Major's journey took the form of a year-long leap across continents, contributing her time to various charities and animal refuges. Refusing to give in to feelings of discontentment or remain in a comfortable life, she chose activities she had no experience in at all: lion and baboon preserves in South America, teaching English in China, restoring caves in Italy and freelance reporting in Ireland to name a few.

It's impossible not to get inspired by stories that take you around the world, and Major collects a great deal of anecdotes from her year of traveling. She seems able to talk to everyone from Greek waiters to British professors, recount meals that will make your mouth water and convey the sense of companionship that comes from being one of many travelers adrift. Several of the chapters take the form are stories about enjoying oneself in foreign lands when volunteer projects fall through, such as three weeks on a Greek island or the social life of Brazil after language lessons.

The book is certainly enthusiastic, but the quality of the writing is unprofessional - as though the book is simply Major's journal printed word for word. This book is peppered with frequent exclamations about men flirting with her and dwelling on the loss of a pet, each trip concluding as though she were going over the highlights at the end of it. Additionally, the dialogue doesn't feel natural, more like she's reconstructed the sentences from memories rather than capturing the original tone of conversation.

An area where this style leaves "Smiling at the World" weak is when discussing the various volunteer opportunities Major embarks on. Her stories focus more on the personalities and the experience of living in different settings, rather than emphasizing the real issues of pollution and extinction she is dealing with. She is a tourist, flitting about these groups for the fun of it rather than to make a major impact - children singing and monkeys eating hair are her priorities.