2 Very Different Books, Both Very Good

In the last couple of weeks, I enjoyed reading two books that were very different but both quite enjoyable. First, I read Money Ball, which tells the story of how some nerdy statisticians figured out how to build a winning team with one of the lowest payrolls in the major leagues. And how one general manager, Billy Beane, bought into the whole scheme and has used it successfully for many years to build a winning Oakland A's team. If you love baseball, like I do, and hate the way teams like the Yankees seem to have all the money in the world to buy the top players, you'll like this book. You might even like it if you don't love baseball, because it's well written and Billy Beane proves to be a character worth the trouble.

After reading Moneyball, I was eager to get back to a novel. My friend, Faye, had loaned me a copy of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, by Ayelet Waldman, which actually had been recommended by another book-reading friend, Laura. I would give this novel a positive, though mixed, review. I have to say that I couldn't put it down while I was reading it. I loved the way the main character, Emilia, was so real. Conflicted about her life choices (dating a married man and subsequently marrying him) and her current situation (dealing with a precocious 5-year-old stepson and evil ex-wife), the only thing she wasn't conflicted about was the grief that had totally overtaken her life when here 2-day-old baby died. Emilia has a dry, caustic wit that she uses to skewer everyone and everything around her, and that she also turns on herself. But while Emilia seemed realistic to me, as did 5-year-old William, all of the other adult characters seemed really one-dimensional. Jack was a total wimp until the very end. Ex-wife Carolyn was a caricature of an over-protective mother (filtered, of course, through Emilia's and Jack's lenses). The denouement explained everything too neatly, causing a jolting about face in Emilia's behavior that was just too abrupt. Nevertheless,I was glad it ended with the possibility of hope and redemption. I guess I'm just a sucker for a happy (or at least hopeful) ending.

Noah graduates!

Had a great week last week with more of my favorite things (or rather, people). First of all, Noah graduated (cum laude) from Temple. To help celebrate, my Dad came out from California, so we had a nice little group (including Garrett, Josh, and Laura) of proud family members to honor Noah's achievement. We had a fantastic dinner at Gnocchi. The waitress recommended going family style, which we did, starting off with 6 different appetizers (all extremely yummy), followed by 3 excellent pastas. Then we each ordered an entree off the menu. Unfortunately, by that time I was so stuffed that I could only eat a few bites, but of course I took the rest home with me and it was delicious even the next day. We weren't done yet! They served a huge platter of tira misu and gelati, and coffee or espresso. Gnocchi is one of the great Philadelphia BYOs, and we had a bottle of sparkling wine for a toast to Noah as well as a couple of other nice wines (and beer for Noah). All in all, a GREAT day.