two paths that blend well

Recently I read about the Wee Mad Road. While reading more on the net about it, I ran across Warren Rovetch's The Creaky Traveler in the North West Highlands of Scotland. I read the first Creaky Traveller guide and will be looking for his guide to Ireland.

The book is the story of he and his wife travelling in the North West Highlands. It is also a book with tips for travel when you are "the mobile but not agile." He blends these two goals well.

An enjoyable read even if you aren't creaky yet.

Northern Scotland

The sign read Wee Mad Road. How could you not travel down a road with a sign like that? The road less travelled changed the lives of Jack and Barbara Maloney. They found a B&B to stay on in Coigach.
Several years later the daughters are out of the house and they take the plunge. They sell their house in Minnesota and chuck it all. They return to Coigach for two more years. This is the story of their life in a community in transition between old ways and new.

The telling of the story alternates between Jack and excerpts from Barbara's diaries. Barbara is an artist and her work is through out.

I found myself putting the book down. I didn't want to finish it because then it would be over. Wander down the Wee Mad Road with them. It is worth the trip. You can have a taste at their site http://www.theweemadroad.com/

Couple of tales

I've read a couple of very different titles lately.

Summer on Blossom Street by Macomber is what it is. It is cotton candy reading. I knew from the beginning what would happen, but it was a fun little read. You don't have to have read the earlier books about Blossom Street but it helps.

My Word is My Bond by Roger Moore. Moore and Dalton are my two favourite Bonds, so I thought I'd give this a whirl. Moore is pretty much a gentleman and doesn't really dish dirt. The book was okay, but needed more reflection even if he didn't want to dish dirt, which is fine. I did however enjoy his comments on his Unicef work.


Tango : an Argentine love story by Camille Cusumano. This memoir revolves around Cusumano's goal of tangoing until her heart isn't broken anymore. Parts of the book were very good and some part I skimmed. I like it most when she was talking about actually dancing in the tango halls.

Family bonds

Some family you are born into and some you create yourself. Earlene Fowler's new novel Love Mercy explores those bonds. The novel bounces between Rett, Love and Mel telling their stories.

Rett is Love's granddaughter, who has been raised away from her late father's family. Broken hearted the 18 year old has run away to her little known grandmother's. She hopes to figure out her messed up family and get even with her two timing boyfriend Dale, who two timed her with her sister.

Mel is a former policewoman, who came to Morro Bay to commit suicide several years ago. Instead she met Love's late husband, Cy, chasing chickens. How can you die after chasing chickens? Cy and Love have become the family she wanted, but her past is catching up with her.

Love is dealing with a lot. She still grieves for her husband and her son. She is delighted to have her granddaughter with her, but how to help a teen who doesn't think she wants help. She is also trying to help her in laws, especially August who is slipping way from dementia. And how to help her friend Mel.

This book is set in 2008 so we get some flash forwards in Benni Haper's life. Benni and her family pop up through out.

I enjoyed this book, but found the trading chapters technique a tiny bit stilted. Fowler did the same with her recent Saddlemaker's Wife. I would like to see more of Love and her family. :)

Note: Several of the Amazon comments said that they found the book overly evangelical. I didn't find it that way at all. People go to church and wonder where God is in times of need. Okay, that didn't strike me as being preachy or evangelical. Your call. Read and see.

Horse Boy

Horse Boy is Rupert Isaacson's story of his son's autism and the family's search for a healer. Isaacson has longstanding ties with shamans in Africa.

Isaacson and his wife meet in India and fall in love. They are living in Texas when their son, Rowan, is diagnosised with autism. Rowan's bonding with a neighbor's horse leads Issaacson's decision to look for shaman's in Mongolia and Siberia. The trip partly in a leopard interior van and partly on horse across Mongolia is eventful. He and his wife question their decision to pursue this trip for Rowan. The journey is funny and frustrating in turns. However in the end visting shaman's proves beneficial to Rowan. He isn't "cured", but he is now potty trained and no longer has the out of control temper tantrums that he did. His speech and behaviour is more interactive and complex.

What do I think of the book? It was well written and very interesting. It does seem like they found an answer for their son. Do I think I would go to Mongolia for a cure for my child? I might not be that "new age" a parent, but who knows what you will do for a child.

India from a distance

Minal Hajratwala spins the tale of her family's scattering around the globe from India. Leaving India follows her family to Fiji, South Africa and America.

I enjoyed Hajratwala's memoir of her family and herself in pieces. I wasn't always sure it created a cohesive whole. It might have been interesting for her to have divided the book into two.

Frat boy in Paris

Frat boy may be too harsh a term for someone, who can charm readers as easily as Bryce Corbett can. And charm you with his tales of Paris he does. In a play on Nevil Shute's novel about Australia, Australian Corbett has dubbed his adventures A Town Like Paris.

When the book opens Corbett has followed his true love to London, only to no longer have that true love. So broken hearted and looking for a good time, he shoots off a resume for a job opening in Paris that he is totally unqualified for. The interview will be a free trip to Paris. So of course, he gets the job.

Once in Paris he has to find an apartment and a "posse" to hang with. Corbett regales you with the tales his clubbing, his feud with the lady who stickers his scooter and his love life. The love life doesn't go well until he meets the "Showgirl".

Corbett is younger than the average expat writer, so this is a lively ride through the city of lights.

Back in France

Well after several books I didn't enjoy as much, I'm back to my books set in France habit.

A Summer in Gascony tell the story of Martin Calder's summer job on a farm in the Gascony area of Southern France. The book is a nice mix of life on the farm and his adjustment to the rhythms of the land. From herding sheep to working with crops, Calder gets a good work out at Auberge, a farm and B&B. He also tells about the history area and it's links to England going back to Eleanor of Aquitaine. I was intrigued by the chapter on the Cagots, who for centuries lived on the outskirts of towns as a sort of unclean caste. This college student abroad also embarks on a summer romance with fellow student worker, Anja.

It was a quick read and quite enjoyable.