Download PDF Vodka and Apple Juice Travels of an Undiplomatic Wife in Poland Jay Martin 9781925591316 Books

Product details Paperback 224 pages Publisher Fremantle Press; None edition (September 1, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 192559131X

Vodka and Apple Juice Travels of an Undiplomatic Wife in Poland Jay Martin 9781925591316 Books Reviews

• Jay Martin is an engaging author whose words capture you from the very first page. She recounts her experiences in Poland so well and this makes Vodka and Apple Juice a great read! I highly recommend it.
• A copy of this book was given to me via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
  Vodka and Apple Juice is the fun, fascinating memoir by Jay Martin, who lived in Poland for three years on a diplomatic posting from her native Australia. Now, I’ve never been particularly interested in Poland, per se, but having been an expat for a (very small) amount of time, I do have a thirst for expat memoirs, and this one really hit the spot.
  
  Martin’s voice is friendly and easy, and the book itself, though Martin does explore some of the downsides of living away from one’s home country and having a high-pressure job – or a spouse with a high-pressure job – overall the book is very enthusiastic about Poland and the expat experience. Martin’s enjoyment in exploring her new country is palpable, making for a rollicking adventure of a read. I loved the small bits about finding familiar objects, working out how to function on a day-to-day basis and so on. The author’s exploration of the history of the area piqued my curiosity as well, but mostly, I became very nostalgic for that sense of adventure that one feels when navigating a foreign country, culture, and language.
  
  While Poland was never really on my radar, Vodka and Apple Juice truly brings the country to life. I would definitely recommend this book to any reader interested in travel stories or travel memoirs – or diplomatic memoirs, specifically.
• I enjoyed this book quite a lot! In fact, it was the best travel books I've read in a long time. When I read a travel book, I want something intelligent, interesting, a little adventurous, thoughtful but not too critical or controversial. This book hit the mark.
  
  The book gave a realistic tour around the former Eastern Bloc country of Poland, along with side trips to Prague, London, and Kaliningrad. The author painted nice pictures of the charm of Poland, but she also offered a fair portrait of the Polish people and their culture. She detailed her challenges of settling into a totally new city and culture without sounding whiny. She overcame her challenges over the course of the book and ended up speaking Polish like a native. I admire that.
  
  Underlying her descriptions of her travels through Poland were the tensions and struggles of being both a diplomat's spouse and a non-working spouse. These elements of the book provided tension without drowning the book in too much drama and were well handled. I appreciated that the author finally realized that overall, she led quite a nice life during her time in Poland.
  
  Highly recommended! I've read a lot of travel books set in Eastern Europe, and this was one of the best.
• This is an memoir by the wife of an Australian diplomat living as an expat in Warsaw, Poland. Determined to make the best of her three years abroad, Jay Martin tries to learn Polish (and becomes surprisingly fluent), and tries to make the most of her stay in this very foreign country. She makes friends with some unlikely other expat wives and learns how to make a very satisfying life for herself and her husband. When her marriage seems to be falling apart, she manages to bring it back from the brink of disaster, and both she and her husband return to Australia knowing themselves and each other better than when they left, having, overall, had a grand adventure.
  
  Ms. Martin is a gifted writer and made her experiences both relatable and real. This was a wonderful read.
  
  I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.
• This book delighted me! The cover attracted me with its promise of “vodka and apple juice” and its hook of the saucy tagline, “Travels of an undiplomatic wife in Poland”.
  
  Readers, have you ever wanted to leave your regular life and move to another country for a few years and try a different way of living? That doesn’t appeal to me, but I do enjoy reading about folks like the author and her husband who gave away their dog, packed their possessions and shipped them to another land. One day they were in Canberra Australia, and the next they were sipping coffee in a sunlit square in Warsaw, Poland.
  
  Not only did they change locations, but the author’s husband changed careers and entered the Australian diplomatic service. This book is part travel, part marriage and relationships, and part self-help and personal success. I found each aspect to be fascinating as the author shared her experiences and thoughts in a well-crafted way.
  
  Jay Martin certainly gave the three-year Polish experience her all. She learned the language, and traveled throughout Poland. She did her best to be a good diplomatic wife. Some of her experiences are funny and some, especially those dealing with the history of Poland and the Holocaust are sad. One of my favorite scenes was when the author visited a church and realized she was seeing paintings from the fifteenth century that could still speak to a woman from the twenty-first century.
  
  The title seems to come from the author’s first time trying Polish vodka. She didn’t like it until her host added some apple juice. That seemed to sum up her feelings about this time in her life- she always tried to add something “sweet” to the challenges she encountered.
  
  She concluded the book, “Now I could see that living an interesting life has nothing to do with where you are, what you’re doing, or the people you meet. It comes from making a choice, every day, to be interested in where you are, what you’re doing, and the people you meet.”
  
  Highly recommend!