Book Review: Introspective Guides for the Camino and the Way Back
Book Review: Introspective Guides for the Camino and the Way Back
Discovering the Way: Reflections and Practices for the Camino de Santiago
by Dawn Dishman
BookBaby, 2025
34 pages (Kindle edition only)
on Goodreads
The Way Back: Reflections, Practices & Rituals to Help You Bring Home the Wisdom of Your Pilgrimage
by Jen Manglos
Homecoming Publishing, 2025
88 pages (paperback and Kindle editions)
on Goodreads
Reviewed by Amy Horton | Warrenton, MO
Two new introspective guides for Camino pilgrims are available. One is designed to accompany pilgrims on their journey, and the other is structured to guide pilgrims in integrating their experiences into daily life after a journey.
Discovering the Way: Reflections and Practices for the Camino de Santiago is written by Dawn Dishman, who has served as a campus minister for more than 35 years and, along with her husband Dave, guides pilgrim groups on the Camino de Santiago. This spiritual guidebook is structured for a six-day walk into Santiago de Compostela, though one could adapt the readings and reflections to fit their own pilgrimage.
A brief introductory section orients readers to the James traditionally associated with the Camino de Santiago and distinguishes him from the two other men by that name also mentioned in the New Testament. Sections that follow include one to be read before beginning the journey, four to be read at the end of a day’s journey, one to be read the night before arriving in Santiago de Compostela, and the final to be read after finishing the pilgrimage. Each section contains passages for reading, questions for reflection, and recommended spiritual practices for the following day. The book concludes with a list of suggested Camino practices to foster connection with oneself, God, and fellow pilgrims.
While Discovering the Way is designed as a daily devotional for the pilgrim on Camino, Dishman also sees the practices as something pilgrims can carry home and apply for a lifetime. That latter application is the focus of The Way Back: Reflections, Practices & Rituals to Help You Bring Home the Wisdom of Your Pilgrimage, by Jen Manglos, who has served as a church pastor and neighborhood minister, and is now a retreat curator and pilgrimage guide for small groups and individuals.
The Way Back is organized into three main sections—Celebrate, Release, and Integrate—and is bookended by a prologue and epilogue recounting the author’s experiences walking into Santiago and back home from the Camino, respectively. The paperback edition comes in a generously large print. It’s structured as a workbook, offering blank, unlined gaps between framing questions, so readers compelled to do so could journal or sketch a brief response right there on the page. Though, one may simply view the spaciousness between questions as an invitation, like on Camino, to slow down and savor each step of this final stage of pilgrimage: homecoming.
Editor’s note: Find reflections and poetry by Jen Manglos in past La Concha issues: “Just Breathe” (Spring 2024), “Empowered by Patches” (Autumn 2024), and “Sunset at Finisterre” (Winter 2025).
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