Reviews for The businessman's international travel guide

The average rating for The businessman's international travel guide based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-09-15 00:00:00 Veronica Gillespie This was a small step above the Family MAgazine type articles. This author has tons of examples of real family traditions from around the country. She identifies the three parts of a ritual: preparation (verbal cue, music, tapping fork on a glass), action, and integration/celebration. So in a simple birthday celebration the "begginnning" is turning out the lights. The "action" is when the candles are blown out and we sing. Final stage is celebration which involves eating cake and opening gifts. So using those three elements as a basic recipe, you can make any ritual you want. But make sure it has a purpose, and make it personal. Some rituals can solve problems, like getting kids to happily buckle seat-belts, or saying good-bye at school or whatever. Basically, rituals aren't that hard to pull off, and they can actually ease family stress instead of being one more thing to check off on your list. Traditions are a family's way of consciously choosing happy, meaningful memories.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-06-04 00:00:00 Johnny Alexander Three stars because I got some good ideas from this book, and I borrowed it from my library so it didn't cost me anything. I would have been very disappointed with it had I spent money on it. This book is mostly comprised of very brief examples of rituals used by real-life families, which makes it feel more like a very long blog post or magazine article than an actual book. Or, for that matter, a manuscript-version of someone's "Family Rituals" Pinterest board. The rituals tend to be extremely cheesy, even to a sap like me, but I did take away notes on a few that I plan to tailor for my own family, so I would say it was worth the very quick read. A note for those who don't teach English for a living and are therefore less tolerant of rampant abuse of the language: I read this as a kindle e-book and it was filled with errors--"manager" for manger, spelling errors, a lot of Ks in place of Hs, etc. Still completely understandable, but if this sort of thing hurts your eyes, perhaps try a hard copy. This one particular error made me giggle, though: "I bet lots of bat mitzvah boys would say the same thing."