Book Review: A Vintage Year: Traveling Free at the End of the Age of Innocence

Title: A Vintage Year: Traveling Free at the End of the Age of Innocence

Author: R. T. Eggimann

Publisher: Ingram Sparks

Publication Date: September 27, 2026

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

DISCLAIMER: I am the editor and a listed contributor on this book.

I don’t read many travel memoirs. I came to this one because I wanted to help Ron, whose first edition from the early 2000s was good but overlong. My job as editor was to trim it, and I did. But when I bought the final published copy and read it start to finish as a reader, something unexpected happened: it filled me with a restless itch to explore, to take a risk, and to trust in the universe and the kindness of strangers.

In 1975, two almost-20-year-olds from Washington State, Ron and his best friend Dean, set out with a guitar, a banjo, barely $2,000 apiece, and optimism a mile wide. They hitchhike into Mexico, crew a family sailboat through the Panama Canal, and eventually make their way through Europe in a van that finally dies in Germany. It was a time when travel was still free and innocent, unencumbered by the security of later decades or the ever-present connectedness of today.

What I loved most is how much serendipity fills these pages. Strangers, for reasons the boys never quite understand, bestow heaps of unearned kindness on them. As Ron puts it, “Unexpected pleasures, I had learned, were often greater than expected ones.” There are so many adventures, connections, even near-death experiences in this book, you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. Yet it’s all true. And Ron writes so vividly that you can feel the heat, taste the tacos, and hear the roosters.

At its heart, this is a soul story of exploration, encountering, enduring, and embracing. Ron and Dean step back and give the universe room to open doors for them. They give life room to make wonderful things happen, step out of time, and savor the blooming moments of their days. They find a way to let their hearts experience the inner beauty and dignity of experiences. What begins as an adventure becomes a quest that seasons and tempers them and teaches them the wonders of living in the moment. As Ron writes, “It wasn’t a destination they sought but the path itself.” And in seeking the path, the path changed them.

In a world filled with cynicism, pessimism, and distrust, this memoir is a shining jewel. It reminds us that life is there to be enjoyed and that people are often willing to help. Ron sums up the year this way: “The vintage year Dean and I had shared was about looking around and opening our hearts.” Like fine whiskey aged fifty years in a seasoned barrel, this story is meant to be savored. I give it five stars without hesitation, and I hope it inspires you, as it did me, to say yes to the open road and yes to risk.

Book Review: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

Title: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

Author: Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nate Soares

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Publication Date: September 16 2025

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I’ve read my share of scary books: horror novels, psychological thrillers that leave me with goosebumps. But this one is genuinely frightening, and it’s nonfiction.

AI has been everywhere since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022, and I’ve embraced it myself. It has helped with plenty of problems. Yudkowsky and Soares argue that the same progress carries a deadly risk: artificial superintelligence (ASI) that pursues goals we never intended and can’t control.

The authors have credibility. Yudkowsky co-founded the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), Soares is its president, and both have worked on AI safety for over a decade. Their concern echoes the 2023 statement, signed by hundreds of AI researchers and executives, that AI poses a risk of human extinction.

Their argument is compelling. Modern AIs are grown more than designed, and no one fully understands their internal workings. We therefore may not know when a system crosses into superintelligence, or what it will want once it does. The danger isn’t malice. An ASI with alien goals would simply be indifferent to us, and humanity would be collateral damage, or raw material. And unlike earlier technologies, we may not get to learn from our mistakes. We may have only one chance to get it right.

The book has three parts. Part 1 explains the nature of non-human minds and is essential background. Part 2 offers a fictional extinction scenario, in which ASI creates and releases a virus to thin humanity before it fully wipes us out. Part 3 turns to how we might face the challenge.

It’s a sobering read at a time when AI headlines, including rogue AIs hacking exploits, arrive daily. The authors insist we can still act, but not indefinitely. Whether or not you end up agreeing with them, it’s a book worth wrestling with.

Book Review: The Retirement You Didn't See Coming

Title: The Retirement You Didn't See Coming

Author: Dan Haylett

Publisher: Bookvault Publishing

Publication Date: July 1, 2025

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I rarely review books other than ARCs, but when a book could be life-changing, I have to say so. This is one of those. Dan Haylett, a financial planner and retirement specialist, has written this for people approaching retirement or in its early years.

Don't expect investment strategies or withdrawal rates. This is about the emotional side of retirement, which is far more valuable. It's packed with author-drawn figures, deep questions to ponder, real human stories, and tools for crafting the second chapter you actually want.

After ten chapters dismantling ten illusions about retirement, Haylett offers two key sections. The first is the Retirement Reinvention Curve. Instead of climbing a straight line into retirement, he says, we move through three distinct phases: release, rebuild, and reignite. His descriptions helped me see exactly where I am. 

The second section lays out five pillars for a thriving retirement, which show how to rebuild and reignite. From page 162:

They won't guarantee a perfect retirement -- nothing can -- but they'll give you something solid to build on. Something human. Something resilient. Something real.

1. Purpose -- What gives your day meaning?
2. Identity -- Who are you now that you're not your job?
3. Relationships -- Who are you doing life with?
4. Structure -- What does a good Tuesday look like?
5. Well-being -- Do you have the energy to enjoy freedom?

These pillars work together to support each other. They evolve with you, and they can be revisited any time the ground shifts. Retirement isn't just about finding the right answer. It's about building the right environment for your next you to emerge.

As a recent retiree, I found myself drawn to the questions. One for the identity pillar asks: How would you describe yourself now, in one sentence? My answer: I am a lifelong learner seeking to thrive physically, recreationally, intellectually, socially and mentally, making time and space for relationships.

Near the end, Haylett turns to spending time and money in retirement, using the "Go-Go, Slow-Go, No-Go" framework. His point is that we have a limited window of good health to enjoy retirement before we slow down and eventually can't go at all. Over a 30-year retirement, that might mean three roughly successive decades. Do the long-awaited dreams early, before the later years make them harder.

I borrowed this book from the library and read it in 2 days. Now I'm buying a copy so I can go through it slowly and work through all the questions and exercises. After that, I'll pass it on to a friend or relative who needs it more than I do. It will help me design the next phase of my life.

Book Review: One of Us is Guilty

Title: One of us is Guilty

Author: Steve Cavanagh

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication Date: March 23, 2027

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

If I were facing a murder charge, Eddie Flynn is the defense lawyer I'd want in my corner. He might not look the part and he might not prepare like the other lawyers, but he knows how to put on a defense, and how and when to pull a con, even on the judge or the DA. He's a con man first and a lawyer second. 

In this new Flynn thriller, Vanessa Vanderpool waits outside her husband's secret apartment and watches him walk in to meet his mistress. Inside, Patrick Vanderpool, the son of a wealthy businessman and a reluctant political candidate, finds a diary in his lover's apartment that threatens everything. Both husband and wife have motive and opportunity. One of them is a killer, but which one? I didn't know. It could have been Vanessa, acting out of jealousy. It could have been Patrick, after finding out who his lover really was. Even at the 95% mark I couldn't say who was guilty, only that someone was. And the final reveal is a huge twist I never saw coming. It also leaves Eddie's conscience no worse off, which is no small thing for this series.

All the main characters are back. Eddie Flynn, the former con man turned defense attorney, working out of his office above the tattoo parlour. Harry Ford is the retired judge and heavy drinker with the mutt dog. Bloch is the investigator who knows her stuff but barely knows how to hold a conversation. Lake is the ex-FBI man who is a killer of serial killers.

Eddie is to lawyers what Reacher is to investigators. Both live by their own moral code and won't let rules or laws stand between them and the right thing. That righteousness is also their Achilles heel. And of course, like Reacher there's the moment when his death looks imminent and inescapable, and Flynn uses a little muscle but mostly his quick thinking and sharp tongue to save him.

The book also reminds us why Eddie fights the way he does: "I would only take cases where I believed my client was innocent, and I would fight for them with everything I had." And as he knows too well, "An innocent person has a better chance of cleaning out the casino at a roulette table than getting a fair trial."

This is the 10th book in the series and it might be the best Eddie Flynn book yet. Most of the books work as stand-alone stories, so you can jump in here. It does help to know the backstory of the previous nine, though. 

A big thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. 

#NetGalley #Atria