Spokesongs: Bicycle Adventures on Three Continents

Library Journal

In 1987, Hamlin (nursing, Andrews Univ.), a grandmother, vegetarian, and Seventh-Day Adventist, biked from California to South Carolina to promote her plan for a healthy lifestyle: FRESH START (fresh air, rest, exercise, simple diet, happiness, sunshine, the use of water, abstemiousness, restoration, and trust in divine power). Since then she has bicycled through Asia, Australia, Canada, and Europe, dispensing nutrition advice, depending on the abundant and often unexpected kindness of strangers, and listening to the "One" voice for advice. Her mildly entertaining account has little to do with the wonders of travel because she is usually too busy meeting deadlines to enjoy the sights around her, and the people she encounters are kind and helpful but never interesting. Her work is primarily for larger public libraries with Christian collections. Weir, a travel writer, actor, public radio commentator, and bicycle advocate, has compiled a series of short, mostly amusing vignettes based on his travels in India, South Africa, and the Balkans. Originally reported on the radio, these very short stories leave the reader wanting to know more about the places and people Weir encountered. Weir's book is for public libraries with an active bicycling section. Photographs in the Hamlin book are of vacation snapshot quality; those in Weir's book are better. All are in black-and-white.Linda M. Kaufmann, North Adams State Coll. Lib., Mass.

Adventure Cyclist

Masterfully written in exceedingly accessible style, SPOKESONGS scoops us up and takes us along to three extraordinary biking destinations. . . . Don't pass this one by.