Best Women's Travel Writing of 2010

Went to a book reading at the Harvard Bookstore last night.  Didn't really want to because I had gotten another one of the d*** headaches that have been plaguing me recently (part of the reason I posted Monday night, even though I didn't really have anything to say - not that I normally do! - was to try and distract myself from the nausea-inducing pain), around lunch time, and at 5:00 going home seemed a lot more appealing than killing two hours before the reading started at 7.  But one of the speakers was a classmate (one I actually liked/respected) so I wanted to go & support - and I am wicked glad I did.  C., if you are still reading this, you would have enjoyed it. 
The classmate has a piece in the recently released Best Women's Travel Writing of 2010, and was reading from it along with another local author, and a local author who was reading someone else's piece (I wish they had explained that better; I was left wondering if she is friends with the author, and the author couldn't make it, or they just wanted three readers ands she was local?  In any case, I guess she was in a previous edition of the anthology, but she stumbled horribly over the Italian phrases peppered throughout the story).  I had initially been torn over whether it was bad ton to go to a reading but not buy the book, since I wanted to support my classmate, but I wasn't sure I wanted to drop $19 (the Harvard Bookstore price) on a book of essays I had never read.  T., E., and R. all said it was perfectly acceptable not to buy the book, but now I kind of wish I had, because I enjoyed all three essays - but my classmate's most of all!
Again, C., you would have appreciated her's: it sounded just like her, funny, observant.  "Classmate" wrote about her trip to Israel as a young woman with a group of New Age-rs (is that a phrase?), and the audience laughed throughout.  As we saw in the essays workshopped in class, she has a nice way of observing other people keenly but also kindly, poking fun at their little foibles and tics, but in an affectionate way.  And I think it helps maintain the tone of the work that she pokes just as much, if not more, fun at herself. 
One thing that was interesting about the piece, and in fact all of them, was that the were mostly about the characters, and really weren't all that place-specific, given that these were stories from a travel-writing anthology.  There was some concern with the whole experiencing-another-place, feeling-out-of-place thing, I guess, but it wasn't the focus, or at least it didn't seem to be (but it does seem like some of the readers didn't read the entire pieces, and jumped around, so I don't know.  Someone actually commented during the question section, that the essays weren't really "about" the settings, which could have led to some interesting discussion, except then she (question-asker) turned it into asking if the authors felt like they were voyeurs, commenting on other cultures/people.  Which in at least one case ("classmates") they were not (not Israelis, in that case, any ways), and not really in the others.  The non-author reader correctly pointed out that to some extent any writer worth his or her salt (I'm wildly paraphrasing and elaborating here) has to be a voyeur, but I still think the opportunity was lost to comment that the strengths of the pieces were that they were not just travel guides.  That said, maybe question-asker was expecting more "here are the glories of Jerusalem and Rome" and was disappointed.
AND, speaking of disappointed, fun audience-drama: a girl came in late and sat in the only seat left open, next to me, towards the back.  She was taking notes on her laptop while people read.  After the second reader, the middle-aged woman in front of her turned around and was like "it's really rude to do that [type] while people are trying to listen."  Now.  the girl was not being loud at all.  She actually had a very quiet keypad.  And the speakers had microphones in a small room.  The other bookstore employees going about their jobs were much, much louder / more distracting (something I have noticed before, and would love to comment on).  Anyhow, the third speaker starts, and the girl continues taking notes - I don't even think she was typing constantly, but I don't know, because I was sitting right next to her and yet had no problem listening to the reader.  After it's over, the woman turns around in her seat - which is a folding chair set inches in front of the girl's - and goes "It is really RUDE of you to type like that.  UNBELIEVABLY rude, when people are trying to listen" and then gets up and storms out - and, mind you, everyone else is still sitting -quietly, politely - in their seats, because we've just barely finished clapping, and there are going to be questions.