Call you when I land A memoir

Nikki Vargas

Book - 2023

"A soul-stirring memoir from Colombian immigrant and travel journalist Nikki Vargas, whisking us through the countries that brought her new love, self-discovery, and the inspiration to launch the first international feminist travel magazine, Unearth Women. At twenty-six years old, life looked a certain way for Nikki Vargas. She'd settled in New York City ready to join the ranks of the Carrie Bradshaws of the world, had landed in a promising advertising career, and was newly engaged to her college sweetheart. But between corporate happy hours and wedding dress fittings, she couldn't shake a deep underlying sense of imposter syndrome, a voice telling her that she was rocketing towards a future that didn't look like her. A...nd so, she bought a plane ticket: first to Cartagena. Then to Panama. Then to Iguazú. What begins with one freelance travel writing assignment escalates into a whirlwind, globe-spanning journey that would transform Nikki's life. Taking her from the street food stalls of Vietnam to the cascading waterfalls of Argentina, Nikki uncovers shocking truths about her family, comes face to face with a new love interest - or two - and ultimately turns a no-name blog into the internationally celebrated venture of Unearth Women, the first major female-focused travel publication. Told in transporting detail and candid reflections, Call You When I Land takes the familiar story of a woman going abroad to find herself and turns it on its head, as the act of traveling becomes, for Nikki, an exhilarating career path - and ultimately a tool to champion women's voices across the world." --

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Subjects
Genres
autobiographies (literary works)
Autobiographies
Published
Toronto, Ontario : Hanover Square Press [2023]
Language
English
Main Author
Nikki Vargas (author)
Physical Description
284 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9781335455093
  • Introduction
  • Prologue
  • Part 1. Turbulence
  • 1. The Brick Ledge
  • 2. I'm No Joan of Arc
  • 3. I Wouldn't Wish This Hostel on My Worst Enemy
  • 4. Just Say Yes
  • 5. He Was Never Really There
  • 6. El Pájaro Libre (The Free Bird)
  • 7. Tattered Bracelets
  • Part 2. Changing Pitch
  • 8. Three Sheets to the Wind
  • 9. Roots & Wings
  • 10. Earn This
  • 11. Monkeys and Travel Bloggers
  • 12. I Promise to Always Have Pub Mix
  • 13. The Perfect Meal
  • 14. Is This Japamala Working?
  • 15. The Big Bad Wolf
  • Part 3. Landing
  • 16. Royally Screwed
  • 17. Unearth Women
  • 18. Glitter
  • 19. Killing Your Darlings
  • 20. Someday Soon
  • 21. Don't Let the Lions Hear You
  • 22. Iguazú, Eight Years Later
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A travel writer describes how her adventures around the world have shaped her professional and romantic life. "I don't want to get married!" When Fodor's Travel senior editor Vargas, who was born in Bogotá and lives in New York City, screamed these words into the waterfalls of Iguazú National Park in Argentina, she had no idea how much they would change her life. After ending her engagement with her partner, the author felt abandoned by her support system and guilty about her decision. She told herself, "I promise I'll earn this," implying that, for the rest of her life, she would start making choices that justified her "twentysomething" decision. What follows is a chronicle of a series of global wanderings that helped Vargas establish a career as a travel writer and meet the new love of her life. In Colombia, while working as a travel editor for the London-based publication The Global Journey, she interviewed a former guerrilla soldier while also uncovering the truth behind the murder of one of her relatives. While on a government-sponsored trip to Indonesia, Vargas got lost in the jungle while generating content for her blog, The Pin the Map Project. In a moment of poetic justice, she writes about how her boyfriend proposed to her at Iguazú in the same place where she decided to end her first relationship. "Looking at the photo now, my expression says it all: pure, unbridled joy and triumph," she writes. Although the author's sincere and passionate voice render the book supremely readable, her approach to memoir is largely descriptive, recounting events with a minimum of self-reflection. Occasional glimmers of deeper thinking--such as a trenchant reflection on whether her love of travel is helpful or destructive--suggest that Vargas may find more profundity in future work. An entertaining memoir by a globe-trotting writer with a promising career still ahead of her. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.