happy july – happy recovery day from the last day of june (also known as post-liberty day parade day or post-long run day)

“speed to glory” and “heart of a champion” – both short juvenille bios on olympians – the first is about cullen jones, probably the most famous african-american swimmer the US has had – i enjoyed that one – swimming books are almost as good as running books – the second book is about gymnastics – which is just not my thing (aka, agility, bendability, etc.)

“run to overcome” – a reread for me – on my second attempt – or really second go round, i enjoyed reading how meb woke up at 4:30 am every morning when he first came to the US in order to do homework with his father – his parents stressed – we would say “overstressed” in today’s parenting – the importance of education – no wonder that all of the people in his family have achieved great things in college – and no wonder that my junior high boys that go home and play video games all afternoon go, um, nowhere…

“the guy under the sheets” – by chris elliott – his autobiography – in severe satire – there was a funny line at the beginning where he spoke of needing to finish the opening scene of chapter one so that he could go back to the beginning in chapter two and then progress chronologically – which is basically what all biographies do – that part was my absolute  favorite – lilly has a GREAT father in “how i met your mother” (that would be chris elliott)

“les miserables” – there are several was to attack this book – hugo wrote like 1400 pages – the county has an abridged 320 – barnes and noble gave me a 1200 page edition – so i’m in for a long haul – i’ve decided, at page 500, that i have to like this book – because otherwise i’m ridculous for reading it and can’t sucker anyone else into making the same mistake – that said, it’s definitely a book that can be cut down – but there are great moments in it – my favorite so far is the metaphor between indecisive men and cats

i would tell you that metaphor but i can’t decide if you’re ready for it:)

luv,

maf