The Good and the Bad

[angela_o]

The good:

I made it to the century mark yesterday.

#99 is A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve(June/07). I've never read Shreve and just picked this one up while working at the booksale. She takes a familiar premise (high school friends who suffered a tragedy come together years later for a social event) and makes it thoroughly engrossing. There's also a digression in which one of the characters is working on a novel set during the Halifax harbor explosion during the First World War of which I was totally unaware. *Looks to my Canadian friends* I'll bet you're much more familiar with this tragedy. At any rate, I really liked this one. She doesn't wrap everything up neatly in a bow at the end and a little ambiguity is good every once in a while.

#100 is Summer Sisters by Judy Blume(June/07). I had considered trying to read something weighty for the 100th, but in some ways it's fitting that the author of one of my childhood faves, Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, should get the honor. A great beach book that also uses the childhood friends trope to drive the narrative.

The bad:

For the first time in five seasons, the Piranhas lost a dual meet. We were missing 5 of our top swimmers and just couldn't pull it out. I know that losing teaches character, but it's a bummer nonetheless. Now the goal is to win at the championships next weekend.

Tonight it's Summer Swim League night at the Durham Bulls. See Anne, I like baseball too! And it's not just because of the fireworks after the game, the food, and all the silly games they play between innings. Sumo anyone? ;)

Comments

[cookie2697.livejournal.com]

You read Summer Sisters!!! I take it for the first time from your comments? You know that's been in my top 5 favorite books of all time since I was 16. I love that book. In fact, I haven't read it in years. Maybe I should. I have all of these weird experiences with that book. The last time I read it, in, I think, the summer of 2004, I went up to Davis to visit my friend Jen for the weekend (my "summer sister") and I walked into her apartment, and looked at her bedside table, and saw Summer Sisters sitting there. Commented to her that I was rereading it too, picked it up and opened to her bookmark - we were on the EXACT SAME PAGE. So weird. Both that we were rereading it at the same time without knowing it, and at the same point in the book? Creepy.

lol...anyway, that's my Summer Sisters story.

Enjoy the baseball ;) Baseball fun.

[cookie2697.livejournal.com]

And SO sorry about the loss :( What a bummer. Hope the kids aren't too crushed. Good luck at League next weekend!

[angela-o.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that it was one of your favorites. Very cool story about finding that you and your friend were on the exact same page at the exact same time. I have a friend who would call that "brainsharing". :

Baseball was fun. Although it poured initially and the first pitch was thrown out until nearly 8:30 (the start time was supposed to be 7:00). That means that the fireworks were late as well. It was nearly midnight when we got home. But, the Bulls pulled it out even though the other team had better technical skills. Their SS had some amazing stops.

[tasyfa.livejournal.com]

At least there's still hope for the championships, though - not *all* is lost yet! It is a bummer, though.

Heh, I read Anne's copy of Summer Sisters three years ago when I stayed with her and thoroughly enjoyed it. I remember being a bit shocked at how grown up it was, only because it was JUDY BLUME and it was weird to read a non-YA novel by her.

The 1917 Halifax Explosion - yeah, I know quite a lot about it. :D The Hydrostone Market at the north end of the city is a quaint shopping area that's also a kind of living monument, having been rebuilt on the rubble; there are plaques with information and statistics in the small park in the centre. There's also the Mont Blanc condo complex right on the waterfront, so named after the ship that was carrying the munitions that collided in the harbour. The Christmas tree in the Boston Commons is donated to the city of Boston annually by Nova Scotia in thanks for having been the first aid on the scene after the Explosion, in fact. :-)

[angela-o.livejournal.com]

I knew that you'd be up to date on the Halifax explosion. One of the most horrible aspects was the fact that the initial collision and fire drew people to their windows to watch which made the major explosion that much more lethal due to the flying glass. In an ironic twist, many advances in eye surgery resulted from the disaster.

Cool trivia bit about the Christmas tree though. The book did say that Boston had sent a hospital train to aid the city.

[muffinkath7.livejournal.com]

Yup, the Halifax explosion is a big deal in Canada. We even have an historical vignette about it that airs on T.V. That's how you KNOW it's important. lol

[angela-o.livejournal.com]

Ah, if they care enough to make a vignette for television, then it *must* be major. ;)

In all seriousness though, it was fascinating reading about the details. Apparently it was the largest non-naturally occurring explosion in the history of the world prior to the advent of nuclear explosions and is still the largest manmade explosion that wasn't nuclear in origin.