A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel by Delores Topliff is this week’s Reader Friday. Here’s the first line: During his lifetime, humorist Mark Twain was best known as a travel writer.
This is a departure from my usual fiction, but I enjoyed the book so much I wanted to share it with my readers.
But first the photo and Scripture verse. This is the largest Blue Moon of 2023 and I had to get in my car and drive to where I could see it to get the photo. Zooming that far out I had to find a pole to brace the camera, but I am very pleased with the photo. And that verse was in my daily Bible reading.
And now for A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel by Delores Topliff. Here’s the cover and back copy:
Embark on an extraordinary journey alongside a trail-blazing grandma …
A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel: Adventures, Wit, and Wisdom is an inspiring and heartwarming account of a grandma’s many journeys throughout Israel for nearly forty years.
From Joppa/Tel Aviv through Galilee, Jerusalem, the Negev, the Red Sea, and most points in between, Topliff presents a tapestry of Israel’s history and culture with insight and humor. Each chapter introduces unforgettable people and hidden gems revealing the beauty and complexity of this ancient land.
Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or an armchair adventurer, A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel is your ticket to exploring Israel as few have seen it.
My Take:
Even if you’re not planning a trip to Israel, this is a wonderful book to read. I took one of the trips that Delores Topliff talks about in the book and reading the book was almost as good as being there again. Not quite but almost. 😉
A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel is also great for taking any trip because of the wonderful travel tips she supplies. It’s especially good about providing information you don’t think to ask about until you’re on your trip and something goes wrong. That’s when you wished you’d known to ask, but you don’t know what you don’t know.
If you enjoy traveling or reading about traveling, you’ll enjoy this book and learn quite a bit about Israel in the process. She’s been to Europe several times and I hope she follows this book with one on that continent!
Are you a traveler? Or do you prefer to staycation? Or leave the first sentence of the book you’re reading in the comments and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a book from my library!
And the winner of the August drawing is…Megan!
A Traveling Grandma's Guide to Israel by Delores Topliff is this week's Reader Friday. Or leave the first sentence of the book you're reading in the comments on the blog and I'll enter you in a drawing for a book from my library! Click To TweetHere’s a photo of the Dead Sea taken from En Gedi in Israel.
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Comments 33
Wonderful verse. I’m impressed by your moon photo. I’ve never been able to get a good one because the moon ends up overexposed (or something). A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Isreal sounds like an interesting book. I never caught the travel bug, so I guess that makes me staycation kind of gal.
Author
Hi Vera! I used a Canon Sure shot with the lens zoomed out as far as it will go. 🙂 Delores’ book is a delight to read!
How wonderful to see your comments on Delores Topliff’s book. I love the cover copy. My most memorable Israel experience was outside Jericho. Facing the city all is green and beautiful. Turn around and all is barren and dry. The only difference was water—a well in the city.
Author
Susan, we didn’t go to Jericho…maybe next trip! But the lush greenery on one side and barren dry land on the other is fairly common. 😉
First line of A Seaside Wonder by Melissa Tagg -If not for the proprietor’s name on the little shop’s window, Philip might never have thought of it again.
I want to read Delores’s book! Yes, I hope to travel overseas in the next few months, but more because I want to hear her stories. She’s such a treasure. We’re hoping to go to Great Britain – have to see how the money holds out! lol!
Author
Oh, Regina! Save room in your bag to stuff me in. 😉 I want to go to Great Britain, too! You will really enjoy Delores’ book!
Thank you, Pat. SO GLAD you came on that trip. Hoping that happens again some day. And great photos!
Author
I’m hoping so, too, Delores!
Excellent moon photo, Pat! I love your choice for the verse to go with it.
Delores, congratulations on your book! It intrigues me.
I used to love to travel. These days air travel has zero appeal to me. In the 80s, I had a two year job assignment in Zurich, Switzerland. My wife and I traveled every chance we got, and that was a lot!
“Cry in the Night” by Colleen Coble starts with “The baby in the carrier slept peacefully, tiny fists thrust against her chubby cheeks blissfully unaware of her danger.” This is book 4 of the Rock Harbor series. I’m really enjoying meeting all the good (and some not so good) people of Rock Harbor, MI. It’s a fictional town in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Author
Zurich! Oh, wow, Tim. I don’t blame you and your wife for getting out and seeing the country! And air travel is the pits now…one reason I’m staying home this year. 😉
Tim, the Lavender Tides series by Colleen is another great series that mentions Rock Harbor a lot. Great suspense!
Ms. Dottie, the Lavender Tides series books are my next ones from Colleen I plan to read, and the Pelican Harbor series after that. I started with the Annie Pederson series, so now I’m catching up. I’m a big fan of Colleen Coble.
She’s another good one for sure! I just finished the Annie Pederson series, it was good, and I’ll put the Pelican Harbor ones on my list. Thanks!
Love your clear moon shot, Pat! It was good to have a clear night to get that.
I know I would enjoy Delores’s book. The cover is fabulous and the blurb sounds like a fun and informative read.
My first overseas trip was to Israel and Greece in 1973. Definitely caught the travel bug. Later, I took trips to Russia several times, China, Hungary, Finland, Moldova, England, Germany and lived in Africa for several months. Now, I’m like Tim, no desire for air travel, but I still love reading travel books!
“He’s dead.”
“But . . . I didn’t come to kill him.” This is the the beginning of Reaper’s Song by Lauraine Snelling. This was a six book series about immigrants coming to America from Norway in the 1880’s and settling in the Dakota’s. Fantastic series!
Author
Oh, wow, Barbara, you are certainly well-traveled! I think you’ll really enjoy Delores’ book. And Lauraine Snelling’s books sounds really good!
Great moon shot, Pat. It was cloudy here, but we did get a look as it peeped in and out. My photo effort was not good. Congratulations on your book, Delores!
Charlotte Simpson had never stalked a man before.
Wildflower Falls by Denise Hunter
Author
Thank you, Gloria! I was so glad it wasn’t cloudy here. And Denise Hunter’s book sounds great.
Great moon shot. I like to travel, but just in the United States.
Author
Thanks, Judy. We certainly have a lot of beautiful and interesting places to see in the US!
Great photo and verse! I look forward to seeing your posts on Tuesdays and Fridays! 🙂
My husband loves to travel, and I thought I did until we had children, and then I discovered I’m very much a homebody.
Book 4 in the Come What May Collection is by Chautona Havig, and starts with “He’d dodged bullets – literal ones – for years and without flinching. Much.”
Author
Thanks, L. I’m so glad you look forward to my posts!! I love to travel, would now except for a few things that keep me home right now…like a deadline. lol Chautona Havig’s book sounds really good!
sounds interesting
Author
It is, BN!
Awesome photo of the moon and very fitting verse! The photo of the Dead Sea is beautiful!
I have always wanted to travel and see all there is to see – more of God’s creation than man-made marvels, however I do admit the Statue of Liberty and the DC monuments are awesome. I was blessed to travel to England but that is the extent of overseas travel. Now I travel vicariously mainly through my daughter who loves to travel.
I just finished reading Undertow by Lisa Phillips – good read.
Author
Hi Miss Mary! Traveling has gotten to be such a hassle that I’m not as keen as I once was. I would love to go to England and Ireland…I’m so glad you enjoyed my photos! I would endure the hassle of flying, etc, to return to Israel if everything else fell into place!
Great shot of the Super Blue Moon. I tried to take a picture with my camera last night, but it just doesn’t do it justice. I may have to give in and spend the money on a zoom lens. The scripture goes very well with the picture.
Delores’s book sounds appealing, and like a book I would definitely want to read if I was planning a trip to a foreign country. At this stage in life, I doubt I would have a clue what questions to ask before such a trip. I won’t go so far as to say I never want to fly again, but I am less inclined now than I was throughout my years of working. Back then, I was always looking for another opportunity to fly off somewhere.
I finally got around to Lynette Eason’s Countdown. I have enjoyed all of her books. I always look forward to the next one. I was on her launch team for three or four of her earlier series, but dropped out due to changes in the way it works now. Since the first line was shared a few weeks ago, I will share the first line of the second paragraph:
Penny Satterfield piloted the aircraft with an expert touch, aiming them toward the two stranded hikers on the side of Bull Mountain.
Author
Thanks, Edward. This camera came equipped with the zoom lens. The camera I had before this one was not digital but I had invested quite a bit in lens, etc…then the iPhone came along and I stopped using it. Now, when I want a really good photo I use the Canon. 🙂
I really like Lynette’s books. And she’s such a nice person. She’ll be at our MidSouth Christian Writers Conference next March.
I love to travel but my bank account says no! lol
Author
I totally get it, Shelia! I haven’t traveled in a year, and cost is one reason. 🙂
I’ve heard good things about this book.
Author
Delores writes a delightful book that’s full of tips for traveling, Megan!
Fabulous moon shot!
Author
Thanks, Caryl!