Wicked

This was the second book that I read while traveling to Anchorage and back last week. I wish I had been a little more familiar with the fictional world of Oz, so I could have caught some of the references, but I think I figured enough out with just my pop-culture knowledge of The Wizard of Oz. In a nutshell: Wicked reimagines Oz, and specifically the Wicked Witch of the West, from her point of view. A conflicted childhood, activism at university, and struggling to find her place in the world. It's a very creative work, and fantastic to read - kept drawing me deeper in. I've got a few people that I'm going to recommend this to immediately...

Book 39

Practical Demonkeeping

Pretty quick read here; I started and finished this one on my way from Reno to Anchorage last week. It's the first Christopher Moore book set in Pine Cove, CA, which becomes a recurring location in other books like Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and The Stupidest Angel. It also introduces a few characters that reappear in other books, like the cop, Rivera, who we see in his two latest, A Dirty Job and You Suck. Didn't realize that I'd read this before until almost the end. Pretty fun little story.

Book 38

Back from Alaska

Well, I survived the Boyz Trip - barely. Came out of it with some pretty bad pain in my left forearm - tendonitis, I think. Also had a brush with a fast-running river right above a waterfall. And came home missing my wedding ring. (It's somewhere around our camp at Derickson Bay.) More on all that later. I still have a lot of work to do on the pictures - for now, here's a teaser photo of some of the group kayaking toward the Nellie Juan Glacier. (Click for larger view...)

Alaska

I'll be gone for the next week - heading to Alaska on the Boyz Trip. (Yes, with a "z". No, I don't know why.) My college roommate Karl and a bunch of other friends and acquaintances. We'll fly into Anchorage, take a shuttle to Whittier, then spend about 6 days kayaking around the Prince William Sound. Well, a small part of it, anyway. I'm pretty excited - never been to Alaska, and really looking forward to it. Coming back July first, look for a long post with pictures then...

Sushi Economy

It felt like I had read reviews of this book everywhere, from the local paper to Outside Magazine and Smithsonian. (Don't remember which of those ACTUALLY reviewed it, but I know I read at least 3 reviews...) Anyway, It sounded interesting enough that I had to pick it up. The Sushi Economy by Sasha Issenberg is part foodie book, part global economy - like Michael Ruhlman meets Thomas Friedman. Very interesting and readable, too - I learned a lot about sushi that I didn't know - history, preparation, etc., as well as a lot about tuna - fishing, ranching, the different kinds... As well as how it all fits together to in a global system to provide fish from around the world to sushi restaurants everywhere. Didn't seem like there was an overarching theme to the book - "We need to stop overfishing!" or something like that - it was just a pretty balanced look into how the whole system works, and how it doesn't, sometimes.

Book 37

Catching up

Haven't been blogging much lately; been a little focused on the Tahoe Rim Trail thing, and preparations for my upcoming trip to Alaska. I'll be sea kayaking in the Prince William Sound (out of Whittier) with a bunch of friends - gone from 6/23 until 7/1. My mom is coming down from Vancouver to help with the kids for a few days, and Mich's mom will also be helping with school pickups and such. Thanks, Grandmas!

Julien "graduated" from kindergarten a couple weeks ago; he and Sofia are in the summer program at school now. Not much has changed, schedule-wise there.

Mich spent last weekend doing the Rubicon Trail with some colleagues from work who have the big trucks necessary to drive it. Sounds like she had a good time camping and hanging out. She also took the motorcycle class last week, and got her license. Might be looking for a cheap "learner" bike pretty soon...

Can't think of any other big news right now; gotta make some breakfast for the kids...

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

I have a hard time rereading the Hitchhiker's Guide books - the first one seems really funny, then they kind of taper off for me. Rereading Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, though, makes me remember why I like Douglas Adams so much. His style of writing kind of surprises you - makes you feel comfortable, but then jumps out with a turn of phrase that makes you think. Or laugh. Both of those, in equal measure.
Much like the Hitchhiker books, Dirk Gently's is the story of a pretty ordinary guy to which very strange things start happening. In this case, with a bizarre friend (Dirk Gently), he ends up solving one of the oldest mysteries in the world. Fun stuff.

Book 36