Full Circle: Tales of Travel and Self-Discovery from Around the World

by Julie Tulba

"She had traveled around the world to find a home, and it took a full circling of the globe to realize that she always had one." Traveling from the quintessential Parisian cafe to a tango club in Buenos Aires where tourists are typically persona non grata, through the maddening situation of feeling “lost in everything” on the streets of Seoul, the stories in this collection all touch on one trait that many of us share when we travel — self-discovery. No matter the country, culture, or language, self-discovery is what all of the characters in these stories experience, but more importantly, they develop realizations about themselves they never would have were it not for travel.

98 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2014

About the author

It was series like Dear America, Little House on the Prairie, and American Girl books that instilled in Julie at a young age her lifelong love and fascination with history. And a childhood spent growing up in Philadelphia, colonial America's foremost metropolis, further cemented this love affair.

An ardent bibliophile (she can remember as a teenager carrying around a copy of young adult historical fiction author Ann Rinaldi's gripping Civil War tale, The Last Silk Dress, and reading it between rides at Disney World because she didn't want to wait until she got back to her hotel room to finish it) it came as a surprise to no one when she became a librarian. Julie currently works as an academic librarian in the Pittsburgh area.

Besides history, travel is Julie's other great love in life, especially when there's a food tour (or two) involved; she's taken more than 20 in 13 countries around the world. Nothing brings the past more alive than being, in the words of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, right in "The Room Where it Happened."

Julie published her first book, The Tears of Yesteryear, in 2019, followed by The Dead Are Resting in 2021, and Red Clay Ashes in 2022. Her newest book- Last Call, Cairo- comes out this fall. She lives in the Pittsburgh area, passport always at the ready for her next international adventure, but also brainstorming ideas for her next novel.

Reviews

[Carol Tulba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eleven short stories from a first-time writer, some based on her travels around the world, some entirely fictional. Eloquent, sweet, funny, and wry. Makes you so want to visit the places she describes, and to savor those that you have. Characters that most of us can identify with.

[kaylasbookishlife · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It was a change to read a bunch of short stories but I think Julie Tulba is an amazing writer.