When times here on Earth are particularly stressful or weird, I often find some solace in the escapism of a good science fiction read. It’s an opportunity to escape reality by suspending some disbelief and letting the author paint an often futuristic world that at least someone thinks will turn out great.
Please stop reading this for a minute and go add Susan Orlean’s “The Library Book” to whatever system you use for keeping track of books you should read.
My third book of the year called out from the shelf of a bookstore with a title that would entice any avid reader: “The Little Paris Bookshop.”
I can see people having two very different reactions to the way Valeria Luiselli tells the story in “Faces in the Crowd.” I would understand those who would feel too unsettled by the experience of not exactly knowing 100 percent what is happening all the time. I’m in the other group. I loved it.
It’s not often I select a book without knowing anything about it, without having heard about it in a story or on the radio, without a recommendation from a friend. But thanks to a couple of books I had in mind being not available at my local library, I stumbled upon Dominic Smith’s “The Electric Hotel,” a work of historical fiction focused on a troupe of silent filmmakers.
My goal for 2019 was to read 12 books. I made it to 10. I’m still counting that as a win.
We should have known from the first week-ish of the season. On April 3, the Nationals had a 6-4 lead heading into the 8th inning against the Phillies. What happened from there was a microcosm not only of the struggles that would define the early part of Washington’s season, but the ultimate resilient glory that would become the story of the end.
The Phillies scored four runs to take an 8-6 lead. Spirits were low. People got up from their seats and made their way home. The three pitchers charged with those runs would not finish the season as members of the Nationals. In the bottom of the inning, the Nats scored two runs to tie the game, then were the beneficiaries of a bases-loaded walk to end it with a 9-8 victory.I was feeling a little disappointed with my reading year until I looked back at the stats.
The 2018 Washington Nationals season ended with some big questions, such as what happened and where will Bryce Harper be next season? It also brought the re-balancing of an eight-year trend in my game attendance.
Among all the other things I loved about taking a trip through national parks in California was spending roughly six days without cell phone reception. No calls. No texts. No news app alerts. If something happened I didn’t know about it, and I didn’t miss a thing.
