Review: Chasing the Thrill by Daniel Barbarisi

I love a good treasure hunt. I even created a treasure hunt birthday party for one of my kids when they were small. More than I like participating though, I like reading about them. I loved The Westing Game and Treasure Island when I was younger so this non-fiction look into the Forrest Fenn treasure hunt by author and casual hunt participant Daniel Barbarisi was right up my alley.

Combining both his own experiences trying to solve the riddle of where Fenn left his treasure with the history of the hunt, positive and negative, and the community surrounding the hunt, especially the most well-known searchers, Barbarisi looks at what compels people to join in a hunt of this kind, some even to the point of bankrupting themselves, and what compels a person like Forrest Fenn, eccentric as he was, to create the hunt in the first place. He is even-handed and fair in his reporting on the culture, the rumors, and the mythology of the search for Fenn’s treasure. Getting involved as a searcher himself gives the recounting a nice, participatory first person aspect that pure reportage would not have offered. There is some repetition here and there remain some unanswered questions but overall, this was an engaging read about a fascinating cultural phenomenon. Just don’t do too much research into it before reading if you want to maintain the rising tension of the tale.

Review: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

I’m not sure why we think that any aliens who make contact with us will be benign but I suspect that we might be being a touch optimistic. Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl (the first in the series) proves that for sure. I am very much not the demographic for this book, but it was an entertaining read even for this middle-aged, non-gamer, non-sci-fi fantasy reader.

All of a sudden, one night in the middle of the night, all the buildings on Earth collapse, killing everyone inside instantly. People outside all survive the “transformation” and then must decide if they are willing to play the televised, murderous game that aliens have devised for the planet. If they agree to play, they must find their way from dungeon level to level, fighting their way past scary creatures, earning points by finishing quests or killing the baddies, and learning who among the remaining humans are trustworthy and who are not. Carl is outside chasing his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, when the buildings collapse so both he and Princess Donut survive. Carl is wearing less than optimal (and fairly ridiculous) clothing, boxers, a leather jacket, and pink ill-fitting Crocs, for the weather. When they go down into the first dungeon, it is very debatable whether Carl is in charge or whether he’s Donut’s sidekick. Fights to the death and much hilarity ensue as Carl and Donut try to both be entertaining enough to be tv crowd favorites who earn special bonuses from across the galaxy and to survive truly life threatening events together.

As this is the first in a series, Dinniman drops hints as to where the story line will go in future books, but the story is complete enough in its own right to be a satisfying read. The action is a gentle rising/falling structure that mimics video game quests and rpg fans will likely find gems in the story that I completely missed. There is a lot of humor here as well as cleverly interwoven commentary on human being’s moral compasses and the unknown, potentially nefarious goals of government. The fights are quite detailed, brutal, and visually evocative which might be tough going for some readers. The humor does help and the snark is definitely on point. I don’t know if I’ll continue with the series but I do know that both of my sons, for whom the book was actually bought (we pre-read Christmas presents in this family), will enjoy it a lot.

Christmas (well, really New Year's) letter for 2025

Every year we get later and later with this letter but this year takes the cake as we’re officially writing it *after* Christmas. A big reason for that is that we were just too boring for words this year, giving us very little material to work with. In fact, when we called the kids to ask what we should include, one kid said he’d done nothing this year and one said to mention he’d gotten a massage gun and it was amazing. Thank heaven for the kid who got married so we had *something* of note! As for us, we did what we always do: traveling for work (D.) and reading and running (K.). And now, in case you wanted more than that tl;dr (and to see just how long-winded K. can be with nothing to report on), here’s the 2025 Knox year in review:

January: D. went to Chicago and Phoenix this month and K. went to Lexington to go wedding dress shopping with R. They found THE dress at the very first store, which was seriously good luck given K.’s longstanding dislike of shopping.

February: D. went to Chicago and Boston. K. had her first ever DNF (did not finish) in a race. She and the two friends she was running with planned to not finish (long story) but boy was it hard to abandon her first child perfectionist tendencies. D. wrecked his car this month, a rather expensive way to get a new car.

March: K. and T. both celebrated non-milestone birthdays this month. Other than that, no idea.

April: You know how they say bad things come in threes? Both T. and W. wrecked their cars this month. So much for “Do as I say, not as I do.” Definitely costly to imitate D.!

May: D. went to Detroit and K. ran the Mountains to Main half marathon with friends. R. passed the first of her six licensure exams to be a fully-fledged architect and T. was hired on full time as a Staff Geologist for Weaver Consulting. He’s still dealing with hot trash water but getting to do more interesting things too (although how you beat tramping around in hot trash water in a landfill, I don’t know). K. and D. quietly celebrated their 30th anniversary this month.

June: K. headed to Michigan for the summer and being gone means she had no idea where D. was traveling.

July: W. brought his girlfriend up north to meet some of the family this month. Her first day there, K.’s mom tripped and split her face open on a rock, requiring 13 stitches and some good painkillers. The second day, fishermen ran over the waterline leaving us without water so the poor girl was told “no flush, no brush, no shower” until it was all fixed. Pretty sure she didn’t run away screaming only because we’re on an island and she was trapped. Also of note, copious amounts of blood will stain wooden decking for a very long time and no amount of scrubbing helps, so plan your murders accordingly.

August: W. graduated from FAU with his MBA this month and K. and D. got to experience the dubiously sweaty pleasure of Florida in August. Also this month, T.’s girlfriend, A., moved in with him in Lexington so we’ve acquired another grandcat.

September: This month was all about the wedding. It was a beautiful, blustery day on Mackinac Island and K. can tell you all the things that went wrong behind the scenes (so many things!) but at the end of the day R. and J. ended up married and happy and that’s what counts. T. stepped up to be the DJ for the wedding and if you need him, I imagine you can book DJ Jazzy T at the friends and family discount. The weekend after the wedding found K. back in North Carolina running a 50K (31.2 miles for the non-metric among you). She had a great time and is planning to do it again next year—plus she’s likely to be insufferable and mention that she’s an ultramarathoner in every conversation from here to eternity. You’ve been warned.

October: D. went on a football guys’ weekend to Charleston and Columbia while K. went on a girls’ weekend to Dreher Lake State Park in South Carolina this month. Maybe soon they’ll actually take a trip together (like the 30th anniversary trip they’ve discussed but not planned yet!).

November: D. went to Denver. All the Ks. converged on Lexington for Thanksgiving. Cooking a meal for eleven out of an Airbnb kitchen is less than ideal but no one got food poisoning and everyone had food so we’re calling it a success even if several dishes didn’t make it on the table on the day of. Who needs cranberry anyway? (Short answer, we all do, but eating it with leftovers instead is okay too.) Also, K. convinced everyone to do the Turkey Trot with her. She beat them all (the only kid running it was injured and the rest of them walked but we don’t have to admit that) and has bragging rights for the next year.

December: D. went to New York. R. took her third licensure exam and is now legally 1/2 an architect. Most importantly this month, D. gave K. her Christmas present early and Miss Harper, the cutest little ball of schnauzer fluff you’ve ever seen, joined the family. We’re deep into housebreaking and it looks to be a long road but she’s worth it. Ozzie and Sammy were less than delighted by the gift of Harper but they’re coping, unless she keeps stealing their cat treats; then it might be out and out war.

As the year comes to a close, we once again hope that you are surrounded by peace, love, and happiness now and throughout the coming year.