This story, about three generations of women with a passion for reading, writing, and travel, begins in 1992 in an unfinished attic in Brooklyn, as a young writer reads journals written by her grandmother as a schoolgirl nearly 100 years earlier. This sets her on a 30-year quest to uncover the unfulfilled dreams of her mother and grandmother. In the process she comes to terms with the complicated relationships she had with both of them--and realizes that the passion for writing that has fueled her life's journey is a gift that was passed down to her by the very role models she was determined to escape. "Janet Hulstrand's charming memoir will cheer every reader who has dreamed of changing her life, living in Europe, becoming a writer, or just plain having a more lively time than a Midwestern girl usually expects." Diane Johnson, best-selling author of Le Divorce "Janet Hulstrand is an adventurer with a passion for travel, and a writer with a gift to teach. Her honest memoir of moving to a village in France will inspire others to think of change as life-enhancing, and courage as a habit we can learn." Elaine Showalter, Professor Emerita, Princeton University "Hulstrand skillfully weaves the threads of her own life with those of her mother's and grandmother's... the story of three strong women and the personal challenges they faced…storytelling at its best." Harriet Welty Rochefort, author of French Toast and Joie de Vivre "A lovely, lyrical memoir...Janet Hulstrand is an engaging storyteller, and her memoir is a testament to the writing life, and to all the hardship and reward that it entails." Susan Coll, author of Bookish People "...a fascinating journey, backward in time as the author seeks to uncover the hidden lives of her mother and grandmother, then forward as she forges her own adventurous path out of the Midwest and into a village in the French countryside...a fun and heartwarming read." Adrian Leeds, from HGTV's House Hunters International