Non-Fiction
Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton – This book is full of intriguing places off the beaten path. If the book is for you, you’ll find those few stops you have been to and so many more that you’ll need to visit. Such a lovely collection. Must.
Resilience by Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy – This one has been sitting in my reading pile for a while. I love the topic of resilience. The authors touch on all sort of interesting hot buttons – mindfulness, prisoner’s dilimina, swarming – but the book doesn’t hold together enough around the big idea. Could.
Travel The Planet Overland by Graeme and Luisa Bell – This book came out of the travels that the Bells made all over the planet in their Land Rover and they created a Kickstarter project to publish the book. I couldn’t say no. The book designed to convey advice about vehicle choice, essential gear, how to make money and food that works best for long-term overland travel. Could.
Super Sushi Ramen Express by Michael Booth – This is a wonderful book about traveling through Japan with food as the central focus. I traveled to Japan in 2014 and visited some of the places that Booth reports on, but he does so much more. The book made me realize how much Japanese food culture has moved into Western food culture – sushi, tempura, miso, soy sauce, sake, unami. Each of those serves as an essay topic along with along with several other stops including modern day pearl divers, poisonous fugu fish and the dualing schools of Japanese cooking. The writing style is simple and clear; Booth’s attitude is fun and mildly adventrous. This book is a Should for most people, and if you love Japan, it is a Must.
Graphic Novels
Trees Volume 2 by Warren Ellis and Jason Howard – The storyline gets stale. It moves away from the mystery and gets all muddled up in other motivations of a few characters. It confuses me. I am putting this series down. Skip.
Other Things
Doctor Strange – I honestly don’t know how Marvel continues to produce one great movie after another. I know part of it is being careful to produce across a growing set of genres. I also know they are careful to do too much or reuse plot devices across their movies. As for Doctor Strange, their version of magic is interesting and like in Thor, they show how it intersects with the observable world. Must.
Moana – Walt Disney Animation continues to put out amazing stories. Moana is fun, touching and leads with another great female role model (they even poke fun at the whole Disney princess thing). We took the whole family and everyone loved it. Must.