PAGE 8 • GO! MAGAZINE
THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
national bestsellers
Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended
Saturday, May 29, compiled from data from
independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers
and independent distributors nationwide.
HARDCOVER FICTION
1. Legacy. Nora Roberts. St. Martin’s
2. Sooley. John Grisham. Doubleday
3. The Last Thing He Told Me. Laura Dave. Simon &
Schuster
4. Project Hail Mary. Andy Weir. Ballantine
5. The Saboteurs. Cussler/Du Brul. Putnam
6. The Midnight Library. Matt Haig. Viking
7. While Justice Sleeps. Stacey Abrams. Doubleday
Continued from previous page
Falk, 24, who grew up in Sisters, where
she ran track at Sisters High, describes it as
a split between memoir and personal devel-
opment guide targeted at readers 16 to 25,
“using my life as the template, and just try-
ing to help people see their greater purpose
and meaning in life through this theme of
adventure,” she said.
Her own adventures as a young adult be-
gan with a tragedy: Five days before Falk
graduated from college, her cousin Gabe
committed suicide. She was born in Califor-
nia, where life with her parents was “chaotic
8. 21st Birthday. Patterson/Paetro. Little, Brown
9. That Summer. Jennifer Weiner. Atria
10. A Gambling Man. David Baldacci. Grand Central
8. Breaking the News. Alex Marlow. Threshold Editions
9. Zero Fail. Carol Leonnig. Random House
10. The Premonition. Michael Lewis. Norton
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
MASS MARKET
1. Killing the Mob. O’Reilly/Dugard. St. Martin’s
2. The Women of the Bible Speak. Shannon Bream.
Broadside
3. The Anthropocene Reviewed (signed ed.). John Green.
Dutton
4. What Happened to You? Perry/Winfrey. Flatiron/Oprah
5. The Hill We Climb. Amanda Gorman. Viking
6. Greenlights. Matthew McConaughey. Crown
7. A Course Called America. Tom Coyne. Avid Reader
1. Shadow Storm. Christine Feehan. Berkley
2. Daddy’s Girls. Danielle Steel. Dell
3. The Sentinel. Child/Child. Dell
4. Red River Vengeance. William W. Johnstone. Pinnacle
5. Savage Sunday. William W. Johnstone. Pinnacle
6. Wilderness Defender. Maggie K. Black. Love Inspired
Suspense
7. Cajun Justice. Patterson/Axum. Grand Central
8. Cold Case Trail. Sharee Stover. Love Inspired Suspense
and troubled,” she said. “I ended up growing
up the rest of my life with my aunt and un-
cle, who became my immediate family.”
Gabe was like a brother to her, and his
suicide hit her hard.
“That was a very profound experience
in my life,” Falk said. “With that experience
came a lot of inspiration and a lot of writing,
also. I didn’t really get into the whole writing
scene until that occurrence. … That really
altered my perception of going into the fu-
ture, and what I saw my life as.”
Falk sold her possessions and moved to
Europe for a few years, where she taught En-
glish in Valencia, Spain and began writing.
“I really got into journaling and writing. It
really began with letters I’d write to Gabriel,”
she said. “And then along came this idea of
travel blogging and writing (about) my ex-
periences.”
The commute to her teaching gig left Falk
plenty of time for contemplation, Falk said.
That was when she began to consider writ-
ing a book “that helped fellow young people
who are suffering from mental health prob-
lems, or just being able to speak up about
my own experiences dealing with grief from
suicide and many other traumas that I had
to endure,” she said.
The book would be her version of helping
people in crisis, a mission amplified by other
people’s suicides as well as the COVID-19
pandemic.
“It was so difficult to see, and I just needed
to do something with my voice … and just be-
ing able to help people see life as a grand ad-
venture rather than a task that they have to get
up and do every day,” Falk said.
Falk began writing the first of many drafts
in the fall of 2019 in Spain. At the outset of the
pandemic, she headed to the United Kingdom
to stay with her stepfather, Mark Speed.
“He’s also an author, and I got a lot of
guidance in that time, actually,” she said. “I
got a lot of growth and insight from that ex-
perience, and motivation to keep going with
the book.”
The book is divided into 12 concepts, in-
cluding defining adventure, overcoming ob-
stacles and the science behind our percep-
tion of time.
“In certain moments of life, you feel like
time goes faster, and sometimes it feels
slower,” she explained. That chapter explores
maximizing one’s perception of time in life.
On that note, Falk had several suggestions
for maximizing your kickass summer, in-
cluding the following:
Create an adventure map: “Find adven-
ture spots you want to go to and have a map
ready, and mark them.”
Reenact favorite game show or movie:
“I love ‘The Amazing Race’ a lot, and so it
would be fun to reenact something of that
9. Undercover Duke. Sabrina Jeffries. Zebra
10. The Midwife Murders. James Patterson. Grand Central
TRADE PAPERBACK
1. Where the Crawdads Sing. Delia Owens. Putnam
2. The Silent Patient. Alex Michaelides. Celadon
3. People We Meet on Vacation. Emily Henry. Berkley
4. The Book of Lost Names. Kristin Harmel. Gallery
5. The Summer House. James Patterson. Grand Central
6. The Giver of Stars. Jojo Moyes. Penguin Books
7. The Woman with the Blue Star. Pam Jenoff. Park Row
8. The Stepsisters. Susan Mallery. Mira
9. A Court of Thorns and Roses. Sarah J. Maas. Bloomsbury
10. Out of the Cave. Chris Hodges. Thomas Nelson
sort and create challenges. My family loves
‘Red Dawn,’ and we’ve done a ‘Red Dawn’
survival night thing where you only get $5
and you have to get whatever survival equip-
ment you can all contribute (to) with the $5
you have and try to survive the night.”
Explore an unfamiliar road: “See where
it takes you. I’ve found some really random
things, like an abandoned watchtower, from
that. There are some interesting places you
can find out in the middle of nowhere.”
Find or make a rope swing: “We had a
lot of fun with that growing up. My broth-
ers and I would go and make random rope
swings. Sometimes they worked, sometimes
they didn’t. That’s kind of the fun of it.”
Watch the sun rise and set: “Watch as
many sunrises and sunsets as you can from
your favorite viewpoint.”
Hit a swimming hole: “There are a lot of
cliff jumping spots around the Bend area.
(Stick to) established places like Steelhead
Falls.”
Go spelunking: “It’s fun if it’s a hot night
and you want to go explore a new cave, there
are a number of caves around the area.”
Try plein air painting: “To do something
creative, you could do something like paint
in the park, or write poetry on top of a
mountain.”
Enter a race: “Sign up for a race or a com-
petition, just do that spontaneously and
train for it.”
See the stars: “Go stargazing in your ham-
mock or on top of your car somewhere.”
Make it a Smith Rock afternoon: “It’s
the most magical place at sunset. A lot of
times my family and I will go out and climb
Smith, and on the way back we get to wit-
ness the really beautiful sunset. … It’s the
perfect time of day to go.”
Play a board game in the park: “I have a
travel backgammon set, so … I’ve taught
all these different people from around the
world how to play backgammon in different
places, like the beach in Portugal or a moun-
tain villa in Switzerland. … It’s an easy game
to learn quickly, and also just a fun strategic
game to do.”
David Jasper: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com