Yum & Yuk

This past weekend I ran my first 10K in about two months. It was a trail race, so there was a fair amount of walking uphill (I'm keeping it real with you), but for the most part my knee and ankle were pain-free and I was thrilled to be running again. Yay!

This coming weekend is the Ride Through Paradise, a 100 mile bike ride to raise money for CASA. Have I been training the way I planned? Heck no. Am I gonna give it a shot anyways? Yep. I know, I'm a little crazy. But it's supposed to be a pretty flat course, and my mom is willing to drive me out there and cheer me on so...here goes nothing!

Image: source.

I finished two books this weekend: the first, State of Wonder (Ann Patchett) was an interesting ride. I didn't really emotionally connect with the characters, and felt a little "eh" about it while reading, but couldn't seem to give it up. AND by the end, I found myself emotionally affected by one of the plot twists. I'd say it definitely ended up being a good read, even if I never connected with the protagonist and think the book had some flaws.

The second book was Faceless Killers (Henning Mankell), the first in the Wallander series about an brooding Swedish detective. I don't know if it was the translation or just Mankell's writing, but some of the writing felt almost laughably clunky to me. Also, the character of Wallander felt too familiar - another unhealthy male detective with strained family relationships, a distant daughter, and yet a seemingly constant supply of women who want to sleep with him. Snooze. You know what would be facinating? An exploration of whether there can be a detective who is gritty and dedicated to his job, and also manages to be semi-emotionally healthy. I'd like to read that. That said, I will probably be back for more Wallander, since I always sort of need to have a mystery series going....