cathedrals of the flesh; my search for the perfect bath

New York: Bloomsbury, 2003. First United States Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The format is approximately 5.75 inches by 8.5 inches. [8], 214, [2] pages. Glossary and Guide. Decorative DJ which has minor wear and soiling. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads To Jane & Larry, Great to meet the parents of Ken. He was a very fun addition to our family. Love, Alexia. A sensual tour of the world's great bathing cultures. People journey to Greece for the ruins, Turkey for the Haghia Sophia, and Russia for St. Basil's, but Alexia Brue travels with a different itinerary: to visit the baths. What starts off as an innocent vacation quickly becomes an obsession, as she ventures to Turkey, Greece, Russia, Finland, and Japan to sample the spa cultures and bathing traditions the world has to offer. Caught up in the tide of exploration, Alexia drifts further and further away from the life she left behind in New York City. Hoping to find a thriving local bath scene, she dips into hamams, banyas, saunas, and onsen, finding both disappointment and bliss. At once deeply personal and highly informative, full of intimacies, discoveries, and unexpected twists, Cathedrals of the Flesh is the candid and playful account of one woman's determination to follow her passion, ultimately inspiring readers to do the same. Alexia Brue is the co-founder and Senior Vice President at Well+Good, where she channels her passion for wellness content to fuel the sales and marketing program. Previously, Alexia was a journalist covering health and wellness and the author of Cathedrals of the Flesh, a memoir about the world's great bathing cultures. She attended the Columbia School of Journalism. It is not often that one comes across a book in which the author was so clearly immersed in her work. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: Originally undertaken as research for setting up a Turkish bath business in New York City, Brue's project revealed that her cultural curiosity was great. Brue's endeavor [includes] her initiation at various Parisian baths and her first forays in Turkey. There's a trip to Greece to visit ancient thermae—a fine excuse to meditate on the centrality of baths to classical culture—followed by an amusing stay in Russia, where skillful flogging at scorching banyas proves suffering can still be a cultivated art. It's then on to Finland and Japan, where it's clear this has become a cultural inquiry. Brue, who's bold enough to wander abroad speaking a bare handful of polite phrases, does get herself into the proverbial hot water on occasion—mistakenly stripping naked for a Japanese mixed sex bath, for example—but with humor and good attitude she manages to learn even from her faux pas. Her style is delightfully informal, packing in a lot of information, e.g., what's the physiological effect of birch twig beatings? "What sicko" invented the Japanese electric bath? And who knew how popular breast implants are with young Russian women, or that they have their pubic hair waxed down to a Mohawk? Better her than me, many readers may be muttering, but isn't that the point of armchair travel?