Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Instructional And Insightful Awards

  • EXPLORE EUROPE on FOOT by Cassandra Overby – General Europe Travel Guide, Walking Guide, Mountain Climbing

    EXPLORE EUROPE on FOOT by Cassandra Overby – General Europe Travel Guide, Walking Guide, Mountain Climbing

    A Blue and Gold Badge that reads I & I Instructional & Insightful Non-fiction 2018 Grand Prize Explore Europe on foot cassandra overbyDue to COVID-19 sweeping across continents, travel restrictions are at an all-time high. With the general population being placed on lockdown, the need for social distancing, and hunkering down moving towards an indefinite timeframe, some much-needed armchair travel adventures couldn’t come at a better time.

    Here in Cassandra Overby’s encyclopedic guide Explore Europe On Foot, readers are taken through a step-by-step process of dreaming, planning, and hopefully soon experiencing memorable, slow travel ventures of a lifetime. Whether it’s choosing a route and destination, deciding what to pack, finding appropriate accommodations and food options, or dealing with inevitable challenges, Overby supplies a world of information in this colossal foot travelers’ bible.

    A personalized introduction draws us into Overby’s early disillusionment with travel, and what she felt was its all-too-often focus on the inauthentic global itinerary. A 2015 extended European tour with her now-husband, Mac, soon changed her mind. The trip filled with long walks and opportunities to live like locals ultimately rekindled her traveling desires and made her realize this slower, off-the-beaten-path journey mode offered a much more genuine and rewarding experience, and truly “opens the door to trail magic.” Along with the best natural beauty a region has to offer, Overby showcases such travels as an opportunity to glimpse varied cultures up close and personal. Foot travel is a chance to learn the rhythm of a region’s daily life and participate in everything from the likes of a shared meal to chores on a farm, or sing-a-longs at the local watering hole.

    The book includes specifics of 15 hand-picked walks from classics like the Tour du Mont Blanc in France and Italy, to lesser-known routes like King Ludwig’s Way in Germany and Portugal’s Rota Vicentina, as well as options for shorter wanderings. A planning section covers everything from travel companions and arranging transportation, to obtaining passports and plane tickets, to making reservations and buying travel insurance. Pre-trip exercises for both body and mind, along with detailed packing information offer shared knowledge for a positive travel experience. Beautiful interspersed photographs help take us around the globe. Whether the “meres” of England’s Lake District or the dunes of Eng Chebbi in the Sahara Desert, whirling dervishes in Turkey or a special message of “Joy” spelled out in stone along Scotland’s West Highland Way, all capture the heart of Overby’s enthusiasm.

    The rich narrative is woven throughout with poetic descriptives. Consider the beauty of an Icelandic trek rendered as ” … intricate designs swirled in the earth by crawling and cooling lava, brave wildflowers that don’t mind a challenge.” Even a simple Spanish proverb of “On a long journey, even a straw weighs heavy”, highlights an important message about the need for light, versatile packing. Clearly the author’s smart advice about bringing home the best souvenir from a trip coincides with the less incumbrance sentiment in suggesting travelers return to their homeland with the practical nuance of a new custom or attitude, i.e. perhaps enjoying the lingering dinners practiced in France, or realizing the importance of family as viewed in the Italian culture.

    Overby’s shared anecdotes and experiences provide a nice change-up amidst the facts and figures featured throughout the chapters, particularly if the book is read from start to finish. Readers will find the information overwhelmingly beneficial in terms of necessary specifics for trip planning. Also, the book’s easily followed design allows readers to meander through chapters and dream of where they will go when they can.

    Overby’s own foot-travel enthusiasm ignited similar passions with family and friends, and ultimately became the impetus for a new life’s calling and writing this book. In the resulting Explore Europe On Foot, this walking aficionado now serves as both guide and inspirational cheerleader to help all wannabe hikers turn their dreams into reality someday.

    Explore Europe On Foot won the CIBA 2018 GRAND PRIZE Insight & Instruction Awards and remains one of our favorites.

     

  • KLEE WYCK JOURNAL (The Making of a Wilderness Retreat) by Lou McKee – Small Homes & Cottages, Canadian Exploration History, Pre-Confederation Canada, Pacific Northwest

    KLEE WYCK JOURNAL (The Making of a Wilderness Retreat) by Lou McKee – Small Homes & Cottages, Canadian Exploration History, Pre-Confederation Canada, Pacific Northwest

    Lou McKee’s Klee Wyck Journal is a beautiful sharing of a bold adventure played out in the wilds of Canada’s West Coast. Here the love of kayaking and the outdoors leads to a dream fulfilled and a revealing memoir that artfully showcases the building of a remote cabin retreat, the power and beauty of nature, the love of family and friends, and the value of self-discovery.

    As an avid kayaker and camper, Lou McKee often explored the coastal areas of Washington and British Columbia. A trip to Vancouver Island ultimately turned into a yearly tradition. Lured by one particular stretch of beach, Lou and her fellow travelers decided to stake their claim on an area they affectionately christened “Klee Wyck.” The moniker was an homage to noted Canadian artist and writer Emily Carr, whose work was inspired by the natural landscape and indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast.

    While the wild and pristine setting was clearly a draw for tent camping, overcast skies and torrential rains eventually forced Lou’s spirited clan to consider more secure sheltering. Over the next several years, a practical and cozy little cabin in the woods begins to take shape. In this naturalist’s playbook the homey structure evolves through a combination of brains and brawn, as well as the creative use of cedar beach logs, reclaimed wood, prefab materials imported from the city, and numerous found objects. Amidst the likes of an artfully designed mosaic-type floor featuring cedar rounds and beach gravel filling, a sacred lookout and miniature garden created in memory of a friend’s deceased daughter, a rare glimpse of ethereal white rainbows or “spy-hopping” whales, each subsequent year brings together McKee, family members, and friends for shared work and play, stories, celebrations, mouth-watering innovative meals, and the continuous expansion of the charming wilderness dwelling.

    In this captivating blend of words and imagery, McKee’s colorful first-person narrative documents daily happenings, observations, and continuing work on the cabin. It renders intricate sketches of the local flora, fauna, and a bounty of natural treasures gathered from the beach. McKee’s background as a painter, illustrator, greeting card artist, and designer translate as an integral part of this journal. Whether a favorite piece of camping gear, like the candle lantern that served as a welcoming front porch light, the humorously adorned “hoo-hah” sculptures created at the shore, intricate seaweed ruffles, or smoothly polished sea stones ultimately interpreted as powerful, enlarged pastel paintings, the finely detailed ink and colored pencil drawings provide an ideal visual complement to McKee’s remarkable unfolding story.

    Each chapter covers a new season at the family compound and lists a new roll call of visitors. Here ages range from a visiting 6-year-old granddaughter to an active 80-something-young friend. McKee’s well-crafted work effortlessly chronicles the wild curiosities of this coastline neighborhood. McKee’s journal entries always speak to her core sentiments from the flight of kissing ravens or confrontations with roaming bears to hidden places for gathering mussels and clams for the steamy chowder pot. We agree with her when she says, “This experience should be everybody’s accessible right…. Nature is still the most healing entity.”

    The far-reaching sea is a constant presence in McKee’s writing, commanding respect with both its lulling tranquility and rolling intensity. While a knowledgeable seafarer, weather, winds, and white-capped waves can give rise to concern from even the most experienced of kayakers, facing down such fears proved a crucial component in McKee’s Klee Wyck experience.

    This is more than a memoir relating a vacation retreat; this is the story of a woman going after her dream with vision, determination, ingenuity, imagination, and purpose. McKee not only brings family and friends along for the ride, but the resulting Klee Wyck Journal is like a personal invitation for readers to journey into the Canadian wilderness and experience coastal life through an artist’s keen eye. This unique takeaway of being in a homespun cabin by the sea is lovely, heartfelt, and inspiring.

    Klee Wyck Journal (The Making of a Wilderness Retreat) won First Place in the CIBA 2018 Instruction & Insight Awards for Non-fiction work.