Books first. I have read several really good books lately after a spell of mediocre reads. It's difficult when you find a book you love, as I did with "All the Light We Cannot See" and then the next books you read just don't measure up.
A couple of first novels: "My Sunshine Away" by M.O. Walsh. Sort of a coming-of-age story set in 1989 - 1990's but it's a lot more than that. For a writer's first novel, it has a lot of wisdom, depth and warmth. Quick read. I would have edited it a little more but that's probably why I don't have a job as an editor! Worth checking out.
"The Given World" by Marian Palaia, another first novel, really blew me away. The main character is tough, sad, always hoping but pretty much always lost. Sometimes it's a bit over the top, but always evocative and makes you think: The freshest hell has been mostly self-inflicted, sure, but that really is, at this point, beside the point. Because all that matters right now is I am heading back to the place where everything I've buried all these years waits, resurrected and suspended in the distance; a collectible set of decapitated, snake-haired Gorgon's heads, hung on my mother's closeline to dry. ... Jesus. Settle the fuck down.
As the story went on, I became more and more taken with this book. We all have struggled in our lives, we all can relate to someone else's struggles. Bare and scraped and badly bruised, Riley, the protagonist, will get to you. If not, you have no heart. Maybe.
Total change of venue: "All the Old Knives" by Steinhauer. I listened to this one on CD in the car. Great espionage story, two old CIA operatives meet for dinner to "answer some questions" and you know it will end badly for one of them. Fun to listen to, probably fun to read. I love stories like this where you know something is going to happen, there's that wonderful air of suspense, but you aren't sure how it will play out. It would probably make a good movie.
I am currently listening to "The Whites" by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt (whatever that means.) Cop novel, great dialogue, very fast paced, if you daydream for a minute you have to go back and listen again. Makes the car ride zip by.
OK: Baseball: I am off to a Giants game today! A friend won a package in a raffle, invited me to come along. We get to enter the park early, watch batting practice, go to some club level, do some other things and watch the game. I think our seats might be right on the field, I have no idea. And then, to top it off, my daughter bought a hotel room for the night because she and her girlfriend where planning on going to tonight's game, spending the night and then going to a day game tomorrow. With moving and everything, they decided to not do it, but she gave me her hotel room! So I get a night in a hotel in SF! And then am meeting a friend for breakfast in Millbrae on Wednesday morning! How cool is all that? I am quite happy to have two days off work and get to do all this fun stuff. YAY!
Finally, I have a roommate. A 35 year old guy named Josh. He moves in today, while I am gone. I have absolutely no idea how this is going to work out, but hey, he paid the rent for May, seems like a 35 year old hippie, doesn't smoke or drink (OK, so not a hippie), seems a bit goofy but OK. We are both giving this a month or two and if it works out, great. If not, he will hit the road and find someplace else. All I want is someone to pay their share of the rent and leave me alone. We'll see what happens.
OK, off to Daly City to drop of Cooper at Gabe's, BART into SF, check into my hotel room and walk down to ATT Park to meet up with the gang for the game. I will report back later.......
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