Reginald Spittle's Blog: See my book blog, page 29
December 4, 2019
Opioid, Indiana: A Boy Searches
Riggle, a 17-year-old orphan living with his uncle, is suspended from school for a week for vaping and for his sarcastic tongue.
Opioid, Indiana, is the story of the boy’s week as his drug-addicted uncle disappears and $800 in rent for their apartment is due Friday. As he tells his story, Riggle relates his complicated past that brought him from Texas searching for stability.
As he tries to make sense of his world, the boy journeys back in time when his mother was alive and used shadow puppets to tell stories about how the days of the week got their names. And he shares how his parents died, leaving him scarred, homeless, and confused.
Author Brian Allen Carr guides Riggle and a cast of misfits through a week of adventure and the issues of racism, sexuality, Confederate flags, and the age of Trump. I was both baffled and uplifted by the youth’s life and decisions, but I always wanted to find out what was around the next corner.
And I rooted for Riggle all the way.
November 28, 2019
South West Coast Path in 5 Minutes
Sue’s photography is on display in her slide show from our fall 2019 trek on England’s South West Coast Path.
November 24, 2019
Writing Collab: Camino Sunrise — Peter Wyn Mosey
These circles of distraction sky-high goals
Writing Collab #15- Camino Sunrise — Peter Wyn Mosey
I am honored that Peter Wyn Mosey of South Wales has published an excerpt from my book, Camino Sunrise, on his website as a collaborative project. Click on the link to see his wonderful poem to accompany my story.
November 19, 2019
Bicycling Crusader Follows the Silk Road
She climbed to a peak of academia as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University and later as a scientist/graduate student at MIT. She dreamed of walking on Mars.
But for Kate Harris, work inside science laboratories could not satisfy her need to discover, so she and her best friend Mel set out to get lost in the world of exploration–for a year, bicycling the Silk Road of Marco Polo from Turkey to Tibet.
Thousands of miles, at altitudes higher than 17,000 feet, over every kind of terrain you can imagine, and through blazing heat and freezing snow. They eluded and tricked menacing military and police, adapted to cultures as different as they could be, and traversed geography as foreign to them as Mars. They found human compassion in many places, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Tibet, and Nepal as locals took them into their homes to save them from another night in their tent.
In Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road, Harris eloquently and humorously weaves history, science, and compelling anecdotes from her adventure that left my jaw hanging open.
As I have learned while walking the long-distance trails of Europe, the borders of cultures, countries and languages are lost when you step outside the comforts of everyday life and push yourself to, or even beyond, your limits. On the Silk Road, Kate Harris went well beyond the limits of most humans and her book made me want to load up my backpack and leave my borders behind.
(Click on the cover if you want to see the book on Amazon.)
Bicycling Crusader Gets Lost on the Silk Road
She climbed to a peak of academia as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University and later as a scientist/graduate student at MIT. She dreamed of walking on Mars.
But for Kate Harris, work inside science laboratories could not satisfy her need to discover, so she and her best friend Mel set out to get lost in the world of exploration–for a year, bicycling the Silk Road of Marco Polo from Turkey to Tibet.
Thousands of miles, at altitudes higher than 17,000 feet, over every kind of terrain you can imagine, and through blazing heat and freezing snow. They eluded and tricked menacing military and police, adapted to cultures as different as they could be, and traversed geography as foreign to them as Mars. They found human compassion in many places, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Tibet, and Nepal as locals took them into their homes to save them from another night in their tent.
In Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road, Harris eloquently and humorously weaves history, science, and compelling anecdotes from her adventure that left my jaw hanging open.
As I have learned while walking the long-distance trails of Europe, the borders of cultures, countries and languages are lost when you step outside the comforts of everyday life and push yourself to, or even beyond, your limits. On the Silk Road, Kate Harris went well beyond the limits of most humans and her book made me want to load up my backpack and leave my borders behind.
(Click on the cover if you want to see the book on Amazon.)
October 18, 2019
A Pipe Dream Becomes This Walker’s Reality
Author/adventurer Ken Ilgunas writes about testing his limits and then living within his means in his compelling first book, Walden on Wheels, in which he documents a most unusual path through graduate school.
A little older (29), but equally determined to step outside the ordinary, Ilgunas takes on what he calls an “epic, never-done-before, and sort-of-illegal hike across the heartland.”
As I read Trespassing Across America, I was drawn into his world as he sets out to walk 1,700 miles on or near the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico. He confronts harrowing storms, stampeding cattle, gun-toting ranchers, suspicious law enforcement officers, and a host of physical challenges.
In the end, he was left with (no spoilers here) experiences and impressions that touch him deeply. I was left encouraged about the potential of the human spirit.
(Click on the cover to see the book on Amazon.)
October 14, 2019
Walden: Thoreau’s Classic Book About Life
As I read Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: Life in the Woods, I had thought that could seem corny.
“You can’t see the forest for the trees.”
The 19th century philosopher/author told readers that the mundane details of everyday life can prevent us from seeing the big picture and, unless we take a step back, we can miss what is most important.
Thoreau stepped back by living alone in a tiny cabin on a pond in Massachusetts for two years. His thoughts about his experience fill the classic book.
His writing style may confuse you at times, but his nuggets of wisdom will make the effort worthwhile. You can read it cover to cover, or randomly open to a page, where you are likely to find thoughts about life and society worth pondering.
It may leave you searching for your own way to step back. (Click on the cover if you want to check it out on Amazon…the Kindle version is just 60 cents.)
September 30, 2019
An Epic Trek Ends; What’s Next?
If you read my book, Camino Sunrise: Walking With My Shadows, then you know exactly what brought Sue and me to walk England’s South West Coast Path for the past three weeks. Our fifth long-distance backpacking trek is over as we rest in the Land’s End Hotel.
Soaked to the skin, wind-blown, exhausted from the nearly relentless climbs and descents that began in Minehead, we can hardly wait to do it again. But where?
September 28, 2019
The Accidental President
How did a virtually unknown Missouri man ascend to the White House in a matter of months?
How did a man who never wanted to be president hold up as he guided the United States to the end of World War II and into the Cold War?
What did he think when he learned about a secret that would end the war and change the world forever?
A.J. Baime uncovered answers to many mysteries about the early months of Harry S. Truman’s presidency in The Accidental President. This is one of the most gripping presidential biographies I have read. Baime brings readers into the White House for critical moments and into momentus talks with Churchill and Stalin.
This book made me feel like I was living the times with one of our most unique leaders.
September 25, 2019
Hiking to Lukomir and the Rakitnica Canyon
I love books about people who take adventure to a level far outside my usual travels. Check out this blog I follow.
After our short visit to Mostar, we planned to do some hiking around Lukomir. It is a village up in the mountains so the nearest city to hitchhike to was Konjic. We made our way to the edge of the city and after an hour, Malik picked us up. What a small world it turned out to be – he was a cyclist too. He is a member of a mountain biking (MTB) group in Sarajevo and was very excited to hear about our world cycling adventure. Malik also knew the high calorie diet that we needed so he kindly treated us to a generous meal.
Amazing view from the highway restaurant
One kilo of roast lamb and potatoes
After exchanging contacts and farewell, we got dropped off in Konjic. It was late afternoon when we got off the car so we had to think about where to sleep…
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