Travellin' Penguin

I guess Mark Twain didn’t follow book blogs.

What I’m Reading: 

This week I finished a fascinating book called Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery.

This is a fascinating tale of the first woman to ever walk the Appalachian trail in the 1950s from Georgia to Maine. The blurb is as follows:

“Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than twhundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. By September 1955 she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin, sang “America, the Beautiful,” and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.”

Driven by a painful marriage, Grandma Gatewood not only hiked the trail alone, but she was also the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. At age seventy-one, she hiked the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV with Groucho Marx and Art Linkletter. The public attention she brought to the trail was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.”

Author Ben Montgomery interviewed surviving family members and hikers Gatewood met along the trail, unearthed historic newspaper and magazine articles, and was given full access to Gatewood’s own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence. Grandma Gatewood’s Walk shines a fresh light on one of America’s most celebrated hikers. 

I found this book fascinating and would recommend it to anyone who might enjoy a different kind of travel narrative and nature. The themes are memoir, travel/walking, history, domestic violence. She also raised 11 children. Bookish Event of the Week:  

The most exciting event was seeing Geraldine Brooks launch her recent book Horse, at the Theatre Royal interviewed by Heather Rose in conjunction with Fullers Bookshop. The recently built studio theatre was a great venue. The event was sold out and she was generous to sign books in the theatre foyer after the event. I gifted her a small cloisonne black cockatoo pin in a little felt like bag for her to put somewhere in her horse stable when she gets home. She seemed to love the small Tasmanian gift.  I always think authors must get so tired of book signings and repeating themselves over and over during their tours. I did not take my book to be signed just to give her hand a rest. 

She told us about this obscure piece of American history in this book which in the end I loved. I wasn’t sure at the beginning I was going to enjoy this book but as I went along, I just kept reading and reading.  I will never forget this tale. Horse racing was built in America on the backs of slaves in the 1800s before the civil war. The book combines that history of the 1800s. It also has two other periods of time the story includes. The 1980s of the New York art worlds and the current times of the science of preserving skeletons at the Smithsonian.

The author talked at length how this book was successfully finished after the sudden death of her husband three years ago. It got her back on track as her grief was deep.

The research into the art and slavery issues were well researched. She talked about how as a Caucasian she talked to many African Americans about writing this book about their culture and history. She was encouraged to do it on all fronts, and she consulted with the African American community regularly. 

I admire the research skills she displays in the writing. She is an experienced former foreign correspondent and journalist and her writing displays that. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in these topics.  It finishes with a current race event of the 21^st century of America and the impact is greatly felt.

She also made mention of a little-known law in Australia that I think would surprise people. She would like to come back to Australia at some time. As she has lived in American, married to an American man since the 1980s or so, she mentioned her biological son can get dual citizenship with Australia however her legally adopted Ethiopian son cannot. She and her husband adopted him at the age of five and raised him as their own. He is an American citizen now through the family adoption. Australia really does need to get their act into gear. (My letter was the lead opinion piece in the Saturday paper.

Many are surprised by this little-known law. So, one day I wrote a letter about how discriminatory it is and sent it to the Opinion page of the Hobart Mercury, and Tasmanian Senators Jacqui Lambie and Andrew Wilkie as well as the federal minister for Immigration.  I felt better but no idea if anybody will respond or open their eyes a bit. Other families must be affected by this I’d think.

Off the Shelf: 

When I get back from my upcoming trip to New South Wales I have some new books to share with you that I am enjoying very much.

Penguin of the week:

I have also rolled the random di and have a 70^th anniversary Penguin picked out of the boxed set collection. That too will be shared later.

Life Happens: 

Life is starting to pick up. Thursday I am flying to Sydney to begin an eight day road trip of photography down the coast with a good friend. We will travel south of Sydney for some seascape days and then inland for some photos of areas I’ve not been to before.

Then I will have a ‘rest’ when another friend arrives, and we will spend 4 nights in Sydney visiting all the places we love. We are going to the Opera House one evening to see A Comedy of Errors.  This week I researched the play as this is a play by Shakespeare, I am not familiar with.  It looks like it will be fun and quite comical. We won’t forget the bookshops either.

Photo(s) of the week: 

Last Sunday our photography club went south of Hobart to the Wooden Boat centre at Franklin. We spent time photographing whatever we wanted for a couple of hours. I’ll share a couple of the photos at the end of this post.

It was a beautiful day and not as cold as it’s been. We really enjoyed the day and followed it with hot coffee in a local café afterwards.  It felt like life was normal again. 

I’ll be back here after 20 August sometime. Need to get over the two hour jet lag I’ll experience. I have not been off this island since 2019. 

What the Penguin did this week:

Outside of hasseling politicians I am packing.  I will see that our Penguin is on the road again with me as well. Long term followers will have seen him visiting other countries previously.  He is looking forward to this trip as much as I am.

Stay well everyone.

18 July 2022 – 6C i

When I was collecting the old Penguin books I was able to attain several boxed sets. In fact I had 37 boxed sets in all by the time I sold the library. I sold most of the boxed sets but I wasn’t able to part with all of them. Too sentimental.

I kept the 1960’s, 70’s and the 80’s little black book anniversary sets.

However I have not read them so I thought it was time I did. I am going to begin with the 1970’s set. There are 70 small books in this set. Some books are excerpts from larger works, some are like short stories or novellas.  I will use the random org app to choose which one I read next. I would like to read one a week but I can’t promise this as life has its chaotic moments. I will do a brief summary of each book so do not expect a long review of anything. So many people do such a wonderful job of book reviews I don’t feel compelled to add my voice. 

Stay well. Stay tuned…….

The week of 10th July, 2022

Welcome to the new format of the Travellin’ Penguin. With my dodgy eye sight I decided to develop a template for future blogs. Something easier that keeps my on track, avoids me rambling too much and just getting out the points I want to make. 

What I’m Reading: I am getting through Geraldine Brook’s book Horse. It is based on the true story of the most famous race horse in 1800s America who was cared for by a young slave. I’m finding it a much simpler read than I anticipated. It is more like a book I would have read in 7^th or 8^th grade, a level above Black Beauty maybe. I am finding the research is quite good as are the characters that pop up in the 1800s.  Of course a book about slavery and horse racing is not my favourite topic. I really abhor stories of slavery (though so far I’m not finding the horrific events written about in other books but the night is young). I also really despise horse racing but as this is a book for August book group and I’m seeing Geraldine Books at the Theatre Royal the end of July I am persevering with dread. 

I have begun a wonderful memoir by British actress Sheila Hancock called Old Rage. She is in her late 80s and she has a lot to say about growing older. The book is in diary form. Her sense of humour is on every page and I have seen her most recent film, Edie (2017) a couple of times and no doubt will watch it again. The story revolves around her life after her husband’s death. She doesn’t want to sit around waiting to die so she travels to Scotland where she is determined to climb a mountain in a remote area. I loved the film. There is a synopsis of it here.

I also have the book about death called The End on my Kindle by Bianca Nogrady. Sue at Whispering Gums wrote a great review of it so I decided to read it. Find that here.

It is an interesting non fiction account of death, what happens physiologically, the myths, is there an afterlife, etc.  It is not a book for everyone but I am really enjoying getting familiar with the nitty-gritty and hearing other person’s experiences with it (then revived) or around it. But……(Now you’ll laugh at this) I tend to read it when sitting in doctor waiting rooms or at the Franklin Square bus stop waiting for the bus home after the gym). I do not read it before falling asleep at night in bed. It is a bit too close to home!

Bookish Event of the Week:  There have been two book launches in the past two weeks through Fullers Book shop. The first one was the Stella award winning author Evelyn Araluen discussing and reading from her book of poetry Drop Bear.  There are many reviews of this book online so I’ll let Mr Google lead you there, but what a breath of fresh air she is. Young, dynamic, tells it like it is regarding First Nation’s people of Australia. Funny, intelligent and I think I’d read anything she publishes. We just loved her. If you get the chance to see her or read her poetry, run, don’t walk.

The second event was the launch of Undertow, by Kim Bambrook.  The blurb is as follows:

And on it goes. Fiction published by Forty South Publishing.

Kay wakes up on a floundering yacht.The Tasmanian coastline has receded, and her partner, Sam, has mysteriously disappeared.An eerie fog hinders visibility.With no means of communication with the outside world, Kay’s worst fears are realised: she is alone and isolated, her vessel off-course and lurching into the unknown.From the bow of a sinking yacht to remote and craggy coastlines, Kay’s journey is one of unexpected dangers and startling discoveries.In an unforgiving environment, Kay has to dig deep and trust her instincts

(Photo at left- Above: Kim Bambrook rt and below Evelyn Araluen)

The launch was a bit of a laugh. This is her first book, and she based it on a very adventurous childhood and adult life she has lived. She has travelled the world, lived and sailed on a yacht alone for 7 yrs, had two children, seemingly raised on her own.  The head of Forty South Publishing flew here to introduce the two people who would introduce and interview her. The room was packed with quite well off people who flew here from all over the country to be here for the night.  The launch was person after person singing her praises and achievements. In one hour we had the three who heaped accolades on the author, the interview of the author, a journalist whose name escaped me after the audience was told she had Covid earlier in the week! I lost my train of thought after that announcement and I must say she looked very sick. Then we had the talk for 15 or 20 minutes of how the book came about which was interesting. I must say I liked the author and she appeared very humble but the others! Then there were a few questions and then the author gave a speech lasting about 10 minutes as to how humble she felt and she had a list of notes four pages long of those she wanted to thank. OMG, we winced.  There was a book signing afterwards and of course I bought the book for my friend’s 83^rd birthday and I think I will actually enjoy the story. But as my friend and I left the shop we looked at each other and said, “Did she just launch her first book or did she find the cure for cancer?” Hilarious. 

Penguin of the week:

I will tell you more about this the next time and probably in a separate post. 

Life Happens:

My week went well. A couple of times at the gym, no visit to the eye doctor for a change. Cold days but I accomplished a fair amount of walking. A wonderful pedicure with teal nails in anticipation of seeing two dear friends in Sydney soon. I hope my mask keeps me healthy as I wear it everywhere. The book launches over the past two weeks and the Monday night shared reading of Hard Times by Dickens pretty much filled the week.

From the Photo Archive:

I am continuing to learn editing software of my photos so have pulled a few out of the archives. I will share one of the past travel photos here. I hope you enjoyed this rambling missive and look forward to hearing one or two things you read or did this week.

This photo was taken in Botswana on a trip we did to Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. These guys are scary and purported to be the most dangerous animal in Africa. Faster than you’d think.

Hippos weight up to 2000 kgs and kill 3000 people per year in Africa. Yikes!

Let me know what you did or read this week. I really enjoy hearing what people do to make themselves comfortable or happy during these times.