Book Report
Apr. 23rd, 2022 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovesall
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn – The author and her husband have just lost a prolonged court battle over their house, and they are getting evicted. And now they’ve just received his terminal diagnosis, and his days are numbered. So the two decide to set out and walk Wales’ version of the Appalachian Trail (AT). Quite a set-up for this memoir! The author and her husband are homeless, and he is going to die. I do enjoy reading of people’s treks through places like the AT or the Pacific Crest Trail, and this one was pretty good too, though the authors are constantly hungry, tired, broke, and wet. This is not a feel-good book, LOL! It was engaging though. Grade: 7
Simple Living by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska - I got this from a Little Free Library. It’s a memoir by a couple who decides to get out of the rat race, leave LA, and live on his parents’ farm in North Carolina. The book was first published in 1982, so a lot of the ideas presented here are really old hat to me. Nothing surprising or particularly useful. (Get rid of stuff you’re not using. Move to a smaller, cheaper residence. Cook more, use restaurants less). The writing was also a bit cloying and cutesy at times too. On the other hand, maybe I am being a bit harsh. It is nice when someone opens their door and allows you to take a look into their lives, and the ways they are trying to live a bit more gently upon the earth. Grade: 5
To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins – Oh wow, this one was awesome! The author decides to ride his bike from Oregon all the way down to Patagonia. What makes a top-notch travel memoir? I don’t know, but this one was never remotely boring. I was enthralled at reading what happens, especially when he gets south of the US border. He rides through small towns, through big towns, through deserts, sometimes using an app that connects him with people who open their homes to travelers. Jenkins gives us just a bit of his background, and it is really interesting too. His parents are Bible-thumpers who, in the 1970s, walked across the US and were featured in National Geographic. Jenkins is gay and his mom doesn’t accept him for that, though they are close in other ways. Loved this book and probably finished it in 2 days. It almost made me want to visit Latin America, as Jenkins points out that the big cities there look like old-world European cities, and you can visit without changing time zones, unlike Europe. (His mom flies down to meet him at one, and they take in an Italian restaurant and an opera). Grade: 8
Camgirl by Isa Mazzei – Another book that I finished off in a couple of days. I always wondered what it’s like for someone who makes their living from webcams. The author tells her story, giving a detailed behind-the-scenes look at how the whole system works. That part I found enthralling. The early part of the book about her childhood was a bit boring to me though. (Very wealthy parents, but one is depressed and the other alcoholic. Mazzei learns at a young age that she can get power over boys by dating them and doing all sorts of manipulation of them. She also finds she doesn’t particularly like sex with either men or women. She tries several different jobs. Then she realizes she may as well make money in the sex industry, and she first works as a sugar baby and then a camgirl). Towards the end of the book, she realizes why she has always behaved in certain ways (preferring cam-ing to a real relationship) and she says farewell to the camgirl world. Grade: 7
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Date: 2022-04-24 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-25 02:42 pm (UTC)It seems like it should be something I'd like. So many fantasy or horror stories I like are also period pieces, so it can't be that far off.
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Date: 2022-04-26 02:54 am (UTC)I gotta say... if I found out I was dying or my spouse was dying, AND we had been evicted from our home, walking hundreds of miles would NOT be on my to-do list! What a terrifying place to be. That said, when Anna's husband died, one of the things she did was go to Spain and do that really long pilgrim walk thing, and she said she felt like it was just something she had to do.
I guess if you think about how the 80s were like the decade of greed, it was probably shocking for them to leave LA and go live on a farm (in the 90s and 2000s they could have sold it as a tv show!)
How long did it take Jenkins to make his trek? I feel like something like that spread out over a long time would be better than trying to cram it all in to a speedy trip.
I remember back in the 90s/early 2000s when people were saying that the camgirl phase would end fast because there were so many bored horny women who would do that for free. It certainly seems like it would be WAY safer than most sex work. This sounds like an interesting one!
Thanks for sharing as always!
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Date: 2022-04-26 03:38 pm (UTC)Jenkins' trip took about a year and a half. He flew home twice...he said he never made any claims that it'd be continuous or without breaks, and it sounds like they really helped. Sometimes he'd just crash in a hostel for a few days too.
The author of Camgirls also made a movie which is on Netflix, called Cam. I watched a few parts of it, just to get a sense of the whole thing.