Holidays on Ice

Author: David Sedaris
Copyright: 1997
Publisher: Little Brown

Started: 12/25/08
Completed: 12/29/08

Karen gave me this book for Christmas. It’s a collection of short stories, anchored by the famous tales of Sedaris’ work as a santa’s elf at Macy’s in New York City. I first heard these tales when Sedaris’ was a guest commentator on NPR and I’ve been a fan ever since. The story is a new classic and Sedaris is a very funny fellow.

Our Iceberg is Melting

Author: John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber
Copyright: 2005
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Started: 9/26/08
Completed: 9/27/08

This was a gift from my friend Cy Smith, the GIS Coordinator in Oregon, at the end of his term as President of NSGIC. He gave a copy to each of us who served on the Board of Directors during his term. Its subtitle is “Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions.”

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Author: David Sedaris
Copyright: 2008
Publisher:Little, Brown and Company

Started: 6/23/08
Completed: 6/29/08

It’s David Sedaris! This was a Father’s Day gift from The Lovely Karen. She knows I am a Sedaris fan and was kind enough to present this volume to me on Father’s Day. A few of these essays have appeared in The New Yorker, but I find them just as enjoyable on a second reading.

Cochrane, The Real Master and Commander

Author: David Cordingly
Copyright: 2007
Publisher: Bloomsbury

Started: 2/2/08
Completed: 2/10/08

I am a great fan of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, which follows the career of a fictional British Naval Captain during the Napoleanic wars. That Captain, Jack Aubrey, was based on the real British Naval hero Thomas Cochrane. As was Horatio Hornblower, lead character in a series of novels that captured my imagination as a youngster.

In this book, Mr. Cordingly offers a biography of Cochrane that helped fill-in details and historic fact about Lord Cochrane. It was not as engrossing a story as the individual novels offered, but that is often the difference between real life and fiction.