Wednesday again: books and a some baseball stuff
So I read some stuff and watched some games. :)
Reading--
I picked up a couple more books by Pauline Gedge--House of Dreams and House of Illusions--and they were pretty good until the very end. The main character was interesting and not entirely sympathetic, which was actually a plus because you did understand why she was the way she was. On the other hand, the end made me want to fling my Kindle across the room. It's not quite a "fall in love with your rapist" and it was a little ambiguous, but it still pissed me off.
I reread Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven, which might be my favorite book by him, Since Kay happens to be one of my favorite writers, that's saying a lot. I didn't even like the book that much when I first got it, but when I picked it up again, I loved it. Since then I've reread it several times--one of the things I love about Kay is how much I love rereading (most of) his books.
I was rereading Under Heaven because Kay's new book is set in the same setting (a fictionalized China) but it takes place a long time after the events of Under Heaven. I really enjoyed it; as always Kay's prose is amazing and I really really loved his major female character. One of the themes of the book was the way an already extraordinary character or events becomes even more extraordinary in legend and he does a good job with it. I'm not sure that I liked it as much as I liked Under Heaven, but I'll need to reread it at least once to be sure.
Baseball--
So the Giants lost their Opening Day game, which wouldn't be as hard to take it was if a) they hadn't been facing their historical rivals and b) they hadn't been facing a Clayton Kershaw who's always been a Giant killer. That Giant killer had an amazing day--he shutout the reigning World Champions and also got his first home run of his major league career--and even as a Giants fan I have to applaud his effort. Of course, I hope we pull off a devastating win next time we see him. Lost in all that was the fact that our ace had a really amazing day himself, so all in all, I'm okay with our efforts. Also, we shut them out last night, so there! :P
Tonight will be really important, Tim Lincecum, who has been the face of the franchise, had a terrible year last year. He's starting tonight and even though the every pitcher can have a bad night, it'll still be worrying if he has a really bad outing. *crosses feelings*
The Dodgers/Giants rivalry is one of the oldest in baseball, but thanks to the media's East Coast bias, it's been ignored in favor of another historical rivalry--Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees. But, thanks to the Giants winning two World Series in three years (which is a pretty amazing feat in baseball) and the Dodgers suddenly having the biggest payroll in the MLB, even the East Coast journalists are talking up the rivalry a lot.
Last night, Ranger's pitcher Yu Darvish came incredibly close to having a perfect game. Instead, the last guy he had to get out to complete the perfecto got a hit off him. It's one thing when you blow it in the later innings, but to come so close to doing something so rare, that's got to be heart breaking.
So all in all, the first couple of days of the season have been all kinds of good. I'm really hoping that this is a good season, not just for the Giants, but for all of baseball.
Also, even if you're not a Giants fan or even a baseball fan, this video is still pretty funny.
ETA: Holy crap! I'm watching the Boston/New York game and Yankee Stadium is at least half empty. At 7pm! I'm so spoiled; there are usually more fans in the stands at AT&T for batting practice, let alone the first pitch.
ETA2: To be fair, it's fucking freezing in NYC today.
crossposted from http://telesilla.dreamwidth.org/309166.html |
comments | you can comment at my DW using OpenID
Reading--
I picked up a couple more books by Pauline Gedge--House of Dreams and House of Illusions--and they were pretty good until the very end. The main character was interesting and not entirely sympathetic, which was actually a plus because you did understand why she was the way she was. On the other hand, the end made me want to fling my Kindle across the room. It's not quite a "fall in love with your rapist" and it was a little ambiguous, but it still pissed me off.
I reread Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven, which might be my favorite book by him, Since Kay happens to be one of my favorite writers, that's saying a lot. I didn't even like the book that much when I first got it, but when I picked it up again, I loved it. Since then I've reread it several times--one of the things I love about Kay is how much I love rereading (most of) his books.
I was rereading Under Heaven because Kay's new book is set in the same setting (a fictionalized China) but it takes place a long time after the events of Under Heaven. I really enjoyed it; as always Kay's prose is amazing and I really really loved his major female character. One of the themes of the book was the way an already extraordinary character or events becomes even more extraordinary in legend and he does a good job with it. I'm not sure that I liked it as much as I liked Under Heaven, but I'll need to reread it at least once to be sure.
Baseball--
So the Giants lost their Opening Day game, which wouldn't be as hard to take it was if a) they hadn't been facing their historical rivals and b) they hadn't been facing a Clayton Kershaw who's always been a Giant killer. That Giant killer had an amazing day--he shutout the reigning World Champions and also got his first home run of his major league career--and even as a Giants fan I have to applaud his effort. Of course, I hope we pull off a devastating win next time we see him. Lost in all that was the fact that our ace had a really amazing day himself, so all in all, I'm okay with our efforts. Also, we shut them out last night, so there! :P
Tonight will be really important, Tim Lincecum, who has been the face of the franchise, had a terrible year last year. He's starting tonight and even though the every pitcher can have a bad night, it'll still be worrying if he has a really bad outing. *crosses feelings*
The Dodgers/Giants rivalry is one of the oldest in baseball, but thanks to the media's East Coast bias, it's been ignored in favor of another historical rivalry--Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees. But, thanks to the Giants winning two World Series in three years (which is a pretty amazing feat in baseball) and the Dodgers suddenly having the biggest payroll in the MLB, even the East Coast journalists are talking up the rivalry a lot.
Last night, Ranger's pitcher Yu Darvish came incredibly close to having a perfect game. Instead, the last guy he had to get out to complete the perfecto got a hit off him. It's one thing when you blow it in the later innings, but to come so close to doing something so rare, that's got to be heart breaking.
So all in all, the first couple of days of the season have been all kinds of good. I'm really hoping that this is a good season, not just for the Giants, but for all of baseball.
Also, even if you're not a Giants fan or even a baseball fan, this video is still pretty funny.
Click to viewETA: Holy crap! I'm watching the Boston/New York game and Yankee Stadium is at least half empty. At 7pm! I'm so spoiled; there are usually more fans in the stands at AT&T for batting practice, let alone the first pitch.
ETA2: To be fair, it's fucking freezing in NYC today.
crossposted from http://telesilla.dreamwidth.org/309166.html |
comments | you can comment at my DW using OpenID