5 Books by Women Who Walk
Five memoirs to build a stack of gifts for the walker or dreamer on your list.
One of my most memorable Christmas gifts as a teenager was a stack of books from my father. He gave me at least 10 books that year, the largest a coffee table art book about historic Hollywood portrait photography that was the base for all of the others. The rest were gifts to pique my interest in various subjects including teaching and education; tucked amongst the pedagogy was the book that changed my view of what fiction could be, E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime.
Ragtime altered everything I knew about history, storytelling, and the craft of writing. The power of books to inspire, educate, persuade, and awe has gotten me out of bed in the mornings and kept me reading under the covers late into the night. Books are so much a part of my life that I’m shifting my career to help writers create more of them. Never too many books or perspectives on the world in my view.
My reading has definitely taken on a theme this year. This list of favorites came from an autumn spent reading memoirs by women authors who walk and have published books about their experiences. I loved the diversity of their various treks and stories. If you can’t decide which book to give, maybe you can gift several, like my dad did. You don’t even have to wrap them. Put a bow on top. The stack will be eye candy enough.
When I started blogging My Slow Road in August, I discovered the 2020 picture book and Camino journal by Canadian painter and author Sharon Bamber called 1000 Miles: Walking & Painting the Way of Saint James. Her book, the perfect combination of art work and Camino memoir, could be the base for your stack of inspirational walking tomes, because you won’t find a lovelier gift for a walker with a passion for art. You can read more about Bamber’s painting practice in Finding a Practice on the Camino.
Slow travel memoirs by women
To put a slow travel theme to your gift giving this holiday season, these are my top memoir picks:
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, Penguin, 2018.
After an investment deal gone bad results in their home and livelihood taken from them followed by the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth, decide to go for a 630-mile walk. This memoir of one woman's journey walking the entire of England’s South West Coast Path after becoming homeless is a nuanced tale of putting one foot in front of the other to find a new way to be in the world.
Bewildered by Laura Waters, Affirm Press, 2019. Kindle Edition.
When a toxic relationship and anxiety nearly cripple a Melbourne woman, she set out to walk New Zealand's Te Araroa track, 3000 kilometers of wild, mountainous trail from the top of the North Island to the tip of the South Island. This is no Camino de Santiago pilgrimage hike from café to café. For six months, Waters battled dangerous mountain ridges and river crossings and crippling self-doubt to find a new life path.
Return to Glow by Chandi Wyant, 2017. Kindle Edition.
In the wake of a divorce and traumatic illness, Wyant uses her meager savings to hike Italy’s historic Via Francigena. As she traverses 425 kilometers for 40 days to Rome on this ancient pilgrim’s route, she rediscovers the Italian countryside and finds friendship and community with those she meets on the route. Drawing on her profession as a college history instructor, she weaves in history and anecdotes from past and present in this journey to find her soul.
Walking to the End of the World by Beth Jusino, Mountaineers Books, 2018.
I read Jusino’s memoir in 2019 (so not strictly a fall 2020 read) and met Beth later at a local REI author appearance to promote her book. By coincidence months later we became office mates and friends who bonded over our Camino walking experiences. This story about Jusino’s 2015 trek on the Camino de Santiago with her husband, Eric, is charming, funny, and insightful. From where their walk begins in the village of Le Puy, France, to the Atlantic Ocean 1000 miles later, Jusino argues that an outdoor adventure is accessible to anyone who chooses it. At its core, her narrative is about ordinary people who do the extraordinary.
A Furnace Full of God by Rebekah Scott, Peaceable Publishing, 2019. Kindle Edition.
Rebekah and Patrick, burned-out newspaper journalists from the US and England, found community and kindness on Spain’s Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail, so they moved to a village of 20 farmers in the middle of the 500-mile, thousand-year-old pilgrim road. Peaceable Kingdom is the farmhouse where the couple offered food and lodging in exchange for whatever a pilgrim wanted to give. This beautifully written slice of life on the Spanish meseta is the capstone of your gift stack.
More Camino journey books
You could make that stack of books an even more impressive gift by including a few more titles by women authors who wrote about journeys on the Camino de Santiago.
In Camino Mysteries by Elena Svirski, a young adult novel released earlier this year, young adventurers pass through space and time to complete their Camino journey. Women with Type 1 diabetes and Parkinson’s write about their walks to Santiago managing chronic medical conditions in Dancing on the Head of a Pin by Trish Griffin and The Ribbon of Road Ahead by Carol Clupny. On a trek to heal a broken heart, 62-year-old Angela Leslee learns unexpected Camino lessons in The Way of Love.
This year also introduced several new Camino guidebooks, so I’m kicking off 2021 with a look at a few Camino guidebooks out there by women. What better way to start planning for when the world opens up and we can get back on the trail than by picking up a guidebook for our chosen path?
If you have a Camino story to write, be sure to join Susan Jagannath’s Camino Authors Facebook group. I mentioned Jagannath’s guidebooks in a post about walks outside of Europe called Pilgrimages Begin with Intention. Her recently updated guidebook for 6 days on the Camino Inglés will be featured in my January 8, 2021 guidebooks post.
For now, if you’re looking for guidebook inspiration in shorter form, consider downloading my mini-guide to preparing for a long walk: Quick Prep for a Slow Walk (on the Camino de Santiago). Don’t miss out on some free Camino support based on my two walks across Spain on the Camino Frances. One mini-guide reader recently wrote:
“I love your writing. I wish I had read this before our first trip. Well done.”
Do you have a favorite Camino journey book you’ve read or maybe one that you’re writing? I’d love to hear about it.