BajaNomad - What are you reading?

What are you reading?

BajaBlanca - 8-6-2014 at 10:16 AM

Well, I just finished a very interesting book which I thought I would share. It is not about Baja, but it is about survival against all odds.

The name of the book is THE ICE MASTER by Jennifer Niven. It is based on a ship adventure to the Arctic way back 1913-14.

It is fast but intense reading.

So... what are you reading?

bajaguy - 8-6-2014 at 10:23 AM

FOX News..... :lol:

CP - 8-6-2014 at 10:35 AM

Reading a stack of old Sunset Magazines.

Just started listening to Amy Tan's Valley of Amazement after accidentally purchasing the audio book of Ulysses for the second time thinking I need to know this classis piece of literature, only to again be unable to get much of a way into it before preferring to water the yard in silence.

DENNIS - 8-6-2014 at 10:37 AM

"When I wear my Alligator Boots"

http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520276789

Tioloco - 8-6-2014 at 10:43 AM

The Anglers Guide to Trailer Boating Baja- Zach Thomas.
Almost like being there!

Ateo - 8-6-2014 at 10:49 AM

The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardener.

mojo_norte - 8-6-2014 at 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaBlanca
Well, I just finished a very interesting book which I thought I would share. It is not about Baja, but it is about survival against all odds.

The name of the book is THE ICE MASTER by Jennifer Niven. It is based on a ship adventure to the Arctic way back 1913-14.

It is fast but intense reading.

If you enjoyed that you might like :

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

and/or

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

motoged - 8-6-2014 at 11:26 AM

I am reading your post..... :biggrin:

Last good read was "God's Middle Finger"....an account of the Sierra Madre area's history and recent effects of the drug trade.

DENNIS - 8-6-2014 at 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by motoged
I am reading your post..... :biggrin:

Last good read was "God's Middle Finger"....an account of the Sierra Madre area's history and recent effects of the drug trade.

Makes you want to drive right down to Copper Canyon and pitch a tent, doesn't it?

motoged - 8-6-2014 at 11:38 AM

Copper Canyon's allure has decreased somewhat lately....I have followed motorcycle trip reports for CC for past 12 years.....and have gained a good sense of what it has to offer.

Friends were robbed of their motos there this past winter (same time mine was stolen/returned in San Felipe)....got all but one bike back....escorted out of canyon by policia "muy rapido".

One guy has the whole robbery on GoPro

DENNIS - 8-6-2014 at 11:40 AM

I was being facetious. I wouldn't go to Copper Canyon in a Sherman Tank.

wessongroup - 8-6-2014 at 11:41 AM

:lol:

The Inspector Lynley Novels

Gypsy Jan - 8-6-2014 at 11:48 AM

By Elizabeth George

motoged - 8-6-2014 at 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
I was being facetious. I wouldn't go to Copper Canyon in a Sherman Tank.

"Being facetious" was an assumption I made.....

Sherman, the tank, said, "And no way I would want Dennis along for the trip....." :biggrin:

But doing some research....maybe it would be a good idea....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEeQPUp5VTY

Mexitron - 8-6-2014 at 12:11 PM

"Camp and Camino in Lower California 1908-1910" by Arthur North......talk about hard core camping! Just finished Leonard Wibberley's "Yesterday's Land" a good retro tour of the northern peninsula in 1959 by truck.
Ulysses? Actually made it through that, don't ask me how or test me on it though :lol:

Know Thy Enemy

SFandH - 8-6-2014 at 12:16 PM

"Inside Jihad - Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam" - Tawfik Hamid

Amazon Books

DENNIS - 8-6-2014 at 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SFandH
"Inside Jihad - Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam" - Tawfik Hamid

A short read:

"Kill or be killed"..................that's it.

current read

John M - 8-6-2014 at 12:49 PM

Two books -

Ranchos Become Cities - W.W. Robinson

Two Hundred Years in San Juan Capistrano - Pamela Hallan-Gibson

CaboMagic - 8-6-2014 at 01:04 PM

Blanca u have such interesting posts! I see why the children clearly love being guided/coached by you .. u inspire thought and feelings ..

Right now am reading Draft #2 of Tommy's Story by Joyce Spizer Foy ... Its our version of Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" which I heard tell it took him 25 yrs to complete the project - which was very successful for him after all. Am hoping to have similar results with our labor of love ..

Recently read Jeanette Walls "Half Broke Horses" which was excellent, and Mitch Albom's "For One More Day" which was also excellent.

Thanks for asking! Lori

[Edited on 8-6-2014 by CaboMagic]

DanO - 8-6-2014 at 01:15 PM

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Whale-ista - 8-6-2014 at 01:18 PM

"Song of the Sirens" by Ernest Gann. About his love affairs with 17 various boats (sirens) and his (Mis)adventures buying, sailing, fishing and ultimately selling them over the course of his life.

Well written nonfiction of a life at sea. Gann is a marvelous writer and storyteller. His descriptions of fishing in a small boat for salmon and albacore from cedros island north to SF bay and dealing with the physical demands and economics of commercial fishing is both sad and funny cuz it's true.

I'll have to change from iPhone to real keyboard to provide a synopsis.

I'm still on high seas myself. Happy it's not my own boat and comes with a fine crew. But I've been Thinking about my last boat, Calypso, a lovely 34' Pearson, built in Rhode Island in early 60s. Designed by Carl Alberg and sturdy enough to go around the world. Beautiful spruce boom. A real head turner... I believe she's still in Ensenada.

Excerpt:

"These sometimes challenging encounters with basic reality are perhaps the most wonderful thing about sailing the seas in small boats or even small ships. For the oceans are exactly like anyone's life, at times tranquil and easy, and at other times turbulent, and exasperating and occasionally frightening. You can tell almost exactly which degree of security the master of a small craft has reached by observing the behavior of his vessel and her appearance. ...it is all to be seen in how he accepts the ever-varying invitations of the sea."

[Edited on 8-7-2014 by Whale-ista]

BajaBlanca - 8-6-2014 at 01:48 PM

Whale-ista! I thought of you while I was reading the book! There were so many scientists taking water samples etc. on that expedition. Sounded a little like your current trip, minus all the disaster. The scientists were on contract to write journals on their experience on board as the boat was sponsored by the Canadian Government. So the author compiled the book using all the journals. For two days I could not put it down.

I love hearing what everyone is reading. Please give a mini synopsis of your read if you would. Just so I get a feel if it is a book I would enjoy.

So, I also just read a very weird and bizarre book that turned out to be written by born again Cristians with a heavy slant towards religion, which was out of left field for me, but the book was nonetheless so interesting! Called Left Behind, by Lahaye and Jenkins, its about everyone who is GOOD going straight to heaven. One day they are all on Earth and the next all good peeps are gone. Try getting your mind around that thought!

vandenberg - 8-6-2014 at 02:01 PM

Just finished London by Edward Rutherfurd for the second time. Love novels with a historic touch.
Sarum, also by him, is one of my all time favorites.

Howard - 8-6-2014 at 03:32 PM

Just finished Monsoon by Wilber Smith. I didn't want to put it down. Highly recommend.

SFandH - 8-6-2014 at 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by vandenberg
Just finished London by Edward Rutherfurd for the second time. Love novels with a historic touch.
Sarum, also by him, is one of my all time favorites.

Thanks for the recommendation. Just bought the Kindle version.

about the author and his books

David K - 8-6-2014 at 04:38 PM

A book: 'California Conquered: The Annexation of a Mexican Province 1846-1850' by Neal Harlow

Also reading, online: 'The Dominican Mission Foundations in Baja California, 1769-1822' by Albert Nieser

David K - 8-6-2014 at 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mexitron
"Camp and Camino in Lower California 1908-1910" by Arthur North......talk about hard core camping! Just finished Leonard Wibberley's "Yesterday's Land" a good retro tour of the northern peninsula in 1959 by truck.
Ulysses? Actually made it through that, don't ask me how or test me on it though :lol:

This is a 1977 reprint of the original book, below. The expedition was actually in 1905 and 1906 with the book published in 1910.

Here is the other book mentioned... Many people who traveled in Baja in the 50's and 60's wrote books about their trip, as it was a serious adventure.

David K - 8-6-2014 at 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tioloco
The Anglers Guide to Trailer Boating Baja- Zach Thomas.
Almost like being there!

It is a good book and Zach was here on Nomad too...

elgatoloco - 8-6-2014 at 05:28 PM

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
True story about the life of a remarkable man and a lesson in perseverance of the human body and mind. The author has put together a great story. Read the book before Hollywood gets hold of the script.

*full disclosure I read this long time ago but if I was reading a book now this is it.

:saint:

BajaBlanca - 8-6-2014 at 05:32 PM

wow, sounds like some excellent books out there! I hear the libraries in California are now lending ebooks - anyone know how it works?

BajaGuera - 8-6-2014 at 05:54 PM

Spent the last five days re-immersed in Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber. Getting ready for the TV program. Ah Jamie - ah men in kilts.

bent-rim - 8-7-2014 at 07:20 AM

Just finished Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City". It's about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and America's first serial killer. He writes non fiction that reads like fiction. He only includes materiel that he can document and doesn't make up conversations etc. All of his books are a good read.

monoloco - 8-7-2014 at 08:44 AM

If I could only recommend one book, it would be "One River" by Wade Davis. It's a fascinating combination of a biography of the famous ethnobotanist and Amazonian explorer, Richard Evans Shultes, enter twinned with the authors own more recent explorations of the Amazon basin and South America.

LancairDriver - 8-7-2014 at 09:05 AM

"The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard. The story of the adventure exploring a remote Amazon River never traveled before that about did Teddy Roosevelt and his companions in. It has been speculated that he never physically recovered from that one after barely surviving it.

BajaBlanca - 8-7-2014 at 09:11 AM

saw a documentary about this once - what an adventure.

Heck,I went to the Amazon when I was 22... huge and humid and full of bizarre animals, insects, and mosquitoes! I can't even imagine how hard a trip it would have been for Roosevelt.

[Edited on 8-7-2014 by BajaBlanca]

TMW - 8-8-2014 at 03:45 PM

I just finished the Last of the Californios by Harry Crosby along with the picture book The Californios by Leland Foerster. I'm starting Angle of Attack, Harrison Storms and the race to the Moon by Mike Gray.

Am I in trouble?

durrelllrobert - 8-8-2014 at 03:48 PM

Not reading nuthin but my wife is reading 50 Shades of Gray

windgrrl - 8-8-2014 at 04:27 PM

1. "Margarita Mind", a resource about buying real estate:
http://prestigepropertygrouplapaz.com/download-the-book/
I don't know the author, but she offers a clear summary of definitions, issues and how to avoid avoid problems.,

2. "A Recipe for Bees", a lovely novel about bees and life by G. Anderson-Dargatz.

Great thread, Blanca!

vgabndo - 8-8-2014 at 05:44 PM

"The Miracle of Mindfulness", by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh from exile in France in 1974. Translated into English by Mobi Ho, Thay as he is known for short, extols the value of being mindful down to each breath. I've especially enjoyed practicing his techniques of walking meditation as I walk the beach. Counting steps per breath and rhythmic pacing can empty the mind and melt away the miles.

I have a re-read of Steinbeck's Log from the Sea of Cortez on deck.

BajaBlanca - 8-9-2014 at 07:26 AM

vgabndo - that is a really different book you are reading. My mom and her brother just discovered that they both pray as she takes her walks and he takes his jog. My mind is so busy as I walk that I find time flies but I will try the counting steps as I take a breath. That is a great idea.

margarita mind real estate is a brilliant title.

DianaT - 8-9-2014 at 08:23 AM

I recently finished a great book that has some very unique ideas about aging.

Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir by Penelope Lively

Quote:

Originally posted by soulpatch
Photovoltaic Systems by Jim Dunlop

A little "light" reading! :light:

But now I need to start a new book, and this one sounds fasicating! Is there a good plot? Is is a thriller? :lol:

Study study and study. :biggrin:

[Edited on 8-9-2014 by DianaT]

BajaBlanca - 8-9-2014 at 11:25 AM

:lol:

LOL soulpatch!

[Edited on 8-10-2014 by BajaBlanca]

DavidT - 8-9-2014 at 11:29 AM

Weirdos from another Planet!
A Calvin and Hobbes collection by Bill Watterson

CaboDreamer - 8-9-2014 at 09:37 PM

FRAGMENTS OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION

Personal Accounts From The Border

Oscar J. Martinez

A collection of first-hand accounts of mostly border region occurrences. Though I would like to take unlicensed privilege to recount one of the stories that relates to Baja here:

"Huertistas would run their horses through the orchards."
-Juseta Sumaya (1901- )

Born in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Juseta Sumaya comments on the disturbances that drove her family to San Diego and on the impossibility of returning to the life she had left behind.

My grandfather and all of his sons had their own ranches and other businesses all around. My father was on the side of Madero. Hundreds of Huertistas would come to our ranch and run their horses through the orchards, destroying the fruit and other things we had planted. They were dressed very badly, only the chiefs wore uniforms. One day the soldiers came from Cabo San Lucas and killed chickens, turkeys, and other animals that my grandfather had. They cooked underneath the trees. The soldiers stayed one day.
We had a friend who had a large ranch named La Laguna. The soldiers arrived one night and burned his house, just because he supported Madero. All the families slept in the fields because they were scared of Huerta's soldiers. They would take away the girls and abuse them.

We left Baja California by boat to San Diego in 1917, where we rented a house. In 1918 it was terrible during the Spanish flu (swine flu epidemic). Our whole family got it. We would wear a mask on the street, and at work we would spray ourselves with a disinfectant. Everyone wore masks. A godchild of my father's died. He worked in the fields and during weekends he would come home. One day he came home very sick and he was sent to the hospital. The authorities would check the homes, because many did not want to go the hospital. Many who went to the hospital died there. It may have been because the doctors were not familiar with the disease. My mother would cure the sick ones at home with remedies she knew about, with herbs and pills. The symptoms were headache and a very high fever. My mother would hide us so the health authorities would not find out, because those who went to the hospital would not return.

We went back to Baja California in 1919. My father had left our home, our cattle, everything, in the custody of a nephew. When we got there our home was in ruins; there were no animals. The nephew had sold them; he did not care. I returned to San Diego in 1923.

Mulegena - 8-9-2014 at 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by vgabndo
"The Miracle of Mindfulness", by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh... extols the value of being mindful down to each breath. I've especially enjoyed practicing his techniques of walking meditation as I walk the beach. Counting steps per breath and rhythmic pacing can empty the mind and melt away the miles...

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaBlanca
vgabndo - that is a really different book you are reading. My mom and her brother just discovered that they both pray as she takes her walks and he takes his jog. My mind is so busy as I walk that I find time flies but I will try the counting steps as I take a breath. That is a great idea...

I'm been a meditator since my 20s in the college years of Berkeley. Mindfulness, being aware and present in each moment is a tremendous practice to still the mind, and it's not easy.

Back then I was doing just this, meditating while going about my day. On a busy city street I walked, went into a restaurant, got some nice hot tea, and still focused, savored the pungent scent wafting up from the warm cup cradled in my hands. My reverie was interupted by a nice lady who said she's been watching me, assumed I was a street person and asked to buy me breakfast! I smiled, and thanked her for her generous offer. "Oh, I'm fine, thanks-- just meditating."

Nowadays, I meditate while scuba diving or snorkeling.
Always come out of the Sea of Cortez renewed.
Perhaps it's easier here in the slow pace of Baja. I dunno.

Reading? Trying to brush up on Mexican history, just the highlights. Could use Clif Notes.
Edited to add: CaboDreamer, that's an intriguing and personal glimpse into the history of the península. Had no idea. Thanks.

[Edited on 8-10-2014 by Mulegena]

[Edited on 8-10-2014 by Mulegena]

BajaBlanca - 8-10-2014 at 10:41 AM

CabpDreamer -I loved reading that! who knew!

DENNIS - 8-10-2014 at 11:37 AM

"Bathroom Meditation" has answered more question and solved more problems than all other methods combined. [that occurred to me in a recent recycling session]

.

[Edited on 8-10-2014 by DENNIS]

DENNIS - 8-10-2014 at 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by CaboDreamer
FRAGMENTS OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION

Personal Accounts From The Border

Oscar J. Martinez

At first I flashed on Oscar's namesake authority, Pablo Martinez, who authored the definitive, "History Of Baja California."

vgabndo - 8-10-2014 at 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mulegena

Quote:

I've read a lot of Thich Nhat Hanh. I studied his book "Anger" as my relationship deteriorated. His techniques for defusing anger between loved ones comforted me. My brother in law and his wife meditate regularly, and when their daughter became of an age when she might join them, and allow them to all sit together, this was strongly encouraged. My BIL relates that during an early session he c-cked an eye her way to find her 'eyes squinted, face slightly red, and straining for the mysterious result she expected'.

I find it much easier to meditate here. Thay teaches that doing the dishes with mindfulness needn't be a chore, it can be a meditation.

Marc - 8-10-2014 at 07:56 PM

"Crazy River" by Richard Grant. The guy who wrote "God's Middle Finger."

Cypress - 8-11-2014 at 08:40 AM

"Berlin Dance Of Death" by Helmut Altner.

tripledigitken - 8-11-2014 at 09:29 AM

Baja Nomad- by y'all

Martyman - 8-11-2014 at 01:33 PM

Life by Richard Fortey. A natural history of the past 4 billion years. A little slow but fascinating.

BajaLuna - 8-12-2014 at 10:12 AM

I'm reading "seven thousand ways to listen" by Mark Nepo.

Vgabndo, I love Thich Nhat Hanh's books too, what an inspiration he is!