In Travel Lessons: Your Personal Guide to Better Travel, readers will encounter travel experiences that range from the whimsical (the quest for dual citizenship in Luxembourg); to deadly serious (meetings with other union leaders in civil war-torn Colombia) to enormously practical (Hey, Siri, where am I?).

Travel Lessons is not a memoir, although it's full of travel experiences. It's not a guidebook, although it contains an immense number of tips and tricks to save travelers time and money.

It is a book of travel. It is Bill Bryson meets Rick Steves. The travel experiences are poignant, often funny, and original. The travel lessons are succinct and apply to many of the ordinary challenges travelers face.

The table of contents reflects the book's theme. Thirteen chapters use traditional academic headings, such as history, geography, and economics, to group independent reports and essays into opportunities for travel growth in a way that is humorous and positive (as any good lesson plan is).

Author Glenn Schmidt is a travel guide, teacher, newspaper editor, and union leader. He's the travel co-conspirator you wish you had-someone who is wise in the ways of travel, observant, funny, and appreciative of a good deal.