Happy 4th of July!

Some Things We've Done - 2020 Edition

Carrying on the recap of how S and I have spent the last several years, here we go with... 

2020

Bahamas Cruise and Kennedy Space Center - COVID wasn't a thing yet, at least in this part of the world, when S and I joined K and J down in Florida for a long cruise weekend.  I had, some time prior, sent my passport in for renewal.  S got his back in a couple of weeks, but mine was delayed.  I am a shady character, after all....  Luckily, because the Bahamas is U.S.A.-lite, you can take a cruise there with just a birth certificate and driver's license (and in my case, a marriage license).  We had, as we usually do, a great time with K and J!  We kicked butt at trivia and did our best to clean out the bar; we can't let those unlimited drinks packages go to waste, after all!  Much pizza was consumed, we escaped from the escape room, we spent half a day in Nassau and J's birthday doing all the water slides at Coco Cay.

Back on land, we ended our whirlwind weekend with a trip to Kennedy Space Center. As seems to be the trend with every museum we visit, it is a place we could have spent some more time!

Colorado - it has been my tradition for some years - even before S was around, and definitely now that he's nearly as good a skier as I am - to head out to Colorado for the annual ski adventure.  It was on that trip that I bought the skis I still ski on each year, my Blizzard Black Pearls.  We didn't know it at the time, but that trip would be the last time we were on an airplane in an age.

 

Because then, COVID happened.

 

Remember how weird it was when no one knew what was happening?  And we never went anywhere?  Even going to the grocery store was a fraught experience.  Most of the rest of the year, we stayed home, as did many people.  We were both working from home, feeling very lucky to have flexible jobs and loads of outdoor space where we could get fresh air, work out, and generally not feel like we were trapped.  We pulled out lots of honeysuckle from our woods, spent time in the gardens, began the still-ongoing master bathroom renovation, spent lots of time cleaning and organizing the basement, and finally had time to do lots and lots of cooking.

We were not without some high-way bound adventures, though:

Shackteau - K and J have a cabin a few hours from where we live.  In June or July of 2020, they made the long trip up from Florida, Dad and D made the equally long drive in from Colorado, and we made the relatively short hop from our house to spend a week or so together.  As anyone who's ever been there knows, a trip to the Shackteau is also a project list.  The big one we ticked off during that visit was building a fire pit.  It's a 16' x 16' square in the yard, the hillside held back with a few railroad ties.  The ground is covered in gravel, and in the middle we built a fire ring out of landscaping bricks.

We enjoyed a lovely tour of the county, including the local cult, and spent a day on a boat at Mark Twain Lake.  All in all, it was a lovely time and a really nice way to see everyone when no one was flying.

Ozarks - S has an aunt and uncle who have, for ages, had a second home down at the Lake of the Ozarks.  In the late 20-teens, they upgraded to a bigger place, planning to ultimately sell their home in St. Louis when they retired and move down to the lake full time (which has now happened).  In the heat of summer in St. Louis, it's a nice place to escape to, which we did.

Colorado and Phoenix - as fall rolled towards winter in 2020, another round of COVID was rearing its ugly head.  We had been in St. Louis for longer at a stretch than we typically were, and we were getting a bit itchy to travel.  So we packed up our campervan and headed back to Colorado, stopping along the way at the Cosmpsphere and Strataca, both in Hutchinson, Kansas.  Once we arrived, we spent two weeks with Dad and D.  From there, we dropped down towards Phoenix, meeting up with T and L, S's dad and step-mom, along the way.  We then spent three weeks with them in Phoenix before making the long trek home, which were punctuated by stops at Petrified Forest National Park and the odd but fascinating Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve, outside Bartlesville, OK.

Some Things We've Done - 2019 Edition

Do you remember back when I used to write a lot on this blog about the various places I went and things I did all over town?  I do too.

I'm not sure quite why I got away from doing that, but I did.  It was sometime in 2019 that it happened.  I know this, because I just found a big ol' pile of playbills, brochures, and other documentation of various activities!

So, here is a seven year recap of our fun times (though there is a noticeable gap, which I'm sure you all will understand).

2019

60th Annual Lumberjack World Championships - Hayward, Wisconsin, is home to the annual Lumberjack World Championships.  We've been twice, and it's been a blast both times.  Tickets and beer are inexpensive, the competition is fierce, and the nearby Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest provides ample camping opportunities (if you can handle the North Country mosquitoes).  After our first night in the forest, we got a very kind offer to camp in the parking lot of the now-closed Tiny's Diner, which made the next morning's breakfast quite convenient.  Tiny had an enormous collection of rubber ducks and related decor, and we've sent him several to add to his collection as we've traveled the country and the world since we first met him, including one from SLAM right here in town!

We can also recommend setting aside a whole afternoon to visit the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum (and make sure you go all to the way to the last outbuildings, which is where they have the old fishing boats and motors -- we got a bit shorted on time so had to speed through this part, unfortunately).  Same goes for the Sawyer County Historical Society; it's a great little museum jam-packed with local history, but hours are a bit limited, so plan ahead!

Our Anniversary - we spent a weekend in downtown St. Louis for our 2019 anniversary.  We spent the day participating in MetroQuest, which covered the downtown and Washington Avenue neighborhoods that year.  Dinner was at Hamilton's Urban Steak House & Bourbon Bar, which was hosting a special Maker's Mark five-course pairing dinner that evening.  I still have the menu!  Seared scallop, arugula and endive salad, roasted rack of lamb, Wagyu ribeye, and bananas foster.  We capped it off with a visit to The Gaslight Theater, where they were showing the play Fifty Words, which is -- not ideally, for an anniversary -- a play about a troubled marriage.  But it was well-acted and was also my introduction to the Gaslight!  We stayed at the Angad Arts hotel, whose rooftop bar/club sure was an experience!  Cool rooms, though.

Florida - our last big family get-together pre-COVID was a Thanksgiving celebration at K's house.  It was a great time! 

Phoenix - we busted out of the St. Louis winter with a holiday trip to see some family in the Phoenix area.  Hands down, the best moment of the trip came when S's step-mom saw me shopping online for leather duffel bags.  "I'm thinking about getting myself a Christmas gift," I explained.  She told me to hold my horses, disappeared into a back bedroom, and came back out with a box that had "Christmas gift?" scrawled on the side in permanent marker.  She opened it up and pulled out a leather duffel bag!  Apparently they had ended up with it somehow and neither of them wanted it, but they never bothered to return it, instead holding onto it for the right moment.  It was (and remains) perfect!

What I'm Reading Now -- Cutting For Stone

Cutting for Stone was hugely popular and well reviewed when it first came out in 2009.  I was in my workin'-at-the-bookstore days at the time, and everyone wanted to read it. 

I've had the audio book version of this for probably a decade, but it's been stuck in the lost world of iTunes, and I have only relatively recently managed to extract it.  

So, since I've been having so much fun with audio books lately, off I go with this one! 

What I'm Reading Now -- The Federalist Papers

The September selection for my 2026 Reading Challenge is The Federalist Papers.  It's a collection of 85 essays that were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, collectively making the argument for why the voters in fledgling United States should ratify the newly-drafted Constitution.  

I am still working on How to Win a Grand Prix and was lamenting that, apparently, I have gotten rid of my copy of The Federalist Papers.  Since Grand Prix is digital, I wanted something on paper.  Imagine my good luck when I was over at a friend's house and she had a copy of The Federalist (as it was known when it originally published) right there on her bookshelf!  So off I go, with my borrowed paper copy of essays in support of our federal government.

Which, to be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about on the whole right now. 

A Gentleman in Moscow -- Take 2

I really liked A Gentleman in Moscow. More on that later.

Where I want to start is its big similarity with All The Light We Cannot See, which truly didn't hit me until I looked at this blog to begin writing this post.  But as soon as I saw the cover image for All The Light, it immediately hit me that they have extremely similar protagonists. Our titular Gentleman here is Count Alexander Rostov, who has been sentenced to a life of house arrest in Moscow's glamorous Metropol Hotel.  He is intelligent, witty, and observant, but limited by his physical confines.  In All The Light, young Marie-Laure is equally intelligent and observant, but spends years confined to one home or another in war-torn France as a consequence of her blindness.

 

Each of them witness, in their own way, huge world events unfolding outside their doors while half their lives pass them by. For Count Rostov, it's the decades following the Russian Revolution, as it grows into a world power; for Marie-Laure it's World War II.

 

They each have two major and several minor relationships which anchor them through the story.  For Marie-Laure, they biggies are her father and her uncle.  For Count Rostov, they're his long-time lover and his daughter (for details, you'll have to read it).

About A Gentleman In Moscow itself, I really did enjoy it.  I listened to the audio, which helped me get through a pretty hefty book in basically record time for a slow reader.  I appreciated the Count's erudite observation and analysis of the incidents and people that swirl around him. I appreciated - and this is unusual for me - the sometimes overly flowery language and the unnecessary asides.  They just all seemed to work in this book, with this character, in this style for me.  Nevermind that outside the doors of the Metropol, Russia was in crisis; the unflappable Count Rostov carries on.

What I'm Reading Now -- A Gentleman in Moscow

Amor Towles has been on my list of books to read for a while.  Somehow he's just never made it to the top.  I so enjoyed the experience of the last two audio books that I listened to, I decided I'd give it another go and see what else I could find in the library's "available now" category.

And there was Amor Towles! A Gentleman in Moscow was available, so I snagged it.  It's the story of a -- you guessed it -- gentleman (a count, specifically) in -- you guessed again -- Moscow after the Russian revolution.  As punishment for his various misdeeds, he is sentenced upon penalty of death to house arrest at the Metropol hotel.  It's the story of his time there -- how he passes it, whom he meets, what led him to that fate.

So far, the description in simply brilliant.  The recounting of the people and the goings-on in the lobby, the restaurants, the card room, even on the roof, all make me feel like I'm right there, wishing I were as articulate as the Count. 

I look forward to seeing what happens in the rest of his exile! 

The Paris Apartment -- Take 2

The Paris Apartment is basically the same book as The Midnight Feast.  I think, on balance, I did like The Paris Apartment a bit more.  The characters were more interesting and Paris is more interesting than most places. 

Our protagonist is the sister of a fellow who mysteriously disappeared just an hour or two before she arrived in Paris from London for a visit.  It falls to her to investigate his disappearance, all while being unsure of who she can trust and who may have been involved.

I haven't read The Guest List, the last of Lucy Foley's books that I had put on my list, but I expect it's also basically the same as the two I've read already.  Of course, maybe if I just need something entertaining, it'll be perfect. 

Happy Mother's Day!

All The Light We Cannot See -- Take 2

I have wanted to read All the Light We Cannot See for a long time.  It's a bit lengthy, which I think is part of the reason I never got to it.  So when it was available as an audio book and I needed a a good road trip listen recently, it was the perfect pick.  And I sure am glad I finally got to it!

It's a World War II story.  The main character is a blind girl, not yet a teenager at the start of the story, and 16 at the end.  She and her father, a locksmith employed by a major museum, fled Paris for her great uncle's home at the seaside.  What young Marie-Laure didn't know when they left is that her father was carrying one of four of the Sea of Flames, a huge and supposedly cursed diamond owned by the museum, which commissioned three replicas as the Germans closed in on Paris.  But someone knows the Sea of Flames exists, and is intent on finding it.  Marie-Laure has to navigate not only her challenges as a blind person in a new place and the normal ravages of war, but also the knowledge that her family may be in possession of the hunted gem.

It was a very quick listen (perhaps because I listened to it at 1.3x speed?), and I wonder if it was as quick of a read as well.  It did not feel like it would have equated to a 500-plus page book, that's for sure.  There were some ancillary characters whom I think the story could have been told without, but they added a certain amount of heart and balance to the tale which, in my opinion, is what made it really sing. 

What I'm Reading Now -- The Paris Apartment

Somehow, I find myself reading another Lucy Foley book.  This time, it's The Paris Apartment. 

A couple of months ago I read the forgettable The Midnight Feast, which is (shockingly, to me) Foley's seventh novel; Paris Apartment is her sixth).

To be fair, I actually do know how this happened.  I came upon it the same way I came upon All the Light We Cannot See: I was leaving for a road trip and did a quick search on my library app for audio books in the "available now" category.  I finished All the Light (and the road trip), but since I've already downloaded this one, I might as well listen to it, right?

What I'm Reading Now -- All the Light We Cannot See

It's incredibly overdue, but I'm finally getting around to All the Light We Cannot See.  This was a huge award winner a few years ago, but I just never made the time to read it, despite it being right up my historical alley.

However, the audio is a perfect option for a solo road trip!

What I'm Reading Now -- How to Win a Grand Prix

Before I was able to put my hands on Last Child in the Woods (which I have on paper and it took me a little while to find), I had just barely started reading How to Win a Grand Prix: From Pit Lane to Podium - the Inside Track.  It's by a woman who does by far the most interesting and reasonable commentary on the F1 international feed, Bernie Collins.  It doesn't hurt her case that she's Irish and therefore by definition so fun to listen to.

It's also another of my 2026 Reading Challenge books, so I'm just rolling right along (so to speak).

What I'm Reading Now -- Last Child In the Woods

I first saw Last Child In the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder many moons ago when I was working at a bookstore. I was intrigued then by the idea of the book then, and remain so to this day.  Despite having never actually read it, I have recommended it to several people who were complaining about their kids' obsession with games, phones, and other technology.  I tell them I haven't read it yet, "but it's on my list," and I also tell them how much I appreciate the time I spent outdoors as a child, now that I'm an adult who works at a computer all day.

Now I will finally read it, and tick off another book in my 2026 Reading Challenge along the way.
 

The River is Waiting -- Take 2

I finished The River is Waiting in record time, for me.  I'm a slow reader, but I blew through this one despite it coming in at over 450 pages.  It helped that I had a couple of flights and generally had to kill other time just sitting and reading, but I also wanted to read it rather than, say, play on my phone.  And these days, that's not nothing. 

So finish it I did! And -- I don't want to get ahead of myself here but I am excited -- I am now halfway through my 2026 Reading Challenge despite being only one-third of the way through the year!

As for the story itself, it's the tale of Corby Ledbetter, a stay-at-home father, out-of-work artist, and secret addict who, in a terrible accident, causes a tragedy that lands him in prison. In my professional life, I've worked with a lot of felons who have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.  In that respect, this story felt extremely familiar.  Few of them have been through the family trauma that Corby caused, but the themes are there.  The plot moved it along nicely, that's how I got through it so quickly.  I thought the resolution of Corby's storyline was a little bit of a cop out, a bit too cutesy-with-a-bow-on-it, but the final wrap-it-all-up moment was moving, nevertheless.

What I'm Reading Now -- The River is Waiting

I had picked out two books for a recent very long day of travel for S and me.  One was I, Me, Mine, which I finished en route, and the other is The River is Waiting.  

Though I have a few Wally Lamb books in my collection, I've never actually read one. This particular title is the August selection for my 2026 Reading Challenge: something received as a gift.  That may be a bit of a stretch; it wasn't a gift in the sense that it was a birthday or Christmas present, but it was given freely to me by someone who had finished it, so I'm counting it for the category.

I, Me, Mine -- Take 2

I didn't like I, Me, Mine as much as I wanted to.  On a surface level, George has long been my favorite Beatle, so I expected to really love this.  (I say "on a surface level" because I've never been obsessed with the Beatles, just a casual fan.)

Unfortunately, this read a bit like a mish-mash of partial journal entries.  Though it was easier to follow than Jack Kerouac's Book of Dreams, it had a similar episodic but somewhat random (albeit mostly chronological) format for the first 75 pages.  It jumped from moment to moment often with little by way of connection between them.  Much of it was George's own thoughts, with introductory and interspersed material written by Derek Taylor, the Beatles' longtime spokesperson.  There were some interesting bits buried in there, but finding them felt rather difficult. 

After that, you get about 30 pages of photographs, followed by a couple of hundred pages of song lyrics.  Each set of lyrics contains an introduction from George, his hand-written draft or drafts, and the typed lyrics.  This is the real meat-and-potatoes of the book for a true fan; it was quick going for me because I didn't stop for every one, but poked through them and lingered one the songs that I knew or whose introductions made me curious, while blowing right past others that weren't my jam, so to speak. 

Overall, I'd say it was a middling experience, but it was also a quick one so I can't be too upset about it. 

And, it's another book ticked off the list for my 2026 Reading Challenge, which continues to go swimmingly!

Monsoon Seas -- Take 2

It took me a while to get through Monsoon Seas, but that should not be taken as an indication of general dislike, just distraction.

The book was published in the mid-20th century, and it's an interesting concept: the history of an ocean.  Though histories of places aren't uncommon, they tend to be places that are much more concrete (literally) than a body of water.  A history of Rome or New York is probably written every few years as the cites develop.  But a history of an ocean seems a far more fluid (pun intended) story.

We began with the earliest days of the ocean's formation and move through its various explorers, with the primary focus being on sailing ships and how their change and development over time allowed the Indian Ocean to be traversed in different ways and directions in different seasons.  Entertaining sections are also given over to pirates, shipwrecks, and military vessels and actions.  There was one slow section in the middle that wasn't really my jam; I'm not particularly interested in Arab, East Asian, Persian or north African history, so the early explorers makng their way from there to there in their junks and dhows and proas didn't particularly interest me. 

Once we got into the European exploration, I picked up speed again.  The Portuguese were the real dreamers, certain that there was a way to the Far East around the southern tip of Africa.  They were the first Europeans to "discover" so many places, but they lacked the wherewithal to hold their conquests for long against the more powerful Dutch.  Very belatedly joining the party were the British, and finally the Americans, just before steamships took over.  The famous sea captains are obviously mentioned, but some lesser known and fascinating ones, such as 

Affonso d'Albuquerque, are as well.

Viliers was born and grew up in Australia but settled in England at the end of WWII.  He appears to share my same prejudice in favor of European history, in his case to an extreme.  Though he is clearly appreciative of some of the styles of boats I cared less about, he had this to say about them - and their operators - in the end:

"Through Bartolomeo Dias and Pero de Covilhao, Europe had acquired a new dimension. The economic and social structure of the Middle Ages were alike at an end, and the Modern Age was about to begin. ... The Moorish flank was turned. It had taken a long time, but at last the way was open for European ships to sail to the Indian Ocean. They had had to be better vessels than the monsoonal dhows and junks, to sail so far, and they had to be commanded and manned by able and resolute men. It was inevitable that control of the new ocean would pass into their hands. The Asiatic powers had not had the vision, the knowledge, or the organizing ability to keep the Europeans at bay. Now it was too late."

Well, okay then.

Getting into the more recent centuries, he thinks wonders of the graceful East Indiamen and the purpose-built-for-speed American clipper ships.  There's also a charming appreciation for the WWII landing craft which, as their name indicates, were built to land on beaches, not cross oceans.  But they, as with so many people and things during wartime, did what they had to do, even if it was never what they had planned.  (The inclusion of this little tidbit makes a lot of sense when one learns that Villiers himself, then a lieutenant, was responsible for the mostly-safe passage of a convoy of landing craft across the Atlantic ocean.)

Despite his sometimes heavy hand, I found it to be an overall enjoyable and definitely educational read.  Recommended for anyone with an interest in oceans, exploration, and/or sailing ships.

What I'm Reading Now -- I, Me, Mine

I enjoyed Be Ready When The Luck Happens that I've decided to dive right into another celebrity autobio - this time about George Harrison in I, Me, Mine.  I suspect they'll be a bit different.  I, Me, Mine is, so far as I can tell, a very lyrics-heavy reflection on George's time with the Beatles, his spiritual self, and life in general.  George has always been my favorite Beatle; he seemed to exude a sense of serenity that I found intriguing.

This is one of my 2026 Reading Challenge books, and I have interim good news to report: I remain ahead of schedule!  So far we're only in March and I'm already beginning my fifth book of the year. The pessimist in me believes strongly that this will not last, but one must enjoy it while it does!  

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

The Rivers Amazon -- Take 2

Yet another book and yet another country in my march across the southern hemisphere, which will end with Brazil.  I completed The Rivers Amazon in less overall time than I expected, but the last 50 or 60 pages were a bit of a struggle. Up to that point, though, I found it to be a quick read.

The author, a bit of an amateur botanist and explorer, set off in the late 1970s to see what he could learn about the medicinal Amazonian plants and the tribes who use them, while simultaneously hoping to recover from personal troubles which we hear no more about.  It is always the irony of those who want to see the unspoiled, though, that by their mere presence, they may have spoiled it. In fact, there is one passage near the end where the author reveals that his guide has tuberculosis and may have been the Patient Zero who killed hundreds of remote natives simply by his presence.  But what of the author himself? What illnesses may he have had, whether or not he knew about them, that he passed to the native peoples?

The adventure is reasonably interesting, but read with today's eyes, it comes off as a bit tone deaf.  I cannot dismiss, though, what fun it was to read about plants and animals we had seen while we were in the Amazon ourselves. That experience puts the whole book into context which I really enjoyed.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens -- Take 2

Ina Garden reads her own memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, and generally I like that.  In her case, I especially liked it.  She has an easy voice to listen to, and since it's familiar, it fits the story even better.  It would be strange to have an unfamiliar voice be talking so much about Ina's relationship with "my Jeffrey," wouldn't it? 

It was a quick listen, which is saying something considering it spans about 60 years, from Ina as a teenager to Ina today.  Her career is at once both astonishing and oh-so-obvious.  She describes herself as a person who will dive into a project or idea first and figure out how it's all going to work later.  With that disposition, she took a lot of risks that other more cautious folks probably would not have dared, and with skill, determination, and probably a bit of luck, things went well for her. 

If you're interested in food and cooking, possibly with a little bit of entrepreneurship thrown in, this is a good one.  And specifically I would recommend the audiobook version.

What I'm Reading Now -- Be Ready When The Luck Happens

Ina Garten's new book, Be Ready When The Luck Happens, came recommended by both Mom and K. 

I spent several weeks on the library wait-list, before the book dropped into my library app.  I had requested both the ebook and audiobook options, and the audio arrived first. Lucky for me, I had a couple of flights the following day, which was a great time to put on some headphones and get started.  I like what I've heard so far, and I am looking forward to the rest of it!

What I Read -- What You Are Looking For Is In The Library

E's latest selection for our Postal Book Club is the ever-so-charming What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama.

This slim title is a collection of five short stories that are loosely connected in the way that the stories in Love Actually are connected: there is some slight overlap in the lives of some of the characters and they occasionally even play a role that changes someone else's trajectory, but their interactions are typically neither deep nor frequent. The same is true here: a character from a previous story may pop up later in a different story, or maybe someone doesn't pop up where you expect them to, but it keeps you thinking.

The stories are perhaps a bit overly cute, but they're hopeful and forward-looking in a way that feels very necessary right now.  It was an excellent and timely selection on E's part, and one I very much enjoyed reading!

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking -- Take 2

As I said, I had been meaning to read Quiet for a very long time.  When it first came out, I took one look at the title and thought, "yep, that's me!"  But, maybe because it seemed like I probably had internalized most of the messages of the book already, on my own, I just didn't make it a priority to read it.

I'm glad that I finally got around to it.  Though I think my instinct was correct that there was nothing truly shocking in this book to me (a lifelong introvert), she did rather concisely summarize several concepts that had been much more amorphously dancing around in my head.  And she had research and data to provide support her assertions.  You, too, can probably guess the general points; regardless, its contents will help you either understand yourself or others better, so give it a go!

I marked several passages that seemed like they might be useful reminders either for me or someone I know.  And it truth, this book probably has as many annotations now as any book I've read in recent years.

In the end, a thoroughly worthwhile exercise, and a fairly quick and entertaining read, to boot. 

And it marks the second of my 2026 Reading Challenge books ticked off the list!  I'm killing it this year (so far)!

What I'm Reading Now -- The Rivers Amazon

S and I were shopping for vintage books recently and he picked up one I didn't really expect.  It's called The Rivers Amazon.  It's an autobiographical retelling of the author's -- you guessed it -- journey through the Amazon in the 1970s, which of necessity incorporates information about the flora, fauna, geography, and peoples of the region.  I don't know much about the story beyond that. 

What the bookseller noted about the book was just that it was a small-run publication so near-mint hardcover copies of it are quite hard to find.  But now we have one, and it's up next in my march of books across the southern hemisphere.

Unfinished Books -- Overwhelmed and Stuck

There are a lot of books in the world.  I always try to remind myself of that when I'm reading a book that just isn't doing it for me.  It's hard, because not finishing something I've started feels like quitting.  I'll watch even a terrible show all the way to its final, lamentable episode.  But I am trying to be better, which is to say to be willing to give up on unimportant things, because life is short.

Two books I've decided I'm not going to finish are Overwhelmed and Stuck.

Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time turned out to be far too focused on motherhood to be useful to me.  There were a few good points about mental pollution (all that to-do-list stuff that takes up space in your brain), time confetti (those little bits of time, a few minutes here or there, which get wasted), and how much is lost because we are, these days, only able to dedicate about five minutes at a time to any given task.  

The author's disdain for the cultural shift where somehow speed and busyness became virtues also spoke to me.  The section on work had at least some non-kid-related thoughts, mostly about the myth of multitasking and how much of a typical worker's day is spent either being interrupted or trying to get back on track after an interruption.  But once I got to the sections on love and play, I was out. 

Remember how Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity mysteriously ended up in my library ebook app?  I started reading it, and it wasn't terrible.  I'm just stopping because it wasn't one I had picked for myself.  I have loads of other stuff to read. 

And, as I said, life is short. 

Happy Birthday, E!

The Emperor's Last Island and Skeleton Coast - Take 2

I had a love-hate relationship with The Emperor's Last Island. The "hate" portion began early in the book when the author tells us that, despite writing a whole book about Saint Helena, she's never been there.  That seems like a pretty basic part of the research - introductory, even - and I couldn't figure out why someone would so proudly put their shortcomings front and center.

There was enough "love," though, to get me to overlook that and keep going. And I'm glad I did, because the bits about Napoleon's life on Saint Helena were worth the read. I learned a lot of detail that would later come back to me during the audio tours we took at The Briars or Longwood House, but frankly it was more entertaining to discover them in the book.

Eventually, the author did come back around to her personal experience visiting Saint Helena. Again, first I started on the "hate" side of the spectrum, not wanting it to tum into an autobiography. But I have to give credit where it's due, and it's due here. Ms. Blackbum does a nice job of beginning the chapters with a vignette from her own travels, but working rather quickly back to Napoleon's story and sticking there for the remainder of the chapter.

This one gets good marks for being informative and educational, even if not thrilling.  It gets bonus points because it also fits the bill to be my March 2026 Reading Challenge book: a book with a possessive noun in the title.  So, yay!  Even further ahead of schedule than I was last week!

Skeleton Coast was brought the thrills.  It's the story of the wreck of the Dunedin Star off the coast of what was then South West Africa (now Namibia) during World War II. More than that, though, it's the story of all the people who braved the environment and elements on what might still be the world's most deserted stretch of unforgiving coastline to come to the aid of the stranded strip and its passengers.

The suspense, the will-they-or-won't-they of the rescue attempts, keeps the plot moving steadily forward, even if the travails of the overland convoy which gets stuck in the sand every 20 feet or so is somewhat repetitive. 

It's a quick, entertaining, and somewhat astonishing story of the willingness of so many people to risk their own lives to save complete strangers.

What I'm Reading Now -- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

My February 2026 Reading Challenge selection, and a book I've been meaning to read for years, is Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. 

I am at least 95% introvert, according to every Myers-Briggs test I have ever taken.  I acutely feel the pressure, especially professionally, to behave like an outgoing, boisterous extrovert for far more hours in a day or week than I would care to. (And, lest there be any confusion, the number of hours in any given day or week that I would care to act that way is precisely zero.)

So, I'm interested to hear what Ms. Cain has to say to or about folks like me.  Hopefully I can learn some good tricks.

The Midnight Feast -- Take 2

My first venture into the Lucy Foley mystery canon turned out to be entertaining but a week later totally forgettable. 

The Midnight Feast is one of those stories in which some wronged individual comes back to their hometown 15 years later for a reckoning with the evil doer.  The tendrils of the story of course snake and curl and tangle around each other, and several of the characters are not the people they are pretending to be.  But isn't that what makes these stories work?  You always need that last-minute reveal in order for the pieces to all fall into place.  If not for that wild card, that person who needs to act in a way that their character up to the last thirty pages doesn't support, none of the wicked would be vanquished. 

A week on, I have to think hard to remember what happened.  But it was a quick and entertaining read while I was in it. 

What I'm Reading Now -- Skeleton Coast and The Emperor's Last Island

Continuing my literary march across the world's southern oceans, I've simultaneously picked up two books to poke through now that I'm finished with The Reader's Companion to South Africa.

First up is Skeleton Coast, by John Marsh.  It's the tale of a shipwreck and subsequent rescue off the coast of Namibia, also known as the Skeleton Coast for reasons which I think are at least partially obvious from the subject of the book.  (There are also a lot of whales that wash up dead along that shore, also inspiring its name.)

Skeleton Coast looks like a pretty short read.  It's not a great candidate to carry around with me, though, as it was published in 1954 and requires a bit of TLC when it comes to handling.

So for my walking-around book, I have the ebook version of The Emperor's Last Island.  Napoleon is famous for many things, among them that he was exiled from France not once, but twice.  The first time, he was cast out by the British after several notable failures in his Napoleonic Wars campaign and was sent to the island of Elba in 1814.  Somehow, despite being under heavy British guard, he escaped and returned to France. After being soundly defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon was again exiled in 1815, this time to the distant and isolated island of St. Helena, located smack in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean.  Napoleon died there in 1821.

The Emperor's Last Island, as best as I can tell, is a recounting based on what historical records exist of what those six years on St. Helena were like for the exiled Frenchman. 

What I'm Reading Now -- The Midnight Feast

I've had Lucy Foley's book The Guest List on my to-read list for some time.  More recently, I added The Paris Apartment as well.  But those two only made it onto the list because I am, it seems, on a never-ending quest to find good mysteries.  So when someone offered up a copy of The Midnight Feast for the taking, I thought I would give it a go. 

I feel like it's a win-win situation. Either I like it and I already have two more of hers in the queue, or I don't like it and then perhaps I decide not to mess with the other two.  We'll see how it goes!

The Reader's Companion to South Africa -- Take 2

As is to be expected with a compilation of essays - and in fact as I specifically anticipated in my first post related to The Reader's Companion to South Africa, some of the pieces contained herein were better than others. 

The essays, as a rule, are an outsider's take on various aspects of South Africa: politics, geography, geology, people, history, you name it.  I muddled my way through all of them, but some of my favorites were by Mark Twain, Frank Carpenter, H.V. Morton, and P.J. O'Rourke; they all have wonderful senses of humor.

(Aside: I'm especially excited to have enjoyed the H.V. Morton selection.  I don't know how it is that I've been interested in vintage travelogues for so long and haven't run across him, but somehow I hadn't until very recently.  But once I did, based solely on the reading of a few first sentences of books, I went a bit berserk and probably have a dozen of his books now. I haven't read any of them yet, but my enjoyment of this selection makes me very excited to dive into them!)

Despite a few duds, overall the collection was a good introduction to how South Africa came to be what it is.  The editorial lead-in at the start of each essay was especially helpful in adding some context.  My biggest criticism is that the collection is heavily, if not entirely, comprised of works by foreigners visiting South Africa.  That may be because the perspective allows for a certain clarity of observation which is more difficult for a local.  Regardless, a piece or two by an actual South African might have been a nice addition. 

Wolf Hall - Take 2

Well, I've done it!  On my second attempt, I got through Wolf Hall.  And this just goes to show that the timing of reading is everything.  I tried Wolf Hall on audio once before and found it rather dull.  But this time - mostly on audio - I really enjoyed it and found some parts quite funny!  (When I didn't have headphones handy, I read some portions as an ebook, and for whatever it's worth, I found the audiobook easier to follow.)

In case you've been living under a rock while Hilary Mantel published her critically-acclaimed trilogy, of which Wolf Hall is the first, it's the fictionalized story of Oliver Cromwell's rise to power (and the corresponding fall of Thomas More) during the many-wived reign of King Henry VIII, though this particular book only covers the period encompassing two of said wives. 

As I said, there are parts that are very funny and brilliantly written.  One should have some interest in political maneuvering in order to truly enjoy them, but certainly they can be appreciated even if you lack such interest, as I do.  My interest in British history probably helped keep me engaged, so if you lack both an interest in politics and in British history, this one might not be for you.

Am I going to jump to read the other two books?  Probably not.  There's too much other stuff I need to read.  But will I try to get there eventually?  Probably. 

And, for those keeping track at home, Wolf Hall is on my 2026 Reading Challenge, so I'm presently (and probably for the only time this year) ahead of schedule!

What I'm Reading Now -- The Reader's Companion to South Africa

On the first day of our 10-day Cape Town vacation, S and I popped into Clarke's Bookshop.  I found two different short histories of South Africa and was debating between the two when I found The Reader's Companion to South Africa.

It's a collection of excerpts from various pieces of writing about the country.  They're arranged chronologically, beginning in 1850 and running up through 1997. I expect some will be better - or at least more to my taste - than others, but just like short films, even if they're bad, they don't go on too long.  Each piece is accompanied by an introduction written by the book's editor; those little intros provide context and a tiny taste of the history I was looking for in the original books I picked up. 

What I Read -- The Last Brother

Apparently I'm in a place where books about psychological trauma speak to me. How should I interpret this?

Another book set in Mauritius, The Last Brother is a story of innocence, sadness, and regret. Though it is pocked with moments of pure childhood joy, it is mostly a tale of loss and hardship.

As a reader, you learn at the very beginning that the narrator, Raj, is now an old man. You also learn that he tragically lost his childhood friend David when David was ten. What unfolds are the other tragedies that led Raj to David in the first place, and of course the story of their friendship and David's death.

Though this is a work of fiction, it's based on a little-known but true corner of WWII Mauritian history, so of course I'm predisposed to like it. What really put it overthe top for me was the balance between Raj's current adult voice - full of wisdom and regret - and his childhood memories coming through in exactly the way a child would remember them - earnest, innocent, pure. It's one of those stories that can only be fully inhabited by the characters when told in retrospect.  It's beautiful and bittersweet.

What I Read -- LaRose

Someone gave me a copy of LaRose a little bit ago. The conceit behind the central conflict sounded like a fascinating way to explore the complicated relationships between characters,  so I wanted to dive right in.  

Within the first few pages, a man accidentally shoots and kills his attenuated nephew (his wife's half-sister's son) in a hunting accident. As part of an ancient Native American tradition, the hunter and his wife send their own son to live with the bereaved family.  Both families also have other children.  One can imagine how complicated these relationships get, and quickly. 

And boy, was it a good read.  For a story about psychological trauma, it is surprisingly propulsive. Sometimes difficult, sometimes funny,  sometimes oh-so-true; always really engaging. 

If the concept sounds at all interesting to you, I recommend it.

What I Watched -- James and the Giant Peach

I took a six-hour flight recently and, despite the physical discomfort of being on an airplane, slept pretty well.  After a few hours, I awoke to find that there were only 90 minutes left. 

I zeroed in on the kids' movies as my best bet for finding something that would fit into that time limit, and settled on James and the Giant Peach because I had never read the book (and at this point in my life, probably won't).

It's a cute story about an orphaned little boy who lives with two aunts who behave very much like the Dursleys in Harry Potter. James escapes by means of a giant peach which grew in their yard, and is populated by the only friends James has ever known; they happen to be bugs, but no matter.  As they fly through the air, banding together to overcome the challenges placed in their path they all learn a little someting about friendship and life.

It's part Harry Potter, part Inside Out, and part Howl's Moving Castle. And if you liked any or all of those, you'll probably like this one too.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2026 Reading Challenge

As has become tradition, K and I are again taking up an annual Reading Challenge.  After my middling performance last year, here's hoping I can show some improvement in 2026 with these titles:

January: a book you meant to read last year
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

February: something everyone has read but you
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

March: a book with a possessive noun in the title
The Emperor's Last Island: A Journey to St. Helena, by Julia Blackburn

April: a book about marine life
Monsoon Seas: The Story of the Indian Ocean, by Alan Villiers

May: a book about botany or plant life
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv

June: a book about or by a singer
I, Me, Mine, by George Harrison

July: a book involving a road trip
How to Win a Grand Prix: Pit Lane to Podium - the Inside Track, by Bernie Collins

August: something received as a gift
The River is Waiting, by Wally Lamb

September: a classic school assignment you somehow escaped during your school years
The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

October: a book about or describing survival skills, or in which they play a critical role
Ice Bears and Kotick: Rowing on Top of the World, by Peter Webb

November: a play
King Lear, by William Shakespeare

December: a Nordic or Scandinavian book
The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life, by Anu Partanen

As has also become tradition, I am imposing some rules on myself: 

1. It has to be a book I already own.  My stash of ebooks has increased substantially of late, so I have a bigger "bookshelf" to peruse now;
2. It has to be a book I have not read yet (or at least haven't finished yet);
3. Though I can go out of order, some of the months are clearly themed (e.g., July, October), so I will try to read those books at least close to the month they are selected for; and
4. If I want to include a book I've already listed but didn't read, that's okay.

Wish me luck as I endeavor - yet again - to complete this relatively simple task!

2025 Reading Challenge Recap

Like it or not, another year has passed.  I have, as you may have noticed, made some headdway on my reading this year.  It wasn't necessarily all part of my 2025 Reading Challenge, but I did increase the number of books I read this year substantially over prior years.

But, specific to this year's challenge, here's how I did:

January: a book you first picked up because of the cover

My World, by Jonny Wilkinson

READ

February: a book about mental health
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain
NOT READ

March: a short story collection
In the Gloaming, by Alice Elliott Dark
READ

April: a book published in the year you were born
The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy
READ

May: a sequel
March, by Geraldine Brooks
NOT READ

June: something funny
Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas, by Adam Kay
READ

July: a beach read
Murder on the Oceanic, by Edward Marston
READ

August: a re-read
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande
NOT READ

September: a book with "secret" in the title
The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., by Sandra Gulland
READ

October: a book involving magic, witches, vampires, sorcery, or the like
Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth, by J.R.R. Tolkien
NOT READ

November: something containing recipes
On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town, by Susan Herman Loomis
NOT READ

December: something told from the point of view of the villain or bad guy
The Meaning of Night, by Michael Cox
NOT READ

So, what have we learned from this?  That I have very little reading discipline, I believe, is what we have learned.  Because I read more books than usual but still only got through half the books on my reading challenge.  Why?  Obviously because I elected to read other things instead.  Or, maybe what we have learned is that current Me is not a very good judge of what future Me is going to want to read.  

Regardless, I was a solid 50% this year, but that gives me no bonus credit for all my extra reading.  And remember, a couple of those items of extra reading were cleaning up books from prior years' Reading Challenges, so I really do think some credit is warranted for this and this. If we add those in, instead of 6 out of 12, I'm at 8 out of 14, which is a bump up to 57%.  So almost a passing grade at a lot of places!

Happy New Year!

Ready or not, here we go!