As a child, journalist Maggie Downs spent hours poring over National Geographic with her mother, hatching plans for the adventures they would have together. But when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Downs had to accept that many of their plans would never happen. As her mother's condition worsened, Downs--determined to travel for both their sakes--headed off on a trip around the world. Her first memoir, Braver than You Think, chronicles Downs's inner and outer journey to follow her curiosity and make her peace with loss.
On the surface, much of Downs's travelogue reads like a cautionary tale: she stays in multiple grubby hostels, sustains a monkey bite in Bolivia, lands in Egypt just as the Arab Spring uprising catches fire, and hitches far too many rides with strangers. But the anecdotes are vivid, sometimes humorous, even when she's confused and sad. Downs remains alert and curious, no matter how exhausted she is. She also draws interesting parallels between her physical odyssey and her mother's battle with Alzheimer's: the presence of chance and randomness, journeys not chosen, moments of sudden and strange beauty that appear unexpectedly. In Petra, near the end of her travels, she finds "consolation, an assurance that it's possible to weather time and tragedy and still be a thing of formidable beauty."
Compelling and moving, Downs's memoir will appeal to fans of travel writing and anyone who has walked with a loved one through a difficult decline. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams