Educated by Tara Westover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The stories of her family made it really tough reading for me. I knew some people like this growing up and still know some cloistered in their little communities today. It’s rage-inducing. But I was glad to read the author’s story and how she escaped and bettered herself.
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Voodoo, Ltd. by Ross Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars Fun & well-written.
Quarry by Max Allan Collins My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I had read an article about Max Allan Collins and I wanted to circle back to some of his work. I actually enjoyed the afterword quite a bit- learning about his being in the graduate program in the midwest and his focus on crime/thrillers.
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I mentioned online that I’ve been trying to order coffee beans lately instead of roasting my own like I usually do. I’ve been trying to support some local businesses and I’ve listed some of them out for you here. This list is by no means exhaustive, I just thought it may be useful.
I’ll try to add more soon.
SF Specific
Others I like:
A follow up to the previous post for the book!
I forgot to mention that the reason I read had the book to read was that it was a birthday gift. I had a big birthday recently and the book was a gift from my besties. BUT – tied to that was big special gift from the girlfriend. She gave me a really nice new watch.
That watch? Well, it’s a really nice model from Kobold. The model is named after the author of that book- the explorer, Richard Byrd.
It’s a great model- a no-date automatic reminiscent of a classic like an Explorer I. I think it fits me well.
From Kobold’s site:
The new Kobold Richard Byrd Automatic pays tribute to the great American naval aviator and polar explorer Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd. The watch features a black DLC-coated stainless steel case with domed sapphire crystal, screw-down crown and screw-locked caseback. It is powered by a Swiss automatic-winding movement
I didn’t mention this in the book review, but Byrd was really famous during his lifetime and only faded from American memory towards the end of the 20th Century. But back in the day he was a very well-known explorer and a household name.
By the way- I’m always hesitant to blog about watches because it can come off as douchey, but I really like timepieces and watches. I also don’t post watch pics because my phone snapshots don’t do the watches justice.
Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure by Richard Evelyn Byrd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A relatively quick read and very interesting even though I was worried I wouldn’t like the book’s story (it was a gift). The afterword was a welcome addition which helps provide some historical context and insight after the tale had ended.
I think it was interesting timing that I read this given what is going on in the world right now with Covid-19. In particular, this account of the author being alone in the Antarctic had a few passages that seemed very relevant to today.
eg: being solo and trapped inside and keeping to a schedule -the author was to be taking weather readings at regular times and had to maintain his hut/base- extreme WFH? Even Scott Kelly (astronaut) wrote about this recently in the NY Times.
Another example was a passage about a previous expedition with a healthy crew in isolation, but one day they opened a crate of old clothes and all of them got sick.
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