Category — Good Reads

When I was a little girl, I thought there was nothing more elegant than a pair of French-braid pigtails. I was unbelievably jealous of any girl sporting a pair. By the age of 11, I’d had enough; it was time to take action. I was determined to teach myself how to French-braid my hair even if it killed me.

Needless to say, my first solo attempt did not go so well. I didn’t seem to have enough fingers, and felt my determination begin to slip. That was when my dad, bless his heart, came to my rescue. As I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, passing different strands of hair to my dad, I knew this was a first for both of us. Soon enough, our collective four hands were an awkward maze of fingers and hair, with my tresses sticking out in every direction (and anyone who knows me knows I have arguably the thickest head of hair on the face of the planet). The end of our adventure resulted in, while not perfection, a fully functional pair of French-braided pigtails. PHEW! Since that fateful day in front of the mirror, I have become a French-braid aficionado, perfecting the art of weaving my hair, but like so many things (changing a busted headlight, going to college, investing for the future, etc.), I could never have done it without the support and patience of my dad.

Behold my mad skills

I know it mustn’t have been a cakewalk for my dad. After all, it must have been much easier to connect with my brother—they had baseball, erector sets, and fishing trips to bond over. How’s a girl with no patience and a tutu to compete with fishing trips? It would have been so easy to let a difference of gender build a bridge between us, but thanks to many out-loud readings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, dollhouse-building sessions, and impromptu Disney-song recitals, we found a way to bond that exists to this day.

For all those new dads out there, don’t be intimidated by the thought of having a girl. There is now a resource to introduce you to the mysterious world of little girls. Tea Parties for Dads: A Crash Course in Daughters for New Fathers cracks open the world of the little lady in your life, exposing the secret of what is so fascinating about all things pink, playing dress-up, mermaids, and yes, even hair styles. Tea Parties for Dads even includes helpful activity recommendations to make you the apple of your princess’s eye. Here is one of my favorites:

Making a strong connection with my father at a young age laid a foundation for a close relationship as an adult, and while I may no longer be a little girl, I know I am still his Punkin, and he is still my Papa Bear. Thank you for always making the effort, Dad.

Happy Father’s Day.

Bad Day: Gave Totally Wrong Gift

Good Drink: Lonely Night

3/4 ounce coffee liqueur
11/4 ounce Baileys or other Irish cream liqueur
11/4 ounce hazelnut liqueur
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
Whipped cream

I have always been someone who gets joy out of finding the perfect holiday gift for those I love. There is something about putting in the time and effort to make someone else smile that fills me with that warm-butterscotch feeling associated with the holidays. Thought goes into the wrappings, and my anticipation grows until I get to watch my loved one unwrap their gift. It is the season of giving, and I get something out of seeing other people happy. But not every gift can be a homerun, and I cannot help but be reminded of the not-so-jolly Christmas I received a blender.

That’s right, a blender.

Disclaimer: Men out there, you may be scratching your heads at this, but believe me; unless your main squeeze blatantly says “I want a blender,” do not get her one.

On Christmas Eve, as the Yule log burned cheerily in the fireplace and the tree glowed with hundreds of tiny twinkle lights, my boyfriend and I gathered to exchange presents as snow fell softly outside. All was right in the world. Or at least it was until I found the plastic Wal-Mart bag he had plopped down at my feet. As I looked in the bag, it was impossible for me to hide my disappointment. While I had been expecting something with a dash of romance, what I got was a blender. A blender? As I looked down the barrel of the blender, I saw a theoretical house in the ‘burbs and 2.7 kids waving at me from between the blades. Not only that, but he hadn’t even wrapped it. And I already had one at home.

The commitment-phobe inside me shrieked with terror, and in a moment of speechlessness, I forced out what turned out to be a laugh. Note: If mistake #1 was the blender, mistake #2 was the laugh. No wait…mistake #1 was not even bothering to wrap the gift.

Later, when he was justifiably angry that I had laughed at his gift, I earnestly asked the boyfriend what had made him think I wanted a blender. This was his reply:

“You like smoothies. You can make smoothies.”

Needless to say, he is now my ex-boyfriend. And, to give credit where credit is due, that summer I did make a lot of smoothies.

And so, gentlemen, do not give your girlfriends a blender.

And ladies, try to mask your disappointment better that I did. Your love life will thank you.

We all know the holidays are tough, and thanks to Kerry Colburn’s new book, Good Drinks for Bad Days: Holiday Edition, there is a cure-all for every holiday cringe-worthy moment-from holiday travel woes, to being snowed in, to going stag on New Year’s Eve. For every bad holiday, there is a good drink to numb the pain!

Kerry will be appearing at a number of events this holiday season. Come by and get your “drink” on:

Tuesday, December 8th, 5pm-7pm
Holidate at University Village

Participants receive a free drink at Sonrisa Mexican Restaurant (ticket purchase required). Books will also be available for sale.

Wednesday, December 9th, 5pm-7pm
Happy Hour for Hope at Agua Verde

Support a great non-profit organization, enjoy discounted food and drink, and maybe even win a prize!

Saturday, December 19th, 4pm-5pm
Hotel 1000 presents 12 Days of Christmas Holiday Fireside Chat

This FREE event includes a drink demonstration.

When it comes to fashion, I am a bit of a sissy. I do not lead the pack and revel in my bold style decisions. I do not wear plants on my head like Sarah Jessica Parker, hobo-chic body sacks like Mary Kate and Ashley, or full swan costumes like Bjork (though I admire any woman who can ruffle feathers). Rather, I adopt the safe, mainstream trends that, on a good day, earn me a sidewalk compliment, and, on a bad day, go generally unnoticed.

For this reason, I am thrilled to have a fashion book on our list this fall. Closet Confidential: Style Secrets Learned the Hard Way is the gift book of the season, penned by Daddy Likey blogger Winona Dimeo-Ediger. In her guide for the fashion wary, Winona shares fifty style lessons that are refreshingly accessible (for those of you who prefer your plants in a garden) and more addictive than peanut M&M’S. This is just a sampling of my favorites.

STYLE LESSON #2: The constitution guarantees freedom of speech, press, religion, petition, assembly, and to wear any style of jeans we want, so try something new–you might be pleasantly surprised.

Boot cut jeans (aka Jeanus versatilus) are the most frequently occurring articles my wardrobe, which I credit to both their extreme versatility and my unsubstantiated fear of jeans that aren’t boot cut. I realize this makes me–to use Winona’s words–a complete “style snore.” So, last month, I finally summoned some retail bravery and headed to T.J. Maxx with plans to avoid familiar denim territory. Two trips to the dressing room and three unflattering try-ons later, I emerged with my first pair of skinny jeans (aka Extreme intimidatus). Despite the blue sparkles on the back pockets that were probably intended for pre-teen fashionistas, they were exactly what I didn’t know I’d wanted all along.

STYLE LESSON #21: Fill your purse with the necessities. You get to define “necessities.”

Closet Confidential offers a chart that displays purses of all sizes: from the teeny “evening mini bag” to the colossal “Brontosaurus.” My current bag definitely falls more into the prehistoric category. On any given day, my “necessities” include:

–A bagged lunch that will inevitably be forgotten upon my arrival to work.
–Reading material. I like variety: a novel about genetically altered prep school kids and a copy of Closet Confidential is a good combination for the bus.
–Knock-off Chanel sunglasses (fondly referred to as “Ohnels” by my husband for the intersecting O’s that, in the right light, almost resemble Chanel’s intersecting C’s).
–A coin purse shaped like a cat’s head.
–96 pens.

While friends occasionally make fun of me for my excess baggage, Winona informs me that “purses large enough to hide a murder victim have come into style in a big way.” Which is great news for me and my cat head coin purse.

STYLE LESSON #27: If you live, have lived, or ever plan to live north of the Mason-Dixon Line, you might want to consider one of those giant quilted jackets that look like a queen-size down comforter with sleeves.

I attended college in Ann Arbor, Michigan, along with 30,000 other freezing undergrads. In my five-mile walk to class–what felt like five miles anyway since my eyelids were frozen open–I quickly learned that if I was going to survive, I would need a puffy coat, fashion be damned. Along with bulk quantities of Easy Mac, the Gap down comforter coat I bought that year was, without a doubt, the best purchase I made in college. (As evidence of my purchase, I have a stack of photos from 2001 displaying my inability to put my arms at my sides). Like umbrellas for Seattleites, industrial coats for Midwesterners are essential. Sometimes there really are more important things than looking cute on the way to class. Like circulation. And being able to blink when you want to.

Tell us: What are the most valuable style lessons you’ve learned?

The weekend I started reading The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest, Jack Nisbet’s excellent new biography on the nineteenth century Scottish naturalist and explorer David Douglas, my wife and I were on a trip to Kalaloch Lodge on the Olympic Peninsula, getting back to nature and “disconnecting” from modern life for a couple of days.

As I was reading the book, overlooking the ocean while sitting in front of our television-, Internet-, and cell phone signal–free cabin, it dawned on me just how different my definition of “roughing it” is to Douglas’s. Witness:

(1) For the two-night stay in our “primitive” cabin—which of course had electricity, not to mention a small kitchen with refrigerator—we packed one small suitcase, one overnight bag, one large ice chest, and three large grocery bags of provisions. (And, to be honest, a GPS tracker, two iPods, a digital camera, three books, five magazines, etc. . . .)

In contrast, for his 1826 exploration from Fort Vancouver to the inland Pacific Northwest that lasted several months, besides the clothes on his back, David Douglas packed only “one extra shirt, two handkerchiefs, a blanket, a single cloak, and no stockings at all.” His one indulgence for the journey: 100 pounds of collecting paper to preserve his samples and specimens.

(2) We spent hours preparing for our “spontaneous” campfire on the beach. This included buying a package of bratwurst, buns, corn on the cob, bottles of squeezable ketchup and mustard, paper plates and plastic cutlery, aluminum foil, skewers with extendable handles, a box of kitchen matches, a stack of newspapers as starter, and two pre-cut bundles of firewood from the general store. Despite all this, it still took me an hour to get a decent campfire going, and even with our fancy skewers, we managed to simultaneously singe and undercook our brats, not to mention both dropping our corncobs in the sand while roasting them over the fire.

By comparison, after grueling 12- or 15-hour days of crossing hard terrain, Douglas and his party were often lucky to locate a dry place to camp, and even if they didn’t, they had no choice but to find a way to start and maintain a fire if they wanted to survive the night. On a good day, they would be able to hunt game for a nourishing dinner so Douglas and crew wouldn’t have to resort to eating plant roots (not necessarily predetermined as edible) or one of his collected avian or mammalian specimens for supper. During really bad stretches in hostile terrain, the party might be forced to eat one of their horses. Corn on the cob rarely accompanied their campfires.

(3) We found a few jellyfish washed up on the beach and saw a lot of birds, trees, and a few squirrels.

Douglas identified more than 80 species of flora and fauna that now have his name (douglasii) attached to their scientific monikers, and is credited with introducing hundreds of other species to the world outside of North America.
Author Jack Nisbet
Photo by Dean Davis Photography

Obviously, these are extreme contrasts. But even the most hardcore hiker or camper will never have the opportunity to explore and experience the vast and staggering wilderness of the Pacific Northwest in the way David Douglas (and others like him) did. Jack Nisbet’s amazingly detailed and documented narrative of Douglas’s life and travels gives us an idea of exactly what it was like to see through the explorer’s eyes. We are fortunate that despite the encroachment of civilization, so much of the wilderness and natural beauty of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia remains for us to appreciate.

But I can’t help wondering: Would David Douglas think so?

Events for Jack Nisbet, author of THE COLLECTOR

Wednesday, October 7, 7:00pm
Auntie’s Bookstore
Spokane, WA

Friday, October 23
Montana Festival of the Book

Thursday, October 29, 7:30pm
Powell’s Books (on Hawthorne Blvd)
Portland, OR

Saturday, November 7th, 1:00pm
Spokane Costco (store #66)

Sunday, November 8, 2:00pm
The Seattle Room at The Seattle Public Library (book sales by Elliott Bay)
Seattle, WA

Monday, November 9, 7:00pm
Third Place Books (Lake Forest)
Seattle, WA

Tuesday, November 10, 7:00pm
Village Books
Bellingham, WA

I have been resistant to football my entire life. My father–who played college ball–had to endure the nonchalant expressions of two daughters before he finally got the son that understood the joy of touchdowns, interceptions, and tailgating.

To his credit, my father still took me to Husky games. He was convinced that his “concern rays”—those rays that all sports fans exude that have been known to influence a game’s outcome—would infect me too. I had never seen him like this; early September transformed him in to a raging lunatic, gesticulating at the TV and ranting about the #*$(&*(@ Oregon Ducks. Not only was I impervious to his “concern rays, ” but I blamed football for stealing my dad away from me. (I finally got him back in January after the football mania subsided and he regained sanity.)

In high school and college, I had male friends and boyfriends patiently explain the game to me and quiz me: “What is a first down?” and “How many yards is a football field?” They groaned when I inevitably answered with “a tackle?” and “how long is a yard again?”

Imagine the irony when I discovered we had acquired a football book, entitled Notes from a 12 Man: A Truly Biased History of the Seattle Seahawks. As the publicist at Sasquatch, I am to be the champion of the book and the author, largely responsible for its commercial success. No pressure. Upon my introduction to the author, Mark Tye Turner, I felt that I should apologize for my lack of football knowledge and general ignorance. But as I read through the book, I found myself INTERESTED in what he had to say. He made football funny, informative, and approachable—something that I could get behind and something that I could become INVESTED in. As the book hits stores this week and football season begins anew, I’ve found myself embracing it, anticipating it, and realizing that maybe…I’m my father’s daughter after all.

Meet Mark:

SoDo Sports
September 8, 6pm

Elliott Bay Books
September 11, 7:30pm

Hawk’s Nest Bar and Grill
September 11, 9pm

Seattle SoDo Costco
September 12, 1pm

Tune In:

KZOK-FM Radio, The Bob Rivers Show
September 8

KING-TV
September 9

KISW-FM Radio, BJ Shea Morning Experience
September 10

KCPQ-TV, Q It Up Sports
September 10

710 ESPN Radio, The John Clayton Show
September 12

Mark Turner online:

http://marktyeturner.com

As a resident member of the Sasquatch book club, Get Lit, I seek books that stimulate conversation, engage the ethos, and broaden my perceptions. With that criteria in mind, I wholeheartedly recommend taking a look at The House of Hope and Fear: Life in a Big City Hospital by Audrey Young, M.D., when thinking about your next book club pick.

Whether you are on the treadmill at the gym or commuting on public transportation, universal health care is the current topic of controversy. Everyone has a strong opinion, but no one has the answer. Is this issue doomed to be unresolved like so many others facing our lawmakers? How will indecision directly affect our lives? No one can argue that health care is a personal issue. There is nothing more sacred than the trust people place in their doctors. Enter Audrey Young, an M.D. from the University of Washington, who started her medical career at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, a big city hospital with a mission to treat anyone who needs medical care–without exception.

From patients without physical addresses to those who spare no expense, the people Dr. Young writes about become as real as the topic tormenting our government. Young is a doctor who has lived and breathed the public health care system, and she knows its flaws and strengths. She sees the need for a health care system that benefits rich and poor, old and young, insured and uninsured alike. The House of Hope and Fear is a realistic personal account of what it takes to balance the pressures of an inner city public hospital, and how to cope with the consequences of every decision. Audrey Young, who has been called a “fine storyteller” by People magazine, manages to bring humanity, poignancy, and intellect to a story that is, unfortunately, not uncommon in our country.