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    Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World
    Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World
    Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World
    Audiobook12 hours

    Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

    Written by Rita Golden Gelman

    Narrated by Rita Golden Gelman

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in Los Angeles to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986, she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita's example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateDec 9, 2014
    ISBN9781494577209
    Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

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    Reviews for Tales of a Female Nomad

    4/5

    342 ratings34 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I read this book when it first came out long ago. Listening to it in her voice was such a treat. One of my favorite books of all time

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      What a gift from the author and an incredible collection of stories
    • 5/5
      Fascinating and unique. An eye opener for people interested in the world.
      As a side note Rita appears to be not as simple a person as she makes herself out to be. She is smart and well able to look after her interests.
    • 1/5
      The travelling itself is amazing - in terms of breadth and scope and the number of interesting people she meets. The narrator is however unbearable - entitled, and completely unaware of her own privilege, which goes unacknowledged at every step of the way. She goes as far as saying the following:
      "While I was in Mexico I discovered something intriguing. Once I leave the US, I’m not bound by the rules of my culture. And when I’m a foreigner in another country, I’m exempt from the local rules. This extraordinary situation means there are NO rules in my life. I’m free to live by the standards and ideals and rules I create for myself"
      WITHOUT acknowledging that this in itself is a form of privilege due to the fact she is a VISITOR who is wealthier and perceived of as high status in many places she visits. This is not addressed at all. From somebody with a degree in anthropology, this lack of self-awareness is shocking - you threw away several thousand dollars on your degree there, Rita, and it's your own fault.
      The narration itself is pretty bad too - it's like she's reading to children, which obviously is what she's used to doing. There are lots of awkward poses in the wrong place in a sentence too. I probably would have enjoyed this a little bit more if I'd read it instead of listening to it.
      Fans of Eat Pray Love, tuck in. Everybody else, stay well away. I'm so happy I didn't spend any money to listen to this.
    • 4/5
      Susie would love this book.
    • 3/5
      This is white privilege flexing herself throughout the world. Intimately inserting herself in the lives of those her empire has conquered and is now very actively exploiting. Of course she can do nothing about that.
    • 5/5
      What was most enjoyable to hear is that Rita lived in the moment throughout her world travels. She was only a couple years younger than me when she traveled. As our culture ages we tend to make life more narrow not more expansive ... Rita gave me a new way to think about the last 1/3 of life that was refreshing and exciting. I will never travel as Rita did (for many reasons) but I can strive to live with her spirit of adventure.
    • 5/5
      This is a beautiful, fulfilling, catching book of thrilling adventures. I feel i know Rita and the people she write about. I loved it.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful and warm. I've been recommending it to everyone I talk to as I listen! It feels like I won't get to hear a friend tell me stories anymore as I reach the end - such a lovely impression to finish a book with.
    • 5/5
      What a marvellous story! What a Woman! So much misdom in every chapter
    • 5/5
      Stunning ❤ Rita, you are phenomenal ❤ 100/100 stars-Bravo yes!
    • 5/5
      I have read/listened to this book twice but it is fabulous, it should be a must read for all freshmens, to widen their perceptions of humanity.
    • 5/5
      So inspiring, fun, loving and just plain darm wonderfull. Read it!
    • 4/5
      As a motorbike nomad, I am always interested in the adventures of others who have gone before me; not to specific countries but they way they approach and develop their interactions with the local population. I found the first half to be rich and fast paced, exciting and fresh. The way the author describes the places and event is very visual, fresh and simple. The second part of the audiobook became slower but more detailed (probably because of the extended timeline) but I found some of the names confusing due to their similarity and struggled to keep up with the characters in the story. I think I'll need to go back and listen to a couple of chapters again. This was a very inspirational book; for those of us who travel full time, and I should imagine for those who want to but are not able to travel, this will help you travel to exotic locations vicariously and live a rich experience through the eyes of a sensitive and personable soul.
    • 3/5
      Very readable travel memoir. Makes you want to do it and go adventuring! Great lady.
    • 2/5
      I liked this because she just gets up and pushes herself to do what she wants to do. She also travels to countries that aren't in Western Europe, which is always a plus in my book.
      But, but, but...
      Oh! I was hoping I'd really like this, but it just fell so very flat. Her writing isn't very good (or her basic biological know-how--this became apparent to me at one point when she describes crocodiles as looking "like ancient amphibians soaking up the sun," which, even if she were to acknowledge that crocs are actually reptiles, it still would remain a lousy simile). She stays with families for as long as is convenient to her, which really rubbed me the wrong way for all of her touting that she's going to really dig her heels into learning another culture. When she does stay for a longer period of time, it's with upper-caste families in Bali. She also tends to set up her story with a fair amount of information, but then glosses through the bulk of her time spent in any given place. As a result, I felt I was only getting a very superficial scope of the region she visited, which inclines me to feel she only experienced things at a superficial level.
      That's it.
    • 3/5
      It's taken me years to write this review. This book made a considerable impression on me, but one the author probably didn't intend. For years I had dreamed of a life where I could travel all the time. I'm the only one I know that when I go on vacation, I'm never ready to go home. I just want to hop on another plane or train and go off to see the next place!

      In college I studied abroad and traveled around Europe and Russia. At the time I read this I was working for a government agency and had finally managed to get myself in a good position where I could try for a place in my agency's international division.

      For so long I had wanted to have a career that would let me travel around the world, spending weeks and months in far off places, and when one project was done, pick up and move on to the next. And I was almost there.

      Then I picked up this book. I was so excited when I saw it - finally someone who was living the kind of life I wanted to have! But when I finished reading it, that life seemed like just an empty shell. There were no deep, lasting or real connections made with people. I just felt hollow inside. Maybe this wasn't the kind of life I wanted after all. I did end up going in a different direction in life. 10 years later I did end up interviewing for a job in that international division. I thought it ironic that I would have done anything for that job 10 years before, but now I didn't really want it. And I was indeed relieved when I wasn't offered it.

      It's the connections we make in life that make it worth living.
    • 4/5
      The year is 1986 and Rita Gelman and her husband are on the cusp of divorce, just as her last child leaves for college. Rita takes a trip to Mexico to find herself, and essentially, never comes back. Rita's passion for living in other cultures is awakened and she begins traveling from country to country, living minimally, and relying on new social connections she makes along the way. In most countries, Rita stays just long enough to develop friends and connections. Once the native people have finally embraced her as "family" Rita moves on to the next adventure. Rita's goals seem to be writing and publishing just enough that she can maintain her nomadic lifestyle and becoming accepted by the native people in each culture despite the odds, including her own lack of preparation. This was an interesting book about different countries, their cultures, and social rules, however, something about Ms. Gelman's approach to her lifestyle rubbed me the wrong way. While I understood the basic anthropological principal about not altering the culture you are observing, I felt she tended to use this idea to her benefit to justify her avoidance to contribute or make positive changes in the cultures she visited. It was particularly hard reading about the children who were starving with distended bellies and her rationalization that she could give them money to feed the children but it wouldn't help the family in the long run. Her desire to live minimalistically and with people who allowed her to stay with them with only minimal (if any) compensation seemed opportunistic and at worst, parasitic. While I enjoyed learning about the people, I was not as big a fan of the author's traveling methods. I also felt sorry for her kids, who basically lost their mother to the world, just when they were starting to branch out as young adults.
    • 5/5
      I really loved this travel memoir of a woman of a certain age who decided to spend the rest of her life travelling and carrying with her only what she could fit into her luggage.
    • 3/5
      Ms. Gelman's travel stories are more than travel stories. They describe the lifestyle of a person with a true zest for life and living. I found the stories to be interesting, particularly the manner in which the author crossed over from visitor to resident in each location. I have no yearning to wander, but I share the love of people and admire the trusting nature which allowed her to pursue her dreams. I did find myself wondering about the trusting souls who did not fare as well as she did in their journeys into the unknown. Very good book.
    • 4/5
      Rita Golden Gelman, on the cusp of a divorce from her husband in 1986, decides to pursue her unfulfilled dreams of world travel. She ventures off, alone, with the goal of traveling and immersing herself fully into the cultures & languages of several different locations throughout the world, including remote and not-so-remote locations in Mexico, Guatemala, Israel, the Galapagos Islands, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Thailand. This was a fairly enjoyable travel memoir. Unlike many other travel memoirs, in most of her travel locations, the author really did make an effort to become part of the community & culture of the area. She did enjoy the luxury of coming from a previous well-to-do lifestyle, or at least one comfortable enough to allow her to travel for many years (including back & forth to the U.S. in order to visit family) without an ongoing income (though she was earning somewhat regularly on royalties from previously-published children's books). Her very outgoing, and occasionally pushy, personality, as well as frequent bouts of "good luck" also worked to her benefit in order to allow her some experiences that a typical traveler probably wouldn't have. I started this one out on audio, read by the author, but I found her voice somewhat annoying for some reason. I enjoyed the book more after switching to the actual written format, which I would recommend.
    • 5/5
      Loved Rita's tales of travel. I felt as if I were traveling with her…..so enjoyable!
    • 5/5
      In the midst of the decadent 1980's the author's 24-year marriage was crumbling.Realizing that she had only ever lived a life defined by her husband and by the things they'd accrued that allowed them to live comfortably, the author abandoned her glamorous L.A. lifestyle to follow her own adventurous spirit. For many years she lived a nomadic existence, sharing huts and palaces, but, more importantly, the lives of others from around the globe, from a Zapotec village in Mexico, to a faded kingdom in Indonesia, from Ecuador to Papua New Guinea.I loved this book! It isn't just about exploring thre world. It's about resiliency, conquering one's fears, and being open to new experiences. Perhaps what I loved most was that while she took something from each experience, she also seemed to leave something of herself behind.
    • 5/5
      I adore this book. It opened my eyes to a different sort of life. What a great adventure life can be! I hope that someday I can live a life that is as fulfilling to me as her life is to her...until then I'm going to work on getting to that point!
    • 3/5
      This was my choice to read for an upcoming book discussion with a new book club I joined. I liked this book. The author reminded me a little of a femal version of Anthony Bourdain. She traveled to different countries to live among the natives/residents and sampled their food as well. I enjoyed learning about the cultures of different countries and the ending was nice. My only two small complaints were... her obsession with the expensive boots. I realize that they were perfect and expensive, but you don't have to give the detail about the boots every time you wear them. And the other issue was that the majority of the men she met were handsome or good looking. Really? It may be possible but very very strange. Other than that, I enjoyed the book and her ways of making friends all over the world.
    • 4/5
      After divorce and realizing her long lost dream of traveling the world. She does exactly that, absolving herself of her possessions and taking off with a plane ticket and no plane. Many will compare it to Eat, Pray, Love, though it is a very different tale. While you spend time in Gelman's head, her focus is truly on the other cultures around the world and her trials and tribulations at fitting in. Instead of "woe is me" it was very much "what can I discover next?!" and it was tremendous in helping to satisfy my own overwhelming wanderlust. Fantastic to see how she fit in places, traveled on a small budget, intermixed with cultures everywhere and truly became the person she wanted to be. A fantastic read that I'll be recommending many times over.
    • 3/5
      Liked this book about an older woman (48-63), who is not in great shape (she is overweight and doesn't exercise regularly), who gives up her comfortable suburban life to become a nomad. It is somewhat similar to Eat, Pray, Love, but without the money to travel in comfort. Rita travels around the world, immersing herself into the culture of the area she is visiting and subsists on the $10,000 a year which she gets from writing children's books. Fun, quick read.
    • 5/5
      An inspirational book for those who like to take life as it comes and live in the present.
    • 5/5
      This has got to be one of the best autobiographical books I've read. Ms Gelman shared such wonderful stories of the people that she met in her travels and gave me such an insight into the culture and traditions of the countries that she lived in. She's such an inspiration and she's made me realize that if I want to really live my life, I have to stop sitting on the fringes. We can all take control of our lives and sometimes paddle against instead of drifting along with the current.
    • 4/5
      Think you are too old to have adventures? This is a book that might convince you otherwise. This is a book that gives me hope there might still be a life after getting all those boys though college.