Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman

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.

To get the most out of travel, one should have a purpose, such as viewing a particular type of art, collecting foreign miniatures, etc. Alice Steinbach selected "studies"--and what a variety of subjects she chose to learn! Each chapter takes the reader with her into an area of a different country, and leaves one wanting to sharethat very place. From Paris, where she starts from her "fumbling" and somewhat embarrassing days as she began taking cooking lessons at the Ritz, to the last chapter when she tried to learn to train Border Collies to herd sheep in Scotland, the reader goes with Alice, In Japan she stumbles into stylized dancing class and learning Geisha lifstyle. In Cuba, we make new friends of friendly Cubans and discover a great Jazz band. We almost get lost in hidden gardens in France, and wish we were there. We study Jane Austen in England and get an intimate feel of the English countryside, and we help her unravel historic mysteries of an old church in Florence, one that she enters by mistake because she is lost. In Prague we share her own writing for a class, and watch the development of a WWII story as it unfolds with her own adventures. We're indignant at her classmates and their editorial criticisms--but love her outside adventures in Prague. This book is a must for anyone planning to go anywhere--Makes one want to BECOME an Alice!

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!

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 candy her grandmother used to make ... and even manages to come away with the recipe.

Alice's brand of storytelling combines equal parts travelogue, historical narrative, personal diary and witty cultural commentary. By the time you bid her bon voyage, you'll know two things for certain. First, there are only two kinds of travelers --- those who are curious and those who are not. And second, when Alice Steinbach next beckons, you won't be able to resist the allure of her company.

--- Reviewed by Shannon McKenna

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.