rocketjk presents - Now Waddaya Reading? (The sequel!)

Welcome to my 2026 second half CR thread. To re-review: After a long project of investigation and exploration, my wife and I are now two and a half years into our new live in New York City, having moved in mid-August of 2024 from Mendocino County, northern California, USA, to Manhattan. As 2026 dawns, we feel like we've begun the happy project of building community and finding ways to give back through volunteering and some political activity. We are both retired. As for me, my checkered work life included, in no particular order, public radio producer, teacher, freelance writer and used bookstore owner, busman, waiter, dishwasher and publications coordinator at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. My reading is an eclectic mix of fiction, history, memoirs, bios and more. In addition to the books I read straight through, I like to read anthologies, collections and other books of short entries one story/chapter at a time instead of plowing through them all at once. I have a couple of stacks of such books from which I read in this manner between the books I read from cover to cover (novels and histories, mostly). So I call these my "between books." When I finish a "between book," I add it to my yearly list. Last year, with the move behind us, I was able to increase my books read total to 46 from 2024's 41. Cheers and happy continued reading one and all!


Steph and I celebrated our 21st anniversary in late May. As a gift to her (well, to both of us) I bought tickets to a 2-hour sailing ship cruise on the Hudson River from the piers at 22nd Street to the Statue of Liberty. There were about 12 other people on the boat with us, a smallish 2-master. We took this ride on July 1. It was hot in NYC, but much cooler out on the water. Super fun. Here's us.


Obligatory dog photo. Here's Rosie the German shepherd (one quarter husky) in cooler times: this past February in Riverside Park.

Keeping Track of 2026's Who/What/How/Where I Read

I've had fun charting my reading travels the last sixteen years. 2025's reading brought me to 18 countries, including the U.S., and 4 states within the U.S. Although there were, as always, several "U.S. non-state specific" books, and a few "Non-country specific" books on the 2025 list as well.

I don't select my reading to purposefully "travel" in any particular way. Rather, I just have fun seeing where my more random reading choices take me!

Who: Author/Editor
Female: 2
Male: 18

What
Novels: 10
Short Stories: 1
Histories: 1
Contemporary (when published) Events: 1
Biographies: 1
Memoirs: 5
Essays:
Periodicals: 1

How (Original Language)
English: 15
French: 1
Icelandic: 1
Spanish: 1
Japanese: 1
Yiddish: 1

Where
The High Seas
The End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad

Non-Country Specific
Life Magazine November, 7, 1955 edited by Edward K. Thompson

ASIA
Non-Country Specific
Heart of Asia by Nicholas Roerich

Japan
The Heiké Story by Eiji Yoshikawa

EUROPE
Non-Country Specific
Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader by Derek Penslar

England
Spycatcher: the Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer by Peter Wright

France
Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

Iceland
Independent People by Halldór Laxness

Scotland
Chronicles of the Canongate by Sir Walter Scott

MIDDLE EAST
Israel
The Penitent by Isaac B. Singer

NORTH AMERICA
The United States
Non-State Specific
The Story Continued: The New York Times Magazine, January 13, 1974 by J. Anthony Lukas
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez

Alabama
How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South by Esau McCaulley

Connecticut
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Lousiana
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

New York
The Doorman by Chris Pavone
Roy White: From Compton to the Bronx by Roy White with Paul Semendinger
Flood by Andrew H. Vachss

North Carolina
A Fool's Errand by One of the Fools (a.k.a. Albion W. Tourgee)

SOUTH AMERICA
Argentina
No-one Loves a Policeman by Guillermo Orsi

Love the photos! Looks like fun!

>1 rocketjk: You look so happy and it's always fun to see Rosie, the big city dog.

Ok, I just had to come back and ask: did that snowperson have a mastectomy? If so, that's a first.

I love your photos at the top. Happy second-half-of-the-year thread.

>5 labfs39: I think Rosie did it. See how guilty she looks!

(Happy new thread rocketjk!)

>5 labfs39: "did that snowperson have a mastectomy? If so, that's a first."
I think it's supposed to be a snow-sculpture version of a Picasso painting. So who knows what the correct interpretation might be?

>6 BLBera: Thanks!

>7 FlorenceArt: "I think Rosie did it. See how guilty she looks!"
Ha! I don't think Rosie has a "guilty" look. Mostly she has a "butter wouldn't melt in her mouth" look. But I think what we're seeing in that photo is her "How long are you going to make me pose in front of these two Picasso-imitating sculptures?" look.

Hi Jerry! That Hudson River cruise looks fantastic—we've been talking for years about doing one of those, but now I'm wondering if we missed that window of opportunity because my husband isn't great on his feet these days. Was there seating on board? Anyway, great to see you both looking cheerful and relatively cool. Happy anniversary!