Meet the Eliuks: Book Love

What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim by Jane Christmas

Most of you know that I have had a long time love affair with Spain. I have been back three times and I still feel as though I have only scratched the surface of what the country has to offer. The people, the food, the wine and the culture are all incredible and the entire country has managed to keep that old world feeling balanced with modern necessities. I love everything about it and I think that is was drew me to this book initially.

Jane Christmas writes about her hilarious tales of walking the Camino de Stantiago in Spain. It is a 800 + km pilgrimage trek through northern Spain that has drawn people in for centuries. Her story begins when she decides that she is going to take herself on a once in a lifetime adventure to celebrate turning 50. Inadvertently, she ends up leading a pack of 14 women on the Camino. She manages to tell her story in an amusing and honest way. I found myself getting so absorbed in this book that at times I couldn't wait to pick it back up again to find out what happens next. The best part is that Jane is Canadian. Her story telling style is so apologetically Canadian that it is hard not to identify with her.

Pick up this book for your favorite woman in her 50's or buy it for yourself and be prepared to be transported to the magical and menacing Camino de Santiago.

Naked in Dangerous Places by Cash Peters

I love travel literature. Every time I walk into the book store I find myself milling around the Travel section for what seems like hours. I think that the traveller in me finds that it is an easy way to escape for a while. I get lost in the pages of a book that recounts another individuals travel tales and it transports me to some exotic locale.

When I bought this book I honestly didn't even read the brief summary on the back. I took one look at the title and the cover photo and I knew I would love it. In "Naked in Dangerous Places", Cash Peters recounts wild and off color travel experiences that were a regular part of his career as a host for a travel television show. Cash started out as a struggling radio host and when approached by a television producer to host a travel show he could not turn it down. The funny part is that Cash doesn't even like travelling. He has irrational fears of almost everything and suffers from several fairly severe digestive problems and allergies.

Cash tells of his travels through remote and exotic countries and does it all with an incredible sense of humour. I often found myself laughing out loud in the lunch room (how embarrassing) reading this book. Pick it up to break up the cold winter months with a great read about warm places.

Generation X By Douglas Coupland

This was a challenging read for me. Generation X is the tale of three friends who move out to Palm Springs in the desert in order to escape the rigor of a "normal" 9 to 5 life. It tells the tails of how they got there and how they choose to live their new lives.

The friends are an elclectic bunch from very different backgrounds. Each is looking to live almost a nomadic existence and none of them are concerned with planning for the future. It is all about the here and now and not about what could be.

I would recommend this book for the younger crowd. Older generations may find it hard to identify with the characters and their thought process. The book is very spontaneous and unpredictable which makes it constantly interesting to read.

One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell