Last Updated on March 30, 2024 by Jamie Marshall
This week we have reviewed the 3 Best Expat Books for Women. Despite all the digital media available to us in the modern age, many still find it easier and more comforting to read a good old fashioned book. Many book lovers believe that there is something tangible and real about getting your information from a book that the internet and other digital sources cannot provide.
Below, we review three top-notch books that provide invaluable, compassionate and practical advice about moving and living abroad, written by authors who have experienced the stresses of a move themselves. Unlike many other books offering advice, which can be dispassionate, these books have a ring of authenticity as the authors have faced the multiple stresses of moving to a new country, adjusting to a new culture, changing schools, friends and homes and leaving your family and loved ones behind. If you are contemplating the adventure of a new move accompanied by a total change in lifestyle, these books, specifically geared towards women, will help enhance the adventure while increasing the ability to adjust and settle into new surroundings.
Let’s take a look at the three best expat books for women contemplating overseas living.
1) The Expert Expat: Your Guide to Successful Relocation Abroad
Written by authors Melissa Brayer Hess and Patricia Linderman, both experienced expats themselves, this book is specifically geared towards moving overseas with family and pets and is particularly helpful in dealing with the psychological and emotional impact that such drastic change might have on children. This comprehensive guidebook provides advice and useful tips on every imaginable topic including pre-move preparation, arrival to a new country, learning a foreign language, adjusting to a new culture, moving kids and pets and security and safety. This is the second expanded edition of the first book and deals much more comprehensively with family issues and how to deal with them.
Every chapter is accompanied by a short sidebar with personal anecdotes of those who have lived and moved abroad. Some of these are quite hilarious, providing specific details and making reading all the more interesting, bringing forth the good, the bad, the ugly and the funny side of overseas living. There is a whole section on moving with pets and another on moving with family. There is also plenty of useful pre-planning advice for before the move.
Individuals making the move without a family may not find this book as useful. This guide also assumes that your move is planned by an organization or government that is moving you and that you will have a network to tap into in your new place of domicile. It does not deal with a specific country and therefore does not have much information on permanent residency requirements such as establishing permanent residency, immigration laws, citizenship or work and study permits. For a single person, moving without the help of an organization or a without any family, it would be best to supplement this book with a more country-specific book to get the most comprehensive information.
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2) Expat Women: Confessions – 50 Answers to Your Real-Life Questions about Living Abroad
This guide is an excellent reference put together by expats Victoria Hepworth and Andrea Martins. Victoria is a New Zealander who has lived in Japan, China, India, Russia and Sweden and now resides in the UAE. Andrea Martins is an Australian who has lived in Indonesia, Mexico and now Malaysia.
This reference guide is organized as a series of questions and answers that originated from the Expat Women website. The book is characterized by a plethora of personal experiences, making it more like a chat between good friends rather than a book that preaches about life changes. It goes beyond the breadth of overseas relocation and tackles specific issues that you may or may not relate to when living abroad. Very down-to-earth in its writing style as well as the advice it offers, Expat Women: Confessions is centered around the major themes of settling in, reviving your career and finances, raising children in a new country, relationships, emotions and repatriation. The authors discuss fifty tricky situations expats might find themselves in; each of these is handled with tact and common sense. They don’t just focus on the rosy aspects of life abroad but also talk about real life issues which are often taboo in many expat communities such as alcoholism, domestic abuse, infidelity, divorce and depression. Many of these might be embarrassing to those who have experienced them, but this book addresses these concerns with empathy and plenty of helpful advice to reassure women that they are not alone and many others have faced and overcome the stresses that a move can place on relationships.
An invaluable resource for women who feel alone or are having a hard time settling in, Confessions also provides plenty of great resources such as books and websites for further reading.
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3) Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World
Written by author Rita Golden Gelman, this book is an entirely different read from the other two books reviewed above. Not dealing with the specific practicalities of relocating, Tales of a Female Nomad is more the story of Rita who, at the age of 48 and on the verge of a divorce, decides to give up her worldly possessions and pursue her dream of connecting with different people. She travels to exotic places, living in all conditions from a Zapotec village in Mexico to a palace in Indonesia. The success of this book can be attributed to the author’s passion for people, which really helps her to succeed in adapting to new environments and enjoying a mutually beneficial relationship with the people she meets on her life’s journey. This book is about a woman’s courage in pursuing her dream of a new way of life away from the material possessions and comforts she enjoyed as a housewife in Los Angeles.
Another aspect that made this book an intriguing read is that Rita travels to remote places far off the beaten track, where she sees abject poverty and malnutrition, political instability and spiritual myths and ceremonies. She talks about very personal feelings including her insecurities, fears and elation, all which draw the reader on with her on her journey.
Although this book is an inspiration to anyone daring to follow their dreams, some readers believe that Rita’s writing style lets her down. Rita’s experiences are iterated in short sentences, over explanation and repetition in some areas. There are several obvious gaps in her journey, which interrupt the flow of this book and she acknowledges these gaps at the end of her book. Even so, this book is an excellent read for anyone looking to travel to destinations that are completely different and unknown from those they are normally accustomed to.
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