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 Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle. It opens with Iris and Will in bed, enjoying one another on the morning after their 7th anniversary celebration. They are very romantic, excited by the prospect of a baby, and then he's off to Hartsfield for a flight to Orlando.

Hours later, a flight out of Hartsfield goes down. Iris is fleetingly worried until she hears that plane was headed for Seattle. Hubs was going in a completely different direction. But then the airline calls. Will was on the flight to Seattle. Will is dead.

What? Why did he lie to her? How could he be dead when he was so alive in her bed and in her arms just hours ago?

This can't be true. Except it is.

I am very into this book. I find it shocking and engrossing. I hope Kimberly Belle can maintain this level of excitement.

2. What did you just finish reading? Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson. Savannah Cade is an editor at a small publishing house specializing in highbrow non-fiction. That sounds like a great job, doesn't it? But Savannah comes from a long line of overachievers, and compared to her multi-talented, multi-degreed entrepreneurial kid sister, her life is just kind of "meh."

So it means a great deal that she make a success as a novelist. She's been working on her own book for years and keeps the manuscript tucked in a secret hiding place at the office. One day, as she checks on her "baby," she finds critical notes in the margins. So now the editor has her own editor ... one who prefers to remain secret.

I liked Savannah and so I wanted to like this book, but I didn't. It fact, at times it annoyed me. Her living arrangement -- crashing in the guest room of her ex-boyfriend and his fiancee, who just happens to be her aforementioned kid sister -- would not happen on Planet Earth. Plus, the plot is so OBVIOUS! If you don't have the whole thing figured out within the first 100 pages, I don't think you should be allowed to drink, vote, or drive a car.

3. What will you read next? A biography.

 

 

Money well spent

Anthony Rizzo got his 10th home run tonight. Since I've pledged $5/home run to his foundation, this puts me to $50.

Look how happy he is!

Here's where it goes. Meet Rory. Next week he will ring the bell after his final chemotherapy treatment. Three years ago, at the beginning of his battle with cancer, Rory met his hero at Wrigley Field. Last week, when Rizz was in town vs. The White Sox, he posed with Rory again to celebrate how he "hit cancer out of the park." Rizzo helps these kids' families financially, too. Everything from parking in the hospital lot to meals in the hospital cafeteria to daycare for the family's other children while Mom and Dad are with their young cancer patient for chemo ... none of these costs are covered by insurance and all put a considerable strain on a budget when a family is fighting cancer. And that is what Anthony said he learned when he battled Hodgkin's lymphoma as a teenager: cancer affects the whole family.

Of course I hate it that Rizz was traded. But maybe I'm just being selfish. He's hitting well again with the Yankees, he has a real shot at another ring, and now he's helping kids in New York, too. He's still active with Lurie Children's Hospital here, but now there's a partnership with FAO Schwartz in New York. During special promotions, shoppers are invited to round up at the register, and then come fall, NYC pediatric cancer patients will be given gift cards for a toy-buying shopping spree.

By the way, next time you see that stupid fucking meme on Facebook "Who needs an athlete?", think of Rory. Anthony Rizzo has been there when countless children needed him, and if it wasn't for sports he wouldn't have the opportunity to help on such a grand scale.

PS THANKS, BUD! I can't read enough about my favorite most Cub ballplayer.