If you're wondering what I've been up to (and even if you aren't), all kinds of things.
• Finished two more books:
- Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian, which David had lent me. It's 700 pages of history and librarians and Vlad Dracul and his followers. I enjoyed it very very much - I've noticed I really like stories with intertwining narratives. Kostova does that very well, with the story about a girl trying to find her father, the story of the father trying to find his mentor, and the story of the mentor, and all three of them trying to find and stop Dracula.
- Don Winslow's The Power of the Dog talks of bloodsucking fiends of another kind - it's about the American war on drugs, and the drug trade in Mexico. It also intertwines stories, and I found myself thinking this was like reading the movie Traffic. Planning to read more books from this author.
• Went out for drinks and dinner with several coworkers at Santana Row last week. We started off at Cielo, the beautiful rooftop terrace on the Hotel Valencia. It was surprisingly uncrowded - I guess everybody was out of town for Memorial Day weekend.
• Watched a fifty-one year old movie, Oklahoma!, at the California Theatre downtown San Jose, a special event organized by the Stanford Theatre. The usherettes said there would be more events like this. Looking forward to it ... it was lovely, even though the film blackened and petered out once right after the intermission.
• Watched The Da Vinci Code last night. Yeah, that was alright if you didn't look at the glaring implausibilities too closely. Kinda silly, but it was worth the five bucks so I can talk about it now.
• Much more enjoyable was going to fifty-one year old book store Kepler's Wednesday night to see Hank's friend Barry Eisler launch the tour for his latest John Rain novel, The Last Assassin, the fifth in the series. If you like thrillers, and are anywhere near one of his tour stops, do go! I already said last year how great his appearances are.
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