Books that Have been Read by Me

Here's what I've been reading. I'm currently in the middle of 3 books (not something I typically do), so I figured it was time to write up the last set before the list just gets too long.

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
A history book in the style of Bryson, wherein the author tells about an important historical figure, but also includes stories about visiting the historical sites in person and comments on the quality of the reenactments as well as including any curious details she might have found in an old letter the subject wrote. The Marquis de Lafayette is probably familiar to anyone who made it through grade school in the US (and he's the one all the cities named Lafayette are named for), but I'd never really known anything about him, or what he actually did. It turns out, he was a very devoted revolutionary, found it an honor to be shot in the leg for the cause of liberty, and was a teenager who kinda ditched his wife back in France to go have an adventure in America. I found the book fun and relatively short (268 pages). Also, the book has no chapters, so, good luck finding a decent place to stop reading when you're tired.

The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams
I guess this book made all sorts of 'Books you should read' lists, so Shannon picked it up from the library for me. Terry Williams is a big conservationist and poet, and she has a chapter about a dozen or so different National Parks. I love National Parks! I hate poetry. I struggled with this book, and Shannon would keep telling me, "You don't have to keep reading it," but I stuck it out to the end. If you pick this book up, know that each chapter is very different. I enjoyed stories of Gettysburg National Military Park, and hearing about the interactions between oil drilling and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. But when she took 10 different colored notebooks for her 10 day trip to Texas to fill with poetry that was just too much.

Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites by Chris Heimerdinger
Somehow I made it through childhood without reading one of the "classics" of Mormon young adult fiction. Though fully aware of the Tennis Shoes franchise, I didn't really know anything about it, so when a copy made it to our house from some friends who were moving and unloading stuff, I picked it up from a mixture of boredom and research as to whether Julia would like it. Basically, two kids find a secret worm hole that drops them off right in the middle of the book of Alma. And of course a little sister is tagging along for good measure. They have adventures with the Nephite armies and eventually make their way home. The more troublesome of the two kids turns his life around and everything gets wrapped up with a nice bow. What can I say, it's a book for 11 year olds. Also, I always figured the Tennis Shoes would somehow be mentioned a little bit more or something, but I was wrong. The book could just as easily been named Blonde Kids Among the Nephites.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper by John Allen Paulos
I heard about this book years ago, but knew nothing other than the title and put it on my 'to read' list. Where it sat for the better part of a decade because the library didn't have a copy. After years of waiting, it wasn't worth the wait. The book is a bunch of 1 to 4 page chapters that are musings about newspaper articles, but most of them don't really go anywhere. About the stock market the author points out that the stock market is pretty much random. About primary elections he notes that different voting methods will give different results. But these ideas never develop into anything more than "Hey, I want to tell you what I'm thinking right now." As I read this book, I found myself wishing it was more like a book named Innumeracy which I read years ago where that author talks about the problems associated with people who do not understand numbers. And then, I saw it right on the cover of the book I was reading: it's the same author! Read Innumeracy, skip this one.

The Cursed Child by J K Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany
Yes, it's a new book for the Potterverse, but it's not really a book, it's a play. And not really written by Rowling, but as a triumvirate of writers. Plays aren't meant to be read, but to be seen - but I read it anyway. It's 17 or so years post HP #7, and Harry has a son, Albus, who he doesn't relate well to, so of course Albus and his best friend (Malfoy Jr.) get into big trouble when they go back in time and mess up the space time continuum. Basically, they go back to the tri-wizard tournament but then Biff gets the Almanac and when they come back they end up in a different 1985 where gambling is legal, Ron and Hermione aren't married, and Albus and Malfoy Jr aren't friends. So they go back in time again to try and fix it, but then things are messed up worse and Voldemort is back and Hermione is married to Biff and lots of people don't exist anymore and the school teacher doesn't fall down the ravine! In the end, the world is, of course, set right, we all learn to believe in ourselves and we remember that when you have a flying Ford Anglia, where you're going you don't need roads.

The book/play reads a lot like fan fiction, and I would have rather had them write a new story than to go back in time to revisit the 'Under the Sea' dance, but it was still entertaining enough. The writing feels very sparse because it's a play so all you're reading is dialogue and a few stage directions.

Running Nerd Returns

Neither sun, nor heat, nor humidity, nor more heat . . . .

July 2016 was the hottest month on record (that record being my running log) where I've dutifully recorded the temperature of nearly every run I've done in the last few years. Initially my main goal was to develop a calculator that would help me remember what to wear at what temperatures every fall when it starts to cool down. That was complete a few years ago, and at this point I think I could actually get along just fine without it - but it served its purpose.

But all this heat has got me thinking: can I blame the heat for being so slow? After a very nice prolonged drop in average pace, I've gotten slow in the last few months:

After a multi year trend of getting faster, that darn blue line is headed in the wrong direction. But, who is to blame? The pink bar, or the green line? Let's see what the data says . . .