Audiobook Review – At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider, Narrated by Tsh Oxenreider (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: All Ages
Genre: Memoire /Travel
Length: 7 hours and 17 minutes
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: April 18, 2017
ASIN: B06XX1CN7N
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Americans Tsh and Kyle met and married in Kosovo. They lived as expats for most of a decade. They’ve been back in the States—now with three kids under ten—for four years, and while home is nice, they are filled with wanderlust and long to answer the call.
Why not? The kids are all old enough to carry their own backpacks but still young enough to be uprooted, so a trip—a nine-months-long trip—is planned.
At Home in the World follows their journey from China to New Zealand, Ethiopia to England, and more. They traverse bumpy roads, stand in awe before a waterfall that feels like the edge of the earth, and chase each other through three-foot-wide passageways in Venice. And all the while Tsh grapples with the concept of home, as she learns what it means to be lost—yet at home—in the world.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from my library.
Thoughts: This was okay. It was interesting to watch a family travel around the world. However, I was hoping for more interesting adventures on their travels. This book spends quite a bit of time reflecting on religion, mental health, and how the best times were the times they spent were during their rests. These were times where they stayed in a single place doing regular everyday things as a family. It spends less time explaining the challenges of travel and the intriguing things they did.
I was hoping for more of a strategic and action based story about how they traveled the world and what they spent their time seeing. A lot of this story seems to be more about the author’s own personal struggles to find a place where she feels like she belongs. The answer in the end should surprise nobody, you feel most at home where your friends and family are. After seeing the whole world they settle down in the place you would expect them to settle down in. I did learn that two things seem to be consistent throughout the world: pizza and friend potatoes of some sort. I also did appreciate that the author didn’t shrug away from the cost of travel and addressed how they were able to do much of their trip fairly cheaply.
The author initially sets this up as a book to support why you should travel with your family even if you have young kids. I have traveled a lot both for work and with my family. I whole-heartedly agree with this, you should have your kids on planes and traveling early. It teaches them a lot about needs and wants, about other people, and helps them to be accountable for themselves. When you travel you get into tough situations and traveling when you are young helps you realize you can be resilient in these situations. However, I was disappointed that by the end of the book the message was more focused on the fact that the most important things in life are things you can’t travel to get. It just felt like an inconsistent story and messaging.
The author narrates this herself and you can definitely tell. The narration was stiff sounding without a lot of inflection. I would recommend skipping the audiobook and reading (not listening to) this if it sounds intriguing to you.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay. I was hoping that this would dive into the logistics of traveling and the wonders this family saw. However, much of the book is spent on the author’s religious/spiritual journey and on her need to find a place to belong. I also found that the message she gives at the end of the book somewhat negates her initial message which was an inconsistency that bothered me. I think this might be for people who are less analytical than I am and more interested in hearing about a woman’s internal spiritual journey coupled with traveling the world with her family.
