Kevin Voted Today (By Mail) - June 2, 2026 California Primary

Alameda County (California) flyer with "I Voted" sticker, on a brown wood surface

 

Federal Contests

• United States Representative, 17th Congressional District: Ro Khanna
  
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD

State Contests

• Governor: Tom Steyer
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• Lieutenant Governor: Oliver Ma
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• Secretary of State: Shirley Weber
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• Controller: Meghann Adams
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• Treasurer: Anna Cabellero
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• Attorney General: Rob Bonta
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• Insurance Commissioner: Jane Kim
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• Member, State Board of Equalization, 2nd District: Sally Lieber
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• State Assembly, 24th District: Alex Lee
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• State Senator, 10th State Senate District: Anne Kepner
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Nichelle Henderson
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD

Nonpartisan Offices

Judicial

• Superior Court Judge, Office #13: Cabral Bonner
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• Superior Court Judge, Office #19: Selia Warren
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD

County of Alameda

• County Superintendent of Schools: Alysse Castro
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• County Supervisor, 2nd District: Elisa Márquez
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD
• District Attorney, Short Term: Ursula Jones Dickson
• Election result (overall): TBD
• Election result (Alameda County): TBD

RESOURCES

https://www.progressivevotersguide.com/california/2026/primary/city/fremont

• Governor: Tom Steyer
• Lieutenant Governor: Michael Tubbs
• Secretary of State: Dr. Shirley Weber
• Controller: Malia M. Cohen
• Treasurer: No Endorsement
• Attorney General: Rob Bonta
• Insurance Commissioner: No Endorsement
• Superintendent of Public Instruction: Nichelle Henderson or Richard Barrera
• Board of Equalization, District 2: Sally Lieber  

https://lwvc.org/ballot-recommendations/ (note: "We do not endorse candidates or political parties")

https://brokeassstuart.com/2024/10/08/the-november-2024-bas-voter-guide/ (note: "...since we now take tax-free deductible, that means we can no longer publish voter guides where we endorse candidates", and BAS worked with the League of Pissed Off Voters)

https://www.theleaguesf.org/voter_guides (accessed 05/08/2026):

• Governor: Tom Steyer
• Lieutenant Governor: Oliver Ma
• Secretary of State: Shirley Weber
• Controller: Meghann Adams
• Treasurer: No Endorsement
• Attorney General: No Endorsement
• Insurance Commissioner: Jane Kim
• Superintendent of Public Instruction: Richard Barrera
• Board of Equalization, District 2: Sally Lieber 

https://bayrisingaction.org/voterguide/ (note: for candidate endorsements, they defer to California Working Families)

https://www.caworkingfamilies.org/bay-area

• Governor: No endorsement
• Lieutenant Governor: Michael Tubbs
• Insurance Commissioner: Jane Kim
• State Assembly District 20: Alex Lee
• Board Of Equalization District 2: Sally Lieber

https://acdems.org/acdems-june-2026-endorsements/

• Alameda County Superior Court Judge – Office 19, Selia Warren
• Alameda County Supervisor – District 2, Hon. Elisa Márquez
• Alameda County District Attorney – Hon. Ursula Jones Dickson
• Alameda County Superintendent of Schools – Hon. Alysse Castro

https://www.californiadsa.org/voterguide (accessed 05/08/2026)

• Governor: Tom Steyer (note: phrased as "... the most progressive of the current viable candidates for governor is Tom Steyer. Time will tell whether he’s truly a class traitor.")
• Lieutenant Governor: Oliver Ma
• Secretary of State: No Endorsement
• Controller: No Endorsement
• Treasurer: No Endorsement
• Attorney General: No Endorsement
• Insurance Commissioner: Jane Kim ("Write-up coming soon!")
• Superintendent of Public Instruction: Nichelle Henderson
• Board of Equalization, District 2: Sally Lieber ("Write-up coming soon!")
• AD-24: No recommendation
• SD-10: Anne Kepner ("Write-up coming soon!")
• CA-17: No Recommendation ("Write-up coming soon!")

RESULTS

TBD

https://alamedacountyca.gov/ 

Running Journal - 2026-03-22 (Oakland Half-Marathon Race - Oakland Marathon)

Results of the Oakland Half-Marathon race (Oakland Marathon 2026): Chip Elapsed Time 2:59:18; Overall Pace 13:41/mile; Age Place 137th (M45 - 49, of 156); Gender Place 1,526th (of 1,692); Overall Place 2,580th (of 2,960).

Hotel & Parking 

Parking overnight was in the lower level of the Alexan Wester Garage. We had no troubles. Used ParkMobile, paying a flat-rate fee through midnight Saturday, then paying a flat-rate fee through midnight Sunday when we woke up. It does not allow canceling the ParkMobile session, so we just let it expire on Sunday at midnight and that was that.

Hotel this year was one night at the Kissel Uptown Oakland hotel. The lobby was a bit stuffy. Staff seemed oppressed by the stuffy temperatures but helpful. It seems we had vouchers for a drink at the bar, and some other discounts, but we chose to ignore them. Instead we ate dinner at Lula Restaurant (Ethiopian). It was about a 10-minute walk, and we tried the chicken tibs (Dawn) and vegetarian combo (me). Just a few other people, so it was quiet. The TV played soccer I think, and music was international pop. When we checked out the bartender/waitress asked us if we spoke Amharic 🤔 She was chatting with a man at the bar and perhaps was talking about sensitive topics?

Race Day

Pre-race, walking along Lake Merritt in pre-dawn light

 

Crows cawed at us from trees as we walked to the starting line. Weather was clear and slightly cool but comfortable. 

In corral at 7:04 a.m. waiting for our wave to start

 

Arrived at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts around 6:30 a.m. A fluffy white dog reminded us of one from a previous year (maybe the same?). MC's for the pre-race identified themselves as Piper from Bay FC and Michelle (?) Dawn felt energized as the speakers began blasting Journey's 1981 hit Don't Stop Believin'. 

Ran the first 2 miles without stopping. Passed Clinton Square, the Little Saigon neighborhood arch on East 12th Street, Franklin Park, and back to Lake Merritt. 

On Grand, we passed by Tupac Shakur Way and Eastshore Park, then under Interstate 580 (I-580). The Grand Lake Theatre greeted us as the sun crested its roofline. 

Grand Lake Theater, Oakland

Grand Lake Theater, Oakland - Sinners is back, not sure if 70mm print 🤔

Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, on the way back downtown

At Elwood Avenue (~2.5 mile mark) we began one of a handful of steep ascents. A short distance later another short climb (Vernon Street, I think) brought us to the course height of ~180 feet. Then a steep descent down toward the edge of Morcom Rose Garden, then a turn onto Monte Vista Avenue and descending, finally dumping out onto Piedmont Avenue.

The Piedmont Theatre had a quote, "The language of film is universal, as is the love for our popcorn" 🌟

Piedmont Theatre, Oakland

Piedmont Theatre, Oakland - "The language of film is universal, as is the love for our popcorn" 💜

Piedmont seemed to have lots of eclectic small storefronts. Circled Piedmont Avenue Elementary School and retraced our steps back down Piedmont Avenue. 

Spectator Books' storefront tickled me, so grabbed a few photos. E.g., Jean-Luc Picard cardboard cutout saying "There are four rooms", and Dawn noticing the door had a poster for Assata Shakur. 

Spectator Books window and door displays 🖖

Spectator Books window and door displays 🖖

The course returned us to Grand Avenue by the Grand Lake Theatre. I was able to snap a photo of the Tupac Shakur Way sign. 

At this point we had completed roughly half of the half marathon. Still felt pretty good. 

Tupac Shakur Way commemorative plaque near Eastshore Park

Returning to Lake Merritt, we ran on the north side. Staff of Fairyland had temporarily remodeled their signage to honor 2026 Winter Olympics gold-medal figure skater Alyssa Liu, an Oakland native.

Children's FairyLiu - temporary rebranding of Fairyland to honor 2026 Winter Olympics gold-medal figure skater Alyssa Liu

We noticed a pair of runners in our "pace cohort", playing leapfrog with them a bit. I.e., we'd run, pass them, take a walk break, then they'd pass us. One wore a handmade sign honoring the recent passing of 
American Olympian and run/walk advocate Jeff Galloway, who died at the age of 80 on February 25, 2026. She eventually fell back or sped ahead, and we lost sight of her. However, we recognized her companion as a woman we had also kept pace with during the 2025 San Francisco marathon (City Half) 🙂 We think she recognized us too, as she later briefly said hello and we exchanged a pleasant but short conversation before she continued past the half-marathon turnaround point at Bush Street. 

Speaking of the half-marathon turnaround, I randomly found the social media account of the volunteer stationed there, telling marathon runners to keep going and telling half marathoners to turn around 👍🏻

The rest of the run was very familiar to us (unlike the 1st half), as this was our third year running the downtown route. One nice sight--the Fox Theatre, which was used as the exterior establishing shots for the "The Lair" in SNEAKERS. Ran right past it (no photos turned out) 🌟

Just before the half-marathon turnaround, a DJ was hyping-up runners outside Line 51 Brewing. He was dancing and had big smiles to everyone. Bravo.

Line 51 Brewing - DJ was pretty great

Water management: Dawn ran out of water sometime in the 2nd half, but between water stations and sharing mine, we were mostly OK. 

The final time was our 2nd-best effort! If I hadn't stopped to take as many photos, I'm 100% sure we would have had a PR. The last run through the tunnel was challenging to make in one running interval, but the cheering crowd carried us. 🏃🏻🏃🏻‍♀️ We made a sub-three-hour half marathon, which was our overall goal 🎖️

Post-event activities: We collected snacks into provided reusable bags, then walked the length of the tabling area to get medals. Watched briefly the musical act performing. We didn't stay for long though. The walk back to the hotel was about a mile and uneventful. 

Showered, packed, checked-out (same attendant as the previous day), then drove to Almond and Oak for our brunch reservation. 

Saw a few other runners seated inside. We requested a patio table and got seated about 15 minutes early, which was appreciated. Food was excellent. Cell reception was limited.  

This year might represent our favorite time at the Oakland running festival. 

Oakland Half Marathon 2026 medal (front)

Oakland Half Marathon 2026 medal (reverse)

 

Swag and post-race snacks & drink handouts

Post-run brunch at Almond & Oak, Oakland

Chez Panisse - Downstairs Restaurant Dinner 21 April, 2026

Celebrated a special occasion. Returned to Chez Panisse downstairs restaurant on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.

Our reservation was the last service of the night, at 8:45 p.m. Weather was post-rain and a bit cool, but not too uncomfortable. We've eaten at Chez Panisse twice before, in 2009 and 2015. We've also eaten once in the upstairs cafe, in 2012.

We sat on the other side of the wall from the host station. An older white man/asian woman couple sat at the adjacent table, celebrating her birthday. They were about 2 courses ahead of us, so we stole sneak peaks as the wait staff brought them out. I thought I overheard the woman say something to the effect of she had had better salmon (we loved it) 🤷🏻 At the end of the night when I asked the waiter for a list of wines served, he brought the bottles to our table, during which time the woman left to use the bathroom, and the man joked that we had missed our opportunity to take a few extra sips from the bottles 😅

Everything went smoothly and tasted delightful, food-wise. I noted just one use of the table crumbers by waitstaff in-between courses, this time. Perhaps we have gotten less messy with age? 🙃

The Chez Panisse Arts and Crafts architecture still looks beautiful: soft lighting, and "polished wood, copper, iron, leather and stained glass"..."part Deco and part Japanese". Since our last visit, I have collected all 3 films by Marcel Pagnol of the restaurant's namesake character, the "prosperous, middle-aged sailmaker Panisse". Hope to watch them in the near future.

Founder Alice Waters still lives (age 81, with a birthday on 28 April) and was not present as far as we saw. 

Berkeley and the Gourmet Ghetto has changed. Nearby restaurant Poulet--in roughly the same restaurant cohort as Chez Panisse--closed in 2023. The nearby Black Oak bookstore, which we stumbled into feeling quite tipsy after drinking an entire bottle of wine during our 2009 Chez Panisse visit, closed in early 2016. It was replaced by a Books, Inc store, which in turn closed its doors in early 2025. As of our visit, the former space seemed vacant.

We still love Berkeley. Maybe someday we will call it home (?) 

Menu - Front

Menu - Interior

Prix fixe menu:

1. An apéritif
2. Grass fed beef crudo with rocket salad, baby artichokes, and pecorino cheese
3. Sicilian-style stuffed calamari with romesco sauce and fennel salad
4. Grilled wild king salmon with Kaki Farm asparagus, morel mushrooms, fava beans, and sauce béarnaise
5. Olive oil torta with candied orange ice cream, strawberries, and rhubarb
6. After-dinner small plate - 2x candied fruit & 2x nuts 

Wine pairings, by course:

1. 2024 Oenops Apla Rosé
2. 2024 COS Ramí, Terre Siciliane
3. 2023 Weingut Franz Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner Rotes Tor Federspiel
4. 2022 Château Roûmieu-Lacoste Sauternes

 

2024 Oenops Apla Rosé

2022 Château Roûmieu-Lacoste Sauternes

2023 Weingut Franz Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner Rotes Tor Federspiel

2022 Château Roûmieu-Lacoste Sauternes

Books List - 2026

 

 

Ordered by most recently listened to, first.

Audiobooks 

1. Queued:
1. Conundrum (1974) - Jan Morris
2. Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974) - Angela Davis
3. Masha Gessen books
4. Svetlana Alexievich books
5. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer  (2005) - Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
6. The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (2017) - Tom Nichols
7. 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai (1985) - Roger Zelazny
8. Samurai William : the Englishman who opened Japan (2003) - Giles Milton
9. The Pillars of the Earth (1989) - Ken Follett
10. Solar Express (2015) - L.E. Modesitt Jr. (suggested perhaps mistakenly as by David Weber)
11. The Creative Act: A Way of Being (2023) - Rick Rubin
12. The Portable Feminist Reader (2025) - Roxane Gay
13. Butter - Asako Yuzuki (recommended by Iga)
14. Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy (2023) - Abraham L. Newman and Henry Farrell (recommended by Emptywheel) 
2. In progress:
1.  The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025) - Stephen Graham Jones
3. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck (2025) - Sophie Elmhirst, narrated by Marisa Calin
4. A Desolation Called Peace (2021) - Arkady Martine, narrated by Amy Landon
5. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (1974) - Robert Caro, narrated by Robertson Dean 
6. A Memory Called Empire (2019) - Arkady Martine, narrated by Amy Landon
7. Pageboy: A Memoir (2023) - Elliot Page, narrated by the author
8. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020) - Isabel Wilkerson, narrated by Robin Miles
9. Americanah (2013) - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, narrated by Adjoa Andoh

Using the Libby app (via Overdrive).

E-Books

1.  

Print

1. Queued:
1. Schismatrix (1985) - Bruce Sterling
2. True Names (1981) - Verner Vinge
3. Rainbows End (2006) - Verner Vinge 
4. The Shockwave Rider (1975) - John Brunner 
5. Software (1982) - Rudy Rucker
6. Wetware (1988) - Rudy Rucker
7. Eclipse Trilogy (also referred to as A Song Called Youth trilogy) - John Shirley
1. Eclipse (1985)
2. Eclipse Penumbra (1988)
3. Eclipse Corona (1990) 
8. Neuromancer (1984) - William Gibson
9. Snow Crash (1992) - Neal Stephenson 
2. In progress:
1. Our Long National Nightmare (2025) - Tom Tomorrow
2. Reform School Cinderella (2019) - Frank Conniff
3. The Science of Beauty: Debunk the Myths and Discover What Goes Into Your Beauty Routine (2024) - Michelle Wong
4. Perfume books by Luca Turin 
3. Twenty Five Mystery Science Theater 3000 Films That Changed My Life in No Way Whatsoever (2016) - Frank Conniff

Suggestions

• Barack Obama's reading list
• Favorite Books of 2025:
• Paper Girl (2025) - Beth Macy
• Flashlight (2025) - Susan Choi
• We The People (2025) - Jill Lepore
• The Wilderness (2025) - Angela Flournoy
• There Is No Place For Us (2025) - Brian Goldstone
• North Sun (2025) - Ethan Rutherford
• 1929 Andrew (2025) - Ross Sorkin
• The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny (2025) - Kiran Desai
• Dead And Alive (2025) - Zadie Smith
• What We Can Know (2025) - Ian Mcewan
• The Look (2025) - Michelle Obama 
• Summer 2025 reading list:
• Mark Twain (2025) - Ron Chernow
• King Of Ashes (2025) - S. A. Cosby
• A Marriage At Sea (2025) - Sophie Elmhirst
• Abundance (2025) - Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025) - Stephen Graham Jones
• Who Is Government? (2025) - Michael Lewis
• The Book Of Records (2025) - Madeleine Thien
• Rosarita (2024) - Anita Desai
• Audition (2025) - Katie Kitamura
• The Sirens' Call (2025) - Chris Hayes
• Favorite Books of 2024:
• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024) - Jonathan Haidt
• Intermezzo (2024) - Sally Rooney
• Patriot (2024) - Alexei Navalny
• Orbital (2024) - Samantha Harvey
• The Anthropologists (2024) - Ayşegül Savaş
• Stolen Pride (2024) - Arlie Russell Hochschild
• In Ascension (2023) - Martin MacInnes
• Growth (2024) - Daniel Susskind
• Someone Like Us (2024) - Dinaw Mengestu
• The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing (2024) - Adam Moss
• Summer 2024 reading list:
• James: A Novel (2024) - Percival Everett
• There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (2024) - Hanif Abdurraqib
• Everyone Who Is Gone Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis (2024) - Jonathan Blitzer
• Reading Genesis (2024) - Marilynne Robinson
• Headshot (2024) - Rita Bullwinkel
• The God of the Woods (2024) - Liz Moore
• Beautiful Days: Stories (2024) - Zach Williams
• Martyr! (2024) - Kaveh Akbar
• Memory Piece (2024) - Lisa Ko
• The Ministry of Time (2024) - Kaliane Bradley
• When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s (2024) - John Ganz
• Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It (2022) - Richard Reeves
• The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (2024) - Hampton Sides
• Help Wanted (2024) - Adelle Waldman
  
• 2023 Favorites, end-of-year:
• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - James McBride
• The Maniac - Benjamin Labatut
• Poverty, By America - Matthew Desmond
• How To Say Babylon - Safiya Sinclair
• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder - David Grann
• Chip War - Chris Miller
• The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff
• Humanly Possible - Sarah Bakewell
• King: A Life - Jonathan Eig
• The Covenant Of Water - Abraham Verghese
• The Best Minds - Jonathan Rosen
• All The Sinners Bleed: A Novel - S.A. Cosby
• The Kingdom, The Power, And The Glory - Tim Alberta
• Some People Need Killing - Patricia Evangelista
• This Other Eden - Paul Harding
• Summer 2023 reading list:
• Small Mercies: A Detective Mystery - Dennis Lehane
• Hello Beautiful: A Novel - Ann Napolitano
• Birnam Wood: A Novel - Eleanor Cotton
• What Napoleon Could Not Do: A Novel - DK Nnuro
• Blue Hour: A Novel - Tiffany Clarke Harrison
• Dec 2019 (via):
• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power () - Shoshana Zuboff
• The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company () - William Dalrymple (note: ebook only)
• Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee () - Casey Cep
• Girl, Woman, Other () - Bernardine Evaristo
• The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present () - David Treuer
• How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy () - Jenny Odell
• Lost Children Archive () - Valeria Luiselli
• Lot: Stories () - Bryan Washington
• Normal People () - Sally Rooney
• The Orphan Master's Son () - Adam Johnson
• The Yellow House () - Sarah M. Broom (note: ebook only)
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland () - Patrick Radden Keefe b;
  
• Solitary () - Albert Woodfox (note: ebook only)
• The Topeka School () - Ben Lerner
• Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion () - Jia Tolentino
• Trust Exercise () - Susan Choi
• We Live in Water: Stories () - Jess Walter
• A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney's Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule () - Jim Rooney (note: not on Overdrive yet; published Nov 2019)
• The Sixth Man () - Andre Iguodala
• Aug 2019 (via):
• Toni Morrison: Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, Sula, everything else
• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
• Exhalation by Ted Chiang
• Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel­
• Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women
• American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
• The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
• Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
• Inland by Téa Obreht
• How to Read the Air, by Dinaw Mengestu
• Maid by Stephanie Land
• Dec 2018:
• Becoming by Michelle Obama (Overdrive)
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Overdrive)
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Overdrive)
• The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne (Overdrive)
• Educated by Tara Westover (Overdrive)
• Factfulness by Hans Rosling
• Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
• Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner (Overdrive)
• A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
• Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
• A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (Overdrive: Recommended 01/01/2019)
• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (Overdrive)
• In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu (Overdrive)
• Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (Overdrive)
• The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti
• Note: recommended 01/01/2019 (Northern California Public Library)
• The Return by Hisham Matar
• Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (read)
• Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Overdrive)
• Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen
• Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
• The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes (Overdrive)
• American Prison by Shane Bauer  (Overdrive)
• Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault (Overdrive)
• Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday  (Overdrive)
• Feel Free by Zadie Smith  (Overdrive)
• Florida by Lauren Groff  (Overdrive)
• Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight (Overdrive)
• Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar (Overdrive)
• The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson (Overdrive)
• Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark  (Overdrive)
• There There by Tommy Orange  (Overdrive)
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Overdrive)

• Josh Marshall 2018 Holiday recommendations:
• Eric H. Cline: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. Nicholas Ostler
• 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History)
• Only History of Ancient Greece available
• Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek
• Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
• Barry Cunliffe: By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia
• Nothing as of 01/01/2019
• Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration
• Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
• David Anthony: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
• Recommended 12/31/2018
• Roger Crowley: Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World
• City of Fortune and Conquerers recommendable as audiobooks
• David Abulafia: The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean
• Nothing as of 07/18/2018
• James Romm: Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire
• ebook only (Overdrive) as of 07/18/2018
• Peter Heather: 
• The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
• Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe
• The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders
• Note: ebook only; audiobook not recommendable (Overdrive) as of 07/18/2018
• Hugh Thomas: Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico
• Nothing available as of 07/18/2018
• Lionel Casson: Libraries in the Ancient World
• Unavailable in any format (Overdrive)
• Life in Ancient Rome recommendable as Audiobook (Overdrive)
• Josh Marshall 1066 Norman Conquest Discussion:
• Short History of the Normans (2016) - Leonie V. Hicks
• The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England (2013) - Marc Morris
• The Norman Conquest: England after William the Conqueror (Critical Issues in World and International History) (2007) - Hugh M. Thomas
• Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070 (2011) - Robin Fleming
• William, King and Conqueror (2013) - Mark Hagger
• Conquest and Colonisation: The Normans in Britain, 1066-1100 (1994) - Brian Golding
• The Normans in Europe (2000) - Elisabeth van Houts
• William the Conqueror (The English Monarchs Series) (2016) - David Bates
• 2018-01-08: David Finkel's The Good Soldiers (via)
• Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
• Mike Liebhold (via):
• Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah 
• Granada: A Pomegranate in the Hand of God 
• Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East
• UCSC LIT 61U - Introduction to SF (online class):
• The Left Hand of Darkness, Book I of the Lilith's Brood Trilogy (1969) - Ursula K. Le Guin
• Dawn (1987) - Octavia E. Butler (note: not on Overdrive)
• Childhood's End (1953) - Arthur C. Clarke (note: not on Overdrive)
• "The Cold Equations" (1954) - Tom Godwin (note: not on Overdrive)
• Sail On! Sail On! (1952) - Philip José Farmer (note: not on Overdrive)
•  John Cole (via):
• The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic (2013) - Emily Croy Barker
• Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (2015) - Sam Quinones
• Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018) - Anand Giridharadas
• Bookshop Santa Cruz - Winter 2023 reading list:
• North Woods: A Novel - Daniel Mason 
• Signal Fires: A Novel - Dani Shapiro
• Swimming Back to Trout River: A Novel - Linda Rui Feng
• Elder Race - Adrian Tchaikovsky
• More Than You'll Ever Know - Katie Gutierrez
• The Sun Is a Compass: My 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds - Caroline Van Hemert 
• The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession - Michael Finkel 
• Poet Warrior: A Memoir - Joy Harjo
• Ask A Manager 2023 recommendations (she bolded her favorites of the favorites):
• How Lucky - Will Leitch
• Ms. Demeanor - Elinor Lipman
• Mouth to Mouth - Antoine Wilson
• L.A. Weather - María Amparo Escandón
• Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner
• Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones
• A Quiet Life - Ethan Joella
• None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive - Carolyn Prusa
• Happy All the Time - Laurie Colwin
• All Together Now - Matthew Norman
• Vintage Contemporaries - Dan Kois
• The Sweet Spot - Amy Poeppel
• Sam - Allegra Goodman
• Small Admissions - Amy Poeppel
• The Helpline - Katherine Collette
• Pineapple Street - Jenny Jackson
• Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld
• Limelight - Amy Poeppel
• Liars and Saints - Maile Meloy
• Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Jesse Q. Sutanto
• Yellowface - R.F. Kuang
• Bad Summer People - Emma Rosenblum
• Games and Rituals - Katherine Heiny
• Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire
• By the Book - Jasmine Guillory
• Barbara Isn’t Dying - Alina Bronsky
• My Last Innocent Year - Daisy Alpert Florin
• The Guest - Emma Cline
• The Truth and Other Hidden Things - Lea Geller
• The Innocents - Francesca Segal
• The Appeal - Janice Hallett
• Sunshine Nails - Mai Nguyen
• Heartburn - Nora Ephron
• Maame - Jessica George
• The Connellys of County Down - Tracey Lange
• Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
• You Can’t Stay Here Forever - Katherine Lin
• Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl - Renee Rosen
• The Whispers - Ashley Audrain
• An Available Man - Hilma Wolitzer
• Daughters-in-Law - Joanna Trollope
• Flight - Lynn Steger Strong
• High Maintenance - Jennifer Belle
• Mrs. Caliban - Rachel Ingalls
• Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano
• A Family Daughter - Maile Meloy
• Family Happiness - Laurie Colwin
• The Man I Never Met - Elle Cook
• Bill Gates 2023 reading list:
• The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human - Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet - Hannah Ritchie
• Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure - Vaclav Smil
  

Previously

Previously (2025), Previously (2024), Previously (2023), Previously (2022), Note: No books list 2021, Previously (2020), Previously (2019), Previously (2018), Previously (2017)

Running Results, 2025

Running Results, 2025:

Miles: 632.12
Max distance: 13.31 mi
Total activity time: 153:39:35 h:m:s
Calories burned: 76,762

Favorite Books of 2025

2025 Favorite Books

Finished 64 books this year. 

Breakdown: 60 audiobooks; 4 print books; 0 e-books.

This year I'm listing books in 3 categories: 1) Overall favorites & enthusiastic recommendations; 2) Top 10 2025 books; 3) Top 10 books from Previous years.

Overall favorites & enthusiastic recommendations

These "sparked joy" in me, and I enthusiastically recommend these audiobooks from the 2 "Top 10" categories below (in order):

1. How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future (2022) - Maria Ressa (narrated by the author)
2. Personal History (1997) - Katharine Graham (narrated by Carrington MacDuffie)
3. Battle of the Linguist Mages (2022) - Scotto Moore (narrated by Justis Bolding)
4. The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (2024) - Kate McKinnon (narrated by the author)
5. Secrets of the Purple Pearl (2025) - Kate McKinnon (narrated by the author)
6. Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America (2024) - Talia Lavin
7. Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics (2024) - Elle Reeve
8. The Covid Safety Handbook: Staying Safe In An Unsafe World (2024) - Violet Blue
9. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost ldealism - A Memoir (2025) - Sarah Wynn-Williams (narrated by the author)
10. The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen: A Novel (2025) - Yuta Takahashi

 

Top 10 2025 books

My Top 10 audiobooks I listened to from the 2025 publishing year (in order, with #1 as my favorite):

1. Secrets of the Purple Pearl (2025) - Kate McKinnon
2. Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company (2025) - Patrick McGee, narrated by Fred Sanders
3. Finding My Way: A Memoir (2025) - Malala Yousafzai
4. Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future (2025) - Dan Wang
5. The Book Of Records (2025) - Madeleine Thien
6. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost ldealism - A Memoir (2025) - Sarah Wynn-Williams
7. The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen: A Novel (2025) - Yuta Takahashi
8. The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary (2025) - Susannah Cahalan
9. King Of Ashes (2025) - S. A. Cosby
10. Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up (2025) - Dave Barry

Note: not many of these made my overall list...I think I hesitated to recommend some because they might represent a technical slog, narrow interest of counter-culture, or rather tough-to-parse (e.g., The Book of Records).... 🤷🏻

Top 10 books from previous years

My Top 10 new-to-me audiobooks I listened to from previous publishing years (in order, with #1 as my favorite):

1. How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future (2022) - Maria Ressa
2. Personal History (1997) - Katharine Graham, Narrated by Carrington MacDuffie
3. Battle of the Linguist Mages (2022) - Scotto Moore
4. The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (2024) - Kate McKinnon
5. Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America (2024) - Talia Lavin
6. The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead―The Lost Manuscript of Robert Hunter (2024) - by Robert Hunter (Author), Dennis McNally (Introduction), Brigid Meier (Afterword), John Mayer (Foreword) 
7. The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (2024) - Hampton Sides
8. Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories (2023) - Mike Rothschild
9. Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics (2024) - Elle Reeve
10. The Covid Safety Handbook: Staying Safe In An Unsafe World (2024) - Violet Blue

Honorable mentions: 

• Connie: A Memoir (2024) - Connie Chung
• Patriot: A Memoir (2024) - Alexei Navalny
• Sonny Boy: A Memoir (2024) - Al Pacino
• Burn Book: A Tech Love Story (2024) - Kara Swisher
• Martyr! (2024) - Kaveh Akbar
• Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church (2024) -  Gareth Gore 

2025 Audiobook Sound Engineering Favorites

I love it when audiobooks use the medium to enhance understanding of the written text. 

Hearing the author read the text can sometimes help (e.g., Malala Yousafzai, Al Pacino) but it can sometimes lead to a mediocre result (nothing really noticeable this year).

The best moments:

Having an "aha" moment when hearing word pronunciations exactly as the author intended

Hearing emotion in the author's voice

Hearing audio-only portions (e.g., song performances)

Regrettably, this year did not have many moments like this for me.😝

The audiobooks I chose seemed mostly basic.

However, two did seem to stand out:

1. The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (2024) - Kate McKinnon (narrated by the author)
2. Secrets of the Purple Pearl (2025) - Kate McKinnon (narrated by the author)

Kate McKinnon brings her full intensity and nuance to narration. The audiobooks also...have sound effects and music! This represents such an oversight I can only imagine most productions skip this solely to save money.

Running Journal - 2025-11-27 (Run to Feed the Hungry 2025)

Run to Feed the Hungry 2025 unofficial Finisher Certificate (accessed 11/28/2025)

Time: 8:15-9:30 a.m. (75 minutes)
Resting heart rate (wake-up): 59 bpm
Weight (running clothes): N/A
Body Mass Index (BMI; note criticisms of BMI): N/A
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): N/A
Distance (running): 10.00 km (6.22 mi)
Cumulative distance (2024; ignores XT days): ?
Calories burned: 819 kcal
Average heart rate: 132 bpm
Max heart rate: 154 bpm
Weather at start: Overcast & slightly misty ☁️ 7° C (45° F), Humidity ?% Wind: calm km/h
Terrain: 46 ft elevation gain
Avg Pace: 12'05" /mile
Best pace: 11'43" /mile
Stinkiness air level (0=No smell; 10=☣️): 0/10 (not stinky)
Comments: We ran the Run to Feed the Hungry 2025 10K race this year, in Sacramento, California ✅ Weather was cool and just barely misty. Once running it was OK. This was the 32nd annual race. Organizers held the inaugural race in 1994. 

Pre-race

Race cold-weather gear laid out the day before

Packing checklist: Gloves; Hoodie; Turkey hat; running pants; Socks; Shoes; Shorts; Shirt; Headband; Nipeaze; Body glide; Phone & charging cable; Watch & charging cable; Clif Bars

Room 417 view at noon on a misty Thanksgiving day: hotel parking & wall murals

We overnighted at AC Hotel Sacramento, by Marriott, room 417. The hotel opened in June 2025, and everything looked new. Checked-in via mobile app. Arrived, got key cards from the front desk, no problems, all handled professionally (if a bit cooly). The mobile app also supports phone-based room access. Parking was in an adjacent, underground garage. Turning was very tight and our car cameras helped negotiate without incident. Payment was $25 via QR code and good for in-and-out access for 24 hours. 

Packet pickup at 6:00 p.m. night before the race

This year we picked-up our packets the night before. Construction along Highway 50 still impacted by the Fix50 project. Due to congestion, missed getting into the rightmost lanes, so stuck on the left "express" lanes with a concrete barrier preventing me from exiting as I wished. Succeeded in exiting at the next exit, circled back after a few more turns, and made it to parking, which was plentiful. Pickup went smoothly, we collected our turkey gear: new gloves, a hat, & socks. 

Dinner this year was delivery from Chicago Fire pizza: a small Veggatouille Deep-dish, a personal thin-crust (tavern-style) pizza with kalamata olives & Italian beef, and a small Garlic Cheesy Bread. The deep-dish pizza was OK and the best of the order; the rest was mediocre. I had high hopes for the tavern-style pizza, but the crust tasted too "flour-y" to me. Not bad, but not the tavern-style I had hoped for. We were completely stuffed.

Race Day

Awoke at 6:00 a.m. for the 8:15 a.m. 10K race. Skipped showers. Shared a cup of hotel-room coffee via the in-room coffee maker. It was fine. The hotel claimed to have breakfast, but we didn't see anything other than the restaurant as we stepped off the elevators. Instead we got our car and headed to Temple Coffee, ordered coffees, a vegetable scone, and a pumpkin-chocolate loaf. All was excellent. 

Temple Coffee, Sacramento, Thanksgiving Day 2025, 7:05 a.m.

Weather was cool and slightly misty. We saw our breath at times (mid-40's F), but layered clothing, hat, gloves kept the chill away. The drive to Sac State on U.S. 50 was uncrowded. Parked in surface Lot C at the opposite side of campus with everyone else. The walk to the start was not crowded.

Giant inflatable turkey near the starting line

The giant inflated turkey was in the same spot as 2024. For people who signed-up as a member of a team, a special surface-lot area was reserved and had hot beverages & other perks. A photographer asked Dawn's permission to take her photo, which she granted.

10K runners had the option of timed & untimed bibs. We had chosen timed so had gated access to a spot closer to the starting line. 

Amplifiers played standards like Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. A quad-copter drone hovered above us, recording. 

Starting line for 10K runners at 7:51 a.m., outside the timed-bib area

 

The timed area was slow to fill up, which gave us a few minutes to relax. Announcers on an American-flag decorated scissor-lift said a few words, followed by an unnecessarily religious but thankfully short invocation by a priest. We listened to a decent performance of the American anthem, then the countdown began, and we were off.

We crossed the start after about 40 seconds. We had decided to run without walk breaks for the first 1-2 miles, depending on how we felt. This went pretty well. A few days earlier, we had run 8 miles without incident. The 10K race was much less crowded than the 5K start, which was congested with no way to run freely. Spectators turned out and cheered us on. In the Fab 40's, a number of spectators had small gatherings on their lawns next to propane heaters or fire pits. The fall foliage was very colorful. Live bands performed. It was moderately crowded the entire race. 

Mimosa stations--we must have passed at least six tables offering free booze to runners 🍹 😅

Musicians this year covered a variety of songs. One covered The Race is On, another covered a song by The Cure on their ukulele. A handful of the Sacramento Philharmonic brass section appeared early on. An electric guitar & drum kit duo endlessly played several bars of AC/DC's Back in Black.

Pumpkin pie friendship bracelet

Toward the end, Dawn accepted a friendship bracelet spelling the words "Pumpkin Pie" from a woman spectator handing them out.

Refreshment area snacks & water

As we crossed the finish line, we both felt tired but pretty good. We walked to the refreshment area, where they had Krispy Kreme glazed donuts (I had 2), bananas, small oranges, Nature's Valley Crunchy Granola bars, and waters. We took a few photos near the giant inflatable turkey, then headed back across CSUS campus to our car.

 

Any irregular feelings, aches, pains, heart rate, and so forth?: None
Foods eaten today: