Totally Booked: Threes and Fours

I've been racking up some frequent flier miles and burning through my reading list this month. Wahoo! Here are a few more:

Wahine Take on:
The Rule of Four, by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

Straight from the fan club of Dan Brown, we've got another cult meets academia suspense book. I know it was a Da Vinci Code knock off but I couldn't resist a thriller where historical research plays as much a role in the plot as the characters.  "The delicious futility of impossible tasks is the catnip of overachievers," the author quips. How much fun is that!

Rule of Four follows four Princeton undergrads wrapping up their college career as they try to crack a 500 year old puzzle: The Hypnerotomachia, a book published during the Renaissance (in real life), that holds an ancient secret. All this Sherlock Holmes-ian drama sparked by an on-campus murder.

I wouldn't mark it as the next classic but it's deliciously rich with riddles and twists making it a fun summer read, especially for the nerd crew.

Wahine Take on:
Three Cups Of Tea
And of course it couldn't be helped...a nonfiction had to be thrown into the mix. This book came highly recommended to me by at least three different people, ahem, Adam, so I borrowed (stole) it from my sister.

You don't have to be an international affairs guru to appreciate this story (but it certainly tickles those of us who do). Greg Mortenson may have failed at climbing K2 (the second tallest mountain in the world) but it wouldn't shock me if he took home a Nobel Peace Prize in the next decade. An admirer of his organization likened his efforts to the firefighters of 9/11. He says, "This guy Greg quietly, doggedly heading back into a war zone to do battle with the real causes of terror is every bit as heroic as those firemen running up the stairs of the burning towers while everyone else was frantically trying to get out."

After nearly killing himself on his mission to climb to the summit, he was stumbled into a rural village in Pakistan ten years ago. The locals adopted the infidel, nursing him back to health. To repay them, he promised to build them the school they so desperately needed. Eighty schools, two countries, a war, and a decade later, Mortenson is still on his mission to bring education to the farthest, most war torn parts of the globe. But it all comes down to building relationships long before breaking ground, relationships based on trust, established over many cups of tea.

The lessons he shares, I believe, hold the key to solving the War on Terror. We have the most sophisticated tools, the strongest and brightest (I know, my brother is one of them) fighting tirelessly. But he says, "I've learned that terror doesn't happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to live." We are going to have to help make that future - and it's going to have to be in the form of education.

His story is inspiring, a few times I caught myself figuring out how I swing a trip out to help him - only to remind myself I'd be more of a liability than an asset. (SHOCKER). If don't have this book in your collection...buy it! 7% of the proceeds go to his effort. And if you're in the DC area - he will be visiting promoting the sequel in September!

Book Report: Just Keep Reading

It’s funny - when I started Eat, Pray, Love, I was under a lot of stress and I was looking for a quick light read, something to escape to. It seemed like everyone and their sister had read it and I picked it up over the summer and added it to the NEED TO READ ASAP basket next to my bed. (Just role with it… It’s one of my gagillion systems.) Instead I found this book to be quite the challenge.


Elizabeth Gilbert starts by painting her us her hell – she hit rock bottom. Her career, marriage, and self respect were in shambles and she spends 100 pages navigating us through her self loathing. I’ll admit – I found her tale of despair irritating, 90% of her woes were related to her attitude of the situation - I wanted to punch her for whining about it. Now, I idolize strong willed, outspoken, brazen women. Not whiners. But I kept reading. Not sure why but I did.

She divides the book into three parts from there on. She takes 3 trips over the next year to help patch her self esteem though self discovery, gastronomic escapism, and travel. It didn’t help hush the Maureen Dowd in me, when I found out that in the cesspool of her plight she was getting an advance for a book about her journey. Of course she’s going to find serenity - she’s going to get paid for it. But I found myself still reading the darn thing.

Off she goes to Italy for four months. Now this part I loved. She took one of my dream vacations - learning to study Italian in Rome for 4 months - what’s not to love? As she describes the food, the men, the culture, my guard starts to melt. A part that sticks out was a conversation she had with her delicious Italian tutor. He makes the case that- if you could deduce Rome to one word, it would be Sex, New York: Success. As she scrambles to find her word - I can’t help but try to think of mine Flexible? Family? Mouthy? Brash? I couldn’t find my word. That was 3 months ago. I put the book down and had to focus on other things - work, more work, and coordinating the holidays.

Then while I was packing for our vacation to the Dominican I threw 4 months worth of magazine subscriptions (the news related ones are the only ones I have time to keep current with: Economist, The Week, Atlantic, etc) and in case that wasn’t enough I tossed in Eat Pray Love.

Literally walking off the plane from a week whirlwind in San Diego for the holidays, changing suitcases after work, and walking back onto the plane I realized the last time I had some quality alone - hands free time was on our cruise. That was in August. While sitting on the planes I’ve been working out my 2010 strategy (I don’t do resolutions - I strategize,) I realized I have put a lot of things on hold - my grad school application, my fitness program , my blog, - hell just cooking has been shelved and my waistline serves as a reminder. Maybe that’s why I picked EPL back up.

I left the magazines in my carry on and I rejoined Lizzy’s journey. I was still a little bitter about her weaknesses compassion is a strong suite for me -- sympathy is not. That is to say - I feel your pain - I can see your point, but I don’t feel bad for you. But I kept reading.

I rejoined her, I on a soft canvas pillow on a beach lounger in the Dominican Republic - she on a dusty mat in an Indian Ashram. I hate the touchy feely spiritual pursuit. I’m catholic - not of the book totin’ persuasion - but a relatively good one. And like Lizzy, I do yoga too- but the second we move out of the Hatha Yoga instructions and into the “unite your body and spirit” talk - I’m gone. Checked out - doing my grocery list in my head and racking my brain to confirm I Tivo-ed 60 minutes. When we’re “meditating,” I’m taking a cat nap - gotta get those in when you can - so this next chapter was really hard for me. But I kept reading.

She introduces a friend she makes - a Texas man who has the bluntness of Helen Thomas and the charm of Clint Eastwood. I like him. Lizzy wails over losing her soul mate and he calls her out on it – one point for Texas. But in holding up mirror to her face, metaphorically speaking, he makes a really write-that-down point: he says very few people meet their soul mate - and even fewer stay with them. Their purpose is not to complete you - but to open your soul to the ability to love deeply. If that’s the case - time to change the e-harmony profile. I’m only half kidding.

Then we hit Bali - here she is reuniting with the muse that sent her on this journey - an old medicine man who predicated from her palm - she would be back in two years to live with him. Instead she meets her love. Game, Set, Match. And from the way she describes him - I would fall in love with this guy too. He’s a Brazilian expat living in Bali and his kids are in Australia. He’s adventurous, international, blunt, focused, and cultured, and if he’s anything like the Brazilians I know - he’s beautiful. Time to start shopping in Bali.

I’m glad I kept reading and I have to be honest - I say this begrudgingly - I liked the book. I love her writing style - writing as if we’re girlfriends. Heck I called her Lizzy all through this post. Maybe it’s her writing, maybe, and I hated to admit it, I identified with her. But more importantly I was moved by the journey.

Blowing Into Town....

I dare you to find a better motivator to get out of town then bad weather at home. If you can't head for the hills, the next best thing is a convention dedicated to travel. Nothing better then roaming the aisles of the new Gaylord Hotel on the waterfront, at the Travelganza travel show while a hurricane blows through DC. YUM.

Linds was a trooper and headed over with me. Although most of the vacations were way out of our budget.... there was plenty to aspire to!

What Happens on the Boat...Stays on the Boat

So many good stories from our little weekend cruise to Nassau but if you want the goods, you have to get the chez triplets on their third mojito. Jen, Katie, and Lindsey safely return from their Bahamian adventure and stopover in Miami. Their trip was full of muster drills, Gios, bright sandy beaches, and plenty of alcohol at the Schooner Bar. Lindsey will be making a DVD of their experience that will hopefully be complete by the end of the summer. (Hopefully) Here are just a few of the photos.