Brave-Ish - by Lisa Niver (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

2024 Gold Nonfiction Book Award from the Nonfiction Authors Association
2024 Literary Titan Non-fiction Gold Book Award
2023 Zibby Awards Runner-up: Best Book for The Strong Woman
2023 HEARTEN BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winner for Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction and Memoir
2023 WINNER: Goody Business Book Awards: Memoir/Self-Help
Featured in Conde Nast Traveler Women Who Travel Book Club: 10 New Books We Can't Wait to Read this Fall
As seen in Forbes Best New NonFiction

Although Lisa Niver has traveled in far-off locales from Vanuatu to Nepal and received numerous accolades for both her writing and her top ranked website, what people don't realize is that this began from the wreckage of a rotten romance.

Newlywed Niver was on the adventure of a lifetime. She had quit her job, rented out her condo, and was traveling around Asia. To the outside world, Niver was a woman living out her dreams of exploring ancient ruins in Cambodia and seeing orangutans in Borneo. In private, she was keeping a dark secret. But, when she found herself lying on a sidewalk in Thailand, looking up at the sky in severe pain, she knew things had to change. At age forty-seven, Niver found the courage to set course on a new life.

Feeling like a failure, pushing fifty, and moving home to her parents' house to start again from scratch, Niver started taking one tiny "brave-ish" step at a time to take her life far away from the old one and into the adventurous world of travel writing. These small hurdles led to the challenge of trying fifty new things before turning fifty. From diving into shipwrecks, swimming with sharks, bobsledding at 3 Gs, to indulging in wild escapades, Niver found herself traversing the world on a journey of reinvention, personal growth, and discovering what it actually means to be "brave."

While Brave-ish chronicles Niver's inspiring expeditions to distant corners of the world including Myanmar, Cuba, Morocco, Kenya and Mongolia this is more than a travelogue. Niver's story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of perseverance. Brave-ish inspires readers to dream big, take risks, and embrace the unknown to create a life filled with wonder and excitement, even when courage seems elusive.

Review Quotes

"A memoir that is an inspirational travelogue guaranteed to get the most timid individual net surfing exotic locales, Brave-ish is a unique journey of discovery and independence. There are moments that will have the reader ready to come to the author's rescue, and there are times when they will cheer her next little victory. This memoir is a guidebook for people who feel they "can't do" or "don't have the guts" and need to see that you don't have to get it all right at once....baby steps!"--Benjamin Franklin Awards 2024

"Lisa Niver, author of Brave-ish, is the heroine of her own story and if this weren't her own story, it would be a wonderful fiction/fantasy novel; but the truth is it's not imagination. At its core it's a story of survival and growth after near tragedy."--Nonfiction Book Awards

"Niver has the reader ride a wave of up and down emotions included with action and adventure that would rival any of Hollywood's movies. Surviving a disastrous, abusive marriage that she did not see until it almost caused her demise. Being brave enough to get out from under the abuse, she starts and new life and thrives... Niver wants to be fearless after fifty and tries things that would make a seasoned professional squeamish and any woman over fifty clinging to the safety of her bed covers. Her courageous behavior clearly indicates that is fearless. Niver's story shows us her portrait of life and her philosophy of life. Brave-ish is a story of survival that speaks to any woman and lets them see what can happen if you let go of your fears, expectations, and perceptions."--Nonfiction Book Awards

"Brave-ish is an invitation to confront the unfamiliar, to discover resilience in openness. Lisa Niver's memoir is not only a revealing journey into her own experiences but also a reflective look at the adventurous spirit that resides within us all. It appeals to anyone drawn to the unknown and serves as a poignant reminder that often, the most significant adventures are those that take place within ourselves."--Literary Titan

"While Brave-ish: One Breakup, Six Continents, and Feeling Fearless After Fifty chronicles Niver's inspiring expeditions to distant corners of the world including Myanmar, Cuba, Morocco, Kenya and Mongolia it is much more than just a travelogue. Niver's story is also a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of perseverance. Brave-ish will inspire the reader to dream big, take risks, and embrace the unknown to create a life filled with wonder and excitement, even when courage seems elusive.

Inspired and inspiring, articulate and descriptive, Brave-ish: One Break-up, Sixe Continents, and Feeling Fearless After Fifty by Lisa Niver is a deftly crafter and inherently fascinating read that is part travelogue, part memoir, and part self-help."--Midwest Book Review

"Niver is a master at being humble, an everywoman with fears and challenges, while taking her readers around the world in quite a powerful and magical way. Her drive and persistence is not only inspiring, but an honest glimpse into what it means to be human: to learn, take joy, and find the people, places, and purpose she needs to grow.With her signature zest, wonder, and grace, Niver takes us on her journey of self-discovery, inspiration, and perseverance. Brave-ish is so much more than a memoir...it is a guide to growing with both humility and curiosity, and shows us the power of inner strength, friendship, community, and drive. This is a beautiful memoir about finding self, about slowly moving past trauma, and about the immense influence that travel has to heal and inspire. This book? Pure magic."--Dr. Jessie Voigts, WanderingEducators.com

"Niver's global travel exploits had me simultaneously chewing my fingernails and cheering her on as she challenged herself to greater and riskier feats in search of self. Compelling and engrossing. A must-read for fans of Wild and Eat, Pray, Love!"--Alka Joshi, International Best Selling author of The Perfumist of Paris, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and The Henna Artist, a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick

"Lisa Niver's Brave-ish is a page-turner and inspiration for anyone who finds themselves at rock bottom in mid-life. Through both grand adventures and small, life-savoring gestures, Niver pieces herself back together after heartbreak and hardship. Readers will have the great pleasure of traveling the world through Niver's stories and will be cheering her on. Don't miss this book full of heart, adventure, and, of course, courage!"--Christie Tate, A New York Times Best Selling author of Group and BFF, a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick

About the Author

Lisa Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries on six continents. This University of Pennsylvania graduate sailed across the seas for seven years with Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, and Renaissance Cruises and spent three years backpacking across Asia. Discover her articles in publications from AARP: The Magazine and AAA Explorer to WIRED and Wharton Magazine, as well as her site WeSaidGoTravel. On her global podcast, Make Your Own Map, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors, and as a journalist has been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.

Named a #3 travel influencer for 2023, Niver talks travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, her YouTube channel with over 2 million views, and in her memoir