Eek! So excited. Lost has a new cast member! You know I love this show - almost as much as I love Deadwood! But Lost isn't coming back on for a couple months yet. Season 1 DVD is out in early September and if you preorder on Amazon it only costs $38.99 instead of $58.99. I'm thinking of buying it. Decisions! It's a ton of money for one DVD. The only one I've spent more on would be Deadwood Season 1. Ack. Advice?  ¶ 4:33 PM

 

Here's how to party like Tara Reid and Paris Hilton. Anyone else freaked out?

Here's how to party like my cousin Will. Much more my style:

  ¶ 1:07 PM

 
Look what John found! It's my house. Or at least, my neighborhood. I would try to explain what house is mine but if you don't already know, you probably don't care. But for those of you who know, isn't that neat?  ¶ 1:56 PM

  So what are you reading right now?


I, unfortunately, am reading two books. Why unfortunately? I just hate it when my brain is split between texts and make a point of tackling one at a time. This current situation was a fluke. I started reading "The Birth of Venus" while in Portland, but lost it there, somewhere. And when I got back to Anchorage, Terry gave me a copy of Pete Dexter's "Paris Trout" to read. So I started that... but than my awesome mom sent me a new copy of "The Birth of Venus," so I sidelined "Paris," returned to "Venus," and, well, there you have it!


But Amber posted her suggested summer reading list of 60 world classics. Gah! More books! So I'm pasting it below, bolding the ones I've read and putting asteriks * by the ones I own.


The Woman in the Dunes by Kobe Abe
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A Clockwork Orange by Athony Burgess
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Stanger by Alber Camus
Don Quixote by Miguel Saazedra de Cervantes
*The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Claudine Novels by Colette
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Fifth Buisness by Robertson Davies
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
The Brothers Karamzov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Notes from the Underground by Fydor Dostoyevsky
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
*Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
*Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
A Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Member of the Wedding by Caron McCullers
Billy Budd by Herman Melville
Spring Snow by Yukio Michima
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
*Anthem by Ayn Rand
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
*The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
*Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid UndsetCandide
Optimism by Voltaire
Night by Elie Weisel
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Bridge of San Luis Ray by Thornton Wilder  ¶ 9:55 AM

  This is giggle-worthy: Apparently Chelsea Clinton is worth 40 goats and 20 cows. Hey Mom, what would you ask for in exchange for me?  ¶ 10:28 AM

  Amber started a blog!  ¶ 9:56 AM

  My brother got a job interview!! And yes, he DOES have a job now, but it's in "the valley of the pit of Hell," as his girlfriend calls it (in reality, it's Merced), and they're tired of getting their cars stolen and living in the ghetto.  ¶ 12:43 PM

  I found a camping trip that Jessica might even attempt.


I'm tired today -- was here super late last night with another reporter and a bunch of editors reporting a very sad late-breaking story about four Boy Scout leaders -- from Anchorage -- who died at the National Scout Jamboree in Virginia yesterday in a freak electrocution. Our story ended up being the only one in the country, we think, to confirm the identity of the men who were killed. That was important to us, as we knew the town would want to know who it was that died, since these guys are all well-known here. Also, we had really known for hours who they were -- we just couldn't get an official to confirm it. So we had gathered good stuff about what great men they were, what good leaders, how great they were to boys as mentors and stuff, but we couldn't put that in until we got someone to say, "yes, that is who died." It was a big round-and-round-we-go escapade but we came out OK, just a little dizzy. And CNN this morning even quoted our story in their broadcast, which was sort of exciting, but in that strange guilty way that this business is exciting -- you are only excited because you were able to write a story that only came about because someone died. See what I mean? Anyway, busy today too! More later.  ¶ 11:37 AM

  I haven't blogged in days and I wanted to just post something of an update. Some close friends suffered a very very sad tragedy. It felt wrong to write about it here. It's hardly a secret, but to blog about it -- it just seemed terribly invasive, or inappropriate, or something. So I won't go into details. If you know them, you already know what I'm talking about. It has been consuming and devastating for everyone who knows them... me included... so it felt wrong, or stupid, or fake, I guess, to write about the usual stuff I blog about -- camping trips, weekend fun, current events, movies, blah blah blah... So that's why I've been MIA from cyberspace. Wanted to let you all know, I'm still here!  ¶ 11:47 AM

  Before last night, I had never seen "Say Anything." Am I a loser or what? But at least I saw it.
  ¶ 5:12 PM

 



The picture in the post below is from our trip to Hope last weekend. Here are some others from that trip:  ¶ 12:01 PM

    ¶ 9:56 AM

  This is ridiculous. This isn't even a competitive sport. It's freaken' T-BALL.  ¶ 4:10 PM

 
Why don't people use turn signals? Why?! Is it laziness? Is it stupidity? Do they just not care? I think not using turn signals is one of the most annoying things ever. And it's rude. Turn signals are one of the only devices we have that allow cars to "talk" to other cars, so to speak. A turn signal says, "hey, folks, I'll be slowing down now, get ready." You know what else talks to other cars. The HORN. Since living in Alaska I have used my horn more and more because the drivers here? They suck. SUCK!!! And if I could make my horn say anything, it would be, "USE YOUR FREAKEN' TURN SIGNAL!!!" If your horn could talk, what would YOU have it say?  ¶ 10:09 AM

 

Meet John's family! Left-to-right across the back row we've got John's brother Will, John, his dad Bud, his brother-in-law Scott, and younger brother Brad (the baby of the four siblings); the two women in the center are John's mom, Janie; and his older sister, Tina; and in the front row are Tina and Scott's kiddos, Sarah and Alaina. Those two adorable girls, along with Tina, visited John's a couple nights ago, and we got to play babysitter to them and family friend Chicky's little boy, Charlie, while Tina and Chicky escaped to have a bit of time to themselves, sans kids. We watched the Muppet Movie, which is always fun. The girls were fascinated by my knitting, and loved tackling John and chasing each other around while wearing his Hulk boxing gloves. It was very cute and the girls are just completely adorable and charming and engaging. And exhausting! After they left we basically just zoned out watching TV.

So I brought home a DVD with the first three episodes of FX's new series "Over There," about American soldiers stationed in Iraq. It doesn't come out on normal TV til the end of the month but an advanced copy came to the newsroom for review. It was so good. Intense. Violent. Gritty. Surprising. Sad. Everything. Watch it. It debuts July 27.

One last thing: Did you know it's Cow Appreciation Day? I figured, in honor of our bovine buddies, I might say a few things that I appreciate about them:

1. Their existance inspired one of the funniest songs ever.

2. I love hamburgers, as do those who frequent Mikes Drive-In, the Milwaukie restaurant that provided me with my second real job ever, and for a long time. Thank you, cows!

3. The Tillamook cows work hard at eating, mooing, and squirting to contribute to my favorite cheeses. Good work, cows!

What about you? Love cows? Hate 'em? Eat 'em?

  ¶ 1:39 PM

  The best thing about living in Anchorage in the summer? Leaving Anchorage in the summer. Don't get me wrong: Anchorage is a fine place to live. Sometimes those late barbecues on warm nights are just what the doctor ordered. And it's no secret that I love hitting the local nighttime scene. But it's great to get outta Dodge. I've been good at leaving town, too. A week ago it was Trapper Creek. The weekend before that, Jessica's lake house up at Big Lake. This weekend, John and his brother Brad and I headed to one of my very favorite Alaska places: Hope!


I love Hope because it's just so darn cute and picturesque, and the people are so nice. It isn't hard to find a spot to camp, and it really isn't that long of a drive from Anchorage -- an hour and a half, on average. I had the day off Friday (because I worked today), so I was able to run around and get packed and buy groceries, that sort of thing. I took a sidetrip to the mall with Lillie, where we got pedicures. We were both going camping that night and we found it humorous that we were getting pedicures right before camping. But whatever.


Brad didn't get off work until 7 p.m., so by the time we left town, made the drive, and arrived in Hope, it was about 9:30. But as I've said before, that doesn't really matter here: It's light so late that 9:30 feels like 5:30! We found a nice little spot with trees behind us, and for our view, the beautiful mountains and Sixmile Creek -- which is actually a river -- emptying into Turnagain Arm. We bug-doped up, unloaded the car, set up our tents, popped open some beers, and got the charcoal going in the little portable grill. I taught the guys a fun card game, and for dinner we had cheesey brats and chips with salsa that Brad made from scratch. Later on we took a stroll around town, checked out all the gold rush-era log homes, the charming social hall, the logging encampment just down the road with all its cool old machinary and barns and cabins, and even went down the slide at the old school, with mixed results. We finished the night much later around the fire, again playing cards.


I was first up in the morning. Fishermen in waders stood in the creek. An old guy with a long white beard was gold-panning just across from the bar. I walked up the road to the Discovery Cafe and got a coffee and admired the town. Sometimes I think I could be really happy living somewhere that small. It's the sort of town where people raise a hand to wave at you when they drive past, just because. I love that.


I set up my chair by the river, sat in the sun, and knitted until the boys woke up. By then, the sun had come up more and so had the horseflies, so it was a good time to go. We loaded up the car and then headed up the road to the Discovery Cafe, where lunch was courtesy of The Daily News -- I'm writing a food review on the place. The food? Delicious! I know, because as food reviewer, I got to taste it all. Brad had this juicy messy bacon cheeseburger, John's ham and cheese was gooey and melty and perfect, and I had a great wrap with chicken and black beans and spanish rice. But the best was my soup: the tastiest Hungarian mushroom I've ever had, seriously.


Then, home we went, stopping only for gas and to check out the secret open-24-hours never-staffed honors-system-based pottery shop of Peter Brondz. Back in Anchorage, John joined the boys for an intertubing trip down Campbell Creek, Brad went home, and I wandered across the street to the ball fields to watch Kevin pitch a few innings of baseball. I had some errands to run too, including checking in on Jessica's dog, Denali, as we were supposed to watch him for the night since she went to Fairbanks to help her family dry and smoke salmon. Later, I took a nap, which set me back a little on my plan to meet Sarah and her friends at The Pioneer at 9. In fact, at 9:30 I had just gotten to Jessica's again. I was going to do my hair there, hang out with the dog a little, then go to Pio. And then, John called.


Their intertubing trip had ended, at least for three of them -- John, Jeremy and Adam. They were waiting in a mosquito-filled parking lot at Taku Lake, cold, wet, exhausted. John's car was there... But his keys were in Shawn's truck. Shawn's truck was miles away, where they started their trip, far far upstream. And Shawn? No one knew the answer to that one. He hadn't been seen for a while. The common theory was he'd probably popped his tube and was walking -- but whether he would be walking toward Taku or his truck? No one knew that either. They guys didn't have cash, keys or cell phones. John called me on a borrowed one. Everyone had left their stuff in Shawn's truck. So, John asked very nicely, could I please come get them? So I headed that way.


Very briefly, what followed was essentially this: I got there and Shawn still wasn't there. So I drove John to his house for his spare keys. But his door was locked. We went back to the lake. John used my phone to call Shawn's fiance, Tamara: Was Shawn home? Nope, said Tamara. So I took Jeremy to his house about a mile away and he got his keys and truck and returned and I went home. I wasn't privy to the end of the story til later, but basically, Shawn did get a popped tube, he did walk back to his truck, he went home, and Tamara told him the guys were waiting, and somehow the guys ended up at their place, and everyone did get home safe and sound. But not til almost midnight.


Rewind. So I've got Denali in my car this whole time and head back to Jessica's, where I speed-primped and had a glass of wine and then went to Pioneer. Sarah hadn't answered her cell but I was crossing my fingers she'd still be there, and she was. I mostly chatted with Kristy and then shortly after midnight, John came. We didn't stay much longer, and then went back to Jessica's, had popcorn and watched TV, and went to bed fairly early. Whew. So the night that was taking such a disastrous route had a nice ending after all.
  ¶ 7:54 PM

  Mom, this one's for you

Mom e-mailed us kids a while back and included this in her note:


I was going through my DVDs and realized that I have a duplicate of "And Then There Were None." Excellent old (1945) b&w Agatha Christie film, GREAT plot twist. Whoever speaks up first can have it!


Free DVD? Have I mentioned I type fast? So I won, er, got the DVD from Mom. It arrived yesterday and I told John we should watch it. I knew he'd be agreeable as soon as he heard the plot. It sounded right up his alley.


So after knitting, John and his roommate David and I gathered round the telly for some classic movie viewing. I asked John to type up his reaction to it. I get to go first, because it's my blog.

It was a short movie by today's standards: Just 97 minutes. When did that stop being a good thing? There was never a dull moment, never a slow part, nothing to cut. It was trimmed of fat and all good stuff. The acting was solid and the characters compelling. Right until the end, we were guessing whodunnit, ruling out or accepting theories that seemed to obvious, or conjuring up ideas that were far to left field. The ending definitely lived up to its hype and now that I saw how it turned out, I can't wait to pop it in again and watch for any clues along the way. The dialogue was witty, without being in-your-face spoon-feeding about it. It was more that subtle wit, reminiscent of Casablanca made just a few years earlier, where if you are distracted for a minute you may miss some brilliant verbal sparring or exchange laced with puzzling or grin-worthy double-meanings.


Anyway, I think John did an excellent job summing up his reaction, so here's his two cents:


What a wonderful surprise was my immediate reaction. Witty writing, excellent character acting, and just a very inventive story. Funny and suspenceful at the same time.


I've always had a thing for older films. When you grow up as a child in Barrow, TV is one thing you will watch a lot of (at least back in the day). We had Showtime and The Movie Channel, and then much later came cable TV giant HBO. So I grew up on films such as My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof. To this day Charade is one of my very faves. Guess I have a little thing for Audrey Hepburn. Anyway, I think you tend to appreciate the writing and acting when the screen isn't convoluted by special effects or overpaid movie stars playing versions of themselves ala' Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, and Tom Cruise (not to say they can't act, but those performances are few and far betrween). Watching films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Casablanca, Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Gone With the Wind, you can easily see the difference between todays crud and how they made movies decades ago. You can see the acting, without it looking like acting. If that makes sense.


'And Then There Were None' fits that bill precisly. While I had heard of Agatha Christie (Duh) and "Ten Little Indians", I had no idea this was based on the book. I also was pleasently surprised that "Clue" was based off the book as well. Loved the movie ("Mrs. Peacock is a man!" SLAP!!). All the characters were great, and choosing a fave pretty much depended on which scene we were watching at the time. I think mine was Mr. Lombard, as he was sort of a smart alec, but also knew what was going on. Not to mention smoothe and a ladies men. The snooty, knitting older dame was cool too.


But throughout the film, Katie, David and I kept trying to guess the identity of Mr. Owen. Most clues were cleverly covered, not to mention the suspect du jour usually ended up dead. When revealed it made more sense, but not so much you knew right away or could foresee so soon it ruins the climax. Speaking of which, the ending was as suspensful and clever as advertised. About 90% of the DVD's I own fall into the suspense/thriller category. Some Sci-fi, some Crime Noir, a lot of Foreign thillers... guess it's my genre of choice. This is definitely a movie I would recommend and will definitely find it's way to my DVD rack. Thanks Katie's mom!
  ¶ 4:33 PM

  Oooooh.... Ahhhhhh....

OK, so just a few notes about my fun three-day weekend. I had a total rated G night Friday with Shanda, knitting and hanging out with the baby and watching the BBC miniseries "Pride and Prejudice." Switched gears Saturday to a rated R evening -- R for wild animal encounters (porcupines and mosquitoes), profanity (directed at the mosquitoes), explosions (i.e. fireworks) and extreme weather conditions (rain). Here's how that all went down: Sarah and I spoke early in the afternoon and she said the troops (i.e. Shawn, Adam, Eric, + two very large dogs) were mobilizing to head north to the Trapper Creek area, then take a cut-off road and then a logging road to some place called Amber Lake that Adam found on a map and looked up online. Had potential for lakeshore camping and fishing. After some initial feet-dragging, I decided if I didn't go camping, I'd probably just be bored and wish I had gone, so I packed my bags and met up with my friends. The plan: To leave at 4 p.m. for what was supposed to be a two-hour-or-so drive.


Ah, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans...


So, I get to their house at 4 p.m., and of course, Shawn was late. Really late. Waiting, a funny conversation took place -- funny to that part of me still not yet Alaskanized:


Adam: Did you remember the guns?

Sarah: Oh yeah, honey! (calling to husband Eric). Honey? Honey, where are the bullets?

Eric: We need to buy some new ones.

Sarah: Are they at Mom's?

Eric: No, we're out.

Adam: The .9 won't do any good. That won't even puncture a bear's skin. You need something bigger.

Sarah: What about the .24?


Etc.


In Alaska, it really is smart to camp with guns. Bears, people. Not nice camp neighbors.


Anyway, Shawn rolled up an hour later and we could finally leave -- Sarah, Eric, myself and dog No. 1 (Chewy, a scrappy ageless mutt that showed up at their place a few weeks ago) in one truck, and Shawn, Adam and dog No. 2 (Melvin, a massive Great Dane) in another. Each truckload of us had a walkie talkie to communcate, which made for some good times. And off we went. To Fred Meyer.


That took another hour and by the time we were on the road, we had a lot of food, a lot of beer, a lot of gear, but still no bullets: They only had hollows at the store which, apparently, were useless for our defensive purposes, so Sarah said f*ck it and it was on with the show.


Traffic actually wasn't bad, and we made it past the Talkeetna spur road and to Trapper Creek a little after 8 p.m., then headed west down Petersville Road. About six miles in, we hit the logging road Adam found on the map and swung south. Then things got rocky. The road turned from "best logging road I've ever seen" (said Adam, on his radio) to very bumpy and potholey. All around was private property with big KEEP OUT signs. Where was the public access area? Well, we finally found the lake, but the public access? It was just a tiny parking lot filled with sightseers. So on we went, snaking off on little side logging roads here and there, keeping together with the two-way radios and staying un-lost with the knowledge that Adam had his GPS thingy.


Finally, after driving around for more than an hour, so it's about 10 by this point? We pull over. And some of us get out. And are instantly and totally mobbed by mosquitoes. MOBBED I tell you! I have been in some mosquitoey places before (yes, that is an adjective!). But this was the worst. Out of the car 30 seconds, I had at least five bites. The dogs were covered. I've heard stories of them being really bad and now I get it. So we Deet'ed up and jumped back in our cars and headed out of there. After some chit chat on the radios, we vetoed our continual exploration of logging roads (figuring it being all boggy back there, the mosquito situation would not improve, and we could drive around and around forever without finding something good) and instead, headed back to Petersville Road.


From there, we headed as far west as Kroto Creek, which is maybe 10 miles or so after the pavement ended. There, we found an RV colony, so we u-turned and headed back to a spot just off the road we'd eyed minutes earlier. There was enough room for the dogs, the trucks, the tents (four total -- one for me, one for Shawn, one for Adam, and one for our token married couple, Eric and Sarah) plus a fire pit already existed and there was plenty of space to safely detonate fireworks. We were all overjoyed to arrive -- and starving. Frosty beers were opened and drank, a fire swiftly built, and when it started to rain, the guys made this killer lean-to shelter big enough for ALL of our camping chairs and the bins full of supplies, right in front of the fire and Shawn's grill (are you getting an impression of how "light" we travel? Teehee). We ate and drank and played cards and lit fireworks and didn't go to bed until 5 a.m.


We sorta slept in Sunday, broke camp, had some grub, headed home. John was back in town by then, and about 7 p.m. we headed back to "The Davis House" (on Davis Street, currently home to Eric, Sarah and Adam) for a barbecue. There were maybe 10 people there and a lot of food and beer leftover from our camping trip. The guys were jammin' downstairs and we watched a DVD of the new Star Wars (nope, don't know where it came from), roasted marshmellows, etc.


And then, Monday: the last day of our long weekend, alas. We hit a barbecue at the Brogan household, which offered good food and good company; and to end the day, I briefly joined John and the boys at Westchester Lagoon and attempted to throw frisbees with them. Then, homeward bound, joined later by John... and some time around 11 p.m., noted quite the commotion outside. Our parking lot was filling up, as was the one across the street at the ballfields, and then I realized the big fireworks show was at Mulcahy Stadium kitty-corner from my house. Fireworks don't start til midnight -- not dark enough. And thankfully by then, as the pictures show, a generous roll of dark clouds came over the mountains, setting a perfect backdrop for the colorful explosives.  ¶ 2:52 PM

  Front-row seats!

  ¶ 9:04 PM

  Summer in Barrow, Alaska

John remains north in Barrow (pictured above) where temperatures are in the balmy 40s, and a good chunk of the town showed up at a potluck yesterday to celebrate the retirement of his dad, George "Bud" Stevens, from the Barrow Fire Department. Bud reportedly got a ton of praise and a lot of cool gifts, including a very cool seal harpoon. And the fire guys all put on their dress uniforms and took the Stevens clan around town in a fire engine. It's so Mayberryish, no? Except for the threat of polar bears and perpetually cold temps and the unsetting sun going around and around and around in the sky. But otherwise...

Had a fun night with pals last night. First stop was Kristy's new pad where she, Tamara, Sarah and I played some poker, drank some excellent margaritas, ate cheesy toast and gossiped and giggled as girls do when playing poker and drinking margaritas. Afterward, I headed to Pioneer for Jessica's birthday celebration. Wasn't able to stay long enough to join the group later when it went to the sometimes-sketchy Gas Light nextdoor to dance, where pals report Jess fell down several times and left the bathroom with toilet paper stuck in her pants. If that isn't telling of a good birthday, what is?

People keep asking me what I'm doing for the Fourth of July weekend and I don't have any really good answers. I was relieved when plans to leave town for camping tonight disolved, just because getting motivated enough to rush out of work and rush home is always a task. Now it sounds like the group may take a turn down to Girdwood tomorrow to visit the Forest Fair. John will either return tomorrow or Sunday and on Sunday we may head north to Jessica's lake house for the night. And there are all sorts of other possibilities during the next few days -- barbecues, baseball games, etc. So I know I won't be bored. I just don't exactly know what I'm doing. Hope everyone else has a fabulous weekend!

P.S. I finished a really great book a couple of days back: "The Paperboy," by Pete Dexter. Just thought it was fabulous. It had elements of mystery, sexuality, family drama, etc., about a 20-year-old guy named Jack who chaufers around his brother, a reporter, and a second reporter (they're an investigative duo) as they look into whether a truly bad and scary guy on Death Row indeed commited the crime he was convicted for: Killing -- gutting, actually -- the county sheriff. Along for much of the ride is the bad guy's fiance, a woman who habitually writes to Death Row murderers and has actually never met her betroved face to face until they all go to jail to interview him. It was a quick and addictive read. Highly recommend it. Dexter also wrote "Deadwood," which I read earlier this year, and next up, I'm reading his American Book Award-winning novel, "Paris Trout."

  ¶ 2:52 PM