In an effort to spread beauty, positivity, and joy, I’ve started highlighting some of the beautiful books I read, or what I like to call “Rose-Tinted Reads”. These might be books that tell beautiful stories, share diverse perspectives, are funny as hell, or contain gorgeous word choice or prose. Find Rose-Tinted Read #1 HERE and Rose-Tinted Read #2 HERE.

Rose-Tinted Read #3 is not your typical travel narrative. Geraldine DeRuiter’s book, All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft, reads like a smart and funny anecdote from a friend. I could listen to her talk about her life for hours, which is exactly what I did while listening to the audiobook!

I highly recommend this book, which is funny, because when I first started listening I had only one thought: who does this woman think she is? I was originally put off by Geraldine right away in the first few minutes of the book. She talked a lot about travel writers and how she did not fit the typical mold. I wasn’t enthused by this characterization. I love reading travel writing! I was here for a typical travel book! Why else would I have bought this? I decided to soldier on through the book though, because I am stubborn, and also because I believe in second chances.

You guys, I love her. I was sold on visiting Oregon solely through her descriptions of it in the first chapter. She painted the most beautiful picturesque town across my imagination, and I am dying to find out if it lives up to her lovely narration of attending Shakespeare theatre and falling in love with her husband.

The book isn’t a true travel narrative and it does not fit the mold of a traditional book on travel and that is one-hundred-percent okay. Descriptions of her crazy family, her patient husband, and her incredibly real life take center stage instead. Certainly travel plays into it, but again, I wouldn’t categorize it as a travel-specific book. It’s much more an autobiography of a women who is well-traveled, and well-versed in seeing the humor in all the obstacles that life has to offer, including her own brain tumor.

In spite of the fact that she often seems like a mess, the book also has some real nuggets of wisdom. Geraldine, who is proclaiming that she shouldn’t be let outside of her house, much less allowed to travel the world, says  “Sometimes you can’t let a complete dearth of natural talent or ability stop you from doing something.” If that isn’t the truth and a statement that we should all rally behind, I don’t know what is.

If you like humor, reading about travel (especially when it’s disastrous), fun family stories, or just a dose of real life from a real (and really funny) woman, I highly recommend this book. (Bonus: one of the turning points in the book comes when she and her husband are visiting Lambeau Field! Woohoo, Wisconsin!)

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