The Mission Walker

I Was Given Three Months to Live....

By: Edie Littlefield Sundby

Narrated by: Jaimee Paul

Audie Award Finalist for best inspirational book!

Image Award (Native Daughters of the Golden West)

Have you ever wanted to just start walking, and never ever stop? To leave behind “who I am” to find “who I am.”

Walking alone, and with one lung (the other lost to cancer), Edie Littlefield Sundby became the first person in history to walk the 1,600-mile El Camino Real de las Californias mission trail through the mountain wilderness of Mexico and one of the hottest deserts on Earth, and across the border to Northern California - a walk that elevated her life with meaning and purpose that transcended pain and fear – and healed her broken body.

The Mission Walker is a first-hand account of harrowing adventure along the old Jesuit mission trail in Baja California Mexico - desert heat and cold, walls of cactus, sleeplessness, hunger, both physical and spiritual exhaustion, the dangers of wild creatures, and encounters with drug smugglers and weeks with no water other than what a pack mule could carry; and the tortuous agony and transcendent beauty of walking the northern half of the mission trail through California, a trek Edie made six months after losing her right lung to cancer – a journey that restored health and spirit after fighting recurrent stage 4 cancer, including 79 rounds of chemotherapy, four radical surgeries (liver, lung, colon/stomach, and throat), and dozens of radiation treatments.

Edie’s story is both an adventure story and a reflection on the universal experience of confronting our own mortality. It is a story of what we will do when faced with the potential end of our life. What do we do with our time left on Earth? And how much do we still really, truly want to live?

The book cites more than 50 original historical sources and captures the untamed wilderness adventure experienced for centuries along the old Jesuit and Franciscan mission trail that unites California and Mexico and defines the Old West.

For those who crave a spirit of adventure, who ache like Edie to know what our bodies and spirits are truly capable of, this book is a must-listen. A true testament to faith, courage, and the power of hope.

Editorial Reviews:

"Edie Sundby’s account of her amazing trek along the entirety of the 1,600-mile California Mission Trail is not only captivating and inspiring but also one heck of an outdoors adventure." (Les Standiford, author and historian)

"This powerful story of determination and faith will stay with you forever." (Ken Budd, journalist/author)

“… A ripping narrative that takes us through the author’s harrowing journeys, inward and outward.” (JoBeth McDaniel, journalist/author)

"The Mission Walker is a marvelous book, a moving meditation on the relationships between courage and faith, endurance and transcendence." (Randall Sullivan, creator, The Miracle Detective, Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN)

©2017 Edie Littlefield Sundby (P)2017 Thomas Nelson Publishers

Narrator ruins it...

I was looking fwd to this book. The story is compelling. But goodness this narrator just kills it. Overacts it and takes away from the narrative. Wish she'd tone it down or Audible offer more than one narrator of texts. Author herself would have been special too.

Excelente

This book is so Incredibly inspiring!
I feel like I can do anything now! I love the Padres stories within Edie’s story.
It was enriching. It made it feel like I’d read 3 good books instead of 1.

Inspiring Story; narrator mispronounces key words

As a walker, and someone who enjoys learning about California history, I enjoy the story very much. The beginning, about dealing with cancer, is interesting too and told in an upbeat and hopeful way.

Overall, I think the narrator has a pleasant voice, is easy to listen to, and generally does a good job. However, she repeatedly mispronounces key Spanish names of people and places. For example, Junipero Serra is a well-known historical person whose name comes up often, and anyone familiar with California and its history - anyone who went to 4th grade in California - or anyone with any knowledge of Spanish pronunciation should know how to pronounce the name, but this name that comes up often in the story is always mis-pronounced. And some of the names of the missions and cities that are key to the story are also mis-pronounced, as well as common Spanish words, like chollo being mispronounced. It distracts and detracts from the story, as it comes up repeatedly, and brings to the listener's attention that the narrator is not the author, and is likely not from California, and didn't go to the effort to check the pronunciation of key historical people and places.

Still, I do enjoy learning the story, and recommend the story for people interested in long distance walking, and in California history, but I now wish I had read it rather than listening, as the mispronunciation is pretty distracting and annoying. I think that the producers also should have paid attention to this, as the equivalent of editing or proofreading a written book.

I hope the story with be re-recorded someday, by someone who has a knowledge of Spanish pronunciation. Or, perhaps this narrator could learn the correct pronounciations and those portions could be edited in this recording.

I wanted to love it....

It's an amazing story and I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't finish it. The narrator is overly dramatic and her voice began to grate on my nerves after awhile.

Tough in more than one way...

Edie is one tough and resilient lady - I admire her strength and resolve in facing cancer and enduring the hardships along the Mission walk. Amazing story! I admit to finding the retelling a bit repetitively lengthy, though.
The narrator was overly expressive and dramatic as if trying to engage the attention of first graders...I almost quit listening several times! Also many mispronounciations including the name of Junipero Serra, the monk who founded the trail !! Crazy making!
I would not listen to this reader again.

Possibly better as paperback?

I was intrigued by the premise of this story. However, having purchased it and having listened to a chapter or so, I have to call it quits. The main reason is because of the narrator. I agree with other reviewers that describe the narrator as overly expressive and dramatic. It seems as if she is reading to kindergarteners. The narrator is also quite breathy. She takes a large, audible breath before most sentences. (Yes, we all have to breathe- we just don't notice the breath with good/great speakers, because it's not pronounced or over-done.)
Unfortunately, this story goes back, and I will be mindful of this narrator in the future. I would not again listen to Jaimee Paul.