The Road Taken: Men, Motorcycles, and Me (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781953596222)

The shortest way to find yourself is to take the long way home.

"The Road Taken" is a coming-of-age memoir in which a woman discovers her independence on the wheels of a motorcycle traveling the world and competing in the Peking to Paris Car Rally. She also draws upon her training as an artist to create an Australian homestead for herself in Sonoma, California.

"Linda Dodwell is just one of several women I know who used motorbikes to escape from thankless domesticity. This breathtaking excursion through an eventful life is a vivid description of what to expect when the lust for self-determination takes over. Inadequate men eventually fall by the wayside. If there's a moral to this tale, it's for men. Best to marry a biker chick - then you'll know what you're in for." - Ted Simon, Jupiter's Travels, Dreaming of Jupiter and The Gypsy in Me, travel writer and filmmaker

"Linda's architecture reflects her experience of Australia. It incorporates her love of the wide sparse desert and freedom found in traveling across this unique environment. Linda, the Artist and Patron, has brilliantly melded the iconography of Australia with her unique and personal collaboration of Architects, Designers, Artists and Craftsmen. This book is inspiration and essential reading for the 'Me-Too' generation." - Michael Rigg, M.Contemp Art, Architect B.Arch. [hons]

"I was gripped by The Road Taken from the first page to the last. Linda's memoir is riveting and self-revealing in its honesty. I have traveled the world by sailboat and saw some parallels between her extraordinary and daring adventures and mine." - Helen Lowrey, sailor in a custom-built boat

"The Road Taken is a pleasure to read and entices the reader to rush forward to the next chapter. Linda's self-confidence, sense of adventure and can-do attitude are dominant in her evolution as someone who does not take "no!" for an answer." - Burt Richmond, Founder and Tourmeister, Lotus Tours

"There wasn't anything I didn't like about this book. Linda's writing style was casual and easy to follow. It was like listening to a friend talking about her life. Because of the casual writing style, Linda's adventurous and robust personality, and the professional editing, I am thrilled to rate this book 4 out of 4 stars." - Onlinebookclub.org

"The Road Taken reads like a novel, and I found Dodwell's adventures keeping me up to read another page or chapter. Dodwell is a strong and intelligent woman, and reading her life story is at first a fascinating lesson about American history." - Women Riders Now

Dodwell's prose effectively captures her enthusiasm for new experiences, as when she recounts embarking on her trip across Australia: "At the top of the ridge, I took a left and was suddenly smacked in the face with the enormity of my crazy adventure. At that 1500-foot elevation I got my first glimpse of what lay before me-the biggest expanse of desert I had ever encountered." In this remembrance, Dodwell recounts stories of her adventures around the world, including participation in the famous Peking to Paris Car Rally, a 43-day, 14,000-kilometer overland drive." - Kirkus Reviews

"Dodwell marvels at the serendipity that drove the course of her rich and wide-ranging life, from babyhood back East, early marriage, sudden wealth, divorce, loving motherhood, and then exploits and capers in her cherished Australia, where she fell in love by motorcycle." - Kenwood Press

Author: Linda Dodwell
ISBN-10: 1953596223
ISBN-13: 9781953596222
Publisher: Publishing Portal
Language: English
Published: 12/30/2021
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.74lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.51d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001
Publishers Weekly 08/22/2022