I’ve gotten to know the author over the years based on a shared appreciation of iconic writer Moritz Thomsen, whom Tom met in Ecuador. He accompanied me to the University of Arizona Library, which acquired his archives, including six boxes of materials on Thomsen that I used to research and write several articles. With Tom’s help, I’d write my anthology, Moritz Thomsen: The Greatest American Writer Nobody Knows About. Tom and I also share a love of travel and travel writing. His best-known book, The Panama Hat Trail, is one of my all-time favorites, and I was impressed to learn […]
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Million Mile Walker Dispatch, Talking About Racism in the U.S. November, 2022
Dear Friends and Colleagues from Around the World, Ever since the killing of Floyd and the global response known as Black Lives Matter, I’ve been thinking about how much of this reality I’ve ignored over the years, although it was right in front of me. So, in Culture Watch. I’ll share my personal experience and highlight three books, which will help us better understand and deal with racism in its many forms. I’ll, announce an upcoming TV interview and a new role as contributing writer for The Authors Show in My Writing, Interviews, and Reviews. I found several timely quotes for […]
Continue readingAll Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir Manifesto About Growing Up Black and Queer, by George M. Johnson, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
This book caught my attention for several reasons, not the least because I was brought up in the same community as the author, Plainfield, New Jersey, a bedroom suburb of the New York Metropolitan area. We even went to the same elementary school, Fredrick W. Cook. Although I was 15 in the early 60s and the author was that age in 2004, missing each other by some 40 years, but understanding how communities change over the years to benefit some at the detriment of others is essential to recognize. My grandfather worked for Mack Truck, one of several manufacturing companies […]
Continue readingMillion Mile Walker Dispatch Some crazy Things are Going On in Arizona & Beyond, October, 2022
Dear Friends and Colleagues from Around the World, I’ll report on some crazy things happening in Arizona leading up to mid-terms and on a broader context in Culture Watch. I’ll talk about my next book and offer a movie review and a very timely book review in My Writing, Interviews, and Reviews. I found a timely quote for Voices of the Day, the latest in What Others Are Saying, and an updated Calendar. You can click on the poster above for my recent presentation for the Arizona Professional Writers group. Before sharing my thoughts on the craziness surrounding us, I’d like to share […]
Continue readingThose Who Are Gone: A Novelette, by Lawrence F. Lihosit, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
Over the years, I’ve read and reviewed several of the eighteen books of fellow author and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer “Lorenzo” Lihosit. He was a volunteer in Honduras and married a lady from Mexico, and I was a volunteer in Guatemala and married a señorita from there. I used his Peace Corps Experience: Write & Publish Your Memoir to write my own, Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond, proofed his Oral History from Madera, California, and agreed with the Madera Tribune, “The best of its kind in print. Like Volume 1, the author offers real-life stories […]
Continue readingSouth to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, by Imani Perry, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
This book is one of several I’ve been reading to understand race relations in the U.S. better and make sense of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. I was brought up in Plainfield, New Jersey, where I only saw a few Black American kids in the upper tier of classes that I was in during elementary school. Then we moved out West, and I remember turning on my television to the riots in Newark, New Jersey, which were part of the 150 riots around the country during the “Long hot summer of 1967.” Newscasts showed shattered storefronts, fires caused by arson, […]
Continue readingEntre Dos Mundos: Una Memoria por Victor Montejo, La Revisión por Mark D. Walker
Este libro es una autobiografía de un increíble antropólogo y escritor guatemalteco. Él cuenta la extraordinaria historia de un niño Maya quien busca mejorar su vida a través de la educación. Es una historia de sueños y metas que atraviesa el mundo Maya y el Occidental. Supe del autor por primera vez, hace unos veinte años, al leer su novela, “Las Aventuras de Míster Puttison Entre los Mayas,”. Esta otra novela es histórica y satírica, relatando las aventuras de un viajero norteamericano, que aparece en una aldea Maya aislada y la comunidad piensa que es un cura. La historia es […]
Continue readingMillion Mile Walker Dispatch, Special Book & Movie Reviews!, September, 2022
Dear Friends and Colleagues from Around the World, I’ll report lessons learned after celebrating Banned Book Week in Culture Watch. I have special book and movie recommendations in My Writing, Interviews, and Reviews. I will share some compelling Voices of the Day, some surprising What Others Are Saying, and an updated Calendar. You can click on the poster above for my Arizona Authors Association newsletter section, which highlights several of my latest articles and book reviews. Cultural Watch My daughter Nicky & her librarian hubby, Ed, joined me for the “Band Against the Ban in Arizona” gathering kicked off by our PEN America […]
Continue readingMillion Mile Walker Dispatch, Growing Threats to Our Freedom of Expression, August, 2022
Dear Friends and Colleagues from Around the World, I just sent out a multimedia press release about my new book, My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road, picked up by newspapers worldwide, including several articles in daily news journals in London, Singapore, India, and Denver, among other places. http://www.freepublicitygroup.com/news/release-author-travel-writer-mark-walker-award-winning-book-saddest-pleasures-new-aug122/ September 18-24 is the Celebration of Banned Book Week, so I’m focusing on the growing threats to the freedom of expression in Culture Watch. As always, I will share My Writing, Interviews, and Reviews, which include an interview by Global TV Talk Show, Voices of the Day, What Others Are Saying, and an […]
Continue readingThe Bad Angel Brothers by Paul Theroux, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
I’ve read and reviewed the last seven books from the “Dean of Travel Writing,” Paul Theroux, and was fortunate enough to obtain one of the early copies of this book. I wrote my latest book, My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road, in honor and appreciation of Theroux and another travel writer, “who personally knew and were inspired by Moritz Thomsen and passed their enthusiasm on to me.” Thomsen wrote the Peace Corps experience classic, Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle. Theroux’s book, The Tao of Travel, which celebrates 50 years of travel writing, inspired my series, “The […]
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