My Ultimate Summer Six-Pack

We're talking books not beer this time. But, paperbacks and pints are adult PB + J!

My wife’s summer to-do list perennially anchors around outdoor chores while mine (equally industrious) seems to revolve around an Adirondack chair. I can match every chore on Kim’s list with a book that I want to read. However, I’ve been stalled in the last few months reading abnormal amounts about Vietnam, the Philippines and most recently, Peru. When a trip is on the horizon, I commit to a complete destination immersion.

It’s now officially recreational reading season. I finalized the dust cover blurb to my own book about our missteps along Croatia’s Camino Krk and the Portuguese Way and hit SAVE on the precious 75,392 word document.

Day 7 on the Camino Krk, Croatia. Talk about rock and roll.

And then I saved it on OneDrive, a portable hard drive, a memory stick, in a PDF, a Word doc and then emailed copies to both my email accounts, Kim’s Hotmail and my publisher. Though I was laid off in April I’ve had no time to lay low with my own strict self-imposed writing deadlines. April was perfectly soggy and smeared in just enough grey to keep my focus dialed in on writing the memoir that has been cooking in my mind since we walked the historic Camino routes in 2021 and 2023.

My relief and freedom was temporary as I immediately said yes to writing a testimonial for Keriann McGoogan’s upcoming book, Sisters of the Jungle: The Trailblazing Women Who Shaped the Study of Wild Primates. It was an opportunity I refused to let slide by even though it meant it would be a tight timeline before we left for Peru. I loved every lemur-filled inch of her Madagascar memoir, Chasing Lemurs so I wanted to be first in line for her next.

After shifting my state of obsession from writing (and virtually re-walking the Camino around Krk Island and Portugal’s coastline) to a dissective read about primatology’s luminaries, I’m now a truly free agent, ready to recklessly read. Full disclosure: my intended summer reading list may be trumped by a surprise find at one of our local little free library branches. Shout out to Jenny Bee’s Books on Burma!

Here’s my ultimate summer six pack stack (so far and probably subject to change):

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey.

I like that he is a “Minister of Culture” for the University of Texas and City of Austin. What a great gig! McConaughey is also a brand ambassador for Lincoln, owner of the Austin FC (Major League Soccer club) and co-creator of Wild Turkey Longbranch bourbon. It’s good to be diverse and I’m curious how it all unfolded for him in so many peculiar and awesome directions. How can I create my own bourbon brand?

The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery

Our friends, PJ and Nicole, lent me a copy of Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt when we last visited their farm. I wasn’t 100% sold on the octopus narrator but hey, The Art of Racing in the Rain (narrated by Enzo the dog) worked brilliantly. The octopus won me over too and I was intrigued by the author’s inspiration and reference to Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of the Octopus. I looked Sy up, eager to continue my octopus education. I realized that I had just passed over one of Montgomery’s books (The Good Good Pig) at a little free library in Wiarton during Kim’s last dentist visit. “We have to stop back at the little library by The Silo,” I insisted. It was another two weeks before we passed through Wiarton but Montgomery’s pig book was still there. I am floored by the number of books she has written about hawks, hummingbirds, golden moon bears, pink dolphins, cats, the great apes and her relationship with a 42-pound wild snapping turtle named Fire Chief. I will have a whole menagerie of reading ahead of me!

Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile by Sara Wheeler

You may have figured out the pattern by now. I eat up memoirs about food, fauna and travel, almost exclusively. While I love reading destination books before traveling to a particular country, I also appreciate them post-travel. Kim and I hiked the W-Trek in Patagonia in 2022. Wheeler’s memoir wheels around Chile from the northern tip through the Atacama Desert to Antarctica. She was the US National Science Foundation’s first female writer-in-residence at the South Pole and paired with a pisco sour (I think we’ll have a few recipes up our t-shirt sleeves from Peru), this one sounds like ideal summer reading fodder.

Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly by Hannah Selinger

I learned of this dishy memoir after gabbing to one of the women in Kim’s rotating golf foursome. I’ve never worked in the restaurant industry (serving, fast food or otherwise) and have zero interest in it either. However, I am magnetically drawn to coffee table cookbooks and chef and sommelier memoirs, especially the ones that go behind the scenes and through the garburator of dysfunction, perfection and Michelin star-induced agony. Selinger has serious cred behind her name with a somm resume that includes Momofuku and tasting notes proffered to the likes of Gwenyth Paltrow (who left a shitty 10% tip). I’m anticipating a ranty, broil-in-the-oven read because in the end, Selinger throws in her dish towel on the industry.

If I Had an Old House on the East Coast by Wanda Baxter

Kim and I once owned a darling old stone heritage house in West Galt (not the east coast) but we had our share of ghosts and rosehips and so does this book. The whimsy and twinge of possibility suggested by the title alone sucked me in. Haven’t we all fancied ourselves living on a dark-bellied lake fringed with birch in Nova Scotia or storm-battered seafront on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula?

“With introspection and deep appreciation for the East Coast, this inspirational gift book shares a dream, in words and images, of falling in love with an old house and breathing new life into it. Exploring, with lyrical prose, everything from an old house's foundation to its layers of antique wallpaper to its decades-old gardens bursting with wildflowers, this lyrical book is a love letter to a vanishing way of life. Fully illustrated with gentle watercolours from celebrated local artist Kat Frick Miller, If I Had an Old House on the East Coast also includes practical tips for the old-home-owner, from how to clear your home of ghosts to instructions for making rosehip jelly and maple syrup.” Sold!

Waypoints: My Scottish Journey by Sam Heughan

Last year Kim and I had toyed with walking the 154 kilometre West Highland Way from Milngavie (north of Glasgow) to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. And then we thought, rain. Instead, we summited Ben Vrackie and Ben Nevis (in gushing amounts of rain, as anticipated). Heughan is apparently the writer and star power behind Outlander which I’ve never read or watched. I am a sucker for books about long walks though and Scotland really is one endlessly gorgeous pocket of topography.

Speaking of long walks—-here’s a sneak peek at my latest Camino memoir’s dust cover blurb. And I need your vote for a snappy title! I’ve listed the hottest contenders below the blurb.

Jules Torti and her wife were stymied twice. First it was the pandemic and then it was Kim’s plantar fasciitis. Were they starting Croatia’s Camino Krk off on the right foot? Kim was already favouring her left.

The Camino has proven to be a mutual dog whistle in their relationship—the irresistible magnet that propelled them to walk 920 kilometres on the Camino de Santiago in 2018 lured them back to another 150 kilometre pilgrimage on Krk Island and the 274 kilometre Coastal Route of Camino Portugués.

Relying once again on their feet and fate (and no phone), they wondered if the Camino’s patina had tarnished since their last adventure. Whimsy seemed to have been replaced by wi-fi. The predictable bunk bed blur and sleeping bagged stays of the Camino Frances quickly became a stress-soaked ordeal of no vacancy resort towns. And why were there no waymarkers or pilgrims for days on end?

What was once carefree and car-free became an increasingly expensive disillusioned wander. At least it was blister-free.

Of course, comparing Caminos is like sharing tasting notes on lasagna recipes or opinions on ex-lovers. No two Camino experiences will ever be alike, even if they are walked side by side.

Navigating endless olive groves, vineyards, bottles of wine, gypsy dogs, nudists, wild boars, the “Valley of the Moon” and cancelled flights, Footnotes is laced with Torti’s signature sarcasm, Super Bock, watermelon-eating sheep, U-turns, profanity, insanity history and heroics.

Follow the determined duo as they accidentally come to the end of the Camino Krk and find their way back to Santiago with a sense of bewilderment and humour (and hives for Kim).

What title grabs you and sinks its claws in? I’d really appreciate your thoughts!

Camino Chaos: Missteps Along Croatia’s Camino Krk and The Portuguese Way

Double Knotted: Footnotes from Croatia’s Camino Krk and The Portuguese Way

Camino Craving: A Pilgrimage of Pizza, Pints and Patience

Roaming Charges: A Camino Collection

Rambling On: Wayward on the Camino Krk and Portugal’s Coastal Route

More importantly, what are you reading this summer? If you missed my first Camino memoir, Trail Mix: 920km Along the Camino de Santiago, it pairs exceedingly well with the long legs of a Tempranillo from Spain’s Rioja region!

I love talking books so please leave a comment about the latest and greatest book you’ve read. I’ll be bouncing back from Peru later this week and will be sure to respond to comments and votes then! Will it be Double Knotted or Camino Chaos? I seem to have Rambling On down pat. Thank you for reading to the very end of today’s paper trail!