Thirst - 2600 Miles to Home by Heather "Anish" Anderson

This hiking book is a good one. Well-written, introspective, with poetic descriptions of the Pacific Crest Trail. Anish is a strong woman who has felt "average" or "less than" her whole life. In hiking, she has found contentment in being exactly who she is. As she fights her mind demons, she gradually learns to overcome her fears and accept herself in a beautiful way. I wonder about her inability to lead a "normal" life, but in choosing what she has (life on the trail), she does so with integrity and grit and honesty.

This book goes back and forth somewhat from this present hike where she set out to set a record of hiking it faster than anyone before, and her previous hikes. The contrast between her earlier hikes and this one informs the reader in an interesting way. There is no time for much socializing because Anish is so driven to beat the time record in hiking this trail from Mexico to Canada. The descriptions of the scenery are beautiful, but fleeting as she traverses so quickly up the trail. There's still plenty of time to ponder what her brain is doing, though, and that makes for an interesting story We read about her ultra-marathoning, her amazing athleticism, and her apparent inability to believe that she herself is an athlete. Overcoming her overweight adolescence and early adulthood is an interesting journey that she chronicles well.

She doesn't dwell on her marriage or divorce much beyond the fact that it was an amicable divorce and she meeets her ex on the trail and has a positive encounter. I loved the story of when the fastest known hike record holder, Scott Williamson, found her on the trail and treated her to some organic groceries and wished her luck on her quest. It was also interesting to learn about people following her hike on Facebook and begin to call her "Ghost" and occasionally find and talk to her. These celebrity hikers are interesting to me.

I also became more motivated than ever to hike this summer and fall and beyond! The John Muir Trail overlaps with part of the PCT, and I would love to hike that! A cool learning curve for me! Not as a through-hiker, but as a day hiker, and perhaps with a grandkid or two! Here are some descriptions I highlighted as I read:

Page 51 - These thru-hikers often begin the trail solo, but most find that what they thought would be a lonesome human vs. wilderness experience becomes a chain of shared human connectedness.

Page 101 - Instead I continued on because of my stubbornness, yes, but also to allow scars to form when I wrestled with grief, memories, loss, and destiny on a sliver of trail in the moonlight. I was opening myself to true healing by finally dealing with my wounds. Sometimes all I had to do was acknowledge my own stubbornness. Others I had to rip off old scabs and let new ones form into thicker, beautiful scars.

Page 122- Encounter with Scott Williamson

See also September 2023 for my reread...

1st to Die by James Patterson

Robin, a woman we play pickleball with here in Bismarck, mentioned she was reading this series and that she really enjoyed it. She's a fun person, intelligent, and so I thought I would take a chance that maybe our tastes would be similar. I have read James Patterson before and found him ho-hum, but since this first novel in the "Women's Murder Club" series is set in the Bay Area, I though it might be really fun to read.

I have to say it was a real page turner! Patterson is great at short chapters that end in a way that makes you HAVE to begin the next one... Very enjoyable that way. However, the characters were disappointingly superficial, although likable. There was much to admire in the positive characters and nothing to admire in the perpetrator. Kind of predictable that way. And the settings, the streets and neighborhoods of San Francisco and some in the Napa Valley, were also superficial and were things that anyone just passing through casually would know about. Nothing special about the settings, either.

So...a good page turner with superficial characters, lots of plot twists and turns, and some gory murder scenes mean that this will be my first and last read in the series. Too bad. I really miss Kinsey Millhone in the Alphabet murder series by Sue Grafton. Maybe I should reread those?!

The 13-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton

I was browsing at Barnes & Noble and taking my time. This series looked like a good bet for either John or Henry. I decided I needed to read it before foisting it one of them...and I'm glad I did. It's not negative and nasty like so much that I see in the children's section. It delights in mischief and imagination. And there's just enough mayhem and silliness to delight them. I bought a brain games book also, and I think that's a better fit for Henry. I think this one will go to John. He has a vibrant imagination and the pictures will help him feel like he's making progress. This is part of a series and if he loves it, I can give him more. John will love the burping and wild monkeys and maybe I can convince him to share it with Henry!

Fare Thee Well by Joel Selvin with Pamela Turley

Leonard ordered this book because he has a long history with the Grateful Dead and wanted to read about the years after Jerry Garcia's death. The subtitle is: "The Final Chapter of the Grateful Dead's Long, Strange Trip." I picked it up after he was done with it, and enjoyed it very much.

While I'm not and never was a Deadhead, I am familiar with their music and have enjoyed it over the decades. So this book's detailed accounts of what songs were played where and why was something I could connect with, even though it got much more detailed than I cared about... What was fascinating to me was the description of how the surviving band members interacted with each other and how each of them pursued their own individual passions, and how difficult it was to ever get them to cooperate together again.

As the story unfolds, the author meaningfully chronicles much of the culture around the Dead that made them what they were. These parts were the most interesting to me, having seen them in Colorado, and having been to the Fillmore (West). That the Dead themselves were unaware of the Deadhead culture was almost beyond belief, but as they learned to appreciate it, especially at the final concerts, it was gratifying to see. The chapter about all of this coming together was almost poetic and very lyrical. It took me back to the time of Peace, Love, and Rock n Roll, and that was fun to think about. And it's great to see that some vestiges of that are growing in succeeding generations...whether fueled by drugs or no, still there's some value there, I believe.

I didn't have much familiarity with individual band members, but I got to know them through this book. Phil and Jill Lesh come off by far as the villains and the most destructive of any of them, although their persistence did result in some final concerts. Their apparent selfishness is almost unbelievable, and I had to keep reminding myself that this is just one point of view.

Bobby Weir has always been an attractive person to me, and it was kind of disappointing to learn of his chronic problems with alcohol. I love his looks, his singing, his ways from the early days. Too bad he's not weathering well! Micky Hart is just a genius who is so far out there--good for him! Billy Kruetzmann wrote a book and hung out in Hawaii...it might be worth reading to get another perspective...

One part I especially enjoyed was the description of the final concert in the Bay Area. I read this through Eli's eyes, since he was there! It's always been kind of cool to me that he picked up Leonard's love of the Dead and is part of the next generation who is appreciating the creativity and culture that the Dead personified. Yes, it has its dark side, but the technological advances are pretty impressive. I also appreciated hearing that the mystical connections that that music spawned was able, occasionally, when it soared, to override the reunited group's problems and clashes. Very cool...

Boys in the Trees - A Memoir by Carly Simon

I read reviews about this book that encouraged me to give it a try. I'm very interested in the time period of when Carly got big, and I've always enjoyed her music. I thought it would be interesting to read about her life. And it was. But being the daughter of a publisher does not mean that she is either a good writer or someone who can process and see deeper meaning in her life.

So, I enjoyed the peek into celebrity life, especially the stories about Mick Jagger, James Taylor and Warren Beatty. Her stories about her childhood and growing up years in privileged New York and Martha's Vineyard were also interesting because her life was so different from anything I ever experienced growing up. The dinner parties her parents gave, her performances with her siblings as a youngster, her mother's infidelity, and her lack of interest or success at school were all foreign territory and therefore intriguing to me. Her struggle with stuttering and her coping methods were also interesting to read about.

What surprised me as the book went on was how she couldn't move on or recover from her marriage and relationship with James Taylor. She seems to be emotionally immature, even though she has lived passionately. It's a cautionary tale about too much self-indulgence, perhaps. Or too little desire to be a force for good in the world. I wonder about the mental health of her children or her own peace as she lives into old age. I still enjoy her music, but her voice and songs made me think she was someone who had something valuable to give. After reading her story, I don't think there's much to admire here. Too bad! Her next book, about her friendship with Jackie Kennedy, promises good stories, but I don't plan to read it because she's not introspective enough to draw any learning or lessons from her life. Or at least any of the kind that would be valuable to me. Sorry if that sounds judgmental--it's just that we life in different worlds. And hers is not one I care to inhabit again, even in a book.

The Soldier's Holiday Vow by Jillian Hart

I love Denise Anderson, a marvelous and powerful woman whom I got to know working in the temple. I asked her one day what she liked to read. She said she likes clean, get-away-from-it-all reading and suggested an author. I forgot about that conversation until she brought me this little paperback.

I should have known from the cover that this would be a lightweight book. It looks like a Hallmark movie set. I don't have the patience for Hallmark movies either, unless I'm in a certain mood. I obviously wasn't in the right mood for this because it made me ANGRY. What's up with that?

I think it's because these characters were not only shallow and predictable (as was the plot), but they the author kept repeating to the point of nausea, the same thoughts over and over and over again. So frustrating. So redundant. Yuck. Why did I stick with such shallow junk? Because I was hoping to be able to say SOMETHING positive to Denise when I return it to her. After all, this is one of her favorites. What I do I say to her? Yes, it is a get-away-from-it all book. And yes, it was squeaky clean. I guess that's all I can say.

And I will keep asking people for their suggestions, and hope I will find a good book buddy soon!

The Heart is a Lovely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Why do I keep finding stories set in such dismal environments? I'm not sure why, but here's another depressing time and place. However, the characters are fascinating, and the story portrays life in the 1930s as very hard and hungry. These are people who struggle and work and still don't get ahead. I almost gave up multiple times, but then there would be some eloquent speech by one of the characters, primarily the maid Portia's father, the black doctor in this small mill town. And then I would try to follow the thinking and the pain that this man was living. Fascinating.

The other fascinating character was Mister Singer, a deaf mute, who was completely embraced and revered by the other characters. He listened so sympathetically and meaningfully...It was perhaps intended irony that this character couldn't respond, and the ones who revered him projected his responses. At any rate, that was interesting. Also, the 13-year-old Mick was a girl with great musical power and memory...another interesting character. But these characters were in a story and setting so bleak and without any visible hope, that I almost stopped reading several times. The story ends without any hopeful rays apparent, or any resolve.

I did marvel at the sophisticated thinking and speaking of the characters since McCullers was only 23 when she wrote this. I picked this up at the used bookstore, thinking it was a classic. Maybe it is, or maybe it isn't...but I won't be picking it up again. It will go into one of the Little Library boxes around Bismarck.