"Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail"

I just finished this book by Cheryl Strayed and am putting it on my recommended reading list. It's a memoir about a a young woman who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail by herself in 1995. I found it a captivating story of endurance, pain, strength, and healing. I'm looking forward to the movie being made of Strayed's journey.

December Coffee and Book Swap

Kathy K., Debbie, Mary A-E, Susan, Jackie, Mary T., and I gathered at Acoustic Café Saturday for our December coffee and book swap. The weather was bright and cold, but the coffee and camaraderie were warm. Here you see the 18 books in their awesome wrapping before the swap.

As the books were unwrapped, it became clear that we all like mysteries – quite a few were exchanged. Debbie selected, and got to keep, How to Be Interesting by Jessica Hagy. She’s trying to pretend here that she needs the advice in the book, but we all know she doesn’t.

Just a quick note about Jessica Hagy: She writes a daily blog post/graphic like the ones in the book How to Be Interesting. The name of the blog is Indexed. I check in on it a couple times a week. She cleverly distills situations and emotions in her graphics. If you visit the site, be sure to hover your mouse over the day’s image and read the “alternate” text – it’s often additional commentary on the graphic. (That’s not the intended use of alternate text, but that’s another subject.)

Ostensibly the swap helps us weed out or pare down our book stash. Of course, it doesn’t; it feeds our addiction. We all went home with three new books for cold weather reading.