My Favorite Kind of Madness...

It's March Madness time again, one of the most wonderful times of the year—a time when productivity in the American workplace reduces by as much as 15 percent, a time when in order to succeed in your office pool, people resort to everything from internet research to blind guesses to choosing by mascot.

It's funny—I never was a gigantic sports fan growing up, but if there was one sporting event that completely captured me, it was March Madness. I love college basketball, much like other college sports, because the athletes give their heart and soul. They haven't yet become jaded by big salaries and thoughts of trading up to a better city as the players do in professional sports. And of course, the potential of the Cinderella team is one of the biggest draws every year.

There's something to be said for getting completely engrossed in game after game, watching as the network switches back and forth as scores get closer and fall further apart. And this year, we went to Jacksonville to catch some first- and second-round games live, which has helped my excitement grow even stronger, although watching four games live within 10 hours is more exhausting than you'd think. But we saw two really exciting games today, with Cornell a surprise victor over Temple, and Wofford, in its first tournament appearance ever, nearly beating Wisconsin.

Do I have a favorite? Honestly, as long as Duke doesn't win, I'm fine. (You may recall a previous blog post when I mentioned I don't like athletic dynasties; I'd much rather see a new team win than the same one time after time.) Of course, W would want me to say I want Maryland to win it all, so, go Terps!!

All I know is, this is the best kind of madness there is.

"The Heights" by Peter Hedges

It's amazing how quickly things can change, and how one random occurrence can have a ripple effect that touches many things in your life. For Tim and Kate Welch, a married couple living in Brooklyn Heights with their two young children, things seem fairly typical—Tim has a successful teaching career at a private school while he dreams of someday finishing his doctoral dissertation, and Kate is raising the children, immersing herself in their lives. And then into their lives comes Anna Brody, the mysterious and beautiful new neighbor whose arrival throws the entire neighborhood—as well as Tim and Kate—into a tailspin.

The Heights is Peter Hedges' first novel in 12 years, and it comes 19 years after he wrote What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Although the book treads on familiar territory—struggling within the confines of marriage and child-rearing, temptation, fear of becoming one's parents, life under the social microscope—Hedges unfolds the story so it seems almost unique. While I read this book very quickly, I found myself getting heavily invested in the characters (although I didn't always like them) and I worried about what trouble they might find themselves in. This story didn't seem too outlandish; it seemed as if it could happen to any couple you might know.

The emotions Hedges imbues his characters with feel authentic. I definitely could see this book adapted into a film slightly less dysfunctional than Little Children, but I didn't feel anything was too pat, or too predictable. This is a well-written book that may not break new ground, but the story it tells is a compelling one. Well done!

Gone to the Dogs...

As many of you may know, just before Christmas I had to put my dog, Zeke, to sleep. Since I had Zeke for more than 15 years, this was a tremendously difficult decision, but the right one given how he was suffering at the end of his life.

It has been a difficult three months without Zeke. It's taken a tremendous amount of time to get used to coming home in the evenings or after a trip and not be greeted by his wagging tail and his barking. It's even still a little bizarre to eat a meal in the house and not have him begging, or to have to pick food up off the floor when we drop it instead of waiting for Zeke to eat it.

After Zeke died, I didn't think I'd want another dog, because I couldn't bear the thought of having to go through again what we did with him. And of course, no one can replace him. But as time went on, I realized how much love we have to give, and while there never will be another Zeke, it would be wonderful to care for another dog and give it the kind of love and affection we gave him.

Yesterday we went to an adoption fair sponsored by A Forever-Home Rescue Foundation, a non-profit animal rescue group that operates in the Northern Virginia/Washington area which strives to make quality dogs available for adoption. We looked around a bit and came upon a litter of puppies. We picked one up and petted her for a bit. Then we picked up another. She immediately started licking my face and nestling in my arms, while other puppies were struggling. I felt a certain connection I hadn't felt since October 1994 at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria.

So...we put in an adoption application for a 10-week-old golden/lab retriever mix puppy. She's absolutely beautiful, although she'll be a lot bigger than Zeke was, and a bigger dog than we had anticipated getting. We have a home visit scheduled for Wednesday night, and after that, hopefully we can bring her home the following week. We're nervous and excited, and although we know training a puppy will be a lot of work, we're so looking forward to watching her grow and thrive.

Details and pictures to follow...don't want to jinx it. But I know Zeke will be looking down and protecting his "sister," and that makes me happier than I could imagine...

Book Review: "Big City, Bad Blood" by Sean Chercover

Here's a tip from me to you: if you love books with private investigators, a good amount of action, some twists and turns and great character development, go out and get yourself a copy of Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover. This is a great book in one of the genres I love, and I'm excited to have found a relatively new author with some great storytelling skills.

Ray Dudgeon is a former journalist who left the newspaper world after realizing he couldn't really solve the problems of the world, and now he works as a private investigator. He is hired by a movie executive to protect a locations manager, who has run afoul of the Mafia (or in Chicago, "the Outfit") and faces a death threat because of his plan to testify in court. And as Dudgeon gets more involved, the killers set their sights on him as well. As he finds himself getting deeper and deeper into what seemed like a simple protection case, Dudgeon is also struggling with the pull of a romantic relationship and his own personal demons.

Chercover did a terrific job creating the characters in this book. Even those in "the Outfit" don't fall under your typical Mafioso stereotypes. And Dudgeon is more than just a thinking man's private investigator— he's principled (although not too much so), stubborn and a little too idealistic for his own good. You may be able to see some of the twists coming, but that didn't impact my enjoyment of the book. I raced through the entire thing in about a day, and I'll definitely be picking up Chercover's second book very soon.

Book Review: "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" by Wells Tower

I try not to fall prey to hype, I really do. But when you see a book makes numerous year-end "best of" lists, you can't help but expect the book to be fantastic. And truthfully, nearly 95 percent of the time when I read a book on a "best-of" list of someone I respect, I usually agree.

Wells Tower's short story collection, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, fell a bit short of its hype, in my opinion. Family and relationships—in all their glorious dysfunction—are the focus of this story collection, which was recognized by the New York Times and Amazon as one of 2009's best books. Yet while I found each of Tower's stories intriguing and readable, I kept waiting for something more, something to unleash and amaze me.

The characters in Tower's stories are all struggling with something, whether it's being banished to a rundown house after infidelity is discovered, a father suffering from dementia, having to drive your ex-wife's lover home from an ashram or even just teenage angst. Nearly all of the issues are relatable and the characters are appealing. But something is missing in every story. It's like he revved up the motor of every story and instead of a big finish, each one ended with a whimper. So instead of fully enjoying each story, I wondered what could have been. Bummer.

Things That Make You Go, WTF??

Oh, life is just so crazy sometimes. But the beauty of it all is that you can never truly know what's coming next. Because craziness will keep on coming, in so many forms.

Here are just a few examples of crazy sweeping the nation:

• Figure Skating—The Next Bastion of Conservatives? Apparently Johnny Weir is excluded from the "Stars on Ice" tour because he was allegedly deemed "not family friendly" by the tour's sponsors, including Smucker's. So, did I miss the R-rated portion of his routine in Vancouver? Was openly gay Rudy Galindo more conservative than Weir? I guess you have to set limits in a sport when men spin around wearing gloves and spandex, no?
  
  
• Imagine Their Next Parent-Teacher Conference: All is not rosy at Enka Middle School in Buncome, NC. Apparently, a sixth-grade teacher "relates" to some of his students by writing "loser" on their papers. One girl, who apparently gets related to quite often, even got a deduction of "-20 for being a loser" on a paper. But the folks in Buncome County say it's a personnel matter they don't want to deal with. Middle school: where the biggest bullies are your teachers.
  
  
• Oklahoma Isn't Quite So OK...: Apparently the Oklahoma State Senate thinks the state's new tourism slogan should be "Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, and hate crimes are just another fun activity!" State Senator Steve Russell recently introduced a bill that would exempt the state from having to abide by the recently passed Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act on the basis of the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution. The bill, which would allow only local law enforcement officials to investigate possible hate crimes instead of federal law enforcement, will, according to Russell, "protect speech of all kinds." Especially speech punctuated by violence, eh?
  
  
• If You Admit You Were Wrong, All is Forgiven...: The conservative political establishment in Utah was shocked March 11 when the state's House Majority Leader, Kevin Garn, admitted to sitting nude in a hot tub with a minor 25 years ago, and paid her $150,000 to keep quiet in 2002 when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress. But, since he admitted he was wrong, at the current time there are no calls for Garn to resign. Ain't politics grand?

Really makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Book Review: "Weeping Underwater Looks a Lot Like Laughter" by Michael J. White

Seventeen-year-old George Flynn and his family move to Des Moines, IA, just before the start of his junior year in high school. He finds it difficult to fit in but almost immediately falls for Emily Schell, a bewitching and mercurial aspiring actress who weaves her charms through the school. As George's unrequited crush on Emily grows stronger and he longs to move beyond friendship, he also falls under the spell of Emily's immensely precocious younger sister, Katie, who has multiple sclerosis. George's relationships with both Schell sisters greatly infuse the first half of the book, until tragedy strikes and everything goes awry. The second half of the book switches between flashbacks to George and Emily's high school and post-high school days, and George's mostly-unsatisfying adulthood.

I was intrigued by everything about this book—the title, Michael J. White's writing style, the way he developed his characters. But ultimately, I found it disappointing. First of all, I found Emily's character more annoying than intriguing, and I found George to be one of those characters who is always too afraid to say or do what they really want to. And once the book moved beyond high school, the story took too many circuitous routes to get to its conclusion. White is a very good writer; it's just the characters he created weren't nearly as appealing as they thought they were.