Books

How did James Michener learn French? Well actually how his character (the narrator, George Fairbanks) learns French. A big part of the novel The Drifters (by James Michener) is the story of George Fairbanks, a 60 year old guy who is somehow connected to six 17-22 year old young people in the late 1960s and him learning about their lives, culture and music. A running thread in the book is George being introduced to the music of the late 60s and how he doesn’t really understand that music, until he finally does. He explains how he learns to understand the music by analogizing it to how he learned French. ...

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer I really liked this one. Inspirational. I liked the quotes from other books before each chapter. But there are men for whom the unattainable has a special attraction. Usually they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to brush aside the doubts which more cautious men might have. Determination and faith are their strongest weapons. At best such men are regarded as eccentric; at worst, mad.… Everest has attracted its share of men like these. Their mountaineering experience varied from none at all to very slight—certainly none of them had the kind of experience which would make an ascent of Everest a reasonable goal. Three things they all had in common: faith in themselves, great determination, and endurance. ...

Book, Author, Publication Date, Number of Pages Also click the month to go directly to where he talks about the books August 25 Boundless Realm: Deep Explorations Inside Disney’s Haunted Mansion by Foxx Nolte, October 2020 Collisions: A Physicist’s Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs by Alec Nevala-Lee, July 2025 Before the Birds Sang Words by Ken Bruce, January 2023 Desperation Reef by T. Jefferson Parker, July 2024 ...