GIVE THE GIFT OF SAFE TRAVEL

What do you and your friends miss most during the pandemic? #Travel?

Why not give family members and friend a safe trip to an exotic place for the #holidays? Buy a book in which the heroine travels. These blurbs might start you thinking about traveling to:

CUBA. In Malignancy, Sara Almquist accepts an assignment from the State Department to arrange scientific exchanges between scientists in the U.S. and #Cuba. She hopes to escape violence in her past, find an old friend, and see the tourist sites in Havana. Neither her work or sightseeing goes as planned. She’s disappointed by La Floridita (the bar made famous by #Hemingway) and the memorials to fallen heroes (like #Che Guevera) but she’s fascinated by the way black marketeers and scientist circumvent the U.S. embargo to Cuba. She also finds #romance in the most unlikely situation. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028528

INDIA. In Dirty Holy Water, scientist Sara Almquist is frustrated by the slow progress in the investigation of a friend's murder. Thus she's in a funk as she begins her trip to India and is disappointed by what she sees initially. The pollution of the holy rivers (Ganges and Yamuna) is staggering. The overcrowding and filth in markets make her happy to retreat to the safety of the tour bus. But the Taj Mahal is breathtaking as it appears among the mists rising from the Yamuna River at sunrise. The folk dances of the nomads of Rajasthan are mesmerizing. Eventually, Sara realizes her friend, like India, was a complex mixture of good and bad - but always interesting. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028587

BOLIVIA. In Ignore the Pain, Sara Almquist couldn't say no when invited to be the epidemiologist on a public health mission to assess children’s health in Bolivia. Soon someone from her past in New Mexico is chasing her through the Witches' Market of La Paz and on to the silver mines of Potosí. Unfortunately, she can't trust her new colleagues because any one of them might be under the control of the coca industry in Bolivia. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028501

I hope these blurbs whetted your taste for an #adventure #novel. Now where do you want to go?

SUMMER READING

Many of us find summer is the perfect time to escape our day-to-day humdrum and immerse ourselves in books that help us escape to new places and different ways of looking at life.

Do you want to avoid the hassle of long flights but still still want to have exotic experience Explore India while you solve a mystery back home with scientist Sara Almquist in DIRTY HOLY WATER.

               https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028587

In this psychological mystery, Sara is about to become engaged and leave for a vacation in India when a friend is murdered. She soon learns snake dances in India are no more bazaar than her friend's secrets. 

 

Are you tired of "superman-type" heroes in movies and ready for

adventure based on real people?  Read I SAW YOU IN BEIRUT.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028544

In this international thriller, a mysterious source of data on the Iranian nuclear industry sends an email from Tabriz. "Help. Contact Almquist." As Sara Almquist is drawn into the plan to identify and rescue the agent, known only as F, from Iran, she is forced to remember and re-evaluate characters from her student days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and from her career as a globe-trotting epidemiologist.

 

Maybe you'd like to learn more about Native American culture? Travel to Acoma Pueblo and other sites in New Mexico with A POUND OF FLESH, SORTA:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028560/

In this adventure story, a ticking package with the guts of animals is delivered to scientist Sara Almquist. The police think gang leaders are trying to prevent Sara from testifying at their upcoming trial. Sara thinks it might be a plea for help from a rancher in New Mexico after she learns the package is contaminated with the bacteria that causes the plague

 

Or maybe you want to take hard look at reality and look at the elderly 

who have made a van their home. Read Jessica Bruder's NOMADLAND. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393356310/ 

This nonfictional account of transient older adults who travel for work from the beet field of North Dakota to the campgrounds of California to the Amazon's CamperForce programs in Texas is an eye-opener. 

No matter your choices, it's time to start your summer reading.

WHAT'S ON YOUR BUCKET LIST?

When I visited India a couple years ago, I met several people who said seeing the Taj Mahal and visiting #India were items on their bucket list. Those two items were never was on my bucket list, but I admit the #Taj Mahal is breathtaking as it appears among the mists rising from the #Yamuna River at sunrise. 

Here's one reason why seeing the Taj Mahal wasn't on my bucket list. As the sun rises you also see the Yamuna River, one of the holy rivers of India, is polluted. In fact, some Indians have described it as an "open sewer." The #pollution of the Yamuna Rivers made me think. Experts say the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers are among the ten most polluted rivers in the  world, but then so is the Mississippi. Considering the importance of water for life itself, maybe more of us should include "doing at least one activity that reduces pollution" on our bucket list.

 

My other problem with the Taj Mahal are the crowds. Think of the crowds leaving the stadium of a Big Ten school after a football game. I saw the Taj Mahal during the Diwali (a Hindu festival) holidays with probably twenty thousand people. However, the groups of fifty to two hundred school children each at tourist sites were amazing. Each clump of children were identifiable by their clothes, particularly the girl's uniforms. For example, one group of several hundred girls wore leggings with long jumpers almost to their knees in shades of green. Although all the groups were noisy when they left their buses. They were quiet and organized and with the smallest in front and the tallest at the back of the group by the time they reached the entrance to the sites. The children reminded me that all of us should include on our bucket list at least one activity that improves the welfare and education of #children.

 

I usually think that the "native" song and dance performances that tourists are treated to are hokey. However, I thought the snake dance performed by tribal women in #Rajasthan was one of the most sensuous performance I'd ever seen. It made those seen in movies look like bump and grind routines. That also made think. The best parts of travel occur when you least expect them. Perhaps, the most important item on any one's bucket list should be "to learn to appreciate the arts and skills of others."

 

I suppose this blog is too preachy but it's my long-winded way of admitting that visiting India should be on more people's bucket list. I suspect that is not an achievable goal for most, especially with the pandemic. So, the alternative is: read a novel with scenes depicting modern India. You might consider DIRTY HOLY WATER.

 

Blurb for DIRTY HOLY WATER: Sara Almquist is about to become engaged and leave for a vacation in India when she becomes a suspect in the murder of a friend. It's unnerving for Sara because she's used to being a trusted forensic investigator with answers, not a nervous suspect. Surprisingly, Sara finds insights into her feelings and into the murder as she becomes immersed in Indian culture.

 

Paperback and ebook at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028587