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Finished reading: My Darling Detective by Howard Norman 📚 // I have read a decent amount of Howard Norman, and am usually a big fan, but this one didn’t really grab me. I don’t know if it was the odd sort of Canadian Noir style or the characters or what. Enjoyed it but didn’t love it.

Fun run 🏃 on Sunday as part of the ASICS Novoblast Tour in Columbus. Got to demo Superblasts and get a picture at Columbus Commons Christmas tree. Afterwards found out shoes are $200… 😬

Book Review: Into Siberia

Finished reading: Into Siberia by Gregory J. Wallance 📚 // A fascinating account of George Kennan’s travels in Siberia, his lectures afterwards and its impact on American-Russian relations. It is hard to imagine what Kennan went through during his travels and even harder to imagine the suffering of those caught up in the Russian exile system. The scale of suffering and disruption is hard to wrap your mind around. The extremes of weather and geography, and the lack of basic comforts in practically every area of life, meant Kennan pushed himself physically and mentally to the breaking point. But his writing and lectures fundamental changed the way Americans saw Russia.

The book is part Kennan biography, part history of Kennan’s work on the exile system. and part exploration of the exile system and its relationship to American-Russian relations. Sometimes the jumping between these threads slowed the momentum and felt momentarily disjointed but not enough to truly undermine the story. It truly does capture an amazing slice of history and the man at the center of this unique issue.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.

Can really tell how running farther has impacted my leg strength and speed. Ran 5K last night and this morning and both were faster than I ran the Turkey Trot last year. 🏃🦃

I don’t want to put a sign in my yard. I don’t want to wear a ribbon or t-shirt or march in a parade or protest.

“If you don’t really want to “go along, to get along” but you don’t want to argue and fight either, you can feel untethered in some ways. I don’t want to put a sign in my yard. I don’t want to wear a ribbon or t-shirt or march in a parade or protest. But I also am not comfortable with the quite often radical concepts and ideas being treated like mainstream or the only sensible view. The speed in which we move from extreme to everybody thinks this, or should, is dizzying.” - me, almost two and a half years ago but still true