I first became aware of the author when she made a presentation at the Phoenix Writers Network. I had an opportunity to share some similarities in our experiences, since Guatemala and Bolivia have a high percentage of the Indigenous population. I learned that she was from a Native American community, which gave her a perspective most volunteers couldn’t understand or appreciate. Like many volunteers, I was focused on just learning Spanish and surviving, so I wasn’t prepared to learn one of the 22 Mayan languages in Guatemala. When the author revealed that the pages of her copy of Moritz Thomsen’s […]
Continue readingThe Million Mile Walker Dispatch July, 2022 Inspiring, Encouraging & Mentoring: The Key to a Fulfilling Life!
Inspiring, Encouraging & Mentoring: The Key to a Fulfilling Life! Dear Friends and Colleagues from Around the World, Last week, a colleague from my days with Food for the Hungry (over 25 years ago) wrote the following about the importance of mentoring and supporting those we work with: Hi! I was watching one of my clients’ videos about a program that trains homeless and formerly incarcerated people for jobs and helps them get placed. It’s been very successful and helped a lot of people by giving them a second chance. One of the employers who hire a lot of […]
Continue readingTravelers’ Tales: Central America, Editors Larry Habegger and Natanya Pearlman, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
Fellow travel writer Tom Miller warned me about the book when he learned I was working on an essay about Central America, The Guatemala Reader, “Mark –Careful! You don’t want to duplicate anything from Travelers’ Tales Central America.” When I reviewed the table of contents, I realized my book would be very different, as I’d be the author of all the stories focused on one country, while in this book, the stories cover Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Panama, as well as Guatemala. Also, all the travel writers like Paul Theroux, Ronald Wright, and Tim Cahill […]
Continue readingMillion Mile Walker Dispatch, Rave Reviews for My New Book–Not So Much With Our Guatemala Documentary! June,2022 Issue
My Saddest Pleasures Gets Rave Reviews—not so much for our Guatemalan Documentary! Dear Friends and Colleagues from Around the World, My Saddest Pleasures received impressive reviews, although we didn’t have the same luck with our Guatemalan documentary, “Trouble in the Highlands.” I’ll tell some stories about excellent literature, documentaries, and classic rock music in Culture Watch. As always, I will share My Writing, Interviews, Reviews, Voices of the Day, What Others Are Saying, and an updated Calendar. First, check out a brief video of the new book and share it with friends you think will like My Saddest Pleasures. Find out what others have said […]
Continue readingEntre Dos Mundos (Between Two Worlds: A Memoir) by Victor Montejo, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
This is an autobiography of an incredible Guatemalan anthropologist and writer. He tells the extraordinary story of a Mayan boy who seeks to improve his life through education. It is a story of dreams and goals that crosses the Mayan and Western worlds. I first learned about the author twenty years ago when I read his novel, “The Adventures of Mr. Puttison Among the Maya,” in English and Spanish. This novel is historical and satirical, recounting the adventures of an American traveler, who appears in an isolated Mayan village, and the community thinks he is a priest. This story is […]
Continue readingThe World Against Her Skin: A Son’s Novel, by John Thorndike, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
I connected with the author through a shared appreciation of the author of Living Poor, Moritz Thomsen. He also reviewed Thomsen’s book Bad News from a Black Coast, and it was so good I asked to include it in a novel I’m working on about the influence of Moritz Thomsen on other writers, and he agreed. I learned that he traveled to Cuba with fellow author and friend, Tom Miller, which resulted in his best-known book, One Hundred Fires in Cuba. I soon became aware that the author was also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who also married a […]
Continue readingMillion Mile Walker Dispatch, Launching My New Book: My Saddest Pleasures, May, 2022
Dear Friends and Colleagues from Around the World, The big news is that my new book will launch in two days! I’ll also explore the implications of the bi-partisan support for increasing our military spending by $32.5 BILLION in the Culture Watch. As always, I will share My Writing, Interviews, Reviews, Voices of the Day, What Others Are Saying, and an updated Calendar. “Travel is the saddest of pleasures. It gave me eyes.” This quote from Paul Theroux’s Picture Palace helped put my fifty years on the road into perspective and allowed me to appreciate the miscues, disasters, and disappointments I’d experienced. It helped make me the […]
Continue readingWhen The Angel Sent Butterflies, by Jody Sharpe, Reviewed by Mark D walker
When the Angel Sent Butterflies by Jody Sharpe Reviewed by Mark D. Walker I read and reviewed Town of Angels, which is part of the “Mystic Bay Series” several years ago, and appreciated that this inspirational book proved the power of the human spirit to move on despite incredible tragedy and personal loss. The author’s daughter, Kate, was killed in a tragic accident, and then her husband died, and during a difficult period where many would have succumbed to despair, she had a dream in which a voice told her to read “Charlotte’s Web,” by E.V. White, […]
Continue readingViva Mexico! by Charles Flandrau, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
This was the third book I requested from the editor of ELAND Press for writing an article in their latest newsletter, and I wasn’t disappointed. I can now understand why some consider it one of the best travel books. The author was a wealthy American with a unique sense of humor and few prejudices except Western uniformity. The book is a journey among the Mexican people and starts in 1904 with a visit to his brother’s coffee plantation in Jalapa, Mexico, with his mother. His three visits were the basis for this profile of rural Mexicans and expatriate gringos, which […]
Continue readingWhere Was I? A Travel Writer’s Memoir, by Tom Miller, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
I’ve gotten to know the author over the years based on a shared appreciation of iconic writer Moritz Thomsen, who Tom met in Ecuador and our love of travel and travel writing. The Panama Hat Trail is one of my all-time favorite tales, and I was impressed when I learned it took the author two trips and eight months to complete it! My wife, who is Guatemalan, loved How I Learned English, a series of stories of Latinos learning English. Since the author is considered by many as one of the best nonfiction/travel writers, I headed for the chapter on […]
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