AUSTIN, Texas, June 30, 2004 —I'm almost finished with Trains of Thought and I've been reading newspapers, of course.

AUSTIN, Texas, June 23, 2004 —On the trip I read four books and part of another. 52 McGs: The Best Obituaries from Legendary New York Times Writer Robert McG. Thomas, Jr. edited by Chris Calhoun; The Book of Salt by Monique Truong. (A first novel and a truly amazing book.); Good Faith by Jane Smiley. (A novel about the sins of the 80's with a male first person narrator. FFP pointed out that this one and The Book of Salt both were written by women with male narrators.); Return to Paris: A Memoir by Collette Rossant; and (this one is still in progress) Trains of Thought:From Paris to Omaha Beach, Memories of a Wartime Youth by Victor Brombert. These books nudged at the edges of experience and touring, evoking Paris, the war, death, food. Our friend Al, touring Omaha beach with us , took International cell calls about his father's illness and his father would die before he could get home. The war years seemed close there in Normandy and yet so far away as the vet talked about URLs and spam-fighting during breaks from talking about the view on the beach that day. My potential foray into obituary writing inspired the choice of that first book and FFP chose the Smiley novel which evoked the eighties excesses to a tee. The other books evoked the war and/or Paris. Reading something 'appropriate' to a trip is a minor obsession with me. This trip had so many themes that many choices loomed. One night our vet sent our friend Al to bed with a worn copy of a collection of Ernie Pyle articles and specific pages to read.

AUSTIN, Texas, June 1, 2004 —Haven't finished Normandy The Real Story but read more. More Paris tour stuff. Newspapers.