Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman

by Alice Steinbach and Steinbach Alice

Book Overview

This funny and tender book combines three of Alice Steinbach's greatest passions: learning, traveling, and writing. After chronicling her European journey of self-discovery in Without Reservations , this Pulitzer Prize--winning columnist for the Baltimore Sun quit her job and left home again. This time she roamed the world, taking lessons and courses in such things as French cooking in Paris, Border collie training in Scotland, traditional Japanese...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812973607
• ISBN13: 9780812973600
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

She did it again!

I read her first book several years ago and it left me with a taste for more. This is the second book that follows Alice's travels around Europe and Japan. She first starts out at the Ritz Carlton in Paris with the cooking program and picks up speed in Japan. The stories flow beautifully together and I enjoyed the understated way she would make connections with strangers and turn them into friends. I still love the first one best, this one is certainly a good follow up that you will also enjoy if you like living vicariously through the eyes of this writer.

Delicious, full-bodied novel...

This book was fantastic! I probably loved this book out of sheer envy for what Ms. Steinbach did - pick up, and travel around the world to take classes and participate in life! I would love to do exactly the same. Since I'm not at the place where I could do just that (unfortunately!), reading this book was the next best thing... I enjoyed how she separated each travel into its own chapter. My favorite chapter was her trip to Florence...her descriptions of the old church and of Borgo Pinti were breathtaking. I thought the street itself would materialize out of the pages, she described every detail in such rich, layered fashion. Though it is a work of non-fiction, it is exciting, humorous, at times hysterical - not at all dry or purely didactic. I think Ms. Steinbach did an excellent job of relaying the flavor of each location and the feelings each experience stirred within her. I especially liked the use of weaving Naohiro's character in and out of the chapters. As her scenery and ingredients changed, his place in her mind remained stable. It was a great device for this type of book. It is also a metaphor for all of our lives - we can be independent and adventure out on our own, taking responsibility for advancing our personal education, yet a relationship with someone special is lasting and can continue to exist and flourish despite our new landscapes.

Escape everytime you pick up this book

A lovely book for a summer read. It lingers over interesting places you would like to visit. One day I wanted to go to England to Jane Austen's home and the next I was reading of Florence, Italy and daydreaming of my trip there 10 years ago. A quick read but some "adventures" I read again. Written with humor and quirky observations really made this a favorite!

Seeing the world one class at a time

Alice Steinach loves traveling, loves writing, and loves learning. So she wrote her own job description and spent a year taking different classes around the world from French cuisine to Scottish sheepdog handling. The result is "Educating Alice", a trip around our planet without jetlag. There are eight chapters, one for each class.Cookin' at the Ritz: Every woman has dreamed of taking a course in cooking at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. Alice Steinbach actually had the courage to do it. It's absolutely fascinating to be able to see inside the Ritz's kitchens without having to worry that Chef will raise his eyebrows if your mushrooms aren't sliced perfectly.Dancing in Kyoto: The only way to find out why girls really become geishas is to take a dance lesson from one as Steinbach did. Apparently, the geishas aren't too happy about Arthur Golden's ""Memoirs of a Geisha." Here are the real facts of a geisha's life.The Mystery of the Old Florentine Church: Steinbach took as her special project investigating the terrible floods in 1966 that turned the narrow streets of Florence into raging rivers. Steinbach found the human story behind the statistics.Sense and Sensible Shoes: If you're a Jane Austin fan, this chapter is for you. Steinbach visited Chawton House, near Winchester, England - the manor once owned by Jane's brother - along with an all-star guest list of Austin experts.Havana Dreams: There's so much politics talked about Cuba that it was a relief to see the island as ordinary Cubans experience it. I have a new respect for these endlessly cheerful people thanks to Educating Alice.The Secret Gardens: This chapter is for gardeners. Steinbach went on a tour of famous gardens in Provence, France. To the French, gardening is an art form and Provence offers the perfect climate for enthusiastic gardeners.The Unreliable Narrator: This chapter was a new take on a class for writers. Steinbach signed up for a course in Prague, Czechoslovakia. This is another class where you need to be a good sport. Steinbach is one.Lassie Come Home: If you've ever struggled to teach your dog to sit on command, Steinbach has a challenge for you: Take a course learning to control the Border collies that Scottish shepherds use to herd sheep. They are the most amazing dogs.

An Outstanding Memoir

Alice Steinbach's childhood hero was none other than Nancy Drew --- an inspiration that serves her well as she travels the world on eight adventures that take her from a geisha house in Kyoto to a salsa bar in Old Havana, from Scotland's Border country to a church crypt in Florence, Italy.In Kyoto, Alice recalls speaking with a group of Japanese women she had just met. "What I was looking for," she writes, "were all the details that might offer a glimpse into their lives. It was the way a reporter attempts to catch the shape of a story through a slightly open door. But I had come to Kyoto as a student, not a reporter. Still, old habits die hard." She might be traveling the world as a student, but the skills she honed as a reporter --- which earned her a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing at the Baltimore Sun --- are what make EDUCATING ALICE such an outstanding book. Not content to be a tourist, Alice looks beyond the ordinary in every place she visits --- seizing opportunities, striking up conversations with strangers, and going out of her way to research things that interest her.Alice's education begins in Paris, where she is enrolled for three weeks in the Hotel Ritz's culinary school. She does much more than recount the slicing, dicing, julienning and baking that she performs in class. She relays interesting details about the "Upstairs, Downstairs" aspect of the Ritz; introduces us to her classmates and the imposing Chef Moreau; reveals historical facts about Paris and the Right Bank, where she is staying for the first time after many trips to the city; and sprinkles in personal details, including memories of her grandmother, whose brown sugar candy can't be replicated because the recipe has been lost. By the time you bid au revoir to Paris, you know you're in for a colorful jaunt around the world.Next it's on to Kyoto, where Alice participates in lessons with experts in origami, flower arranging, tea ceremony, antiquities appreciation, traditional dancing and woodblock printmaking. It's also the site of her rendezvous with Naohiro, a Japanese man she introduced in her first book, WITHOUT RESERVATION, and with whom she's having a whirlwind international romance.In Florence, where she is taking an art course at the British Institute, Alice finds that it's outside the classroom --- along the Borgo Pinto to be exact --- where her real education about the city's history takes place. Alice's further adventures take her to England in Jane Austen's footsteps; to Havana, "a city that has a way of turning things upside down," where a trip to study art and architecture becomes a character study of its people; to Provence, where she tours private gardens with renowned author and expert Louisa Jones; to Prague, where a fiction writing workshop with Mary Morris pales in comparison to her discovery of a painting created by a young Jewish artist named Lily; and finally to a thousand-acre sheep farm in Scotland, where she savors her luck at coming across the