This is part of my Summer Reads series where I’ll be sharing book recommendations – a series of “not just cookbooks”.
Just last week, I finished walking the Camino de Santiago (finally, after starting the first stage in 2016!), today’s Summer Reads pick is a nod to that!
July 7, 2022, 1.30 pm – arrival at the Cathedral in Santiago!
About this book:
The Camino de Santiago is both quest and pilgrimage, goal and process. It is not a journey for the faint of heart or the soft of foot. People embark on the five-hundred mile, thirty-one day trek from the Pyrenees Mountains in France to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain for all sorts of reasons–religious, spiritual, physical, and personal. For author Kenneth R. Strange Jr. and his wife, Aurora, walking the Camino is about adventure and a lifelong love of Spain, both of which shine through in the 2021 IPPY Award-winning It’s Your Camino.
Now, a couple of years ago, I did write up a few other books about the Camino that I highly recommended and so for this leg I searched around for a new one to read as I completed the walk. It’s your Camino: One couple’s 500-mile pilgrimage across Spain popped up and I saw the recommendation from Martin Sheen (who starred in one of the best movies about the Camino – The Way << affiliate link but it’s a MUST see!) and was intrigued. HOW did one get Martin Sheen to blurb their (independently published!) book? Turns out Kenneth and his wife met Sheen volunteering at a charitable foundation in Mexico. While sharing stories of his own journey filming The Way, he encouraged them to walk it.
Kenneth and Aurora walk the Camino in 31 days – this is super fast! I ended up walking 42 days total and most people take around 6 weeks. But everyone’s story and journey are different, each to his own, especially on The Camino. This was the “busiest” Camino book I think I’ve read – certainly, the book where the author seems to meet and write more about a lot of the people they meet on the way (to the point where sometimes it feels like it needs a “character cheat sheet” there are so many of them).
But that’s what the Camino is like if you want it to be. When I’ve walked on my own (2/5 stages), I definitely kept bumping into the same people on the route, sometimes sharing tables and sometimes meals and stories with them. But many don’t and sometimes I didn’t, keeping to myself and enjoying the quiet introspective aspect. If you’re up for meeting people and open to their stories, the Camino is the right place to be! Reading this is like walking the Camino with Kenneth and Aurora, written in an easy-to-read conversational style it really is a wonderful way to travel from the comfort of your deck chair, couch, plane or train ride this summer.
A delightful read for someone who has walked the Camino (even just a little bit of it) which will tempt readers who haven’t to investigate if they might be able to. There is a lot of information about the culture and history of the places visited and a realistic view of what walking the Camino is like (blisters and weather and all!). I thoroughly enjoyed this as I walked the final days of the 779km Camino Francés.
Buy It’s your Camino: One couple’s 500-mile pilgrimage across Spain on Amazon (this affiliate link should bring you to the Amazon store in, or closest to, your country).
Please note: This post contains affiliate links. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to mazon.com and affiliated sites. This post also contains affiliate links from The Book Depository. This means that if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance!
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