To England, the North Pole, Africa and Beyond

I've been busy with travel, writing, and just plain coping with life in January. But here's a rundown of the highlights of what I read in December.

1. Thirteen At Dinner by Agatha Christie. (Original title: Lord Edgware Dies). Hercule Poirot's friend Arthur Hastings returns to England in the novel The Big Four, and he returns to his new home in Argentina at the end of this novel. He narrates Poirot's investigation into Lord Edgware's death. The prime suspect seems to be his estranged wife, but not only does she have an alibi, she also seems to have no motive. Any time you can hang out with Arthur Hastings is a fun time.

2. Freddy Goes to the North Pole by Walter R Brooks. Freddy, a self-educated pig, is just one of many interesting characters who live together on a farm. As Freddy longs to travel, he sets up an agency, and he and the other animals conduct tours of nearby sites. Animals travel from nearby farms to enjoy these tours, and pay for them with food or work. Eventually he and his friends garner enough promises of work that they travel off to the North Pole. Along the way, they are rescued from an ice floe by a ship of whalers, who prove reluctant to let such an entertaining (and healthy) pig escape. So more animals on the farm must come to Freddy's rescue. They head off to the North Pole, have exciting adventures, and eventually catch up with Freddy. They also meet a very special person who has his own workshop at the North Pole. Can you guess who it is?

3. Captain's Glory by William Shatner. This novel was cowritten by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. William Shatner, of course, played Captain Kirk on the original series of Star Trek. The latter have cowritten other novels with Shatner, and produced and wrote stories for the series Star Trek: Enterprise. It's one of the most recent Star Trek novels I've read, and appears to be the last in a trilogy. After his death in the movie Star Trek Generations, Captain Kirk has somehow been returned to life. (You know, like Spock in the movie Star Trek III: The Search For Spock). He's married a woman of mixed ancestry, and has a young child who, due to accelerated growth, appears to be an adult. He captains a smaller ship, and his travels take him to Vulcan, where he is searching for Spock, whom everyone else seems to believe is dead. (Yes, again). Among his crew are an ancient-but-kicking Dr. McCoy, and engineer Scotty, who is little aged, due to having been trapped in a transporter for decades. There's a huge threat to the Federation, and Admiral Janeway, who served as captain of the Voyager in the series Star Trek Voyager, pulls together all her best people to investigate it. These include Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise (from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation), and his former First Officer Will Riker, who now captains another ship. 

It's kind of amazing how the writers combined so many characters from different TV series. There's obviously a huge number of novels that I have not read which relate a lot of the history of all these people, and how they came to their present positions. At times I had difficulty believing in all these people from different series interacting together. But it was nice to think that the writers, and fans, loved these characters so much, that they wanted them to continue living, long after they should have passed on.

4. Ocean Of Storms by Christopher Mari and Jeremy K Brown. This story begins with a bang. Or, to be accurate, a massive Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) that blacks-out cities, and drops planes out of the sky. When scientists discover the EMP came from the moon, NASA kickstarts an Apollo-style mission. Yet, as in the movie The Martian, involvement with China proves essential to the program. So American and Chinese astronauts head off to the moon, where they discover a spaceship, and a mystery that will lead to a worldwide government coverup, and the subsequent investigation in Africa. 

Although the novel has the feel of a Science Fiction novel, it seemed better-suited to the Thriller genre. It was fast paced, and aspects of it were enjoyable. But I felt as if, had it been submitted to one of the established Science Fiction publishers, they would have rejected it for scientific and story reasons. Still, it was a free ebook-of-the-month from Amazon, and I felt like seeing what Amazon felt was noteworthy and worth reading. Having read so many older books recently, it was nice to read something that was published in the last few years.

5. A Rumpole Christmas by John Mortimer. Having watched the first two seasons of "Rumpole of the Bailey," I enjoyed returning to the character with this short collection. The stories mostly take place in and around the Temple area of London, where Rumpole works as a barrister representing the people who everyone believes guilty until proven innocent. But the story occasionally takes him farther afield, such as when his wife Hilda (or, as he refers to her, She Who Must Be Obeyed) takes him to a health spa to lose weight over the holidays, or spend Christmas with an old school friend. Rumpole's extraordinary character really makes these stories come to life. So, so much fun.

6. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. A young boy, whose father has remarried, lives with his sick mother in an English village so small it doesn't even have a McDonalds. (Note: There's more than a few of these in England). The teachers at school are tremendously kind to him, but some of the boys in his class bully him. While his mother's cancer treatments have always worked in the past, his mother never seems to get better. So his grandmother, who he doesn't know well and doesn't get along with, moves in. In his anger and isolation, he begins to notice a tree outside. His dreams of a tree-like creature meld into real-life, and bouts of mindless violence follow. But how much is real, and how much imagined? This novel won the prestigious Carnagie and Greenaway awards for the writing and illustration, and was recently made into a movie.

Reading-wise, December seems to have been a good month. I've had months in which I read more novels, and ones (such as last month) in which I've read less. Of course, this list doesn't refer to reference books, comics and graphic novels, and books-in-process. Nonetheless, the list is a substantive and varied, and a month of reading I can look back on fondly.

What books did you read in December? Any stories that stuck in your mind? Any reading experiences that you'd like to share with others?

Dragon Dave

Updating My Book Lists

The holidays are usually tough. This year proved especially so, hitting me far harder than usual. As you can imagine, this sapped my focus, as well as my will to do things like blogging. 

My wife suggested I edit my Book listing recently, so that suggested a project. Something I have a passion for: discussing the novels I've read. Typically, I'll read anywhere from sixty to a hundred books in a year. Recently, that's included graphic novels. Last year, I read around eighty. That's a fair amount of reading, when you consider that I also read comic books, magazines, and occasionally even reread a novel to enhance my understanding of it. I don't list graphic novels on the sidebar, so those are just novels and nonfiction you'll find there. 

Last year, I removed "Books I Enjoyed in 2011, 2012, and 2013" from the sidebar. This month I took off the 2014 books. In case any of you are interested in reviewing my reading tastes, or just looking for a recommendation, I've decided to set up a page for the previous years of reading that have dropped off the sidebar. 

Right now, I'm working on the books I read in 2011. I'm trying to include a few words of what I remember enjoying about each book as I can. It will take awhile, so if you're interested in my thoughts and recollections of 2011 Books, check back occasionally. Maybe I'll even include a few photos of the books. 

Hopefully, unlike my Conan Chronology page, I'll complete the 2011 Books page relatively quickly, and move on to later years. Maybe I'll even take another crack at Conan. Time, focus, and will allowing, I'll post this month about the books I read last month. As to the rest, (by Crom!), who knows what the future holds?

Dragon Dave

Traveling with H.G. Wells, Jane Austen, and Arthur Conan Doyle

In November, I read several graphic novels, lots of comics, and a book on geology. I also read three novels. The first, by H. G. Wells, transported me to Switzerland. Or, at least, so it seemed. 

Supposedly, A Modern Utopia takes place on a planet like Earth in another solar system, but the descriptions of the landscape, and the picturesque villages, reminded me of Switzerland. In many ways, it reminded me of one of his earlier novels, The Wheels of Chance. In that novel, his protagonist, a young draper, sets off on a bicycle holiday in the south of England. His descriptions of the landscape are so vivid, so evocative, and so overwhelmingly beautiful that it made me want to follow the hero's bicycle journey with my wife. In A Modern Utopia, I felt as though he was transporting me to Switzerland. It's a country I would very much like to visit some day, and Wells spoke just as passionately about his surroundings in this idealized world as he did in The Wheels of Chance. 

After A Modern Utopia, Jane Austen returned me to some familiar sites in her novel Persuasion. The story begins in a manor house in Somerset, a county in southern England. In fact, it's the same county in which the real-life manor in the TV series To The Manor Born is located. 

As in the TV series, Austen's protagonist Anne, through no fault of her own, is forced to leave her beloved country home due to the fiscal mismanagement of a family member: in this case, her father. So she travels to stay with a family friend, then another member of her family, and this second visit takes her to Lyme Regis. 

While she and her party tour the seaside resort, a crucial event in the story takes place on the Cobb. This is a long walkway or pier, and perhaps the town's most striking feature. 

Jane Austen's characters then make their way to Bath, a setting she used in Northanger Abbey, which I read in October. Sadly, she doesn't offer much description of Bath in Persuasion. Austen painted a more vibrant view of the historic city in Northanger Abbey. (Also, Charles Dickens set part of his first novel The Pickwick Papers there, which I read earlier this year). Still, reading about Anne's visit to Bath made me want to travel there. It was a fashionable resort town in Austen's time, and remains a popular town for tourists today.

Finally, I returned to England for The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. This second collection of stories took me back to London, the great town's suburbs, and other towns in rural England. Then for the last story, "The Final Problem", Arthur Conan Doyle returned me to Switzerland, as Holmes and Watson seek to evade the clutches of the evil Professor Moriarty. As all Holmes aficionados know, Holmes and Moriarty have their final confrontation at a very real place: Reichenbach Falls. Having seen many dramatizations of this beloved story, I enjoyed reading Doyle's words, and following the characters' journey through Switzerland. 

Ah, the places great stories can take us!

Dragon Dave

Insane Discover America Tour 2016: The Final Four

The final four stops on this year's trip were relatively short ones. Nonetheless, we could have spent longer at each place if we would have liked. While staying in Flagstaff, Arizona for two nights, we drove a short distance to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. It was odd to suddenly be surrounded by black lava fields. We found the landscape, and the plant life, reminiscent of our trips to Hawaii. Even the geological terms for lava, such as A'a and Pahoehoe, are used here. 

Adjacent to Sunset Crater is another national monument. Wupatki National Monument offers several sites of former habitation. The Native Americans who lived here built their settlements from these red stones, instead of carving into the hillsides, as they did in Mesa Verde National Park. In this flat landscape, you could see different aspects of community life, such as circular ball fields, in which children, and perhaps adults, played sports. There was also an interesting vent in the ground, through which you could hear air blowing to the surface. 

The movie "Best Friends" featured a short scene here. In the movie, actor Richard Hatch, who would later go on to star in the TV series "Battlestar Galactica," played a young military veteran who is driving cross country in an RV with his friends and his fiancé. A recurring theme of the movie is the Native American peoples with whom they interact in varying ways. Certainly the movie reflects on the value of community, as well as one's responsibility to others. This is something that these Native American Indian ruins also make one reflect on.

Within another short drive of our motel was Walnut Canyon National Monument. Here you enter at the visitor center, then descend stairs to visit more Native American dwellings. You can see how stratified the stone layers here are. It looks as though a giant carved these hills into steps. The dwellings are interesting to look inside. Unlike those in Mesa Verde National Park and Wupatki National Monument, you get the feeling that there were lots of hillside homes here, located really close together. So this gives the area a real suburban feel.

Finally, there's the grandly-named Montezuma's Castle. Apparently it has no more to do with the ancient Aztec king Montezuma than the ride Montezuma's Revenge at Knott's Berry Farm. Someone just saw the abandoned community one day, and was so bowled-over by it that they gave it a grand name. It's the last National Monument we visited on our trip, during our drive from Flagstaff to Pheonix. We spent a couple hours there eating lunch, and people paused to look over our shoulders as I sketched and my wife did a water color. Unlike our experience at Bryce Canyon National Park, no one seemed all that enthused by my sketching, but they loved my wife's painting. When my wife told one woman that she had not been painting long, she exclaimed, "Well, it certainly doesn't show!"

Sadly, we found no places of value at which to stop on our drive home from Phoenix to San Diego. Just hours and hours of featureless landscape. Maybe we missed some truly remarkable places. I hope so. It'd be nice to discover that there were all kinds of places chocked full of scenic beauty and historic interest, and plan another trip to see them. Nonetheless, this trip was filled with so many overwhelmingly beautiful and interesting places. I'm glad we stopped in each of them. I just wish we'd had more time to explore most of them. But then, that's the best way to remember a vacation, as it leaves you with a sense of awe, and perhaps, a reason to return.

Dragon Dave

Insane Discover America Tour 2016: Petrified Forest

From the moment you enter Petrified Forest National Park, you realize that you are looking at far more than just pieces of stone-line wood. As you drive, the land unfolds around you, revealing a wide variety of color.

Each color means something. It tells scientists what conditions were like back in the Mesozoic Era, when the continents looked different, and the sea levels were higher than today.

Unlike Utah's famed National Parks, the landscape of Petrified Forest hails from the Triassic Age, long before the later Jurassic Age, famous for its fierce and enormous dinosaurs.

During this time, creatures unlike dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Some, such as the Placerias, demonstrated both reptilian and mammalian characteristics. 

Still, it's the mystery of petrified wood that fascinates us most. What kinds of trees towered above the land so long ago? What forces preserved them so beautifully that they rival the most exquisite gemstones?

The Native Americas discovered its utility long before scientists realized how much petrified wood could tell us about the past. The plethora of shops that sell petrified wood, both inside the park and out, attest to its enduring appeal.

Dragon Dave

Insane Discover America Tour 2016: Mesa Verde

Of all the National Parks and State Parks we visited on this year's vacation, my friend in prison perked up when I mentioned in a letter that we had visited Mesa Verde National Park. He wrote back to say that he had visited there, and asked me to send him a photograph from our trip. His affection for the park in no way surprises me, for of all the great parks we visited, Mesa Verde was the most Human.

Curious about how the Native Americans lived? There's no better place to visit. From pullouts along the road, you'll see a plethora of family homes and small communities dug into the canyon walls.

The rangers offer tours of some of the more impressive communities, most for a minimal fee. It's interesting to listen to the rangers describe these ancient communities. Each ranger finds their own perspective on how these people lived hundreds of years ago. Each ranger wades through the archeologists' field reports, and their understanding of Native American culture, to translate how these first settlers of the United States in terms that current residents can understand.

People travel there from different states and countries. Children proved as interested in how people lived there as adults. Visitors faced only one requirement: they must be physically capable of climbing up and down stairs and ladders. If they did so, they could accompany their fellow time travelers back hundreds of years, for an hour or so.

They could understand the Native American communities delved out duties and social power to the sexes. They could learn about how people saw their world from practical and spiritual perspectives. They could imagine themselves living in these times, sharing confidences with friends, dating people from other families or communities, cooking, singing, and worshipping.

Then they could return to the present, taking with them their understanding of these ancient peoples' simple, and yet surprisingly complex lives.

Dragon Dave

Insane Discover America Tour 2016: Arches National Park

The films "Hulk" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" feature Double Arch. But that's not why I wanted to go to Arches National Park so much. It's hard to explain the allure this place holds for me. All I can tell you is that I really wanted to go there. When I proposed this trip to my wife, my primary objective was to visit Arches National Park. Other stops were gradually added to our itinerary, but Arches was the first and most important consideration. 

I suppose you could say it was on my bucket list.

Some of the arches were easily accessible. Others took more effort to reach. According to the signs and maps, Broken Arch wasn't that far from the parking area. Yet it seemed to take ages to get there. We also had to climb up several steep areas of boulders to reach it. But, like all the arches, it was great to see.

We had planned three days for Arches National Park, but the weather gods ruled otherwise. It rained as we were leaving the first day, and all day the second. So on the third and last day, we returned to see some of the areas we most wished to visit. One of them was Landscape Arch, the longest in the park.

We found a log to sit on, and my wife painted while I sketched. A number of people came by to talk with us, and check out our projects. People were really sociable, low-key, and friendly at Landscape Arch. Maybe the shape of it subconsciously influenced them. Doesn't Landscape Arch remind you of a smile?

Not all the arches were notable for their size, width, or delicacy. This was one of the smaller ones near Landscape Arch. But even if they're not exceptional, they still attract me.

Here's another area that was featured in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." We hiked through this area, named Monument Valley. It was awesome to stare up at these long, thin slabs of stone that towered above us. One day, erosion will knock down the existing arches in Arches National Park, but those same forces will have carved arches into areas such as this. But right now, they're still awesome to me.

Even if they're not arches.

Dragon Dave

Donald Trump: On Creation & Destruction

In the film "Two Weeks Notice," attorney Lucy Kelson wishes to preserve her local Community Center. The building is located in the heart of an area her city wishes to "revitalize." Of course, it would be cheaper to knock everything down, but Lucy comes up with a proposal that will save her beloved building, while clearing the way for new construction in the rest of the redevelopment zone. Out of the three companies bidding for the contract, only developer George Wade is willing to listen to her. 

At the moment, he desperately needs of a new attorney. So he agrees to her proposal, which will help his firm win the contract, on one condition: she must come to work for him.

As Lucy's term of employment with George Wade nears its end, he bumps into Donald Trump at a children's charity fundraising event. Trump tells George he's heard he has hired a new attorney to replace Lucy. He says he'll be watching her, and if he believes she's good, he'll attempt to steal her away from George. 

In the movie, Trump is clearly in a playful mood, and engaging in a little friendly rivalry. Trump may be playing a role in a piece of fiction, but his "character" meshes well with the theme of the movie and his real life persona. After all, we're talking about a man who's most famous catchphrase is "You're fired."

It's easy to protest change without suggesting any workable alternatives. It's easy to sweep aside the old in order to create something new. "Two Weeks Notice" poses this question: in our quest to create something new, how much are we willing to destroy? Or are some things worth preserving, even if it makes the task expensive and complicated? 

Dragon Dave

Galaxy Quest: The Rocks Rise Up

What can happen if you don't respect the rocks in a national or state park? Consider, if you will, one example from history. In 1999, Commander Peter Taggart and his crew land on an alien planet to find a replacement beryllium sphere to power their vessel. 

They aren't exactly inconspicuous as they search a rock valley which greatly resembles Goblin Valley State Park. They make unnecessary conversation, and their bickering angers the spirits inhabiting the land.

As a result, the goblins rise up, and wreak their displeasure on Captain Taggart.

By contrast, my wife and I took nothing from Goblin Valley when we visited. We made no loud noises, and above all avoided bickering, to soothe the sleeping goblins. We even paid them homage, by taking some time to sketch and paint their greatness. Thus, we emerged unscathed from Goblin Valley, while the rock creatures Taggart aroused nearly ended his life.

When on travel, respect the places you visit. It's not only safer that way, but you'll enjoy your vacation more.

For more on how Captain Taggart and his crew went wrong, and what they learned from their mistakes, pick up "Galaxy Quest" on DVD or Blu-ray. You'll be glad you did.

Dragon Dave

Insane Discover America Tour 2016: Goblin Valley

Goblin Valley State Park has one aspect which separates it from all the other national and state parks we visited. There are no carefully marked paths. There are no no-go areas. You can wander wherever you want, and lose yourself among the fantastic sandstone formations.

It's a fantasy playground for the mind. Every step you take reveals new shapes, new forms, that tantalize the imagination. And just around the next cluster of rocks, who knows what you might discover?

It can get a little lonely here. On the day we visited, most of the people wandered around in the area closest to the parking lot. After the first few minutes, we didn't see anyone for hours. It was just my wife and I, wandering among these fantastic shapes, and enjoying our solitude.

All that freedom and solitude can get a little worrisome, however. Without visible landmarks, and clearly marked paths, we found it hard to find our way back. We wandered through valleys, climbed between formations, and often had to retrace our steps. We climbed up hills, but could see no clear way to return.

We fixed our eyes on a distant hill, and moved steadily in that direction. We followed washes, where the rains had carved deep ruts through the soft earth. We clutched hold of our hats as the afternoon winds whipped at us. We spotted a jackrabbit bounding across the desolate terrain. 

Eventually, our sandstone guardians released us. We reached the car, and shook the dirt from our shoes. As we left Goblin Valley, it started to rain. Had we angered those stone guardians by our presence? Had they summoned a storm to send us away?

We were in awe of them, but we were not afraid.

We were never afraid.

Dragon Dave