June Book Club: Its Not About the Tapas
It's June! That pretty much means it's summer! Which leads into summer adventures! So let's hop on a bike and tour spain BY BIKE!
A little to crazy for you? That's ok, my husband would probably kill me if I ran off to Spain to ride my bike … or would he…?
Let's be realistic and follow along with Polly Evans through her book 'It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels', as she rides/suffers through Spain, ALONE, on her BIKE, in YELLOW spandex. I've jumped in the book a bit and find her to be another amazing NORMAL woman that decides something GRAND, drops herself into a country, and though there are times of exhaustion, she still huffs it out while eating amazing food the entire way!
Seriously people, this book might inspire you to take a girls trip to Spain where we ride our bikes up grisly hills, then reward ourselves with mounds of tapas & sangria. I've been wanting/needing this to happen, OR we all sign up for Ironman Barcelona *hint*. No matter what, just start saving now!
There is a little back story (as always) to this book. I have had this book sitting on my bookshelf for 7 years. Mark brought it home for me from the first ship he was stationed on (they actually have libraries on board). Now I don't remember him saying WHY he got the book for me, but I can remember him handing me the book. The colors caught my eye, it was about Spain (my heritage), and it was a story of an independent woman. I instantly thought that it probably wasn't the greatest book for Mark to give me as he deploys to exotic locations, leaving my ass behind. Mark knew at the beginning of our marriage that I wanted to travel, explore, and absorb different cultures. But to do all that on a bike? HA! I laugh in the face of that looney woman (again this was 7 years ago, now the idea sounds like pure genius, I have my passport ready). Books make my heart soar, and lately I have been looking into my magical bookshelves and flashing back to memories of the first time I read a certain book, and how I felt that book shaped my views on life.
As you can see we are sticking with an adventure theme. Themes that show you that the impossible is not as far off as you might have thought.
I'll admit that I did have another book planned for this month, 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers', it documented a couple of families and people that live in the slums of Mumbai. I'll blog more about it later, but after coming out of the haze of the slums (I read it in one day, yesterday, all night), I needed something uplifting to get me through this month. So please join along. No worries if you missed our first book, you can tag in at any time!
P.S Keep up with the action over at our Facebook Book Club page.
P.S.S A friendly reminder to start saving for grand adventures!