Thursday, October 30, 2014

Review: India Unplugged by Aurelia Zoss

Title: India Unplugged
Author: Aurelia Zoss
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Self-published
Publish Date: May 29, 2014
Source: I received a copy from the author; however, this did not affect my review.


What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "If you want to complement your India travel guide with a fun book to read, India unplugged is for you!

Part travelogue, part memoir, and part advice for India travelers, this book is a delightful account of a twenty-something expat working and living in Bangalore.

This is not another India travel guide about which forms to fill out, but rather a fun and refreshing collection of short stories packed with witty observations, quirky one-liners and hilarious cultural misunderstandings.


Instead of going to expat parties, this young woman has mingled with the locals and thrown herself into the Indian life. She made Indian friends and worked with Indian colleagues and bosses. Her immersion into the Indian culture and her unique encounters make for unusual stories told in a funny yet personal way. We are taken along as she goes about her daily life and her travels.
Unlike in most other expat books, Aurelia gives us a generous peak into her daily life in the Indian office and shares entertaining and sometimes embarrassing tales about her own cultural blunders.
Expats will relate to many of her experiences and will find delight in Aurelia’s down-to-earth and humorous way of describing her life in India." 


My Two Cents:

Have you ever dreamed of going to India? Are you not able to hop a plane right now? Want to still go explore this lovely and fascinating place? In "India Unplugged," you get a chance to explore India through the eyes of the author who has spent ample time in many different places throughout the country. India is someplace that I have always wanted to visit and so I was looking forward to diving into this book. When you don't have a chance to travel, there is nothing like being able to at least armchair travel through a book!

This book is made up of different vignettes covering different aspects of Zoss' travels through many different parts of India. The vignettes are not necessarily in any sort of order so you would be able to skip around in the book if you would like. My favorite story was about Zoss and a friend traveling by train (I love, love, love train travel) and being totally confused about how the train system works. A very kind family takes them under their wings and shares a lot with them on the train to make them more comfortable. The author does a really good job of describing all of the various people that she meets along the way!

Overall, I thought the writing in the book was good but there were a couple spots that needed some tightening up. Some of the vignettes are a little all over the place with a lot of asides that take away from the main point of the stories. There were also a couple grammar errors here and there that took me out of the story. The descriptions in the book really shine though and this book will be a treat for my fellow armchair travel lovers!


 

1 comment:

  1. Love armchair travel myself . This has to be a fun read.

    ReplyDelete

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