News
Read to Roam Book for May: "Ilium" by Lea Carpenter
On the day that we meet our narrator in London–young, restless, insecure and unnamed –she is urging herself to be less boring, to take more risks.
She has no idea that the spies who will soon recruit her want her precisely because she is inexperienced, naive, untested.
As she falls in love and is swept into a long-planned and last chance operation against a high value target hiding in the south of France, she begins to inhabit the role they've created for her, which includes drawing close to an enemy who is responsible for the death of intelligence agents in Europe.
Sophisticated and wealthy, Edouard is a Russian oligarch with a love of art and a beguiling young son who draws close to our young spy as she is catapulted into the center of the operation.
Lea Carpenter told me that the inspiration of the novel was drawn, in part, from the kidnapping and death of a CIA Station Chief in Beirut in the 70's and the successful mission, 23 years later, to assassinate the person responsible for the kidnapping.
Catch my interview with Lea Carpenter on Big Books, Bold Ideas May 24.
Women to Women: Friendship & Adventure in Cuba, March 2026
Check out the main page of SirenSojourns and you'll find a mission statement that is a bit daring, definitely aspirational, even a bit "hoity-toity" as my mother teased me recently.
"We are seekers," it declares. "We believe in the power of stories and the spirit of adventure. We cherish audacious curiosity and intrepid persistence. We Go. See. Taste. Read. Experience."
But I realized that there was something missing in my manifesto and our recent adventure to Cuba brought that home to me quite vividly. For me, transformational travel happens most intensely when it is done in community. And what a community in Cuba!
As Leslee Jaeger wrote on her blog last month after the trip: "The friendships in our group (16 women) had stood the test of time...And we reflected on the power of female friendships that had supported us..."
As we explored the green heart and natural beauty of Cuba, at each place, we opened our spirits to the stories and experiences of the women we met.
A young guide who led us on a nature walk and confided that her parents lived far away, which meant that she was struggling to raise a son on her own and had given up plans to further her education. Her eyes teared up when we slipped a generous tip into her pocket.
The accomplished artist we met whose husband had become abusive and who was selling her paintings so that she could escape, with her son, to Puerto Rico.
The beautiful and gifted singers who welcomed us to Cienfuegos with choral music that, as one traveler wrote, "blew me away" and another named as the highlight of the trip. They belong on Broadway!
And our incomparable guide, Yoley, who brought wit and candor, humor, imagination and creativity to her work. She is extraordinary.
Cuba's economy is in desperate shape. Tourism and generous tipping makes a personal and immediate difference.
So, I'm inviting you to tell your girlfriends, your sisters, your daughters and your mothers about my "Women to Women: Friendship & Adventure" trip to Cuba in March of 2026.
The itinerary is coming soon. Even if you've been to Cuba, you haven't seen Cuba like this! Please email me about it at SirenSojourns@gmail.com.
Minnesota is Fighting the Good Fight on Book Banning
Thrilled to see that Minnesota is following the example of Illinois and banning book bans!
But lots of other states are toughening penalties for librarians and creating stricter limits on free speech and adventurous reading!
Here's the latest.
https://bookriot.com/librarian-criminalization-bills/
Dreamed of Exploring Bhutan?
Two delightful adventurers (I'll miss them!) have had to change their travel plans and that has opened two places on this sold out trip.
Just drop me a line if you'd like to leap in and experience the birding, hiking, temple-gazing and book-conversing that will ensue on this adventure. There is nowhere like Bhutan in the world! SirenSojourns@gmail.com