WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

1. What are you currently reading? The Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by Jonathon Eig. The corona virus has put baseball on hold, and I miss it so! So I reached for this book, about one of the game's genuine heroes.

His is a great American story. The son of immigrants, physical strength was his way out of the slums. Painfully shy, he was at his most comfortable with physical activity. Even after achieving superstardom, he worried about disappointing the fans, the press and his bosses. He took nothing for granted.

He enjoyed touching relationships with the powerful women in his life. He unabashedly adored his mother and doted on her for all his life. He loved his bold, outgoing wife, Eleanor, who was by his side to the end. 

The author, Jonathan Eig, clearly respects Lou and loves baseball and it shows in the writing. "Gehrig found his joy ... in the reassuring feel of a leather ball with raised stitches squeezed in his left hand." (God, I miss baseball!)

2. What did you recently finish reading? The Other Windsor Girl by Georgie Blalock. I don't read a lot of historical fiction, but I was drawn to this novel about Princess Margaret, the royal rebel of her generation. 

This story takes us from Margaret's days as King George's pampered younger daughter, through sister Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, her heartbreaking love affair with Captain Peter Townsend, and her combustible relationship with sexy, swaggering Antony Armstrong-Jones. The Margaret we meet on these pages is exasperating, petulant, yearning and energetic. Just when you want to slug her, she says something that touches your heart. Just when you want to hug her, she throws a drink in someone's face.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Our narrator, the fictional Vera, has a great back story and as Margaret's lady-in-waiting, she has a front row seat to Her Highness' life. But Vera is a rather weak willed girl whose values seem a bit askew. I wish there'd been someone in the book who I wanted to unreservedly root for. I realize that, in real life, no one is all good or all bad. But since Vera is completely fictional character, the author could have made her a bit more likeable.

3.  What will you read next? I don't know.