So, after finishing the Widow Clicqout on November 1, I started Alone on the Wall by Alex Honnold on November 6 and finished it on November 24. The husband and I saw the film Free Solo and learned that Alex, the subject of the film, had also written a book, so immediately we requested it from our local library (shoutout to the library!).
If you don't know who Alex is or what free soloing is, they will both blow your mind. Free soloing is rock climbing with NO ROPE. Yes - you have no protection or aid to prevent you from falling to your death. Alex is a free solo climber and among many other things he's climbed without ropes, he climbed El Capitan in Yosemite... without a rope. Up he scurried, up up up, about 3,000 feet he climbed by himself and without a rope, and in under 4 hours.
Talk about the cohones on this guy. The book, Alone on the Wall, is co-written by David Roberts, and in it Alex talks about his experiences with free soloing, what drives him, what motivates him, and you get glimpses into the impacts this has on others in his life from interviews and commentary provided by those people talking to David Roberts.
Alex is a very unique individual with a somewhat warped perspective of his climbing. In the film, as in the book, Alex discusses risk at length. He admits that he does see his climbing as risky, but he does everything that he can to mitigate and solve for the risk factors. Mostly by lots and lots of practice and memorization of the route so that he is as prepared as he can possibly be to achieve the climb without a rope or any other kind of protection.
Free soloing is not the only type of climbing he does, but it seems to be what he enjoys most - being alone on the wall.
I'm not really a rock climber at all. I've spent a tiny amount of time on indoor rock climbing walls and it's fun and all, but I'm not sure I would ever want to do even the smallest of climbs without a rope.
There's a line in the film where Alex (I think, or it could be Tommy Caldwell) says "everyone who has made free soloing a part of their life is dead now." Can you imagine having a calling in life that could possibly kill you? This is how Alex lives. Even if you're not a rock climber, this book will entertain and probably make you shake your head in disbelief, and think to yourself, or possibly exclaim out loud, "This guy is fucking insane."
After finishing (and loving) The Last American Vampire by Seth Grahame-Smith on October 27, I started The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It by Tilar Mazzeo on October 28 finishing on November 1.
I love reading on vacation. The uninterrupted time to just read, nap, and read some more is marvelous. This vacation was to Maui - 4 nights and 5 days in paradise. If you need a place to stay, check out the Andaz Maui - it was HEAVENLY - seriously, we didn't want to leave. It was perfection.
Not surprisingly, this book is about Veuve Clicquot champagne and the woman behind this empire. I had no idea that this champagne has been around since the French Revolution. Well - Veuve Clicquot hasn't been around that long, but Barbe-Nicole, the woman who is Veuve Clicquot has been around since then. Barbe-Nicole was born into a wealthy textile family in the Champagne region of France. She married the son of a wealthy textile company and aspiring wine-maker. Her husband met an untimely death, and the new widow, Barbe-Nicole, with her newfound freedom to take control of her life and run a business, gambled, lost, gambled, won, and gambled and lost and won some more to make Veuve Clicquot the champagne brand we all know (and love) today.
It was very uncommon in the 1800s for a woman to be able to work, let alone, run a business at all. Being a widow, Barbe-Nicole was in the unique position to have the freedom that married and unmarried women didn't have to do this. This book is about the amazing story of how her champagne empire came to be.
The book started slowly and sort of reads like a history doctoral thesis paper and the timeline jumps around a little, but once I was maybe 100 pages into the book, I really started to get in to it and into Barbe-Nicole's story.
Here's an excerpt from a letter Barbe-Nicole wrote her great-granddaughter in the mid-1860s:
"I am going to tell you a secret... You more than anyone resemble me, you who have such audacity. It is a precious quality that has been very useful to me in the course of my long life... to dare things before others... I am called today the Grand Lady of Champagne! Look around you, this château, these unfaltering hills, I can be bolder than you realize. This world is in perpetual motion, and we must invent the things of tomorrow. One must go before others, be determined and exacting, and let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity. Perhaps you too will be famous... !!"
If you like history, if you like champagne, if you like reading about strong, audacious women (and need a little inspiration), read this book!
