I was so pleased to receive a positive book review for Destination Dachshund from one of the most prestigious brands in publishing – Kirkus Reviews. Servicing the book industry since the 1930’s, Kirkus Reviews ‘stands for integrity, honesty and accessible reviews written with an insider’s eye’ and the Kirkus Indie program gives self-publishers like me the chance to earn honest critical review.

“A likable author makes for a likable, dog-centric travel book.” – Kirkus Review

“Fleetwood’s resulting chronicle of a multigenerational family trip—88 days, 15 countries, and 60 dachshund spottings—has an invitingly chatty tone that makes one feel like one is traveling with her.” – Kirkus Review

“…Fleetwood can be a sensitive observer and she has an admirable fascination with and respect for history.” – Kirkus Review

I am pretty happy with the review (read full review below). To have received a positive review from such a respected player in the book industry means a lot to me. If the only slightly negative thing they can say is that we walked past a memorial to fallen Jews and then spotted a dachshund is a jarring juxtaposition then I’m ok with that – that’s what happened and that is life. We were feeling sad at the memorial but then a dachshund scampered by – what are we to do except delight in that? Life is a series of juxtapositions like that.

Full Review:
In her debut memoir, Australia-based blogger Fleetwood shares the highs and lows of an extended family trip from Sydney to New York City. The transition from blog to book is trickier than many writers realize, but for the most part, Fleetwood has the knack. In 2010, right before Fleetwood and her family took off from Sydney, one of their dachshunds, Coco, died unexpectedly; the remaining dog, Charlie, she says, “won’t leave our side or our laps…his howls break our hearts.”

In honor of Coco, the family invents a trip-long game of dachshund sightings. Fleetwood’s resulting chronicle of a multigenerational family trip—86 days, 15 countries, and 60 dachshund spottings—has an invitingly chatty tone that makes one feel like one is traveling with her.

The family goes to Singapore; Istanbul; Moscow; Budapest, Hungary; Nuremberg, Germany; Paris; and Dublin (with numerous stops in between), before finally reaching New York in time for Christmas. There, they discover that “People are all going in different directions and are pushy, loud and rough.” But Fleetwood is otherwise delighted by almost everything else she encounters, be it a dinner cruise on Europe’s Danube River or a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France (Christmas markets are her admitted addiction).

She’s also as adept at noting what it’s like to travel with family as she is at describing cathedrals, castles, battlefields, and Roman ruins. In Turkey, for example, her 12-year-old son “barters for a fez hat that he will probably never wear again”; later, at a Paris café, she notes her recently widowed mother’s loneliness, achingly detectable under her otherwise cheerful demeanor.

Fleetwood can be a sensitive observer and she has an admirable fascination with and respect for history. But occasionally, there are jarring juxtapositions. In Krakow, Poland, for example, the family visits a monument to many thousands of Krakow Jews who died in World War II; barely a paragraph later, Fleetwood’s husband spots a miniature dachshund: “I follow his pointed finger, and sure enough ahead in the distance is a darling brown miniature dachshund. It’s so cute!”

Overall, though, the author ably conveys the fleeting pleasures of managing a trip that embraces both grandparents and grandchildren. By the time they get to Poland, for example, the kids complain they are “churched out,” and anyone who’s ever been part of a family outing will certainly relate.

A likable author makes for a likable, dog-centric travel book.