by Nicholas Triolo
First sentence: “In my early twenties, I decided to travel around the world.”
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Review copy provided by the publisher rep.
Release date: July 8, 2025
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It will be in the Creative Nonfiction section (maybe?) of the Bookstore.

The publisher rep, when he came to talk to staff, pitched this book as a cross between a travel book and an exploration of the idea of meditation through walking in circles. It sounded fascinating, as I love a good travel book, and I am curious about different ways to meditate.

That’s not what I got. This book is broken up into three sections: the first was Triolo walking around Kailash in Tibet; the second was him walking around (or up?) Tamalpais in northern California; and the third was walking around an abandoned copper mine in Butte, Montana. There was elements of travel and elements of the idea that walking in circles is meditative, but elements does not a good book make.

I abandoned this a bit of the way into the third section – I just had no interest in Triolo walking around a pit – it just wasn’t clicking at all. Out of the two sections, I thought the second – the mountain in California – was closest to what I wanted out of the book, but even then, I just wasn’t invested in reading it. I’m sure this book will be for someone, but it wasn’t for me.