Reviews

Running Away to Home: Our Family's Journey to Croatia in Search of Who We Are, Where We Came From, and What Really Matters by Jennifer Wilson

rightonmama's review against another edition

4.0

Lately I'm pretty much only reading memoirs of people who have quit their jobs and left it all behind to travel. But these people usually don't have kids, so it's not relate-able to me. Jennifer Wilson ran away to Europe with her husband and kids, so I could actually imagine myself in her shoes. And she's from Des Moines. I liked it.

asealey925's review against another edition

3.0

This one was just ok for me. I didn't dislike it, but it was lacking that connection necessary for my loving of a memoir. The author was obviously very passionate about why she took her family to Croatia, but I felt the writing was scattered and all over the place.

krisis86's review against another edition

3.0

I really liked some of this book, but ultimately I was completely bored by the genealogy aspect. Which is terrible, especially as a practicing Mormon. Genealogy is supposed to be my thing! I just couldn't figure out what her draw was to her family. She seemed bored by it all and so was I.

I can't imagine moving to a place where you speak 3 words of the language. And never learning Croatian. Or maybe she did learn Croatian, but she never mentioned it. She never mentioned if her kids picked the language up either. I also would have liked more information about the kids in the beginning (I had no idea how old Zadie was until page 30.)

I would have liked to read about their winter in Rovinj so I was disappointed that it ended when the family left Mrkopalj.

I'm glad I read it, and it's very inspiring and I want to travel the world and go live somewhere awesome now. But not Croatia. I'm thinking Sweden.

beckylej's review against another edition

4.0

Travel writer Jennifer Wilson packs up the family and relocates to Croatia in search of her ancestral roots. What they experience there is a simpler way of life that allows them to reconnect and to reexamine their own lives.

I found Wilson's story to be heartfelt and fascinating. As she and her family settle into Mrkopalj, she chronicles their experiences, their new friendships, and even the history of the small Croatian town.

mara_miriam's review against another edition

2.0

As is the case with many books, particularly memoirs, I liked what the author was trying to do much more than I liked the actual book. I believe that every story deserves to be told, but whether every story should be published is a different story. I'm a jaded reader regarding memoir; I'm tired of the navel-gazing and the gimmicky nature of them. I appreciated the people profiled, but I think I would have preferred to read a history of Croatia or a 2nd-person narrative.

stephanieshepherd's review against another edition

4.0

Reviewed here:

http://herdofsteph.blogspot.com/2012/02/running-away-to-home-reading-to-know.html

bookwormmichelle's review

5.0

This book was MARVELOUS. (Caveat: there was a little bit of language and a lot of drinking.) This delightful memoir tells the story of a Des Moines family who decided to spend a year going back to family roots and simplifying their lives--so they moved to the mother's great-grandmother's tiny mountainous ancestral village in Croatia. Well. That's quite a change. There, the family spent time together in a slower-paced lifestyle, tried to adjust to a dramatically different culture, tried to learn Croatian, tried to discover more about family roots. Beautifully told. This actually sounds like fun--although I have to confess, most of my family is from not-quite-so-primitive-and-archaic Bavaria. :-) (Bavaria would probably cost more, and NO ONE would remember my ancestors who left in the 1700's. Still. :-)