Books read in 2009

I read 39 books in 2009. As I've noted previously, most of these I listened to on my mp3 player, which is how I get through so many.

I'll list the first four as the ones that I enjoyed the most, or found most enlightening or inspirational. For most of the others I'll include brief comments.


A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
The title is pretty accurate. It seems to cover about everything, as it recounts the history of scientific discovery of a very wide range of topics. I found it exceptionally interesting.

Guests of the Ayatollah – Mark Bowden
The Iran hostage crisis was an agonizing and frustrating world event for Americans, and those of us who lived at that time may find this book even more interesting than it already is.

Black Hawk Down – Mark Bowden
I was pleasantly surprised at how informative and moving this book was, in addition to the action and suspense. I found myself thinking about it and many related things for days afterwards, the true mark of a good book.

Stalin, Breaker of Nations – Robert Conquest
I don't know if the book itself is all that great, but the subject matter was astounding. I came away convinced that Stalin was the most evil man, the greatest mass murderer of the 20th century. Hitler was a Boy Scout in comparison.


The Fall of Troy – Peter Ackroyd

Flags of our Fathers – James Bradley

In my hand, memories of a holocaust rescuer -- Irene Opdyke

Mountains Beyond Mountains -Tracy Kidder
Inspirational account of a doctor making a difference in disadvantaged areas of the world.

The Mormon Way of Doing Business – Jeff Benedict

Blood Diamonds – Greg Campbell
I count my blessings living in the USA.

Moscow Rules – Daniel Silva

My Detachment – Tracy Kidder
I've read several books by Kidder, and, though good, I've grown somewhat weary of the excessive profanity.

In Plain Sight – Box

Hunger Games – Collins
Wow, what a creative writer! Couldn't put it down.

Mornings on Horseback – McCullough
Interesting account of Teddy Roosevelt's early life.

The Best Game Ever – Mark Bowden
Ahhh, the Colts win the championship game. Pro football and athletes in a different era.

Stars in their Courses – Shelby Foote
I love listening to Foote's southern accent as he narrates his books.

Shiloh – Shelby Foote

Follow Me Down – Shelby Foote

Alive – Piers Paul Read
This account, along with those of the Donner Party, really makes me appreciate each meal.

The Host – Stephanie Meyers
I think I liked it more than Twilight.

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
My first foray into Tolstoy, and some reviewers regard this as the greatest novel ever written. I enjoyed the time and setting (19th century Russia), and it was insightful in several ways. Didn't make my top books list, though.

Andrew Jackson – H.W. Brands(?)
What a violent time in American history, and what a violent man!

Ablaze – Piers Paul Read
USSR in its twilight. And what a monumental disaster Chernobyl was.

The Templars – Piers Paul Read
I actually got into this account of crusades, knights, and interesting historical figures.

The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoyevsky
Another account from 19th century Russia in a highly acclaimed book. I think I liked it better than Tolstoy.

A. Lincoln – Ronald White
Great book, but it just didn't work for me this read (listen).

One Minute to Midnight – Michael Dobbs
Fascinating inside look at the Cuban Missile Crisis, which I lived through.

Massacre at Mountain Meadows – Ronald W. Walker
How is such a thing possible? And perpetrated by God-fearing men? This book does help answer the questions by setting the context. But still.

The Coldest Winter – David Halberstam
Interesting account of the first months of the historically neglected Korean War. And all the politics behind it, and short bios of all the key players. Actually, a prelude to Vietnam.

The Virginian – Owen Wister
Great book.

The Count of Monte Cristo – Dumas
Long, long book, but still hard to put down.

1984 – Orwell
The most depressing read imaginable.

The New Testament

The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Thought provoking and insightful. Perhaps should be in my top list.

The Worst Hard Time –Timothy Egan
Unimaginable hardships on the high plains during the Depression.

Deep Survival – Laurence Gonzales

Collision – Jared Diamond
I found some accounts of failed civilizations fascinating. Scary implications for modern societies.

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
I enjoyed the German setting.

Winter road trip

We drove from Beaverton to the Idaho Falls area and back this past week. I'm not a fan of driving in snow or ice, so I was a bit apprehensive about this winter road trip.

Fortunately, two years ago I found some near new studded snow tires on steel rims on craigslist and bought them for about $150. Even though they are noisy and ride a little rough on the highway, they provided peace of mind and we put them to good use on this trip.

Leaving 6AM Tuesday morning we hit just a bit of pre-dawn snow and some wind just a few miles east of Portland in the Columbia Gorge. This slowed us down for five or ten miles, but after that the roads were clear and we made great time, arriving in Idaho Falls about 7PM. We had a full van, with Jeremy, Bridget, Miriam, Magdalena, Suzanne, Steven, and myself. The girls behaved very well all those hours in the car confined to their car seats. I was glad to share the driving with Bridget and Steven.

I think it snowed a bit each day we were in Idaho, and though the highway remained mostly clear, we drove on snow packed roads a number of times. On New Year's Day we drove a couple of hours in snow to get to our snowmobile destination and back. This was the most use I have ever gotten out of those snow tires, and it felt good driving on them.

We left Rigby, ID, about 7AM Saturday for our trip home. An inch or two of new snow had fallen, and now the highways around Idaho Falls were snow packed. So it was a bit of a slow start (about 45 mph), but as we drove south on I-15 the roads began to clear within 20 miles or so. From there we had dry or wet roads the rest of the way. In Boise it was a warm and sunny 45 degrees, with not much snow in sight. Ontario turned foggy and 33, with lots of snow around, but the summit in the Blue Mountains was 40 and dry. We arrived home around 7:30PM.

So we felt fortunate to encounter good weather and roads this trip. And it was fun spending time with all my kids and five grandkids (but that should be another post).

Oh, I should mention that later on Tuesday, after we left town, a surprise snow storm hit Portland with about 3 inches and totally shut the place down, with hundreds of people leaving their cars stranded on the roads. I guess we were lucky to leave town when we did.

In search of the Holy Grail . . . of cycling jackets

I'm an avid cyclist, doing long Saturday recreational rides, and often commuting to work. Living in the beautiful, cycling-friendly Pacific Northwest also means I need some rain and cold protection while riding. I've been on a long quest to find the optimum cycling jacket, which would have the following characteristics:

1. Rainproof
2. Wind protection
3. Breathes well, so you don't overheat and sweat too much underneath
4. Light/bright color for visibility (but not too wild)
5. Reasonably priced, or at least available at deep discount somehow

The most difficult item for me has been #3. There have been a number of nice jackets I have tried that just leave me soaked inside after moderate exercise, including expensive GoreTex models. I have an old, low-tech jacket that is perfect for #3, but provides no rain protection and very little wind protection. Still, on a cool, dry day it works well.

But for those wet or cold days the best I've been able to do is use a fairly expensive, hi-tech jacket with pit zips. I recently bought a Mountain Hardware jacket at the Columbia employee store which is probably the best so far of all the jackets I have tried ($185 cost was half of retail!!). Yesterday I picked up another Mountain Hardware jacket at that store which is a very lightweight shell, but since it has no pit zips I was pretty skeptical about adequate breathability. I tried it today on my wet commute to work and I was actually pretty pleased with it. I may have found a good jacket for cool, wet days, or days with risk of wet and I can just stuff this little jacket into my back jersey pocket. I'll have Suzanne put it under the Christmas tree for me (along with several other "toys" I have procured for myself, but that is worthy of another blog post).

Riding in the cold

Last month I wrote a post about riding my bike home from work in the dark. My current adventure is commuting on my bike in cold weather. We are having a cold spell this week. My car reported 18 degrees this evening--I'm sure the lowest it has ever registered (in the 2+ years I have owned it).

I was up for the challenge and decided to ride every day this week (no snow in the forecast). Yesterday there was a cold east wind, which provided a fun tailwind on the ride to work, so it went just fine. But I knew the ride home would be a bit grim. It was in the 20's, and who knows what the wind chill factor was. My face froze pretty quickly. My hands took a while, through two layers of gloves, but they got pretty cold. And my toes. With the headwind my ride was about 40 minutes. But I made it!

Today may have been a bit colder, but not so much wind. Tomorrow should be colder still. What fun!

I know--those of you who live in colder climes are thinking I'm a wuss!

Busy day

Well, I shouldn't have gloated about how well tithing settlement went last week. Today was hectic, beginning with Sunday School time, when I was bombarded with people who needed something from me, plus three interviews. I had hoped to go into the Primary for a bishopric message to the children, but just didn't make it (at least to the Junior Primary--I did for the Senior Primary).

Then I mistakenly allowed a PPI to go 15 minutes over, forgetting I had another appointment before starting tithing settlement sessions at 2:00, so right off the bat I was 20 minutes behind. There were no breaks in the schedule so I just plowed away, and was only five minutes behind towards the end.

But, once again, I felt sustained and energetic, even on fast Sunday (someone brought me food but I had to set it aside). After coming home around 4:30 I helped Daniel fix dinner, then I was able to rest a bit.

So cold and windy today, but no snow. But it still reminds me of our magical snow week (or two) last year this month.

What a difference a month makes

Here is the picture I posted at the beginning of November showing the fabulous fall colors looking out the window at my work.

And here is the same view yesterday.



Colors are pretty much gone. And there is a fog about to settle in. It is that time of year. Of course, we do get nice sunny days from time to time. But I confess I kind of enjoy the fog. Just gives a cozy, quiet feeling. I even rode my bike home in it yesterday. I have a new bike light that shines very brightly, so riding at night is markedly improved for me.

By the way, I was successful posting to my blog every day in November (thank you, Bridget, for the challenge). I'm not sure how regular I will be in December, we'll see.

Tithing settlement

We had our first tithing settlement session today (Sunday) for 2009, my fourth year as bishop. The clerks and my counselors divide up the sessions to share the load, but I am there for each session, for the entire session. And these come on the tail end of long Sundays (without a break), or after a full day of work on weeknights. It would be reasonable to assume I do not look forward to it, and it is a hard thing to do, physically and emotionally. But this assumption would be wrong. This is one of those counterintuitive things, like paying tithing itself.

Today about an hour or so into the session, one new family in our ward arrived at their appointed time and was pleasantly surprised to be ushered right into my office, that we were running right on time. I could see how his family, with five small children, would be inconvenienced by delays. I run on six minute intervals, so ten families per hour. The family comes in, I briefly review their callings to see if everything is okay, then we review tithing status for each member, I thank the family for their contributions of money and time, thank them for all their service in the ward, and read my annual "tithing scripture" (Ether 12:4 this year) and bear short testimony. I do not engage in additional discussions, but do take notes for any follow up interviews that might be needed. I don't count or reconcile any additional contributions--my counselor and clerks do that (or my "elves", as I refer to them).

Last year we had two Sundays that were snowed out, where church was cancelled (extremely rare here in Oregon). We had the unique experience of doing "house calls" for tithing settlement, so we could salvage as much of the session schedule as we could. What a memorable time that was, driving around with my counselor in deep snow and visiting homes.

I'm sure this is one example where I am strengthened and sustained in my service. I find I am energetic and upbeat the entire session. I am humbled and awed by the good people in my ward, and feel it a unique blessing to sit amongst them in this capacity. After I am released I know this will be one experience I will miss, and will look back on fondly.