Of all things Geek. I am…
John Feinstein’s The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball is a love letter to amateur athletics and the notion of the unironic “student” athlete.
In the book, he chronicles the 1999-2000 Patriot League Basketball season. The Patriot League is something I guess I took for granted, as it is in my backyard. But for those who don’t know, it’s academically right up there with the Ivy League.
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My husband and I recently watched The Adventures of Buckarro Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. It’s a movie that has been on our Movie Watch List for quite some time but I don’t think I would have ever gotten around to watching it had my husband not put his foot down and said, we’re watching this movie tonight.
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James A Michener’s Space is such a complete work of fiction that it doesn’t just underscore the patriotic heroism of the Space Race. It also displays the media bias of the time towards pristine American heroes and the sad triumph of going to the Moon, only to turn away from science after the accomplishment.
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I am familiar with Sandy Toksvig thanks to the popular British panel show QI (and its availability on this side of the pond thanks to YouTube). Sandy has been host of the long running show for many years, having taken over the position from actor and comedian Stephen Fry.
I knew Sandy to be an actor and comedian herself but had not been aware she was an accomplished author as well, of both fiction and nonfiction. I found this out after my husband and I watched a cooking show interview she did in which she promoted her (then) upcoming novel, Friends of Dorothy.
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I don’t know if I should be amused, bemused, or depressed now that I’ve finished reading Friendly Fire by C.D.B. Byran. The death of any young person is a tragedy, in war or peace. But the story of Michael Mullen, his death and the plight and anguish of his parents, as well as that of a nation unsure of itself, is the broader stroke of the book. As the inside dust jacket reads: “Michael was to have been the fifth…
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