The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road By Paul Theroux Reviewed by Mark D. Walker This book celebrates 50 years of travel writing and is just one of the reasons Theroux is known as the “Godfather of contemporary travel writing”. It’s an invaluable portal into the world of timeless travel on a global scale by one of the great travel authors. Theroux shares some of the books and authors who influenced and inspired him. He intersperses selections from his many books as well as those of the best travelers like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Graham Greene, James […]
Continue readingBook Review – Fiction: Speak from Your Heart and Be Heard
Speak from Your Heart and Be Heard By Dr. Kixx Goldman Reviewed by Mark D. Walker I’ve known the author for several years through our involvement with several writing groups including the Phoenix Writers Club and the Phoenix Writers Network because she’s bringing her considerable experience as a psychologist to help her readers deal with the complicated realms of truth, emotion, trauma and healing. Fortunately, she followed Tony Morrison’s challenge,”if there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it” a valuable mantra for any writer. The author often reiterates one […]
Continue readingBook Review – Latin America: Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala
Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala By Daniel Wilkinson Reviewed by Mark D. Walker While researching for a documentary on the immigration crisis in Guatemala, I came across the reference of this book being one of the best books on the Guatemalan civil war, which lasted thirty-six-years and claimed some 200,000 people, the vast majority of whom died (or “disappeared”) at the hands of a U.S.-backed military government. The title sounded familiar, so I checked out my bookshelves and, low-and-behold, it surfaced and I’m so glad it did. The author was a young human […]
Continue readingBook Review – Fiction: SAY HER NAME
A BOOK REVIEW OF SAY HER NAME By Francisco Goldman Reviewed by Mark D. Walker An evocative story of love and loss by acclaimed author Francisco Goldman who marries Mexican writer Aura Estrada. Tragically, a month before their second wedding anniversary, Aura breaks her neck body surfing. In order to deal with the loss and a deep-seated feeling of guilt, Goldman wrote this novel chronicling his love and feelings of unspeakable loss, which reflect the stages of grief when love and passion give way to inexplicable pain. The author traces every memory from his loved one’s memory and university days […]
Continue readingBook Review – Non-fiction: Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind
Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind By Yuval Noah Harari Reviewed by Mark D. Walker The author takes us on a sweeping trek through the history of our species. His encyclopedic approach covers most of the great turning points of mankind, the agricultural revolution, scientific revolution and what unifies mankind. The author’s all-encompassing perspective is summarized as, “One hundred thousand years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. This opens some very interesting questions, which the author deals with, like how did our species succeed and become dominant. Why did […]
Continue readingBook Review – Latin America : The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers by Moritz Thomsen
The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers by Moritz Thomsen Reviewed by Mark D. Walker After being thrown off his small farm on the Rioverde located in northern Ecuador after years of service as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then as a local farmer by his local partner Ramon, the 63-year-old author, embarks on a desperate journey on a second river—this one is in Brazil. The trek proves to be a time of reckoning, assessing and reflecting on his life, which he perceived was coming to an end. This book would be the third of the author’s four literary […]
Continue readingBook Review – Latin America: The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy, Arturo Arias, Editor
The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy, Arturo Arias, Editor Reviewed by Mark D. Walker I learned of this book while helping produce a documentary on immigration problems in Guatemala, “Guatemala: Trouble in the Highlands,” when I announced that I was planning to recruit anthropologist David Stoll to work with us. I’d read his excellent studies, “Between Two Armies” and “Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans,” which he researched with extensive interviews in the Ixil Triangle region of Guatemala. But when I announced his involvement, a number of our advisors said they’d abandon the project if we included Stoll. Evidently, […]
Continue readingBook Review – Fiction: Revenge of the Saguaro: Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest
Revenge of the Saguaro: Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest by Tom Miller Reviewed by Mark D. Walker As someone who has travelled the world and spent much of my adult life in the Southwest, I appreciated the author’s perspective and insights on this unique and often crazy part of the country. I learned about parts of the region I’d never heard of, as well as appreciated parts of the area I was aware of, but not in the way the author tells it, such as the filming of “The Milagro Bean War” and the mining wars of Bisbee. The title […]
Continue readingBook Review – Non-fiction: Restoring the Soil: How to use green manure/cover crops to fertilize the soil and overcome droughts
Book Review of “Restoring the Soil: How to use green manure/cover crops to fertilize the soil and overcome droughts” By Roland Bunch Reviewed by Mark D. Walker As the UN meets to discuss climate change and young people demonstrate around the globe for leaders to take action, this provides the perfect backdrop for the second edition of this book. Small landed farmers around the world face some of the harshest growing conditions globally, yet they produce the majority of the world’s food. Soils in these areas often lack nutrients and water holding capacities, due to erosion or poor soil structure. […]
Continue readingBook Review – Fiction: The Quiet American
The Quiet American by Graham Greene Reviewed by Mark D. Walker I’ve been meaning to read this book for years as it’s considered one of the best novels about the war in Indo China and even though it was written in 1955 it anticipated many of the flaws in American character and history which would result in what many now consider a catastrophic military debacle. Greene, regarded by many as one of the great writers of the 20th century is also one of my favorite global storytellers with “Journey Without Maps” leading my list. I’d worked in Sierra Leone where […]
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