Currently Reading
Pilgrimage through Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela
The Way is a River of Stars: A Buddhist's Journey, a travel memoir by Helen Burns.
Pilgrimages have been made since medieval times from east to west across Northern Spain on the Camino Way, a path of some 500 miles trekked in honor of Saint James the Great, one of the twelve apostles.
His tomb and relics are in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the goal of pilgrims on the path. The cathedral has been named a UNESCO world heritage site.
‘Just as I walked from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela - a different woman now to the one who began - I also traveled from one religion to another. Perhaps I put on pilgrim boots to better understand the message of each - the verbs of their prayers - what it means to engage with life, the joys of aloneness and the delights of company.’ (Helen Burns)
Call of the Camino: A Novel by Suzanne Redfearn, Oct. 25, 2025, Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley. Not yet published
Book description: Reina Watkins lost her father when she was eight. Seventeen years later, she still carries that grief. Her budding journalism career leads her to the ancient five-hundred-mile Camino de Santiago in Spain. Now she finds herself embarking on the same pilgrimage that her father made at her age, unaware of how profoundly it will change her. A parallel story, set some 15 years earlier, has young Isabel running for her life from her Spanish village, finding hope and safety on the pilgrimage's Camino Way.
I am reading both books interchangeably and not getting confused, as the first is a travel memoir and the other, a novel. I found out about the Camino de Santiago many years too late to try to attempt it, but it would have been a walking experience that I would just loved. The challenge and the meeting of people from all over the world would have added to the idea of making that pilgrimage.
Anyway, that's what books are for! Armchair travel and experiences!
The Winners by Fredrik Backman, Jan. 1, 2022; Simon & Schuster, NetGalley.
I found this in my TBR pile, and though I've not read the first two books in the award-winning Beartown series, I'm sure the stories of the residents there can be read as a stand alone work. Have you read any in the series?
What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week?
Memes: The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop
I hope you enjoy these. I have read one of Backman's books, but I didn't love it. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteQuite the mix coming up.... Just about to start 'How the Right Lost Its Mind' by Charles J Sykes. After that I'll be reading 'Brolliology - A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature' by Marion Rankine.
ReplyDeleteI've loved every Backman book I've read, all but one of them. I plan on reading it soon. Have you read anything by T.J. Newman? I love her books too.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read both The Way is a River of Stars and The Call of the Camino. I've always wanted to go on a long spiritual trek. I have a book in my TBR about that path, Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route into Spain. It's an older title.
ReplyDeleteYou are set for Nonfiction November, with a fiction and a nonfiction book on a similar theme.
My niece undertook the pilgrimage of the Camino del Santiago just after she finished college - I remember her talking about it and showing the photos. She destroyed several pairs of socks and two pairs of trainers - and, like you, I would have loved to have done it back when I was young enough. Have a great week:).
ReplyDeleteThe Way sounds really interesting! I'll be looking for it as my local used bookshop. I have a friend who, after training for months, did the walk in her mid-sixties. I'm a few years younger than her and feel too old to even attempt. Thank God for books and armchair adventures!
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention that I've read about six of Backman's books to include this series. I enjoyed them. He does write about tough subjects, but they are relevant.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read The Winners yet, but I read the first two in the series and loved them both. I would recommend reading them in order.
ReplyDeleteI like that you are reading both a nonfiction and fiction account of walking the Camino Way
ReplyDeleteWishing you a great reading week
I read Beartown and had no feeling like I needed to read on. It read like a stand alone. I read a book a few years back about hiking the Camino. I walk to hike part of it but I'm not in good enough shape to do it. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI have Beartown on my stack but haven't read it yet. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
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