Sunday Salon - July 1

Congratulations to Holli and Julie - you've both won copies of Rules of Civility by Amir Towles. I'll be contacting you to get your mailing addresses. It's one of my favorite books of the year; I hope you enjoy it!

It's certainly a good thing I've been reading great books lately because the television has been a real distraction lately, full of events that have been going on right here in Omaha.

First we had the College World Series. I'm not a huge baseball fan; I never watch professional baseball until the fall. But I do enjoy college baseball, especially once the teams arrive in Omaha. There are always some great games, some incredible plays, and the part that makes me sad (no matter how happy I am with the outcome of the game), the members of the team that lost the championship game in the dugout with stunned looks on their faces and tears in their eyes. Congratulations to the Arizona Wildcats, this years' champions.


Before the CWS even ended, Omaha welcomes the United States Olympic Swim Trials for the second time. This statue (I suppose that's what you would call it) was in front of the Mutual of Omaha building to welcome the trials (MoO is one of the sponsors of the event).

Everyone in my family is a fan of the sport of swimming. All three of my kids swam in a summer swim league, belonged to a swim club, and swam for their high school team so we like to think that qualifies us to have an opinion on who is looking good, whose stroke is a bit off, who is finishing well. We enjoy the chance to get to see the upcoming talent, mingle with the families of the competitors and draw on their enthusiasm, and maybe even get to rub shoulders with the stars of the show.

Ryan Lochte and young fans

We've been disappointed this year not to get to any of the sessions (in 2008 we went several times) but have thoroughly enjoyed watching the evening races on television. Ticket prices this time have been much higher and it's hard to justify spending that much to do something you've done before. It's been over 95 degrees every day this week so it's not much fun to do anything other than read and watch television - yard work is no fun at all! I did manage to read Peter Geye's The Lighthouse Road (my review will post Tuesday) and I started Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins. His last book, The Financial Lives of the Poets was a terrific surprise so I jumped at the chance to read and review his new book. What are you reading this week?

Literary Birthdays This Week:
July 1 - George Sand
            William Strunk, Jr.
July 2 - Jean Craighead George
            Hermann Hesse
July 3 - Franz Kafka
            Charlotte Perkins Gilman
            Tom Stoppard
July 4 - Nathaniel Hawthorne
            Neil Simon
July 7 - Louise Erdrich