Cold Beer and a Hot Dart


Non-Fiction - Memoir
149 Pages
Reviewed on 07/11/2024
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

Author Biography

Brandon Wolfe is the author of the best-selling self-help adventure memoir "Cold Beer and a Hot Dart." In addition, his award-winning screenplay titled "Freedom's Basement" has garnered outstanding praise from prestigious screenwriting competitions worldwide. Brandon's writing is committed to thought-provoking content and sustainable self-help practices that will remain relevant to later generations. Aside from writing, Brandon is an avid culture-focused traveler, adventure enthusiast, passionate humanist, and creative visionary

    Book Review

Reviewed by Foluso Falaye for Readers' Favorite

At 23, Brandon Wolfe experienced a wanderlust that led him on trips to Africa and to explore the continent with friends from different parts of the world. In Cold Beer and a Hot Dart, Brandon recounts his trips to different parts of Africa and his rich experience of diverse cultures and the beauty of nature. Join him as he leaves home to sit with backpackers playing cards and talking over cold beers. Follow Brandon as he recalls experiencing sex, drugs, and malaria in an addictive story that sees him chasing the thrill of adventure and barely surviving illness. Brandon is constantly surrounded by amazing company, whether he's making new friends or reconnecting with old ones. Before he turned 29, he had lived through an adventure many can only dream of experiencing in a lifetime. Prepare to be wowed by his amazing story.

After reading about Brandon's brave acts in his travel exploits and various uncomfortable situations, my excuses for not traveling suddenly seem irrelevant. Picture being circled by baboons with nothing but a pocketknife as a means of defense. Also, readers will explore the author's vivid descriptions and his thoughts on the interesting people around him. One such person is Lukas, who is described as "tall and slender, cynical, hard-headed, and with the mouth of a sailor." The memoir also offers intriguing facts about different places in Africa. Overall, Cold Beer and a Hot Dart is a remarkable opportunity to experience one man's dangerous and exhilarating adventures from the safety of your home and learn more about other cultures. It is a riveting, fast-paced trip that leaves you with a plethora of evocative experiences to remember, laugh at, and be inspired by.

Jack Magnus

Cold Beer and a Hot Dart is a non-fiction memoir written by Brandon Wolfe. Wolfe really had no set plans for after he finished high school. He hadn't applied to any colleges and didn't have any ideas for a career path. Instead, the home-schooled teen from Vancouver, Washington decided to go adventuring. He got that opportunity through hooking up with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) in Australia. Wolfe's family and friends were supportive of the plan, and he was off on his first big adventure. YWAM sends young people off to Third World areas for the purpose of being of service to the people they encounter. After touring Australia, Wolfe's group headed for Malaysia and the Solomon Islands, places where demonic possessions, witch doctors and cannibals were, if not commonplace, not unheard of. When he returned home after his six-month term, Wolfe felt adrift and unable to reconnect with the home he had missed while he was away, and so he signed up again for another season with YWAM, and his adventuring life continued.

Brandon Wolfe's non-fiction memoir, Cold Beer and a Hot Dart, reads like an adventure story, but the author is quick to assure his readers that everything they're about to read is, in fact, true. This author had experiences in his twenties that most people only dream about, and for some of the less adventurous those dreams would probably seem more like nightmares. Wolfe's adventures are not for the complacent soul who has no qualms about letting life slip by, but rather they are filled with the stuff that those readers who still thrill to the thought of Livingstone's travels through Africa and who dream of sailing uncharted seas will thrive on.

Wolfe is the perfect narrator for his story. He's brutally honest and more than willing to show the foolhardy side of himself as well as the more heroic adventuring persona. His writing style is companionable and easy, making it seem as though he's really sitting across the table from you, recounting his adventures with a beer in one hand and the ever present hot dart in the other. I had a marvelous time reading this memoir. I loved following Wolfe and his companions as they backpacked through wild places and shared the camaraderie of those adventurers they encountered. While Wolfe shares many of his personal views on religion and a creator, I did not find that it detracted from my enjoyment of his memoir. Cold Beer and a Hot Dart is most highly recommended.

Lowell Morse

Great story and life experience.