The Reddening Path

The Reddening Path by Amanda Hale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was walking from the University bathroom back to my study carol when this book and another by the same author, Amanda Hale, caught my eye.  After reading the back and flipping through the book, I decided this would be a nice diversion from the non-fiction, travel, walking books that I have been reading for several years now.


Hale intricately creates a narrative that includes 2 separate stories, then 3, then 4, and as a grande finale, links all the stories and characters together.  The breadth of the stories, which range from the 1500's to the 1960's and the 2000's, leaves the reader sleepless, turning pages, wondering what will happen to this list of unique characters.  The stories are set in Guatemala, Toronto, and the Kingdom of Spain shortly after its creation in the late 1400's and into the early 1500's.  Characters from South America's colonial past inspire a young Guatemalan-Canadian, Pamela, to trace her roots and briefly leave her two loving mothers, Hannah and Fern, in Toronto, in order to find her biological mother back in a country which she left after her international adoption.  She travels in body and finds friends, old acquaintances and adventure, but also travels back in time in her mind as she prepares a paper and completes research in order to understand her country of birth.  Her travels take her to meet some interesting people, but her plans take a divergent turn when she attempts to impose her Canadian upbringing on a set of people and in a country that has survived generations of war, torture, and trauma.  Pamela has a wishful, hopeful spirit and teaches the reader that taking chances may provide you with different answers than the ones you had been looking for.  Great read!  


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Flamenco in Spain

Before we begin, click here to feel, read and see the moment:



As you read, you are in a place of broad landscapes and soft hills.  Sometimes you can hear the wind in a song, a swoosh of birds floating by, a sudden crash of waves, or a Moorish voice drifting on the surface of the wind.  You are in Madrid.  A sticky summer's day.  Cold glass, dripping water on our thigh as you lift the delicate vessel to your lips.  The rush of searing, cold liquid flushes across your tongue, down your throat in sweet relief.

A dancer enters.  Another follows.  Poised, ready for movement.  The music of nature begins.  Her torso twists as if disconnected from her arms. She stops and stares.  She moves with him creating a swirl of arms, hands, clothes, and faces.  They pose again.  Breathing heavy.  Her hands continue their former rhythm.  He dances behind her, constantly reaching out to her with his stare.  Another whirl of shapes, points, gestures, movements.

Spain - Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza

I have spent the last two weeks in Spain.  My first trip to the country and I have one day left to enjoy the sun, 15 degree weather (which is very exciting for a Canadian in February), a lovely walk along the Sea, and more Menu of the Day (a.k.a. spoil me with a three course meal for all one price Catalan, Spanish food), brief conversations with people practicing their English, a restful perch on my hotel terrace looking out over the view (I think I am the only person staying at the hotel, it is down season here), and the usual normal late night 10 pm dinner of several courses.  Tomorrow back to London but I am not done yet.

I will write more when I have the time but it might not be until March.  From here I go back to London to pack my belongings of the last 9 months, head to Egypt for a 10 day pre-planned trip, then to Berlin to meet up with some friends for 48 hours, then back to London to say goodbye and pick up my sister, then back to Calgary.  Will my life ever be the same boring drudge it had become before I began travelling again (can´t find the question mark on the Spanish keyboard.)  I sure will work hard to ensure it does not!!!

If you want a small slice of what life is like for a foreigner to move to the Baeleric Islands from the UK, pick up A Lizard in My Luggage by Anna Nicholas.  I have been reading her saga of 3 books while I have been traveling Spain.  The writing is superbly funny and a delightful description of adventures and unique characters she and her family meets while adapting to a new way of life.  Her second book is A Cat on a Hot Tiled Roof, and the third in the series is Goats From a Small Island.

Anna Nicholas Website

 I am learning that traveling with a book about the region to which you are going, is a phenomenal way of appreciating the place you are in a little more.

Hugs and more writing in the future!