2016 Audiobooks To Date

Like other recent years, I'm consuming audiobooks faster than physical books and enjoying them.  If you're interested in some reviews, here you go:

	Time	Author	Review
1	Freedom	Jonathan Franzen	A very well done character-heavy story of family and love.  Themes of American conflict between nature and the energy industry, capitalism, fame, and deceny, etc. are woven extremely well into this long dramatic tale.  I sincerely enjoyed it.
2	Between the World and Me	Ta-Nehisi Coates	I'd been putting off this book.  Frankly, because I was scared of it.  I knew it was great from the reviews and feedback from people I respect.  But I also knew the topic was a difficult one, and I expected to find it depressing and upsetting.  I was not wrong.  It was difficult.  But it's also a beautiful work -- Ta-Nehisi Coates' language is gorgeous.  In many of the sentences covering ugly truths, I can hear the lyrical history of his early "bad poetry" as he calls it.  The book is written as a letter to his son and focuses on the physical reality of living in a black body in America.  I am a very physical person.  As a result of his focus on the body, the fear and frustration experienced by black people in America became more real to me than it ever has been.  I am very glad I put in the work to take in this book, even though at times the subject matter was very painful.
3	M Train	Patti Smith	I love Patti's voice and speech patterns so much that I'd probably listen to anything she narrated.  But, as with "Just Kids" the writing here is honest, and beautiful and fascinating.  This book is more poetic and dreamlike than Just Kids, with a ton of references to TV and books (and coffee, so much coffee).
4	Agent to the Stars	John Scalzi	A fun romp.  The narrator is a talent agent in Hollywood and the plot revolves around aliens wanting to be introduced to earth in the most attractive way possible.  Clever and funny.  Less intense than both the Old Man's War series and Lock In.
5	The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way	Bill Bryson	Typical Bryson--well researched and thorough.  From the Romans, the Germans, the French, the Anglo Saxons and more, this book is a fun historical story of the evolution of the English language.  If you are a word nerd, this is certain to tickle your fancy.  The original publication date was 2001, and so some of the facts and examples were a bit off (as the language continues to evolve...).  Many of the points he was trying to make required spelling by letter, which could probably get annoying in audiobook format if you aren't enthralled with word details...
6	Hell Bent	Benjamin Lore	This book explored extreme yoga (mainly Bikram) in depth and in a manner that spoke to me.  Honest.  Balanced.  Much of the good explored along with the bad.  He did a great job of convincing me that maybe I should get over my aversion to Bikram the man and return to a studio that offers Bikram the practice.  Not going to happen anytime soon as I have a multi-class card at another local studio to get through first that expires in 2017, but it speaks to how well done the book is that it made me reconsider my position.
7	Neopolitan Novels 2-4	Elena Ferrante	Very enjoyable, distinct style of prose that reads in a way where you are always aware that this story was originally written in Italian. Complex relationship between friends.
8	On the Road	Gloria Steinem	So wonderful!  I didn't know much about Ms. Steinem's life and history and sincerely enjoyed learning all about her long and impressive list of journalistic and community organizing experiences.
9	Big Magic	Elizabeth Gilbert	A how-to guide to being open to inspiration and living a life of creative hard work, specifically the hard work of being a writer.  Definitely a little on the woo-woo side of the spectrum, but pragmatic in its own way.
10	Notorious RBG	Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik	Awesome.  Awesome.  Awesome.  RBG really is as likeable as you want her to be and the anecdotes in this one make it clear.  So much great legal and feminist history in this one.  Highly recommended.
11	Shrill	Lindy West	Memoirs focused on comedy, fighting misogyny and anti-obesity bias, and just generally a good look at current society from a smart woman.
12	One Summer, America 1927	Bill Bryson	(Bill Bryson has the coolest job ever.)  A very well researched look at the Summer of Lindbergh's famous cross-Atlantic flight, Babe Ruth's home-run record setting season, and a generally crazy time in American history.
13	A heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius	Dave Eggers	I'd never read this one.  It was released in my early 20s, chronicling the 20s of the author, set in the same cities as my early adulthood.  It held up reasonably well, although there's quite a bit of navel-gazing.  The author/narrator has a very high level of comfort with himself, exposing many of his less-than-admirable thoughts.  It's an interesting (and, frankly, to me, brave) approach.  He's very open about his conflicting desires to be known (he auditions for the Real World) and yet, be cool.  I can't quite describe how I feel about this book.  I did enjoy it, and yet, for some reason, while reading I kept an internal checklist of the reasons I (or anyone) could choose not to like it.
14	Year of Yes	Shonda Rhimes	Shonda Rhimes is a bad ass.  This memoir chronicles her year of being more vulnerable, trying new things, and opening up to being different than the bad ass who had so successfully owned Thursday Night Television for so long.  Her voice is unique and the anecdotes are inspirational.
15	The Chris Farley Show	Tom Farley, Tanner Colby	Such a sad, sad, end to Chris Farley's young life.  This book poignantly reports Chris's words, as well as those of his close friends and family.  A very honest look at addiction.
16	The Heart Goes Last	Margaret Atwood	Typical Atwood.  I tend to read her works with a sense of dread for humanity and this was no different.  If you are looking for hope and love, this book is not for you, but if you're looking for a very smart thought experiment about how humans can be horrific to one another in unique and new ways while alternating time in a prison and in the free world, then this is just the book for you.  Despite my negative tone here, I did enjoy this (and I'll read almost anything Atwood writes), I just need some recovery time after I do.
17	Bird by Bird	Anne Lamott	A lovely thoughtful explanatory book on the pragmatics of writing.
18	On Writing	Stephen King	Stephen King's very interesting memoirs on his early career, his marriage, his struggles with addiction, and how to write.  He has a very strong and distinct voice (both written and spoken as he read his own audiobook) and, really, he's just quite the character.  I very much enjoyed this one.
19	Reckless	Chrissie Hynde	Musician memoirs are one of my favorite guilty pleasures.  I would never choose to live their lives, but I sincerely enjoy reading about the chaos they choose to live with as well as their view of history and pop culture as they are living in it.  This one was no different except that more of the characters met untimely demises than usual, which made it a bit depressing.
20	the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying	Marie Kondo	Whimsical.  Useful thought experiment before packing up the whole house for storage.  I do love minimalism, to a point.  Overall, however, the full-blown Kon-Mari method felt a bit too wasteful to me.  There are many useful things in my life that don't necessarily spark joy, but would result in a financial outlay if I had to replace them the next time I wanted to use them.
21	A Man Called Ove	Fredrik Backman	A fun tale of a curmudgeonly old man and his misadventures in Sweden.  Very similar in tone and feel to Swedish author Jonas Jonasson's tales such as The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, and The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden.
22	MaddAddam	Margaret Atwood	Revisited this one after finishing Oryx and Crake.  It, too, held up well a decade later.  I love the poetic constructions of the tales and chants of the Crakers in this series, as it's so obviously (to me) William Blake inspired (one of my favorite poets).

Observance

Sunset over the Puget Sound

July and August have some big important days for me.

You know, big, important days, if you think that the random recurrence of the same calendar day roughly marking the same spot in the solar system that the earth was in the last time the big important thing happened was is important. Which, frankly, I don't.

But I do think stopping to pause and be observant and appreciative and full of gratitude and memories of things that matters is important. And, I'm a sucker for superstitions and symbolism, so I go all in for the anniversaries of things even though deep down I know that they don't matter.

Anyways, I had one of those days this week. And I got up to have coffee, clear my email, and then go for a solo run in Seattle, the current base of my nomad life on this year of adventure. I'd mapped out a route, and started a podcast, but I had no real pace goals since I'd done 5+ blissful Greenlake miles the day before with one of my former Seattle running buddies (man, that awesome chatty solve-the-world's problems run, coupled with the Din Tai Fung with friends the night before really made me miss living here).

Guess what? Immediately upon leaving our AirBNB, I realized I was *slow*. And yet, I really didn't care. I just wanted to enjoy the miles.

Thankfully, "hot" in Seattle isn't, at least to a bay-arean who ran a few days in the Sacramento valley on her way here.  But, the park I'd mapped for the middle mile was *super* steep, requiring over 100 not-so-regular stairs (walked) down to enter and then very steep downhill trails filled with dogs (some off-leash), for whom I stopped whenever it appeared that my running by could cause some chaos (pretty much every dog).

The goal was 3 miles, and at 1.5 miles I realized the views I'd been hoping to see would not be materializing any time soon. But it was still gorgeous.

Between the trees, you can see some small views...

So, I took a photo and turned around. I hike/jogged my way back out of the park. I jogged the remainder of the way back home. My sister called just as I hit 3 miles and I loved hearing her voice (so close to my own) and even more loved listening to the adorable enthusiasm of my niece and nephew filling me in on the toddler/child details they thought were important to share on this call commemorating the anniversary of big important things.

It was such a great run.

I just checked the Garmin stats: 15:03/mile average pace, 327 feet of elevation gain (and loss).

Nothing impressive.

In fact, if I was measuring solely on pace and performance, disappointing. But it was something wonderful.  Even subtracting the call from my sis ('cause that would have happened no matter what I was doing), it still gave me access to views of this beautiful planet I wouldn't have otherwise had. And, it let me work out some of the butterflies before a professional webinar I had to present at an hour and half after I returned, allowing me to be more calm, collected, and useful to the folks who'd paid to hear me speak.

All of this is a long way of saying that I am so grateful that today, running for me is just a joyful thing that I can enjoy (most of the time) regardless of how *well* I do.

In an interesting coincidence, in my online meanderings today, I encountered two of my favorite online people posting things that made me feel communion with them as they encountered somewhat (at least it seemed like to me) similar interactions with their own physical experiences:

Lauren Fleshman on the transition from Professional Racer to who she will be next

and

Havi Brooks' rambling post on why she quit teaching yoga, and then teaching, and then speaking (for the most part)  

Sabbatical Week 1

We headed from SF to Santa Cruz to stay with friends for 2 nights, enjoy our annual Shakespeare in the Grove, and check up on Guito (these friends are our Guito sitters). 

Sunday, I received a text from a French friend I hadn't seen in almost 15 years.  She was in the SF bay area and my phone number hadn't changed, so we met up for lunch, caught up, and discussed possibly staying or traveling with them in Paris, the south of France, and/or Vietnam this year.  A big stroke of luck that we hadn't already left the area when she decided to reach out.  Monday night we stayed our last bay area night with another set of friends to finalize the sale of my precious car of 17 years.

Goodbye my old friend.  Enjoy your retirement as a track car.

Tuesday, we left the bay and headed to my hometown for some family time.  It was great to see everyone, but especially my youngest niece and nephew, whom I hadn't seen since February -- little ones change so quickly!  I did some short runs, including one with sis at 2 PM in 97F.  These efforts were slow and difficult, and definitely included lots of walk breaks but at least I got them done.

Friday we drove to gorgeous Lake Almanor to stay with friends, and Saturday we headed over to Lassen National Volcanic Park to hike to the summit of Mt. Lassen.  This hike starts at 8,500 ft, and is essentially switchbacks straight up what's left after the Volcano erupted in 1914.

Neither of us had hiked at elevation in the last decade, so we were excited to get some high elevation miles under our feet in preparation for hiking in the Andes in Peru.

Snow!  In California!  In late July!

This was the first hike I'd ever done with trekking poles and I'm a complete convert.  My short legs *loved* the upper body assistance on the uphills and they stabilized me on my downhill running return.

There were thousands of butterflies flying towards us on the last mile.

In addition to being a volcano, Lassen used to have glacier activity.  The photo below shows the sweeping smooth area where the glacier used to turn left as it pushed down the slope.  The glacier is now gone, but this area still hosts the only year-round snow field on the mountain.  The best part about this hike is that even though it's in Summer (the road to Mt. Lassen is closed most of the year due to snow) and under direct sun, there's a breeze that comes off the snow field that is wonderfully refreshing.

Glacial notch to the left, hikers on the switchbacks to the right.

Mt. Shasta view from the summit.

We made it!

Helen Lake

Lake Almanor in the distance.

It took us about 1.5 hours up, half an hour for lunch at the top, and an hour down.  A guy in the parking lot was bragging about beating his PR up with a 45 minute ascent, which is seriously impressive.  My advice would be to head up as early as you can.  The park is in the middle of nowhere and the hike is even deeper in the park, so we didn't start until 11:30 AM.  By the time we were on the trail, there was quite a bit of traffic, but everyone was very polite about stepping off the trail if you were faster than they were.



After we finished, we headed to Bumpass Hell to view the volcanic mudpots, but after about 0.3 miles, E and I agreed that we were too fried to do the 3 mile round trip hike and we'd already seen volcanic features in Yellowstone and Costa Rica.  Instead, we drove through and out of the park and enjoyed some drinks and food at the Highlands Ranch Resort to recover.   Refreshed, we headed back towards Lake Almanor.


I'd seen the PCT trailhead on our drive out to the park that morning, and I was insistent that we had to stop in case any hikers needed a ride to town (7 miles away on Highway 36).  We parked at the trailhead around 5:05 PM, and within 1 minute, a British hiker from Manchester (trailname: scarface) walked up, excited to raid the coolers for a soda, and thrilled that we would be happy to give him a ride to Chester (or "the American Chester" as he called it).  5 minutes later, another hiker from South Carolina (trailname: boydrogo) arrived, similarly happy about the soda and ride.  We chatted with them, told them about our friends who'd done the PCT last year, and our very minor day hike up Lassen, which isn't on the PCT (they'd done 23 and 24 miles each that day).

PCT trailhead on Highway 36 with trail magic for the hikers.

All in all, it was a day full of Californian natural beauty. And now, we leave California for Oregon.

Blissfully Tired and Excited

Lease signed Monday AM.  Drove niece to hometown and drove myself back the same day and started packing that night.

Packed, sorted, and discarded all of our belongings between Monday and Thursday while fitting in dinners and goodbyes with local friends.

Movers moved almost everything we own (and wanted to keep) to storage on Thursday.

Final cleaning and dump run, goodwill run, hazardous material disposal and shredding on Friday.

Keys to renters on Friday (after the free 36 inch and 20 inch CRT TVs of doom were miraculously taken from our curb at the 11th hour!)

Stayed the night in SF, dinner with friends, saw a play written by one of E's former employees, and started the first official Sabbatical day on Saturday with a 5K at the Chrissy Field Park Run with some of my favorite bay area runners (who I will miss while I'm gone).

5K was way harder than I expected.  It was overcast and cool, and I had hopes of 9:20 minutes/mile, but the lack of running for a week coupled with multiple days of heavy lifting and the headwind took their toll.  I finished just over 30 minutes (9:40/mile), with all 3 of the lovely ladies above coming to join me at the finish line as they caught up to my slowing effort.

And there it is.  We are officially on our year of adventure.

10 days of Pure Summer

The essence of Summer.

E and I took our niece to his homestate to spend 10 days at their lake house with his family and some good family friends.  It was heavenly.  10 days of swimming and boating and reading and fireworks and good food and lazy conversations.  I'm fully into the first month of my sabbatical, so I only had to work a total of 6 hours or so during the whole trip (although I did leave a big chunk for the flight back).  I don't know when I've been this relaxed.

I managed to fit in 4 runs of 3ish miles each.  But it was at elevation and in the heat and humidity, so despite the low mileage, I felt like I was doing well.

We put the rental of our home on pause during the visit, which was a welcome change and definitely contributed to the sense of relaxation and vacation. 

Turns out, renting your home is very educational.  Tons of email correspondence.  Only about 50% of the people who arrange to visit actually show up.  When people say they will get back to you in X days, it is best to assume they won't.  Groups of roommates who are young and just graduating from college have almost too many variables to manage to make renting a house as a group actually work (someone will back out, a couple will break up, someone won't be okay with one of the terms of the lease). 

One of the bigger surprises to me is that the fact that we plan to come back in a year is actually a big deterrent to potential renters.  Many people are just uncomfortable with the idea that they won't be able to try to negotiate to stay and not move at the end of the year.  I find this very interesting, of course, because legally, if your lease is one year and then it goes month-to-month, then *of course* your landlord could put you on notice at the end of the year and you'd have to move.  We're just being very up front with our intentions.  A commercial landlord or property management company would just be silent, but the risks are the same.

But my view is not the common one.  Many people feel much better at the idea that their lease *could* (theoretically) be extended.  I cannot understand where this comfort comes from, since it seems completely unreliable, but, if I had a dollar for every time I viewed the world differently than the majority, I'd never need to work.

This coming week is going to be long and full of driving my niece back home and getting back to the bay, as well as much packing, storage, getting the lease signed, and figuring out exactly what we're taking on our road trip vs. shipping to family for staging for later portions of the trip.

If there's one thing the last 10 days taught me it's that this sabbatical year is going to go by *very* fast.  10 days of Pure Summer just flew by.  I'm hopeful we can slow down our experiences a bit over the rest of the year, to savor them even more.  But, if the tradeoff for such a joyous existence is that time flies, I'll still take it.