“One thing about great art: it made you love people more, forgive them their petty transgressions. It worked in the way that religion was supposed to, if you thought about it.” –from Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked

Title: Juliet, Naked // Author: Nick Hornby // Publisher: Riverhead Books // Pub. Date: September 29, 2009 // 416 p.

I’m allowed to gush openly here about books I love, right? Good. Because when you write about books for publications that are not your own blog, you have to temper yourself somewhat. Like you can’t just come out and say that a book makes you smile from the innermost depths of your soul or that a book is so good, you think it’s better than you’re recent favorite thing in life: matcha green tea lattes sweetened with agave nectar. But since this is my site, I can say wholeheartedly that Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked did make me smile a deep, soulful grin, and it rivaled my best matcha latte. It also kept me up reading late at night with a headlamp on one of my recent climbing trips. This book had me so enthralled that I read it within two days and turned the final page still wanting more.

In Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby returns to the themes for which he is known and loved: flailing relationships, unfulfilled dreams, and an obsessive passion for music. Juliet, Naked’s flailing relationship belongs to Annie and Duncan, a couple of fifteen years who live in the sleepy seaside town of Gooleness, England. Duncan’s obsessively passionate about the work of a musician named Tucker Crowe, who disappeared from the music scene more than twenty years earlier. Crowe quit music cold-turkey in the middle of his Juliet tour and hadn’t been heard of since. But when he releases an acoustic version of that album—Juliet, Naked—it startles his fans into a frenzy and has unexpected consequences for Annie and Duncan.

Nick Hornby is a master of metaphor, and in Juliet, Naked, readers will ooh and ahhh at the way he plays with words. Final thought(s): Juliet, Naked is quirky and funny and smart and—above all—heart-piercingly true.

Check back here for a link to my more emotionally-tempered review of Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked on the About.com Contemporary Literature website.

Photo: Riverhead Books.

One of the best parts about getting outside is the dwelling there. Sure, it’s nice to have a stable shelter over your head. A warm shower every now and then. The four-burner stove and refrigerator and comfy bed in my apartment go a long way. But there’s something to be said for setting up camp, both the short- and long-term kind. It’s fun to cook sizzling bacon on a camp stove (moi, at right, makin’ bacon) and roast marshmallows over an open flame. I’ve been vehicle camping on these last few road trips, and even though this has kept me from venturing too far off of the beaten path, I’ve felt way closer to the rock and dirt of living than I do in my Vail, Colorado studio apartment.

On a recent trip to Indian Creek, Utah I camped with a few others on the road near Hamburger Rock. Each of us had a different camp plan. Jim and Arita had the family camp going on, with two tents and a superstar six-year-old who slept in one of them:

Jay and Mandy camped out of their truck, which has a pop-top camper shell. This thing was very house-like, with a refrigerator and freezer, a two-burner stove (both propane fueled), and a spacious sleeping space:

I just parked my van…

…and bundled up in my sleeping bag on the pull-out bed/seat.

This vehicle was made for camping and has many fun features, including a table that pops out for dinner parties and several storage compartments that help me stay organized on the road.

The social aspects of this type of camping generally center around the campfire. Thankfully, Jay and Mandy brought some wood—and dessert. The sweet treat was a banana, partially unpeeled, with Rolo chocolates stuck in between banana slices. We wrapped them up in aluminum foil and set them on hot coals to melt. And within a few minutes, we had a gooey dessert that rivaled the best S’mores out there.

Dog days. The phrase usually refers to the longest days of the year. Those hot, sticky summer ones when the sun shines on late into the evening. When Sirius—the Dog Star—once rose with the sun. But now, the days are getting shorter, and I find myself still trying to hold on to the summer as long as possible. Don’t get me wrong—I love winter. I live in a ski town, so I get my fair share of the snow. But I’m not ready to shovel myself down the stairs in the morning. Not just yet. My efforts to keep winter at bay have involved making a few recent road trips to Utah, where the sun still burns against the red rock faces and where it’s still possible to go out rock climbing in a tank top.

Of course, climbing sandstone splitters is a joy in itself. That’s me (pictured at right) after leading Gorilla Crack (5.10b). I’m smiling, but this type of climbing is often painful, and I’m still not having super proud leads at Indian Creek (I call out “take” when I get freaked out, and I had to rest on this one several times). The surrounding desert landscape more than makes up for any climbing frustrations, however:

Seriously. This is not staged. We found this skull near our camp at Hamburger Rock, and even though it looks like something from a movie set, this place is for real.

Besides climbers in this area, there are all sorts of outdoor enthusiasts, like this guy here buzzing home to his camp on a dirt bike.

And…at this point, this post is turning into a landscape photo montage. The narrative thread is gone, okay? So, just photo descriptions from now on. Above: painted desert.

And now, above: the road into the Bridger Jack Mesa camping area. Nice and rocky—can’t believe that the van didn’t have any mechanical problems after driving this.

Above: walking my friend Sibylle’s dog in the evening. Long dog-days shadows.

And, finally: Nanda Devi, named after the mountain. I assume she’s smiling here, as I’m sure I was in the desert dry evening air.

“…the reason science matters: it’s the one method we’ve found to test what we believe against the intractability of what is.” –editor Elizabeth Kolbert

Title: The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 // Editor: Elizabeth Kolbert // Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (Mariner Books) // Pub. Date: October 2009 // 352 p.

I’ve never been disappointed by books from the Best American Series. As Houghton Mifflin says, this series is “the original showcase for the year’s finest writing since 1915.” And since these publications were released last month, this is an exciting time of the year for good reading. Although the series includes a number of books (best travel writing, best essays, best short stories, best non-required reading, best recipes?!), I tend to go for its Best American Science and Nature Writing, being the nature buff that I am. In this year’s edition, the topics range from psychology and biology to carbon footprints and electronic waste. Readers will find a lot of hope in these essays about developments in medicine, technology, and science. But, as most of the essays on topics of nature and environment reveal, we need more than hope to solve the global environmental crisis. Ultimately, these essays offer readers the information they need to begin making more informed choices about things such as waste disposal and carbon emissions, for starters. The only hope is in this area is that we start making more of the positive changes now, with this new information fresh on our fingertips. Final word: These writers exude passion for their subjects, and the essays they write will wow readers into a rapt state of reverence for all of the awe and wonder in the natural world.

Click here to read my more in-depth review of The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 on the About.com Contemporary Literature website.

Photo credit: Houghton Mifflin (Mariner Books)

A few days ago, I returned from a four-day/five-night camping and rock climbing adventure in sunny Utah. But as I was unloading my gear back home in Vail, Colorado, it started to snow. The snowstorm ended up being the first big storm of the season here in Colorado, blanketing the hills and finally covering the ski slopes. I can’t say I’m much amused. Yet. In order to prolong my denial that winter’s fast approaching, I’m devoting this post to the sunny skies I just returned from in Utah. To days out climbing in a tank top with the sun on my back. To golden desert sunsets. And lizards, and other creatures who can’t deal with the cold.

After camping for a few days near Hamburger Rock, I moved into a site with a friend at my favorite place, the Bridger Jack Mesa, at Indian Creek. Indian Creek is about an hour southwest of Moab, Utah. It’s a spectacular place for crack climbing, and the Bridger Jack Mesa cuts impressively into the skyline:

The shifting light makes this mesa change forms. In the morning, a beautiful gold light floods the rock, and in the afternoon, the shadows turn blue, then purple, then black:

By the time the rock faces are completely covered in shadow, it’s time to cook dinner and watch the evening sky settle in.

After the lavender skies, all turns an inky blue. And then if you’re lucky, it all goes black with diamonds for stars.

Working for the weekend? You’re not alone. Being a bit more restless than usual, I’ve been plotting weekend getaways like no other. Since my first autumn trip out to Utah’s canyonlands two weekends ago, I’ve been making plans to return. This time, for an extended weekend getaway. So for the next five nights, I’ll be out of cell phone range, out of email range, out of warm shower range. I’ll be camping in one of the places I love most in this world: Indian Creek, Utah. Indian Creek is about 45 minutes by car southwest of Moab. It’s perhaps best known by rock climbers of the trad variety. Canyon after canyon of perfect Wingate Sandstone splitters rise out of the red dirt here. Coyotes howl at night.

Got any exciting getaway plans this weekend (or upcoming)? Leave a comment to inspire us all. And see you back on “Down and Out” next week…

Title: Tree Spiker // Author: Mike Roselle with Josh Mahan // Publisher: St. Martin’s Press // Pub. Date: September 29, 2009 // 272 p.

Mike Roselle teams up with Josh Mahan to write Tree Spiker, the latest in the area of nonfiction enviro-action-adventure (if such a category exists?). This book’s lengthy subtitle—From Earth First! to Lowbagging: My Struggles in Radical Environmental Action—gives a good overview of its contents. Roselle’s tactics as an environmental activist make him loved by some and despised by others. This man has stood his ground in front of charging bulldozers to prevent the logging of old growth forests. He’s been involved in high-profile protests against acid rain and crook timber lords, hanging banners from Mount Rushmore and the Golden Gate Bridge, respectively. And as one might expect, he’s been arrested many, many times. The co-founder of Rainforest Action Network, Earth First!, and the Ruckus Society, Roselle has devoted his life to environmental causes, and this book takes a good look at the trajectory of his (sometimes) dangerous yet purposeful career. Roselle’s been around long enough to see protests turn violent and witness a new breed of eco-terrorists in action. But in Tree Spiker, he explains why he ultimately supports environmental protest that remains rooted in the tradition of nonviolent, civil disobedience. Roselle writes with environmental journalist Josh Mahan to produce this book that will be at home on the shelves of every muckraking, monkey-wrenching nature lover out there, and it will certainly inspire many of its readers to action.

Want more from Roselle and Mahan? Visit them at www.lowbagger.org.

Photo credit: St. Martin’s Press

“…I can foresee myself returning here for season after season, year after year, indefinitely.” –Edward Abbey, in Desert Solitaire

You’re either a re-visitor, or you’re not. Edward Abbey was a re-visitor. He returned to Utah’s deserts season after season to work as a park ranger at Arches National Monument, before it turned into “Arches Natural Money-mint,” as Abbey calls it in his Desert Solitaire polemic on industrial tourism. I’m a re-visitor, too, meaning that every once in a while a place gets stuck in my consciousness, and then I dream of returning to it again, and again, and again. There’s Trof, my favorite diner in Manchester, England. Otto, my favorite pizza joint where I hang out with my sister in New York City. Mount Sanitas, my favorite hike/trail run in Boulder. MBC, my favorite micro brasserie in Chamonix, France. And then, on a much grander scale, there’s Utah’s canyon country.

I first drove through southern Utah in the summer of 2003, when I took a van trip from Colorado to California. At the advice of a friend, I exited off of I-70 onto Utah State Route 128 at Cisco. Cisco to Moab on SR-128 is one of the most spectacular stretches of road I’ve ever traveled, only because it winds through some of the most wowing landscape I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Last weekend, I got the itch for a trip and went out to Moab on a whim. The sunset was just lighting up the red rocks as I rolled past the Fisher Towers. I got out of my car, took a deep breath and thought, yeah: this is the America I happy to return to again and again.

“…the fallen sky can reveal secrets not only of the solar system but of our hearts. That is why this is an intimate history of shooting stars. We go out hunting meteorites, and some of us find ourselves as well.” -Christopher Cokinos, in The Fallen Sky

Title: The Fallen Sky // Author: Christopher Cokinos // Publisher: Tarcher/Penguin // Pub. Date: July 2009 // 528 p.

Christopher Cokinos’s The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars is one of the more intelligent-adventurous-thoroughly researched-and-literary books I’ve read lately. And in the past two months since this book’s publication, it has been getting a lot of (deservedly) good press. The Fallen Sky is more than a book about meteorites. It’s about the passions and desires of those who hunt them, this book’s author included. Cokinos weaves personal and cultural history into his more scientific subject matter, and the result is a book that’s a pleasure to read on many different levels.

I met Cokinos while he was researching in Antarctica for this book. He got to spend his time down there out on an ice shelf, buzzing around on a snowmobile–canvassing for meteorites in the great flat white. In this part of the world where fun is relative, I was probably in McMurdo the entire time shoveling snowdrifts and wishing I were out on an ice shelf searching for meteorites.

To read my NewWest interview with Christopher Cokinos, click here.

Photo credit: Tarcher/Penguin.

Well, here I am back in Vail, Colorado. I’ve nearly unpacked all of the things I stuffed into a storage unit for the summer and am slowly working my way through a mound of mail that accumulated in my absence. When I found a check for $148.00 with a “void after 90 days” stamp on it, I wished I had made an effort to put someone in charge of my mail while I was away, as it’s beyond the 90-day limit on that one. The guy who sublet my apartment kept it in great shape, and the guy I asked to look after The Old Lady kept her running. For those of you who don’t know, The Old Lady is my 1970 Volkswagen van. Mostly, this vehicle gives me fits. But I’m attached and can’t bear to get rid of it. Lately, The Old Lady has been running pretty well, but it has ongoing electrical and fuel system issues. I started it the other day, put on my headlights, threw it in neutral, and hopped out to see if my taillights were working properly. But when I walked around to the rear of the vehicle, I saw gasoline (!) spewing out from somewhere, forming a glossy puddle on the black pavement. I switched her off ASAP and walked over to The Vail Garage to consult Peter, my mechanic. The photos will help illustrate how I ended up getting The Old Lady to the garage:

I haven’t had to get a tow in quite a while, but I decided that it was necessary—with fuel gushing out right near two backfiring tailpipes. The tailpipes were actually smoking while gas was pouring out on the second time I attempted to drive it over to the garage.

I think it would be fun to be a tow truck driver. They probably get to hear lots of good stories, and they get to spend time on the road. Jason, from West Vail Shell, came to my aid here. I sat up front in the cab for the two-minute trip, which reminded me of the other longer journeys I’ve spent in the front seat with a tow truck driver with The Old Lady strapped onto a flatbed behind us. AAA-plus allows up to 100 miles of towing for free, so once when I broke down in the Mojave Desert, I got towed more that 90 miles from Barstow to Riverside, CA.

And then there was the time I got towed in Santa Monica when my clutch cable snapped, and the time I got towed when the electrical system failed on the highway to Pasadena, and the time I got towed in Limon, Colorado after I watched a guy start my air filters on fire with starter spray that ignited…ahhh. It’s good to be home.