What do you think?
Rate this book
Wishbone: An American Odyssey in Asia
In the spirit of Eat, Pray, Love, Carol Wright Folbre’s story is of a young suburban Texas woman’s path to self-discovery in the early 1980s. Newly married, she embarked with her husband on a journey that morphed into an eighteen-month reassessment and discovery of her core skills, values, and presumptions.
Folbre’s travels across India, Nepal, China, and Russia were replete with challenge and adventure. Travel by foot, plane, passenger and industrial rail, bus rooftop, riverboat, bicycle, camelback, and donkey cart landed her in places she had never imagined and introduced her to centuries- and millennia-old cultures she had only read about in books. Staying in yurts, hostels, monasteries, and teahouses along the way, she met many people who captivated her.
What started as a headstrong journey driven by a Western tourist’s curiosity became a progression of discovery as Folbre learned the value of getting lost and embracing surprises, listening deeply, and finding strength in the unknown. Throughout her travels, she journaled and illustrated her encounters. What emerged was a framework for her to rethink her worldview and adopt a journey-over-destination and process-over-outcome perspective, recognizing a way of living that holds as many questions as answers and can be genuinely beautiful.
Folbre’s travels across India, Nepal, China, and Russia were replete with challenge and adventure. Travel by foot, plane, passenger and industrial rail, bus rooftop, riverboat, bicycle, camelback, and donkey cart landed her in places she had never imagined and introduced her to centuries- and millennia-old cultures she had only read about in books. Staying in yurts, hostels, monasteries, and teahouses along the way, she met many people who captivated her.
What started as a headstrong journey driven by a Western tourist’s curiosity became a progression of discovery as Folbre learned the value of getting lost and embracing surprises, listening deeply, and finding strength in the unknown. Throughout her travels, she journaled and illustrated her encounters. What emerged was a framework for her to rethink her worldview and adopt a journey-over-destination and process-over-outcome perspective, recognizing a way of living that holds as many questions as answers and can be genuinely beautiful.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published January 21, 2025
11 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 13, 2025
Carol Folbre’s Wishbone chronicles a remarkable and true story—an epic, purposeful, and contemplative journey beginning in Nepal, continuing through India and into China, from there to Russia, and ending in Berlin, Germany. In all, Carol and her husband Banks traveled for eighteen months from 1983 to 1984.
Wishbone is a careful selection of stories and experiences Carol relived as she drafted the book, relying on her memory and the copious notes, photos, and drawings she, her husband, and others made along the way—many of which are woven into this beautiful book, awakening her narrative further. Much of her writing is profoundly poetic, evidence of how deeply her soul was involved in the retelling. An example: “This trip still feeds me daily, like living water, as I touch again those who touched me."
I found myself captivated as I read, realizing I was being pulled into an idyllic and spiritual adventure so few will ever experience. One that made me feel differently about life, in a better and broader way. It catalyzed something within me, made me wish to do something similar in my own life, before Time ultimately prevents the possibility. Thank you, Carol.
Wishbone is a careful selection of stories and experiences Carol relived as she drafted the book, relying on her memory and the copious notes, photos, and drawings she, her husband, and others made along the way—many of which are woven into this beautiful book, awakening her narrative further. Much of her writing is profoundly poetic, evidence of how deeply her soul was involved in the retelling. An example: “This trip still feeds me daily, like living water, as I touch again those who touched me."
I found myself captivated as I read, realizing I was being pulled into an idyllic and spiritual adventure so few will ever experience. One that made me feel differently about life, in a better and broader way. It catalyzed something within me, made me wish to do something similar in my own life, before Time ultimately prevents the possibility. Thank you, Carol.
May 3, 2025
What an adventure! And beautifully told. A journey never to be duplicated.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews