Tag: book-review

G00d Reads:

Kent on Patrick O’Brian

A few days ago, I stuck my nose in our Little Library and discovered a collection of 10 Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels. I hadn’t read any of these books since leaving Coot twenty-five years ago. The three or four books I read in the 1980s and 90s were acquired haphazardly in trades with other boaters and read without order or coherence. I set the stack of books beside my chair, took a look at the top one, started reading, and finished it the next morning. I arranged the books in order, starting with Master and Commander, and I am now on the fifth one.

I delight in the sailing descriptions. O’Brian manages to bring the life and times of the British Navy in the 18th century to life better than any other author I know. I just finished reading his account of a stormy crossing of Biscay Bay in Desolation Island, and it rang true to my own 1984 experience of that body of water. Despite the difference between a 74-gun ship of the line and a 38-foot ketch, extensive repairs were required in both cases.

More from Jim Sollars

Like Kent, Jim is from Sheridan, Wyoming, and became a sailor and a writer. Unlike Kent, Jim is prolific, with books published on Amazon in both October and November this year. Here is his latest thriller:

Friends from the Past

We are following the adventures of Ned and Kate Phillips on Instagram, the same Ned and Kate Pam and Kent met more than thirty years ago in the Chesapeake (October 1994). (See Chapter 11, Going South, pp. 109-11.)  They are now sailing from England to the Cape Verde Islands and beyond. Coincidently, if all goes to plan, Kent and Linnea will arrive via the ninety-eight-passenger Corinthian at Santiago Island in the Cape Verde Islands on Christmas morning (one month from today), but we will almost certainly miss Ned and Kate.

Kate at the Helm

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

 “Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.”

—E.B. White, author

Reflection, Tingley Pond, Albuquerque Bosque, November 24, 2025

See also, Linnea’s Blog https://www.caminobleu.com (coming soon) for more on the writing inspired by Evelyn Begody’s new memoir: Facing East: Boarding School & Beyond. Her account of her early education may also inspire you to reflect on yours.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!


Spritz

Hilma’s Holiday Glug

Kent and I are enjoying a lovely, quiet Christmas at home, but we have made “Hilma’s Holiday Glögg,” spelled Glug (but pronounced gloog) on the recipe card typed by Evelyn Easley, mother of my friend Linda, probably 60 years ago. No one seemed to know who Hilma was, but the aroma of raisins, cinnamon, sugar, and cardamon seeds heating, before they are added to a gallon(!) of Burgundy wine brings back years of holiday memories. In the 1950s and 60s, drinking alcohol wasn’t common among our relatives and friends. Evelyn was a bit conspiratorial as she introduced me to this drink, which she served hot in a teacup with a dollop of brandy as we visited in her kitchen one Christmas when I was home visiting. I’m sure after the cycle of heating and re-heating, the alcohol remaining in the original gallon is minimal, but it seemed a bit daring at the time and a new experience to be treated as an adult by my childhood friend’s mother.

So, here’s a gift of Hilma’s Holiday Glug recipe!  Enjoy!
 

Book News

We Ran Away to Sea received two unexpected honors this month. The book received first place in the Royal Dragonfly Book Award in the Letters, Journals, and Diaries category. When I saw that category for this award, I thought it would be a good one to apply for because the number of entries would be smaller than for the category memoir.  And I was right!  The book is also a finalist in the Global Book Award memoir category. We’ll find out in a few days if the book is one of the winners.

I’m a bit skeptical of book awards, even though I researched to avoid those that are solely money-making scams, but it is nice to be recognized.  Thanks to all of you who have bought the book, especially those who have written reviews.

Kent also gave a presentation to the Sandia Civitan Club. This lovely small group meets for breakfast every Friday and does tremendous volunteer work to benefit people with disabilities. It was a pleasure to meet them and learn about the work they do.

Kent’s been writing something for the past several days that I haven’t yet seen.  I wonder what it is?

I also keep publishing short videos on YouTube.  Take a look here and here for my new Christmas in Scandinavia video of our Christmas 2023, and Kent reading about Christmas in Marathon from the book.

The Vagabonds Return

December 11,

In the flurry of getting ready for what we intended to be a pilgrim walk in France that got switched to an Overseas Adventure Travel excursion to Egypt, I’ve neglected updates to this blog. Here is the latest from our newsletter, and a promise to do better in the future!

Linnea and Kent adventuring in EgyptAnd experiencing ancient and modern GreeceAmazon Sales

Amazon Book Sales

Would this encourage you to buy the book?I didn’t make any goofy videos for Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok while we were away, so perhaps that is why Amazon sales of We Ran Away to Sea suddenly slumped during the last week of November and the first week of December. Alas!

We’d  been selling about 20 books per month on Amazon for most of the year, but it appears that We Ran Away to Sea has hit the doldrums.

If you’re still looking for just the right present for someone (hint), the book is readily available at local bookstores, on Amazon, or even from us.

If you’d like to give us a present, please share your responses to the book in a sentence or two.  And a big thank you to those who have already done so!  Or, send us a picture of you with the book!


Overlooking the River Nile from the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan

Now that we’re home, once I get a Christmas letter written, I’ll return to writing my memoir tentatively titled Once a Pilgrim about my 2010 life-changing solo pilgrimage from Le-Puy-en-Velay, France, to Pamplona, Spain, (including a May snowstorm in the Pyrenees). Kent and I are also compiling and editing the stories we left out of We Ran Away to Sea.

Kent gave two well-received book talks, one just two days before we left for Europe and one just four days after our return.

Don’t give up on us!  We’re not dead yet, but still processing the thousands of years of history we walked through in Egypt and Greece, and the U.S. election, which took the wind out of our sails.

Kent is reading Joseph Conrad in an oversized volume I must have inherited from my dad called A Conrad Argosy.  Now there’s a real writer for you!

Marlow speaking in The Heart of Darkness (near the beginning of that novella), “…like a running blaze  on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds.  We live in a flicker — may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling!  But darkness was here yesterday.”  And will come again.

Kent reading A Conrad Argosy. Doubleday, 1942. woodcuts by Hans Alexander Mueller

Until next time…