Eye Opener Press
Featured Author - Brenda E Smith
Becoming Amazed
Discovering the World with Eyes Wide Open
by Brenda E. Smith
Available Early December
Hardcover Paperback EBook
$24.99 $18.61 $9.99
Brenda’s adventure memoir, Becoming Amazed, will sweep you off your feet and plunge you into a world where the thrill of the unknown reigns supreme. Her journey began with a heart-pounding initiation—rafting and mountain climbing through the untamed Tanzanian wilderness chronicled in her book Becoming Fearless: Finding Courage in the African Wilderness. What started as a step outside her comfort zone soon became an insatiable quest for the extraordinary, pushing her to explore some of the most remote and breathtaking corners of the globe.
From Bolivia’s rugged landscapes to Ethiopia’s hidden tribal territories, from the enigmatic villages of Pakistan to the leech-infested forests of Sri Lanka, Brenda’s escapades are both awe-inspiring and terrifying. She confronts everything from a revered idol exacting mysterious revenge to navigating eerie two-dimension spaces. The stakes reach their zenith in the brutal murder of a friend by terrorists—a moment that forces Brenda to reckon with the harshest realities of the world she craves to explore.
Through every trial, Brenda gains profound insights, emerging stronger, braver, and more enlightened. Her stories are an adrenaline-packed blend of daring exploits and deep reflections, perfect for fans of Eat Pray Love, Wild, and Tracks.
Don’t just read about adventure—experience it. Dive into Becoming Amazed and let Brenda’s journey inspire you to chase your own wild dreams.
Praise for this book
“In a time when everything is a version of something else, how wonderful and exciting to read a book that subverts convention to create fresh experiences that evoke the positivity of risk, challenge and change. In Becoming Amazed author Brenda Smith continues to reveal the spark and fire that burned when she shattered her privileged shell and took to a grand adventure in Africa, a blaze of a trip that lit her to possibilities, validation, and new identity. Now she continues to explore, both physically and spiritually, the later journeys that added colors, emotions, layers, and insight. This narrative is an inspiring love song to the transformational power of adventure, an instruction manual on how to discover hidden strengths and joys by venturing well beyond the comfort zone. Brenda is a trailblazing boundary-breaker with an oversized plume, sketching real-life stories that shine with her particular mix of intelligence, wit and newly minted courage. Lucid, luminous, daring, and spirited, Becoming Amazed is all a memoir should be, and more.” - Richard Bangs, one of Explorersweb’s 100 greatest explorers of the last 100 years
"In Becoming Amazed Brenda Smith demonstrates in vivid detail the power of travel to transform our personal worlds. Smith takes readers along on her amazing journeys to discover people and places in some of the most remote places on earth inspiring us to seek out adventures outside our comfort zone, and to explore and appreciate our diverse world. Her compelling accounts of each journey captivated me and reminded me of the importance of travel. A great read!" - Judi Wineland, Co-Owner of AdventureWomen, Co-Founder of Thomson Safaris and Founder of Overseas Adventure Travel
"Adventurer Brenda Smith's account of descending the Omo River in Ethiopia is both intriguing and harrowing. I was moved by her description of a young Mursi boy who created beautiful music by using Smith's tent pole as a flute, and later, captivated as she described her stint as crocodile bait while being among the first rafters to shoot the rapids of the lower Omo. Smith's retelling of these first encounters with remote rivers and the people and wildlife met along the way are the makings of river running history." - Bridget Crocker, River Explorer and Author of The River's Daughter
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