This may be one of those books that came into being because its title sprang to the editor's mind one day. In any case, it is a minor gem, a collection of new and reprinted writings by women over 50 on the themes of travel, athleticism, and adventure.

Barbara Beckwith's "Nature Buddies" recounts a grandmother's attempts to introduce her infant grandson to the muddy, grassy, thrilling world outside. In Ginny NiCarthy's "The Agony and the Ecstasy," a 67-year-old woman with vertigo suffers herself to mount a camel for a journey through the Moroccan Sahara. And in "What Makes Grace Run?" Heather Remoff, a long-distance runner, describes her profound emotional connection to a woman who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while on her nightly run in a small Pennsylvania town. The size and shape of a travel guide, Hot Flashes from Abroad offers an affirmative twist on the venerable genre of the traveler's tale. --Regina Marler