Total books read: 77 ( list )

Best books:
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
War by Sebastian Junger
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
American Lion by Jon Meacham

I'm pretty far behind on posting about books, and it's almost the end of the year! (I'm also extremely behind on posting about anything OTHER than books, but we'll ignore that for the moment.)

( 51. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond )
( 52. Millard Fillmore by Paul Finkelman )
( 53. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot )
( 54. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier )
( 55. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo )
( 56. What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith )
( 57. Bossypants by Tina Fey )
( 58. Spousonomics by Paul Szuchman and Jenny Anderson )
( 59. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin )
( 60. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer )
( 61. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray )
( 62. The Dancing Girls of Lahore by Louise Brown )
( 63. The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz )
( 64. Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles )
( 65. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach )
( 66. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks )
( 67. Einstein Never Used Flash Cards by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Diane Eyer )
( 68. It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower by Michela Wrong )
( 69. The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth by Paul Hoffman )
( 70. James Buchanan by Jean Baker )

My father and most of Brian's family visited us within the past two weeks. At one point, we had 13 people staying in our house, four of whom were under the age of ten. I could not believe how much milk and juice we went through, but we managed to get through it without any major injuries or illnesses.

Highlights: Anniversary dinner at Le Petit Toulouse, brunch at Harvest Vine, tours of Brian's work, Theo chocolate tours (all the delicious chocolate you can eat for $6!), Woodland Park Zoo, giant octopus trying to escape from the aquarium, salmon and chips at Anthony's Fish Bar, Pike Place Market with 13 people, crab dinner, u-pick blueberries at Mercer Slough, pork ribs (beef ribs for me) and cornbread from Cedar River BBQ, horseback riding for my nine-year old niece and me at Tiger Mountain Stables.

Prior to the visit, I made a big spreadsheet of our favorite restaurants and things to do in the area, as well as a few things we hadn't done but thought might be good. The things from that list that I didn't mention above are ( here )

( 31. The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua )
( 32. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee )
( 33. Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen )
( 34. The Wild Vine by Todd Kliman )
( 35. Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter Borneman )
( 36. The Death and Life of Monterey Bay: A Story of Revival by Stephen Palumbi and Carolyn Sotka )
( 37. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff )
( 38. Zachary Taylor by John Eisenhower )
( 39. Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren )
( 40. Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn )

( 21. Rich Boy by Sharon Pomerantz )
( 22. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan )
( 23. Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer )
( 24. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner )
( 25. French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guilliano )
( 26. Life, On the Line by Grant Achatz )
( 27. Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy by Robert M. Owens )
( 28. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman )
( 29. The Jew in the Lotus by Rodger Kamenetz )
( 30. John Tyler: The Accidental President by Edward Crapol )

I'm officially not sleeping any more tonight, so I'll write a rare update to explain why:

Brian has the best job ever. Yesterday (well, Wednesday, so two days ago, I suppose - it's 4:30 in the morning on Friday) morning at work, he sent me an instant message - he was being sent to Hawaii for work. The next day. We talked about me going, but I couldn't skip work on Thursday, and it was kind of a lot of money to fly out there for essentially a day - their testing is only scheduled to last through Sunday.

So he left yesterday. Of course, I mentioned his last-minute trip to coworkers at various times, and one even walked by as I opened a flight map that said he had just landed. I talked to Brian last night and helped him pick a place to eat dinner, and I went to bed shortly after. He called at midnight, apologized because he knew I was sleeping, and told me that there was an 8.8 earthquake in Japan, that Hawaii was under a tsunami warning, and that they had been told they had to find higher ground by 3 am. At 2 am, I got a text message from him, telling me where they are staying for the night.

I just got a phone call from the coworker who walked by as Brian's plane was landed. He is an extreme night owl, and we are releasing the next version of our product tomorrow morning (er, later this morning), so I was concerned that there was a problem and he wasn't able to finish everything he'd promised he would do. But no - he said he finished everything, no problem, but he'd heard on the radio that there was a tsunami due in Hawaii in 45 minutes, knew my husband was there, and wanted to make sure we knew what was going on.

Obviously, I did know what was going on, but it was really thoughtful of him to call. Even at 4:30 in the morning.

My parents appear to live at about 70 feet of elevation (in Santa Barbara), so I think they're safe. Now I'm going to go shower - if I get back in bed, I'll just sleep until 10 am, and I do still have to get some work done tomorrow. Today.