• 2023 in cities and flights

    My “year in cities” thing is still going strong (here are links for 2022202120202019201820172016 and 2015). This is basically just a list of cities in which I spent at least one night between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023. An * denotes those cities in which I spent multiple non-consecutive nights. I didn’t count nights spent in airplanes.

    1. Happy Valley, OR*
    2. Christchurch, NZ*
    3. Nelson, NZ
    4. Westport, NZ
    5. Franz Josef, NZ
    6. Queenstown, NZ
    7. Oamaru, NZ
    8. Lake Tekapo, NZ
    9. Auckland, NZ
    10. Tokyo, Japan
    11. Moses Lake, WA
    12. Beaverton, OR*
    13. Eugene, OR
    14. Newberg, OR*
    15. Burlington, VT
    16. Millbury, MA
    17. Rochester, NY*
    18. Carson, WA
    19. Jacksonville, OR
    20. Brookings, OR
    21. Bandon, OR
    22. Hebo, OR
    23. Seaside, OR
    24. Marblemount, WA
    25. Squamish, BC
    26. Nashville, TN
    27. Portland, OR
    28. Olney, OR
    29. Hammond, OR
    30. Leavenworth, WA
    31. Salmon Arm, BC
    32. Golden, BC
    33. Abbotsford, BC
    34. Berlin, Germany
    35. Krakow, Poland
    36. Prague, Czech Republic
    37. Eureka, CA
    38. Huntsville, AL
    39. Memphis, TN
    40. Sheffield, AL

    And here are the flights I took this year. These do not count layovers.

    1. Portland, OR to Auckland, NZ  (February)
    2. Christchurch, NZ to Auckland, NZ (February)
    3. Auckland, NZ to Tokyo (March)
    4. Tokyo to Portland, OR (March)
    5. Portland, OR to Boston, MA (May)
    6. Boston, MA to Rochester, NY (May)
    7. Rochester, NY to Portland, OR (June)
    8. Portland, OR to Nashville, TN (August)
    9. Nashville, TN to Portland, OR (August)
    10. Portland, OR to Berlin, Germany (September)
    11. Berlin, Germany to Krakow, Poland (September)
    12. Krakow, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic (September)
    13. Prague, Czech Republic to Portland, OR (October)
    14. Portland, OR to Rochester, NY (December)
    15. Rochester, NY to Huntsville, AL (December)
    16. Huntsville, AL to Portland, OR (December)

  • 2022 in cities and flights

    My “year in cities” thing is still going strong (here are links for 202120202019201820172016 and 2015). This is basically just a list of cities in which I spent at least one night between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022. An * denotes those cities in which I spent multiple non-consecutive nights. I didn’t count nights spent in airplanes.

    1. Happy Valley, OR*
    2. New York City, NY*
    3. Rochester, NY*
    4. Frankfurt, Germany
    5. Munich, Germany
    6. Zurich, Switzerland
    7. Barcelona, Spain
    8. Millbury, MA*
    9. Kingfield, ME
    10. Beaverton, OR
    11. Central Point, OR
    12. Bend, OR
    13. Coeur d’Alene, ID
    14. Missoula, MT
    15. Finley Point, MT
    16. Portland, OR
    17. Pacific City, OR
    18. Hammond, OR
    19. Ilwaco, WA
    20. Weed, CA
    21. Mt. Shasta, CA
    22. Idleyld Park, OR
    23. Crescent, OR
    24. Squamish, BC (Canada)*
    25. Pemberton, BC (Canada)
    26. Whistler, BC (Canada)
    27. Eureka, CA
    28. Westlake, OR
    29. Washington D.C.
    30. Portland, ME

    And here are the flights I took this year. These do not count layovers.

    1. Portland, OR to New Jersey, NJ (January)
    2. Rochester, NY to Portland, OR (February)
    3. Portland, OR to Frankfurt, Germany (March)
    4. Zurich, Switzerland to Barcelona, Spain (March)
    5. Barcelona, Spain to Portland, OR (March)
    6. Portland, OR to Rochester, NY (May)
    7. Rochester, NY to Boston, MA (May)
    8. Boston, MA to Portland, OR (May)
    9. Portland, OR to Rochester, NY (September)
    10. Newark, NJ to Portland, OR (October)
    11. Portland, OR to Washington D.C. (October)
    12. Boston, MA to Portland, OR (November)

  • 2021 in cities and flights

    The “year in cities” thing has become enough of a pattern that I did it again (here are links for 20202019201820172016 and 2015). This is basically just a list of cities in which I spent at least one night between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021. An * denotes those cities in which I spent multiple non-consecutive nights. I didn’t count nights spent in airplanes.

    1. Happy Valley, OR*
    2. Lake Forest, IL
    3. Chicago, IL*
    4. Las Vegas, NV
    5. Bandon, OR
    6. Seaside, OR
    7. Rochester, NY*
    8. Louisville, KY
    9. New York, NY*
    10. Athens, Greece*
    11. Chania, Greece (Crete)
    12. Kankakee, IL*
    13. Oglesby, IL
    14. Lincoln City, OR
    15. Wasco, OR
    16. Enterprise, OR
    17. Bend, OR
    18. Eugene, OR
    19. Westlake, OR
    20. Eureka, CA
    21. Danville, CA
    22. San Simeon, CA
    23. Long Beach, CA
    24. Mecca, CA
    25. Joshua Tree, CA
    26. Peoria, AZ
    27. Flagstaff, AZ
    28. Cedar City, UT
    29. Riverdale, UT
    30. Glenns Ferry, ID
    31. Frenchglen, OR
    32. Tulelake, CA
    33. Mt. Shasta, CA
    34. Ashland, OR
    35. Fairport, NY
    36. Buxton, OR

    And here are the flights I took this year. These do not count layovers.

    1. Portland, OR to Chicago, IL (January)
    2. Chicago, IL to Portland, OR (January)
    3. Portland, OR to Las Vegas, NV (February)
    4. Las Vegas, NV to Portland, OR (February)
    5. Portland, OR to Rochester, NY (April)
    6. Rochester, NY to Chicago, IL (April)
    7. Chicago, IL to Portland, OR (April)
    8. Portland, OR to New York, NY (June)
    9. New York, NY to Athens, Greece (June)
    10. Athens, Greece to Herakleion, Greece (June)
    11. Chania, Greece to Athens, Greece (June)
    12. Athens, Greece to Chicago, IL (June)
    13. Chicago, IL to Portland, OR (June)
    14. Portland, OR to Rochester, NY (October)
    15. Rochester, NY to New York City, NY (November)
    16. New York City, NY to Portland, OR (November)

  • 2020 in cities and flights

    The “year in cities” thing has become enough of a pattern that I did it again (here are links for 2019201820172016 and 2015). This is basically just a list of cities in which I spent at least one night between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. An * denotes those cities in which I spent multiple non-consecutive nights. I didn’t count nights spent in airplanes.

    1. Lake Forest, IL*
    2. Chicago, IL*
    3. Portland, OR*
    4. Seaside, OR
    5. Las Vegas, NV
    6. Kankakee, IL
    7. Atlanta, GA
    8. Hollywood, FL*
    9. Happy Valley, OR*
    10. Dayville, OR
    11. Cambridge, ID
    12. Detroit, OR
    13. Westlake, OR
    14. Newport, OR
    15. Glenoma, WA
    16. Netarts, OR
    17. Austin, TX
    18. Meacham, OR
    19. Twin Falls, ID*
    20. Riverdale, UT
    21. Moab, UT
    22. Monticello, UT
    23. Page, AZ
    24. Fredonia, AZ
    25. Orderville, UT
    26. Bryce, UT
    27. Torrey, UT

    And here are the flights I took this year. These do not count layovers.

    1. Chicago, IL to Portland, OR (January)
    2. Portland, OR to Las Vegas, NV (January)
    3. Las Vegas, NV to Portland, OR (January)
    4. Portland, OR to Chicago, IL (February)
    5. Chicago, IL to Atlanta, GA (February)
    6. Atlanta, GA to Fort Lauderdale, FL (March)
    7. Fort Lauderdale, FL to Portland, OR (March)
    8. Portland, OR to Austin, TX (October)
    9. Austin, TX to Portland, OR (October)
    10. Portland, OR to Fort Lauderdale, FL (November)
    11. Fort Lauderdale, FL to Portland, OR (November)

    COVID changed things this year. It cancelled Chicago multiple times,, as well asNew York, Helsinki, Athens, Crete, Amsterdam, Scotland, and at least one more weekend somewhere else.


  • 2019 in cities and flights

    The “year in cities” thing has become enough of a pattern that I did it again (here are links for 201820172016 and 2015). This is basically just a list of cities in which I spent at least one night between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019. An * denotes those cities in which I spent multiple non-consecutive nights. This year, I decided not to count airplanes, though I did spent three nights over the Atlantic Ocean and one night over the Midwest.

    1. Portland, OR*
    2. Cannon Beach, OR
    3. Los Angeles, CA
    4. Rome, Italy
    5. Florence, Italy
    6. Venice, Italy
    7. Sevilla, Spain
    8. Granada, Spain
    9. Madrid, Spain
    10. Hollywood, FL
    11. Dublin, CA
    12. Sacramento, CA
    13. Denver, CO
    14. McKenzie Bridge, OR
    15. Boise, ID
    16. Idaho Falls, ID
    17. Yellowstone, MT
    18. Missoula, MT
    19. Hungry Horse, MT
    20. West Glacier, MT
    21. Geneva, NY
    22. New York, NY
    23. San Francisco, CA
    24. Paris, France
    25. Brugge, Belgium
    26. Gent, Belgium
    27. Ljubljana, Slovenia
    28. Bled, Slovenia
    29. Bohinj, Slovenia
    30. Visoko, Slovenia
    31. Sofia, Bulgaria
    32. London, England
    33. Lake Forest, IL*
    34. Kankakee, IL*
    35. New Orleans, LA

    And here are the flights I took this year. These do not count layovers.

    1. Portland, OR to Rome, Italy (February)
    2. Venice, Italy to Sevilla, Spain (February)
    3. Madrid, Spain, to Portland, OR (February)
    4. Portland, OR to Fort Lauderdale, FL (April)
    5. Fort Lauderdale, FL to Oakland, CA (May)
    6. Sacramento, CA to Portland, OR (May)
    7. Portland, OR to Denver, CO (May)
    8. Denver, CO to Portland, OR (June)
    9. Portland, OR to Buffalo, NY (August), not counting the overnight delay in Boston
    10. New York, NY to Portland, OR (August)
    11. Portland, OR to Oakland, CA (September)
    12. Oakland, CA to Paris, France (September)
    13. Brussels, Belgium to Ljubljana, Slovenia (September)
    14. Ljubljana, Slovenia to Sofia, Bulgaria (September)
    15. Sofia, Bulgaria to London, England (September)
    16. London, England to Portland, OR (September)
    17. Portland, OR to Chicago, IL (October)
    18. Chicago, IL to Portland, OR (October)
    19. Portland, OR to New Orleans, LA (December)
    20. New Orleans, LA to Portland, OR (December)
    21. Portland, OR to Chicago, IL (December)

  • Ten years

    Today marked 10 years since my perspective on life began to shift and “life is short; live it” began running through the back corners of my mind. Over the course of seven seconds in a California courtroom on March 4, 2009, I watched as a judge narrowly avoided being stabbed in the jugular and her attempted killer was shot to death. By then, I’d already seen plenty of dead bodies and gruesome crime scenes and grieving families, and now I’m in a career where I deal with a lot of traumatized people. It doesn’t bother me and I sleep just fine, but that day in the courtroom had such a different impact on me.

    It took me a long time to figure out why that courtroom attack hit me so strongly. In the days after that incident, I kept a running daily tally of every single Chrysler 300 I saw on the road — and those cars were at the peak of popularity in 2009, so I saw a lot of them. Every single minute, I knew exactly how many black Chrysler 300’s I’d seen that day, and how many non-black ones I’d seen. I spotted them across a divided freeway, in the distance rounding a corner, and in dim evening light. Every morning, my tortured mental tally restarted, and every day I vehemently hoped it wouldn’t resume. Four weeks later, my brain finally stopped differentiating between black and other colored Chrysler 300’s. After six weeks, the daily counting finally stopped, and I was so very relieved. I suspect it was post traumatic stress reaction — not disorder (the D in PTSD), though I refused my employer’s counseling offer so I never did find out. However, I do still get silently enraged when people joke about PTSD, because I know how much my version bothered me, and how hard I tried and failed to make it stop until it had run its course.

    I still hate Chrysler 300’s with an embarrassingly absurd passion. This morning, a black one got very close to me while making a turn, and I felt that familiar rage, especially with today’s anniversary. Why that car? That’s the question I’ve asked myself for a decade. The guy who nearly killed the judge was on trial for murder, a crime that happened when he admittedly stabbed his girlfriend in the jugular inside a black Chrysler 300. His attorney, coincidentally, drove a nearly identical black Chrysler 300, and I had even been in it before the crime. (His lawyer later got a different car, and told me that case was the reason he got rid of it.)

    I’ve mostly accepted the fact that I’ll never know why my brain fixated on black Chrysler 300’s. But along the way, I’ve finally figured out some of the reasons why that courtroom attack had such a profound impact on me. Sure, the attack itself was out of the ordinary and justifiably made headline news across the country. But by then, I’d already seen and done a lot of crazy things, and none of them gave me a mantra that has run through my head for 10 straight years.

    First, in the moments immediately after the stabbing and shooting, I knew that the attacker had been shot and stopped by a detective I would have trusted with my life (that’s saying something for me). But suddenly a sergeant came running from behind me, hollering, “Everybody get down!” I experienced a moment of sheer horror, suddenly thinking that it wasn’t over and that the attacker must have gotten hold of a gun. I found myself crouching on the floor in front of my seat, few yards away from the attacker. I was later teased both publicly and privately for my reaction of ducking to the floor, which still fills me with indignation, since I was defenseless and had just heard a very urgent order to get down. I think that combination of brief terror and later ridicule contributed to my Chrysler 300 reaction, because my brain just couldn’t deal with all of it.

    Second, people close to me had very different reactions. One, who had flirted with me for a while and we had briefly dated (and years later tried again), knew I was in that courtroom and was instantly texting me, then calling. Over the next days and weeks, he checked in with me regularly to ask how I was, and praised my reporting and writing. Meanwhile, the guy I was actually dating had the opposite reaction: He thought I was lucky I’d been there to get the story, and said it was mild compared to many other things. We barely talked, because he could not understand why I kept thinking about it. He thought my car counting was absurd and that I needed to just get over it.

    But, third, the biggest take-away was that line: “Life is short; live it.” Three months after the courtroom attack, I was on a freeway when a truck accelerated, went up a hill, then went airborne and sailed over an overpass with a vehicle on it. Both occupants of that truck died, the driver who’d had a heart attack that caused the wreck, and his wife who awoke from a coma just long enough to learn that her husband hadn’t survived.

    It took a little more than a year for me to finally listen to that line running through my head. I left the job environment that was making me unhappy, I finally broke up with that “just get over it” guy for the last time, and I decided to move to either Portland or the Bay Area. A door opened in the Bay Area, and I walked through it, never once regretting the change that meant leaving behind a 10-year career I had truly loved.

    Six years later, my paternal grandfather died and my grandmother couldn’t live alone. And then my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer. As I went every direction at once (thanks to the most compassionate boss), “life is short; live it” kept running through my head. My mom beat the odds, and that’s when I knew it was time to move to Portland. I finally found a way to make it happen, and though today is the courtroom attack anniversary, later this month I’ll mark two years of living in Portland. They’ve been two years of the hardest job training I’ve ever experienced, but once again, I’ve had no regrets.

    A decade later, I’m still scowling at black Chrysler 300’s, and I’m still remembering 2:10 p.m. on March 4, 2009. But I’m really trying to live life. I just returned from a romp through Italy and Spain, where I ran marathon #20; I’m watching more international flights; I’m gradually making my way through each of the 50 United States; I’m mapping out road trips to Yellowstone and ocean camping; I’m begging people (and my bank account) to go to Antarctica; I’m still dreaming of qualifying for the Boston marathon despite my injury-prone self that was never supposed to run in the first place.

    And I’ve also gradually been learning that I don’t need the people who ridicule me or brush me off. Yes, we usually get what we give and we shouldn’t expect anything in return, but some people can just be acquaintances while others can be true friends.

     

    (I’ve written about this previously. Here’s the 2016 post, where I reprinted the first-hand account I wrote the night of the courtroom attack.)


  • 2018 in cities and flights

    The “year in cities” thing has become enough of a pattern that I did it again (here are links for 20172016 and 2015). This is basically just a list of cities in which I spent at least one night between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018. An * denotes those cities in which I spent multiple non-consecutive nights.

    1. Portland, OR*
    2. Kankakee, IL*
    3. Over the Midwest*
    4. Hollywood, FL
    5. New York City, NY*
    6. Boston, MA
    7. Seattle, WA
    8. Banff, AB (Canada)*
    9. Jasper, AB (Canada)
    10. Coeur d’Alene, ID
    11. Lincoln City, OR
    12. Netarts, OR*
    13. Redmond, WA
    14. Milwaukee, WI
    15. Oshkosh, WI
    16. Lake Forest, IL
    17. Harrisburg, PA
    18. Rehoboth Beach, DE

    And here are the flights I took this year. These do not count layovers.

    1. Portland, OR to Chicago, IL  — April
    2. Chicago, IL to Ft. Lauderdale, FL — April
    3. Ft. Lauderdale, FL to New York City, NY — April
    4. Boston, MA to Portland, OR — April
    5. Portland, OR to Chicago, IL — October
    6. Chicago, IL to Portland, OR — October
    7. Portland, OR to Philadelphia, PA — December
    8. New York City, NY to Portland, OR — December

  • 2017 in cities and flights

    The “year in cities” thing was easy/fun enough to do for the past two years that I did it again (here are links for 2016 and 2015). However, I didn’t get the idea to add a photo for each city until this year, and now it’s March but I haven’t gone back and added pictures. Since I’m lazy and it IS March, I’m just going to post this now and hope for better results in 2018… This “cities” idea is basically just a list of cities in which I spent at least one night between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017. An * denotes those cities in which I spent multiple non-consecutive nights.

    1. Upland, CA
    2. Dublin, CA*
    3. Fort Lauderdale, FL
    4. Beaverton, OR
    5. Portland, OR*
    6. Dunsmuir, CA
    7. Salem, OR*
    8. St. Helens, OR
    9. Kankakee, IL
    10. Lake Forest, IL
    11. Madison, WI
    12. Seattle, WA
    13. Sacramento, CA

    And here are the flights I took this year. These do not count layovers.

    1. San Francisco, CA to Fort Lauderdale, FL — February
    2. Fort Lauderdale, FL to Oakland, CA — February
    3. Oakland, CA to Portland, OR — February
    4. Portland, OR to Oakland, CA — March
    5. Portland, OR to Chicago, IL — September
    6. Chicago, IL to Portland, OR — September
    7. Portland, OR to Oakland, CA — December
    8. Sacramento, CA to Portland, OR — December

  • 2017 in books: Part 2

    In 2016, I finished 37 books. In 2017, I set a goal to get through 38 books. Well, I blew past that goal and finished 46 books:

    Screen Shot 2018-01-14 at 11.53.33 AM

    The list got long, so I split it into two posts, with the first six months of 2017’s books posted here. Without further ado, here are the books I read during the second six months of 2017.

    Five-star books:

    1. From Sand and Ash, by Amy Harmon. This was a lovely, painful, beautiful story of a Catholic boy and a Jewish girl who grew up together and whose lives were then torn apart by the Nazis. I kept wanting the sadly realistic story to end, but I also desperately wanted it to continue on, because I liked the characters so much. I’ve been reading about WWII my entire life, so I know the all-too-painful reality of Nazi atrocities, but I think maybe that made this book more real for me. It’s fiction, but it is also so real. Stories like this are the reason I have a “Never Forget” medallion on my key chain, a memento from the Holocaust Museum. People like Eva and Angelo lived beautiful lives in the midst of horror, and we must not let such horror return.
    2. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman. A grump old man has no reason left to live, and then his new neighbors crash into his mailbox and won’t leave him alone. I debated between four and five stars for this one, but I ultimately took the generous option because the writing was good and the story kept me interested, even though it wasn’t full of action and cliff hangers. I think that says something about an author and a story.
    3. Nancy Wake, by Peter FitzSimons. In my years of WWII reading, I’d never heard of Nancy Wake until I stumbled across this audio book on sale. Nancy grew up in Australia and left for Europe as soon as she could. She loved Europe, and fought to defeat the Nazis in any way possible — from smuggling documents to parachuting into France to leading troops. It’s a remarkable true story, and Nancy sounds like one of those people who left a permanent impression of awe everywhere she went. Note: Some reviewers didn’t think the writing was good enough for more than three stars, but I listened to the audio version and loved every minute of it. (Also, her favorite book was Anne of Green Gables. Bonus points in my opinion.)

    Four-star books:

    1. Absolute Power, by David Baldacci. Last year I plowed through this author’s “King and Maxwell” series, and I decided to read this one because it was the author’s first book and possibly his best known. To clarify, this was the audio version, and I really enjoyed the pace and the plot. It’s the story of a burglar who witnesses a crime involving the president, and the subsequent cover-up. I really did not like one of the characters (the president’s chief of staff), and I know she wasn’t supposed to be liked, but it was a bit more than that for me. For that, I would give the book three stars, but the audio version was more of a five, so I cut the difference and settled on four stars.
    2. The Black Box, by Michael Connelly. This book involved places in California’s Central Valley, where I spent eight years as a newspaper reporter covering crime, so I’m being generous and giving it four stars. In this one, Detective Harry Bosch revives a 20-year-old unsolved case of a Danish reporter who was murdered during the Los Angeles riots. It takes him to Modesto, Manteca and briefly Stockton, and involves one of the county sheriffs. While some of this book seems far-fetched, I actually know first-hand about some of the Central Valley’s law enforcement corruption, and that part of the book is believable. One side note: I listened to this book, and the narrator butchered the pronunciation of Manteca and Salida (at least he got Lodi right).
    3. Two Kinds of the Truth, by Michael Connelly. Uh oh, I finished catching up on the Harry Bosch series — now what will I listen to?! That may be why I was generous with the stars on this one, though I did like the mix of crime procedure and the return of courtroom drama by Mickey Haller, Bosch’s brother. Haller comes in to defend Bosch, who’s accused of fabricating evidence in a case where the convict has spent 30 years in prison. This means his entire life work is on the line, and he’s going to fight it. Meanwhile, he has another murder case to solve, and it sends him undercover. Unrealistic? Yep. Fun? Yep.

    Three-star books:

    1. The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling. This is the story of a private investigator who is hired to look into the suicide of a model — yes, another in that genre. This one happens to be written by the Harry Potter author, who wanted some anonymity so the book could be judged on its own, though I don’t think that anonymity lasted very long. I admire Rowling for wanting to do that, though. Anyway, the main characters were likable and the writing certainly warranted four stars, but the plot and its absurd twists were more on the two-star level.
    2. Lost Light, by Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch has retired as an LAPD detective, but he can’t really leave the work behind him. Soon he’s looking into one of the old homicide cases that haunted him, and then homeland security gets involved. This book was told in first-person by Bosch, and while I’m not always a fan of first-person, it actually worked.
    3. The Narrows, by Michael Connelly. The “Poet” has returned from an earlier book, to which I gave four stars. He’s a conniving killer who betrayed a bunch of people, and now he’s back for more. It was kind of far-fetched so I was tempted to give it two stars, but I admit to plowing through it and waiting to see what happened, and having fun in the process.
    4. The Closers, by Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch has returned to the LAPD, working on cold cases, and he’s partnered again with Kiz Rider. They start off on a DNA hit from an old case, and Bosch’s old nemesis, Capt. Irving, pops up to make things interesting. I almost gave this four stars because the characters were good, but maybe I’m just on a three-star streak?
    5. The Body Reader, by Anne Frasier. The heroine is a police detective who was kidnapped and held captive for three years before escaping and getting her job back. The book goes back and forth between that time and present day, as she and her new partner hunt down a serial killer. I was impressed by how the author managed to switch from past to present without making it confusing or jumpy, but the storyline itself was a little too far-fetched for me.
    6. The Sound of Glass, by Karen White. This is the story of a southern family with secrets, ranging from a plane crash to domestic violence to illness, that all come back full-circle. I would have easily given it four stars if the crash part hadn’t been so far-fetched, but when that also came around full-circle, I rolled my eyes.
    7. All the Winters After, by Sere Prince Halverson. Ah, Alaska, a state I really want to visit again and explore more — but until then, I’ll just have to settle for stumbling across books set there. This is the tale of a guy who left home a decade ago after tragedy and returns now, expecting the family home to be in ruins. However, a woman escaping a harsh religious sect has been keeping the place in shape. Commence romance and a bad guy, that I knew from the beginning was THE bad guy. It just became too contrived, which was disappointing because it had potential to be a really great book.
    8. The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly. Defense attorney Mickey Haller hasn’t been practicing law for a year, until a lawyer is murdered and Mickey inherits his cases, including a high profile murder defendant. Detective Harry Bosch is investigating the lawyer’s murder, so their paths cross. I like the characters and would give this 3.5 stars if that were an option, but some of it was just a bit too far-fetched for me.
    9. Murder in an Irish Village, by Carlene O’Connor. A book set in Ireland! An audio book with an Irish reader! Yes, it was another murder mystery, which I seem to be reading in droves lately (then again, I always have veered toward the genre). The main character is trying to care for her five siblings and run the family business, but then a murder victim turns up at said business, and then she sets out to solve the crime while also getting into some romance. That was all formulaic, so it only gets three stars.
    10. Nine Dragons, by Michael Connelly. I’m feeling generous today, so I rounded up from what I think was more like 2.5 stars. This book started out with a murder that Detective Harry Bosch is sent to investigate, but then the book becomes this unbelievable caper that goes to Hong Kong, involves his daughter, has someone being trapped in a ship, kills off a recurring character in the Bosch books, and it just keeps being ridiculous. And yet, I still really like that Harry Bosch character.
    11. Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running From the Madness, by Suzy Favor Hamilton with Sarah Tomlinson. Suzy Favor Hamilton was a three-time Olympian, attracting plenty of attention as a speedy runner with a blonde ponytail. Then, as she says in this book, she wasn’t getting enough thrills to combat her increasing but undiagnosed bipolarism, so she found new levels of highs and risks by spending nearly a year as an escort in Las Vegas. Her last Olympics were in 2000, about five years before I got interested in running, so when the Smoking Gun website outed her in 2012, I didn’t know anything about her. I remember thinking, “That’s weird” and, “Huh, her husband is standing by her,” and then she left my mind. So when I took a walk through a local library for the first time and, out of pure coincidence, turned down an aisle that had running books, I stopped and skimmed the selections. And I took this one home. You would think, after such a long preamble and a subject I love, I would give this book five stars. It really was a fascinating story, and a topic we should all pay more attention to so we can try to help those with mental health troubles. But the writing was just really sub-par. Words were repetitive, sentences were choppy when they didn’t need to be, and it needed several more rounds of editing. It was a fast read and I would love to see Favor Hamilton speak about surviving, but it’s not a book I would buy.
    12. The Reversal, by Michael Connelly. This one would be closer to four stars, if fractions of stars were allowed, because it combines courtroom procedure with the crime novel stuff — and I’m a sucker for both. Defense attorney Mickey Haller is back, which is fun, this time as a special prosecutor in a case that was thrown out after the suspect spent 24 years in prison. He gets Harry Bosch as the lead investigator who’s challenged with decades-old evidence and witnesses. It was really well done until the end, which was rushed and a let-down, and the reason I didn’t seriously consider giving it four stars.
    13. The Drop, by Michael Connelly. Detective Harry Bosch is given a cold murder case in which blood evidence is checked for a DNA match and comes back with a hit — but it’s linked to a guy who was only 8 years old at the time of the crime. And then Irvin Irving, who was a thorn in Bosch’s side during years of senior management in the LAPD, asks that he investigate his son’s apparent suicide. Some of the Amazon show “Bosch” was taken from this book, so that was cool to bring things back around for me. The insider politics were frustrating but I know they’re sadly realistic. The other case was definitely unique, though it went a bit over the top into “really?!” land.
    14. The Burning Room, by Michael Connelly. Another cold case for Detective Harry Bosch, this time one that comes about because a guy dies with a bullet that’s been in him for 10 years. This one was rather forgettable, though I liked his latest partner, LAPD Detective Lucia Soto, who wants to solve an old arson homicide case that changed her life as a child.
    15. The Crossing, by Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch can’t stay retired, so he agrees to work on a case for his half brother, though he has a hard time being on the defense side. I liked the mix of cop and courtroom procedural.
    16. The Wrong Side of Goodbye, by Michael Connelly. This one was close to four stars, because I liked the story behind a case that now-private investigator Harry Bosch takes on — looking for an old man’s possible heir. Meanwhile, he becomes a volunteer detective for a different police department, goes to work on a serial rapist investigation, and that just feels a bit too contrived to warrant four stars.
    17. The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly. I ran out of Harry Bosch books, so I read this one, involving his defense attorney brother, Mickey Haller. This one definitely deserves another half a star, but I guess I’m feeling miserly today. Anyway, this one is about a new client Haller takes on, one with money and an alibi. It seems like a great case with a great payout, until Haller learns some awful truths and finds himself stuck in the attorney-client-privilege quandry.

    Two-star books:

    1. My Sister’s Grave, by Robert Dugoni. This was a cheap Audible sale book, and not bad for easy listening. But the whole plot was unrealistic, and some of the characters were very inconsistent. It’s about a homicide detective whose sister disappeared 20 years earlier, and she restarts her own investigation when the body is found. It’s just all really not plausible, and I rolled my eyes through the whole story.
    2. The Overlook, by Michael Connelly. My Harry Bosch devouring continued into this one, which dipped into terrorism and thus seemed kind of cliche. A stash of cesium goes missing, a doctor turns up dead, cops start fighting over who gets the case, and it just didn’t really do it for me.

    Abandoned:

    1. Private, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. This was a free Audible book so I figured I’d try it out and see if it was good adventure/crime/mystery listening while driving and working out. It was not. I made myself get through two hours of it before I gave up, and I just could not handle the choppy storyline that moved from good guy to bad guy and everywhere in between. I still don’t know really know what it was about, except that it involved a hit man.

  • Maybe I won’t run 50 miles

    Update to my post about pondering a 50-mile run: I’m not doing it. There are a number of reasons, and I know that I will occasionally regret the decision, especially since a good friend of mine did sign up so I will hear all about it from him. But a few factors won out, and I am resting easy in my decision.

    • Could I do it? Probably, because I’m just stubborn enough.
    • Would I like the sand? Not really.
    • Do I dread the idea of running many miles of mud in Portland all winter? Yes.
    • Am I unsure about committing so many of my days off to long runs on trails? Yes, because I just moved and want to do lots of local things with anyone who will welcome me.

    I have spent the past two weeks pondering the decision and watching as the race filled up. A number of people gave valuable, thoughtful input, and I appreciate every comment (here, Facebook and Twitter), email and in-person conversation.  I will definitely consider doing it in 2019, which gives all of you plenty of time to decide to join in!

    In the meantime, I do want to find a fall race. The plan had been Portland Marathon, because it would be a full-circle/demon-exorcising event for me. Also, I now live here and could sleep in my own bed, AND one of my best friends was going to come run it and we’d make it a girls weekend, hopefully with another friend. Well, then the marathon had to change course, and it’s now an out-and-back through an industrial area (along Highway 30, called “dirty thirty”). Also, the race directors are under federal investigation for questionable non-profit actions. 2017 is clearly not the year for me to run this race.

    I know there are a million other fall races. The task now is to figure out which one I want to do, which time is better for me, and whether I can travel or should stick closer to home. So many decisions! Who wants to make a weekend out of one of the umpteen options?