Hilarious Book – Do Not Wash Hands in Plates – Marsha Ingrao

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Here’s another book review for #ComedyBookWeek. Thank you to Barb Taub for the free copy I downloaded of this book ‘Do Not Wash Hands In Plates’ by Barb Taub. This is a great and very funny travel memoir, here is my review:

Once upon a time, years ago, three best friends Barb, Janine, and Jaya decided to leave the US from three separate locations and meet in Europe. Thirty-five years later they decided to recreate the feat by all meeting in India from three different locations around the world. After successfully meeting the three of them set off on an amazing Indian adventure filled with elephants, temples and lots and lots of food!

Do Not Wash Hands in Plates is a hilarious travel memoir. Right from the introduction I couldn’t help but laugh and I knew this book would keep me entertained. The book isn’t very long but packs a lot into its pages. Each chapter has a funny title which makes you want to read on. Unlike some travel memoirs that focus more on the places tourists visit, this book is firmly all about the experience the three friends have.

Journeying through India they visit many locations such as the Taj Mahal and there are some lovely pictures of these monuments but it’s not this I really enjoyed reading. What I like most about this book is actually the story of traveling between the different locations and the other things they got up to such as their trip to the marketplace, the interesting rules of queuing in India and the copious amount of food on offer that just has to be eaten!

The book has lots of great pictures with great captions next to them and you even find out where the title of the book comes from. There is nothing offensive in this book unless you consider an account of Delhi belly as offensive. Overall I really like this book, the writing style is so easy to read and Barb Taub has you laughing at every turn of the page. The only downside to this book is the short length, I would have gladly read through a travel memoir twice maybe even three times as long! Apart from having me laughing this book has taught me a little about India too and has actually made me want to visit and try parathas! A great read for anyone interested in a funny travel memoir.

Rating: 5/5

Review published on amazon UK, click here

Review published on Goodreads, click here

Author’s website: http://barbtaub.com/

Book Description:

Once upon the Land Before Time (or at least before mobile phones), my two best friends and I decided to leave the US from separate locations and meet up in Europe. To everyone’s shock, Janine, Jaya and I pulled it off—mostly because we went to Luxembourg, a country so small the odds in favor of chance street encounters were almost 100%, but also because Jaya was carrying the BS, a blue suitcase so enormous it took up approximately a third of the country’s square footage and was visible on satellite images. We couldn’t possibly miss.

It took over thirty-five years before—in a combination of optimism and failing memories— we recklessly decided to repeat this feat. Hey, we reasoned, now we’ve got smartphones, better credit ratings, wheeled suitcases, medical insurance, and the ability to drink legally. Just to make it more interesting, this time we chose to meet in India, where the odds against the three of us actually linking up were approximately a bazillion to bupkis.

This is the story of three women eating our way across India in search of adventure, elephants, temples, palaces, western toilets, monkeys, the perfect paratha…and the kindness of Indian strangers.

My next #ComedyBookWeek review will be on the 22nd July, until then why not check out the #ComedyBookWeek Website to see what else is happening!

Author Bio from Amazon

In a former life before children in need of luxuries like food and college, Barb Taub wrote a humor column for several Midwest newspapers. When Child #4 joined her research staff, she veered toward the dark side and a career in human resources. Now an expat living in one corner of a castle with her prince-of-a-guy and the world’s most spoiled AussieDog, she enjoys travel, translating from British to American, and collaborating with her daughter Hannah on the Null City series.

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