My Pilgrim's Heart; A Woman's Journey Through Marriage And Other Foreign Lands

By Stephanie Dale

More than a travel memoir My Pilgrim's Heart examines all the elements of marriage and the relationships between women and a masculine world. It covers all forms of the male female relationship(s) from mother- son to husband- wife and solo woman as viewed in male dominated societies of the Middle East. The book shares how some of these relationships are can grow and change once the parties involved realize there is nothing to fear.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9780982140772

Reviews for My Pilgrim's Heart; A Woman's Journey Through Marriage And Other Foreign Lands

[khiemstra631 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as an early reviewer. Had I checked it out from the library as I do most of my books, I would have either returned it unfinished or else skipped over large portions. It was not the interesting travel journal that I expected from the advance publicity. First, it is self-published, which always throws up red flags for me. The book would benefit tremendously from the touch of a good editor who would correct such mistakes as Woodrow Wilson dividing up Europe after World War II. The Australian author's son set out on a pilgrimage from Canterbury to Jerusalem. I remained unclear as to the purpose of this pilgrimage after finishing the book since neither the author nor the son appeared to be affiliated with any particular religion. Author Dale joined her son in Rome, and her complaining begins almost immediately. When her feet and other parts of her body hurt, she hops on a bus or train and waits for her son to arrive at their point of rendezvous. This seemed like a very unusual version of a pilgrimage. The book is also billed as a pilgrimage through marriage. The author had been married for less than a year to a Dutchman, who she apparently did not bother to get to know very well before she married him. (It sounded like she married him for his money.) Whether she can stand to stay married to him forms a lengthy section of the meanderings of this book. She flits back and forth between travel and marriage throughout the work. The travel sections have their interesting moments; the marriage sections do not. To save you the bother of reading the book: she divorces her husband. Skip it.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Stephanie Dale tells the story of accompanying her son on his pilgrimage from England to Jerusalem. At least her son did walk that distance; Stephanie only tried to walk from Rome to Istanbul. And she didn't even walk that whole leg as she would take a bus whenever she needed to rest. Stephanie practically describes every step of the way when she did walk including her interior dialogue about the state of her marriage. I quickly got tired of her moans about her husband's requests for sex which she thought he demanded because he was financially supporting her. Why did these two get married in the first place? That would have been the better question to ask.I also got tired of how often she described what they ate (which seemed to be mostly chocolate and mandarins). It is true that eating local food is one of the delights of travelling but I really didn't need to know every time they stopped for a snack.There were some worthwhile parts to the book. The journey through the countries that used to make up Yugoslavia was quite interesting and I very much envied her extended stay in Istanbul. But for every little nugget of delight there was a whole plateful of extraneous or annoying detail.

[mkboylan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

[My Pilgrim's Heart] by [[Stephanie Dale]]This is a fascinating story of a woman's walk from Rome to Syria, a near perfect setting for exploring her gender socialization as well as her relationships with both men and women.   It is intensely introspective, and is truly about the journey of her marriage, as the title clearly states: A Woman's Journey through Marriage and Other Foreign Lands.  Many philosophies suggest in differing terminology, that people examine their "dark side", reclaim their "projections", etc. in regard specifically to their choice of partner.  This is exactly what Ms. Dale does in her marriage.  It is an amazing  and courageous journey she undertakes. I LOVE this book.  If you have any interest in these ideas, don't miss it! You'll never look at your partner the same way.

[journeygirl_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book through LT's Early Reviewer program, and I have to confess to writing this review before finishing the book. I live in Italy and recently went to Istanbul, so this memoir of the author's walk from Rome to Istanbul with her son was very appealing to me. But I just can't seem to connect with the author. There are a few beautiful, lyrical observations set into pages of inner self exploration that are just boring and somewhat narcissistic (but I suppose that's what a memoir is). I have put the book down early on - after reading pages upon pages of the author's recent marriage and her complaints about her husband, who sounds like an old, lecherous, boring man who is a member of a religious cult, the author then describes an incident that occurs just before she and her son begin their walk. She finds a beautiful, expensive, travel backgammon set that she desperately wants to purchase, and after thinking about it, decides that she will purchase it, and she knows her husband will be pleased for her to buy something that makes her so happy. I found this moment to be the culmination of my growing confusion with the author's memoir. All of a sudden, this man who seemed so terrible, is now described as someone who sounds caring and loving. Another odd detail is that she comments on how she and her son are polite to one another, yet have no relationship. But she and her son walked the pilgrim trail, over 1000 miles, in Spain together only seven years prior to the walk of "My Pilgrim's Heart." How do you walk that long with your son and not get to know him as a person? If I can continue reading, perhaps the author's relationships will begin to make sense, but I can tell this book is going to take me months to get through. I just find the book, so far, to be too much of one woman's inner world that doesn't really make sense or keep the attention of a reader.

[kblinn_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as an early reviewer. Had I checked it out from the library as I do most of my books, I would have either returned it unfinished or else skipped over large portions. It was not the interesting travel journal that I expected from the advance publicity. First, it is self-published, which always throws up red flags for me. The book would benefit tremendously from the touch of a good editor who would correct such mistakes as Woodrow Wilson dividing up Europe after World War II. The Australian author's son set out on a pilgrimage from Canterbury to Jerusalem. I remained unclear as to the purpose of this pilgrimage after finishing the book since neither the author nor the son appeared to be affiliated with any particular religion. Author Dale joined her son in Rome, and her complaining begins almost immediately. When her feet and other parts of her body hurt, she hops on a bus or train and waits for her son to arrive at their point of rendezvous. This seemed like a very unusual version of a pilgrimage. The book is also billed as a pilgrimage through marriage. The author had been married for less than a year to a Dutchman, who she apparently did not bother to get to know very well before she married him. (It sounded like she married him for his money.) Whether she can stand to stay married to him forms a lengthy section of the meanderings of this book. She flits back and forth between travel and marriage throughout the work. The travel sections have their interesting moments; the marriage sections do not. To save you the bother of reading the book: she divorces her husband. Skip it.

[mareofthesea · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

My Pilgrim's Heart is the story of Stephanie Dale & her son Ben's trip, by foot, from Rome to Israel. I was looking forward to this book a lot, and instead I found myself disapointed. While the story itself provides a few good moments, I found the writing disjointed, rambling, and far too wordy for my liking. Dale is a complainer, her feet, her marriage, the travel, etc. I wanted to see growth and knowledge, instead I found a person who wrote a book that spends its time stuck on the negative, instead of all the beauty and positives surrounding her. Such a journey of self-actualization is not an easy one to take. I get that. There will be some negatives along the way, but I found Dale's thoughts & story centered more around the problems than the actual results. I wanted more about the people she met, the places she saw, and the things she did, and less about her personal issues.

[angela9vaughn · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I spent the better part of a month reading this book. I was looking forward to an adventure with a strong female lead. I like hearing about new lands and the quirky locals. I got nothing like that and was disappointed. She complained about her marriage, her sore feet and her son not understanding. How many times do I have to hear about clean white sheets, backgammon and chocolate? There was no such luck with beautiful landscapes or locals. She was just to self absorbed for it to have any substance. I will not be suggesting this or even passing it on.

[deesirings · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a memoir of a woman's journey on foot, accompanying her son for a significant leg of his walk from the UK to Israel. The author's plan, when she sets out, is to walk from Rome to Greece. She makes it a good deal of the way but winds up taking a train to Istanbul when her son decides to continue his trek through mountains when he own self can only fathom a journey through an alternative route in the low lands.This is as much, if not more, about the author's methaphorical, internal musings as it is about the sights on her travels. Most prominent among this reflections, is her marriage and the difficulties she is having in it. The author mentions her previous life on a commune of women and as a feminist lesbian and talks about her marriage to a Dutch man, as it was before she left on her walk. Never does she explain her decision to have married this man in the first place. Unsurprisingly, given this, her journey leads her to a decision to end her marriage.There's a certain cadence to this book that kept me reading. While I was far from engrossed, I was still able to feel the rhythm of the walk and read on as Stephanie walked on.

[bibliophileofalls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My Pilgrim's Heart reminded me of Eat, Pray, Love quite a bit for obvious reasons. The protagonist is certainly wrapped up in her feelings and her sensitivities which she makes no secret of. She has come on this monumental pilgrimage with her twenty-something son who has some interesting quirks to his personality along with his mother. She does fairly well physically with the exception of her feet which always seem to be blistered and hurting. Emotionally, she's trying to work out her feelings about her quite disastrous-sounding marriage of less than a year. It's pretty obvious sheshouldn't be in that marriage but it takes her a long long time to come to that realization. All told, a pretty good book although quite a bit longer than it should have been. I actually liked it better than EPL!

[insightsgal · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was excited to receive this book as I love travelogues, especially when written from a woman's perspective. Well, that's not really what you get with this book. The author spends an inordinate amount of time complaining about her marriage, a fairly recent marriage at that. In addition, the author is quite wordy, almost to the point where it seems she likes to hear herself talk. Sorry folks, this one was a dud, and a struggle to finish.

[amekole · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I normally love books about travel and pilgrimage. I normally love books that are strong on female introspection, particularly when looking at relationships. I really want to like this book, and there are parts so far that I do enjoy, and certain phrases and paragraphs really stick with me as truisms, but... I'm having a hard time getting through it. I really like the travel pieces. I might appreciate the introspective parts as well, except I generally would expect more from a women with her experiences. She seems to be well educated, struggled raising her son, and clearly seems adept at introspection. This sort of inner turmoil and marital issues, only a year into a marriage seem like they should be coming from an impulsive 20 year old. I feel like she should have sorted her self out before now, and it grates on me. Probably because I really wanted to identify with her as a mother of an adult child traveling the world. I love her sense of adventure and spirit. I hope this book ends well for her and her marriage. I will continue to struggle through it to get to the end and maybe it will pick up and I will have to rewrite my review (I hope so!). Right now, I'd only give it 3 1/2 stars. If I could have bypassed the first 35 pages and started with the traveling section I would probably be enjoying this book a lot more.

[vhaskell_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author's journey through foreign countries is very interesting. The details about the countryside and people are what I look for in a book about travel. On the other hand, I did not like the author's reflections on marraiage. Statements about marriage coming from a person who has been in a troublesome marriage for less than a year are somewhat ridiculous. I would have enjoyed the book more if there was nothing about her marital problems.

[carolee888 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have seen glowing reviews about My Pilgrim's Heart A Woman's Journey Through Marriage and Other Foreign Lands by Stephanie Dale. But I was very disappointed. It may be in part that even though I love memoirs, I have trouble with travel memoirs. I am just not interested in what people do about every single day of their trip. I am not interested in what they ate, especially if it is not is local to the area. This may be the best of the travel memoirs that I have read so far. Stephanie Dale took a long journey, mostly by foot from Rome to Jerusalem with her son for two reasons. She wanted to know her son better and she wanted work out what she felt about staying in her marriage.What I liked in this book was the occasional bursts of humor that hop through the pages. I liked knowing the purpose of her long walk. I liked reading what is different from the West in the countries that she traveled.What I didn't like is the form, a lot of entries I thought could have been easily omitted and I wouldn't have missed them. I didn't like that she seemed to pass judgment on family members without explaining how she got to her conclusion. I would recommend this book if you love travel diaries but not if you love memoirs.I received this book from Library Thing as a win but that in no way influenced my review.