I normally don’t enter contests or drawings as I almost never win or worse end up with third prize (either the fuzzy dice or the pink bunny slippers).  That changed a bit last month. Fellow blogger, Ray, over at, “A Simple, Village Undertaker,” posted this little contest called, “Who Am I” with a little video clip.  Now useless trivia and old movies are specialties of mine – I try not to brag about it too much, but my head is just stuffed with arcane and useless facts.

So when I saw the picture in the clip, I knew it was Marlon Brando.  Took a few minutes to remember that the little clip was from a screen test.  Sadly, I did get the year wrong, but only being one year off, Ray decided to award me the prize, the book, Not Without My Father  by Andra Watkins.

Ray had read the book, wrote a review of it and had a copy to give away.

I won!

And I’ve read the whole thing.  It reminded me of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) journals I’ve read on-line.  There are people every year who do long distant hikes and publish their journals.  In some cases, this is done through a blog while the person is hiking.  It can be exciting to keep up with people’s progress as they trudge hundreds of miles on their feet so I was interested in reading Watkins story.

Watkins book doesn’t disappoint.  She gives a great description of her daily hikes, the trail, her challenges and what she saw.  What really kept me reading though was her stories of what happened before and after the daily hiking with the sometimes dysfunctional relationships between her and her father along with the rest of her support team including her mother, husband and friends.  As the title suggests the good stuff happens between her and her father – you’ll want to read that.

At the end of each chapter I was left wondering what her father would do next and that kept me reading.  All I can say is that I’d like her father out on the road selling my next book.  Well, maybe…

It’s a fascinating story of one person setting out to do something out of her comfort zone and an inspiring read.

I recommend you check it out.

My thanks to Ray for making me aware of this book and taking the effort to send me a copy.  Check out his blog – he posts some good stuff over there.

Till next time,
Andrew