I really enjoyed this book of essays on the experiences of traveling as a woman of color on a 'Third World' passport.

It was so great to read about travel that's not centered on a white colonialist point of view. But it was so much more than that- it was a memoir and a historical and literary analysis, ad somehow Habib was able to make that mix seem effortless and engaging.

I will say that I had to push through the first part which was a bit dry- but I'm glad I did because this is a gem of a book.

This would be a good companion to The West: A New History in Fourteen Lives by Naoíse Mac Sweeney which skewered the racist ideologies that are at the foundation of the vaunted 'West' versus the rest of the world.

I abandoned this book while still in the intro because we hadn't gone anywhere yet and I was already 15% of the way into the book. I don't need that much setup. Tell me why you wrote it, sure, but I don't need an entire treatise on traveling as an activity, that should be worked into the rest of the book.

The author is an incredible writer. I wish the book had fewer personal anecdotes and tangents and more analysis of the history and contextualization of travel, tourism, and its many sub-industries.

3.75 stars

This quirky hard to classify book was quite readable and thought-provoking. It definitely spends a lot of time pointing out the racial and class limitations of travel: who can go where, why, the history of tourism, the ethics of tourism etc. And there is some personal history by the author who is from India that fleshes out the various statements. She illustrates with yet another calm listing of situations that white American travelers (U.S. passport holders) rarely think about -- having to have a visa for visiting another country, what documents to provide and so on.

There is a lot to think about here but Habib just lays it out there and doesn't bludgeon anyone with it. I appreciated her thoughtful approach and interesting historical tidbits and I also enjoyed the personal stories that she threw in which often detoured a bit from the main point but always circled back around. An expansive read that it will take a while to process. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

It's hard to describe exactly what this is--it's not quite a memoir, or travel memoir, or history of travel. Rather, it's similar to an essay collection about several things--the history of passports, how/why travel and even walking for pleasure became a thing, the downfalls of "wanderlust," and much more, informed by the author's experience of being a Muslim Indian-American woman (married to a white American man).

If you're a fan of travel memoirs or travel literature, this is a must read. Will definitely open your eyes and broaden your perspective. It's an engaging, enriching, and entertaining read.

Many thanks to Catapult and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Post-pandemic, many people have been eager to travel and to indulge in wanderlust, with advertising and media feeding that desire to see other places. But as Habib points out in this thoughtful and often pointed history of travel, the conditions of your travel plans will vary based on the color of your passport and the color of your skin (and possibly your gender). As a woman of color with family scattered around the world, Habib knows all too well the hurdles that people with Third World passports (yes, she uses the term Third World and explains why) must go through in order to travel from one country to another, and she also knows that visiting a new place more likely calls for caution rather than adventure.

Habib's research into the history of travel reveals how much the modern tourism industry is based on European and American consumerism, dating back to the era of colonialism and the age of "discovery" (which she refers to as "pseudiscovery"). She also unravels the connections between military presence and tourist development, as seen in the South Pacific following World War II. Throughout the book, she points out how privilege (in whatever way) influences how entitled a person may feel to travel and explore different areas of the world -- but also how that same privilege can block someone from true awareness of the political, social, and cultural life of the places they visit. Habib uses examples from her own travels as a Brown Muslim woman originally from India to shore up her points, and she makes a convincing argument that travel as we now know it still often falls into the old patterns and viewpoints of "discovering" and valuing the world through a Western lens.

Reading this book gave me many opportunities to reconsider not only the history I was taught in school but also my own experiences with traveling and how I feel about travel now. If travel should help us expand our horizons and learn more about the world outside of our own comfort zones, then this book is an essential read for anyone who welcomes the perspective of someone whose experiences are different from our own. 5 stars.

Thank you, Catapult and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.