Gilman's standout travel memoir follows the author and her friend Claire as they embark on a backpacking trip through China after graduating from Brown University in the mid-1980s. Gilman's descriptions of their trials and tribulations crackle with wit as the girls, armed with an astrology guide and Instamatic cameras, trek through East Asia. At first, their challenges are limited to cockroach-ridden hostels, public toilets, and language barriers. Then they are aided by several fellow travelers they meet on a boat to Shanghai, as they attempt to navigate Chinas communist bureaucracy. Soon, however, friction erupts between Gilman and Claire, who is convinced they are being watched. Together, the two travel to places never before visited by Westerners, making for a trip neither will ever forget, and now, neither will Gilman's readers.--Katherine Boyle