Beer and football VIII — playoffs, week two

The game: Titans at Patriots
The beer: Mayflower Oatmeal Stout
The result: Win, 35–14
The commentary: I would never have read Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry were it not for the Ladies. From the book club's first meeting—back when the Pats had won a game more than it lost—and nominations were flying around I immediately liked the overview. It sounded wry and English, especially in the presenter's accent, though if the embellished, feminine typography of the paperback edition replaced the slab-serif hardcover she displayed then I might have walked out for good. (These look like unrelated books, never mind the alternate cover, which is my favorite of the three.)

Regardless of the shell, I knew I could read three hundred pages in a week and so waited until early this month to pick it up from the library—retention, etc. Alas! All copies were checked out of the local branch. The neighboring town had a copy so G. and I drove over for it, checking out a few for her as well. In the children's section were heroic illustrations of Martin Luther King (Jr.) for kids to color and G. sat down with a couple. "Please don't use black," I thought. She used orange.

Back to our friend Harold Fry, about whose story I'll leave the "gorgeously poignant novel of hope and transformation" bullshit to Oprah and remark instead that a gentleman takes a walk for reasons he deems important. I loved this book and only an asshole would not. Joyce is a gifted writer—the dreaded "female authors" are two for two so far while poor Ben Winters bums laundry quarters off of his fellow fiction-workshop-retreat guests. Ron Hall and Denver Moore might have joined him if I didn't skip their Same Kind of Different As Me dreck last month. We'll see how Graham Norton does with Holding in a few weeks.

Was there a game?

Up next: Complacency (kəmˈplāsənsē) NOUN – A feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc. Cheers!