book. I felt the book became stilted and only when seeing Niagara Falls started to radiate again. Then stilted until his return home from South Africa!
I was truly inspired and motivated to want to travel more. Meet new people, walk the same trails, live the same life in the same way even for two weeks, but alas feel I wouldn't do the same justice in a short two week stint.
The selfless acts that create the world in which we live in today should be constant, no matter how big or small! Truly inspirational.
Touches on the Apartheid. At this point for me Africa/South Africa wasn't my favourite part of the book. The beginning of this book up until India was exquisite. You could feel the enthusiasm and inspiration radiating from Brad Newsham in the early part of the book. I felt the book became stilted and only when seeing Niagara Falls started to radiate again. Then stilted until his return home from South Africa!
I was truly inspired and motivated to want to travel more. Meet new people, walk the same trails, live the same life in the same way even for two weeks, but alas feel I wouldn't do the same justice in a short two week stint.
The selfless acts that create the world in which we live in today should be constant, no matter how big or small! Truly inspirational.
November 25, 2019
Enjoyed the stories of his travels around the world to bring a person home to experience something new as he has. I loved the section on Africa, especially Lamu Island, being one of my favourite places I have travelled to. This book took me back to my year long journey around the world and all the travels I have experienced in my life.
March 6, 2018
I had to question whether the author's intention to give a holiday to a poor individual. Would it just show him/her what they are missing, make them discontent with their own life and lead them somewhere it would be better not to go.
Having said that I enjoyed the book.
Having said that I enjoyed the book.
June 9, 2017
Lovely account of the travels and encounters of a person. How his life was impacted and how he was able to drink in the culture and allow it to change him for the better. 3.5 stars.
November 6, 2017
Travel memoir who grew up in northern VA.
June 13, 2019
Inspiring!
March 18, 2024
3.5⭐️
August 7, 2018
I really like this book, it was the first travel book I read and one which sparked an instant fascination with the genre. The storyline is brilliant and the descriptions are so vivid it instantly transports you on Newsham's journey.
January 31, 2011
I wasn't too sure of the premise at first--a little too much like a game show or a reality show challenge. But, how many travelers leave home with such a humanitarian intention? As I read, I began to warm to the author. At first, he seems kind of naive about traveling in the 3rd world, but we learn that he is a seasoned world traveler with many thousands of miles under his belt. He observes and describes poverty and deprivation not because it's particularly novel to him, but in order to underline the economic disparity between himself and many of the people he meets. Through relating his travel experiences in an honest, down-to-earth way with an unabashedly American perspective, he makes us question why we travel, how we look at the people in the cultures we visit, and how those people look at Americans. Travel writing is my favorite right now, so I'm excited to have found Newsham, especially since he's a cab driver in my favorite city, San Francisco. I'm not sure if he's changed my mind about traveling in third-world countries, but with the pride of a truly frugal soul, he never misses the opportunity to tell us how cheaply he procured his meals and lodging. This frugality is almost ironic in the context of his very generous intention to pay for another's passage and stay in America for a month. That near-irony is at the heart of Brad's personality, I think, and it's evident in his recent Free Ride blog. How many cab drivers can afford to give away a free ride every day? Brad did NOT get rich off of this book (or his earlier one), he has no source of independent wealth, and yet he still gives away his services on a daily basis. This dude is one of a kind, and I admire the hell out of him.
January 26, 2008
Brad Newsham is one of my favorite travel writers. He writes the joys, the annoyances, the miscommunications, the humor and, above all, the people who make travel such a valuable experience. This story is amazing. As an inspired young traveler, made a promise to himself that someday he would select someone he met along the way who would not otherwise have the opportunity to travel and bring him/her to America. Fourteen years later, he did just that. This is the story of Brad Newsham's incredible 100 day trip around the world to bring a stranger a once in a lifetime opportunity.
February 24, 2013
3.5 Memoir of a world traveler who decides to tour the world for 100 days and select someone along the way to invite on a trip around the U.S. The author is a very interesting person whose main focus in life, at least to the point of this book, was international travel. As such, he is very clear about what he likes and doesn't like about places he travel and people he meets, being no longer merely dazzled by the glamor of foreign lands. Entertaining read but I don't think I'd want to travel around the U.S. with him!
January 1, 2015
Take Me With You is the only travel/adventure book I've read this year.The author is from the San Francisco Bay area,good start there.:)
My favorite of his travels was in India and his last in South Africa.I won't go into why,you'll just have to read Brad's book.Just one more thing,as Columbo would say,this is also about his self-discovery in a contradictory world we live.
PS This was my 52nd book of the year! My goal was to read 50 books,which I didn't share.This year I am sharing my goal,its 50
books.
My favorite of his travels was in India and his last in South Africa.I won't go into why,you'll just have to read Brad's book.Just one more thing,as Columbo would say,this is also about his self-discovery in a contradictory world we live.
PS This was my 52nd book of the year! My goal was to read 50 books,which I didn't share.This year I am sharing my goal,its 50
books.
March 23, 2016
So many messages I have picked up from this book has tickled my life in ways I have never imagined before.
Travel Tale that will change the way you think about traveling to foreign land and meet exotic people while humanity, we all are so different yet the same.
The only downside to this book is this somehow makes me feel as Brad has taken himself a bit of a voice of "i'm privileged white people" which is quite annoying and racist in a way even when he thinks he is helping and doing good. Well the intention to do something good is no doubt what I respect about the author.
Travel Tale that will change the way you think about traveling to foreign land and meet exotic people while humanity, we all are so different yet the same.
The only downside to this book is this somehow makes me feel as Brad has taken himself a bit of a voice of "i'm privileged white people" which is quite annoying and racist in a way even when he thinks he is helping and doing good. Well the intention to do something good is no doubt what I respect about the author.
November 10, 2007
A delightful world tour with a San Francisco taxi driver, searching for the one person he will take home with him for a visit to the USA. On the trip we meet a cast of truly colorful characters, and accompany the author on one adventure after another. Fascinating, well-written and heart felt. If you're a world traveler yourself, you'll identify with Newsham. If you're more the "armchair traveler" type, you'll be glad that he went and shared his experiences so vividly.
November 27, 2007
An exciting and engaging encounter from the front seat of a taxi! Brad Newsham has written a memior of his around the world trip to meet and bring one new friend home with him. There are times when I wish I could have been with him, and shared the experience with him. But his story was really a journey of one.
If you have ever dreamed of doing a solo round-the-world, Take Me With You is a must on your pre-trip reading list.
If you have ever dreamed of doing a solo round-the-world, Take Me With You is a must on your pre-trip reading list.
Read
May 15, 2011The story of a seasoned traveller who decides to invite a foreigner, met on his travels, home to visit him in the United States. On a 100-day trip, he visits the Phillipines, India, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, meeting many interesting people along the way. Somehow, he manages not to reveal the lucky stranger until the very last word. A well-written account, it provokes many interesting questions without being too presumptuous in answering them.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews