The Catch Me If You Can: One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World by Jessica Nabongo (TLC Book Tour)

 

How many countries have you visited?

Unlike author Jessica Nabongo, I am a sad traveler that has only visited three countries, all in North America.  I hope to travel more in the future as the kids grow up.

The Catch Me If You Can is an intriguing memoir of Jessica Nabongo.  Nabongo was taking the corporate world by storm when she realized she wanted more out of life.  She moved to Japan to teach English and from then on, the trajectory of her life was changed.  She started a blog called The Catch Me If You Can that focused on her travels and her photography.  By 2017 she had a goal of visiting every country in the world and she did it.  She has visited 195 countries and 10 territories. 

I found this memoir to be fascinating.  I loved Nabongo’s beautiful pictures, but I also loved the narrative about her travels.  I like how she just went to countries and then organically found cool things to do.  I’ve always wanted to visit many of these countries and Nabongo made me feel like I could do it.  I loved her descriptions of the pyramids, “No matter how many pictures you’ve seen of the pyramids, nothing can prepare you for seeing them up close.”  I also like that she gave facts, history, and dimensions on them. For each country she had fascinating items to share about the country and its people.  I also enjoyed the bucket list at the end for the reader for cool things to visit in each country.

I was scared for Nabongo to visit North Korea, but she said she was never afraid of traveling there.   “What I found most fascinating about North Korea was just how normal it felt.”  I thought that was fascinating.  Overall, that is what Nabongo realized as she traveled around the world, that people are people.  They are “more similar than we are different,” and that “most people are good.”  I thought it was very inspirational and very positive.  I greatly enjoyed this book. 

Book Source:  A Review Copy from Hachette Book Group / National Geographic as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.