Glim­mer­ing with wit, Rachel Shukert’s mem­oir, Every­thing Is Going to Be Great: An Under­fund­ed and Over­ex­posed Euro­pean Grand Tour, is a chron­i­cle of the great post­mod­ern under­tak­ing: the jour­ney to find your­self. Shukert’s writ­ing shim­mers with self-dep­re­cat­ing humor and an eye for details both ridicu­lous and sub­lime. She sets off across Europe armed only with her fresh­ly-mint­ed bachelor’s degree, an unstamped pass­port, and her own ambi­tion. Imag­ine your wilder and infi­nite­ly cool­er and fun­ny old­er sis­ter let­ting you read her diary about her great adven­ture, and you get a sense of the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, humor, and strange­ly sound advice the writer offers. Shuk­ert grew up Jew­ish in Nebras­ka, and her fish-out-of-water child­hood expe­ri­ence fol­lows her as she takes on semi-humil­i­at­ing jobs across Europe and ill-advised love affairs (includ­ing one in Vien­na with a man old enough to be her father, who may or may not be a descen­dant of Nazis) but you can’t help but admire her spunk and resolve as she picks her­self up, dusts her­self off and goes in search of her heart. Unex­pect­ed­ly inspir­ing, you can’t resist cheer­ing Shuk­ert on.

Read Rachel Shuk­ert’s Posts for the Vis­it­ing Scribe

Joan Holloway’s Tushy is Jew­ish

Rachel Shuk­ert, Zion­ist Secret Agent 

10 Tips to Cope with the Great Man­hat­tan Shrink Exo­dus of 2010