Reginald Spittle's Blog: See my book blog, page 27
November 5, 2020
Costa Rica: Explorer Searches Jungle for His Lost Son
“In the predawn hours of July 10, 2014, the son of legendary Alaskan explorer Roman Dial walked alone into the untracked rain forest of Costa Rica’s remote Pacific Coast. “I’m planning on doing 4 days in the jungle,” he wrote his father before leaving, “it should be difficult to get lost forever.” Then he vanished… (From the book cover)
Roman Dial raised his son Cody to be a fearless adventurer, but when the 27-year-old’s heart led to a solo venture in a remote Costa Rican jungle, his father felt responsible. Cody hadn’t checked in for days, then weeks, then months. Was he lost? Had he been murdered? Had he been bitten by a poisonous snake? Was he being held captive?
In Costa Rica, Dial pleads for help from local and national authorities as well as American and Alaskan officials. He and friends comb the jungle for clues, finding deadly snakes as they blazed their way. He investigates Cody’s last hours and days before his disappearance. Meanwhile, he imagines that his son will walk out of the rain forest.
In The Adventurer’s Son, author Roman Dial recounts Cody’s upbringing and their journeys together in Alaska, Borneo and Bhutan. His absorbing narrative of the Costa Rican search will keep you on edge until the moving conclusion.
October 23, 2020
Books: Find Your Next Page Turner
Here are links to book reviews I have published:
Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century, Jessica Bruder
Gillybean in China, Gill Puckridge
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Escape From the Ordinary, Julie Bradley
The Trail Provides: A Boy’s Memoir of Thru-Hiking the PCT, David Smart
Narcissus and Goldmund, Hermann Hesse
Henry David Thoreau: A Life, Laura Dassow Walls
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World, Hans Rosling
How to Practice, Dalai Lama
Opiod, Indiana, Brian Allen Carr
Land of Lost Borders, Kate Harris
Trespassing Across America, Ken Ilgunas
Walden, Henry David Thoreau
The Accidental President, A.J. Baime
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
Way Out There, J. Robert Harris
Beyond Religion, Dalai Lama
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
Big Little Man, Alex Tizon
Walden on Wheels, Ken Ilgunas
Beyond the Pale, Ken Grossman
On the Shortness of Life, Seneca
The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner
How Not to Get Married, George Mahood
If Cats Disappeared from the World, Genki Kawamura
Sedona Hiking Guide, Greg Stevenson
The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz
Nomadland: Moving Tales of Survival
In an era of expensive tiny homes, giant motor homes, and slide-outs that extend from every side of RVs, an American subculture on wheels follows good weather and seasonal work, out of necessity. The itinerants live in rustic, converted vans and RVs of all sizes, moving from campground to campground. Luxurious RVs may surround their modest homes, but they represent a life that couldn’t be farther away.
As camp hosts, they clean bathrooms and quiet rowdy campers. They work in Amazon warehouses and fill orders from an America unaware how much effort (and injury) go into millions of deliveries. Some move their rigs from street to street, hoping to avoid attention and eviction.
New York Times journalist Jessica Bruder drives Halen, her camper van, for part of a three-year journey as she follows a lifestyle that is invisible to many. In Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century, she tells the story of Linda, who supplements her small Social Security check and dreams of one day owning land and a modest home. Like others chronicled in Nomadland, Linda’s story will tug at your heart and keep you turning the pages of this compelling book.
September 19, 2020
Gillybean in China: What a Trip!
“Is it alright if we join you?” said the tallest of three lanky guys in their early 20s.
“Er, uh, yes, of course,” I stuttered, exhausted after an exhilarating day touring Shanghai with California college students I had accompanied on a three-week study abroad journey. I sat in our hotel bar, enjoying the opportunity to recharge with a Chinese beer. My students were upstairs in their rooms, giving their professor a break.
“Thank you,” the young man said as he and his two buddies sat with me in chairs around the low-profile table. “What a day!”
To heck with recharging. I was curious. “Tell me about it.”
I ordered three beers and leaned forward to hear their story. The Norwegians had flown the previous day to Germany, where they looked up at the departures board for a place to go. They found three seats on an overnight flight to Shanghai and off they went, without reservations. They had grabbed the last room in the downtown hotel and, as we sipped our beers, they picked my brain for ideas for their weeklong adventure.
When she turned 60, Scottish native Gill Puckridge planned to leave her life in South Africa for three months in Central America, but got sidetracked by a cheap flight to China. Three months later, her experiences had exceeded her expectations and she left China a changed person and traveler. She has been on the road ever since (for six years) and I eagerly await her next book.
Her story is Gillybean Goes to China: The Adventures of a Wandering Sexagenarian. The book often made me wonder, “Could I do that?” as I read about her daily adventures, accommodations, social life, and much more.
Gill Puckridge did not share the youth of my three fellow beer drinkers in Shanghai. And she was alone in a country that can intimidate even the most worldly traveler. But she packed courage and a thirst for new experiences in her seventh decade of life.
Her story is captivating. Like the Norwegians, she embraced China as a place full of opportunity while she employed her natural charm and curiosity.
August 28, 2020
A Treasured Adventure Book on a Favorite Blog
One of my favorite books is featured on a blog you should check out: The Chronicles of History by highly successful blogger Samantha James, pictured below. Samantha republished my review. Hint: The book is about a bicycling adventurer who rides above 17,000 feet.
Thank you, Samantha!
[image error]
August 17, 2020
Discover Inspiration on the Oregon Coast
Looking for inspiration for your book, short story, poem?
Or maybe just a place to let go?
West of Coos Bay, Oregon, park in the day-use lot at Sunset Bay State Park. Take the trail toward Cape Arago, along the clifftops, about four miles with a few modest dips and climbs. You will hear the sea lions before you see them. Keep an eye out for the lighthouse.
I hope you remembered lunch to enjoy on an ocean-view bench at Cape Arago.
On the way back, treat yourself to a easy detour through the gardens at Shore Acres. Don’t miss the rose garden. Not a bad place to eat the candy bar you saved from lunch.
This is about as good as it gets in Oregon. Or anywhere.
August 6, 2020
Catcher in the Rye: Holden Caulfield’s Voice Resonates
[image error]
Holden Caulfield’s voice as the protagonist in Catcher in the Rye is the masterful creation of J.D. Salinger, a man who often wanted to be left alone.
The words of the 17-year-old New Yorker take readers on a journey that feels so real we can all get lost in his world. Having flunked out of a boarding school for boys, Holden is isolated by depression, a distrust of shallow people, and vulgar language. He is more sensitive than he admits, still mourns the death of his brother Allie, and adores his younger sister Phoebe. He has not found a fit in four private schools.
The book’s first sentence sets the tone for Holden Caulfield’s story:
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
Salinger’s most famous book, set in the 1950s, was written for adults, but it remains a favorite of youth, selling hundreds of thousands of copies a year. Its popular use in high schools has gotten teachers in trouble for its themes of morality, violence, sex, underage drinking, mental health.
Most of us had a Holden Caulfield in us. Ferris Bueller did. Many of us still do.
Five decades after I first read Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s words make me laugh, make me sad, make me want to tell him to be kinder to himself. And, sometimes, to others.
I can still learn a thing or two from Holden Caulfield–and I’m not just saying that.
July 30, 2020
Couple Sails Around the World Like Superheroes
If Marvel were to create characters who performed superhero feats across the world’s waters, Glen and Julie Bradley could be models.
For seven years, the early retirees defy death more times than cats, always landing, sometimes barely, on their feet. Piloting a French-made Amel Super Maramu, one of the world’s greatest sailing vessels, they visit 63 countries, including Bequia in Saint Vincent, Niue, and the far-from-ordinary Colombia.
In a pair of enthralling books, author Julie Bradley takes readers on a journey that rarely includes the usual paths of world travelers. They experience adventures that bring pleasure and terror, sometimes on the same day. Between the two extremes, they overcome unpredictable hardships that must make them proud today.
You need no sailing experience to follow the adventures in Escape from the Ordinary and Crossing Pirate Waters. But you will marvel at the exploits of these two American mortals.
July 16, 2020
Come Trippin’ With Me on the Trails of Europe
Our fall 2019 trek on England’s South West Coast Path left us wanting more. While we (and our backpacks) await our chance to find our next adventure, Sue walks the hills around our home in Ashland, Oregon, and I bicycle on nearby quiet roads and bike paths.
Then I work on my second book, to be published (I hope) by the end of 2020. Here is a sneak preview (working title is Trippin’ Through My Sixties):
A guy (that’s me) retiring at age 60 revives the rebellious rumblings of his teen years in the 1960s. He and his wife set out to make their post-working years an adventure by moving out of state, making new friends, and walking the long-distance trails of Europe. There are four parts: Scotland’s West Highland Way, the Alps’ Tour du Mont Blanc, Italy’s Way of St. Francis, and England’s South West Coast Path. Each trek challenged us with more adventure than we thought possible.
My first book, Camino Sunrise, an adventure memoir about our first trek, continues to find new readers in several countries. I am so grateful for its success and for the many readers who send emails or write reviews.
Send along a note (See Contact in the Menu) if you want to be among the first to know when the new book is out. Meanwhile, my best wishes for your good health.
June 14, 2020
The Pacific Crest Trail Provides Too
Just as long-distance trekking grew on David Smart, his book, The Trail Provides: A Boy’s Memoir of Thru-Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, grew on me, page by page.
At 24, David was dissatisfied with his digital marketing job. He had plenty of money, parties, and women, but he felt that his life lacked purpose. His 26-year-old college buddy Bradley had an answer: Walk the Pacific Crest Trail with me.
Bradley, who brings intensity to life and to the trail, influences his younger friend right from their start on the USA-Mexico border. He walks barefoot, and David follows, despite great pain and suffering. But David, who eventually gets an apt trail name, Stayin’ Alive, develops confidence and his own trail identity.
David Smart lets readers into his experience with honesty and entertaining, easy-to-read narrative. He begins as an ordinary 20-something and grows immeasurably. As someone who has walked five long-distance trails in Europe, I admire people like David who trek 2,600 miles over six months, all the way to Canada.
Pilgrims who walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain like to say, “The Camino will provide” when the going gets tough. For David Smart, the Pacific Crest Trail will provide for the rest of his life.
