Tag: Early Review

Shooting Up

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Tepper, Jonathan. Shooting Up: a Memoir of Love, Loss, and Addiction. Infinite Books, 2026.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program I often get to read touching stories. This is high on my list.

What is Shooting Up really about? I could say it is an autobiography of Jonathan Tepper’s upbringing and educational rise to Rhodes Scholar. I could say it is a commentary on addiction and the destruction it caused in the early stages of the AIDS epidemic. I could say it is a graceful memoir about grief and all its complicated layers. Shooting Up is all of those things and more.
Jonathan Tepper’s parents exposed their four sons to a variety of situations other parents would consider disturbing. As missionaries in 1980s Spain, Elliot and Mary Tepper focused their work on serving the addicted population. Mature beyond his years, ex-junkies taught their son, Jonathan, the terminology used for buying heroin and how to make crack. As a child Jonathan could recognize the telltale needle tracks and bruises of users. With addiction leading the way, the AIDS epidemic was not far behind, but in addition to overdoses and AIDS, Tepper’s parents saturated their household with literature and music. The entire family was well-read and all four children had big dreams. Literature was a lasting and large part of all of their lives. Being well-read helped Tepper become a Rhodes Scholar, but I am getting ahead of myself. Tepper’s father, Elliot, read St Augustine’s Confessions and Dag Hammarskjold’s Marking to his four boys and wife at dinner time. Homer, T.E. Lawrence, Dante, John Bunyan, Saint Augustine, Virgil, George Muller, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jules Verne…I could go on and on. Tepper astutely says, “a great book had the power to change us and shake us to our core” (p 79). Amen.
My favorite section of Shooting Up was Tepper’s childhood. He captured his innocence perfectly. It is as if his childhood was frozen in time like an insect in amber. As an aside, Tepper had some pretty profound comments to make about grief that I absolutely loved.

Music: So much good stuff mentioned in Shooting Up : Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid, Beach Boy’s “Barbara Ann,” Bix Beiderbecke, Bob Dylan, Branford Marsalis, Charlie “Bird” Parker, Chet Baker, Chuck Berry, Counting Crows, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddy Mercury, Goo Goo Dolls, Iron Maiden, Joan Baez’s “Forever Young,” and “One of Us,” John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong’s “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South,” Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” Mingus’s “Better Get In In Your Soul,” Miles Davis, Mahler, Milli Vanilli, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, “Para mi rey,” Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” Rolling Stones, Stan Getz, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major, Wayne Shorter, and Wynton Marsalis.

Jack Rittenhouse

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Farmer, David R. Jack Rittenhouse: a Western Literary Life. University of New Mexico Press, 2026.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I often get to read interesting books. This is one of those books.

I must preface this review by saying this was one of the best biographies I have read in a long time. I felt like I knew Jack Rittenhouse intimately by the time I was finished. An excellent if dense (said under breath), read!
Jack Rittenhouse’s childhood molded his fascination with books at an early age. He worked in a library as a teenager and helped print materials for the Boy Scouts. He wrote poems, plays, and essays in his spare time. As an adult he became a bookseller, started a private press and owned over 9,000 books. He seemed destined to always be surrounded by the written word. When he started to write his own books he concentrated on writing books on topics that fascinated him on a personal level. His first foray into authorship was a guidebook for the old Route 66. As a devotee to the desert, he romanticized the original 5,000 mile journey from Chicago to Los Angeles. His second was a niche subject about American horse-drawn vehicles. Always exemplary with his work ethic, Rittenhouse went on to display indefatigable ambition and a passion for researching a variety of topics. I found his commitment to attending meetings of the Western Historical Association impressive. For twenty-eight years he didn’t miss a one. There is so much more to Mr. Rittenhouse that you will just have to read for yourself.

As an aside, what happened to New York City’s book row? I have never heard of it.

Author fact: Farmer was once the library director for Southern Methodist University.

Book trivia: Jack Rittenhouse is the first ever biography of Rittenhouse.

How to Master the Power of Silence

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Saly, M.D. How To Master the Power of Silence. 2026.

Reason read: I received this book by mistake. As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I often request ten to twelve books at a time. I cannot always remember which books I requested so when How to Master the Power of Silence showed up I assumed I had requested it. Nope. I didn’t realize my mistake until the real MD Saly book showed up.

Confessional: because this book was received in error I stopped reading it. In truth, I was relieved to not have to finish it. There was a great deal of redundancy in such a short book. In fifty pages, this is what I learned about silence.
Here are the things silence can do: give you perspective, give you room to think, encourages others to reflect, teaches you, makes you notice noise, gives you space, changes the way you communicate, protects emotional energy, acts like a filter, gives you more authority, creates space, starts reshaping who you are, creates respect, strengthens emotional relationships, improves self awareness, opens the door for you to understand yourself, helps you chose words, reshapes the room, serves as a tool to detect dishonesty, freeze chaos, make you smarter, make you calm, make you disciplined, gives your mind space, slows the moment, regulate behavior, prevent emotions form taking over, create space, refine perception, train you to observe, build confidence, brings a sense of self control, prevents misunderstanding, keeps situations from escalating, train your inner compass, interrupt the cycle, transform dynamics, and reshapes the room without aggression.
Here are the things silence is: a subtle authority, an advantage of emotional control, self control, stabilizing, an anchor, a physiological reset, a protective barrier, a filter, a doorway to clarity, space, about endurance, productive, fertile ground, strategic in social settings, a secret weapon, a tool (mentioned twice), a powerful tool, power (mentioned twice), powerful, active, hilarious, effective.
Here are the things silence is not: boring (mentioned twice), passive (mentioned three times), emptiness (mentioned twice), coldness, a sign of confusion, weakness, detachment.
Here are the things silence does not do: announce itself, argue, make you distant.
Everything in this book seemed to be common sense.

In His Absence

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Wiley-Smith, Christopher. In His Absence: A Brother, A Life, and What Endures. 2026.

Reason read: As a member of LibraryThing since 2006 I occasionally get to review amazing books for their Early Review Program. This is definitely one such book.

Christopher starts In His Absence by explaining the why of his story. Not only as a way to express grief, but a way to keep his brother Alex, alive in his memories. By sharing Alex’s biography Christopher’s brother is still with him and by default, all of us…even as strangers.
From an early age, Alex had a deep sense of mistrust. Maybe it started with the neighbor who passed away when the brothers were really young. Or maybe it was the father with anger issues which could flare up at any time and often without warning. It seems probable that their parents contentious and sometimes violent divorce had a hand in Alex’s troubled childhood; the dissolvement of the relationship was threatening enough to involve a restraining order. Maybe the drama was one of the reasons Alex resorted to physical violence that went beyond the typical dust-up between brothers; smashing rotary phones into his brother’s face or spraying him with mace. No matter the origin of Alex’s troubles, they only increased as he got older.
Even as Alex moved into adulthood and was making a name for himself in the tech industry his demons relentlessly stalked him. It just goes to show you how someone could have an outward appearance of success but actually be failing on the inside. Thoughts of suicide whispered until they became a scream of reality. This is a well-written but heartbreaking story.

As an aside, Wiley-Smith tells the story of a neighbor who passed away. Later in the story Wiley-Smith’s mother takes in another elderly neighbor who ends up dying in their home. Are these one and the same women? Another headscratcher was the trial about this selfsame neighbor. Wiley-Smith testified to the woman’s last will and testament but I missed the outcome somehow.

Book trivia: I was pleasantly surprised by the plethora of photographs barely ten pages into In His Absence. An added bonus is that a great deal of the photos are in color. I am not sure why, but I took the number of photographs as a sign that Wiley-Smith had nothing to hide.
There is a little repetition with a paragraph on page 144. The same paragraph is printed twice. Same for pages 220 and 242.

Music: “Happy Birthday,” MC Hammer, “Be Careful Little Eyes,” Paula Abdul, “Jesus Loves Me,” “This Little Light Of Mine,” “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Motley Crue’s “Doctor Feelgood,” Lady Gaga, Usher, Tupac Shakur, Cold, Korn,

Confessional: Wiley-Smith remembers the sting of losing an X-Wing fighter to another kid. When I was of a similar age I picked the wrong hand holding a rope bracelet. To this day, not winning the bracelet stings.

Deeper confessional: I think I could talk grief with Wiley-Smith. I share the same philosophy that remembrance is an act of devotion. I adore someone two years departed. I never do this. they say there is a first time for everything. This is my remembrance of Nash:
This is How I Remember
If I order your favorite food it is because I want to have another meal with you.
I will always remember how you take your coffee.
If I wear your cast-off clothes it is because I want another hug.
I will always remember being in the warmth of your rib-cracking arms.
If I want to spend time with your family it is because I want to see the resemblance.
Will I catch a glimpse of you?
I will always remember your smile.
If I listened to your music it is because I might hear you sing.
I will always remember the laughter in the lyrics.
If I talk about you it is my ways of keeping your memory alive.
If I talk about you I hope the listener will let me go on and on and on.
This is how I remember you.
And remember you, I will. Always.

Deep Work for Distracted People

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Saly, M.D. Deep Work for Distracted People: Simple Methods to Stay Focused, Think Clearly and Finish What Matters. 2026.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing here is the correct book I was supposed to receive from M.D. Saly.

Cal Newport, Adam Grant, J.K. Rowling, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, reporters, engineers… They all devised ways to stay focused in times of heavy or concentrated work. Cal Newport is quoted the most as he wrote an entire book on the subject. Saly’s version, Deep Work for Distracted People: Simple Methods to Stay Focused, Think Clearly and Finish What Matters is much shorter with common sense tips for success. I found the suggestions about noise-canceling headphones and smart phone settings to be the most helpful (until I missed an important call from a not-so important number). A question though – if you are supposed to break up with your device, why encourage more apps to download? For the truly addicted this seems like a trap.
My favorite part of Deep Work for Distracted People was the information at the end of every chapter. Saly supplied a summary, the lesson learned, and specific takeaways relating to the chapter. It was a great way to sum up the extensive information covered in the previous chapter.
As an aside, I was inadvertently sent a different early review from Saly and I found Deep Work for Distracted People to be far more informative and less repetitive with subject matter. In fact, I enjoyed Saly’s writing in Depp Work for Distracted People. I was reminded of a runner I follow on Instagram who talks the same way Saly writes. I didn’t mind the analogies because I think in analogy all the time. I especially liked the comment about turning a noisy street into a quiet library.

Breaking the Barnyard Barrier

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Rhodes, Linda. Breaking the Barnyard Barrier: A Woman Veterinarian Paves the Way. University of Nevada Press, 2026.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to real really interesting books. This is one of those books.

The year is 1975 Mormon Utah and six months after graduation Linda Rhodes is surrounded by a bunch of worried men and a very pregnant cow trying to give birth to a breeched 150 pound bull calf. The men in the room are not used to a woman taking charge of what is normally their world and, despite it being the middle of the night, their discomfort is palpable. I cannot imagine the pressure Rhodes must have been feeling. Her student loans were coming due and this internship was her one shot to prove she could be a capable large animal veterinarian. This is how readers are introduced to Linda and her memoir, Breaking the Barnyard Barrier.
Throughout Linda’s fight to become a large animal veterinarian she had to endure sexist comments about sewing being a “girl thing” and being called a little lady or dear. The university where she interned did not have a changing room for women. And speaking of clothes, Rhodes had to dress feminine for her interview despite the position being a farm job.
At the same time as trying to prove herself in a man’s world, Linda juggled a long-distance marriage and ailing parents. Her support system was across the country and could do very little to help.
The unexpected bonus of reading Breaking the Barnyard Barrier was learning more about Utah (the roads are numbered in relationship to how far away the towns are from the Temple) and Mormons (they do not drink coffee or have anything to do with the beverage. You can be disowned for drinking coffee!). I also appreciated the black and white photographs. Utah is beautiful.
I truly enjoyed Breaking the Barnyard Barrier and I hope Rhodes writes again. I’m sure there are plenty more stories she could tell.
As an aside, is it standard to ask a new veterinarian to put a nose ring on a bull? Linda is tested with such a task and if I remember correctly, so was James Harriet in All Creatures Great and Small.

This has got to be one of the coolest playlists yet: Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty,” Joan Baez, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Doc Watson, Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Oh Death,” the Grateful Dead, “Home On the Range,” Joni Mitchell, Dave Brubeck, “Ukulele Lady,” “Somebody Stole My Gal,” Jim Kweskin, and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Surviving the Wild

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Kimberly Anne. Surviving the Wild: an Untamed Woman Opens Her Cage. Awaken Village Press, 2026.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I sometimes get to review fun books. this is one such book.

Kimberly Anne wants her memoir to come with instruction. My takeaways were to not be afraid to take chances, find ways to travel the world, and if you do, bring nice underwear. Kimberly begins her story twelve years earlier on a farm in Wisconsin, divorcing her husband of fifteen years. On impulse she and a girlfriend travel to Belize for a little getaway. Unexpectedly, she meets a beautiful and sexy stranger. On impulse she returns to Belize to live with him. Thus begins Kimberly’s love affair with the Caribbean, if not the man. After Belize came Costa Rica, Panama, and Puerto Rico. And more men.
In truth I would have liked to have gotten to know Kimberly Anne a little better as a traveler instead of Kimberly the horn dog with a libido the size of Alaska. Towards the end of Surviving the Wild Kimberly turns a little didactic about her personal and spiritual growth, but I still didn’t get the sense of who she was before or after her personal transformation. I know way more about her underwear situation than was necessary. She called herself “wild” and “feral” but what exactly did she mean by that? In my mind, feral is living off the land without a single modern convenience. No running water. No cooked meals. No comfy roof overhead. No dependence on anyone or anything.
One cannot help but make comparisons to Elizabeth Gilbert, intentionally or not.

As an aside, when Kimberly talked about a “tiny island” with less than 1,000 residents I thought to myself she should try an island with less than 60 people. You want to talk about knowing everybody and their business!
As another aside, Kimberly reminds me of Kathleen Edwards. Someone once told her she had the face of angel and the mouth of a sailor. I cannot confirm the angel part as there are no photographs or full names in Surviving the Wild but I can confirm the sailor bit.

Confessional: I just spent eight weeks training for a run. My trainer filmed her sessions in Costa Rica and talked about the pura vida spirit of the island. I was surprised Kimberly Anne didn’t mention this during her time on the island.

Playlist: Burna Boy, Snoop Dogg, Romeo Santos, and Taylor Swift.

Soul Food

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Caldo, Enzio. Soul Food: Simple Lessons Served Warm: Kitchen Stories and Life Lessons from Chef Enzio Caldo’s Table. Lucent Trail Press, 2026.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to review cool books. This is one such book.

While there are no recipes in Soul Food, Chef Caldo draws comparisons between cooking and navigating life. It is a really cute, whimsical book. Starters such as bruschetta and garlic bread; Comfort foods like soups and stews; mornings of pancakes and eggs; dinners, desserts, and left overs: they all become the vehicles for simple life lessons. This is the kind of little book I would give to a casual friend or acquaintance as a holiday gift. Less than 122 pages with a great deal of blank space, it is perfect for someone who wants a little pick-me-up; someone who reads their horoscope daily and looks for answers in tea leaves.

Calisthenics for Beginners

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Pure Calisthenics. Calisthenics for Beginners. 2026

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I am privileged to review interesting books.

Calisthenics for Beginners, although a mere 186 pages long, includes appropriate quotations from influential people, cool illustrations of the targeted areas of the body to be worked, and photographs of each exercise in action. Because the word ‘calisthenics’ has fallen out of fashion I appreciated the definition. While you won’t need weights or machines, you will need some equipment usually found at the gym or in some parks:
1) Long bar
2) Pullup bar
3) Parallel bars or a dip station
4) Jump box
5) a wall
You will be introduced to a variation of pushups, muscle-ups, chin-ups and pullups along with variations of pushups and other exercises which do not need equipment such as squats, bridges, and lunges.
As an aside, I did a doubletake on the section on handstands.
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to start a fitness program. It is easy to follow and the exercises are straightforward.

Composting Simplified for Beginners

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Weimer, Anissa. Composting Simplified for Beginners: A Complete Guide to Fix Common Compost Pitfalls, Create Fertile Soil and Enjoy a Lush Productive Garden. W4 Publishing LLC, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I often get to read interesting books. This is one such book.
Why I Requested This Book: I have a very modest raised garden and a few containers where I grow tons of herbs, tomatoes, jalapenos, and the occasional tomatillo. I would like to expand the annual bounty.

This book is true to it’s title. Simple and to the point. Despite its beginner language and content I did learn a few things. For example, never heard of Bokashi composting before. I also never considered composting to have its own mythology, but I am glad Weimer separated fact from fiction. Additionally, I appreciated Weimer mentioning browns and greens and making sure there is an even balance of the two, but she mentions this a lot. There is a little repetition to Composting Simplified for Beginners. Weimer mentions landfill methane gas more than once and don’t get me started on how many times odors or smells were covered. She spends a lot of time addressing the potential smelliness of composting.
The most useful section (for me) was the pest prevention information. I currently deal with woodchucks, squirrels, racoons, chipmunks, rabbits, coyotes, deer, bears, voles, mice, foxes, stray dogs and cats, snakes, skunks, opossums, and even a mountain lion has been in my yard once. Knowing how to keep these critters away from my composting is critical.
The second section most useful to me was the 30 Day Checklist. Knowing when and how to start being spelled out makes the process less daunting. Watching for the different colors of mold was also helpful information.
Less helpful was all the information about involving family members. What if the reader is a single male with no children or even roommates? Least helpful were the testimonials by fellow composters. They seem to reiterate the information already given. Despite the book only being 160 pages long, I skipped these sections.

As an aside, I wasn’t sure of the purpose of the QR code to scan for the supply guide. If the information is included in the book, why do I need to download the information as well? The list of supplies looks pretty straightforward and logical: outdoor bin, indoor bin, pitchfork, thermometer, and tarp.

Author fact: Kasey Bayr’s name is on the cover while in the copyright Anissa Weimer “has the moral right to be identified as the author.”

Book trivia: there are some great photographs and illustrations to emphasize the information.

Stray

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O’Brien, Shannon. Stray. Roam Light Publishing, 2025.

Reason: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read fun books. This is one such book.

When her ex-boyfriend John committed suicide in 2006, his sudden death prompted Shannon O’Brien to live her life a little differently: she became more fully aware of life passing her by. She decided to see the world with eyes wide open and a promise to be ready for anything. For more than fifteen years she has been doing exactly that. As a Lonely Planet enthusiast she planned to to spend six months in South America, traveling through Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia.
Shannon kicks off Stray with her best friend and a tour of La Paz’s famous prison (and tourist attraction) where the prisoners give tours and rule the prison. In Bolivia the pair volunteer for Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi – a nonprofit deep in the jungle which cares for exotic animals of all kinds. Fun fact: O’Brien was in charge of feeding twenty spider monkeys. Next, she and a new travel companion named Noah get lost hiking in a canyon without food or water. They celebrate their survival with a trip to Argentina to rent bicycles and drink Malbec and fernet con cocoa before moving on to the Australian Outback for a year. After Noah came teaching in Nepal and experiencing the Teej festival. After meeting Xander, it’s to India in time for the Diwali festival. Her experiences in Thailand are harrowing. Then she meets Blake in Cambodia. They travel to Thailand before partying and paying for it in Portugal. Where she ended up is anyone’s guess. The story ends there.
What I appreciated most was that throughout Stray Shannon displays a deep knowledge about the cultures and histories of each region she visits. While it took me a very long to finish Stray is/was enjoyable.

As an aside, some of Shannon’s details didn’t make sense to me. For example, it seemed as if she and her family (father and sister) were staying in a little town two hours south of Bangkok. When her sister and father had a tragic swimming accident Shannon traveled between Hua Hin and a Bangkok hospital to see them. Does that mean she spent four hours a day going back and forth between the two Thai towns?

Music: The Doors, The Who, U2, Dark Angels, Los Blinkers, Fleetwood Mac, Arctic Monkeys, Backstreet Boys, “Sexual Healing,” and Keith Richards.

Wrong Kind of Son

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Peace, Jeff. The Wrong Kind of Son: Salty Driftwood Publishing, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I get to read heartwarming books. This is one such book.

Jeff Peace wanted nothing more than to purge the past to “[name] what it felt like.” It took real courage for him to lay it all out in the pages of Wrong Kind of Son. What started as a letter to his father turned into a book about surviving abuse. [Confessional: I also wrote a letter that turned into a publication. I only wanted my parents to understand where I was coming from without having the necessary confrontation.] Wrong Kind of Son opens with Peace wanting to connect with his father during the holidays. I say wanting because there is a sense of family obligation that cannot be ignored no matter how one tries. Father and son live thirty minutes from each other but hadn’t seen each other in a year. The connection goes badly as it always does. That is the pattern. Throughout Wrong Kind of Son Peace illustrates the anatomy of neglect without being overly dramatic or playing the martyr. There is a difference between stating simple fact and hurling blame. Peace sticks to the former. By the end of Wrong Kind of Son Peace finds the strength to break the patterns of abuse. Through other avenues of love he is able to forge a new path. His courage is astounding.

As an aside, this is my third early review book about a narcissistic parent. By reading the stories of backhanded compliments, off-color jokes, and empty promises my own story has become clearer.

Author fact: Peace is a thoughtful author. He has a disclaimer about the abuse depicted in Wrong Kind of Son, urging his readers to take care.

Book trivia: there were so many brilliant lines I wanted to quote. Intelligence without empathy is a good one. Hope being a habit is another.

Music: Nickelback

Reinvention Playbook

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Wozniak, Bruno. The Reinvention Playbook: Self Published, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program from LibraryThing every once in awhile I get to read interesting books.

In a nutshell, The Reinvention Playbook is about navigating the loss of a job and all that that end entails. It is about rebuilding a new identity outside of what the job made you. Is it possible to find meaningful employment and emotional connection after ending a self-defining career? Wozniak urges his readers to try, try, try. It is all about moving forward, one baby step at a time. At times I found the advice to be a little repetitious with emotional signatures: disorientation, low energy, aligned with the adverse of curiosity and confidence.
I appreciated his phrase “identity earthquake” for when a job ends, it truly is a restructuring of everything you knew about yourself. Think about it. You spend a solid eight hours a day as one entity. That is a good chunk of time. Routines are established; a rhythm solidified. You need to reconcile the inside voice with the outside noise. Do not let the fear of urgency create chaos before you have had a chance to heal. You have to let go of who you were before you lost the job and take note of what remains after the work is gone. The diagnostics are sometimes hard to decipher if you do not know how to read the emotional cues or cannot resist the urge to stay busy. Wozniak’s book enables you to navigate those efforts to rebuild.

Author fact: I instantly connected with Wozniak’s example of running. Without the analytics to “prove” the effort, is it worth it? Can you go for a run without tracking pace, distance, heart rate, route?

Book trivia: The Reinvention Playbook is best read after losing employment as a tool for grounding yourself in reality, but what happens if you read the book with one eye on the approaching cliff you just know you are going to fall from? Would you read the book differently if you were secure in your employment or foresaw no immediate danger?

Something Else

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Simko, Lukas. Something Else: Words that Remember, Stories that Awaken. Independent Publicist, 2025.

Reason read: as part of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read books that sometimes move me. This is one of those books.

The fastest review I could write about Something Else is to say it is a memoir about an individual wanting to find true love. Lukas Simko’s story begins when he is a thirty-two year old graduate looking for work. He meets a girl who over time showed all the classic signs of an abuser. She was controlling and manipulative and I found myself wishing he would have seen the signs earlier. Right away I felt Simko is someone who has the potential to fall hard and fast for a romantic relationship. He believes in taking chances and embracing adventure wherever it may take him.
Then there was Macy. She was clear she did not an emotional relationship, but Lukas started to like her more and more “without permission.” Interesting choice of words. This time around Simko noticed the signs of a relationship dying as Macy started to distance herself from him.
Next came Jaya. Lukas felt an instant connection with her for they had a great deal in common and almost seemed to be soul mates. She even took him in as a roommate without really knowing him. Once again Lukas became involved with a woman who did not want to be tied down with anything emotional. To say Jaya was complicated is an understatement. She often sent mixed signals and seemed to be confused about what she really wanted from Simko. One minute she was communicating as if she cared deeply; the next she felt it necessary to block Simko on social media (twice).
In the end, Simko emerged a stronger person. He was able to see the beauty in each failed relationship. As an aside, I think of it as the particle theory. You get what you need from each relationship whether that relationship withstands the test of time or not.

Confessional: I did not understand Ireland’s employment situation. Lukas requested three weeks off under the guise of taking care of a grandmother. Instead, he was rewarded with 3 1/2 months off, but the kicker was he had to go on leave when they told him to. I thought he was working in a remote IT position.
A more personal confessional: Simko went four months without talking to Jaya. Try five years! That’s how long I went without speaking to someone who meant the world to me.

As an aside, I learned a new word, “craic.”

Music: “Misty Mountains” by Leyna Robinson-Stone.

Breakdown, Recovery and the Outdoors

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Bremicker, Christopher G. Breakdown, Recovery and the Outdoors. Running Wild Press, 2025.

Christopher Bremicker tells a believable story about Mike Reynolds, a Vietnam veteran struggling with schizo-affective disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder in equal measure. [As an aside, I met a veteran who refused to call PSTD a “disorder.” He said he was living with posttraumatic stress. Period. It was not a disorder. I have never forgotten his plea for normalcy.] Mike Reynold’s days are filled with self-medicating with alcohol and the outdoors. Alcohol numbed his feelings while homelessness staved off his claustrophobia. Hunting and fishing kept his demons at bay and his days normal. The emotions Mike experienced are so raw and believable that I was grateful for Bremicker’s disclaimer that he did not serve in Vietnam although I suspect there are elements of autobiography in Breakdown to make it so realistic: the relapse after five years of sobriety, for example. In Bremicker’s acknowledgements he mentions alcoholism and mental illness.
Short chapters move Mike’s story along at a fast pace even though it is a relatively simple story: hunting, recovery, relationships. You find yourself rooting for Mike, even if you don’t know him very well.
I noticed Breakdown was a little repetitious here and there (he mentions being proud to be a veteran but hated his appearance a few times).
Only annoyance: Andy, Alan, Anne, Bill Gillette, Bunk Knudson, Cinder, Corky Fowler, Dave, Dick “Smithy” Smith, Dick Anderson, Emma, Grace, Gunderson, Geiger, Gary Nicholson, Hagman, Jake, Jason, Jack, Jim, Jonas, Joanne, Jeff Huchinson, Lewis, Lou Johnson, Lucas, Muhammed, Myron Nelson, Nancy, Penny, Powers, Rob, Ryan, Sam, Santiago, Sheila, Steve, Sasha, Teller, Tim, Vicky, Weaver, Wetzel, Whitman, Willy, and Wade. Did I really need to know all these names? It was like a science fiction novel with a bunch of characters who mean nothing to the plot. Yet, at the same time who knew Mike had a brother named Tim? He didn’t factor into Mike’s recovery at all.

Author fact: the very first words of Breakdown, Recovery and the Outdoors are “I did not serve in Vietnam” (unpaged).

Book trivia: Loose pages make for difficult reading. They kept falling out so I ended up throwing them away after I read them.

Natalie connection: every time Mike or Vicky had a drink I thought of the 10,000 Maniacs song, “Don’t Talk,” a song about being in a relationship with an alcoholic.