To celebrate the holiday season we are holding a Boxing Week Special!
Order today, the kindle edition of An Italian Odyssey at a special price from:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.de
Amazon.it
Amazon.es
(Click on any of the above links to order directly)
Prices are in effect right now, so do not wait - check with Amazon for ordering details
No waiting or shipping, place your order and you will have it in seconds!
The kindle edition includes 40 color maps and photographs!
I just finished reading the kindle version of Susan Alcorn’s book “We’re in the Mountains, Not over the Hill.” Targeted for women of all ages that are interested in backcountry hiking, it offers through the voices of three dozen women, personal stories of inspiration and first hand experiences and snippets of practical guidance and tips on where to start, what to take and so on. For any woman (and man for that matter) it is an excellent book to read and great place to start if you at least interested in staying healthy and active throughout your life, participating in one of the least expensive and most accessible forms of social and physical activity available to humankind.
Susan starts the book describing her personal experience of getting into backpacking at the tender age of 48 back in 1989, when she joined the Sierra Club, and how she met and later married her current partner Ralph, himself an enthusiastic backpacker. She also introduces a number of women, some pioneers of backpacking like Irene Cline (who was until 2004, the first woman the hike the entire Appalachian Trail), Emma Gatewood and Laurie Frost. She also introduces briefly the three dozen women, really co-authors, who for much of this book, describe their personal experiences, initial challenges and rewards, and likewise dole out advice, on various topics from equipment, clothing, footwear to safety, body care and health, and on bears and other wild animals.
Susan concludes the book with some suggested trails in America to try and some associations to join. She even offers up her own personal packing list of gear and equipment.
It is not a comprehensive guide to backpacking in America. It does not cover all the finite details of backcountry hiking in America. Instead, as one reader suggested it is really an Every Woman’s guide to where to start, especially if you have never hiked or backpacked at all. For somebody like me that spent most his younger adult life backcountry hiking in northern Ontario in Canada, the book includes all those things that most guidebooks leave out. Only through time and experience do you learn out about these other things. Susan’s book through the words of three dozen experienced women backpackers achieves this aim for the benefit of the reader.
A highly recommended read for any person of any age
Susan Alcorn is also author of Camino Chronicle: Walking to Santiago, also available on Amazon kindle
The Way stars Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez and was written, directed, and co-produced by Emilio Estevez. Sheen plays Tom, a California optometrist who travels to France to collect his estranged son’s remains played by Estevez who died crossing the Pyrenees Mountains while walking the Camino de Santiago from France to Spain. Tom decides impulsively to continue his son’s journey and walk the nearly 800-kilometre pilgrimage to Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage that for more than 1000 years millions of other people from around the world have done.
So begins a soulful and spiritual journey as Tom spreads his son's ashes along the length of the camino and while doing so, forms a loose family of fellow misfit pilgrims; Canadian native Deborah Kara Unger, as a divorced Canadian woman, James Nesbitt as an Irish author and Yorick van Wageningen, as a goofy Dutch pothead. Along the way, we learn more about each of these troubled characters, as they stumble their way to the final destination of Santiago. Nevertheless, Martin Sheen’s character Tom carries the movie as he discovers more about himself and the son he had lost and then finds again.
The Camino de Santiago serves a perfect backdrop and guide with the rugged mountains of the Basque country, the beautiful wide-open barren plains of the Meseta, spectacular cities of Burgos, Leon and Santiago, and misty hills of Galicia.
Some camino junkies might be critical of the film on how it glosses over the other elements of the Camino, such as blisters, sore feet and tired muscles. However, as a two-time veteran of the Camino; first walked it in 2007, and more recently in 2011, and as a veteran of the Via Francigena in Italy, I can say that the movie provides an honest account of what a modern day pilgrimage is all about. Eventually, we learn that there is no right or wrong way; that that journey just as in life, is as important as the destination. We do not choose our lives but we should prepare to live them.
You might describe the Way as a modern day Wizard of Oz tale of discovery. It proceeds along at a pedestrian pace with gentle twists and turns as this motley crew of four transverses northern Spain in search of redemption and salvation. You will not find action packed cinematography filled with violence and high tech wizardry. Instead, the movie portrays that time-honored importance of good storytelling that seems to be so lacking in most Hollywood style movies.
The Way is a simple story of a grieving father coming to terms with the loss of his only son - a father who ultimately honors his son’s wishes by walking the Camino de Santiago on his behalf. It is a film for all ages and I highly recommend you see it.
The movie The Way opened up in Toronto November 4th and will open in other major cities in Canada November 11th.
Update: The Way opens November 11 at the following theatres:
Ottawa - Bytowne Ottawa
Halifax - Empire Theatre Bayers Lake
Winnipeg - Globe Landmark Cinema
Calgary - Globe Calgary
Vancouver - Cineplex Odeon International Village and Empire Esplanade
Victoria - Odeon Cineplex
It is still showing at the Cineplex Odeon Varsity (+VIP), Grande Sheppard, AMC Winston Churchill and Kennedy Commons all located in or just outside of Toronto
We are holding a limited time Pre-Christmas special, celebrating the release of our kindle edition of:
An Italian Odyssey: One Couple's Culinary and Cultural Pilgrimage
Prices are in effect right now, so don’t wait - Click on the following links below to order the kindle edition directly from Amazon:
Just think - no waiting or shipping, order and you will have it in seconds! – Cool!
