"A Million Steps" by Kurt Koontz (2014)

In 1995 I spent a semester in León, Spain.  It was there that I first learned of the Camino de Santiago because one of the major stops is on the Camino is in León.  The Camino is a pilgrimage across Spain that thousands of people walk or bike each year.  The most popular route starts just across the Pyrenees from Pamplona, Spain and runs for almost 500 miles to Santiago de Compostela in the Galicia region of Spain, north of Portugal.  I don't have a bucket list, but if I did this pilgrimage would be on it.

The author of this book was a successful businessman from Idaho who was able to retire at the age of 36.  In 2012, in his late 40's, he walked the Camino in 28 days.  This book documents that journey.  

I really enjoyed this book.  It is a very quick read and has short chapters that made it easy to pick up and put down whenever I had a few minutes to read.  I was taken by the personal insights he gained on the Camino and the ways he was able to think about how to put those insights into action in his life after the Camino.  I enjoyed reading about the people from all around the world that he encountered while on the journey, and how they popped in and out of his life along the way.  I don't think anyone can read this book and not come away wanting to do the Camino him/herself. 

I have always had the Camino in the back of my mind, but it is now something I think I might need to find a way to do.  I don't know that I would do the entire 500 miles; but I think I will more seriously consider now doing at least part of it.  It seems like a life-changing journey.

"Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court" by Sandra Day O'Connor (Random House 2013)

In March of 2014, I went to visit my parents at their winter home in Arizona.  One of my main objectives while I was there was to go to the Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona.  I am a big fan of book festivals and this was my second time at this particular festival.  I am a US Supreme Court junkie and wanted to see a talk by retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.  We were really lucky we got in as the line was already long by the time we got there and I think I and my parrents were literally the last people they let in.  My dad didn't even get a seat. Her talk was primarily about her work as an advocate for civics education in schools.  It was interesting, although I was hoping to hear more about her experiences on the Court.

At the festival, there is a tent where you can buy books by the authors presenting there.  That is where I picked up this book.  It was a quick read and generally enjoyable, but I think it is targeted towards people who are largely unfamiliar with the Supreme Court and its history.  I didn't really come away having learned anything new, aside from the fact that there is a basketball court above the courtroom.  That I didn't know.

I also wasn't thrilled with the style of writing, which again I think is because of its target audience.  The language is a bit too informal for my liking for this kind of topic.  For example, I tend to not like the use of exclamation points in nonfiction work as a way of emphasizing a point.  There were a lot of exclamation points in this book! (irony intended).  Also, there was a lot of repetition of facts from chapter to chapter which was distracting for me but probably a good reenforcement technique for readers new to the topic.  Law can be a bit dry and this book isn't at all dry.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book.  It certainly wasn't a waste of time because it only took me a few days to get through and I always like to hear about "behind the scenes" aspects of the Court from the point of view of a Justice.  I would definitely recommend this book for those less familiar with the Court and I will add it to my list of recommended reading for my paralegal students who are interested in this topic.

"The Man Who Ate The World: In Search of the Perfect Dinner" by Jay Rayner (2008)

You may have seen Jay Rayner as one of the judges on "Top Chef Masters" on Bravo.  He is a restaurant critic from London who has been published in several newspapers and food magazines.  Appropriately, this is the book I have been reading during my lunch break.  It is a memoir of Rayner's year-long global search for "the perfect meal."  He visits cities all over the world (New York, Moscow, Tokyo, Dubai and Paris, among others) and documents what he eats a long the way.  Some of the meals are extraordinarily good, while others are just the opposite.  Regardless, they are always very expensive. 

To be honest, many of the foods he ate sounded pretty unappetizing to me; others I had never heard of before.  Of course, I have never eaten in a Micheline star-rated restaurant, which most of the places Rayner visited were.  I'm sure I never will eat in any of those places.  None of that matters, because Rayner knows how to talk about food -- that much is certain.  You are almost able to see, smell and taste what he is eating through his descriptions of the food.  You get a real sense of the ambience of each restaurant -- some of them pretentious and some holes in the wall.  This book is a great read for the foodie in all of us.

That said, let me tell you about two of my favorite restaurant meals of all time.  The first was at Tre Scalini in Rome in 1994.  The restaurant is located on the Piazza Navona, and we ate in the outdoor area right on the piazza.  To be honest, 16 years later I don't remember a lot of the details.  But there are three things I do remember.  One was the steak.  It was fantastic.  In fact, after eating that steak I didn't feel like eating steak again knowing any other steak would pale in comparison.  Eventually, I lost my taste for steak altogether and almost never eat it now.  The second thing I remember was the dessert -- their well-known tartufo, a chocolate ice cream dessert.  The third thing was our waiter, Rafaele.  He took the time to translate for us and helped us out a lot with what to order. This was not a cheap meal, but it was worth it.  Well, actually, I didn't pay -- my parents did -- so maybe you'd have to ask them if it was worth it.

My second greatest restaurant meal was at the Bodega Castaneda in Granada, Spain in 2003.  This was a very small place with a few tables inside and a few more outside.  You had to get there really early to get a table.  I ate there twice while in Granada.  Both were good experiences, but one stands out as even though it was very simple:  the albondigas (meatballs).  These were the best albondigas I'd ever eaten.  I think I commented on every bite I took, as if it was a surprise that each bite was as good as the last.   It's not expensive, so definitely check it out if you are ever in Granada.

And so ends my attempt at being a food critic.  I think I'll leave that to Jay Rayner from now on.

My review:  3.5 stars out of 5

Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life -- Clay Aiken (2004)

I can't claim to have actually read this book, in the traditional sense. To say that I skimmed it isn't even really accurate. I really bought the book more to support Clay Aiken's career than out of any actual interest in reading it. So what I actually did is read a couple of words on each page and stop where I saw something that interested me.

There's not as much inside information about his experience on American Idol as I would have liked. That was the thing in which I was most interested. Rather, a good deal of the book talks about two things. First, how he was picked on as a kid because he was a big dork. He beings one chapter, "When I was young, I was teased by other kids like it was their job." Second, how he got involved with special needs children.

It was interesting to read about his tranformation into being able to accept himself and how where he has been directly influenced where he is today. For example, it was the mother of one autistic kid he worked with who encouraged him to audition for American Idol. Now, he and that mother run a foundation that supports special needs children. Furthermore, the fact that Clay is still a big dork is hardly a secret, but where that might have been a destriment to the teenaged Clay, I think it's part of his attraction now.

This book is really only for the most fanatic of Clay Aiken fans. I'm a pretty big fan -- I've seen him in concert twice and have bought pretty much everything there is to buy that he's produced -- but the book was a bit too fluffy, even for me.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5.

Anne