Books Read:
- Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami
- Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
- The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- The Satanic Verses by Salmon Rushdie
Trails Walked:
- Superstitions La Barge Box Battleship Saddle loop (Jan 10th)
with daughter and dog
- Superstitions Weaver’s Needle Loop from Peralta Trailhead
(Jan 17th)
- Skyline Regional Park Pyrite Summit Loop (Jan 23rd)
- Cave Creek Trail #4 from 7 Springs to Spur Cross (Jan 30th)
Welcome to 2019! The
100th anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park! I plan to get up there this year to at least
procure some 100th anniversary gear.
We are so lucky to be able to live in a state with places as magical as
the Grand Canyon.
I
started my 2019 reading list with two books by one of my favorite authors,
Haruki Murakami. My son introduced me to
him a few years ago by giving me The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a strangely titled
book with a mind-bending story. Men Without Women is a collection of
short stories that was published in 2014 in Japan and 2017 in the US English
edition. The name is taken from an
Ernest Hemmingway novel and it contains seven stories about men who, each in
their own way, are alone. Lovesick
doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders, and even Gregor Samsa,
the main "character" in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Some stories stayed with me longer than
others, like the story of Kino, who discovered his wife cheating on him with
his best friend and then divorced her, quit his job, opened a bar, and
experienced ever stranger happenings in his life. Also, the reverse story of Kafka's
Metamorphosis...here the insect has turned back into a human being and his
description of it experiencing human-ness again is mesmerizing. Another story, Scheherazade (named after one
of the narrators in 1001 Arabian Nights) was about a woman who cared for this
man and told him about her stories of her fascinating past as though she was
still living it. Killing Commendatore is his most recent novel, published in the US
in 2018 (2017 in Japan). Once again, I
was drawn into another world of Murakami's creation. I couldn't put the book down. In this story, an unnamed 36-year-old
portrait painter finds out his wife is cheating on him, leaves her, drives
through northern Japan, and ends up in a mysterious mountain home which once
belonged to his friend's father who was a famous artist. It starts out as a quiet retreat where he can
focus on his painting, but slowly he becomes entangled in other people's lives
and plans. Fascinating characters are
uncovered and then mysterious, sort of spiritual things start occurring. There is a hidden ancient Buddhist pit, a
masterpiece painting hidden in an attic never seen by anyone but the artist,
and ideas and metaphors take the form of tiny people. Like in many of his books there is an
intelligent teenaged girl with whom he goes on adventures. There are many philosophical discussions on
life, family, wealth, art, and technology.
Lots of musical references as usual (Jazz, Classical, Rock); and even
pre-WWII’s German Anschluss in Austria and the Japanese rape of Nanjing. Fun reading and actually a somewhat
satisfying ending which is unusual for Murakami....
I hiked the La Barge
Box - Battleship Saddle loop in the Superstitions with my daughter this
month. It’s always a treat to go on
adventures with your kids. All those
hikes they used to complain about when they were little have paid off with a
lifetime of adventures. It’s a really
nice 10-mile loop with the highlight being the La Barge Box which is a narrow,
steep canyon with deep, beautiful pools of water. I would say that only 5 of the 10 miles are
on actual trails. The other 5 are
through creek beds or cross country, so it’s slow going (at least for me). You start the loop at Canyon Lake marina,
cross the highway and start walking uphill quickly. After a mile or so you have great views of
the Superstitions to the south. We saw
lots of bighorn sheep on the cliffs as we descended into the La Barge and Boulder
Canyon washes. I had heard there were
bighorn in these mountains but had never seen them until this trip. We headed up La Barge creek and found the box
where we had a nice lunch in a great setting.
Then we headed cross country over Battleship saddle to meet up with the
Boulder Canyon trail, but instead of going back the same way, we headed down
the lower part of La Barge creek to where it empties into Canyon Lake. Very nice creek/canyon walk, but watch your
footing, it’s prime ankle spraining territory.
A nice family adventure hike on a perfect day.
 |
| Weaver’s Needle from above Boulder Canyon |
 |
| Bighorn Sheep on the cliff |
 |
| Water reflections |
 |
| La Barge box |
 |
| Lower La Barge Canyon near Canyon Lake |
 |
| Lower La Barge Canyon |
 |
| Lower La Barge Canyon reflections |
I dipped
into a couple of classic literature books this month with Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth. My humble New Mexico education seemed to have
neglected classic literature (unless the legend of La Llorona is considered
classic literature). So, I try to catch
up each year with all that I have missed.
I would say that, for the most part classic literature books are mostly
all they are made out to be with a few exceptions (I didn’t think “The Last of
the Mohicans” held up well for example and I’ve tried 4 times to read James
Joyce’s “Ulysses” but I just don’t understand it…I will try again though, maybe
with Spark notes). It took me about 50
pages before I could start enjoying “To the Lighthouse”. I finally realized that it can't be read like
a normal novel. It must be read almost
like a poem. You have to read it slowly
and just sort of let the words roll over you.
Because they are beautiful. And
the way the story is told is clever. There are 3 parts. The first part introduces you to the Ramsays
who have 8 children and a summer home on the Isle of Skye where family friends
often join them. There are several
interweaving stories, but it's more about the thought processes in each of them
than the plot. Mrs. Ramsay is patient
and kind and she humors Mr. Ramsay because she knows that he mainly needs
praise from her and for her to make him feel good about himself...the kids
think he's too cold and strict and the friends don't understand how she has
such patience for him, but at other times they see him in a more positive
light, aftercall he did marry her. There
is interesting talk about each one's importance in life (one conversation is about
how perhaps an elevator operator positively impacts more lives than
Shakespeare, so who's more important?).
Part two is 10 years later, after World War I, told from the point of
view of the 71-year-old lady caring for the now very run-down house, sort of
showing how everything dies, no matter what occurred in the past. Then, in part 3, the family returns, but only
after 3 have died (Mrs. Ramsay and two of her children in different and tragic
ways). Lily Briscoe, one of the family
friends and a painter reminisces about the past and Mrs. Ramsay as she's trying
to finish the painting which she started 10 years ago. She finishes it while Mr. Ramsay and two of
his now grown children finally reach the lighthouse (the weather was not calm
enough 10 years ago to do this). The
painting, the trip to the lighthouse and the book all finish at the same
time.
Edith Wharton was raised in high society New York and
Europe, so she knew of what she wrote.
She was over 40 when she wrote The House of Mirth, the first great novel of hers (she had
written two other lesser known novels prior), partially because she was
inhibited by her overbearing and unenlightened mother, and partially because of
the norms of that day (women didn't write).
This story is about Lily Bart whose previously rich father went broke,
then her mother died, and she was entrusted to her rich aunt. Because of her good looks and her intellect,
she was accepted into “high society” even though she had no money of her
own. In the end, this book is about your
own expectations of yourself vs society's expectations of you. It's why it's still valid and read
today. Through a series of presumed
scandals, she is eventually kicked out of “high society” and ends up in a
boarding house and getting fired from her factory job for shoddy work (she was
not bred for that kind of labor). Also,
throughout the novel she is torn between the "longing for love and the
struggle for the legal tender" as Jackson Browne so poetically described
it. She finds men she could love
(Lawrence Selden), but they didn't have enough money for her expensive
tastes. She found men with money (Percy
Gryce and Sim Rosedale), but she found she couldn't love them even if she
longed for the life she could lead if she married them. Although the writing was a bit dated, I got
into a rhythm and really enjoyed the political and philosophical intrigue in
this story.
In the second Superstitions hike this month, HB and I
created a Weaver’s Needle loop
starting at the Peralta trailhead. For
this loop we combined the Peralta, Dutchman, Terrapin, and Bluff Springs trails
for a nice 12 plus mile hike around Weaver’s Needle. As with most Superstition hikes (and most
lifetimes) there were lots of up and down and lots of rocky footing. But spectacular scenery as usual in these
enigmatic mountains. We can now honestly
say that we’ve seen the needle from every angle! We passed these two guys who were just
completing a 7-day 80-mile backpack. Wow!
They must have hit all the highlights.
They had no problem with water the whole trip. I’ve never backpacked in the Superstitions,
but there are many times I’d wished I would have, and there are some places
that are just plain unreachable without backpacking (unless you’re an Ironman
which nobody has yet mistaken me for). We passed just south of Black Top Mesa which we plan to hike in the near future in search of Spanish petroglyphs!
 |
| Weaver’s Needle from Peralta Trail |
 |
| Weaver’s Needle sun |
 |
| Weaver’s Needle from the east; not looking so much like a needle…Weaver’s Mitten |
 |
| Funky Rock |
 |
| Peak at Weaver’s Needle |
My one
non-fiction book this month was Becoming
by Michelle Obama. I hadn’t planned to
read this book, but friends of ours left it with us while they were on a
vacation, so I read it. And I’m glad I did. The first two thirds of the book encompass
her life before the White House, while the last third covers the White House
years. To me, the first two thirds was
the most interesting. She grew up in a
working-class family on the south side of Chicago (the same place the great
Showtime series Shameless takes place).
There are so many factors on how some people can get out of tough
situations and others can’t. In her case
it was all her family. She had
supportive parents, a nurturing brother, and an involved extended family. Two examples:
Her mother would go with her to the library consistently before she
reached Kindergarten. As a result, she
was able to read when most Kindergartners in her neighborhood could not, so she
is automatically put in the “she is smart” category by the teachers. The other
example is when she was in the 2nd grade she would come home from
school unhappy most days and with reports of bad behavior which was unusual for
her. Her mother found out that this
particular 2nd grade teacher was terrible and let the class run
rampant. Instead of letting it go on,
her mother quietly went through a weeks long process to get her moved out of
the class and then lecturing the 2nd grade teacher (“maybe you
should work as a drugstore cashier instead”).
So, she succeeded in school not only due to her intellect, but also with
a lot of family help. She got degrees
from Princeton and Harvard and went to work at a prestigious law firm in
Chicago where she met a young intern named Barack. The story of their meeting and courtship is
wonderful. Of course, the rest is
history and her stories of the presidential election and the White House from
her viewpoint are priceless. What a
wonderful woman she is.
Who knew Buckeye had a terrific trail system? The city has
done a great job of developing a nice set of trails on the southern edge of the
White Tank Mountains in Skyline Regional Park.
We created our own Pyrite Summit
Loop trail which offers a good taste of the park. We combined the following trails into one
8-mile loop: Mountain Wash, Turnbuckle,
Granite Falls, Pyrite, and Chuckwalla.
These are great trails for trail runners, and we saw a few. Good elevation gain (2,000 feet for us), and
good footing (not too rocky). It’s your
average Sonoran Desert scenery but with a nice view of a nuclear power plant in
operation (Palo Verde) from Pyrite Summit.
Also, one very funny thing about this hike is that your GPS will show
that you are hiking between Thomas and Indian School Roads, which obviously
aren’t in this park, but it makes me wonder if some of the jeep trails we saw
were at one time those roads before the park was established. They align with them on a map. We also saw a very big coyote on this hike;
we’ve seen coyotes but normally they are scrawny, I guess there’s lots to eat
out there this year.
 |
| You can barely make out Palo Verde nuclear plant from the steam |
 |
| Teddy Bear Cholla dancing around the flowers |
 |
| Winding trail up Pyrite |
I finally
found a copy of Salmon Rushdie’s The
Satanic Verses at the public library (it’s always checked out). This was the controversial book that ended up
with actual threats on the author’s life from many conservative and militant
Islamic groups and he was in police protection for 10 years. So of course, I needed to find out why, and
also because I had read his fantastic “Midnight’s Children” back in
November. I couldn't stop reading this
book. Looked forward to sitting down
with it every day. Even though I admit
that I could not understand everything, the writing was so spectacular and
filled with so much about life, love, death, immigration, race relations,
poverty, politics, and religion, that it was just mind boggling. It reminded me a bit of David Foster
Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” in that it was at times fuzzy and at other times
crystal clear. Rushdie himself said that
this book was not about Islam, "but about migration, metamorphosis,
divided selves, love, death, London and Bombay." The story begins with two men from Bombay as
they are falling out of an airplane that had just been bombed by a
terrorist. Gibreel Farishta is a famous
Indian actor based in Bombay and Saladin Chamcha is a voiceover
actor from Bombay, based in London. As they were falling, they
philosophized about life and then some wild dream sequence stories sprung
up....one that seemed to be of the prophet Mohammed (Mahound in the novel) and
his receiving of the words of Allah from the angel Gabriel; another of an entire
village in India that was convinced by Aleysha to drop everything and walk to
the Arabian sea to go to Mecca where the sea would part for them. Meanwhile after miraculously surviving the
fall from the plane, the two protagonists go on to seemingly play out the apocalyptic
end days with Gibreel taking the part of the angel Gabriel (Gibreel in Islam)
and Chamcha taking the part of the devil; when in reality, Gibreel was slowly having a mental breakdown, and Chamcha was just trying to understand the
meaning of his life. I believe there are
full books and classes given on trying to understand all of this. But the stories, the quotes, the struggles,
the father-son relationships, just all of life seems to be packed into one
540-page epic novel. Evidently one of the complaints conservative and militant
Islamists had with the book was the use of the name Mahound instead of
Mohammed. Mahound was the term used by
Christian Crusaders in the Middle Ages as a derogatory term for Mohammed. But it’s one thing to be upset and quite
another to make death threats for a fictional story.
I’ve hiked in the Seven Springs area north of Cave Creek and
also in the Spur Cross Conservation Area on the outskirts of Cave Creek. But there is a trail that will take you between
the two areas as long as you can manage a 1-hour car shuttle. So, HB and I decided to do this. We met bright and early at the Spur Cross
trailhead, parked one car and set out to Seven Springs in the other car. As we approached the Seven Springs trailhead,
we realized that our normal change of clothes (to swap our sweaty hiking
clothes with fresh, less smelly ones for the car ride home) were happily riding
along with us in the car, rather than waiting at the Spur Cross trailhead where
they should be! Well, lesson learned,
and the only impact was a smellier car shuttle back. Cave
Creek trail #4 is the 12-mile trail that takes you between the two
areas. It’s a beautiful trail along Cave
Creek that takes you through lush riparian areas, desert washes, flat mesas,
and steep arroyos. There are Indian
Ruins on this trail that we neglected to find out about until we were nearly
finished, and folks told us about them…. next time! There is also a fascinating crowned saguaro
about 3 miles in. Lots of history in
this area. The Hohokam Indians farmed
along the creek in the 11th century and early ranchers drove cattle
through the creek to move them to better grazing. The hike is a bit of a roller coaster, up and
down gulleys, but mostly a steady downhill so the 12 miles didn’t seem too
long.
 |
| Leaf strewn trail near Seven Springs |
 |
| Crowned saguaro |
 |
| Cave Creek |
 |
| Someone left a colorful token |
 |
| On the mesa with view of New River Mesa |
I
started my 2019 reading list with two books by one of my favorite authors,
Haruki Murakami. My son introduced me to
him a few years ago by giving me The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a strangely titled
book with a mind-bending story. Men Without Women is a collection of
short stories that was published in 2014 in Japan and 2017 in the US English
edition. The name is taken from an
Ernest Hemmingway novel and it contains seven stories about men who, each in
their own way, are alone. Lovesick
doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders, and even Gregor Samsa,
the main "character" in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Some stories stayed with me longer than
others, like the story of Kino, who discovered his wife cheating on him with
his best friend and then divorced her, quit his job, opened a bar, and
experienced ever stranger happenings in his life. Also, the reverse story of Kafka's
Metamorphosis...here the insect has turned back into a human being and his
description of it experiencing human-ness again is mesmerizing. Another story, Scheherazade (named after one
of the narrators in 1001 Arabian Nights) was about a woman who cared for this
man and told him about her stories of her fascinating past as though she was
still living it. Killing Commendatore is his most recent novel, published in the US
in 2018 (2017 in Japan). Once again, I
was drawn into another world of Murakami's creation. I couldn't put the book down. In this story, an unnamed 36-year-old
portrait painter finds out his wife is cheating on him, leaves her, drives
through northern Japan, and ends up in a mysterious mountain home which once
belonged to his friend's father who was a famous artist. It starts out as a quiet retreat where he can
focus on his painting, but slowly he becomes entangled in other people's lives
and plans. Fascinating characters are
uncovered and then mysterious, sort of spiritual things start occurring. There is a hidden ancient Buddhist pit, a
masterpiece painting hidden in an attic never seen by anyone but the artist,
and ideas and metaphors take the form of tiny people. Like in many of his books there is an
intelligent teenaged girl with whom he goes on adventures. There are many philosophical discussions on
life, family, wealth, art, and technology.
Lots of musical references as usual (Jazz, Classical, Rock); and even
pre-WWII’s German Anschluss in Austria and the Japanese rape of Nanjing. Fun reading and actually a somewhat
satisfying ending which is unusual for Murakami....
I dipped
into a couple of classic literature books this month with Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth. My humble New Mexico education seemed to have
neglected classic literature (unless the legend of La Llorona is considered
classic literature). So, I try to catch
up each year with all that I have missed.
I would say that, for the most part classic literature books are mostly
all they are made out to be with a few exceptions (I didn’t think “The Last of
the Mohicans” held up well for example and I’ve tried 4 times to read James
Joyce’s “Ulysses” but I just don’t understand it…I will try again though, maybe
with Spark notes). It took me about 50
pages before I could start enjoying “To the Lighthouse”. I finally realized that it can't be read like
a normal novel. It must be read almost
like a poem. You have to read it slowly
and just sort of let the words roll over you.
Because they are beautiful. And
the way the story is told is clever. There are 3 parts. The first part introduces you to the Ramsays
who have 8 children and a summer home on the Isle of Skye where family friends
often join them. There are several
interweaving stories, but it's more about the thought processes in each of them
than the plot. Mrs. Ramsay is patient
and kind and she humors Mr. Ramsay because she knows that he mainly needs
praise from her and for her to make him feel good about himself...the kids
think he's too cold and strict and the friends don't understand how she has
such patience for him, but at other times they see him in a more positive
light, aftercall he did marry her. There
is interesting talk about each one's importance in life (one conversation is about
how perhaps an elevator operator positively impacts more lives than
Shakespeare, so who's more important?).
Part two is 10 years later, after World War I, told from the point of
view of the 71-year-old lady caring for the now very run-down house, sort of
showing how everything dies, no matter what occurred in the past. Then, in part 3, the family returns, but only
after 3 have died (Mrs. Ramsay and two of her children in different and tragic
ways). Lily Briscoe, one of the family
friends and a painter reminisces about the past and Mrs. Ramsay as she's trying
to finish the painting which she started 10 years ago. She finishes it while Mr. Ramsay and two of
his now grown children finally reach the lighthouse (the weather was not calm
enough 10 years ago to do this). The
painting, the trip to the lighthouse and the book all finish at the same
time.
My one
non-fiction book this month was Becoming
by Michelle Obama. I hadn’t planned to
read this book, but friends of ours left it with us while they were on a
vacation, so I read it. And I’m glad I did. The first two thirds of the book encompass
her life before the White House, while the last third covers the White House
years. To me, the first two thirds was
the most interesting. She grew up in a
working-class family on the south side of Chicago (the same place the great
Showtime series Shameless takes place).
There are so many factors on how some people can get out of tough
situations and others can’t. In her case
it was all her family. She had
supportive parents, a nurturing brother, and an involved extended family. Two examples:
Her mother would go with her to the library consistently before she
reached Kindergarten. As a result, she
was able to read when most Kindergartners in her neighborhood could not, so she
is automatically put in the “she is smart” category by the teachers. The other
example is when she was in the 2nd grade she would come home from
school unhappy most days and with reports of bad behavior which was unusual for
her. Her mother found out that this
particular 2nd grade teacher was terrible and let the class run
rampant. Instead of letting it go on,
her mother quietly went through a weeks long process to get her moved out of
the class and then lecturing the 2nd grade teacher (“maybe you
should work as a drugstore cashier instead”).
So, she succeeded in school not only due to her intellect, but also with
a lot of family help. She got degrees
from Princeton and Harvard and went to work at a prestigious law firm in
Chicago where she met a young intern named Barack. The story of their meeting and courtship is
wonderful. Of course, the rest is
history and her stories of the presidential election and the White House from
her viewpoint are priceless. What a
wonderful woman she is.
I finally
found a copy of Salmon Rushdie’s The
Satanic Verses at the public library (it’s always checked out). This was the controversial book that ended up
with actual threats on the author’s life from many conservative and militant
Islamic groups and he was in police protection for 10 years. So of course, I needed to find out why, and
also because I had read his fantastic “Midnight’s Children” back in
November. I couldn't stop reading this
book. Looked forward to sitting down
with it every day. Even though I admit
that I could not understand everything, the writing was so spectacular and
filled with so much about life, love, death, immigration, race relations,
poverty, politics, and religion, that it was just mind boggling. It reminded me a bit of David Foster
Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” in that it was at times fuzzy and at other times
crystal clear. Rushdie himself said that
this book was not about Islam, "but about migration, metamorphosis,
divided selves, love, death, London and Bombay." The story begins with two men from Bombay as
they are falling out of an airplane that had just been bombed by a
terrorist. Gibreel Farishta is a famous
Indian actor based in Bombay and Saladin Chamcha is a voiceover
actor from Bombay, based in London. As they were falling, they
philosophized about life and then some wild dream sequence stories sprung
up....one that seemed to be of the prophet Mohammed (Mahound in the novel) and
his receiving of the words of Allah from the angel Gabriel; another of an entire
village in India that was convinced by Aleysha to drop everything and walk to
the Arabian sea to go to Mecca where the sea would part for them. Meanwhile after miraculously surviving the
fall from the plane, the two protagonists go on to seemingly play out the apocalyptic
end days with Gibreel taking the part of the angel Gabriel (Gibreel in Islam)
and Chamcha taking the part of the devil; when in reality, Gibreel was slowly having a mental breakdown, and Chamcha was just trying to understand the
meaning of his life. I believe there are
full books and classes given on trying to understand all of this. But the stories, the quotes, the struggles,
the father-son relationships, just all of life seems to be packed into one
540-page epic novel. Evidently one of the complaints conservative and militant
Islamists had with the book was the use of the name Mahound instead of
Mohammed. Mahound was the term used by
Christian Crusaders in the Middle Ages as a derogatory term for Mohammed. But it’s one thing to be upset and quite
another to make death threats for a fictional story.
