The Foreign Service Journal, November 2013

30 NOVEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL ups and downs in a reflective manner. The concept of “home”—discovering what that term actually means and finding it—is an underlying theme that resonates especially strongly with Foreign Service families. As the story progresses, Landor becomes stronger and better equipped to find a balance between all the stressors in her life. The road any Foreign Service family traverses can be rocky, but Landor has overcome every challenge. Regina D. Landor lives with her husband, two sons and mother in Bangladesh, where her husband is completing a four- year posting. She has embraced raising her children abroad and spends her free time volunteering with her mother and making the most of local culture. I Did It My Way: The Travel Adventures of Dorothea Bonavito, 1948-2000 Dorothea Bonavito, compiled and published by Sallie Crenshaw, 2013, $21.95, paperback, 284 pages. Through letters to her family and friends, Dorothea “Dot” Bonavito shared her expe- riences of traveling the world as a secretary to American ambassadors. She likens her passion for exploring to a travel bug that she cannot get rid of. Among the first group of women to gain entrance to the Foreign Service, she found the career to be the perfect means to satisfy her travel desires. Over the span of five decades, she recorded her adventures through writing, photos and a collection of travel memorabilia. She makes sure to include positives and negatives, as well as praising a new destination or questioning constricting customs. The letters show us the world through the author’s eyes, which proves to be a delightful perspective. Her excitement for discov- ery is contagious. Also included are testimonies reflecting on her adventurous spirit from people Ms. Bonavito befriended or influenced over the years. It becomes evident that while she felt touched by her surroundings, “Dot” touched many others as well. During her career, Ms. Bonavito visited more than 100 coun- tries. Her friend Sallie Crenshaw sorted through more than 800 pages of written letters to compile this book for posthumous publication, because Ms. Bonavito’s family and friends believed that her story should be shared with the world. Casting Off: A Solo Atlantic Voyage Count Christopher de Grabowski and Daisy Richardson, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013, $12.95, paperback, 186 pages. Count Christopher de Grabowski had an adventurous life that revolved around a deep love for the sea. Casting Off is his account of the 84-day trans-Atlantic voy- age from Europe to New York City he undertook in 1959 on his beloved sloop Tethys , compiled and published posthumously by his sister, Daisy Richardson. Exiled to Chile from his native Poland prior to World War II, de Grabowski sailed to England in 1941 to volunteer in the Polish Wing of the Royal Air Force. After the war, with his command of English (and six other languages) and a talent for photography, he joined the U.S. Information Agency in Tunis as a Foreign Service National. He also devoted himself to sailing, winning many trophies racing on the Mediterranean. His dream, however, was to cross the Atlantic. After several failed attempts, he set out again in 1959. Crossing an ocean in a small boat is an incredible achievement, but recording all of the details and one’s thoughts and intimate feelings about the experience makes it exceptional. Christopher de Grabowski was lost at sea in 1964, when the schooner he was captaining disappeared in the Bermuda Tri- angle. Daisy de Grabowski Richardson, the widow of FSO Robert P. Richardson and mother of active-duty FSOMargot Carrington, resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Ruminations from the Minivan: Musings from a World Grown Large, then Small Alison Krupnick, CreateSpace, 2013, $13.50/paperback; $7.99/Kindle, 264 pages. In 1989, prior to the normalization of diplo- matic relations between the United States and Vietnam, Alison Krupnick was holed up in a seedy Ho Chi Minh City hotel, hiding from people desperate for visas to resettle in the United States. Fifteen years later, she was holed up alone in her minivan in an American city, furiously scribbling stories on a notepad at every red traffic light. The story of her transformation fromworld-traveling diplo- mat to minivan-driving mom is chronicled in this warm, funny