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The Wild, Wild Wonders of Iceland
By popular demand! You've asked for a SirenSojourns adventure to Iceland, so, book-lovers, that's where we're going in late summer, 2023!
Hot pools, raucous geysers and sweet-faced ponies are only part of Iceland's allure. This adventure will take you to some of the untamed wildernesses that inspired the sagas and folklore of this remarkable country. We'll be swept by the winds of the northern coast, test our stamina as we scale the flank of a volcano, and gather for hearty meals and good wine.
And get ready for a killer book list!
Email me at SirenSojourns@gmail.com for a preview as the trip takes shape.
8 intrepid Sojourners needed to launch this adventure.
Roam to Read Book for October: The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Erlich
Gathered around a campfire on the verdant south shore of Lake Superior, I asked nearly two dozen adventurous book-lovers to read aloud from the books I'd put on our weekend reading list. One of them was Gretel Erlich's "The Solace of Open Spaces."
We leaned closer to one another as our quiet voices drifted out to the water and up to a glimmering night sky.
What could essays about the arid mountains and taciturn sheep-herders of rural Wyoming conceivably have to tell us about our experience in the big Wisconsin woods?
Erlich went to Wyoming for work and, in mourning over the loss of her beloved, decided to stay. As the weeks and then months went by, she discovered an exquisite awakening to the "open country...with its 100-mile views" and succumbed to the ways the unfamiliar landscape were shaping her.
"I came here four years ago," she writes. "I had not planned to stay but I couldn't make myself leave."
And as Erlich's horizon widens, her work does too. "The true art I would strive for in any work would be to give the page the same qualities as earth; weather would land on it harshly; light would elucidate the most difficult truths; wind would sweep away obtuse padding."
Lunch with Edith Wharton in Rome
One of my all-time favorite short stories is Edith’s Wharton’s Roman Fever. It opens on the elegant terrace of a restaurant in Rome, where two aristocratic American frenemies have lunched late into the afternoon, as their daughters flit off to flirt with Italian “flyers.” The women are reminiscing about the summer they were young and single in Rome and interested in the same man.
I like to think that if there were thought bubbles over these dames' heads those bubbles would say: “I know what you did.” “I know you know what I did but what are you gonna do about it?”
Wharton creates a sense of tranquility in her description of the deepening Roman afternoon: “Suddenly the air was full of the deep clangor of bells which periodically covers the roof of Rome with silver,” and contrasts that tranquility with the view from the cafe terrace of Italian monuments… “Her gaze turned toward the Colosseum. Already its golden flank was drowned in purple shadow…” that evoke Italy’s Fascist ambitions and the tension building between the women.
When the secret that Alida Slade and Grace Ansley have spent thirty years avoiding finally splats right onto the table between them, the Roman candles ignite and burn:
“Mrs Slade seemed to have no answer ready. But after a moment she broke out: “Because I simply can’t bear it any longer. Mrs. Ansley lifted her head quickly. Her eyes were wide and very pale. “Can’t bear what? “Why, your not knowing that I’ve always known why you went.” Roman Fever, Edith Wharton.
It's so delicious!
My Bhutan Book List, November 2022
When we're not wandering through mountaintop temples and observing with wonder the return of the black-necked cranes to the Phobjikha Valley of Bhutan, our intrepid band of book-lovers will be in constant conversation about books.
I wanted a book list that spoke to our collective sense of discovery, the camaraderie we would be experiencing as we explored the remote interior of Bhutan and the spirit of friendship and wisdom a dozen women could give to one another.
So I created a provocative and eclectic book list. Here are just some of the books we are carrying on the SirenSojourns Bhutan Adventure.
"Braving the Wilderness" by Brene Brown. "H is for Hawk" by Helen Macdonald. "Lost Horizon: A Novel of Shangri-La" by James Hilton. "Burnout" by Emily & Amelia Nagoski.